Discovery (3)
The next morning.
An awkward silence hung over the drawing room of the mansion.
Four people…
No—more precisely, three people and one dragon sat without a word, simply looking at one another.
"So what you're saying is…"
"This child is Schwarz?"
Bernus and Melissa were the first to break the silence.
"Yes."
"Haa…"
"What on earth is going on…"
At Milia's calm nod, Bernus and Melissa let out low sighs of disbelief and turned their eyes to the boy seated beside her.
Hair the deep blue-black of a night sky, a pair of horns rising from it, a tail sheathed in black scales, and amber slit-pupiled eyes that still held a faint trace of unease.
It was a form all too familiar to them.
"This is the first time I've appeared before you like this, Count, Countess…"
"I—I see…"
"I hardly know what to say…"
The boy bowed his head in an awkward voice, and Bernus and Melissa answered with equally troubled expressions.
Their reaction was only natural.
A dragon who had become human.
It was the sort of tale one expected to find only in fairy stories.
"So… you've been able to take this form since a year ago?"
"Yes… though I'm still not very good at it."
Schwarz nodded at Melissa's question and absently touched one of his horns.
"Hmm…"
Watching him, Bernus gave a low hum.
At that moment his mind was more chaotic than it had ever been—more so even than the time he had fallen into a barbarian trap and been cut off with a small detachment deep in enemy territory.
"Haa…"
But that was not what mattered now.
"Once again I find myself in your debt for Milia's life. Thank you."
Everyone present knew the truth of the previous night's assassination attempt. Without Schwarz, Milia would no longer be among the living.
"I only did what I ought to have done."
Schwarz scratched the back of his head, looking faintly embarrassed.
"Is there anything you desire? If there is, I will see that you have it, no matter the cost."
"If there is something I desire…"
Trailing off, Schwarz looked at Milia.
As though she already knew what he wished to say, she gave a silent nod.
"Haa…"
He had rehearsed the words a hundred times in his head, yet now that the moment had come he found them hard to speak.
Still, they were words that had to be spoken.
"I wish to remain at My Lady's side."
"…"
The instant he answered, silence flooded the drawing room once more.
Someone had once said that silence could be more terrifying than any words.
Schwarz felt the truth of that saying in his bones as he met Bernus's rigid gaze without flinching.
The die was already cast.
Whatever came of it, he could only face it with his head held high.
"Do you understand what those words mean?"
"Yes. I understand perfectly."
Schwarz nodded firmly at Bernus's question as the silence broke.
"Hmm…"
Bernus sank into thought with another low hum.
Milia and Schwarz, watching him, felt their mouths go dry.
Several minutes passed that way…
"Do as you both wish."
"…?"
At his completely unexpected answer, Milia and Schwarz both stared at him with round eyes.
They must have misheard.
That was what both of them thought in that moment.
"Why do you look like that?"
"No… is it really all right? To decide so easily?"
It could not have been an easy decision.
Yet to their eyes it had seemed almost casual.
"Of course it is not. There is one condition."
"A condition… you say?"
When Bernus shook his head at Milia's question, Schwarz asked, his face tight with tension.
Whatever the condition might be, so long as he could stay at Milia's side he was ready to leap into a pit of fire itself.
"One year. In that time you will remain here and learn everything required of a personal attendant to Milia. That is my condition."
"One year…"
It was a long time if one thought of it as long, and short if one thought of it as short.
But it did not matter in the least.
If he could stay by Milia's side, what was a mere year?
"I understand."
"Good. Discuss the rest with Milia."
"Yes."
Bernus spoke thus to the nodding Schwarz, and at the same moment the two of them rose, offered him a light bow, and began to move toward the corridor.
And then—
"Schwarz. Would you wait a moment?"
Melissa, who had watched them in silence until now, called them back.
"Yes, Countess. Is something the matter?"
"Nothing of importance. Come here for a moment, won't you?"
She spoke with a peculiar little smile to the tilting Schwarz.
Something about that smile reminded him of Milia the night before, yet he approached her with a hopeful "surely not" in his heart.
"Sit here."
And as the saying goes, "surely not" is exactly what catches a man…
Melissa patted her own lap lightly, inviting him to sit.
"Ha…?"
"Pardon…?"
Naturally both of them stared at her in blank astonishment.
"It's quite all right. Come now."
"N-no, that is, I mean…"
I'm not all right at all! Schwarz thought, trailing off.
He cast a hopeful glance at Bernus, praying the man might intervene—only to find Bernus placidly sipping his tea as though none of this concerned him in the slightest.
