TDAA Ch 45

Luckily, Siol had a place to escape.

Siol ran to Lord Meric and asked if he could study the Tower of Survival, and received an affirmative answer. When Siol seemed troubled to explain, Lord Meric didn’t ask further and just told him to do as he pleased. Siol was both pleased and worried by this show of trust.

“Lord Meric, you shouldn’t just let an alchemist do whatever he wants. How do you know what might happen?”

Lord Meric, who had been staring blankly at Siol for a moment as he offered this advice, replied as if annoyed.

“I thought that way at first, so I didn’t trust you. You proved your ability, and I am simply treating you accordingly. I have no intention of being this lenient with other alchemists, so stop with the useless talk and get out.”

“Uh…. Yes, yessir….”

Even though he was practically chased out of Lord Meric’s office, Siol didn’t feel the least bit unpleasant; on the contrary, he was overcome with joy.

If he trusts me that much, I must live up to his expectations.

He changed into the outdoor clothes Luber had prepared and asked to be shown to the back door. When Siol said he wasn’t going to greet Eorzen, Luber wore a “I knew it” expression. It seemed Luber was holding his tongue, feeling he couldn’t quite scold Siol, but his expression was so clearly lecturing him that it didn’t make much of a difference.

Siol quietly avoided his gaze and followed Luber’s lead out the back door, walking around the garden towards the main gate.

No matter how many times he tried to sort out and put away this love, he would find it wide open one day. Was it because he’d tried to sort it out so many times? He knew what he had to do, without crying or wallowing in pain. He had to continue with his daily life, with the work he’d been doing.

So that he wouldn’t become a monster buried in love and jealousy.

Fortunately, Siol now knew how to handle this emotion. This feeling, this sadness, doesn’t last long. If he could just endure for a few days while thinking of other things, a time would surely come when his longing for Eorzen would become stronger than the momentary jealousy.

Siol deliberately pushed thoughts of Eorzen aside and thought about the sun.

Based on his research so far, the sun pattern itself didn’t seem to have the power to react to mana. In fact, Siol had suspected the sun might be an ancient magic circle, but there were no signs of that at all.

It was strange. The buildings with the sun on them self-repaired, yet the sun didn’t react to mana. Just in case, Siol had thoroughly searched the buildings with the sun for anything that might react to mana, but he couldn’t find anything.

If that was the case, he could only think that the sun was merely a mark. It was clear that somewhere on this estate, there was a space with that power, and that space was reading the sun’s mark to bestow the power of self-repair upon that location.

“He said I could do as I please, so I wonder if it’s okay to break down a wall to get in?”

“Of course. I’ll break it down for you.”

“You can do that?”

“Of course! I may look like this, but I’m a knight, you know.”

“Right.”

I’m glad he hasn’t forgotten. He acts like a servant all the time, so I thought he had. Siol nodded and patted Luber’s shoulder. Luber’s nose lifted even higher.

“But why the Tower of Survival all of a sudden?”

“I think the Tower of Survival might be related to the sun.”

In truth, it was closer to the fact that he couldn’t think of any other clues besides the Tower of Survival. No matter how he thought about it, there had to be a magic circle to maintain a protective barrier and perform self-repair. Surely, there was a secret somewhere.

And in Siol’s estimation, that secret was most likely inside the Tower of Survival.

The problem was that even if there was something in the tower, he wasn’t confident he would be able to recognize it. Siol had already been inside the tower in Marsiga once. Recalling its plain walls and the empty space, he wondered if the Tower of Survival in the human lands would have any proper clues….

Worry and anticipation seized him at the same time.

“Ah. A rat. Master Siol, isn’t that Master Siol’s rat?”

When he turned his head at Luber’s words, he saw a pitch-black sewer rat running.

“It is not! My harvest mice are smaller, cuter, brown, and have round, beady eyes.”

It wasn’t as if Luber didn’t know that. They’d argued about it in the room several times, so there was no way he didn’t know what they looked like. He was just being mean for the sake of it. Even after spending a good while together, Luber still disapproved of the harvest mice.

Before, he just disliked them for no reason, but recently he had even started listing off specific reasons why they should be kicked out. Things like, how could they let the harvest mice, who roamed all over the place every day, into the room when they didn’t know what dirty things they’d stepped on, or that they seemed to be pooping in the corner of the room, so they should be banned.

