Chapter 17
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Dragon Calamity (3)
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It must have been just after I turned fifteen.
To celebrate the Asktalin Empire's New Year's festival, the nobles of Talua Kingdom visited the empire.
I was attending as the representative of my family in place of my father.
By then, House Banheart was already on the path to ruin, so I had to endure the cold stares from the other nobles while holding my seat.
'What the hell are these guys?'
However, my solitary figure, isolated in the banquet hall, seemed to pique the interest of the empire's noble children.
The group of noble heirs approached me, picking at trivial things and starting to mock me.
My mind was already complicated with family matters, and their annoying behavior from the imperial noble kids only made my irritation boil over.
The problem was that there was no way to deal with it.
Clashing with nobles from the hegemonic Asktalin Empire would only bring loss to our side.
Moreover, I had no backing. Who would step up to help the heir of a doomed count family?
It was right then that the person who helped me was Riya Asktalin.
"Step aside."
Her voice was imperiously commanding, as if blocking someone's path.
There were plenty of other paths, yet she positioned herself in front of the nobles who had been mocking me.
Without sparing a glance at their flustered faces, the princess glanced at my chest before speaking.
"Sir Banheart, it's crowded here. Shall we move?"
As if we had a prior appointment, she naturally led me away.
I was inwardly impressed by her.
She had recognized which kingdom and which family I belonged to just from a brief glimpse of our house crest on my chest.
Once we reached a spot with fewer people, she smiled faintly at me and said,
"...Don't hate the empire."
For some reason, I found her smile hollow.
Not sure how she took my reaction, she quietly vanished.
That was our first meeting.
* * *
"Aaaah!"
Fragments of the broken horn scattered across the ground.
The reptile's slit pupil turned toward me, my face reflected in its gleaming golden eye.
I could see the human reason suppressed by the dragon's instincts resurfacing.
According to Gransesia, this was only temporary.
The moment the dragon's instincts vanished due to the broken horn, her mind returned, and she widened her eyes at the sight of me.
Her lips moved, but I couldn't hear what she said. The ringing in my ears drowned out everything.
In any case, there was no time to talk with her.
I shoved the staggering her against a massive tree.
'No time.'
It wasn't just that the princess might lose her reason to the dragon's instincts again. I felt like I would pass out any second myself.
Whether from the excessive mana usage or borrowing Gransesia's eyes, my legs trembled, and my vision blurred.
I felt her eyes looking up at me from where I'd pinned her against the tree.
Toward her opening lips as if to say something, I thrust my thumb straight in.
Crunch!
"...!"
"Ugh!"
Startled by my sudden action, she reflexively clamped her mouth shut, biting down hard on my thumb.
She bit with considerable force, blood flowing from the wound.
"Swallow it calmly."
Forget honorifics toward the princess—I gripped my dizzying mind and spoke.
From her perspective, it must have been utterly bewildering.
Regaining her senses only to have some unknown man shove a finger into her mouth—perfectly natural reaction.
But fortunately, she followed my words well. She cautiously swallowed the blood dripping from my thumb.
The effect was immediate and visible.
The horn on her head remained, but the scales growing on her body slowly receded. The ferocious dragon aura overflowing from her melted away like snow.
With this, the curse would be completely gone.
According to Gransesia, because the dragon's factors had manifested, she would have to live a life entirely different from before, but she wouldn't be consumed by the dragon's instincts like this again.
In a way, it was like an absurd stroke of fortune.
She might have even obtained the potential to become a more dangerous existence than awakening as the Dragon Calamity.
But that wouldn't happen.
I could see it with my own eyes.
==
[Riya Asktalin]
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Role in Story: First Princess of the Asktalin Empire (Extra)
Abilities: Dragon Word, Dragon Eye, ……, ……, Magic (6th Circle)
Special Notes: An unprecedented being who overcame the dragon transformation curse with the power of Divine Blood and gained the dragon's power.
She hasn't fully made the dragon's power her own yet, but with time, it will naturally become hers.
==
Now, she was no longer the seventh calamity, the monster called the Dragon Calamity.
She was an extra now.
The same ending as Byan, but with completely different meaning.
"With this......"
The debt was paid.
I couldn't finish my words as I slumped against her shoulder and collapsed.
I felt her startled arms catching my falling body, but there was nothing to be done. Enduring until now was miraculous in itself.
'Michel will come get me......'
With that thought of the priest who must be watching this situation as my last,
I blacked out completely.
* * *
"......"
Riya Asktalin, the empire's princess, blankly gazed at the person passed out on her lap.
It was a face she'd seen once before. At the empire's New Year's festival a few years ago, perhaps.
She had briefly spoken with him there.
But that was all.
An encounter fleeting enough to call it passing by.
She never imagined that tiny connection would come full circle like this.
"Sir Banheart."
She didn't know his name. Only his house.
Muttering his family name repeatedly, Riya suddenly turned at the presence she felt.
There stood a priest frozen stiff.
"......Who are you?"
"Y-You tell me who you are first! H-Hand over Sir Banheart!"
Riya let out a small chuckle at Michel's bravely shouted words.
"He's fine now."
"W-What?"
"I'm human again now."
