Ch.70A Star for You (2)

# Dragon’s Tongue

Dragon’s Tongue, a language once used by dragons who disappeared long ago.

In the original story, it was one of the things that only Scarlet, the original female protagonist, could use.

I was a bit surprised that Lord Theorad mentioned it first,

but perhaps it was natural since he was the one who had informed her about it in the original story.

Dragon’s Tongue is not magic. It’s a form of ‘will’ that only those who understand and interpret it can handle.

It executes whatever the caster desires.

If I want a sword, it provides a sword; if I want greater speed, it grants swiftness.

Although Scarlet used Dragon’s Tongue in the form of magic…

For someone like me with limited understanding of magic, I would only be able to use it to assist my movements.

“…But can I actually use Dragon’s Tongue?”

The reason Scarlet could use Dragon’s Tongue wasn’t just because she was the protagonist,

but more specifically because her body could excellently withstand the recoil that occurred when using it.

Her innate magical circuit was on a completely different level from others. A mana circuit that only Scarlet possessed in this world.

Unlike mages and knights who carried mana in their hearts, she could resonate with mana throughout her entire body,

which was why only Scarlet could handle Dragon’s Tongue.

But Dragon’s Tongue for me? When I asked about whether I could even use it,

Lord Theorad pointed to his eyes and spoke.

“Do you know what color your eyes turn? Not normally, but when you fight.”

“…I’m not sure. I don’t really look in mirrors much.”

“They turn golden. When you start taking a fight seriously, your eye color changes.”

My eyes narrowed at the mention of gold.

Golden eyes were something only dragons possessed, weren’t they?

Just as the royal family was born with red eyes, and Yuris with blue eyes.

Golden eyes were something only dragons were born with. But for my eyes to be golden…

I wondered if it might be because of my bloodline.

But I had never heard that the Fried family had golden eyes.

“Why only me? Is my blood somehow purer? I’ve heard that the founder of Fried was a dragon… but if so, why has no one else ever shown golden eyes before?”

“If you ask so many questions at once, it’s quite difficult for me to answer. But… if I can say one thing for certain, it’s simply that you are special. Even this Dragon’s Tongue that no one else could use, you might be able to use it.”

When I heard that, something felt strange. Why me of all people?

Being born with this talent, being incarnated into this novel.

The appearance of extinction at this time. Everything… strangely coinciding at one time.

As if everything was being prepared even before Scarlet appeared.

If such things had happened after Scarlet appeared, I would dismiss my suspicions,

but a suspicion arose in my mind about the existence of Scarlet, the original female protagonist.

“…Well, I’ll accept it gratefully for now.”

“Just because you see Dragon’s Tongue doesn’t mean you can use it right away. First, you need to get used to that power you possess. From what I can see, it seems like a power that can’t be fully handled at the Expert level.”

I had been thinking the same thing. Although it was good that I had awakened the dragon blood,

I felt something was lacking. I could explosively draw out power momentarily, but that was it.

After using it, my body would inevitably become stiff, making it difficult even to swing a sword.

The recoil—to properly overcome it, I would need to reach Master level.

I had quite a lot to think about regarding Scarlet as well,

but I decided to put that aside for now and bowed my head to Lord Theorad.

I had only come to find clues about Mua, but this unexpected gain made me feel quite good.

Dragon’s Tongue, if I could handle it. Perhaps it might be quite helpful when dealing with Roman.

Though I had doubts about using it right away.

Since my physical condition wasn’t good enough for a second round of sparring, I thanked him and headed straight for the duke’s mansion.

Fortunately, I could now freely pass through gates.

If that weren’t the case, I would have spent four days just on the round trip.

The paper Lord Theorad gave me was full of unrecognizable characters.

Strange-looking letters, completely different from the letters of this world, were organized in a chart.

But it seemed impossible to interpret them right away.

It would be best to get Lord Azest’s help.

Since he was interested in dragon-related matters, I thought he would gladly help if I showed him this paper.

After crossing the gate and arriving at the duke’s mansion, Rofena came running to me as if she had been waiting and handed me a towel.

By now, she might as well be considered my personal maid.

Since she spent more time with me than Aileen did, it now felt strange when Rofena wasn’t around.

“You’re back? You’re early today.”

“I’m a bit tired, and I wanted to rest.”

“I never thought I’d hear a knight say they wanted to rest.”

As I scratched my head at her words, Rofena sighed, took my clothes, and glared at me.

She asked why I had been pushing myself so hard lately,

and suggested I should take a break. I could only nod slightly in response.

I had been living quite busily lately.