When Siol glared, Luber turned his head with a “Hmph.”

The pitch-black sewer rat, which had been looking around, darted towards Siol. Siol instinctively stopped, afraid he might step on it.

And in the next moment, Siol was suddenly swooped up into someone’s arms. Blue hair fluttered in his vision. He looked up, and Eorzen was there. Why was Eorzen here?

Eorzen, holding Siol with just one arm, reached for Siol’s ankle. The blue dragon’s cold hand slipped under his pant leg and brushed against his ankle.

Flustered by this inexplicable situation, Siol had no choice but to wrap his arms around Eorzen’s neck to keep from falling.

Hoisting Siol up into his arms, Eorzen greeted him nonchalantly.

“My greeting is late, Siol.”

“……”

And just like that, held in Eorzen’s arms with his ankle captured, Siol had his long-awaited first meeting.

It was a method that had never appeared in the dozens of simulations he had imagined.

Eorzen paid no mind to Siol being frozen in a daze, unable to return the greeting, and started walking.

Siol, who had been staring with a dumbfounded expression as the surrounding scenery swayed and passed by, slowly turned his gaze to Eorzen. The blue dragon, the man who was beautifully dressed again today, had just done something so sudden, yet he wore the same frosty expression as always.

What in the world is happening?

Siol glanced around, trying to find a reason for Eorzen’s behavior, and discovered the sight of Ryufen sitting on top of Luber, yawning. Luber was whimpering and trying to crawl out, but Ryufen didn’t move an inch.

Siol shot Ryufen a look, asking for help, but he brazenly ignored it.

‘If Lord Eorzen does something strange, you’re supposed to stop him, what are you doing over there?’

Siol recalled the old days, the time when he lived in Eorzen’s castle. Eorzen had become a bit strange back then. He’d said it was the shock of losing something for the very first time. He had obsessed over the little Sizool, constantly trying to keep him by his side, and would become anxious if he was out of sight.

He had thought he’d get better after a little time, but come to think of it, Eorzen had been strange ever since. Even in Marsiga, Eorzen would act strangely at times, and at the very end, he had been incredibly strange.

The last time they met as Sizool, hadn’t Eorzen put him in a wardrobe and left?

Could it be that even though he lost his memories, the strange behavior is continuing?

While Siol was in a state of panic, wondering how to respond, the two of them had already arrived at the lakeside. It was the very spot Siol had been spying on from the second-floor window for the past few days.

Eorzen sat Siol down at the table where he himself had been sitting and looking at documents. Then, he unhesitatingly grabbed Siol’s ankle and lifted it. Siol nearly tumbled backward. Barely managing not to fall by bracing himself with his arms, Siol’s jaw dropped.

“Lord Eorzen? What are you, doing right now?”

His fur boots and thick socks were removed one by one. After swiftly pulling off the two layers of socks, Eorzen took hold of the bare foot inside and began to search for something, meticulously feeling it from the tips of his toes.

The wind was biting cold.

But for Siol, the warmth of Eorzen’s hand gripping his ankle was more distracting than the exposed skin, and he couldn’t bear it. When Siol pulled his foot back, Eorzen held on firmly and stared at Siol with those blue eyes.

“Stay still.”

“What on earth are you doing?”

“I’m checking something.”

“What are you checking on my foot?”

“A trace.”

Was the blue dragon always this curt?

Siol was taken aback by the change in the blue dragon, who had always been kind and gentle. But he soon came to terms with it. Come to think of it, Eorzen had never been a commander who was kind to his knights in the first place. His kind attitude towards Sizool was because he thought he was still young and had lived a pitiful and unfortunate life.

To Eorzen now, Siol was just a wolf alchemist he was meeting for the first time, so there was no reason to be kind.

“However….”

Eorzen continued, pulling Siol’s foot up to his eye level. Eorzen’s breath on his ankle was so hot and ticklish that his toes curled involuntarily.

“Your way of speaking is quite familiar. Did we know each other before?”

The hand holding the back of his ankle slid up his calf to the back of his knee. A strange sensation shot through his back, which hadn’t even been touched. Siol felt the fingertips of the hand braced on the table behind him tense up.

“…What did you just say?”

Having not heard him properly, Siol asked again, panting. Eorzen asked back with a somehow amused expression.

