Incurable Disease (5)
Mersius tilted her head slightly to look down at Albrecht. He seemed not to have heard a word of what Caesius had said; he had fallen asleep almost at once and was now breathing deeply and evenly in peaceful slumber.
She lifted her gaze again, a soft smile curving her lips as she turned to Caesius.
"What are you talking about, Caesius?"
"What you're doing right now. Taking advantage of Letisia's absence to do something like this…"
"Have I done something I shouldn't?"
Mersius asked the question lightly.
"I only want to repay my Benefactor."
"…You have other intentions."
Caesius narrowed her eyes a fraction.
"You can't fool my eyes, Mersius."
"…"
"Gergius wants his daughter to do whatever she desires, so he's turning a blind eye even though he knows what you're up to…"
Caesius looked down at Albrecht, who lay with his head resting on Mersius's thigh. Her usual cool gaze remained, yet something about her seemed faintly tense.
"There are many women who like him, Mersius. Letisia is naturally among them. She already confessed her feelings first, and yet you're doing this…"
"So that means he rejected her?"
"That's…"
It was true that Albrecht had not accepted Letisia's feelings—citing Clara, and the suddenness of it all. Caesius had witnessed it with her own eyes.
Mersius smiled faintly as she spoke.
"Then what's the problem? I don't really understand."
"…You've already heard that Albrecht has a lover. Doing this is disrespectful to him as well."
At Caesius's words, Mersius tilted her head.
"I don't see any problem with it. You know as well as I do, Caesius—it's perfectly normal for humans to keep several fema—ah, several women."
"There's no problem with that in principle, but Albrecht doesn't want it. Don't you understand why he rejected Letisia?"
"…That's a rather curious thing to say."
Mersius continued,
"Don't all humans possess an instinctive drive to spread their seed? That's what I was taught."
"That's…true enough."
Even Caesius found that part hard to grasp. The people around him made their fondness for Albrecht painfully obvious, so why did he keep refusing them?
The excuse of feeling sorry for Clara alone didn't fully explain it. Clara herself had said she would understand if Albrecht gained more lovers.
As that old question rose again in Caesius's mind, Mersius spoke once more.
"Then wouldn't it be better for him to keep many fema—ah, I keep misspeaking."
"It's fine. I'm not human."
"Ah, then I'll speak freely. Since Benefactor is human, of course he must have that desire. Wouldn't it be better for him to keep many females, then? And besides…"
Mersius grinned as she went on.
"Unions between humans and dragons aren't all that rare."
Her words were true. Dragons were so few in number that encounters were uncommon, yet love between humans and dragons occurred more often than one might expect.
The reason was simple: both were higher beings. Sharing lives and thoughts came easily, and understanding each other was natural.
The rare demi-humans born of such unions were called Dragonnewts—humans who manifested a dragon's physical prowess or innate vast mana. That was the simplest way to put it.
Given that such beings existed, Mersius's words were not particularly strange. Even so, though Caesius understood the logic, she found herself wanting to add one more remark.
"Still, doing this the moment the person concerned steps away…"
"What's wrong with that? She's simply lacking the courage to act."
"…"
"I understand the pain of rejection, but if she doesn't muster more courage, she'll simply lose him. You know that well enough, don't you, Caesius?"
Mersius said,
"That's exactly why we dragons never became kings of the monsters."
"…"
Caesius let out a quiet sigh. She had no confidence she could dismantle Mersius's argument with pure logic. She herself considered every point Mersius raised to be perfectly reasonable.
Yet a fundamental doubt remained. The reasoning Mersius had just laid out was unlikely to hold true for Mersius herself.
"…Mersius, you have to stay in the lair anyway. He has to return. So what meaning is there in doing this?"
A hatchling could not leave the lair.
"Why do I have to stay in the lair?"
"You're still a hatchling, Mersius. Of course you need the protection of the lair."
"My growth was only suppressed because of the illness. Once Benefactor removes the excess mana and Father succeeds in regulating it so that only a proper amount manifests…my growth will resume at once. I'm already of age."
Mersius said,
"I can feel it every time Benefactor draws out the excess mana. My body feels as though it could change at any moment."
"…Is that true?"
"Yes."
Caesius was mildly surprised. She had never suffered the same illness herself, and Mersius's condition was so rare that she had never known this detail.
Once the illness was resolved, the halted growth would surge forward all at once. In that case, she would indeed reach a stage where leaving the lair became possible.
Even so, it still looked difficult.
Mersius was a female dragon. Even if she grew to the Young stage, the odds of being allowed to leave the lair remained low. Caesius herself had been able to leave only because she was the child of a Lord—blood that carried absolute authority.
Mersius is different.
