Chapter 90

The villa of Valenciaunos was not as luxurious as the rumors suggested.

There were no chandeliers adorned with jewels, no tapestries embroidered with golden threads, and no wine fountains with half-naked beauties.

However, the garden showcased several tall evergreen trees, and inside the mansion, neat and orderly wooden furniture was harmoniously arranged.

At the back, there was a training ground large enough for about ten people to use at once, where lately both Rudi and Valenciaunos trained, without needing to go to the training ground of the Platinum Knights.

Both of them dealt with weapons and abilities that would serve no purpose to show others.

“Valen, what should we do? How did this happen?”

Rudi, who had just jumped around the wooden pillars throwing daggers, looked at Valenciaunos’s left arm.

Her green eyes trembled slightly.

Valenciaunos’s entire left hand was covered with dark-red scales.

His nails had also grown long and hard, resembling the weapons of assassins or a peculiar gauntlet.

“I just felt something while handling the incantation. Didn’t you feel an immense strength? But all of a sudden, it turned out like this,” he said, rolling his vertically slit yellow eyes while laughing.

“Don’t laugh. I’m really anxious right now.”

At Rudi’s reaction, Valenciaunos sighed deeply.

“I’m anxious too. That’s why I’m laughing. If I don’t laugh, I feel like I’ll cry.”

“Have you tried the blue potion?”

He glanced at one side of the shelf.

There were three empty vials.

“I don’t think it’s a control issue.”

“Then what is it?”

“I’m just guessing, but you said you felt that strong power just now.”

“Yes.”

“I think it accelerated the dragon transformation and drew on power.”

“Then why did you use it now?”

Rudi asked, astonished, while shedding tears.

Valenciaunos responded with a hollow laugh.

“I didn’t know.”

“What?! Then what are you going to do now?”

“Call Lady Sorelazie. She has a potion she was researching.”

Lady Sorelazie arrived an hour later.

As soon as she saw Valenciaunos’s hand, she raised her staff and struck his head.

The yellow and blue gold shimmered, fueled by anger.

“I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

“Good news.”

“Your guess was right. My oblivious little brother, whose insight is only useful in senseless situations. You drew on power in exchange for the dragon transformation.”

“What’s the bad news?”

“The dragon transformation has progressed. This is no longer a control issue. It’s a matter of costs.”

Valenciaunos sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace, rolled up his shirt sleeves to reveal his hands.

The scales covering his hand stood out in contrast to his pale face.

“Still, there’s one more piece of good news.”

As Lady Sorelazie removed her robe, she asked, “What is it?”

“That a genius mage has come to help me with full hands?” Valenciaunos said with a smirk.

Lady Sorelazie clicked her tongue, gathering electric energy in her fingers and zapping Valenciaunos’s wrist.

But the level-two magic only gave him a slight sting.

“Ouch!”

“Pretend you don’t know until I show off!”

“Got it. I’m sorry!”

Rudi sighed in relief and whimpered.

Her gentle expression, filled with tears in her green eyes, would turn even the coldest heart.

“Your Excellency, Lady Sorelazie. You can fix Valen, right?”

Lady Sorelazie zapped Valenciaunos’s wrist once more.

“You really should thank your maid. Do you understand?”

“Of course. So can you fix me for her sake?”

“You’re so shameless!”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Don’t do that. Why don’t you feel a bit bad? Give me some satisfaction.”

“That kind of vile satisfaction and pathological sadism won’t help your life, sister.”

Lady Sorelazie cursed with her eyes as she opened her bag.

The red potion was contained in a long glass vial resembling a test tube, while the blue potion was in a bulky glass jar shaped like an oval.

Both contained a white, smoke-like aura swirling within.

“I ended up going back to blue. It seems that after destruction comes stability, and those kinds of reagents, no matter how mixed, always turn blue.”

“You mean the cheap blue potion of Bastatin?”

“Why is it that when you talk, Bastatin sounds the same as Lady Sorelazie?”

“Why is the red potion in that vial, but the blue potion is still over there?”

Valenciaunos countered, answering a question with another question, brushing aside the earlier one.

However, Lady Sorelazie moved on, knowing that.

“The red potion is already complete. It’s a potion to help with what you did today. A potion that draws on power at the cost of slight dragon transformation. But the blue potion is still incomplete.”

Valenciaunos shrugged.

“I’m the only one in the Empire who has undergone the dragon transformation, so I can’t experiment on anyone else. It’s fine. Am I going to die?”

“No. So it’s not just about drinking; I need to cast the incantation for you.”

“Ah.”

“Did you think I would bring you an unfinished potion?”

Lady Sorelazie smirked.

Valenciaunos exaggeratedly gestured with a huff.

“Just like a sister.”

Then he brought the blue vial to his mouth.

“Wait. That’s not for drinking; it’s for application! Please listen to the explanation until the end!”

Lady Sorelazie grabbed his wrist in shock.

“Why didn’t you say that earlier? I almost made a huge mistake.”

“You were going to drink it without permission! Your teeth might have fallen out.”

Rudi applied the blue liquid evenly on Valenciaunos’s left hand.

Lady Sorelazie held her staff and began reciting a long incantation.

Valenciaunos felt his left hand heating up intensely.

It felt like his hand was perfectly intact even when thrown into a fire.

“…It’s hot.”

“Of course. You should bear that level of pain. It’s the responsibility of rejecting the cost of the dragon transformation.”

Lady Sorelazie smiled contentedly.

Shadows fell over her balanced, cute face.

“Responsibility and cost are different. Responsibilities can take various forms, but costs are what the other party desires. But we are members of the royal family standing at the pinnacle of bloodlines, aren’t we? Then who would dare to discuss costs with us?”