“I asked if we knew each other before.”

Siol bit his tongue without realizing it. He had promised Ryufen to pretend they were meeting for the first time, and after agonizing for days over how to handle their first meeting, he had belatedly realized that he had spoken as if they were acquainted.

This was all because Eorzen had suddenly picked him up. He was supposed to meet him with mental preparation, but he hadn’t been able to.

“No! It’s, it’s my one-sided feeling of familiarity. Since you’re so famous, Lord Eorzen….”

“I’m so famous that you felt close to me.”

“Yes, since you’re so well-known, I’ve seen you often from afar.”

“Is that so?”

Fortunately, his excuse seemed to have worked.

Siol secretly let out a sigh of relief and watched what Eorzen was doing.

As he watched the scene of Eorzen gripping his ankle tightly and meticulously scanning the skin down from his knee, old memories naturally came to mind. The time when he climbed the spire in Marsiga. Eorzen had suddenly appeared, pulled him into an embrace, and changed his clothes. When he was changing his socks and shoes last, he had even gotten down on one knee, making Siol place his bare foot on his knee, which had made him gasp in astonishment.

The current situation didn’t feel all that different from back then. He was doing something incomprehensible, but since it was the blue dragon doing it, there was surely a reason. Just like how his actions back then were to dress Siol in warm clothes.

He couldn’t help but trust what the blue dragon did.

However, there was one thing that bothered him.

‘He’s acting almost the same way as back then, and yet he claims not to know me now.’

Feeling a sudden surge of resentment, Siol blurted out.

“Of course, that’s not to say we’ve never met.”

“Are you saying we’re acquainted? Ryufen said you’d never met.”

“Ryufen doesn’t follow Lord Eorzen around everywhere, so how would he know everything?”

“I see…. Then what was our relationship?”

What was our relationship?

Siol didn’t know how to define that relationship. I was a child back then, and I loved you, and you had another mate….

“Hm? I asked what our relationship was.”

Unable to bear Siol’s hesitation, Eorzen pressed him as if he were getting impatient.

Startled by the sensation of a hand stroking the top of his foot, Siol instinctively flinched and tried to pull his foot away, only to be caught once again. Eorzen met Siol’s eyes and gestured with his chin, as if to say, “Go on, tell me.”

Siol felt a strange seething in his chest. Why was this happening, when he knew it would be like this? He knew that Eorzen didn’t know him anymore, and that the relationship between Sizool and Eorzen was as good as over. In fact, he had even been happy at the thought that they might be able to start anew, but now, faced with the blue dragon in person, the fact that this man didn’t know him felt unbearably unfair, and rage welled up inside him.

“A relationship where Lord Eorzen used formal speech with me. You respected me back then. Though it seems you don’t now.”

“Ah. A relationship where I used formal speech… you say.”

His tone seemed to carry a hint of amusement. But when Siol, who had briefly looked away, glanced back, Eorzen’s expression was still frosty.

Was he mocking me? He had blurted it out in a fit of pique, but thinking about it calmly, a relationship where the blue dragon used formal speech—there was no way such a thing existed. Didn’t Eorzen use his current tone even with the lords of other cities?

There was no way his claim that they had a relationship where he, a mere alchemist, was addressed formally would be believable.

It was just as Siol was biting his lip. Eorzen, who had maintained a cool face all along, smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and released Siol’s foot. Siol’s bare foot dangled and swayed beneath the table.

As Siol stared blankly, flustered by the sudden change, Eorzen grabbed his other ankle and belatedly asked for his consent.

“Ah. Pardon my rudeness. I need to check the other foot as well, you see.”

His tone and gestures were gentle and polite, yet also firm, as if he would not tolerate any refusal.

It was strange. Eorzen was clearly using formal speech, believing the words he had thrown out on a whim, yet the seething feeling in his gut was only growing stronger.

Staring blankly at Eorzen, searching for the reason, Siol soon realized that he hadn’t wanted to hear formal speech at all, but simply wanted to hear the kind of gentle words he used to say to Sizool.

It was an irrational thought. If Eorzen’s memory had been intact, their relationship would have been filled with a much more awkward atmosphere. He would have been at a loss as to how to treat a grown adult whom he had treated as a child until now.