Mersius's father, Gergius, was no Lord. He was an Elder Dragon, nearly as precious as a Lord, and he maintained friendships with several Lords…yet the Green Dragon Lord would never grant freedom to a rare female dragon like Mersius.
…Mersius must know that too.
How did she plan to leave the nest? No matter how much Gergius wished to indulge his daughter's desires, would he truly permit her to leave the nest to follow a human?
In Caesius's view, no. Even she, a Lord's child, had gone through enormous trouble persuading her own father…and unlike Caesius's father, Gergius had to consider the Lord's opinion. How could he ever be persuaded?
While she was still puzzling over it, Mersius suddenly spoke.
"You look like you don't understand, Caesius."
"…Honestly, no."
"All right. I'll tell you alone."
Caesius showed a flicker of interest. She was curious how Mersius intended to leave the lair. Mersius answered with perfect simplicity.
"I just need to have a child with a human. Then even the Lord won't be able to say anything."
"……What?"
Caesius's eyes went round with shock. Mersius tilted her head.
"It's the surest method, isn't it?"
Meanwhile, Letisia had stepped out of the lair for a short while with Gergius. The moment they emerged, she let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Haa…"
"You look troubled."
Letisia glanced at Gergius. His expression was utterly free of worry. Unable to understand it, she asked,
"Do you have any idea whose fault this worry is…?"
"How could I not? It's because of my daughter, of course."
"Aren't you worried? Your daughter…she's finally starting to get better, and yet she's showing that kind of interest in a human."
What Letisia meant was not that interest in Albrecht was bad in itself, but that Mersius had only just become able to live properly with her parents—and was already turning her attention to a human. As a parent he might feel a little hurt, and from a racial standpoint, a young dragon taking interest in a human did not seem entirely desirable.
Gergius's reply, however, was completely unexpected.
"What problem is there in that?"
"Pardon?"
"Bonds between humans and dragons have existed since ancient times. The proof is the existence of the demi-humans called Dragonnewts, is it not?"
His answer caught her off guard. Still, Letisia felt that citing Dragonnewts was not quite fair. She had always thought such cases were vanishingly rare.
"I've heard they exist, but they're extremely rare. I've never even met one…"
"Haha. How would you recognize them? Every Dragonnewt conceals their racial traits with magic. And if you try to detect them by mana alone, there's no way to distinguish them from ordinary humans who simply possess large mana reserves."
"…Is that true?"
"What reason would I have to lie? Even counting those who hide, they are a tiny minority among humans—but as you well know, the dragon population itself is not large to begin with."
Gergius continued,
"So if you consider it by the proportion of dragons, forming bonds with humans is not all that uncommon."
"…Then even if your daughter truly…develops romantic feelings for Albrecht, you're all right with it?"
"Of course I'm not all right with it."
Gergius said,
"The thought of some worthless scoundrel bewitching my daughter makes my teeth grind."
Letisia's brow furrowed slightly.
"…Albrecht is no scoundrel."
It was not the rest of the situation that bothered her—it was the way he had dismissed Albrecht as a scoundrel. That reaction alone revealed how highly she regarded him.
Sensing it, Gergius laughed lightly.
"Haha. Yes. You've already given the answer."
"…Pardon?"
"Albrecht is no scoundrel. I don't say this merely because he cured my daughter's illness. I think so because I saw him give his utmost even to a one-sided request."
A faint smile touched Gergius's lips.
"How could a man willing to strive so hard for another's sake be a scoundrel?"
At his question Letisia's eyes widened for a moment; then she lowered her head and answered,
"You're right. Albrecht is a good person."
"Yes. That is why I said it was all right."
"…I see."
Letisia had nothing more to say. When he assessed Albrecht so accurately and still declared it acceptable, how could she object?
The only thing that left her a little gloomy was the sense that yet another rival had appeared. She even wondered whether she had confessed her feelings too early.
"…Still, on a personal note, there is a side of my daughter I rather wish you would take after."
"…Pardon?"
"As you can tell from her personality, Mersius is not one to hold back when expressing herself. That side of her simply never showed while she was ill. It can be a flaw at times, but when it comes to showing her feelings like this, it becomes a strength."
"…"
"I'm not boasting about my daughter, mind you. Don't misunderstand."
Gergius said,
"That is why I hope you will take after her. I've only watched you and Albrecht for two days, yet…you clearly like him a great deal."
"Ehk…"
Her feelings for Albrecht were so strong that even a dragon she had known for only two days could see them.
"I hear he already has a lover, so if you don't approach him more honestly, you won't even have a chance, will you?"
"…"
"Well, I don't think it's my place to meddle deeply."
Gergius continued,
"Still, you also answered a request of mine that could easily have been unreasonable, so I am rooting for you."
