Ch.17Ready

“My dear, do you have any plans set for now?”

Charlotte asked me as she gently swirled the wine glass in her hand, making the liquid inside ripple.

I grimaced slightly, thinking she might start another drunken tirade like last night, but was immediately warned to fix my expression since this was merely an aperitif.

Only Charlotte and I were seated at the lavish dining table that stretched far to both sides. It must have been at least 20 meters long.

The table was laden with all kinds of food. I couldn’t help but think it was excessive waste for just two people.

After forcibly detaching Serena, who had clung to me saying I needed to be punished for injuring her body, telling her to prepare to leave soon, I was summoned back to the castle immediately upon my return.

The timing seemed almost as if someone had been waiting for Serena and me to separate.

As I was examining the food on the table, Charlotte pointed to the chair across from her.

It was honestly unexpected; I thought she would ask me to sit right next to her. Steaks cut into bite-sized pieces were placed in front of both Charlotte and me.

“I do have one thing. I need to stop by the city where I was staying with Serena. She has some unfinished business there, and I have my own matters to attend to as well.”

“And after you handle that business?”

“Well, I don’t really have anything specific planned after that. I’ve been so focused on searching for the dragon that I haven’t thought about anything else. Since getting involved with all of you yesterday, my head’s been spinning. Once the dragon-related matters are settled, I’ll probably have some free time.”

It took me eight years of solo information gathering to find the dragon’s nest, plus another two weeks to get there. Much more time had passed than I’d realized, which made it even harder to adjust to the current situation.

Meeting Serena who suddenly barged in, then Christine appearing out of nowhere and fighting with Serena.

Just when things seemed to calm down, I was teleported to the royal palace where Charlotte was, then Charlotte caused a commotion at night, and in the morning I got entangled with Serena in various ways. Honestly, events were passing by so quickly that I still felt disoriented.

Not to mention feeling somewhat deflated that even the dragon failed to kill me.

“In that case, I suggest you stay at the palace with me for a while. I promise you the finest treatment. It’s an extremely attractive offer, don’t you think?”

Charlotte rested her chin on one hand, smiling slyly as she tilted her wine glass toward me.

“Well… I’ll think about it more. For now, I have things I need to take care of first. After that, if I can’t think of anything else to do, I might stay here for a few days.”

“Oh? Then if I repeatedly kill you so you can’t think of anything to do, would that mean you’ll stay here continuously?”

“How does that interpretation even make sense?”

“I jest. Take it as a measure of how much I’ve missed you.”

Instead of answering, I stabbed a piece of steak with my fork and put it in my mouth.

As soon as I bit into the perfectly seared surface, the juices hidden inside burst out. The well-blended aroma of spices wafted through my nostrils.

Although I don’t need to eat since my body won’t starve to death anyway, I can still enjoy the pleasure that comes from eating delicious food.

Sometimes the tongue deserves its own pleasures.

Around the time I was putting the third piece into my mouth, Charlotte spoke again.

“Come to think of it, you mentioned you had unfinished business as well.”

“It’s nothing that needs immediate attention. I’m just planning to take care of it while I’m there since Serena’s matter is more urgent.”

Charlotte narrowed her eyes at me. It clearly meant she wanted me to tell her what it was right away.

“Herb gathering.”

“Herb gathering…? You’ve been doing such trivial work?”

“On the surface, I’m just a low-rank adventurer, so that kind of work is most appropriate. Besides, I need some excuse to give when people ask what I’ve been doing wandering around outside for a month. I can’t exactly answer honestly that I was looking for a dragon to die, can I?”

“If there are insolent humans who speak to you in such a manner, you should have informed me. I could have tortured them until they begged for death.”

“…”

“Just a jest, my dear. Do relax your expression. Anyway, so you need to report that you’ve completed this request.”

I nodded in affirmation.

“That’s right. And also to deal with the half-destroyed lord’s mansion that Serena wrecked.”

“Half-destroyed a lord’s mansion? Was there a fight?”

“It’s nothing serious. Apparently the city lord said something to Serena like ‘It’s an honor to meet the Royal First Knight Commander who serves you.’ When she heard that, her eyes went wild and she wanted to split the mansion in half. I don’t know the details since I didn’t see it myself—this is just what Serena told me.”

