Kapitel 230: [Chapter 221] Telling the Past
"Oh dear, time is up. I was having such a good time talking to intelligent beings."
The dragon stopped talking completely and smiled faintly. Darkness approached from afar. Pop, pop. The magic lights flickered.
"What exactly do you mean by time is up?"
"Literally. I came out through a seal that was shaken for a very short time. That's why you were able to enter my lair."
"So now this place will be isolated from the outside again?"
"You can enter physically, but everything in this lair is maintained by magic, so when the shaken seal is resealed, everything will become old. Go now, children. See you again someday."
"Someday?"
"Yes, when you defeat the children of Bisto and release Palos's power, I will be able to live as I used to."
Defeat the imperial family and release Palos's power. That was exactly what Neris had been thinking just now. But she hadn't realized that if she did that, the evil dragon from 600 years ago would be released back into the world.
The dragon was dangerous. The one before her now was very cheerful and rational, but no one knew what would happen if her true form actually woke up. If she was weak, they could say, "Let's wake her up first and see what happens," but could they do that at will?
It would be nice if the awakened true form quietly took revenge only on Bisto's descendants, but things in the world don't work out that conveniently. If she tried to take revenge on all of humanity, who could stop her?
In this era, there wasn't even a single hero, let alone the perfect three heroes from the stories.
Seeing her conflicted expression, the dragon smiled.
Child of Elandria, I cherish peace. I also cherish mortals. That is why I stayed in this world, instead of following my kin. I cherished non-human races equally.
Neris didn't trust this statement either, as the dragon would naturally want to be released from the seal. But… the image of her laughter from the vision came to mind.
And the gentle voice that called Elandria.
She asked, with mixed feelings.
You said that the seal seemed to have been broken once. When the child of Bisto failed to achieve his goal… could there have been side effects?
There could have been. Countless times would have unraveled like a ball of yarn and then been wound back up. In the worst case, the entire world's time could have gone back to the past. But who knows?
Neris couldn't continue.
Cledwyn gently patted Neris's shoulder. And calmly spoke, instead of his agitated wife.
There are many questions in your words, but it seems difficult to ask them all now. What will happen if we don't comply with your request?
Oh dear.
The dragon sighed, with the same wry smile.
This is not my request. You have to do this if you want to live, don't you?
Why?
If you release the sealed power of Palos from Bisto, I will awaken naturally. And if you don't, Bisto will have a good tool to deal with you. The children of Bisto, who have a past they want to hide, won't let you go either. Am I wrong?
Too accurate. Uncomfortably so. She must not know anything about the outside world, having slept for 600 years.
Is this the insight that those who live close to eternity gain?
"They've already been drilling a hole from the outside into the lair. Nothing is holding you back. Go back now."
Go back now… it sounded like a statement filled with the certainty that Neris wouldn't be able to disobey her.
Cledwyn recalled what 'Palos's eye' had said in the imperial palace. The 'she' he had mentioned must have been the dragon. Perhaps Palos was sure that the dragon would help them when she woke up.
That was when the arch that had separated the dragon's sleeping place from this corridor returned to the wall.
In an instant, the dragon's form began to flicker like a wavering flame. The surrounding light did the same.
Kugugung.
The ceiling shook. Blink… blink. At the same time, the world went dark, then barely brightened again. And then it went dark again immediately.
The magic was over.
"Neris!"
Cledwyn held Neris in his arms, ready to protect her in case something fell from above. And he looked up.
The magic orbs flickered out one after another, starting from the farthest ones, with a pop, pop, whoosh. The gargoyles that had been flapping their wings did the same. They returned to their original stone statues in an instant.
Before the world went completely dark, the last thing Cledwyn saw was the dragon's mysterious eyes, disappearing like an erasure, with a mysterious smile.
❖ ❖ ❖
"Damn it, we're left empty-handed. I still had so many questions."
The vibration stopped faster than expected. Cledwyn, trapped in complete darkness in an instant, grumbled lightly as the surroundings stabilized.
Neris sighed.
"We could have spent a whole week just asking questions. We would have learned so much."
"Are you feeling academic curiosity?"
"It's a bit of a shame. If we wrote a book about what we just heard, scholars would come running from the ends of the continent."
Even though they wouldn't believe it at first. The evil dragon, who was said to have died long ago, was actually alive and sealed, and the seal was the result of betrayal and a bloody battle between the three heroes.
If Neris herself had seen a play with this kind of content, she would have said it was too dramatic.
'But.'
The expression 'dramatic' also means that it is more likely to arouse interest in the viewer. A complex plan in Neris's mind was haphazardly clumped together, then unraveled, taking shape.
Cledwyn used the ignition device on his sword pommel to create a small flame. And he skillfully used a few tools from his belt to make the flame into a stable lamp.
