TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: none
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'Alright. I've done enough.'
Lucy quietly moved away from Ian.
The closer she got, the more distant Ian seemed to become.
Ian was young and a talented wizard.
He enjoyed traveling the world, so he could meet countless women.
No matter how little Ian cared for power, if a king's or duke's daughter threw herself at him, could he reject her outright?
He might be able to now.
But as he grew older and rose to higher positions, Ian would likely start valuing worldly things more.
Lucy thought of herself as a nobody.
She wasn't particularly good at anything, nor was she born with a lineage worth boasting about.
She was just lucky to be born a noble lady and happened to be called 'Countess of Talian'.
If.
If Ian didn't choose her.
She'd feel bitter at first, but with time, she'd come to accept it.
Even this moment alone with Ian felt like a miracle to Lucy.
So Lucy waited quietly.
To be his resting place when Ian's journey ended.
"Ian. Whenever you get tired, come back to Talian."
Come back to me.
Lucy said with a smile.
"You'll always be welcome here."
Ian smiled back and replied.
"Thanks, Lucy."
"Hehe. I was pretty cool earlier, right? What do you think, Ian! Are you falling for me now?"
Ian stood up.
Due to their height difference, Lucy naturally looked up at Ian.
Lucy's eyes widened.
Ian leaned in and kissed her.
A slow, gentle kiss that felt like a soft embrace.
Slowly pulling away, Ian said.
"Yeah. I think I might be."
"... Huh?"
Lucy's face turned red all over again.
For someone who had boldly initiated a kiss earlier, her defenses were paper-thin.
Lucy, blushing shyly in the moonlight, was still beautiful.
"Sh-Shall we go for a walk?"
"Sure. Let's walk a bit."
When Ian held out his hand, Lucy fumbled to grasp it.
Lucy's hand was soft, befitting a noble lady.
"Shall we?"
"Mm-hmm..."
The two held hands and slowly strolled through the dark forest.
It was a night when the moonlight was beautiful.
------
The lively banquet had ended.
If Talian had been a densely populated (over 20,000 people) big city, they might have partied for days on end.
But Talian was a domain with a typical medieval rural manor economy structure, where farmers were everywhere.
One day of celebration was plenty.
Duke Araz had sent alcohol, otherwise there wouldn't have been enough to share with the commoners (Longtail and Sharpteeth had played a big part in drinking it all).
Now it was time for everyone to return to work.
"B-Big trouble!"
Ian left his lodgings, holding his throbbing head from the hangover.
What the hell is it so early in the morning...
But when he heard the report, the content was quite serious.
Ian immediately rushed to Talian Hall.
As expected, the wizards, including Ian's companions, had gathered.
"Ian! You're here?"
"Yes, Master. I just heard some strange news..."
Eredith spoke with a stiff face.
"Yes. We're about to go check it out now."
The unexpected report had come from the guards watching over the dragon's corpse.
Baron Damon had assigned subordinates to preserve the dragon's body in case some crazy people tried to mess with it.
There had been no problems until yesterday.
But as the night of the banquet ended...
The dragon's corpse had vanished without a trace!
Ian and everyone else were dumbfounded.
"If you want, I can teleport you to the dragon's lair immediately."
"Oh..."
If this black wizard named Antios or whatever had a contract relationship with Predius.
There was a high chance his hideout was near the dragon's lair.
"Let's go."
Ian said without hesitation.
If nothing else, they had to protect the dragon's treasure.
He didn't know how much was piled up, but it was the reward for slaying a dragon after all!
"Good. Ian, take this spatial movement scroll."
"This is?"
"Use it to return. You can save it and walk back if you prefer, but..."
"I get it. You're saying do whatever I want, right?"
Ian was planning to rip the scroll like a dog.
Just traveling back and forth on horseback would take at least a week.
It might take even longer if they gathered the treasure.
They could also be ambushed on the way, so using spatial movement was more beneficial.
'Having a space-time wizard is so sweet.'
The more he used spatial movement, the more Ian felt it was an overpowered magic.
The only thing in this medieval fantasy world that would make modern people drool!
Ian wanted to learn space-time magic too, but as with all space-time magic, they say the opportunity to learn comes naturally 'when the time is right'.
No one knew when the hell that would be, though.
"Let's go prepare."
Belenka and some of the Knights of Santiago joined.
Ian received Gerard's spatial magic along with the other wizards.
"Wow, I can't believe it!"
"It really is the Golden Mountains!"
The knights experiencing spatial movement for the first time looked around in amazement.
Ian totally understood that feeling.
Even as a former modern person, Ian found spatial movement fucking amazing.
"Everyone, stay sharp! This is dragon territory!"
The knights climbed the mountain cautiously.
But surprisingly, there was nothing on the mountain.
"There are traces of a campsite..."
"Looks like those orc bastards all ran away."
When they found the abandoned campsite, Inglan's speculation turned into certainty.
"There's no way an ordinary dragon's lair would have an orc camp below it."
"It must be the summoner's doing."
"Yes. The summoner must have tied the dragon and orcs together as his army."
Ian looked around.
The abandoned campsite meant the summoner had left too.
"The summoner isn't here."
"If he retrieved Predius's corpse, he probably fled to a suitable location."
The knights moved briskly to the dragon's lair.
The wizards followed behind. They were all used to walking, so the journey was over in no time.
"This place is empty too."
It was 'empty' in the sense that there were no enemies.
Except for the knight who calmly reported, almost everyone else was in a daze.
"Wow..."
"What's all this?!"
Upon entering the dragon's lair, a truly amazing sight unfolded.
Even Ian's jaw dropped.
He was dumbfounded.
Orc-made hand axes, rusted chain mail, broken spears...
Mountains of all sorts of objects and garbage piled up to nearly reach the ceiling.
"... Daiso? Don Juan?"
The dragon's lair literally had everything.
There were heaps of things that made no sense being there!
Ian was dumbfounded again when he saw a box full of hand mirrors.
Why the hell would a dragon collect hand mirrors?
Does it polymorph and look at itself?
"Still, there are some valuable items."
"Indeed."
Amidst the mountains of junk piled up like garbage.
Ian and Inglan smiled contentedly as they looked at a chest full of gold.
---
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