TEB Ch 76

“Come here”  

As soon as Liev opened his arms, Renard jumped in without considering his size. Although it was not the same weight as a warhorse weighing a hundred kilograms, it was not an easy weight for Liev to withstand, so he reflexively stepped back on his feet and hugged Renard.  

“Think about your size. It’s heavy.”  

While grumbling, Renard put his head against Liev’s forehead and looked into Liev’s eyes.  

“You can handle it. Stop acting all dramatic all the time,”

Being able to handle something and overdoing it are two different concepts. Liev wanted to point it out, but he just snorted and smiled. He’s still not a very reliable guy, but it’s not good to treat him too much like a kid. Just as he was about to push him away, an important issue came to Liev’s mind again.  

“So, what do you mean by “I have a plan”?”  

As far as Liev knows, there is no way to turn a human into an immortal in this world. Of course, there may be other ways for dragons, but if such methods exist, wouldn’t the Count or the Emperor of Antium have already targeted that in the original story? Liev who was tilting his head, grabbed Renard’s head and asked.  

“Then what’s this ‘plan you discovered’ you kept from me?”

As if to say that he needed to be told in order to decide whether to trust him or not, he adjusted his glasses but Renard replied rather bluntly.  

“That’s a secret.”  

“What?”  

If you were going to keep it a secret, why did you even bring it up? Liev asked again, frowning.  

“Why is it a secret? Are you up to something weird?”  

When Liev glared at him full of suspicion, Renard got angry, as if it were unfair.  

“No, I won’t tell Liev. You wouldn’t even understand!”

What are you saying? Liev looked at Renard with a surprised expression when he suddenly returned to his cheeky attitude.  

“Then tell me! You have to explain it to me so I can understand.”  

Ugh, Renard’s expression twisted as if something had hit a sore spot, then he quickly turned his head away and shouted.

“Liev, you never talk to me properly and hide things from me all the time. So, I won’t tell you either.”  

Then he huffed and crossed his arms, but Liev couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at his confident attitude. He probably won’t tell me easily. Liev thought that he shouldn’t leave Renard alone…

He must be planning to do something terrifying to come. 

However, there was no way to force Renard to confess if he insisted that he wouldn’t say it right now. He was not a dragon like Renard. He didn’t have the talent to smell lies. There was only one person who could give him a clue about what Renard was planning…  

But even though “he” seemed like an ally, Liev couldn’t trust him because he didn’t know why he was pushing him to stay with Renard.  

“Come on, don’t just stand there like a statue. Get over here. The proper investigation will be done by the others.”

That was indeed true. He was also bothered by the expression on the girl named Margaret, something about her didn’t feel right.

“Why does she keep going to Renard and trying to get his attention?”  

It wasn’t just a simple admiration for dragons. There was something inexplicable about it. She didn’t even bother to glance at the rest of the group and went straight to Renard, bowing and paying her respects. Others had blatantly tried to seduce him with heart-eyed gazes.

So those patterns were predictable and tiresome, but this girl was fundamentally different. There was no affection in the way she looked at Renard, only a mixture of slight fear and anticipation.

“It’s not just one thing that’s bothering me, and now this guy is giving me a headache.”  

Liev glanced at the back of Renard’s head, who was walking ahead of him, shook his head in disapproval, and followed after him.

How much longer would they have to search the castle? Unfortunately, they didn’t find anything significant. The same was true for the rest of the group.  

“It’s not time for the ghost to appear yet, so let’s have dinner first and then take another look.”  

The Lord laughed with a smile that seemed ominous. They had already enjoyed a grand feast for breakfast and lunch, so they weren’t particularly hungry, but if they didn’t fill themselves up now, they might end up tossing and turning with hunger in the middle of the night and have to bother the servants. Liev obediently followed the group to the dining table, stealing a glance at Sigrid’s back.  

“As expected, I don’t have much hope that he will be of any help.”  

But he had to ask him, even if it was just at a loss. Liev sat down at the table, organizing his thoughts on what he had considered so far.  

First of all, the power of dragons was almost infinite by human standards, but it wasn’t truly infinite. Of course, dragons could draw from the magic of nature, using it as their own power source, giving them an absurd amount of magic, but that was a burden for them as well. And there was a definite limit to the capacity of the “dragon heart,” the vessel that stores their magic.  

The dragon heart, which is embedded in the dragon’s body and plays the role of both the heart and the engine, is a manifestation of magical power, so it has a wide variety of functions.  

It served as a storage unit for gathering strength when the dragon used magic and played a role in creating new dragons to make a new being. However, dragons born from the concentrated power of two parent dragons could only control as much power as their parents had split between them, which was a fatal limitation. It was natural for the offspring to lose the same amount of ability as their parents had given them.  

So, would it be possible to transfer the power of a dragon to a non-dragon entity in a similar way? The first thought that came to mind was that if a dragon’s vessel for power was the sea, then a human’s vessel would be more like a soybean. It was obvious that even the minimum amount of power a dragon could give would be too much for a human body to handle. Even if they could handle it, the gap between a dragon and a human was too vast to overcome.  

Then what other way is there? 

Or maybe I’ll just die trying. Liev suddenly had a scary thought, then made a serious face and stared at the bread in front of him.  

But it was clear that Renard wouldn’t do something like that. 

While Liev was lost in thought, his plate gradually filled with a mountain of meat, far more than he could possibly eat alone. Renard had been steadily cutting and placing pieces of meat on his plate, one by one, from the central platter.

“……”  

Liev, who was deep in thought, suddenly felt that everyone’s gaze was on him and quickly looked up. What’s going on? Why are they looking at me…? He felt a sense of foreboding and looked at Renard, who was gazing at him with a confident expression, as if he were looking at the most lovable thing in the world.

What’s going on again…?

And then Liev was horrified to see the mountain of food in front of him.