Neris looked around. A single small lamp in a giant corridor wouldn't be much help in understanding the surroundings, but it was definitely better than nothing.
She saw a pillar. A sigh escaped her small lips.
"It's changed."
The decorative pillar, which had been carved with delicate carvings, as if it were entwined with living vines, was now just a rough stone, like the ruins above ground. It seemed that without that 'magic', this place would take on the appearance it would have had if it had been an ownerless building for 600 years.
"Let's get out of here first. They say they're drilling a hole, but can they even drill through here?"
The two of them thought that the people who were "drilling a hole," as the guardian had said, were surely Talprin and Aidan. How terrified they must have been, with their masters gone.
But both of them were pessimistic about whether they could actually get in here. Earlier, they had been able to enter because the dragon had called Neris, but how far was it from the ground to here?
"It would be nice if we could find the exit before that."
They held hands and walked in the opposite direction from where the dragon was sleeping. After walking for a while, Cledwyn said, with a thoughtful expression.
"There are no monster corpses."
"My hairpins either. Even in the dark, they're gold, so I should see a few."
Neris pointed out, gently stroking her flowing hair.
Cledwyn remembered that he had picked up a few of her hairpins and used them as bookmarks. But she was right. He couldn't have possibly picked up all the pins she had dropped.
They were just going back the same way they had come, but it felt like they were walking through a completely different space.
"Did all that go into the seal too?"
"Maybe. It wasn't a dream."
"I didn't think it was a dream either."
Cledwyn vividly remembered the gray gem-eye he had seen in the secret chamber of the imperial palace. He was furious at Keamil, who had plotted to make his wife the same way. So furious that he didn't even know what to do.
Compared to that, the fact that he had almost died several times, or that he should have been born with a gem-eye but couldn't because his power was sealed, didn't matter. He wasn't particularly interested in the power he didn't have now.
He unconsciously bared his teeth and asked.
What do you think? Releasing Palos's power means we'll have to face the imperial family head-on. It's a matter related to the legitimacy of the imperial family's rule, so they'll try to silence us even if we just try to negotiate.
Keamil has been thinking every day about how and when she can kill us, since you went into the secret chamber last time and I woke up. It's not like she wasn't thinking about that before, but…
Neris finished, adding a bit of humor, realizing that Cledwyn couldn't have said that without knowing.
Perhaps he was asking in his own way. For her.
To be the first to speak.
Neris suddenly stopped. Cledwyn stopped at the exact same moment, as if he knew she would.
She looked up at her husband's eyes and whispered.
Didn't you think the question I asked the dragon was strange?
The one about the side effects of the failed seal?
He knew, as expected.
Neris pondered. How much should she tell him, and how? She had been thinking about it ever since she decided to tell him, but there was still no clear answer that seemed good.
She loved this man. She was surprised every time she felt how much she loved him, how much more intensely she loved him every time she looked at his face like this.
So she always wanted to look good to him. It was too late to pretend to be a perfect person.
At least she didn't want to be disgusted.
She didn't want to be told that she was foolishly craving the affection of those who didn't love her, and that she was thoroughly used and killed.
Ah, but it was strange. In the past, just thinking about that self would have made me hate myself and a fiery rage would have surged within me.
Now, it just hurt a little. And…
A soft new skin was gradually covering the top of that painful wound.
As if everything had been getting better all this time, without her knowing. Now, the same wound would never deepen.
As if someday, she would truly be okay, and there would come a day when she wouldn't even need to think about that time.
Neris's voice trembled.
"You know? When I first decided to go to the academy, I didn't know that gem-eyes were so important. I just thought that my mother had a rich relative, and that relative was kindly helping our family."
A time when she was just a little scared of being separated from her mother.
"I learned that purple eyes have a special meaning in aristocratic society after I met Megara Ricanthros at the academy. She was so beautiful, dignified, and perfect. I was only interested in books, so I didn't know, but actually, our entire class fell for her from the first day."
If she had acted a little differently then, would her first school years have been less hellish?
"On the other hand, everyone hated me. Because Megara hated me. And because I didn't understand their internal rules."
A whirlwind of hatred she couldn't understand.
"I really hated school. Every time I went home for vacation, I had to endure the agony of holding back from telling my mother that the school she had worked so hard to get tuition for from her relatives was hell for me."
A long school life without Diane or Cledwyn.
"I barely endured, hoping that graduation day would come quickly. But two years before graduation, my gem-eye awakened."
The unfamiliar and frightening change at that time.
She had violet gem-eyes, which were not recorded, so everyone was confused. Not long after, my mother died, and the Duke of Elandria reached out to adopt me. Honestly, I was grateful. I thought there were no better people.
Hypocrisy. Sin. A foolish girl who believed it without knowing.
A story completely different from the one Cledwyn knew about her school days.
Neris began to tell her past.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein