Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Tyrant Dragon: Peria Alperatz (6)
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In the annex of the lord's castle, the servants were still bustling about busily.
They were hurriedly clearing out the space where the boy, once the heir to the marquisate, had stayed.
As if preparing to see someone off before long—.
The marquis's servants continued packing up Philip's belongings.
The stacks of tales that had filled the room were bundled away as luggage.
Broken toys were boxed up and carted off.
A dragon-shaped talisman from the Islat Kingdom, meant to wish for good fortune, was discarded.
A stone tablet engraved with the image of a sea dragon, brought from the Kartio Archipelago in the empire's south, was tossed into the trash.
A wooden carving, painstakingly whittled by one of the territory's young children, was smashed.
Everything Peria had prepared for Philip was now being treated as refuse and cleared away.
With each item discarded, Peria felt as though shards of her severed dreams were being thrown out.
The sensation of a sharp blade slicing into her heart.
Enduring that feeling, Peria gazed at her uncle standing before her.
"That's right! We should have gotten rid of all that junk ages ago! You're both adults now, aren't you, Philip? And you too!"
"……."
"Don't worry too much, Peria. It seems after your father steps down as family head, Philip plans to go traveling with him."
"Is that... so......"
Peria's dazed voice leaked out.
It felt like she was trapped in some thick nightmare, the words ringing in her ears like hallucinations.
Vicks Alperatz's voice echoed in Peria's ears.
Having been promised the marquisate, Vicks was already acting as if the world were his.
And the marquess who had created this situation merely watched Vicks's actions with a hollow expression.
"Anyway, it'll need to be cleared out once your father leaves. So it's better to prepare in advance, right?"
His greed-filled eyes scanned the annex.
Philip himself, despite Vicks's attitude, wore a resigned face with a wry smile.
His gaze seemed somehow empty.
Philip understood better than anyone how little time he had left.
That was why he didn't step in to stop Vicks.
Hoo—.
In the heavy atmosphere, Philip let out a sigh laced with complex emotions.
But Vicks pretended not to hear, continuing to direct the cleanup of the annex.
"Get rid of that thing over there too. Yes, the one right in front of you."
"Yes, understood."
"Now the annex finally looks neat. I like it."
Vicks said this as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
The attendants silently obeyed his orders.
Swipe, swipe—.
After wiping his sweat with a handkerchief, Vicks smiled and tossed it aside.
Everyone present—except the marquess—knew.
That Vicks's actions were solely to affirm his own position.
Philip Alperatz—.
As the traces of the marquisate's unfortunate illegitimate son were erased.
Peria let out a shallow breath, struggling to calm her inner turmoil.
'It's okay. I still have the dragon. Even without those fakes, Philip will be happy to see a real dragon.'
All the items Peria had brought were things she'd found while chasing dragons.
So now that she had a real dragon, they didn't matter.
Peria reassured herself like this.
Even if Vicks cleared everything out right now, if she showed Philip the dragon at night, he would surely smile.
She could dismiss this depressing memory with Vicks as a mere moment.
With that thought, as Peria watched the situation unfold.
Swipe—.
One of the servants cleaning the annex approached Vicks with a familiar-looking book.
"What should we do with this?"
"Hmm, and what's this?"
Vicks picked up the item the servant brought.
The object in Vicks's hand.
It was none other than the magic tome Philip had written.
Crude, inefficient old magic he'd been creating since childhood.
Yet it also held the wishes of Philip, who had sat bedridden.
"Uncle, that item......!"
"It's like this kid's diary or something. Nothing special—just throw it out."
But Vicks callously tore it apart.
Riiip—.
The magic tome shredded to pieces in Vicks's grip, scattering as ruined sheets of paper.
The magic Philip had created from his sickbed over time.
It was reduced by Vicks's fingertips to something unrecognizable.
The fluttering papers tumbled to the floor.
And Vicks's foot crushed the pages of the magic tome that had fallen.
"There. Throw it away."
"Uncle, that's... something Philip cherished so much......"
Peria's trembling voice rang out.
She watched the servant pick up the remnants of the ruined magic tome.
He crumpled the torn pages one by one, as if tidying trash.
Ah—.
A sigh escaped Peria's lips.
Incomprehensible fragments of emotion writhed deep within her.
"Tsk tsk. It's just full of childish nonsense about dragons and such."
"……."
"Remember this well, niece. Once you're an adult, you need to stop with the babying."
The trampled paper caught her eye.
His lecturing voice spread through her ears.
Clench—.
Peria's hand gripped the hem of her skirt.
"Living trapped in childhood dreams won't do."
Her eyes turned to the ruined magic tome.
The debris of shattered dreams rolled across the floor.
Her eyes turned to her father.
An empty human shell stood there.
And her eyes turned to her uncle before her.
A human soaked in greed stood there.
Vicks Alperatz—.
Peria looked at her uncle.
The adult before her was telling her to abandon her foolish dreams.
Foolish dreams.
Silly stories.
Tales she'd heard countless times since childhood lingered clearly in her mind.
For a long time, the people around her had said.
Dragons no longer exist in this world—.
It's best to stop chasing reckless dreams—.
Familiar stories revived in her head.
"……."
Philip and Peria had admired dragons since childhood.
After those two finally abandoned that dream—.
Would they end up becoming adults like that?
The golden-haired girl's eyes took in the broken sight of her family.
In the annex reflected in her eyes, no trace remained of the once harmonious family.
"It's all because your uncle worries about you."
Grit—.
Peria ground her teeth as she glared at Vicks Alperatz.
Her clear eyes looked up at her uncle.
Seeing the greed-soaked smile, she finally understood.
That perhaps she herself wasn't such a kind person after all.
"People's... dreams......"
She loved dragons.
She wanted to indulge Philip's reckless dream.
Even if everyone pointed fingers calling it foolish, she alone wanted to cheer it on.
But in the little time left, Philip had bowed his head to reality.
Now, she was the only one left here dreaming.
"Don't treat people's dreams like foolishness anymore."
So Peria lifted her head and directly confronted the fear she'd been avoiding.
She suppressed her bottled-up emotions, gathered what she'd ignored, and faced herself head-on.
"Peria, what did you just say......"
"If I dream foolish dreams... is that not allowed?"
"……."
Vicks's eyes, filled with bewilderment, looked at her.
The first time she'd seen her uncle's flustered gaze.
Yet she met the noble's stare with confidence.
"Even if the dream is a bit childish, a bit immature, and a bit—a bit reckless, isn't that okay?"
Peria Alperatz.
She was no longer a good girl.
"Because time was short, that's why... I wanted to show him even a little more of what he loved."
"What are you talking about? I'm doing all this for your sake......"
"I've known from the start. That it might be a reckless dream."
"……."
"That maybe, even in a lifetime, it might be a dream I can never achieve."
A dream she desperately wanted to fulfill lingered in her heart.
"Even so, I—."
So she lit the fuse in her chest.
"Even so, I wanted to show him a dragon!"
Kwaaaaaang—!
A surge of pure white light erupted from behind Peria Alperatz, shaking the mansion as it crumbled the stairs.
Kwang! Crack crack crack—.
Beyond the collapsing wall, a snow-white dragon revealed itself.
White scales reflecting light.
An endlessly massive body stretching out.
The grand magic crafted by a great mage of legend to fulfill a girl's dream manifested with a roar.
"Th-that's......!"
"M-monster... monster......! A monster has appeared—!"
"My lord! Are you alright!"
Screams burst out amid the echoing roar.
Those who witnessed the snow-white dragon pointed at it.
Rumble rumble rumble—.
Shocked voices echoed from all directions.
Peria Alperatz, hearing it all, revealed the dragon she'd harbored in her heart.
"......Peria."
"I'm done running away. No more compromising with myself."
A long journey flashed through Peria's mind.
It had been fun.
The journey to chase her dream had been fun.
And sharing those stories had been fun, so she—.
Had set out on endless adventures.
"I'm reckless, and greedy... so from now on, I'll do what I want."
She didn't care if others mocked her reckless dream.
She could endure being pointed at as a provincial lady out of touch with fashion.
It was fine if she wasn't invited to the glittering socialite parties.
So, that's why—
That's why—.
She simply couldn't bear her own dream being trampled.
"I'll do it. Next marquess."
Kwaaaaaaaa—!
The white dragon let out a ferocious roar.
—Tyrant Dragon.
The supreme magic to control the great dragon, named long ago by Philip.
Seeing it, Philip murmured in awe.
"A dragon... there really... was a dragon."
"……."
The fading boy's eyes filled with longing.
Philip's eyes, confronting his long-held dream, regained their light.
A bright smile spread across the lips of the boy who had achieved his dream.
And before him, the middle-aged noble, steeped in rage, bellowed as he stepped forward.
"Peria! Peria Alperatz—!"
Vicks Alperatz.
Peria's uncle, veins bulging, approached her closely.
His murderous gaze looked down at Peria.
Vicks spoke to her sharply.
"Do you know what you've just done!"
"Yes. I know."
Peria, facing Vicks squarely, responded confidently.
She might have done something a bit reckless.
After this, she might never return to how things were.
But she believed in the snow-white dragon standing behind her.
She firmly believed in the dream the white dragon would make real.
So Peria didn't back down and countered Vicks.
"You personally told me to have adult dreams, Uncle."
"You, you foolish girl......!"
"So this time, I'm trying to dream a little bigger."
"You think... you'll get away with this!"
Swipe—.
Vicks, glaring at Peria and trembling with rage, raised his hand.
His large palm prepared to strike her down.
"Sir Pio! Bring the soldiers right now and......!"
Peria's gaze lingered on it for a moment—.
"Wonderful! What an excellent tale!"
Clap, clap, clap, clap—.
Soon, light applause rang out from behind Peria.
Vicks's gaze, hearing the unfamiliar clapping, blankly turned to Peria's rear.
"Superb! Truly, it couldn't be more perfect!"
At the entrance of the annex, collapsed by the snow-white dragon.
Beyond it, a man with a monocle was walking in.
A man smiling with an eerily grotesque grin.
In that man's grip was someone bloodied, robes torn off, captured.
"Well now. Looks like the Leoblant Brotherhood's mutt dared to sneak in after our lady's power."
"Ku, Custo......!"
"The capable friends our lady requested—I brought them here myself."
—Nail-Grabber, Custo.
The massive man, mask removed and unconscious, dangled from the man's hold.
Smirk—.
The man who had captured the Leoblant Brotherhood's wanted criminal curled his lip.
Behind the monocled man, something savagely twisted strode in.
"Leave the cleanup to me—."