Siol might not have even thought of meeting Eorzen. He might have reluctantly gone at Ryufen’s urging, but he could have ended up trembling in fear the whole time before running away.

Siol let out a deep sigh and simply shifted his hips to sit in a more comfortable position. Once he admitted that the rising irritation was simply due to his own desires, he felt a little more at ease.

Let’s think rationally.

Eorzen, unlike him, was not a dragon who acted irrationally. If the blue dragon was searching for something on his leg, it must be because he really suspected something. It would be nice if he would just tell him what it was, though.

Siol wiggled his toes and asked.

“What kind of trace are you looking for, exactly?”

“Earlier, did you not feel anything?”

“…I’m not sure what you mean.”

“A black rat ran under your foot, did it not?”

“Are you worried I might have been bitten? My boots are thick, its teeth wouldn’t have even gotten through.”

At the thought that he was going through all this because of a single rat, Siol didn’t even try to hide his annoyance.

Perhaps his desire to hear kind words from Eorzen was also because his long-awaited first meeting had been ruined. He had hoped to form a better relationship, but instead of that, here he was in this state.

“It is not about that.”

Saying so, Eorzen pulled Siol’s pant leg up to his knee and began to inspect it carefully, just as he had done before.

“Then what is it? I don’t care what you do to my body, but it would be nice if you told me first.”

“…If you say such things so carelessly, you will get into big trouble, Siol.”

“What? What do you mean by that…. Hyak!”

A finger that had grazed down the back of his knee stopped at the hollow behind his ankle bone. Just as Siol was about to protest at Eorzen for caressing a sensitive spot without warning, Eorzen smiled faintly. Siol instinctively froze at that picturesque smile, and in that moment, Eorzen spoke.

“Found it.”

“…What?”

“The trace. Here, this is what I mean.”

Eorzen let go of his ankle and pointed to a small dot near his Achilles tendon. Brushing the small, reddish dot with his fingertip, Eorzen said.

“It is a mark left by the witch.”

“A witch’s… mark? Do you mean Nanthiel?”

“Have you heard that Nanthiel is still on this estate? Seeing this, it seems you are his target.”

It was surprising enough that Nanthiel, who had died in the tower in Marsiga leaving behind the words “You’ll regret this,” had appeared in Meric’s domain so quickly, but he was targeting him again on top of that? No matter how he thought about it, this wasn’t something the Nanthiel he knew would do.

Nanthiel was a cautious boy. The reason he wasn’t satisfied unless he controlled everything around him to his liking was because he was that sensitive about his own safety. And Siol had already thoroughly checked this estate. There were no alchemical preparations made anywhere in this domain.

That boy is targeting me without any preparation?

Finding it utterly unbelievable, Siol stared blankly at the reddish dot for a moment.

“But….”

Siol tilted his head and asked.

“How do you know this is a mark?”

In truth, the red dot really just looked like a dot. It didn’t exude any mana, nor did it have a special shape like the magic symbols Siol often used. It was amazing that he could recognize this as a witch’s mark.

“Because you did not originally have such a dot here, did you?”

“I… didn’t? How would you know that, Lord Eorzen?”

“…Somehow, I felt that was the case.”

It was a ridiculous excuse.

How could Eorzen, who had lost his memory, know whether or not he had a dot on his heel?

Could it be that the memories he lost are already slowly returning? But why, of all things, would he regain a useless memory like whether or not I have a dot on my foot? No, in the first place, there’s no way the blue dragon would know something like that…!

Regardless of Siol’s suspicious gaze, Eorzen continued.

“The rat controlled by Nanthiel left it when it ran to your foot earlier. It burned its own life to leave this and disappeared into smoke. The witch uses this mark to pull someone whose whereabouts are unknown into his own room, or to jump to the target’s location.”

The Witch of the North, Nanthiel’s mother, had tried to possess the blue dragon. If that was the case, what he just said must be based on past experience. It seemed the Witch of the North had carved a mark on this man and tried to pull him into her room or jump into his.

As Siol’s brow furrowed in displeasure, Eorzen tapped the mark and whispered.

“Fortunately, I know how to erase it. I shall help you.”

“Really?”

“If I used formal speech with you, our relationship must not have been an ordinary one.”

How could an offer of help sound so much like, “Let’s see how far you’ll take this lie”? Siol stared at Eorzen, his jaw agape.

