TGBAP 17

It’s only been ten minutes since Kaiser left. But why do I keep getting this ominous feeling?

Lucian is clever, so he won’t do anything dangerous. No, he might, without knowing any better, step into the beasts’ territory.

Thought after thought chased its own tail. At the end of it, an image rose up: Lucian becoming a beast’s prey and disappearing forever.

[Bad-luck thoughts.]

There’s no way. Lucian will definitely show up safely.

Not because it’s my wish, but because it has to be. If not, I don’t even know what I’ll do…….

Bam-!

“Ghost! This kid’s gonna die!”

At that moment, the door flew open like it was about to break, and Kaiser appeared. At his words, my soul scattered for an instant.

[Lucian!]

Ria hurried over to Kaiser. Lucian in his arms looked completely different from when she’d seen him in the afternoon.

There wasn’t a single unhurt spot; his clothes were caked with mud and sweat, and his whole body was burning red as he let out ragged, feverish breaths.

“His fever’s no joke. At this rate he’ll die.”

Ria bit her lower lip and took Lucian from Kaiser’s arms.

Kaiser flinched at the sight of Lucian floating in midair.

Whether Kaiser saw it or not, ignoring him, Ria poured all her attention into Lucian.

She hurried up to the second floor and filled the bathtub with water first.

She was so shocked she couldn’t use magic properly at all. She couldn’t wrap mana well, so her hands kept slipping.

It felt like she might drop Lucian, so she set him down on the floor for a moment.

[Damn it! I don’t know healing magic!]

She was scared Lucian might really die like this.

“Ria…….”

A hoarse, miserable voice came. Ria lifted her head and looked at Lucian.

Maybe because he’d cried so much, his brilliant golden eyes couldn’t be seen properly under swollen lids. And yet moisture pooled between those swollen lids.

[Shh, don’t cry. It’s all okay now. I’m here.]

“I’m sorry. I only said mean things to Ria…….”

Ria was about to yell like usual, then crushed her lips together.

[No, I’m more sorry. I should have found you a little faster. No, I should have made it so you couldn’t go into the forest…….]

“……You’re forgiving me?”

[Forget forgiving. You didn’t do anything wrong. So just rest for now. I’ll stay by your side the whole time.]

“He, hehe…….”

A wounded cheek and split lips, and even swollen eyes. Even in such a terrible state, his smile calmed Ria’s anxious heart in an instant.

With that smile as the last thing, Lucian fell into a sleep close to unconsciousness.

“Hey, ghost. Is the kid doing any better?”

As she was filling the tub, Kaiser slipped in, watching her mood.

He looked around at the room and bathroom, which had clearly changed from before.

Ria looked at Kaiser and brought over the stone tablet in the room. Then she wrote.

-Thank you. Thanks to you, the child could live.

“……Ahem. In all my life, I never thought I’d hear you say thanks. Even when I gave you gifts, you never said thank you even once.”

Kaiser got a little shy, then immediately grumbled bluntly. At that, Ria gave a little snort of laughter.

-I know you come every time for my sake, too. Of course I’m grateful for that as well.

“Khmm! So you mean it?”

Ria owed Kaiser a huge debt. Honestly, if it weren’t for him, she might never have found Lucian at all.

If Kaiser were human and not a dragon, he wouldn’t have found Lucian so easily. It was only because he’s a dragon who can use magic freely, at least…….

[Ah! Right, I have this guy!]

Ria remembered something and hurriedly wrote on the stone tablet.

-Do you happen to know healing magic?

“Healing magic? Of course I do. I’m pretty outstanding even among hatchlings, you know? Mom said I have a natural gift for magic!”

Perfect timing.

-Then please heal this child. I can’t treat him at all with my power.

“Eeeek-!”

Kaiser openly made a face and showed how much he hated it. After glancing at Lucian with an unpleased look, Kaiser pointed at the stone tablet in Ria’s hands.

“You keep forgetting, it seems. I’m a dragon, you know?”

-Yeah, I know.

“A guy who knows would never make me run petty errands! Always threatening me! And now you’re finally telling me to treat some human? Why would I!”

He usually listens well, so did she assume he’d naturally say yes again this time?

“You need to know I’m letting you off easy. Do you know there’s anyone else in this world who orders dragons around like this? If my mom finds out, you’ll get burned to ash along with this mansion.”

[Seriously. When I try to be nice to him, he always ruins the mood with that mouth.]

“And in the first place, who even is this kid? He’s just a human who won’t even live a hundred years! Why are you going this far for him!”

[Huh?]

The tone wasn’t just irritation—it sounded like he was sulking somewhere inside. Ria blinked.

Looking closely, Kaiser was huffing with his cheeks puffed out.

A guy nearly 300 years old—what’s with this creepy act?

“You always tell me to get lost! And when I was fifty you set my butt on fire and chased me out—so why is only this one treated special! Be nice to me too!”

Whine whine whine-

A dragon’s whining was beyond imagination. And since he was polymorphed into an adult man, the sight of him flopping onto the floor and throwing a tantrum was truly horrifying.

Ria learned a new truth. No matter how handsome and elegant the shell is, if what’s inside is a brat, it’s useless.

“Be nice to me tooooo-!”

With the dragon throwing a fit, the mansion trembled a little.

“Mmm…….”

When even the sleeping Lucian let out a groan, Ria finally threw up both hands and feet.

-Okay, okay. I’ll be nice to you!

The moment she hurriedly shoved the tablet up to his nose, he stopped like a lie.

“Really?”

[……Damn, I want to punch you.]

Ria forced down the swear about to spill out and wrote.

