MCDB CH 06

Chapter 3. How “Surely Not” Can Get You Into Trouble

“You’re saying they’re taking you to the Mage Tower?”

Axel stared at Helens with an expression that clearly said he didn’t understand.

“Yeah. Since I’ll be getting dragged there, come and rescue me. Bring Professor Roman with you.”

“…You’re making quite a bold request.”

“This is mutually beneficial for both of us.”

Helens kindly explained her plan to Axel, who still didn’t seem to understand it.

“If you rescue me, I’ll be incredibly grateful to you, right? Then naturally, I’ll develop a favorable impression of you.”

That would be the foundation for building a genuine relationship, dragon.

“You get my favor, and I get to keep my life. Win-win.”

“Do I really have to stop you from being taken to the Mage Tower for you to become favorable toward me? What if I fail?”

“Even though you’re trapped in a human body, you’re still a dragon. And Professor Roman is a dragon’s secretary. Are you telling me the two of you can’t handle a bunch of insignificant mages from the Mage Tower?”

Helens believed that if his secretary and disciple were both put in danger, that Galion dragon or whatever his name was would eventually step in.

Of course, there was still some risk involved. However, the scene where Helens was taken to the Mage Tower was one of the most important scenes in the original novel.

This event had to happen for Count Divine to become a traitor and for the female lead to become the daughter of a traitor.

The timeline of events went like this.

First, Count Divine would escort Helens to the Mage Tower as an imperial envoy and then return.

However, because the Mage Tower had some connection to Duke Grace, they would deny ever receiving the princess.

The count would not only be accused of stealing the tribute that was supposed to be sent to the Empire, but would also be branded a traitor for deliberately provoking the Empire and causing chaos in the kingdom.

Because he supported the prince and stood against the duke, members of the count’s family—even distant relatives—would be executed one after another.

Reina, who survived thanks to Roman, would learn magic to seek revenge. Eventually, she would join forces with Carlisle and take down the duke.

If I run away from here now, the female lead can’t become the daughter of a traitor.

Then the novel wouldn’t be [The Prince Is Obsessed with Me, the Daughter of a Traitor] anymore. It would simply become [The Prince Is Obsessed with Me].

And what if Carlisle ended up being nothing more than a genuinely obsessive prince? What if the original story completely went off track?

It was obvious how much trouble she would have to deal with afterward to clean up the mess.

If she followed the original storyline, Carlisle would struggle his way through everything and eventually ascend the throne on his own. Why ruin the original plot unnecessarily?

Helens planned to pretend to be dragged to the Mage Tower while secretly providing a little support from nearby.

And she would use the very thing King Ilehon had tried to uncover ten years ago before eventually giving up on it—the magical crystals.

Magical crystals were extremely valuable minerals because they could themselves be used as powerful weapons.

The king had failed because he incurred the dragon’s wrath, but Helens had made a deal with that very dragon.

Axel wasn’t angry because humans were mining the magical crystals. He had been angry because the process of mining them was noisy.

Which meant that, technically, he was saying they could mine the magical crystals.

She would secure money and weapons using the magical crystals and put them into Carlisle’s hands, making sure Carlisle could never lose a battle.

And she planned to help the members of the Count’s family escape on the very day they were taken to the Mage Tower.

Stealing the tribute and fleeing while on the way to the Empire as an imperial envoy was still a crime, after all.

So even if the heroine didn’t become the daughter of a traitor, she would at least become the daughter of a serious criminal.

“Since you’re going to escape anyway, why do you have to wait until then? Wouldn’t that just make things more complicated?”

Axel narrowed his eyes as he questioned her.

“I want to hear your reason.”

He’s not as easy to fool as I thought.

Helens clicked her tongue inwardly and quickly came up with a suitable excuse.

“Even though I’m a princess, it would feel wrong to simply run away. And if I ever return later, I’d feel like I had no face to show.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie.

If she wanted to return to being a princess and live comfortably again, it would be better to have a legitimate reason for having fled.

Saving Count Divine’s family from the duke’s scheme, fleeing together, and eventually returning would make for a rather convincing story.

“Are you even preparing for the possibility of returning to your human form? You seem certain the curse will be lifted.”

Axel’s words made Helens flinch.

In truth, she was preparing for the possibility that the curse wouldn’t be lifted.

If she wanted to avoid being cast out while still under the curse and continue receiving the treatment due to a princess, she figured it would be wise to accomplish at least one small feat.

“I-I’m determined to break the curse. Did you make a deal with me without having that kind of determination?”

Helens’s voice rose unnecessarily because she felt guilty.

“That’s a good determination. Good. I feel the same way.”

The corners of Axel’s mouth lifted.

He, too, was willing to do whatever it took to escape his punishment.

“Fine. Go ahead and let them drag you to the Mage Tower without worrying. I’ll definitely rescue you before they start experimenting on you.”

For some reason, that sounded as though he intended to rescue her only when she was just about to become a test subject.

Still, Helens smiled and nodded.

Axel and Helens smiled brightly at each other.

But despite their radiant smiles, their true thoughts were anything but pure.

This immature little dragon. I’ll make good use of him until Carlisle becomes king.

Lowly beast. Consider it an honor to be used for the sake of a dragon.

It was the moment when a dragon and a beast joined hands, each intending to use the other.

“Young Master! What on earth happened?”

“It’s nothing.”

Axel waved dismissively at the servant fussing over him.

“My shirt is torn to pieces. How can you say it’s nothing?”

“Quiet. My head is pounding, so keep your voice down.”

He trudged back to his room, took off his damp shirt, and handed it to the servant. He was about to dive straight under the blankets when he changed course and headed for the bathroom.

