CH 154

Cecile realized the voice rang out in her head, not her ears. Had the blue phoenix heard it too? Perched on her shoulder, it curled up on itself, trembling, before transforming back into an earring and dropping to the ground.

“Eh, what’s up with you?” Cecile said. Perplexed, she stooped down to pick it up and reattached her earring. She wasn’t sure why the bird was acting up all of a sudden, but it was clear that it’d been terrified of the voice.

Inhaling deeply, she summoned her courage to ask the voice a question. “Are these books fireproof?” Perhaps these were extremely precious books enchanted with flame repelling magic. She’d heard of something similar done before. Was it possible that all these books were like that? Even so, she was hellbent on burning them all, even if she needed to find a way to break the enchantment.

“They’re not books, to begin with,” the voice replied.

The answer was preposterous—if those weren’t books, then what were they? Perhaps the incredulity on her face had leaked her thoughts, because the mysterious voice continued its explanation.

“Each volume equates to a single world.”

“What? What do you mean the books are worlds?” Cecile asked skeptically. The answer she received was so far beyond her understanding. What did the voice mean by each volume equated to a world? There were mountains of books piled before her. They were innumerable. Was she to really believe that each of those contained a world of its own? Suddenly, she remembered the reason she wished to burn all those books. “No, rather than that—why do I keep dying in them!” Cecile shouted.

“Not you, Cecile.”

“But I’m Cecile!”

“No, you are the Cecile of ‘this world’, not the Cecile that died in there.”

The explanations were becoming increasingly incomprehensible. The Cecile of this world? The Cecile that died in there? It was too hard for her to comprehend. “Then, by any chance, are you the one who brought me here…?” she asked.

“As if! I didn’t even know you were coming here,” the voice roared with laughter.

“I’m sorry, but who are you?”

The voice was speaking as if it knew Cecile well, but no matter how she tried to rack her brains, she had no memories of hearing this voice before. Even though she posed the question, she didn’t hold high expectations that it would be answered.

Usually, mysterious voices in places like these wouldn’t readily reveal their identities, or would do so in a roundabout manner, as if directly revealing themselves would somehow disrupt a delicate balance that would trigger the world’s collapse. Secretly, she was looking forward to what fancy riddle the voice would present as a hint to its identity. Instead, she heard a surprising answer.

“The dragon lord.”

“Holy!”

“What’s the matter?”

“Because a legendary person’s name popped up all of a sudden!”

Cecile had heard of the dragon lord—chief of all dragons. She was famed for her power alone, but was even more renowned for her temper. Traces of her ‘anger’ still riddled the continent. According to rumors, the continent’s largest mountain, Mount Panar, disappeared overnight because the dragon lord had kicked it in anger. Of course, the simple reveal of the dragon lord’s identity wasn’t the only shock for Cecile, because… wasn’t Girgantia, the dragon that made the imperial chef fry chickens every day, the dragon lord’s son?

‘The problem is, I have Girgantia walking around leashed,’ Cecile thought. It seemed highly unlikely the dragon lord would sit still were she to discover her son was going around leashed like a dog.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, she decided to resolve the question that came to her first. “I mean, is it alright to reveal your identity right away?” she asked.

“What of it? This is the ‘last time’ after all. How can I go around calling myself a dragon lord if I’m not even allowed this?” the dragon lord replied indifferently.

‘The last time? What did she mean by that?’ Not knowing how to respond, Cecile decided to first introduce herself properly. She bowed her head in a random direction, and said, “Ah, I should introduce myself first. A pleasure to meet you. I’m Cecile Franvier Navitan. I’ve been living with your son recently.”

Would it have been better if Girgantia had been with her? On second thought, that rascal probably would’ve tattled to the dragon immediately that he was being treated like a dog. Also, hadn’t Girgantia said that the dragon lord was dead? Even putting his claims aside, the empire’s history books also documented that the dragon lord had met her end in the Dark Mountain Range eons ago, and all dragons were extinct too. But now… it turns out she’s alive?

“Girgantia’s at your place?”

“Yes. I touched a phantom beast egg not too long ago and Girgantia emerged from it. I’m technically the empress, so he lives in the imperial palace with me.”

“He awakened from the egg?”

“Yes, somehow…”

“It must be so tough on you with him being the one to come out.”

“Yes, so tou—wait, h-how did you know?”

“The rascal bedeviled me ever since he was in his egg. And that’s the child I got in my declining years. Ugh! What else would have driven me to kick Mount Panar?”

Cecile almost did a double take. To think that Girgantia was the cause that led to that legendary mountain disappearing! “Um, then… may I ask, why are you only sending your voice and not showing yourself…?” she asked hesitantly.

“Well, that’s because I’m dead.”