“So, where did you find them?”
“U-uh, right in front of the forest.”
Observing the elf placed on the round table, Baal Breeze continued speaking.
“They’re still breathing.”
“…Yes.”
“You did well. Only I can save them without any lasting side effects.”
Baal Breeze, with a gentle smile, lightly stroked my head.
“First, I’ll need to save our elf friend.”
“How old do you think they are?”
My Noona asked Baal Breeze, who then replied.
“…Hmm, I’d say around thirty, perhaps?”
“Ah, I see…”
‘They’re the same age as me.’
“They seem to be similar in age to Lady Yuri.”
Having answered thus, Baal Breeze smiled at Noona.
Noona wore an expression that clearly said, ‘I’m the same age as them…?’
‘But wouldn’t that mean Noona looks quite old for her age?’
As I pondered this, I glanced at Noona, yet she still maintained the appearance of someone in her twenties.
Even when I died, she looked youthful, but three years later, it seemed as if Noona had somehow aged backward.
‘Perhaps it’s because that older brother, Seungho, treated her so well after my death.’
“Now, wake up.”
As I was lost in my idle thoughts, Baal Breeze lightly snapped her fingers.
Then,
-Whoosh!
“Whoa…”
“That’s refreshing.”
“Hehe.”
A green light emanated from the floor, and a powerful gust of wind swept upwards.
My cloak billowed mercilessly.
“Mino, your skirt.”
“Ah.”
‘I’d forgotten I was wearing a skirt.’
Even though I wore safety shorts underneath, a flush of embarrassment prompted me to hastily pull my skirt down.
“Goodness, how clumsy.”
“Hehe.”
“…Still cute, though.”
Noona gently pulled my cheek.
“Uwaaah…”
Observing the scene, Baal Breeze smiled contentedly.
“It’s fortunate that you two get along so well.”
“Huh?”
“Power struggles are fierce among dragons, you see. Perhaps it’s because you’re still young?”
‘We’re both old enough to know better, but I don’t think we’ll be fighting for power.’
“Can a Half-Dragon also become king?”
“Hmm… if Princess Mino loses in a power struggle, it might be possible.”
“Gasp.”
I instinctively covered my mouth.
‘I’d always thought Half-Dragons couldn’t ascend to the throne.’
‘If that’s the case, I could just pretend to be as dumb as possible, toss the crown to Noona, and live like a carefree vagabond, couldn’t I?’
“…Eheheh.”
“M-Mino?”
As I let out an eerie chuckle, Noona’s perplexity was evident.
With the biggest dilemma of my one-year-old life now resolved, no one could stop me.
The green light rising from the floor made me appear even more villainous.
****
Mino Lascaris let out an eerie smile in front of Baal Breeze.
‘Should I tell them that Half-Dragons actually cannot inherit the throne?’
Mino Lascaris seemed to be in an unusual state.
Baal Breeze pondered whether she should reveal the truth to such a Mino Lascaris, but then—
“…Eheheh.”
“…!”
‘Hmm, she’s cute, so I’ll just let it be.’
Due to the foolish chuckle that followed shortly after, she decided to leave things as they were.
‘She’ll find out the truth eventually, once she grows a little.’
Baal Breeze decided to secretly inform only Han Yuri later.
Meanwhile,
-Whoosh…
The wind subsided, and the elf seated before them began to breathe steadily.
“It seems they’re all better now.”
“Thank you!”
“It was Her Royal Highness the Princess who saved them.”
“R-really?”
“Yes.”
Upon hearing Baal Breeze’s words, Mino Lascaris’s tail wagged vigorously from side to side.
Observing this, Baal Breeze and Han Yuri thought.
‘…A puppy?’
Mino Lascaris, like a puppy, lifted the elf from the round table and bowed deeply to Baal Breeze.
“Thank you.”
Following suit, Han Yuri also offered her thanks.
“Thank you.”
“Not at all; I was getting quite bored anyway.”
Han Yuri bowed once more to the chuckling Baal Breeze before closing the door.
Silence once again settled over the Elder’s Chamber, yet it was not an unpleasant quietude.
****
“You’ve returned.”
“Yes! They’re all better!”
“That’s fortunate.”
Hazel offered me a warm, eye-crinkling smile.
‘I’d thought she was a stoic person, but her smile is truly beautiful.’
“You’re beautiful!”
“Oh, am I really?”
“Yes!”
Hazel smiled, pleased.
“By the way, where are you taking the elf?”
“I will escort them to the guest chambers. Judging by their attire, they appear to be from a noble household.”
“Ah, yes!”
I gently transferred the elf, who had been resting on my arm, back into Hazel’s hands.
At that, the elf’s previously discomforted expression softened.
‘Should I have asked Noona to carry them instead?’
It seemed my small stature had made carrying an elf larger than myself quite uncomfortable for them.
‘I’ll apologize when they wake up later.’
“Well then, I’ll be going.”
“Alright.”
“Goodbye.”
As Noona and I bid farewell, Hazel gave another eye-crinkling smile and vanished down the far end of the corridor.
“…She’s gone.”
“Yeah.”
‘What should we do now?’
Conveying that sentiment, I looked at Noona, who then picked me up and spoke.