As he spoke, Gergius's body began to glow. He transformed into a great dragon covered in emerald scales and beat his wings once.
"I've already opened the entrance a little. Close it behind you as you go back in. With your mana, that should be no trouble."
"Ah…yes."
"Then I'll be off for a while."
Gergius flapped his wings a couple of times and shot away at high speed, vanishing into the distance. Letisia stared blankly after him for a moment, then sighed.
Be honest…
She wanted to. She truly did…yet whenever she saw Albrecht look uncomfortable with her advances, her courage drained away of its own accord.
"…I should send word first."
Letisia summoned her wind spirit, Sylph, and spoke.
"Sylph, go to Erinn and tell her we'll probably return in four days."
With a mysterious little kyuuung, Sylph fluttered its tiny wings and flew off at once. Letisia gazed into the empty air for a moment, then let out another sigh.
She turned and stepped back through the rock Gergius had left open just wide enough for a single person, returning to the lair.
Mersius's bombshell left Caesius wearing a thoroughly dumbfounded expression. Mersius tilted her head and asked,
"Is there a problem?"
"Uh……what?"
Thinking there was no problem seemed far stranger. Caesius spoke, half in disbelief.
"No, Mersius. What do you mean by…"
She continued,
"Albrecht won't want that."
"It feels a little awkward to say this myself, but is there any reason Benefactor would dislike me as a male?"
Mersius said,
"I've heard that a dragon's polymorph is rated extremely highly by human aesthetic standards."
"…"
She wasn't wrong. Caesius herself had been called pretty more than once by Erinn's party.
Yet Caesius knew with certainty that while some people formed relationships simply to satisfy desire, others did not.
"Mersius, that isn't everything."
"Pardon?"
"There are people who won't sleep with someone unless they truly love them. Even when two people like each other, they don't necessarily embrace right away."
Clara was the perfect example. She and Albrecht still had not consummated their relationship—because Clara had not been ready.
That alone proved that humans did not automatically surrender to lust and start moving their hips. When someone was precious, one could respect their feelings and refrain as long as necessary.
"You need to understand that, Mersius."
"Mmm…then that does sound a little difficult."
When Mersius voiced her first slightly negative opinion, Caesius felt an inexplicable sense of relief—though she did not consciously notice it.
"…I'll have to think of another method."
…So she isn't giving up.
With that thought, Caesius sighed as if she had no choice. Then Mersius spoke again.
"Ah, Caesius. There's something I'm curious about."
"Yes?"
"Are you bound to Benefactor by a contract? How did you end up forming one?"
Caesius flinched. After all, explaining that she had arrogantly built a lair right in the middle of a human capital and ended up like this would sound…
…Far too stupid.
Even so, Caesius still possessed a sense of shame.
"There are…certain circumstances…"
"Circumstances you can't speak of?"
Cold sweat beaded on Caesius's brow. She nodded.
"…Please understand."
"I was curious, but it can't be helped."
Mersius sighed with mild regret and continued,
"If I can't have a child, forming a contract like yours might also work."
"…What?"
"Then I'd be bound by the contract, so I could follow him under the pretext that I have no choice, right?"
"No, that's…"
Caesius was still reeling from Mersius's sheer, honest drive when—
"Caesius, I'm back. Albrecht should rest a little…"
Letisia returned. The moment she took in the scene that had unfolded in her absence, her expression hardened to stone.
At first Caesius thought nothing of it—then she realized Albrecht was still using Mersius's lap as a pillow, and horror struck her.
Caesius jumped; Mersius flinched as well. A shadow fell across Letisia's face, and a chilling voice slipped out.
"……Ha."
"…L-Letisia. It's a misunderstanding. While you were gone Albrecht looked so sleepy that I had no choice."
Caesius mixed a little lie into her excuse. This time Mersius stayed quiet. She had the distinct feeling that if she poked the situation any further, Letisia would explode.
So she, too, offered a mild defense.
"…Benefactor looked terribly tired, so I lent him my lap for a moment. When you did the same yesterday, Letisia, he seemed so comfortable."
"……Is that so."
Letisia's eyes narrowed. She spoke to Mersius.
"Thanks to you, my eyes have been opened."
"…Pardon?"
Letisia removed her hat. Her twitching cat ears sprang free as she lightly brushed her side bangs aside.
"I realized that rather than fretting over this and that, I need to attend to my own feelings first."
"……"
"You said at the beginning that you thought I was Albrecht's lover, didn't you?"
Letisia strode straight up to Mersius. She glanced once at Albrecht still resting on the other woman's lap, then looked Mersius in the eye.
"I'll make sure that statement is no longer a misunderstanding."
As she spoke those words, Letisia looked thoroughly, unshakably confident.