He didn’t want to say it, but the “ordinary” Eorzen was a bit of a jerk.

The unfortunate truth was that even this mischievous and somewhat inscrutable Eorzen made Siol’s heart flutter. He was different from the usual Eorzen, but he was still Eorzen, so it couldn’t be helped.

Siol fell into the agony of wondering if he was a fool who would fall for anyone as long as they had Eorzen’s face. If the witch, Nanthiel, were to approach him using an illusion of the blue dragon, this would surely be a fatal weakness.

“Is that not so? Siol.”

“Tha… That’s right….”

“A relationship where we met, avoiding the eyes of my guardian Ryufen, and used formal speech… I look forward to finding out just how close we were.”

Siol turned his eyes elsewhere, avoiding Eorzen’s gaze, which seemed to be asking for more details. He intended to just shut his mouth, as he wouldn’t be able to handle it if he lied any further.

Just then, in the distance, Ryufen was walking over, holding a sobbing Luber by the scruff of his neck.

The large puppy, who more than filled Siol’s arms, looked like a truly small pup when held in Ryufen’s mouth. By the way, why was Luber crying like that? Suspecting that Ryufen might have hit him, he narrowed his eyes and looked closely, but thankfully, he wasn’t hurt anywhere. His soaked fur had frozen again, making him covered in icicles, but other than that, he looked fine.

Perhaps his loud sobbing was an expression of frustration at being pinned under Ryufen’s rear end, unable to do anything. When we get back to the lab today, he thought, it’s going to be quite a hassle comforting that puppy again.

“Then, I shall give you this.”

Eorzen opened the front of Siol’s coat and pinned a deep sapphire brooch to the shirt underneath. It was the ornate jewel brooch that had been on Eorzen’s chest just a moment before.

When he looked up, not understanding the reason for the sudden gift of a jewel brooch, Eorzen grabbed his foot.

“Whoa! What now!”

“Your foot has gotten cold. This was not my intention.”

Muttering lowly, Eorzen began to massage Siol’s foot.

“No, ah, th- Lord Eorzen! This, I don’t think this is right!”

Startled, Siol screamed and struggled, but against a dragon’s strength, his resistance was less than the flapping of a baby bird’s wings.

It was natural that there was a difference in strength, but how could there be so little reaction? Siol, having lost his freedom once again, had his cold foot massaged until it was warmed up. After that, his socks and boots were put back on in order.

After being forcibly subjected to such devoted and gentle service, he somehow felt utterly exhausted.

“…Why are you doing this to me?”

“Somehow, it seems like you would catch a cold easily.”

That blasted “somehow.” It seemed that since he let the strange excuse slide once, he had decided to keep using it. Siol sighed deeply with a sulky face.

“I would appreciate it if you never take off the brooch I gave you.”

“I can feel mana from the brooch.”

“I have stored my magic in it. Some preparation is needed to erase the witch’s mark. Until then, the brooch will protect you.”

“With this, will Nanthiel be unable to summon me or invade?”

At that question, Eorzen simply smiled and said.

“In any case, be sure to keep it with you.”

The alchemist’s curiosity began to rear its head. By what method did the dragon, called the Guardian of the World, seal magic into a brooch?

Perhaps he read the curiosity and thirst for knowledge in Siol’s gaze as it turned toward the brooch. Eorzen used his finger to push under Siol’s chin, making him lift his head, and said.

“Do not break it.”

“No matter how curious I am, I won’t dismantle something I just received.”

“Yes. Good boy.”

“…Could you please not treat me like a child.”

When Siol requested this in a disgruntled tone, Eorzen’s eyes widened, and then he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

“That is right. You are not a child, but an adult. Siol.”

He smiled so beautifully that Siol found himself momentarily lost in a daze without realizing it.

What’s so funny about that?

Siol grumbled inwardly a moment later and glanced at Eorzen, only to realize that he no longer felt uncomfortable around this man.

To be precise, it was a little uncomfortable, but not as burdensome as before. It was a bit awkward when he tried to dig into the lie, but he didn’t press further when Siol avoided it. And everything from being picked up at the beginning to the fumbling with his foot was all just a procedure to search for Nanthiel’s trickery.

