Chapter 74

The cave was dim as there were only a few blue mushrooms around.

Valenciaunos crawled towards Jeilliris, dragging his legs along the floor.

It seemed as though all his nails had been turned inside out, but he didn’t care.

“No.”

She lay collapsed beneath the dragon’s chest, from which blood gushed out.

It looked like more than half of her body was buried under the stone floor.

Her platinum hair was disheveled, and the metallic-scented liquid clung to her white face and arms.

The black dress was almost indistinguishable from ash, clinging tightly to her body, and there were blisters all over the exposed areas.

The golden threads that decorated her clothing had melted away, sizzling her flesh.

Valenciaunos crazily cleared the stones piled on her with trembling hands.

Whenever he moved his mangled hands, something white could be seen, but he didn’t care.

“Ha, ha.”

He pulled Jeilliris out from beneath the pile of stones.

His legs, which had been capable of kicking away iron pillars, were twisted in a strange direction.

He instinctively checked her pulse.

“O God of Radiance!”

She was still alive.

He cautiously lifted the emperor and pressed his body against the split chest of the dragon.

Straightening his back and neck to secure a prayer, he checked again if there were any foreign objects in her throat.

He collected the dragon’s blood in his hands and fed it to her.

His hands became so hot it felt like they would be burnt.

“Please.”

The dragon’s blood, blazing hot like fire, was the essence of essences, full of mana and life force.

His hands trembled so much that he spilled a few drops.

“O God of Radiance. Please. Not yet.”

By the time he had spilled blood three more times, Jeilliris opened her eyes slightly, then closed them again.

Her throat moved slowly up and down as she drank the dragon’s blood that had pooled in her mouth.

“Duke?”

It was a faint voice, like a baby bird.

Valenciaunos answered urgently.

“Yes, your Majesty. I am here.”

“Drink as well. Quickly. I am fine.”

“Don’t say such foolish things!”

He collected more blood and brought it to her lips.

The emperor’s complexion was still pale, but she certainly appeared to be improving.

“I didn’t expect to show you such a disgraceful sight.”

Perhaps she still hadn’t fully regained consciousness, her voice sounded dreamy.

“No, your Majesty.”

‘I have always shown you nothing but disgraceful appearances.’

Valenciaunos swallowed the last words that wouldn’t help in this situation and leaned Jeilliris’s head against the spot where the dragon’s blood was gushing, allowing the dragon’s blood to flow over her hair and back.

“I will align your bones, and once you regain your senses, use blood magic to heal yourself.”

“……Alright.”

Valenciaunos aligned her legs, ankles, and left wrist.

Still, it felt like she wasn’t breathing comfortably, so he dared to touch her side.

“Your Majesty. It feels like a broken rib is piercing your lung. If the blood pools, it will become increasingly difficult for you to breathe. May I take care of it?”

Jeilliris, with her eyes closed, weakly nodded her head.

He wrapped a mana blade around a narrow dagger and thrust it into the side beneath her ribcage.

Thunk.

“Ugh…….”

Valenciaunos noticed Jeilliris struggling to let go of her body’s tension.

The body of a Sword Master was as hard as dragon skin.

When he pulled the dagger out, black blood flowed generously from the wound.

It was hard to believe that so much had been pooled in her lungs.

“I think she will live.”

The emperor murmured with a noticeably relieved voice.

Valenciaunos sighed in relief and leaned against her, drinking the dragon’s blood.

It was salty, fishy, and hot, but it had a strange sweetness to it.

“Ha ha.”

As the tension eased, the pain began to surge forth.

His hands and feet, every part of his body, felt utterly wrecked.

It felt like he had been caught by a giant and thrown to the ground.

Finding an intact bone in the right side of his body might be a futile endeavor.

But still, he didn’t feel like he was about to die.

Valenciaunos glanced sideways.

Jeilliris’s complexion had brightened considerably.

A mere fracture would surely heal cleanly with blood magic once she regained her senses.