Spending all my time visiting the imperial palace every day to swing my sword,

which must have been somewhat frustrating from Rofena’s perspective.

But what could I do? Once I set my mind to something,

I had a habit of focusing intensely until I achieved it.

But now I felt a bit tired, so I was considering resting for a while and thinking about Dragon’s Tongue.

Soon… there would be a festival too.

As I gently patted Rofena’s head while entering, she removed my hand and spoke.

“Oh, by the way, the Duke was looking for you. Did you know?”

“For me?”

I had been thinking he would look for me eventually, but did it have to be today?

As I briefly massaged my stiff shoulders, Rofena, seeing this, carefully moved her lips.

“…Would you like me to massage your shoulders later?”

“No need. I appreciate the thought though.”

“I’m good at massages. The Lady praised me too. And Sir Chris.”

“Really?”

I was somewhat tempted, but after all, it was Rofena.

Sir Chris would praise anything Rofena did, even if she broke dishes…

Since Rofena already had many duties despite her wandering around like this,

I didn’t want to burden her unnecessarily.

When I said I was fine, Rofena pouted and dropped her shoulders in disappointment.

I wondered why the Duke was looking for me.

Perhaps to thank me for waking him from the curse?

Originally, I had planned to go straight back to Aileen,

but it seemed more important to check on the Duke who was looking for me, so I turned my steps toward the third floor.

The corridor was still quiet.

But the difference was that now it was lit by light seeping through the windows rather than candles.

As I slowly looked around at the quite changed appearance while walking,

I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that the creaking sound from the floor was gone.

Had his mindset changed after experiencing death?

The dark and damp corridor from before had completely disappeared,

and the space was now filled with light like the other floors, seemingly reflecting the Duke’s state of mind.

Knock knock-

“Come in.”

When I knocked on the door, a voice came from beyond as if he had been waiting.

Although his voice hadn’t changed much, my eyes widened at the sight of the room that was revealed.

The dark room no longer existed. The eyes that had glowed brightly in the shadows,

the space filled with darkness with completely covered windows, all remained only in memory.

Light leaking from the chandelier on the ceiling hit the white marble floor, illuminating everything.

Looking at the Duke, whose expression had completely brightened and somewhat relaxed, I could barely open my mouth.

“You’ve… changed a lot.”

“Oh, if it isn’t Sir Evan.”

Really, a lot—perhaps enough to think he was a completely different person from the Duke I knew.

The Duke, who smiled in a way that didn’t suit him, got up from his seat and approached me.

As I hesitated at his friendly attitude, as if greeting an old friend, he smiled and spoke.

“I have changed a bit, haven’t I? Aileen said the same thing to me, asking if there were still aftereffects of the curse.”

“…I was wondering the same thing. Are you really alright?”

“I’m fine. Much better than you might think.”

I know he’s doing this out of gratitude to me,

but even so, isn’t this attitude too much of a change?

If he truly chose this behavior himself, I couldn’t deny it was a positive change.

Somehow, unlike his previous dignified demeanor, he seemed much softer and more gentle.

He looked like a completely different person from before, when he embodied the word “nobleman” with emptiness in his eyes.

As I stared at him, the Duke laughed heartily and spoke.

“The reason I called you here is, naturally, to thank you. I’ve received a favor that I couldn’t repay even if I devoted my entire life to it. Thank you very much, Sir Evan.”

“…I was just doing what needed to be done.”

Just as he expressed his sincerity to me, my statement that it was just what needed to be done was also the absolute truth.

The Duke had to survive for Aileen to live. And when all the tragedies ended,

I wanted the Duke to be alive at the end.

As I smiled faintly and said so, he seemed pleased with my answer and nodded once before continuing.

“Death is more unpleasant than one might think. To be honest, it’s a sensation I never want to experience again.”

“But you’re alive now, aren’t you?”

“All thanks to you. But… coming back from death does seem to change one’s thinking a bit. Perhaps everything I’ve done until now has been wrong. Such thoughts come to mind.”

As if he had been thinking a great deal, the Duke sighed lightly with a somewhat complicated expression.

Rubbing his face with his dry hand, he took a sip of tea and spoke again.

“…Did I tell you everything I did to Aileen?”

“I heard. Both from the Lady and from Your Grace.”

“I want to be forgiven. Before I die, I want to hear Aileen call me ‘father’ at least once.”

Having said that, the Duke slowly looked into the air and closed his eyes.

“After being cursed, I thought a lot. Since only my consciousness remained clear while I couldn’t die, I had many thoughts. But the thought I had most often was regret.”

“Regret, you say.”

