The Prince Who Wanted a Kingdom
“You want to offer your kingdom?”
"Yes. In Hestallion, Adrian holds power greater than the emperor himself."
“Power, huh….”
Seherbian’s expression did not change in the slightest as he listened to Mimir’s explanation.
He could not begin to understand what power meant to a dragon born with the authority of a god. Wasn’t a nation, after all, merely a human-made collective? No matter how much he owned a kingdom or meddled in its affairs, it would only be a nuisance. To the Bells, who already stood as the world’s Regulators, it was a contract without the slightest use.
Meanwhile, the prince remained on one knee, a hand pressed to his chest, and went on in a grave tone.
“From ancient times, dragon contractors have always appeared at the great turning points of history. Even now, don’t the four Bells still accept offerings and grant wishes?”
"That isn’t wrong. The act of hearing and fulfilling a wish is also a form of one-time contract."
Mimir readily agreed. Hearing it put that way, it did seem to fit.
When Seherbian gave a silent assent, the prince’s eyes glittered like a hawk spotting an opening.
“I also know that Winter Bell finds the people who keep coming to seek dragon power a troublesome nuisance.”
“Like you, for instance.”
“Yes, people like me.”
Even with that somewhat sharp retort, Raynep only answered with the easy smoothness of a serpent.
“Honestly, isn’t it a bother?”
“……”
“I’ll block off all those inconveniences in the name of the royal family. I swear I will work to wash away your stigma and ensure that the whole kingdom can offer you glory as its guardian dragon.”
Stigma.
At that word, Seherbian gave a dry laugh.
So far, there had not been a single human in this country who truly needed or respected the Winter Dragon—except for Kisha Hartney, the priest who had recently been appointed, and the people of her territory.
“Winter Bell.”
Though the prince’s reaction had been less than encouraging, Raynep called to him in a firm voice without wavering.
“Please contract with me, Raynep, and protect the Alferios Kingdom with your full strength.”
Then he even lowered his head.
Considering how the royal family had brazenly ignored Winter Bell’s existence all this time, the prince’s attitude was startlingly proactive. The first prince, born to be king and raised his whole life on a pedestal, could not have found it easy to bend his pride that far even before a dragon. Seherbian let go of a good portion of the negative prejudice he had held toward Raynep.
A child raised in luxury, but one who knows when to bow his head.
That was a virtue.
But still, he really is a royal to the bone—he never shows all his cards.
As a matter of fact, Seherbian preferred honest people.
Just as Kisha Hartney and Airen Varzian had been.
Still, I suppose he suits the role of a ruler a little better than Adrian does.
Under that languid thought, a sigh like a yawn slipped out of him.
“To be honest….”
When Seherbian finally broke his silence, Raynep grew utterly focused, tension clear on his face.
“I have no idea why Adrian made that choice.”
“Pardon? That’s…”
“There must have been some reason. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Adrian always liked humans.”
Seherbian, recalling the blue-scaled kin now left behind in memory from long ago, rested his chin on the staff and spoke slowly.
“But as everyone knows, I’m not like that.”
He disliked places crowded with people. He hated society, and he had no desire to pay attention to other people’s feelings and be considerate of them.
Just because he was a dragon-born with the power of gods, why should he necessarily be considerate of frail creatures?
In truth, all interaction with humans was a bother to Seherbian.
Whenever he chose to endure that bother, there had to be a proper price.
First, it had to satisfy his curiosity.
Second, it had to feel necessary to him.
Only those two things met the standard of an “offering” in Winter Bell’s eyes.
And so he remained the pickiest guardian dragon in the world, left alone as a creature surrounded by terrifying rumors.
“I have absolutely no intention of making a contract with some particular person just to protect a country. I don’t need glory, either. Being a cursed dragon to humans isn’t really a stigma to me.”
“Cursed? That’s out of the ques—”
“So.”
Raynep hurriedly waved both hands at the blunt wording, but Seherbian’s conclusion came first.
“I’ll decline your proposal.”
The interview ended there.
Prince Raynep only looked at him with a stiff face; he did not seem especially crushed or disappointed. On the contrary, he even rested his chin on his hand and smiled faintly.
“My, my… I’ve failed to make my first move count. Of course, I expected as much.”
At the prince’s attitude, which seemed almost composed, Seherbian’s eyes narrowed slightly.
People who knew when to judge the timing—and, beyond that, knew how to crouch and wait—were rare.
Prince Raynep was the sort of person Winter Bell, who had guarded the Dragon Shrine for ages and seen countless human desires, had not encountered all that often.
There was still a fire burning in those eyes, more intense than anyone’s, yet his expression and gestures suggested a step back, a retreat.
In other words.
A natural hunter.
He was the type who, once he set a target, would wait patiently for the right moment and seize it no matter what.
And the prey he had chosen now was—
“Lord Winter Bell.”
Seherbian regarded the golden eyes that hid their yearning in silence.
“Would it be all right if I stayed at the Dragon Shrine and helped out from now on?”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you a prince?”
The reply slipped out naturally, laced with skepticism.
