CH 74

In the middle of a room deep in the imperial palace, there was a stake connected to a thick chain, and bound to the end of the chain was a small dragon the size of a wolf cub—it was Girgantia. The dragon had all of a sudden disappeared right after it passed out, leaving everyone on the scene to wonder in confusion if he had fled, but soon they were able to discover him slumped and shrunk in the center of the audience room.

“He’s become small?”

Having turned into roughly the size of a small dog, Girgantia was promptly bound in chains by knights and moved to the room he was presently in. Kane brought over a chair and sat down in front of the dragon. He asked, “Name?”

His eyes still swollen from waking up only recently, Girgantia replied, “How arrogant. I am the last heir of the proud race of dragons, a great being the likes of you humans cannot dare to speak of.”

At that, Kane sent a signaling look at Tania, who had been standing behind Girgantia all along. She eyed the dragon as if he were an insect and then audibly stomped on his tail with the pointed heel of her shoe. 

“Aargh! Hey! How could you step on there again!”

Girgantia clutched at his tail and whined at Tania’s stomp attack, but no one spared him any warm looks. Staring coldly at the dragon, Kane said, “I will ask again. Name?”

“I’m Girgantia.”

“Who are your parents and what do they do for a living?”

“I don’t know who my father is, but he’s one of the three dragons my mother met during her travels. My mother was the dragon lord but I heard she passed away in the Dark Ages.”

Once the baby dragon, who was now obediently answering the questions, mentioned the dragon lord, Kane turned his head to where the emperor and empress sat cupping their chins. Wanting Cecile’s opinion on Girgantia’s answer, he asked, “Do his words match with the story in the book?”

“Yes. It was also written in the book I read that the mother of the hatchling was a dragon lord.”

Estian’s expression turned serious. After catching Girgantia, he had tried looking for the book Cecile had been holding while other people cleaned up the ruined audience room. Who would have known the book contained a spell capable of subduing a dragon? It was necessary to examine it properly. After searching through the audience room for a long time, Estian swept back his hair in irritation. “Where did it go?”

Estian was sure he had seen it fall from Cecile’s hand when they were dodging the flying fragments of marble, courtesy of Girgantia. He had thought it would be found in no time, considering its eye-searing pink cover along with its glittering foil, but he could not find it anywhere. The book was visually unforgettable, with its title and color easily standing out, yet no one cleaning up the audience room could recall seeing it anywhere. In the end, Estian had no choice but to return to Cecile with an empty hand. ‘We know the title, so we can bring in a new one anyway.’

He ordered Tania—who was said to have brought it into the palace—to procure another one, only to receive an unexpected reply. “‘I Ended Up Suddenly Taming A Dragon’? But I’ve never bought such a book before? I’ve never even brought it in,” Tania said, surprised. “Four-legged things being male leads!? I don’t read beast stories!”

At that, Girgantia snapped, “Hah, who’d romance the likes of humans? It’s creepier that you lot write such things. Though it seems you mortals do know how awesome dragons are,” only to have his tail stepped on by Tania again.

The strangeness of the matter did not end there. The Imperial Guard received Estian’s command to immediately go out and purchase that book, so they went to the largest bookstore in the capital and scoured the romance corner, but the book was nowhere to be found. They tried asking the staff as well, but they firmly answered, “The dragon trend has ended long ago, and we have not even heard of that title before.”

‘What’s going on?’

The situation seemed all the more stranger when Estian heard Cecile’s explanation later on. “I’m sure one of my previous maidservants gave it to me, but I can’t remember who.”

She had spent every day with those maids yet she could not remember? Nevertheless, Estian ordered someone to go to Navitan and bring the maids of the royal villa who had raised Cecile. He had planned on bringing them over anyway, seeing how they had taken good care of Cecile in her childhood, so it was only happening sooner than later. 

Meanwhile, Kane’s interrogation was coming to a close. Estian looked at the dragon, who had now become dispirited and meek, with mixed feelings. It was such a big matter and there were many witnesses, so the appearance of the dragon was impossible to hide.

‘Looks like people from all countries throughout the continent will be coming to us soon,’ he mused.

Ordinarily, he would not have cared whether they came or not—he just needed to sit at his designated chair and glare a little, after all—but this time he was not alone. Estian turned to look at Cecile, who sat with a pair of fluffy slippers on her feet since they were still injured. Noticing his gaze, she avoided his eyes awkwardly.

‘Just what is up with all this?’

How on earth was Cecile able to hatch the dragon egg and use the dragon lord’s spell? The more Estian thought about it, the more he noticed odd things about Cecile. When she put her lips on his bloodied cheek, he had felt faint for a moment. His blood was like poison, it had to be avoided by other people.

‘Yet she showed no reaction whatsoever to Eugendiph’s Blood.’