The Bracelet of the Blue Dragon
The Protection of the Blue Dragon was a bracelet artifact crafted from a rare mineral found only near the lair of the Blue Dragon Halerna, known as the Last Dragon.
And not just any mineral—it was engraved with ancient magic now considered lost to time.
There were even rumors that Halerna herself had designed the shield magic carved into it. At that level, calling it a national treasure of the empire wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
Of course, Lina had no idea.
“And it even has a short-range teleportation function… That’s not bad at all.”
To think he would casually say “not bad” after fastening onto his prospective lover’s wrist an item so powerful it could withstand a meteor strike right in front of her.
‘Maybe he’d only be satisfied if I assigned her a dragon as a guard knight.’
Kylus grumbled inwardly, utterly fed up.
Once he heard the news he’d been waiting for, Edwin immediately lost interest in Kylus.
His gaze, which had left Kylus, drifted back out the window—just as it had done all morning.
Specifically, toward the window that offered a glimpse of the Inspectorate building.
There was even a window facing the garden created for the overworked emperor’s mental and physical well-being, yet he deliberately chose this one.
Edwin stared at the bleak Inspectorate building that ruined the view from his office, his expression soft and tender.
‘The Fifth Division office isn’t even in that direction.’
After confirming exactly where Edwin’s eyes were aimed, Kylus grumbled to himself once again.
Instead, he urged his superior, who seemed to have already come down with lovesickness after merely two weeks of not seeing his beloved.
“The temple has offered to dispatch healing priests to the relief centers.”
Get some work done, damn it.
“Reject it. Instead, secure enough potions through the Magic Tower and make use of local healers and apothecaries in each region.”
At the mention of work, Edwin’s mind, which had been halfway floating toward the third floor of the Inspectorate building, snapped halfway back to reality.
Kylus didn’t miss the opportunity and continued speaking.
“The Crown Princess of Bellot has requested to meet the potential consorts one by one.”
“Do as she wishes.”
Edwin’s gaze finally returned to Kylus.
It was so clear and sharp that one would think he hadn’t been spacing out at all.
“It seems like a ploy to see if any of them can be recruited, since she can’t afford to have enemies inside her own house.”
The corner of Edwin’s mouth twisted.
“A double agent wouldn’t be so bad.”
After all, all five men proposed as potential consorts were already the emperor’s people.
Kylus planned to soon convey the emperor’s will to the remaining four, excluding ‘Everett Rohas,’ who was currently away greeting the Bellot envoy.
In that manner, several pending issues were quickly addressed.
But whenever even the slightest gap appeared, Edwin’s golden eyes would drift back out the window.
Toward that same spot where the Inspectorate building could just barely be seen.
After finishing the more urgent tasks and regaining some composure, Kylus finally couldn’t stand how often that gaze kept wandering there and made a suggestion.
“It looks like you’ll have about two hours free after this. Why don’t you go meet her?”
He figured it would be more efficient for the emperor to step out for two hours and then focus properly afterward.
Edwin pondered the suggestion for a moment before shaking his head with a sullen expression.
“I’m busy.”
At Edwin’s reply, Kylus’s face grew openly disrespectful again.
Of course the emperor was busy.
However, for someone supposedly too busy to spare even two hours to see his prospective lover, Edwin seemed remarkably lukewarm about it.
Kylus prayed to the goddess for patience and spoke once more.
“Today is actually more relaxed than usual. You just need to return before the dinner with the Schmitz ambassador.”
Edwin sharply shot back at Kylus’s kind words—which were so gentle one might mistake him for a priest rather than a mage.
“What am I supposed to do even if I have time? Miss Diaz is busy.”
“Ah.”
The perils of omitting the subject in conversation.
“Miss Diaz shouldn’t be busy right now.”
She had been busy wrapping up her work in the Ministry of Finance, but Kylus hadn’t assigned her any additional tasks.
“And she can continue to stay moderately busy from now on as well.”
At present, Lina’s direct superior as an Inspectorate official was Kylus.
Emperor Edwin was the head of all officials in the imperial palace.
In other words, Lina’s work-life balance was entirely in their hands.
Edwin and Kylus’s eyes met in midair.