"Come here this instant!!"
"C-C-C-C-Countess!?"
As his last hope vanished, Melissa seized his arm and pulled.
With a startled yelp he was dragged helplessly onto her lap.
"M-Mother!? What are you doing!?"
"Um… Countess. What on earth is this?"
Settled on Melissa's knees, Schwarz looked up at her with a thoroughly flustered expression.
"I've always wished I had a son just like you. Won't you let me do this for a little while?"
"Ahahaha…"
Feeling her hand stroke his hair, Schwarz gave a low, helpless laugh.
Like mother, like daughter—how could their actions be so identical…
"By the way, are these really horns? May I touch them just once?"
"That might be a little… they're more sensitive than you'd think."
"Hmm…"
Melissa hummed thoughtfully at Schwarz's troubled look.
Ah. I'm done for.
Just as he resigned himself, Melissa reached up and began to fondle his horns.
"Nngh—! Gyaaahhh—! @()%*)($#*@!)($)*@"
"I'm sorry. I simply had to try it once."
At the strange sensation flooding down from the top of his head, Schwarz let out an indescribable scream, while Melissa smiled with pure amusement.
Given who she was, there was nothing Schwarz could do but sit still and endure it.
How long they remained like that, he could not have said.
"My dear. That is quite enough. You're making Schwarz uncomfortable."
"Thank you, Schwarz. For putting up with my little game."
At Bernus's pointed cough she released him with a look of regret.
"Not at all. If anything, I am the one who should be grateful."
Schwarz bowed his head politely to her.
When he thought about it carefully, Bernus had declared that he—an outsider—was as good as family.
Melissa treated him like a son.
And Milia had carved out a place for him to belong.
To Schwarz, the Valentine count's household was something more precious than anything else in the world.
"Then I leave our daughter in your care from now on, Schwarz."
"Yes, Countess."
He answered Melissa's faint smile with a faint smile of his own.
"All right. Let's go to my room now. We need to decide what to do from here."
"Yes, My Lady."
The moment Milia spoke and began to walk, Schwarz slipped free of Melissa, bowed once more, and followed her out of the drawing room.
"Haa…"
Once inside the room, Schwarz let out a short breath.
"You were pretty nervous, weren't you?"
Milia giggled at the sight of him.
"You were nervous too, My Lady."
"That's true. Honestly, I was a little surprised. I never expected things to go so smoothly."
She nodded at his grumbling reply.
Having prepared herself for the worst, she still half-wondered whether the present moment was only a dream.
"Haa… all the strength just drained out of me…"
"Same here…"
But the relief was short-lived. With the tension gone, an overwhelming fatigue settled over them both; Milia sank onto the bed and Schwarz onto the sofa.
They stayed that way for a while.
"Schwarz. Come here a moment?"
"Yes, My Lady."
A little later, at the sound of her voice, Schwarz rose and went to her.
"Sit here."
She patted the space beside her with her palm.
"B-beside you, you mean?"
"Mm. Why? Don't like it? Then would you rather sit here?"
She made a mischievous face at his flustered expression, and Schwarz shook his head and settled next to her.
"Gotcha!"
"Wha—!?"
In that instant Milia seized his arm and yanked him toward her.
Caught completely off guard, he offered no real resistance; his face ended up buried in her lap.
"M-My Lady!?"
"Shh. Stay still."
Clicking her tongue lightly at his stammering, she began to stroke his hair.
"…"
What in the world was this situation?
It did not feel bad, yet remaining like this left him with the odd sensation that he had somehow lost something important.
Whether she noticed his mood or not, Milia hummed a little tune while she continued to pet his head.
"I won't even be able to see your face for a whole year."
"I suppose not."
Schwarz nodded with a bitter little smile at her wistful words.
In one week she was scheduled to enter the Central Academy in Barenberg, the capital of the kingdom.
In his honest heart Schwarz wanted nothing more than to follow her, yet there was no way.
According to the school rules, first-year students were in principle forbidden to bring their dragons.
Because the first year was compulsory education, the academy simply could not secure enough land to house the dragons of every noble who gathered from every corner of the kingdom. From the second year onward, however, attendance was no longer mandatory; many nobles left, and space for dragons became available.
In short, either way the two of them would have to be apart.
Yet so long as he was certain they would meet again, that length of time was more than worth waiting for.
"I'll be looking forward to it. To the you of one year from now."
"I'll do my best not to disappoint My Lady's expectations."
With a faint smile, Schwarz answered her.
And so the day when the two of them would have to part drew steadily nearer.