If this man had taken Siol’s refusal at face value and turned away, Siol would have been kidnapped tonight without knowing why, or would have had to accept Nanthiel’s intrusion.

Perhaps Eorzen’s slightly odd behavior was also due to his ambiguous memories?

Thinking that, the attitude that had felt like he was testing his lie earlier now seemed like he was just genuinely curious.

Without realizing it, Siol tugged on the front of Eorzen’s coat.

“What is it?”

Without getting angry, Eorzen asked, leaning his upper body forward gently. They were close enough to kiss if they got just a little closer.

“Do you really not remember anything about me?”

“No. Not a single thing.”

“Then why are you helping me? You’re a busy person, Lord Eorzen….”

“…Let me see. Why could that be? Would you like to try telling me?”

“It’s not like you’ll believe everything I say.”

“I will believe you.”

“What?”

The blue eyes were staring clearly at Siol. They were truthful eyes, unwavering and devoid of deceit.

Only then was Siol able to realize that this man had never been testing or mocking him from the start.

The only thing that was uncomfortable was his own heart. Because he was interacting with an uncomfortable heart, it felt uncomfortable. From the very beginning, Eorzen had intended to follow Siol’s lead regarding their relationship. The reason was unknown, but he thought that perhaps a vaguely remaining memory was making him feel a sense of familiarity.

Perhaps, this is a chance.

“Hello, Lord Eorzen.”

“Hello. Siol.”

Without being flustered by the sudden greeting, Eorzen returned it.

“I’ve always wanted to be your alchemist. And you looked forward to that as well.”

“Why did I not immediately make a wolf like you my alchemist?”

“I needed time. So… so we postponed it a little.”

“Then how about becoming my alchemist starting from now?”

Siol chuckled and shook his head.

“I can’t. I have things to do right now. But….”

“But?”

“But when I’ve finished everything I have to do, can I go back then?”

His voice trembled without him realizing it. At that confession-like plea, Eorzen smiled as if delighted. There was something different in this smile compared to the ones before. He was already a beautiful man, but when he smiled like that, Siol felt somewhat dazed. As if he were bewitched.

“Yes. Let’s do that, Siol.”

Eorzen whispered lowly, then continued.

“I will await the day you become mine.”

He felt happy. Siol felt his cheeks flush and joy well up inside him. None of the first meetings he had dreamed of for days were like this. The beautifully dressed Eorzen was smiling gently at Siol. Without any reproach, without any anger. That was enough.

It was the best first meeting.

“…How much longer do I have to wait? You two should knock it off already.”

At the complaint delivered in a sulky tone, the two people who had been gazing into each other’s eyes turned their attention to Ryufen. Ryufen, who was sitting on top of a whimpering Luber, holding him down completely, wore a very sour expression.

Siol hopped down from the table and ran to Ryufen, smacking his shoulder.

“Stop it! Why do you keep bullying him?”

“Bullying? Me? Him?”

“Then you’re not?”

“Wow…. So I should have just let him interrupt you and the Commander’s conversation while he was whining and crying. I was being considerate and held him back a bit, and this is what you say…. Wow….”

Ryufen scoffed, snorting as if he were dumbfounded.

Now that he put it that way, he had nothing to say. If Luber had burst in with his characteristic innocence, showering them with complaints and making a fuss, the chance to have a conversation like this with Eorzen might not have existed.

“That… was the right thing to do, but….”

As soon as he mumbled it, Luber looked back at Siol with eyes full of betrayal. Siol tried hard to avoid meeting his gaze and cleared his throat with a ahem, ahem.

“Um…. Lord Eorzen, I’m heading to the Tower of Survival for my research now, would you perhaps like to come with me?”

“If you invite me, I would be delighted.”

At Siol’s shy suggestion, Eorzen readily nodded.

How naive! Siol thought, smiling slyly to himself. Eorzen probably thought he was asking him to come along purely for the research, but that wasn’t it at all. Of course, there was the objective of getting a little help from a dragon, said to be a natural-born magician, for his sun research. But the biggest purpose was to check Eorzen’s condition.

He hadn’t thought of it a moment ago in his panic, but hadn’t Eorzen’s body been without guiding for a long time? There were no visible symptoms, but if his berserk level was in a dangerous state, he would have to perform guiding, whatever the excuse.

