Chapter 7
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Heading to the Dragon's Nest!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The sun rises.
An ordinary morning in the Valenhardt Duchy, no different from always.
Sunlight spreads over the castle walls, the sound of gates opening echoes, and people prepare to start another day.
But that day, countless people halted before that commonplace dawn.
The plaza before the castle walls.
Knights, maids, commoners... and even Duke Joseph von Valenhardt. All their gazes fixed on one person.
“Elysia...”
Duke Joseph's voice was low and heavy.
“Do you really have to go?”
Elysia nodded without a moment's hesitation.
“Yes, Father.”
Her voice was calm, but carried no lightness.
“Dragons aren't fools. If their envoy doesn't return after days pass—”
Elysia lifted her gaze to the northern mountains and beyond.
“They'll come to check themselves eventually. And by then, it'll be far worse than us approaching first, right now.”
Duke Joseph gritted his teeth.
He knew.
The logic was flawless.
The blood of the first hero.
And the holy sword that blood had summoned once more.
The Balmung in Elysia's hand was undoubtedly a weapon worthy of the annals of history.
However.
“Still—”
Joseph was a father.
“It's the heart of the enemy's lair. Even with a holy sword, how could I not worry about you venturing in alone?”
He paused for a moment.
“I'll assign a knight order instead. Or reinforcements, at least—”
“No.”
But Elysia's response was resolute.
“Me going alone is a warning. An army moving? That's 'war.'”
Those words brought silence to the surroundings.
“It'd be the opening shot for the very war the duchy has fought so hard to avoid.”
Duke Joseph fell speechless.
Politically, Elysia's choice was correct.
But she was still his one and only daughter.
“The north bites to the bone at night. Take an extra coat at least. Herbs, emergency salves—even if they seem useless, you never know when you'll need them!”
“Hehe. I know, Father.”
Her father's fond, worried nagging.
Elysia smiled and nodded.
“All the necessities are already loaded on the carriage. No need to worry.”
The road leading to the gates.
Soldiers lined on either side raised their spears in salute.
As they passed between them, Duke Joseph repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, his face betraying unspoken words.
And right at the gates.
His gaze halted uncomfortably.
There stood the man who—yesterday—had arguably sparked this entire ordeal, waiting with a relaxed air.
“...Lady Elysia.”
Red eyes gleamed coldly.
“You truly intend to go, then.”
“Yes.”
Elysia replied evenly.
“I started this. I have to see it through myself.”
Grand Duchess Luise scanned Elysia from head to toe.
“You know full well how dragons regard humans.”
Her lips curved ever so slightly.
“Beasts that can speak. That's their view.”
The air around them grew subtly tense.
“Their world is utterly simple, besides. The strong claim. The weak are expended.”
Luise continued quietly, as if reciting plain fact.
“Lose there, and you won't be an 'envoy' any longer. You'll be a toy. Not even a personal plaything—a communal one.”
“Grand Duchess Luise!”
Duke Joseph could bear it no longer and stepped forward.
“Grand ducal house or not, that's beyond rude!”
However.
“It's fine, Father.”
Elysia raised a hand to halt him.
All eyes turned to her once more.
“That won't happen.”
“......”
“Because I'll win.”
Her voice rang firm.
Grand Duchess Luise's brow twitched faintly.
“...Impressive confidence.”
“Yes.”
Elysia naturally gripped Balmung's hilt.
The silver blade, drinking in the morning sun, briefly dazzled the eyes.
“This sword told me, ever since I took hold of it: don't lose to a dragon, at the very least.”
Duke Joseph went silent at her words.
He simply gazed at his daughter.
When had it begun?
This child no longer hiding in shadows, but stepping forth to speak her responsibilities so steadily.
When had the one he needed to protect become someone he watched over instead?
She's grown so splendidly.
Joseph unconsciously wiped the tip of his nose.
That tiny gesture held all the emotions he'd bottled up.
The reaction rippled outward.
Knights fidgeted with their spears. Servants exchanged glances.
Some nodded. Others wore faint smiles.