“I understand the gist of it. That woman hasn’t changed at all.”

“Well, it’s not really my fault either. I left you all alone for too long. Especially Serena. Since you’ve known me for so long—”

Before I could finish my sentence, something pierced my throat. I tasted the metallic flavor of blood in my mouth.

As I coughed with a gurgle, dark red liquid spurted out and fell onto the steak on my plate. A chilling coldness rose from my throat. Looking down, I saw something with a faint blue glow.

Ah, so that’s what it is. An ice pick.

The ice spear Charlotte had thrown completely pierced my Adam’s apple and tore through my vocal cords.

Since I was at fault for trying to mention age first, I quietly spat out the blood rising in my throat. Charlotte spoke in a contemptuous voice:

“My dear, mentioning a lady’s age is taboo. Do you truly not understand that I chose this appearance deliberately to look similar in age to you?”

I wanted to answer, but my throat was too full of various things to speak. When I only managed to make gurgling sounds, Charlotte snapped her fingers.

Immediately, the ice pick melted away, my completely destroyed throat healed, and the taste of blood that had filled my mouth disappeared.

“…I left you and Serena alone for too long. I should have kept in touch periodically. Living for so long makes my sense of time ambiguous. I didn’t realize eight years had passed. That region doesn’t even have distinct seasonal changes.”

“Why didn’t you just ask me for help? I could have swept the entire continent with my tracking magic, saving you from such troublesome methods. I dare say that would have been far better than you wasting eight years alone?”

“That’s true. Leaving it to you would have been much simpler. You probably could have searched the entire continent in a week at most.”

“Oh? That implies you had a separate reason for not asking me.”

“Dragons as a species aren’t so easy to deal with.”

There’s an almost forgotten oral legend that long ago, there was a great war among dragons, and when cracks formed in the dragons’ lairs, the mana that leaked out spread across the continent, enabling humans to use mana.

This was already considered an ancient fairy tale when I was born, so I can’t guarantee its credibility.

The important facts from this legend are that dragon lairs actually exist, and that they are places filled with such pure mana that nothing except dragons can exist there.

I discovered this myself while researching immortality at the magic tower, so it’s definitely true.

In fact, dragons as creatures are closer to natural disasters by human or magical beast standards, but if we use my circle as the standard, the story changes somewhat.

To put it simply, by my estimation, Charlotte or Serena could defeat a dragon alone.

They can obviously overwhelm a dragon’s breath with pure firepower, and they probably even exceed dragons in total mana quantity.

Of course, this isn’t because dragons are weak, but because Serena and Charlotte are absurdly talented exceptions.

However, even those two fall far short of dragons in terms of mana purity.

For example, if Charlotte can use magic with a power of 100 using 1 unit of mana, a dragon can use magic exceeding 10,000 with the same amount.

Charlotte, who received my research materials from the past, flatly declared that achieving such efficiency with a human body was impossible.

That’s why I had hopes for dragons and searched for their whereabouts. I thought a breath composed of pure mana that even Charlotte couldn’t match might be different somehow. Well, as you can see, the result was a bust.

There’s a reason why, despite knowing so much about dragons, I hadn’t attempted suicide by dragon in all these years.

Simply put, they’re a species that normally stay holed up in their lairs and never come out.

I don’t know anything about why dragons leave their lairs. I just seized the precious opportunity when I heard about a dragon that had come out.

“Even you couldn’t find where the dragon lair was, right, Charlotte?”

“Since you were so strongly convinced of the dragon lair’s existence, I don’t doubt it exists… but it was somewhat surprising that my tracking magic couldn’t detect it. However, what does that have to do with why you didn’t ask me for help?”

“Of course it’s related. Dragons are incredibly sensitive to mana flows directed at them.”

“That’s new knowledge to me.”

“You would have naturally learned it too if you’d spent about 100 years studying dragons like I did. Ah, though I suppose that might be impossible now, since the continent isn’t in the chaotic state it was when I first left the magic tower.”

My words made Charlotte’s lips jut out in a pout.

“If you desire a continent filled with chaos, I could arrange that right now.”

“Why are you making that face when I’m complimenting our Queen Charlotte for ruling the country so well?”