“Yes, regret. Were my actions toward Aileen right? Was the perfection I demanded of Aileen the right thing to do to my daughter? Even though I knew it was wrong and forced it… I think this isn’t right.”

The Duke’s expression looked somewhat wistful, as if bitter.

I smiled awkwardly at his changed appearance, which made me wonder if he was really the Duke I had seen before.

The regret he mentioned, regretting his actions toward Aileen—how would he change going forward?

As if to answer that question, the Duke looked at me and smiled bitterly.

“I want to be a father. It might be too late, but now I want to be called ‘Dad’ by Aileen, not as the nobleman Garoth Yuris. Although it might be shameless, I want to be forgiven for everything I’ve done.”

“I think it will be difficult to be forgiven.”

“I know. That’s why I’m lamenting like this, isn’t it?”

“…Have you spoken with the Lady?”

Instead of telling me this, shouldn’t he apologize to Aileen first?

With that thought, I asked, and the Duke nodded and scratched his cheek. The outcome probably wasn’t very good.

But it was an expected result.

Even I couldn’t fully understand how much Aileen had been hurt by the perfection the Duke had pursued.

To begin with, I didn’t feel particularly pleased that the Duke had changed his attitude like this.

I understood that his mindset had changed after returning from the brink of death,

but would Aileen welcome his desire to now act as a father?

However, the Duke seemed to be aware of this point,

as he looked at my somewhat stiff expression and spoke.

“I know. How could I not know that what I did might never be forgiven in a lifetime?”

“…The Lady has been suffering more than you might think. If you’ve talked with her, you should know.”

The childhood memories that remained as trauma—I still remembered Aileen in the carriage.

For her, wasn’t Garoth Yuris just someone who reminded her of those nightmares from childhood?

Garoth Yuris had done too many wrong things to fulfill the role of… a father.

I didn’t want to defend him, nor did I want to encourage him.

If he truly wanted to act as a father,

wouldn’t it be right to leave Aileen alone for now?

Only when time passes and Aileen can finally forgive what he did,

if not… honestly, his words didn’t sit well with me.

“I don’t intend to do anything to Aileen right away. I don’t plan to burden her by seeking forgiveness… or asking her to call me father now.”

“Then, what does Your Grace want?”

“I want to watch. I want to see my daughter pursuing happiness, and those who interfere with it. I also want to protect her myself.”

Since I had no intention of stopping him from watching, I nodded,

and he smiled contentedly and stared at me.

As if he had something to say, I met his gaze, and he spoke.

“Aileen talks about you a lot.”

“The Lady does?”

“Rather than asking about my well-being… I heard more about how hard you worked. I also heard that you returned severely injured, and that you jumped into hunting the dark mage alone for my sake.”

I wonder how Aileen conveyed the story to make him have such an expression.

As I looked uneasily at him smiling in a way that might seem lewd, he twitched the corner of his mouth and stared at me.

“Do you remember what I asked of you before?”

“You mean to take care of the Lady?”

“Yes, but… it seems you understood it in a slightly different way.”

“…I’m not sure what you mean.”

As I pretended not to know anything, he cleared his throat and stroked his chin, looking at me with half-closed eyes.

His eyes seemed to ask if I really didn’t know, if I didn’t understand why he was talking like this, and I finally turned my head to avoid his gaze.

“I’ve seen many sides of Aileen, but I’ve never seen her so excited. When discussing business matters, she was as calm as I taught her to be. But whenever she talked about you, she became so animated.”

“Is that so.”

“She says she’s going to the seasonal festival. Just the two of you.”

At those words, I couldn’t help but flinch. Did she tell him that too?

Well, since she needed to get the family seal from the Duke again to go out, it was natural,

but I was quite embarrassed when that story came from the Duke’s mouth.

As I was wondering how to respond, whether he might be angry, at that moment—

“I’m glad it’s you.”

At the Duke’s words as he smiled contentedly, I found myself staring at him.

Without showing any anger, just repeating that he was glad, he looked at the empty teacup and continued.

“Right now, you call me ‘Your Grace’…”

After lightly tapping the table, what he finally said made me just smile awkwardly.

“Next time, I might hear you call me ‘father-in-law.'”

“Ah… yes…”

I didn’t need to add that I would like that too.

Father-in-law—imagining that awkward word, I quietly sipped my tea.

Although the fragrant herb aroma filled my mouth, somehow it tasted quite bitter.

Why did this meeting with the Duke suddenly feel uncomfortable?

“Please continue to take good care of my daughter.”

With his added words.

I couldn’t help but frown at the sudden discomfort enveloping my entire body.