After all, here was a human who had enjoyed every privilege of his station since entering the shrine, letting the Dragon priests do the work until Winter Bell himself had stepped forward. And now he claimed he wanted to help?
Liliana, who had watched that lazy behavior all along, was practically setting her eyes on fire behind him as she glared at the prince.
Whether she liked it or not, the prince of Alferios still kept his composure.
“Right, though I admit I was rash just now. To propose a deal, I should have first made myself pleasing to Lord Winter Bell.”
“……”
“Come to think of it, I heard you only recently woke from your slumber. Is there perhaps anything you need from our kingdom?”
What Seherbian sought, in the end, was whether Winter Bell was truly necessary to people.
Since that was not a physical object, it was not something he could demand of another person.
After a brief pause to think, Seherbian slowly opened his mouth.
“It doesn’t even have to be this kingdom….”
“Just say the word! We’ll support you with everything the Alferios royal family has to offer.”
Prince Raynep’s tone grew even more urgent.
“Please.”
“So you don’t like the idea of me going to another country.”
The reason no one from any other nation had tried to contact Winter Bell until now was simple.
Winter Bell lived within the territory of the Alferios Kingdom. For foreigners to enter the snowy expanse of Blanconia, they needed Alferios’s permission, and the royal family would hardly grant that easily.
Winter Bell was a kind of problem child.
Unlike other dragons, the silver dragon was difficult to approach.
The silver lineage, which froze and destroyed everything, was of no use in making a country prosperous. But it was far too dangerous a power to hand over to another nation.
No matter what, I have to stop Winter Bell from being passed to a foreign power at this point.
Even if they failed to secure a guardian dragon contract with Winter Bell, they could not allow him to be taken by another nation. That much was unacceptable.
Because…
“You’re preparing for war?”
Startled.
Prince Raynep drew back slightly under the inscrutable eyes the color of sunset. It was one of those moments when the fact that dragons remained dragons, even in human form, came sharply into focus.
“……You knew?”
“It’s impossible not to when you’re being that obvious.”
In truth, it was thanks to the information Liliana, the capable guardian, had reported to him in advance, but Seherbian brushed it off without a trace of guilt.
“If the reason the Alferios Kingdom needs Winter Bell is nothing more than a plan to invade someone else’s land and expand its territory—”
A voice without a hint of rise or fall continued.
“—then I wouldn’t lend you even as much power as a peanut.”
That was his second refusal.
Raynep was left utterly speechless and went quiet on the spot. He had kept his expression well enough under control, but from his tightly clenched fists, the injury to his pride was still visible.
"Would you like to learn more about First Prince Raynep?"
Seherbian shook his head at Mimir’s question.
Now that the conversation was over, dealing with the prince any longer had become rapidly annoying.
He knew the purpose now. That was enough. He had no reason to get involved in war or anything of the sort. So he refused. No matter what grand scheme the prince was building through him, Seherbian wanted no part of it.
And so Seherbian decided he would no longer waste time on Kisha, on Liliana, or on the person who had been waiting for him.
“Mimir, open a Door.”
Rrrumble—
As a door made of glittering ice suddenly dropped out of the air with a heavy thud, even the ever-composed Prince Raynep let surprise flicker across his face.
Seherbian walked right up to him and asked, “We’re done talking, right?”
“Pardon?”
Just as the bewildered prince opened his mouth to say something in confusion, Seherbian lifted his white staff and gave his shoulder a light push.
“Then off you go.”
“……?!”
He felt only a slight shove backward, but before he knew it, Raynep had been pushed into the Door, where a blizzard was already raging.
When the startled knights rushed in after him, dazzling light burst from the Door as if it had been waiting for them.
Spell activation.
Fwoooosh!
Beyond the closing door, a distorted face flashed into view.
It was the raw expression of someone who had never imagined he would be expelled like this, before he had even managed to compose himself.
“Winter Bell…!”
“If you want blind power, go find a spirit instead. Unlike a self-willed dragon like me, they’ll faithfully follow their contractor’s wishes.”
As he said that, Seherbian thought of Airen’s lightning spirit.
The yellow cat spirit, Daisy, had followed and loved her mage, Airen, with unquestioning devotion. If it were for him, it would throw all its strength into fulfilling his wishes. That was what spirits did.
In the meantime, the Door that had swallowed the prince and his knights dissolved into snowflakes and scattered softly away.
As though there had never been such a commotion at all, the Dragon Shrine was once again wrapped in silence.
“Master, are you sure it’s all right to throw him out like that?”
Flapping her white wings, Liliana circled him once and asked worriedly. Then she muttered under her breath, “Though, I’ll admit it was pretty satisfying….”
Kisha, too, watched with an anxious face, clearly unsure what to make of it.
Seherbian glanced between the worried guardian and the Dragon priest, then set Mimir on his shoulder and answered with complete calm.
“Yeah. It should be fine for now.”
“But—”
“I flung him straight back to the palace.”
It would take quite a while for him to come all the way back to Blanconia.
More than that, he’ll need time to recover his pride.
Seherbian recalled the prince’s frighteningly twisted expression, then casually let it drift away. Trying to coax a dragon with human methods—what a foolish choice.