Seeing her speak so calmly, Michel felt his trembling heart settle.
Was this really the same monster rampaging just moments ago?
'Sir Banheart must have worked some miracle.'
Michel had seen it.
The valiant Clay charging toward that terrifying woman.
And the silver light falling toward him!
'Sir Banheart is truly God's proxy!'
One who used the saintess's relic and received divine revelation.
For such a man, performing a miracle to redeem an evil monster was entirely possible.
'......But this face looks familiar?'
Though the horn remained, the scales that had grown on her face were gone, revealing her beautiful features.
Michel felt like he'd seen that face somewhere before.
"Priest."
At her serene voice, Michel snapped to attention and looked at her.
"Do you happen to know this person's name?"
'Gasp!'
Michel's skin crawled at her faintly smiling expression. He didn't know why, but an inexplicable fear gripped him.
"Cl-Clay Banheart, sir."
"Clay...... Sir Clay."
Michel stiffened, unable to speak, as she repeated Clay's name.
How much time passed like that? Riya closely examined Clay's right hand.
The wound was already roughly healed by her healing magic, leaving no special marks.
Except for one.
"......"
A small scar remained on the thumb she had bitten hard.
Staring at it for a moment, she pressed her index finger to the back of his hand and moved it.
Sizzle!
Soon, a pattern resembling a black dragon etched itself onto Clay's hand.
Satisfied with it, Riya called to the priest standing dumbfounded.
"Priest, take him now."
"Y-Yes?"
"Didn't you just demand I hand him over?"
True enough.
With an unsettled feeling, Michel carefully lifted the unconscious Clay from Riya's lap.
That's when he realized there were no major wounds on Clay's body.
"Did you heal Sir Banheart?"
"Yes. I know healing magic."
"......Impressive."
Michel, who had watched the battle from afar, knew.
Clay's wounds were far from minor.
To heal them to this extent with mere healing magic—not divine power—that was no ordinary skill.
'That power wasn't all she had.'
Her image, wiping out the Kainzel Kingdom army with mere words, was still vivid.
If she had used magic too......
The thought alone sent chills down his spine.
"Of course, he'll need more healing with divine power."
"I know. As soon as we return......"
"But one thing—please be careful."
"Yes?"
As he looked at her with eyes asking what now, Riya smiled faintly.
Only then did Michel realize why he'd felt fear earlier.
This woman smiled with her mouth, but her eyes weren't smiling at all.
"Don't erase the scar on the thumb. And the tattoo on the back of the hand too."
"The tattoo aside...... wouldn't it be better to remove the scar?"
"Leave it."
"A-Alright."
"Good."
Good at what?
Curious, but Michel wanted to get away from this suspicious woman who only smiled with her mouth.
"W-Well then, we'll be going."
"Farewell. Take good care of his treatment."
She remained seated, unmoving.
Michel glanced back at her repeatedly as he carried Clay down the mountain.
Riya stared fixedly at the two, but said nothing more.
Only after they completely vanished did she slowly rise.
"Hmm."
Her body's condition wasn't great.
The dragon transformation curse was gone thanks to the Divine Blood, but losing control and thrashing around had left her muscles screaming.
"The horn......"
Riya picked up the broken half of her horn from the ground.
Touching the top of her head, one horn was intact, but the other had snapped off cleanly.
Somehow, the wound felt oddly endearing.
"......"
Looking once more in the direction Clay and Michel had gone, Riya slowly set off.
Toward the empire, which she had thought she'd never return to.
* * *
When I came to, I was on a bed again.
Michel must have brought me back properly.
'......It's over.'
Only then did it sink in that everything was finished.
The seventh calamity wouldn't happen now.
Plus, considering the abilities I'd gained this time, it wasn't bad despite the hardship.
At least I wouldn't die from poison or illness now, right?
[But you seem to have caught something bad.]
'What?'
Caught something bad? What did that mean?
[Do you know anything about dragons?]
'Why would I?'
Dragons, aside from when they're playing around, are a lazy bunch that just sprawl out sleeping.
Normal humans never encounter them in a lifetime.
[Dragons are extremely possessive. Once they claim something as theirs, they never let it go to anyone else.]
'Why bring that up suddenly?'
[Look at the back of your hand.]
Back of my hand?
At Gransesia's words, I lifted my trembling right arm and looked.
An exquisitely intricate pattern was etched on the back of my hand.
I knew what it was. The crest of the imperial family of the empire.
[You've been marked.]
'......No way.'
Seeing the imperial family crest, I was speechless. Only then did I understand what Gransesia meant.
'Why the hell?'
I didn't dislike the princess, but this was too sudden.
To be frank, we'd never even had a proper conversation.
'......If she's a clever princess, there must be some reason.'
For now, that's all I could think.
Maybe she valued my abilities and wanted me as a subordinate.
No, thinking about it, that was far more likely. It made sense.
The dragon transformation curse was a horrific affliction tormenting the Asktalin imperial family. Curing it would make me look like an invaluable talent from her perspective.
'I'll find out the details when I meet the princess later.'
Whether that day would come, I had a gut feeling I'd reunite with her someday.
She wasn't someone destined to end as a mere extra like me.