For some reason, Eorzen seemed very lenient right now, so if he asked to hold his hand, wouldn’t he let him?

It was just as Siol was hesitantly looking at his own hand.

“Siol, shall we go.”

Eorzen took Siol’s hand and said. Siol’s cheeks flushed as he followed behind him. Of course, he didn’t forget what he had to do. With their hands joined, he checked Eorzen’s internal state. For some reason, Eorzen’s body was surprisingly at peace. Siol looked at the back of Eorzen’s head and sighed in relief.

Now that his worries were gone, it was time to immerse himself in research. Siol schemed to draw out Eorzen’s curiosity by talking excitedly about his doubts regarding the sun mark and its connection to the Tower of Survival. If Eorzen showed interest, a joint research project might be possible.

A joint research project with the blue dragon, the thought alone was a happy one.

But before that, there was a hurdle he had to pass. Siol had Luber ask Lord Meric for permission to take Eorzen to the tower. Luber energetically stood up and went into the mansion, only to return looking dejected. At first, he looked so downcast that Siol thought permission had been denied, but that wasn’t the case.

Perhaps he’d tattled on Ryufen for bullying him and got scolded for coming to him with such things.

Afterward, the four of them moved together to the Tower of Survival.

Luber had stopped crying, but his lips were stuck out in a pout as he trudged along. His whole body was saying that he didn’t want to go out with this group. Unfortunately, with Ryufen next to him, he couldn’t express it any more actively. That was because whenever Luber so much as tried to open his mouth, Ryufen would glare at him coldly.

Siol mumbled an apology inwardly and looked away from Luber.

“So, what I’m researching is….”

Eorzen willingly listened to the long story of Siol’s research on the sun mark.

It was a story about why he started researching the buildings with the sun, what theories he had come to based on his investigations so far, and what efforts he was making to prove them. Even while listening to the headache-inducing topic, Eorzen didn’t seem bored in the slightest.

On the contrary, Siol could feel the curiosity he possessed as a magician. So, Siol chattered on even more excitedly.

“If we can confirm the shape inside the tower, anything could be a clue.”

“That’s right! The Tower of Survival in the beastmen’s land has nothing in it, right? As long as it’s not like that, it’ll be fine.”

“But how do you know that the Tower of Survival in the beastmen’s land has nothing in it?”

He flinched at the teasing tone and looked up, but Eorzen was wearing a gentle smile. It must have been his imagination.

“Well, somehow. I just had a feeling it would be like that.”

“Somehow.”

“Yes, somehow.”

It was an excuse the other person had already brazenly pushed before.

When Siol insisted in turn, Eorzen laughed for a moment, then readily nodded in agreement. He probably felt the unspoken threat that if he questioned me further, I’d question him right back, Siol thought. For some reason, Siol felt like the word “somehow” had become a sort of code between the two of them for “Don’t ask any more questions.”

He now understood why Eorzen kept pushing such absurd excuses. It was quite a convenient method, as just saying that would prevent any further inquiry.

“Then what form do you hope it takes?”

“The fact that buildings with the sun on them automatically repair themselves means that somewhere, there must be such a spell and an energy source to activate it. I think that’s the Tower of Survival. In fact, that’s the most likely answer. But even so, another question arises.”

“The theory is contradicted by the fact that the protective barrier is gone, but the self-repair function remains.”

“Exactly. It was the king who had the lord’s position revoked and got rid of the protective barrier. Would such a king have any reason to specifically maintain only the self-repair function? No, in the first place, is there even a way to maintain only the self-repair function when the lord’s position has been revoked?”

No matter how he thought about it, only questions remained.

But that was what made the research more exciting. Not only was there the joy of uncovering secrets one by one, but he also had a feeling that if he dug into this secret a little more, he could eventually figure out the secret hidden within the Tower of Survival itself. It might even be closely related to the issues of the lord’s appointment and the protective barrier.

“Well now….”

Eorzen handed a coin to a stall owner and bought some Avelit juice in a cup made from a hollowed-out fruit, placing it in Siol’s hand.

Then, before Siol could ask anything, he said.

“Somehow, I thought you might like it.”

“……”

Siol looked at him with suspicious eyes and took a long sip of the juice.

“I do not know if this will be a hint, but a story comes to mind. It is a story I heard from my father when I still lived in the land of dragons….”