“Noona is going to see the Mage now.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I haven’t thanked them yet, and I’d like to help them with some work.”
Come to think of it, the Mage named Damian had looked very tired this morning.
‘Grandma Anuket is so kind and beautiful, but why is he like that?’
Unsure, I simply stared blankly at Noona.
“Mino, do you want to come along?”
“…No, I’m sleepy. Noona, go alone.”
“Oh, really? Then Noona will take you to Mother.”
“…Okay.”
Sleep was slowly overwhelming me.
‘Someone will wake me when it’s time to eat, I suppose.’
With that thought, I nestled into Noona’s embrace and drifted off to sleep.
****
In the dim hours of dawn.
Ramir Silvadir, who had been stirring restlessly beneath the blankets, opened her eyes.
Ramir Silvadir struggled to grasp her hazy consciousness.
“Ard!”
Ramir Silvadir rose from the colossal bed in the simply adorned room.
The name she uttered upon waking belonged to the coachman, who had been murdered by assassins from the Republic earlier that dawn.
“…”
Ramir Silvadir stared blankly ahead.
It was a room she had never seen before.
Moonlight streamed in through a massive window beside her.
The chandelier, illuminated by the moonlight, was strikingly beautiful.
Abandoning her observations, Ramir Silvadir began to recall her memories.
She remembered escaping the forest.
And losing consciousness due to a cerebral hemorrhage.
But where on earth was she now?
For a kidnapping, the room was inexplicably grand.
Her clothes, too, were spotless.
The garments, which should have been torn and muddied, were perfectly mended.
There was no matted blood in her hair.
It was hard to believe that dragons would extend such warmth to another race.
They were certainly not the kind of beings to meticulously pick up and heal a discarded corpse.
“…Does that mean, the Empire?”
Ramir Silvadir’s face paled, having profoundly misunderstood something.
‘The Empire, having confirmed that I, disguised as a pro-Imperial noblewoman, was about to be assassinated by the Republic, must have recovered me.’
Ramir Silvadir believed this to be the case.
And that meant she had failed to reach the Dragon Kingdom.
This implied only one thing:
The grand scheme envisioned by the rebels had been utterly crushed before her eyes.
‘By the combined efforts of the Empire and the Republic.’
“…Even the Republic, in the end.”
‘Even the Republic had succumbed to corruption.’
Ramir Silvadir thought this to herself.
“I-I must escape.”
Ramir Silvadir had to reach the Dragon Kingdom by any means necessary.
If she failed, she would die, just as her mother had.
‘Then, truly, only the pro-Imperial elves would remain.’
With these thoughts racing through her mind, Ramir Silvadir flung open the door and stepped out of the room.
-Thump-thump-thump.
She covered her distinctive hair color and elf ears with a brown robe.
Ramir Silvadir was too distraught to cast a disguise spell.
Sprinting down the pristine white corridor, Ramir Silvadir maintained her vigilance.
‘A white castle.’
‘Had there ever been an Imperial castle painted so entirely white?’
Ramir Silvadir had never seen such a castle.
‘…Is this the Republic?’
Perhaps the Republic’s objective was to abduct her.
After all, the Empire and the Republic had been at odds constantly since the Hero founded the Republic.
They had always fought over the recognition of human experimentation.
It was then.
-Pat-pat-pat-pat.
From the end of the dark castle corridor, a very cute sound, like soft little feet, echoed.
Though undeniably cute, to the terrified Ramir Silvadir, it sounded like the footsteps of a monster.
“…Hiccup.”
-Pat-pat-pat-pat-pat-pat.
‘Had the monster heard her hiccup?’
Extremely rapid footsteps began to approach in Ramir Silvadir’s direction.
“…Whoosh…”
A very tiny whooshing sound, like that of a baby, could be heard.
Yet, in her terror, Ramir Silvadir dismissed it as merely her own auditory hallucination.
‘R-run!’
Convinced that capture meant death, she sprinted with all her might towards the end of the corridor.
‘I want to open my status window and check…!’
However, the distance between her and her pursuer was too great for that.
The risk of closing the gap was too high.
It was then.
“…?”
“U-uwaaah!”
A monster, its two eyes gleaming golden, stood before her.
Ramir Silvadir was so startled that she stumbled backward.
The monster took a step closer to Ramir Silvadir with each passing moment.
“S-stay away!”
Regrettably, Ramir Silvadir could not see the golden tail and horns.
“U-uwaaah!”
The moment the monster reached out to Ramir Silvadir, she flinched back in sheer terror.
But something felt odd.
‘…A tail?’
-Wag-wag-wag-wag.
The monster’s golden tail was wagging furiously behind it.
-Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
So much so that it seemed to cleave the air.
It was only then that the monster’s horns, reflecting the moonlight and shining brilliantly with a golden hue, registered in Ramir Silvadir’s eyes.
At that moment, the words that came from the child’s mouth were truly a sight to behold.
“Wake up, silly.”
“…? A baby?”
“Yeah. Have you never seen a baby before?”
It was a moment where she felt utterly ashamed of her own intense panic.
Mino Lascaris thought.
‘…Did they sneak out because they were hungry, just like me?’
She wondered if Ramir Silvadir had also secretly escaped her room because she couldn’t bear her hunger, just like Mino Lascaris herself.
