Chapter 289: Legacy (2)
Chapter 289: Legacy (2)
“Rest in peace… and I’ll be taking what’s left of your bodies for my own use.”
As I lightly traced the Sign of the Cross, Helena approached me. Unlike the other mages who were busily poking around every corner of the lab, she had been watching only me, seemingly curious about what I was doing.
Her jaw dropped the moment she saw the contents of the coffin.
“B-Brother Yandel. Are these… Fafnir’s children?”
“Something like that.”
“I see… It is said that dragons displayed terrifying majesty during the early days of the War of the Gods. Because of that, they were targeted first, and even their hidden hatchlings were supposedly all slaughtered… Perhaps Fafnir was always so enraged because he had lost his children.”
“Ah, that’s not it. These three were created by Fafnir after the war ended. As the last dragon, he made clones of himself to try and continue the lineage somehow.”
“Pardon?”
Helena tilted her head in confusion.
Come to think of it, aside from the fact that my soul is from Earth, isn't it fine to just tell them the truth?
I’d said I didn’t regret the lies I’d told, but that didn’t mean I felt nothing about them. Naturally, a small corner of my heart harbored a bit of guilt or debt. I figured I might as well clear about half of it away now.
I opened the other two coffins, traced the Sign of the Cross over them as well, and added, “They’re also my older brothers.”
“…What?”
“Meaning I was also made by Fafnir. I was born in that tank in the center over there.”
“Whaaaat?!”
Helena was so shocked she practically jumped out of her skin. When she landed back on the floor, she staggered for a moment, and then lion ears suddenly popped out of her head.
“What?! Yandel! What on earth do you mean by that!”
“It’s been a while, Lady Solari. Not since that night.”
“A while… No, this isn’t the time for leisurely greetings! Everyone! Gather ‘round! This is important!”
Her voice was as thunderous as a lion’s roar.
The rest of the party, who had been tinkering with the lab equipment with curious expressions, rushed over in surprise.
Iona arrived first, her blood-red eyes blinking.
“What is it, what is it, Student Helena…? Oh? Righteous Light?”
“Yes! It’s me! But that’s not what’s important right now!”
“Eeeh… What could be more important than a divine descent…?”
“Yandel was born without a mother!”
“…That’s a bit of a crude insult to throw out of nowhere.”
As Iona pulled back with a slightly stiff expression, Solari shook her head vigorously and continued.
“No! I mean he literally doesn’t have one! He’s a human created by Fafnir!”
“Eh? My Master…?”
“You. What is the meaning of this?”
“Master? I just got here and didn’t hear clearly, but what exactly do you mean?”
The others, arriving a beat later, asked with wide eyes.
However, Solari was still in a state of shock and began to explain incoherently.
“Uh… so. Yandel is a Chimera? A Homunculus? Anyway, something like that, and these are Yandel’s brothers, but they’re also Fafnir’s children, so… so….”
Perhaps unable to watch Solari stammer any longer, the medallion flashed, and Clara emerged to take over.
-My Lady. Please calm yourself for a moment. You are not making any sense at all.
“Calm, calm… Right! I’m calm!”
Solari took a deep breath and nodded. However, she might have calmed down too much, as her twitching ears and tail vanished, and Helena’s consciousness resurfaced.
“…Well, there isn’t a problem, is there?”
“Yes. The Righteous Light said she would listen from within me.”
-If you were simply embarrassed by your behavior just now, you could have just said so, rather than pretending to calm down and retreating…
“Shh! Lady Clara! That is blasphemy!”
Helena tapped the medallion, warning Clara.
I chuckled at the sight of the two of them and spoke up.
“I was planning to explain everything once Senior Fay joined us… but since it’s come to this, I’ll just tell her separately later.”
I shrugged as I felt everyone’s gaze focus on me.
“You all have some idea about my past or origins, but you don’t know the specifics, right? It’s a good time, so I figured I’d let you know. Here’s how it happened….”
*
And so on and so forth, yadda yadda yadda.
“And that’s how it is.”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
I glossed over the parts regarding my soul and H&A. I explained it as simply waking up inside a tank and having the relevant knowledge injected into me through magic.
But even though I had omitted the most shocking parts, every single one of them looked like they’d lost their minds.
They all stammered with confused expressions, but Carla, who was the first to regain her senses this time as well, cautiously raised her hand.
“Um… Master?”
“Yeah. Do you have more questions?”
“Yes. As far as I know, artificial beings are incapable of reproduction. So, Master, are you perhaps…?”