With dragon’s blood flowing all around, there was ample mana.

‘Let’s take a moment to rest.’

Just as he was thinking that, the detestable laughter echoed once more.

Hee hee hee hee.

Giant sky jellyfish floated down, glowing with a blue light.

* * *

The massive body floating in the sky shone with an eerie light.

Crackle—

Electricity leaped along tendrils that stretched several dozen meters.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

The Infiltrators, with mushrooms growing all over their backs, were also there.

It looked like more than a hundred of them had been brought along.

“Damn it!”

Valenciaunos swore and attempted to help Jeilliris stand.

But he couldn’t put any strength into his legs.

At that moment, Jeilliris opened her eyes.

Her brilliantly glowing golden eyes pierced through Valenciaunos.

“Duke. Bring me the dragon’s heart.”

She commanded in a voice that could not be denied.

Valenciaunos staggered as he stood up, thrusting his upper body into the dragon’s split chest and searched for the heart.

“Huh?”

It wasn’t something he could take away.

The heart of a 45-meter-long creature was as huge as a cart.

There was no way a person could consume this.

“No, no, no!”

Upon closer inspection, he found another organ that resembled a heart attached to the top of the heart.

It was about the size of two fists combined, covered in spikes resembling dragon horns and scales.

The savage yet beautiful red flesh came away astonishingly easily when he pulled on it with both hands.

Carrying it, Valenciaunos returned to Jeilliris.

Hee hee hee hee.

The sky jellyfish were now almost down.

Jeilliris, with her eyes closed, spoke again in a dreamy voice.

“Duke. Feed me the dragon’s heart.”

“……!”

Eating the dragon’s heart would allow him to wield the power of the dragon.

But using that power would eventually curse him, turning him into a dragon one day.

“It’s alright, Duke.”

He hesitated and hesitated again.

He couldn’t burden her any further given everything she already carried.

Her injured body might collapse under the heart’s power.

At that moment, Jeilliris murmured once more.

Her tone was as if she was almost losing consciousness.

“……It’s alright. Brother.”

“!”

Valenciaunos recalled hearing that same thing approximately 48 years ago.

He remembered the awkward expressions of the bureaucrats from the palace and the wizards from the Imperial Magic Guild who had to take one of the twins on a perfectly sunny day.

Back then, Jeilliris had said the same thing.

With the same serene expression.

Valenciaunos looked up at the foreign objects that the ancients had thrown into this world.

Sky jellyfish that were 50 meters long and Infiltrators approaching nearly 4 meters in height.

The blue mushrooms glimmered and emitted currents, the jellyfish giggled merrily, and the Infiltrators repeated their dying whispers, while his emperor, who had failed to protect him once, was once again saying she would shoulder another burden.

“O God of Radiance.”

Light is both a cruel being and one that casts a shadow.

“This time, it won’t work.”

Valenciaunos firmly grasped the dragon’s heart and swore.

He swore once, a hundred times, a thousand times again.

He would abandon humanity, forsake the heavenly principles, turn back time, and even if he ceased to be human, there were things that had to be protected.

“I will protect her.”

‘I am her brother.’

With a mouthful of the heart that would turn him into something other than human, he bit down.

Crunch!

A horrific, savage, and sadistic laughter echoed in his mind endlessly.

* * *

At dawn, Rudi kicked off the blankets and drew her dagger.

An uninvited guest in a paper mask was stirring.

‘This must be ended when I’m flustered. Prolonging it would be disadvantageous.’

She lifted the dagger she held in her right hand as if to swing it widely.

The assassin behind the mask planned to exploit the inevitable gap that would come after a big move.

‘But it’s just a maid.’

At that moment, Rudi shot the dagger she had drawn with her left hand into the right side of her waist.

Swoosh!

The trick she had perfected in her sparring with Bonnell went perfectly.

The dagger, slicing through the air, accurately embedded itself between the thick muscles of the assassin’s thigh.

Thud!

“!”

