TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: none
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'Alright. I've done enough.'
Lucy quietly moved away from Ian.
The closer she got, the more distant Ian seed to beco.
Ian was young and a talented wizard.
He enjoyed traveling the world, so he could et countless won.
No matter how little Ian cared for power, if a king's or duke's daughter threw herself at him, could he reject her outright?
He might be able to now.
But as he grew older and rose to higher positions, Ian would likely start valuing worldly things more.
Lucy thought of herself as a nobody.
She wasn't particularly good at anything, nor was she born with a lineage worth boasting about.
She was just lucky to be born a noble lady and happened to be called 'Countess of Talian'.
If.
If Ian didn't choose her.
She'd feel bitter at first, but with ti, she'd co to accept it.
Even this mont alone with Ian felt like a miracle to Lucy.
So Lucy waited quietly.
To be his resting place when Ian's journey ended.
"Ian. Whenever you get tired, co back to Talian."
Co back to .
Lucy said with a smile.
"You'll always be welco here."
Ian smiled back and replied.
"Thanks, Lucy."
"Hehe. I was pretty cool earlier, right? What do you think, Ian! Are you falling for now?"
Ian stood up.
Due to their height difference, Lucy naturally looked up at Ian.
Lucy's eyes widened.
Ian leaned in and kissed her.
A slow, gentle kiss that felt like a soft embrace.
Slowly pulling away, Ian said.
"Yeah. I think I might be."
"... Huh?"
Lucy's face turned red all over again.
For soone who had boldly initiated a kiss earlier, her defenses were paper-thin.
Lucy, blushing shyly in the moonlight, was still beautiful.
"Sh-Shall we go for a walk?"
"Sure. Let's walk a bit."
When Ian held out his hand, Lucy fumbled to grasp it.
Lucy's hand was soft, befitting a noble lady.
"Shall we?"
"Mm-hmm..."
The two held hands and slowly strolled through the dark forest.
It was a night when the moonlight was beautiful.
------
The lively banquet had ended.
If Talian had been a densely populated (over 20,000 people) big city, they might have partied for days on end.
But Talian was a domain with a typical dieval rural manor economy structure, where farrs were everywhere.
One day of celebration was plenty.
Duke Araz had sent alcohol, otherwise there wouldn't have been enough to share with the commoners (Longtail and Sharpteeth had played a big part in drinking it all).
Now it was ti for everyone to return to work.
"B-Big trouble!"
Ian left his lodgings, holding his throbbing head from the hangover.
What the hell is it so early in the morning...
But when he heard the report, the content was quite serious.
Ian imdiately rushed to Talian Hall.
As expected, the wizards, including Ian's companions, had gathered.
"Ian! You're here?"
"Yes, Master. I just heard so strange news..."
Eredith spoke with a stiff face.
"Yes. We're about to go check it out now."
The unexpected report had co from the guards watching over the dragon's corpse.
Baron Damon had assigned subordinates to preserve the dragon's body in case so crazy people tried to ss with it.
There had been no problems until yesterday.
But as the night of the banquet ended...
The dragon's corpse had vanished without a trace!
Ian and everyone else were dumbfounded.
The dragon's corpse wasn't like that of a cow or horse.
It was so large that it would barely move even with a huge cart pulled by at least ten horses.
How could it disappear overnight?
"It must be a wizard's doing."
"I think so too."
In this dieval fantasy world, when sothing strange happened, blaming wizards was right about half the ti.
This incident, too, was a suspicious case involving wizards.
"... I have soone in mind."
Inglan spoke out of the blue.
"Who is it?"
"The leader of the Golden Rule Society. The 'Regent' Antios."
"?"
Ian tilted his head.
What the fuck?
What's that, you nerd.
"Professor. Antios is..."
"Yes. You know too, Eredith."
Inglan spoke calmly.
"Antios is an excellent summoner."
"Ah."
Summoner. And dragon.
The puzzle pieces clicked in Ian's mind.
"So Professor, are you saying... this Antios guy used the dragon to attack the empire?"
"Yes. It was just a hypothesis until yesterday, but now it seems quite suspicious."
At the university, Inglan had been investigating various things in his own way.
He was looking into why the evil black dragon, Predius, suddenly started attacking humans.
But the results of his investigation were unsatisfactory.
It was because Predius was such a crazy bastard.
Why would a black dragon attack humans?
Just because! Because it's bored! Because it wants to!
According to old legends, the evil Predius enjoyed collecting the world's treasures.
A dragon that had been quietly collecting treasures suddenly attacks humans?
... It's a bit strange, but it could happen!
We're talking about a dragon after all!
Inglan vaguely assud that Predius had found so treasure he didn't know about, which led to the attacks on humans.