He felt like he was dying from exhaustion, but there was no way Axel could ever get into bed without cleaning himself first.

“My whole body aches. Damn it.”

What a pathetic body.

Axel had taken Helens from the lakeside back to her cage, then used teleportation to return to Baron Panderhalt’s estate.

Just as he was about to enter through the back door as usual, his vision suddenly spun.

He had used too much mana.

Axel’s magical power and skill were enough to make him one of the most formidable beings in the human world. But compared to when he had been a dragon, his limitations were considerable. His magic was even weaker than that of an immature dragon.

“I’m going to die.”

In particular, a human body couldn’t handle two types of magic at once.

Under those circumstances, he had summoned a spirit while simultaneously using another spell, so of course he was in bad shape.

At this rate, he would inevitably be bedridden with exhaustion.

Still, it wasn’t as though he had gained nothing from the trip.

He had made that greasy fur soft and fluffy again, cleaned the filthy cage, and…

But does that really count as an accomplishment?

When he and Helens formed their alliance, he hadn’t even used magic.

He had merely run his mouth.

“…Let’s call it an accomplishment. Yeah, let’s call it that.”

Whenever he remembered that matted fur, he was certain he would eventually collapse from stress and spend the rest of his life trapped in a human body.

Preventing that was a significant accomplishment in itself.

“Young Master, are you really all right? Should I call a physician?”

The maid asked worriedly as Axel came out after bathing, dragged his heavy body to the bed, and collapsed onto it.

“Please go. That would help me more than anything. Go.”

The people of Baron Panderhalt’s household—from the baron and his wife to the maids—were unusually fussy and meddlesome.

And that was the trait Axel hated most.

“But you really don’t look well, Young Master. What if you can’t even attend the festival the day after tomorrow?”

“I’m not going even if I’m perfectly fine.”

“Even though it’s a festival that happens only once every ten years? And a bright blue moon is supposed to appear in the sky?”

Has it really been that long already?

Once every ten years, the moon turned blue.

Axel was five hundred years old, so he had seen that blue moon fifty times.

No matter how extraordinary something was, seeing it fifty times naturally made it lose its appeal.

“Even if the moon turned bright yellow, I wouldn’t go.”

“…The moon is normally kind of yellow, though.”

“…”

Young Master must be delirious too, the maid muttered under her breath.

Fortunately, she left before Axel could explode.

I really, truly, desperately want to get out of this punishment as quickly as possible, by any means necessary.

Axel had become genuinely desperate.

Duke Grace’s Office

A servant entered after knocking, carrying a stack of documents.

The duke, accustomed to this, pointed to a spot with his finger, indicating where the documents should be placed.

When the king died, the prince had been only eleven years old.

Thus, Clorette, the queen and the duke’s daughter, had taken on the role of regent.

All government affairs had poured into the queen’s hands, and she sent every report she received to her father.

Before long, all the paperwork naturally began making its way to the duke’s office.

“Wait.”

The duke stopped the servant who was about to leave.

“Do you need something, Your Grace?”

“Bring Sir Ludwig.”

“Yes.”

“And some hot tea.”

The servant bowed and left.

The duke straightened his stiff back.

He had accumulated fatigue from going without sleep.

And all of this was because of the princess.

The princess could speak.

And not just speak—she could speak extremely fluently.

Is the curse being lifted?

Were her memories gradually returning along with her appearance?

It wasn’t impossible.

He didn’t know about her appearance, but if her memories were returning, he wanted to prevent that if at all possible.

It would be troublesome if the princess remembered that.

“If she regains her memories after being taken to the Mage Tower…”

Things will become even more troublesome.

If the princess recovered her memories at the Mage Tower, the mages would gain leverage over the duke.

He wasn’t on bad terms with the Mage Tower, but even so, it was better not to give them a weakness they could exploit.

“Still, I can’t simply refuse to send her.”

A letter requesting permission to study the princess had arrived in the name of the Imperial Family.

But it probably wasn’t the emperor’s intention.

What ruler in the world would willingly allow a cursed creature to enter his territory?

So this was probably the Mage Tower’s own decision.

It had once been little more than a school for mages, but at some point its influence had expanded until it even reached the Imperial Court.

The duke couldn’t simply reject the Mage Tower’s demand.

However, he could buy some time.

First, he would report that the princess had begun speaking.

It took about three days to travel from the kingdom’s capital to the Empire’s capital using teleportation magic.

A reply would take roughly the same amount of time.

That gave the duke six days.

“尸体로 연구하는 게 생물보다 낫겠지.”

Researching a corpse would certainly be easier than researching a living subject.

Six days would be more than enough to turn Helens into a corpse.

Inside the cage, now clean from the water—and tears—spilled by the water spirit, Helens was waiting for Marie.

To be more precise, she was waiting for food.

“Princess, it’s time to eat.”

At Marie’s voice, Helens hurriedly ran out.

The meal was still pitifully meager, but hunger was the best seasoning, so Helens tore into the bread ravenously.

“…Hmm?”

Then Carlisle’s voice seemed to echo faintly in her mind.

Be careful with the food, Helens.

The bread in Helens’s hand had a faint but artificial smell.

It was a smell that hadn’t been present in the bread before—and one that definitely shouldn’t have been there.

No way.

Helens immediately carried the bread back inside.

There was a full-length mirror decorated with silver inside the cage.

Sure enough, she rubbed the bread against the freshly cleaned silver frame of the mirror.

After a short while, the silver began turning dark and discolored.

“…They’re not trying to send me to the Mage Tower. They’re trying to send me straight to the afterlife.”