“I’m not a eunuch. I can have children just fine, so don’t worry. Regardless of the process, Fafnir succeeded in creating a body perfectly identical to a human’s.”
“Phew… Then the Lindelheit bloodline will continue. What a relief!”
“…What if I take a different surname?”
Given my achievements so far, it seemed likely a title would be granted soon.
At that, Carla tilted her head with a nonchalant face.
“Master is already no different from the successor of Lindelheit. Even if your surname changes, you still perform magic with the Lindelheit breathing technique and the Lindelheit Arcana. A house doesn’t become a different one just because the nameplate changes, does it?”
“Huh?”
Carla was now openly declaring her plan to revive the Lindelheit family, not even bothering to hide it anymore.
As I let out a hollow laugh at her audacity, Elisha, who was standing next to her, flared up and pointed a finger at Carla.
“You’ve finally shown your true colors, Carla!”
“W-What do you mean, Elisha? My true colors as the Lady of Lindelheit?”
“Did you still not know, Master? Carla has been trying to dye Yandel in her own colors for a long time!”
“Is that so?!”
“Yes! While you and Yandel were playing ‘high and mighty,’ that’s what was happening. The Lindelheit family already has thick dragon blood, but now that she knows Yandel carries the blood and flesh of a dragon, she clearly has no intention of hiding it anymore!”
“…Hing.”
Iris’s shoulders slumped as she was caught in the crossfire.
She trudged over and silently opened her arms; I picked her up and gave her a gentle shake.
I’d barely shaken her at all, but seeing her face fill with absolute satisfaction, I turned to the huffing Elisha.
“Don’t be so jealous. Like I promised last time, I’ll fill a whole mansion with Half-Elves for you.”
“W-When did I ever make such a promise?!”
Elisha jumped as if she were horrified, but if you looked closely, her face was flushed red and her ears were twitching incessantly.
It was proof that, despite her words, she was pleased.
“But anyway, is there nothing else you want to ask?”
“Nothing, nothing. It doesn’t matter if you were born from a person or a dragon, does it? The one who threw his life away to save me that day is the Student Yandel standing here now, and that’s enough for me!”
“Professor Iona….”
I was touched for a brief moment as I looked at Iona with shimmering eyes.
“More importantly, more importantly. You said you can use Dragonification now, right? Would it be okay if I tried drinking some of your blood in that state?”
“…That much is fine.”
Give me back my touching moment!
If you act like this, it makes it seem like you’re only seeing me to drink my blood!
A sigh rose to the tip of my throat before vanishing. In its place, a hollow laugh bloomed.
Even though this wasn't a topic to be laughed off so easily, the fact that they were making such a fuss—even more than usual—was likely their way of being considerate.
I felt relieved to finally reveal what I’d been hiding, but a part of me had also worried they might be horrified by me being a Chimera.
That feeling must have leaked out.
“Thanks, everyone.”
“Hmph. It is well that you know, Master. By the way, where is this thing you said I would like? There are many curious things here, but I see no apparatus that strikes my fancy.”
“Ah, it’s this.”
The three coffins laid out at my feet and the small dragon corpses neatly preserved inside.
They were about the size of a large dog. Being clones of Fafnir, they were characterized by scales as black as obsidian.
Iris looked down at the dragons and tilted her head with a subtle expression.
“Did you not say they were like your brothers, Master?”
“I just got permission. They said I could use them.”
“…….”
I chuckled at Iris’s gaze, which looked at me as if I were a madman, and asked back.
“Why? You don’t want them? They might be a bit small, but if you consume a Dragon Heart, you’ll be one step closer to becoming an Archmage.”
“…I never said I didn’t want them.”
Iris sidled up and rubbed her forehead against my shoulder. How honest of her.
If it were just a set of dragon materials, Fay would have liked it more than Iris. The real prize was something else.
Clack.
I used Telekinesis to open a drawer a short distance away.
Hidden inside was a stack of papers thicker than most encyclopedias.
I brought it over using Telekinesis, read a bit of it, and then handed it straight to Iris.
“Here.”
“Mm?”
Iris, who had been rubbing her head against my shoulder as if trying to drill a hole in it, finally pulled away.
“It’s Fafnir’s final grimoire, which he organized in his own way after absorbing all the research records left by the elders of the Dragon Council.”
“…What?”
“I’m giving it to you, Iris. Read it first, and once you understand it, explain it to the rest of us.”
“…….”
Iris silently took the stack of papers into her arms. She looked back and forth between me and the papers, and then—
“Ack.”
She fainted right where she stood.