While Serdea was staring blankly, letting out a dazed sound at the sudden news—

just as the Eastern Empire’s captain of the guard had reported, Alon was being offered a proposal by Contanias.

Strictly speaking, rather than a proposal—

"Please, allow me to escort you!"

—it was an outright plea.

"...What’s wrong with him?"

"I have no idea, but—"

Evan whispered the question.

He had also heard what had happened between Contanias and Alon, so the current situation looked bizarre to him too.

But Alon himself did not know why Contanias was acting like this.

Hadn’t even their last meeting ended badly?

'...Though that was more him deciding to hate me on his own.'

Behind his blank expression, Alon felt something deeply strange.

Contanias, who had once ground his teeth and sworn to wipe out Alon’s entire family line, was suddenly here acting meek and servile.

It was something Alon never could have imagined.

What was even stranger was the reaction of the retainers who had come with Contanias.

"Lord Alon, but it doesn’t look like the people with him expected this either."

"...It seems that way."

The line of people standing behind Contanias with their heads lowered was in shock.

Knights and retainers alike, every last person who had followed him was standing there with their mouths hanging open.

The knight on the right was even repeatedly opening and closing his eyes.

As if all of ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Contanias’s retainers had frozen with expressions that said, 'Why is that lunatic bastard suddenly acting like this?'

And so, still unable to sort through his confusion, Alon wondered what exactly he ought to ask him before finally deciding to be direct.

"...What is the real reason you came here so suddenly?"

It was a blunt question.

Since the other party was an imperial prince, it would have been better to show at least some courtesy, but if their mutual regard was already at rock bottom, there was not much point.

But then—

"I came to attend upon the great dragon!"

Contanias bent even lower and shouted it.

Alon lifted his gaze slightly.

The retainers were still looking at their master as if he had gone insane.

One of them was even circling a finger beside his head, looking ready to spit out an insult at any moment.

...For now, judging by the atmosphere, it did not seem to be a trap.

So after thinking for a while, Alon decided to address the heart of the matter.

"...I don’t understand why you’re referring to me like that."

Naturally, Alon was not a dragon.

Of course, all kinds of rumors mixed with truth and lies had spread about him, but at the very least, there had never been any rumor that "Alon is a dragon," so the whole thing felt bizarre.

Contanias raised his eyes slightly, then started looking oddly cautious.

It was the look of someone wondering whether he should say this or not.

By the time Alon began to find that strange as well, Contanias nodded with a peculiarly profound expression, as if he had come to some realization, then—

"...The guardian dragon told me."

He stepped closer and whispered quietly to Alon.

Alon’s confusion deepened.

'The guardian dragon...?'

The Empire’s guardian dragon.

The Weeping Dragon.

Alon knew the golden dragon, but he had never met the Empire’s guardian dragon.

"...The guardian dragon told you that?"

he asked back.

And Contanias—

"Yes. I heard it from Lady Arculainysis, the Empire’s guardian dragon, and her father’s daughter."

—added respectfully.

At the sudden appearance of a completely unexpected name—

"...???"

Alon’s head filled with question marks.

Ar...?

Ar?

Why are you coming up here?

The same question sprang up hundreds of times over.

####

Right after hearing the explanation from Contanias,

instead of crossing the tightly shut border of the Eastern Empire, Alon decided to head for the Northern Empire’s border over the course of three days.

Taking the northern border was a bit of a detour, but the important thing was to return to the Allied Kingdoms first.

Contanias, who was escorting Alon back toward the Northern Empire with lavish care under the strange gazes of his retainers, was thinking,

'...No matter how I think about it, something’s off.'

"..."

He looked at the people behind him preparing camp.

And among them, the one who stood out the most was Alon, off to one side of the campsite reading something and talking.

What Contanias found strange was his identity.

'...He’s a dragon?'

The guardian dragon had definitely told Contanias that.

That Alon was her father.

But for someone she had acknowledged so openly, Alon did not feel special when faced in person again.

'...I can’t sense even the slightest trace of a dragon’s aura.'

Other people might simply feel pressure when standing before a dragon, but Contanias had already faced dragons several times, so he knew the distinctive atmosphere they gave off.

Oppression and arrogance.

The powerlessness of feeling as though all the mana in one’s body—no, all the mana in the surrounding area—existed only for a single being.

And on top of that, there had to be the vast magic power unique to dragons.

But the sensation he always felt from the guardian dragon was nowhere to be found in Alon.

'Could it be...?’

Without realizing it, Contanias was beginning to imagine such a possibility.

Maybe.

Just maybe, the guardian dragon had made a mistake.

Part of the reason Contanias came to imagine that was Alon’s reaction.

Even while maintaining that trademark expressionless face every time Contanias spoke, Alon would occasionally widen his eyes, however slightly, as if startled.

That made it seem as though Alon did not really know the guardian dragon existed.

And more than anything, the guardian dragon’s words themselves did not line up with reality.