What they witnessed here wasn't the 'lady who claimed a holy sword,' but one person's resolve, representing all of Valenhardt as she stepped forward.
“...Hoo.”
A short exhale.
From Grand Duchess Luise.
She withdrew her gaze a beat late, as if accepting the moment, and quietly stepped back.
“I'll keep the way open for you, Lady.”
That single phrase blended calculation and concession.
“Everyone's so worried...”
Elysia muttered softly inside the carriage.
“Of course, I'd be lying if I claimed not to be.”
Clear of the duchy's walls at last, the carriage pressed north.
Toward the dragon's nest.
Precisely, to the rugged mountains nearby.
Elysia's carriage was specially crafted for the brutal northern climes.
Thick panels to bar the frigid winds, mana-infused insulating runes, and salamanders—fire spirits in all but name—harnessed in place of horses.
Even so, limits loomed.
Deeper into the range, nearer the nest, the air turned to ice, the chill enough to halt even salamanders dead in their tracks by instinct alone.
In the end, this carriage could only go so far.
After that? On foot, alone.
“Haa... I hate the cold.”
Elysia clutched Balmung to her chest inside the carriage.
Before her father and the grand duchess, her face hadn't wavered an inch—but here and now, no need to pretend.
Honestly, it was simple enough to grasp.
How could anyone, gaining a bit of power, truly act invincible?
Pretending, perhaps.
...It's a little scary.
The honest thought welled up slowly.
She was afraid.
Sword in hand, holy sword's power thrumming through her—still.
Elysia hugged Balmung tighter without realizing.
“This power... I didn't forge it myself, after all.”
Right.
This holy sword Balmung wasn't called forth by her mana, her blood, as her Valenhardt forebears had done.
Meaning its true master had never been her to begin with.
A face floated naturally to mind.
Kim Jinwoo.
Her exclusive butler. Childhood friend. The man always one step behind, guarding her.
Come to think of it...
Elysia realized with a start.
She'd never once posed the most vital question.
“Yesterday was chaos dealing with nobles under the guise of victory celebrations, and this morning... straight to departure, no time to breathe...”
No chance to sit with him, talk calmly.
How, exactly, had he forged such an immense weapon?
What price had he paid?
Above all—why hide such power all this time?
Questions piled like mountains, yet the hilt from the heavens bore only a terse note.
Lady's holy sword.
That lone sentence.
As if it wrapped up every explanation.
That was why.
A baseless chill gripped her heart.
Well, the reason for the secrecy... I can guess.
Balmung cleaved dragons in a single stroke—a true holy sword.
If he could craft not one, but two, three, more?
From that instant, Jinwoo ceased being 'butler' or 'friend.'
Not just the duchy—the empire, every power in the world would hunt him as the ultimate prize slave.
As a noble, Elysia knew it all too well.
So there in the carriage, she quietly vowed.
Return safe from this expedition, and from then on—she'd protect Jinwoo herself.
Not to claim his power, wield him as a tool, but simply as a friend.
Eye to eye.
Before any noble's duty—it was the bond owed her lifesaver.
Vowing deep within, envisioning that future reunion with Jinwoo—that was when.
Thud!
The carriage jolted hard.
Nearing the nest, the incline sharpened; wheels clambering rocks sent the whole frame rattling.
Of course, Elysia—braced against her seat—was mostly fine.
Unlike.
“Ow?!”
“Owow...”
“...Huh?”
Human voices, unmistakably.
Two of them.
Elysia's face hardened.
From the rear.
The luggage hold.
No way...
Another dragon envoy she didn't know about?
Or a shapeshifter stowaway?
Breath held, she rose, shoved her seat aside, and cautiously slid open the partition to the hold.
What greeted her: a swishing cat tail, and two figures huddled under a thick blanket, shivering in each other's arms.
A human man, face locked stiff from cold—and a cat beastkin maid burrowed into his embrace.
“Ugh...”
“Ah... Lady...”
“...Miya? And even Jinwoo?”
Kim Jinwoo and Miya looked half-frozen, like castaways in a blizzard.