She could tell even through the paper mask that the man was surprised.

‘Please disappear quietly.’

Rudi stomped the ground and intended to sink the dagger she had raised into the night visitor’s shoulder.

At that moment, he used his leg, which had the dagger embedded in it, to kick sideways.

Pow! Rudi staggered back, unable to scream.

If she hadn’t been wearing the armor that Valenciaunos had bought for her, she might have been seriously injured.

“Damn!”

She quickly straightened the dagger that she had held in reverse and lowered her stance.

The masked assassin was several times more bewildered seeing that she was not screaming than when the dagger had pierced his thigh.

Not only was she no powerless target, but she was trying to kill him rather than just survive.

It was common sense to drive off an assassin if they intruded.

To counterattack calmly like this meant she was trying to hide the very fact that an assassin had come.

‘Not bad.’

He pulled the second dagger that was embedded in his thigh and crouched down.

In that moment, Rudi smiled coldly and charged at him.

The masked assassin stretched out his injured right leg first.

He planned to take a step back the moment he was attacked, widen the distance, and retaliate.

Thwack! Rudi’s left hand shot toward the hem of her maid dress.

He braced himself for the dagger flying at him, preparing for pain.

But the maid was not holding a dagger in her left hand.

‘What is that……?’

Bam!

The quiet of the dawn split, and a man’s head flew away.

‘I see now that I didn’t need to cling and shoot, as I didn’t know anything about gun magic.’

Rudi thought as she pushed the assassin’s corpse under the bed.

‘An assassin has entered the Duke’s quarters. That is absurd. Perhaps the intention is to warn us. They plan on killing me and the emperor’s maid to pressure Princess Sererassie.’

But she briefly pondered whether that was truly it.

She put on her winter coat, strapped the bag containing arrows on her back, and holding the mana gun in her left hand, she grabbed the doorknob with her right.

Pressing her shoulder against the door, she slowly pulled it open.

Thud!

The moment she opened the door, a small arrow flew through the gap and struck.

It was right at forehead height.

If she had opened the door directly, she would have been hit instantly.

Rudi calculated from the angle at which the arrow was embedded where it had come from.

Her green eyes shone coldly, and she adjusted the angle toward the door before pulling the trigger.

Crack!

“Ah!”

“What the hell?”

Perhaps she didn’t hit the heart, as a scream was heard.

However, she could tell from the footsteps and screams how many had entered.

Rudi pulled the trigger once more.

Crack!

This time, she didn’t make a mistake.

Another gunshot rang out, and three assassins grew cold as they fell.

Rudi checked the room assigned to Jeilliris’s maid.

“It’s too late……”

The sheets were stained bright red.

Her expression was as if she had passed without even realizing it.

Rudi momentarily trembled her hands.

She raised her head and blinked, forcing back the tears that were about to flow.

“Haah….”

She too was a noble who had been through the political games of the palace maids.

She understood that killing each other for power was commonplace.

Yet, between understanding and empathizing and persuading, there existed a wall that could not be crossed, and she did not want to cross it.

She silently wished that Valenciaunos would not become like that, and she checked Tenitia’s room.

The room was empty.

Without panicking, Rudi headed to the observation tower where she had spent the day.

Climbing the spiral stairs and opening the door, Sererassie was standing there.

Her dark blue and yellow attire trembled in a way that didn’t quite match.

“Rudi! What happened?”

Seeing Rudi with a mana gun and wearing a coat, Sererassie asked urgently.

Rudi spoke in a voice that was urgent like a scream.

“Duke Sigma has sent assassins. There’s a high chance more will come, your Highness. We must leave.”

Sererassie replied even more urgently.

“Yes. We must go.”

“Hmm?”

Rudi expressed her surprise and confusion.

She had thought Sererassie would say that the observation wasn’t finished yet.

Sererassie spoke with a trembling voice.

“The calculations are just finished. Soon, a core will emerge in the Magical Realms, and the ancients will crawl out.”