According to what Contanias had investigated, Palatio Alon had started out as nothing more than the third son of a count’s family, not someone brought in from elsewhere or anything of the sort.

And yet despite knowing all of that, the guardian dragon’s words were absolute.

In the end, wanting forgiveness, Contanias had gathered information on Alon and ridden all the way to the Eastern Empire’s border by force, but—

"..."

If the guardian dragon had simply been mistaken...

"...Hah."

Contanias’s face darkened with irritation and hatred.

Because the scene from earlier had suddenly resurfaced in his mind.

The humiliating sight of himself bowing his head to Alon without a second thought for his own dignity.

And just as he was covertly glaring at Alon with narrowed eyes—

Tap.

"?"

Contanias saw something strange.

Things near Alon’s campsite were suddenly beginning to float gently into the air.

For a moment he only stared in puzzlement at the bizarre sight.

Then—

Crack! Craaack!!!

"!? "

The space that had been perfectly calm until just moments ago shattered, and everything nearby began to be dragged inward.

Rocks, dirt, the surrounding trees, even the weeds.

As if it meant to leave absolutely nothing behind, everything was sucked in as though gravity itself had reversed. Contanias and all his retainers, who had been in the middle of preparing camp, could only stare blankly up at the sky.

And not long after, every mouth fell open.

Above Alon’s head,

a meteor had formed—so enormous that if it fell, it could easily wipe out everyone here in an instant.

"What is that—"

Contanias barely managed to force out the words.

And in that span of time,

the enormous spherical meteor slowly descended—and vanished.

"..."

...It did not take very long for Contanias’s face to become obedient again.

As for Alon, the one who had actually caused the upheaval—

"Oh, so Blackie can finally use its ability now?"

"It seems so. From the look of it, starting from the second stage, it’s not something it can use right away—it has to learn it to some extent first."

"Still, the fact that it can use it at all is amazing. Though—it's a lot smaller than what we saw back then. Mm—still, this is fascinating, isn’t it? Since it was a law, I honestly wondered whether Blackie would even be able to imitate it."

"It seems different from simply using a law. In Blackie’s case, it looks like it has to use magic power."

"Mm—so over there, it can use a law under restrictions without any conditions, but here, it has to offer magic power as fuel."

"Something like that. Though of course, who knows what the other Divine blood are like."

[Kyuu-]

—he was just petting Blackie as if proud of it.

####

Two days passed after Contanias’s face returned to its obedient state.

Having crossed through the northern border as planned, Alon gave Contanias a light nod.

"Thank you for your kindness."

"Oh, no, not at all!"

Contanias bowed his head, flustered and honored by Alon’s response.

His behavior was so much more overblown than it had been even a few days ago that Alon found himself baffled. It was hard to believe this was really the same person he had seen in the Seeker’s tower.

"Honestly, seeing him act like that is pretty pathetic."

"I think so too."

Only after seeing cracks form in Contanias’s smile—apparently because he had heard Penia and Evan badmouthing him from behind—did Alon finally stop doubting.

'It seems Contanias himself really is Contanias, after all.'

In any case, after a brief exchange of farewells, they parted ways.

More precisely, Alon’s group only managed to get away after repeatedly and firmly refusing Contanias’s insistence that he escort them all the way to the Allied Kingdoms.

'...Actually, I was thinking I might go see Ar before leaving.'

Alon recalled what Contanias had said.

That Ar had become the Empire’s guardian dragon.

"..."

He did not know how, or why, Ar had become the Empire’s guardian dragon.

Still, if he stopped by the Northern Empire’s capital, it would mean returning to the Allied Kingdoms well over half a year late in practical terms, so he decided to go back first and return later.

"But Lord Alon."

Just then Penia’s voice called out.

"What is it?"

"About Ar. How do you think she ended up becoming the guardian dragon?"

"...How?"

"Yes, I mean... how should I put it... she was such a soft-hearted kid, wasn’t she? In a lot of ways."

As if by coincidence, Penia had voiced the exact same question Alon himself had.

Alon recalled Ar as he had known her.

...For some reason, all he could remember was that she had always been crying.

"...That’s true."

Without realizing it, Alon nodded.

And when a week had passed since they started traveling toward the Allied Kingdoms through the Northern Empire—

"Lord Alon. When we passed through the village this time, I heard something rather troubling from the Information Guild people who were hidden there as spies."

"Something troubling? What are you talking about?"

"...Do you happen to remember what I mentioned before? A group called the 'Star Cluster.'"

"I remember."

"It seems their faction has grown far beyond what anyone imagined."

Evan brought new information.

And at that same time,

Serdea, the imperial princess of the Eastern Empire—

"...Wait. Is that really true?"

"W-we checked again and again just in case, which is why my report came late, but... it would seem that gentleman is—"

with a dazed expression,

"...the guardian dragon’s father."

"The guardian dragon’s... father?"

—was hearing even newer information.