The gold and silver shimmered, and Valenciaunos’s dark-red scales detached one by one.

The claw-like nails fell off, and a white human hand returned.

“…Thank you. Thanks to you, I’m alive. If the king knew, he would have cut my hand off and healed it with blood magic for a year.”

“I can see that happening. If you’re grateful, can I take some of these scales? You know how valuable dragon scales are as a reagent.”

“Of course. I was going to give them to you anyway.”

Lady Sorelazie smiled as she gathered the scales into a paper bag.

Valenciaunos and Rudi let out a sigh of relief as they looked at his white hand.

“Sister, just in case, is the red potion also for application?”

Valenciaunos asked with glimmering yellow eyes.

“No. The red potion is complete. It’s for drinking. I’ll leave it behind, so use it only when needed.”

As Lady Sorelazie divided the red potion into a small vial, Lady Trentia approached with a serious expression.

“Your Excellency. Konel has been attacked.”

* * *

I quickly dressed and made my way to the old slums.

Hiding in a suitable alley for confirmation, I saw that the square being formed in front of the temporary church and Konel’s building was in chaos.

It felt awkward to refer to it as the old slums since it was near the point of becoming a slum again.

Cheap music blared from all directions, giving me a headache.

The seminarians who came to the temporary church were not even half of their usual number, and the priests were nowhere to be seen.

Instead, a holy knight was pressing down his cloak and shining his eyes from a corner.

“Everyone! Don’t worry! We have defeated the Infiltrator Konel, who served the ancient ones!”

“That young devil has been the culprit behind 1,800 murder cases that have occurred up till now. The flesh was shared with his subordinates, and the bones were offered to the ancient ones he served, which is why it remained hidden.”

“He’s a man-eating demon who cut off a thousand legs to fix his own!”

“Her true form is a centipede monster with fifteen legs!”

Middle-aged candidates wearing suits and uniforms stepped onto small and large platforms, bellowing.

Among them were several who came to offer gold coins in hopes of bypassing their registration fees and candidate evaluations.

“Was Konel really an Infiltrator?”

“Stop saying nonsense. If it weren’t for him, we would all be starving to death!”

“Who do you think fixed your broken nails and bones?”

“The priests and seminarians did, strictly speaking, it wasn’t Konel!”

“!”

I saw some people nodding their heads.

The man who said that shouted confidently.

“Look. The church provides meals and treatment, and we built the brick factory with our own hands. Those workshops were investments from big guilds. Of course, we acknowledge that Konel worked hard, but that’s not the whole story.”

“I think the same. He’s admirable, but he’s not a savior. Until recently, he was leading thugs, wasn’t he?”

“Have you ever seen a brat who doesn’t understand gratitude?”

“Aren’t we all working together to usher in a new era? Sure, that sounds good. But why are we the ones doing the work while that girl takes the glory? Besides, isn’t she also a remnant of the old era? The one who exploited us through violence and terror!”

Lady Trentia bit her lower lip.

Anger shadowed her handsome face.

“…Your Excellency.”

“Right. From the looks of it, that guy seems to be nothing but a scoundrel. He’s probably from another organization that Konel brought down. And he has just been hired by those guys as a go-between.”

“!”

Lady Trentia glanced at the other candidates, as if struck by that thought.

“Is it alright to solve this with a knight’s approach?”

“What kind of approach?”

“By throwing a steel gauntlet in those guys’ faces and challenging them to a duel. Or by beating them senseless for daring to talk down to a knight as commoners while standing on the platform.”

“That’s not a bad idea. I was thinking the same. I would like to burn that guy first, but Konel should live according to the way of the knights, not the way of the council.”

Just then, a voice calling us came from behind.

“It has been a while, Your Excellency.”

“Is that Arsen?”

A blond youth walked towards the alley, accompanied by several elegantly dressed men.

“Yes, Your Excellency. After hearing your and Lady Trentia’s words that day, I’ve given it a lot of thought about what truly is the way for the people.”

“An excellent judgment. I commend you for it. It was indeed quite sharp and deadly. It reminded me of the talons of the Infiltrators.”

“Haha. I’m honored, Your Excellency.”

“Do you know where Konel is?”

“I don’t. Do you, Your Excellency?”

“I don’t know either.”

Arsen passed me and went out to the square.

He started stacking platforms and yelling again.

At that moment, Lady Trentia looked at me.

“Your Excellency, I have a place in mind.”

* * *

The three-story stone building standing at the end of the alley was still magnificent.

This was the mansion of a father who had sought to heal his daughter’s legs, and also the headquarters of a gang.

It seemed that redevelopment had already taken place, as the makeshift boards and tents had long been dismantled, and the impoverished gangsters milling around had vanished.

All that could be heard were the groans of injured beasts.

Perhaps it was because of Lady Trentia’s presence, but I felt a sense of caution in her gaze, which soon faded.

“I will lead you.”

One of the higher-ups, a woman, bowed politely.

She seemed to have been injured as well, limping slightly.

There hadn’t been time for internal repairs, as the inside of the building still bore the marks of soot.

It was a trace of the fire I had set.

In front of the room of the second-floor leader, the officer knocked on the door.

“Come in,” came the reply.

A clever-looking girl, with an astute expression, sat in front of her father’s desk.

She had an expression full of responsibility that transcended good and evil.

“I heard you were hurt.”

“Your Excellency?”

Konel flinched as she rose from her seat.

“You shouldn’t be here. The church…!”

“I know.”

She had a lot to say, as evident in her expression.

I firmly interrupted her words and pushed through.

“Answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Do you still want to become a councilmember?”

Konel looked as if she was struggling to breathe.

“…Yes.”