“You know something I don’t. That’s extremely unfair. I’m certain I requested that you share all your knowledge with me.”

“I just forgot about it and then remembered.”

The reason Charlotte couldn’t find the dragon lair is simple.

It exists across different dimensions. I discovered this fact purely by chance—a dramatic coincidence so lucky I wonder if it could ever happen again.

“If you had used tracking magic specifically to find a dragon, it probably would have noticed and returned to its lair. Since it was an opportunity that might not come again for who knows how long, I chose to search for it myself even if it took more time.”

“So you’re saying it could discern the purpose from a tracking spell that sweeps the entire continent.”

“Especially since you’re stronger than a dragon. It might ignore tracking magic from beings it considers inferior, but it couldn’t ignore tracking magic from you, Charlotte. And above all, if you hadn’t mentioned that small anomaly about the dragon, I wouldn’t have even been able to attempt the search, so that was enough.”

This is absolutely true. The only reason I could even attempt the search was because Charlotte mentioned the volcanic anomaly.

I’m not sure how the person who had to be separated from me for eight years because of it feels about this.

After finishing speaking, I tried to pick up another piece of steak, but I tilted my head in confusion when I noticed that despite eating several pieces earlier, the amount hadn’t decreased at all.

What’s going on? The amount was definitely decreasing until then.

I glanced at Charlotte’s plate. She was just about to bring a piece of steak speared on her fork to her mouth.

I counted the pieces remaining on her plate. Five. And including the one Charlotte was just putting in her mouth, six.

The steak was cut into nine pieces, and I had eaten about three, so—

“…Did you switch our plates?”

“My, you noticed.”

Despite my questioning, Charlotte calmly smiled as she pulled the tip of the fork from her mouth. A silvery thread connecting the fork tip and her lips shone briefly before breaking.

“You’re not even denying it?”

“You’ve already noticed. What would be the point in denying it except to lie?”

“When did you switch them?”

“Right after I stabbed your throat with the ice spear.”

“But there would have been blood on the steak… from my throat…”

As my words continued, the smile at the corners of Charlotte’s mouth deepened. It was a smile suggesting that what I was saying was correct.

“That’s right. This steak was covered in blood that spilled from your mouth. That’s why I switched it. Although the taste and smell are gone… the fact that it was covered in your viscous fluid is enough.”

“Just call it blood. What’s with ‘viscous fluid’?”

“Would you have me say such things directly? How naughty of you.”

Charlotte ignored my disgruntled gaze and brought her fork to the steak again. As she pierced it with a soft sound, crimson meat juice and clear oil seeped out onto the plate.

To all appearances, it was just an ordinary steak, and it actually was. At this point, it would be impossible to prove in any way that my blood had been on it.

The taste of blood wouldn’t even be detectable. But just the mere fact that my blood had briefly been on it made Charlotte wear an expression as if she were eating the finest delicacy.

Well, I have no intention of making a fuss about something like this. Some people chew on my fingers and others gouge out my eyes, so this is actually quite normal in comparison.

I’ve let worse things slide, so I wouldn’t nitpick over something like this. It must be her own way of expressing affection.

Suddenly, the banquet hall doors were flung open.

“I’ve come to escort you, my lord.”

Upon hearing that voice, Charlotte’s smile instantly vanished and was replaced by an expressionless face.

Since I was sitting with my back to the door, I couldn’t see who had entered, but judging by Charlotte’s expression, it was obvious.

“Are you ready already, Serena?”

“You commanded me to prepare, my lord.”

The person who opened the door and entered was indeed Serena. Charlotte’s expression soured in real time.

“You truly have no manners, First Knight Commander. Can you not see that I am dining with a guest?”

“Eat. Whether you stuff your face with the food here or not is none of my concern. I’ve only come to escort my lord.”

“Both of you, stop.”

Before more insults could be exchanged, I called for them to stop. Serena promptly shut her mouth, and although Charlotte looked like she had much more to say, she followed my words as well.

Do these two always start by exchanging harsh words as soon as they meet? It’s truly remarkable that the capital hasn’t been destroyed in these eight years.

“How do you two start fighting the moment you see each other?”

“I merely stated facts.”

“I also merely stated facts, my lord.”

“…”