Edwin’s golden eyes were filled with a burning trust that Kylus had never seen in his twenty-five years of life.
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t look suspicious. I’ll handle it well.”
Caught off guard for a moment by the strangely powerful look in Edwin’s eyes, Kylus found himself voluntarily making the promise.
But there was one more problem. It wasn’t just Lina who was busy.
“I wish I had two bodies.”
Edwin narrowed his eyes in dismay as yet another issue appeared the moment one was resolved.
Kylus, seeing his friend and superior’s exhausted face—something he rarely witnessed—finally made up his mind.
“I will commute to the palace for the time being.”
Kylus declared solemnly.
It meant he would take over Edwin’s duties to secure time for his date.
At the unexpected brilliant idea, Edwin’s complexion flipped like the turn of a hand.
“Kylus, I will never forget your sacrifice.”
It meant that since Kylus was already being overworked, he would now willingly let himself be worked even harder. And voluntarily, at that.
“I’ll be back shortly.”
Watching Edwin disappear without even looking back, Kylus felt a twinge of regret.
‘Did he have to accept it so immediately?’
But what was done was done.
‘This is all an investment for the future.’
Kylus comforted himself. Still, for some reason, his stomach felt a little sour.
* * *
Once I finally realized it, I was astonished I hadn’t noticed sooner.
No matter how common the name Beth might be!
Beth Robertus.
She was Kylus’s distant cousin and the half-sister of the Saintess, the original female lead of the novel.
‘So that Beth was here at this time.’
In the original story, she had been dispatched to the provinces for a mission and only returned around the middle of the tale.
‘It was the trigger that revealed the Saintess’s family history and created a crisis for her new lover, I suppose.’
The Robertus family had been the previous emperor’s closest aides, making them essentially enemies to the current emperor.
‘So it’s basically a romance fantasy version of Romeo and Juliet.’
A morning drama version, complete with revenge and plenty of bitterness.
The Saintess, already looked down upon by certain nobles who valued status because of her orphan background, suffered a fatal blow to her reputation once it became known she carried the blood of a traitor.
The nobles who had scorned her naturally gained momentum.
‘In truth, revealing the Saintess’s family history was a scheme orchestrated by the temple the moment her position grew stronger day by day.’
After she awakened as the Saintess, they had outwardly treated her like a precious tongue in their mouth, but in decisive moments, they played the card they had prepared in advance to manipulate her as they pleased.
‘This was the pinnacle of the original novel’s frustrating plot devices.’
Spreading rumors was actually one of the milder evils committed by the High Priest, the novel’s villain.
The real reason the problem escalated was that most of the emperor’s subordinates came from families that had followed the previous crown prince—his father.
Once it was revealed that the Saintess was a member of the Robertus family, internal divisions grew extremely severe.
It even became an issue that Kylus was protecting Beth, leading to people trying to drive a wedge between Kylus and the emperor.
‘In the end, the emperor stepped in and cleaned it up.’
And not in a gentle way.
‘Maybe I can intervene here.’
I could inform her of the secret of her birth before the temple spreads malicious rumors, allowing her to prepare in advance.
‘Or I could use this to put the Saintess in my debt.’
Since I could no longer live as a mere extra, earning the goodwill of the main characters would be a useful card to have.
‘It’s not that I don’t have calculations in mind, but…’
To be honest, the desire to do it outweighed any sense of necessity.
‘I will protect our female lead no matter what.’
In my previous life, I had been quite the veteran reader of romance fantasy novels.
And one of my favorite female leads was Ivetta, the heroine of this very novel.
As was typical for female protagonists in regression-themed romance fantasy, Ivetta’s first life had been utterly miserable.
‘The novel never revealed who Ivetta’s mother was.’
Readers had speculated she was one of the many women the dissolute Marquis Robertus had toyed with.
‘An orphan abandoned as a newborn at a temple. And of all places, the priest in charge of that temple was a loyal minion of the villain. The comments claiming Ivetta’s pink hair probably had more salt content than Himalayan pink salt used to dominate the best comments section.’
And after awakening her divine power, she was even brainwashed and used by the High Priest because she had no powerful backers.
Even after meeting such a tragic end and regressing, Ivetta remained a good person.
I loved that about her.