-Yeah. I’ll treat you like Lucian too, so please stop.

“Who’s Lucian. Ah, this kid?”

As she shook the tablet up and down, Kaiser slightly pouted and glared at Lucian.

Lucian couldn’t come to his senses, burning with fever even as he groaned.

“If I treat him, what are you going to do for me?”

-You said you want me to be nice to you.

“That’s something you should do normally.”

[You little bastard. You want a whole damn lot.]

-Then what do you want?

“Hmm…… well…….”

[If you don’t even know what you want, then just shut up and do it! Look at Lucian’s face! In a bit he’ll stop breathing!]

Lucian’s situation was steadily worsening, but Kaiser was taking it easy, and it only made her hate him more. But there was no one else who could heal Lucian, so Ria used her trump card.

-I’ll give it to you.

“Huh?”

-I’ll give you one thing you want among the mansion’s belongings you coveted last time.

Kaiser’s eyes went huge.

And of course—among the things in the mansion, there were quite a lot he coveted.

Something about them being hard to get now. Whatever. In any case, he’d been eyeing the mansion’s possessions, and once he got caught stealing and got severely punished.

With that kind of record, Ria never let him even touch the mansion’s belongings. But now she’s not lending—she’s willingly giving. From Kaiser’s perspective, it’s like he hit the jackpot.

“R-re-really? You can’t take it back later, okay?”

-Yeah.

“Then the Rafael ring!”

[You bastard, the one I treasure most…….]

“No, no. Not that. The Spear of the Firmament! The weapons made by that creator are hard to get now!”

[……When did you go into the armory? I never told you about it.]

“No, I should pick Trin’s compass instead? Kyaaa! Which one do I pick to make it sound like I picked well?!”

[This bastard, he’s determined to squeeze me dry? How is it he keeps picking only the expensive stuff I hid all over the place?]

Kaiser kept picking and unpicking, agonizing endlessly. The longer he did, the worse Lucian became.

Ria fidgeted, then crushed the chalk.

Kiiiiik- kkiiieeeek—!

“Aaagh! That’s the sound I hate most!”

-I’ll give you anything, so just save him already!

Seeing the angry scrawl, Kaiser shrank right up. Then grumbling, he went over to Lucian.

“Hmph, you should feel honored. A dragon saving a human. If Mom finds out, she’s going to scold me like crazy.”

Despite his words, Kaiser wiped the smile clean off his face and opened his mouth.

Be healed.

Dragon speech, the exclusive domain of dragons.

The ability to wield magic with nothing but a single dragon utterance, without incantations or magic circles.

A white, holy light poured from Kaiser’s fingertips and seeped into Lucian’s body all over. Then, in not even ten seconds, everything began to close—tiny cuts to big wounds alike.

The torn corner of his mouth and the swollen eyes gradually recovered too, and he returned to a far healthier state than before he went into the forest.

His breathing became even.

[Haa, thank goodness…….]

Now she could finally breathe. Ria washed the fully healed Lucian. Watching, Kaiser leaned on the bathroom door and said,

“But what is this kid, anyway, that you’re doing this much? He definitely wasn’t here last time I came. Is he your human you’re raising?”

Come to think of it, she hadn’t told him yet.

Ria wrote down Lucian and her relationship on the stone tablet. Seeing it, Kaiser reacted late.

“W-w-wha?! Marriaaage?! With this brat?”

-Yeah, so from now on, don’t treat my groom carelessly.

At the following line, Kaiser was even more out of it.

Thanks to that, Ria could wash Lucian in peace.

* * *

Swoooosh—

A strong wind blew through the dark forest. Leaves swayed with the wind, and an eerie sound rang out. In that, Lucian ran without thinking.

Hk, hk, hk, hhk……!

When he looked back, wolves were chasing him, drool hanging from their mouths.

‘I—I have to get back to Ria……!’

He instinctively knew. If he got caught by the wolves now, he wouldn’t keep his life.

The moment he turned forward again, an unseen tree root snagged his foot.

Lucian lost his balance and fell hard.

Since there were rocks everywhere, dull pain throbbed in his body here and there.

‘Ugh, it hurts…… ah!’

He groaned at the sharp sting in his knees and palms, but only for a moment—Lucian realized he was being chased and lifted his head.

But he was already too late. The wolves that had been far away were already right in front of his nose, and they surrounded him.

In that moment, what rose in his mind wasn’t the family whose faces he’d never even seen, but Ria.

‘Ria……!’

Am I going to die like this? We parted after I only said mean things to her. I should’ve listened to Ria.

Thump thump thump.

He couldn’t tell if his heart was pounding because he’d been running nonstop, or because fear was making it react.

But this one thing was certain. He didn’t want to die like this.

No matter what, he had to get back to Ria.

But against his will, his body, already at its limit, wouldn’t move, and tears that came from his body blurred his view.

Grrr…….

The wolf that looked like the leader bared its teeth and approached. Lucian reflexively raised both arms and squeezed his eyes shut tight.

He sensed the end, but no matter how long he waited, he felt no pain.

Instead, a cool wind gently wrapped his whole body. When he opened his eyes, that robber he’d seen in the forest was standing there.

After driving off the wolves, the robber looked back at him.

Lucian tensed, waiting for what he would say.

‘Why aren’t you getting up?’

Huh?

A much younger voice than the one he’d heard at first reached him. Along with it, the charismatic face blurred, then took on a strange shape.

A bizarre form, half like a lizard, half like a person.

“Hey! Brat! Get up already!”

At the voice that rang all the way to his brain, Lucian snapped his eyes open.