A story the blue dragon heard from his dragon father when he lived in the land of dragons! How long ago must that have been?

Full of curiosity, Siol’s eyes sparkled as he looked at him.

“To those who are not dragons, it may seem like nothing more than a legend. Because it is a story from the time when the first dragon descended upon this land and became the continent. When one speaks of the first dragon, many assume that no one lived in this world before then, but in the records of the dragons, it is known that there were original inhabitants.”

“There were inhabitants in a world without a continent?”

“Yes. They were beings who swam in mana and lived on mana as food. When the continent came into being, they decided to live on the land. And in an instant, they built a civilization. Each one of them was strong enough to easily subdue monsters, but since they kept coming, they devised a method out of annoyance. That is the Tower of Survival.”

“An ancient civilization…. I heard the Tower of Survival is a relic of an ancient civilization. So that’s them!”

Siol remembered a story he had heard once.

To think that the story of who built the Tower of Survival—which was said to be used merely for its functions, without understanding the principles of its operation because they hadn’t built it themselves—was passed down among the dragons. It was extremely interesting.

“That is correct. But the end of such stories always leads to hubris, does it not? They wished not to live on this land, but to rule it, and in the end, they were defeated by the Demon King and met their doom, so the story goes.”

“The Demon King existed back then? Why did the Demon King fight the ancient people?”

“The Demon King is a being who came to this land with the first dragon. He is a being who pursues falsehoods about dragons, and at the same time, a being who protects dragons. Since this continent is the first dragon, he fought to protect it.”

He had heard before that the Demon King pursues falsehoods about dragons, but the latter part was new to him. Siol realized that the books he had read and the stories he had heard were all written from a beastman’s perspective.

The story he was hearing now was from a dragon’s perspective, so it was natural that there would be some differences.

“The Demon King protects dragons?”

“There is no principle that says he must, but it is said that the Demon King has always acted according to such a rule since long ago. I do not know what he is thinking to act in such a way, but….”

What kind of being was this Demon King, who spread myths and legends and was still regarded as a fearsome entity today?

Since everyone who wasn’t a dragon was terrified whenever they spoke of the Demon King, he felt a curiosity to meet him once and see what kind of being he was. But that curiosity soon faded. He was currently secretly coveting the blue dragon in his heart. If it was true that the Demon King protected dragons, he too would surely lose his life at the Demon King’s hands.

“Ah. I have gotten sidetracked. When they fought against the Demon King, the place they last retreated to is what is now the human lands. Therefore, the beastmen’s land was a battlefield where they continued the war, retreating and retreating and retreating again.”

“If that story is true, then the Towers of Survival left in the beastmen’s land are the ruins left after being destroyed in the war.”

“That is correct.”

“And the sun marks I found here also once existed in the beastmen’s land, but have now disappeared.”

At that moment, Luber cut in between them. His eyes were sparkling; it seemed he had been enjoying the story for some time. Luber looked back and forth between Siol and Eorzen and asked. To step forward in front of a dragon, Luber was surely a dog with a lot of guts.

“But the buildings with the sun have a self-repair function, right? Can’t they be destroyed?”

“That’s only when the sun is still there. That magic, or spell, or whatever it is, seems to activate its power using the sun as a medium. So if the sun was completely destroyed, the self-repair function would also be lost, and it could be destroyed.”

At those words, Luber groaned as if disgusted. It was because he could deduce from Siol’s words the image of a city that had once been completely destroyed by the Demon King’s brutal tyranny.

Finally, the party arrived at the Tower of Survival.

Eorzen stepped forward, placed his hand on the tower wall, and released his mana. Destructive mana spread out in all directions, shattering the stone like a cracker. The cracks, which seemed to spread haphazardly, stopped once they had created a space just large enough for about two people. When Eorzen tapped it as if knocking, the crumbled stone fragments settled like dust.

It was truly an astonishing display of mana control.

“Shall we go.”

Eorzen said, holding out his hand to Siol.

While Siol and Eorzen inspected the tower, Ryufen and Luber decided to stand guard at the entrance.

Saying they would stand guard was really just their way of insisting they didn’t want to get involved in such a headache-inducing matter and wouldn’t go in. Siol also thought that having that huge wolf and dog come inside wouldn’t be of much help to this work, so he just told them to do as they pleased.