But today, that thought changed.
If Predius had attacked humans on his own and died, there was no reason for the corpse to disappear.
At the very least, it ant there was a force watching over Predius.
"If Antios was involved..."
Eredith frowned.
"That would explain the orc raiders as well."
Inglan said, crossing his arms.
"There's just one thing that bothers ."
"What is it, Professor?"
"We've been assuming the 'Golden Rule Society' has its base in the Duchy of Hastria in the southern empire. But suddenly they've changed their area of operation to the Duchy of Araz..."
That's right.
If sothing suspicious had happened in the south, Ian would have suspected black wizards too.
But this was the northern empire.
It should be a black wizard-free zone(?), so why would black wizards suddenly be active here?
"Perhaps."
Eredith speculated.
"They might have co through spatial magic."
"... You're saying a space-ti wizard is involved."
It was a reasonable guess.
The vanished dragon corpse was the evidence.
With a space-ti wizard's spatial magic, it was entirely possible to make a dragon's corpse disappear.
If that was the case, their course of action was clear.
"Maria. Go fetch Gerard, please."
"Okay."
They just needed to have a real space-ti wizard assess the situation.
Gerard imdiately ca to Talian Hall.
"What's the matter?"
Ian explained the current situation.
Gerard nodded expressionlessly.
"It is indeed a suspicious situation."
"Is it the work of a space-ti wizard?"
"I can find out if I check."
Gerard declared.
"Leave the investigation to . I'll let you know the results soon."
He pointed at Ian and the wizards.
"If you want, I can teleport you to the dragon's lair imdiately."
"Oh..."
If this black wizard nad Antios or whatever had a contract relationship with Predius.
There was a high chance his hideout was near the dragon's lair.
"Let's go."
Ian said without hesitation.
If nothing else, they had to protect the dragon's treasure.
He didn't know how much was piled up, but it was the reward for slaying a dragon after all!
"Good. Ian, take this spatial movent scroll."
"This is?"
"Use it to return. You can save it and walk back if you prefer, but..."
"I get it. You're saying do whatever I want, right?"
Ian was planning to rip the scroll like a dog.
Just traveling back and forth on horseback would take at least a week.
It might take even longer if they gathered the treasure.
They could also be ambushed on the way, so using spatial movent was more beneficial.
'Having a space-ti wizard is so sweet.'
The more he used spatial movent, the more Ian felt it was an overpowered magic.
The only thing in this dieval fantasy world that would make modern people drool!
Ian wanted to learn space-ti magic too, but as with all space-ti magic, they say the opportunity to learn cos naturally 'when the ti is right'.
No one knew when the hell that would be, though.
"Let's go prepare."
Belenka and so of the Knights of Santiago joined.
Ian received Gerard's spatial magic along with the other wizards.
"Wow, I can't believe it!"
"It really is the Golden Mountains!"
The knights experiencing spatial movent for the first ti looked around in amazent.
Ian totally understood that feeling.
Even as a forr modern person, Ian found spatial movent fucking amazing.
"Everyone, stay sharp! This is dragon territory!"
The knights climbed the mountain cautiously.
But surprisingly, there was nothing on the mountain.
"There are traces of a campsite..."
"Looks like those orc bastards all ran away."
When they found the abandoned campsite, Inglan's speculation turned into certainty.
"There's no way an ordinary dragon's lair would have an orc camp below it."
"It must be the summoner's doing."
"Yes. The summoner must have tied the dragon and orcs together as his army."
Ian looked around.
The abandoned campsite ant the summoner had left too.
"The summoner isn't here."
"If he retrieved Predius's corpse, he probably fled to a suitable location."
The knights moved briskly to the dragon's lair.
The wizards followed behind. They were all used to walking, so the journey was over in no ti.
"This place is empty too."
It was 'empty' in the sense that there were no enemies.
Except for the knight who calmly reported, almost everyone else was in a daze.
"Wow..."
"What's all this?!"
Upon entering the dragon's lair, a truly amazing sight unfolded.
Even Ian's jaw dropped.
He was dumbfounded.
Orc-made hand axes, rusted chain mail, broken spears...
Mountains of all sorts of objects and garbage piled up to nearly reach the ceiling.
"... Daiso? Don Juan?"
The dragon's lair literally had everything.
There were heaps of things that made no sense being there!
Ian was dumbfounded again when he saw a box full of hand mirrors.
Why the hell would a dragon collect hand mirrors?
Does it polymorph and look at itself?
"Still, there are so valuable items."
"Indeed."
Amidst the mountains of junk piled up like garbage.
Ian and Inglan smiled contentedly as they looked at a chest full of gold.
---
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