Helasio returned to the castle in excitement.

[Jella! Cail!]

Helasio was just opening the closed window with his plump little body.

[I’ve brought incredible news…!]

Grab.

Helasio’s body was caught in a large palm. Because of this, his eyes were covered and he couldn’t see ahead.

[What, what is this? Is it you, Cail? I can’t see! Remove this hand! I have something really important to…!]

As Helasio struggled, demanding the hand be removed, his body was lifted up and then thrown back out the window.

[Aaaaargh!]

With a scream, Helasio flew far away.

“…”

Cail looked at where Helasio had flown with cold eyes.

“Sigh, that tactless little dragon.”

From behind him came Jella’s voice, grumbling that this was why he got his body taken and was sealed.

When Cail quickly turned around, she was getting up from the bed.

“I’m sorry, Jella.”

Cail quickly approached her.

“I should have gotten rid of that thing earlier…”

Cail casually said words that would have made Helasio jump in shock if he had heard them, while wrapping her body in a blanket.

Then he lifted her with the blanket and headed toward the bathroom.

Much later, Helasio returned, fuming.

[Cail Aleret, you ungrateful bastard! How dare you throw me? Your actions are becoming exactly like that witch’s!]

“From now on, knock before entering a room. That’s the first manner you should observe in the human world.”

Jella said, raising one eyebrow, but Helasio lightly snorted.

[Hmph. As if I would follow the etiquette of lowly humans…!]

“So, what made you come looking for us so urgently?”

Helasio, who had been raging, suddenly came to his senses at the question.

[Ah, right! I’ve found a way to recover my body!]

“What…?”

At that moment, Jella and Cail both looked at Helasio.

[My real body that was supposedly torn to pieces by the first Emperor and Arne!]

“…!”

[If we find my body, I won’t have to parasitize Cail’s heart anymore, and we won’t have to worry about when he might rampage!]

“Wait, Helasio. Explain slowly and carefully.”

[This necklace suddenly shone brightly and led me somewhere! It was an open space with a bunch of stone tablets…]

Helasio pointed to the necklace hanging around his neck and explained what had happened to them.

“The Guiding Star…”

Jella murmured blankly as she looked at it.

It was the very necklace she had wrapped around Helasio when searching for Cail.

Jella had also thought about using the Guiding Star again.

However, as a sacred object blessed with divine power, it had limitations, and when she used it to find Cail, all the divine power within it was depleted.

Normally, it would naturally replenish the depleted divine power by absorbing the divine power scattered in the air over time.

The older the sacred object, the stronger its divine power, and the fact that sacred objects didn’t work in Yuria’s dimension where divine power couldn’t reach—all followed the same principle.

But because five years had passed since Arne’s death, divine power was scarce in this dimension as well.

As a result, the depleted divine power didn’t replenish, and the precious payment she had obtained from Yuria had become just an ordinary ornament.

So she had hung it around Helasio’s neck as a warning to Cail not to think about running away again, and then forgotten about it…

“Helasio, you could use divine power, too?”

Jella asked Helasio with disbelief.

[Of course! I was a dragon beloved by Erkine, the true creator god of this world! I lived much longer than that ill-mannered youngster Arne!]

Helasio answered boastfully.

“…”

Jella’s pupils trembled slightly. But now was not the time to marvel at Helasio’s secret.

“…So, where is this stone tablet you found?”

[I’ll guide you! Follow me!]

Helasio flew up and wagged his tail at them.

Jella and Cail followed Helasio.

They passed beyond the outskirts of the castle, through a desolate field overgrown with weeds, and arrived at an open space.

[This way!]

Finally, numerous stone tablets buried under dirt and dust revealed themselves.

Helasio landed on one particularly large and prominent tablet. The Guiding Star hanging around his neck emitted a bright light.

“This is…”

As Jella looked at the unfamiliar characters engraved on the tablet with bewilderment, Cail explained.

“It’s the ancient language of the Hersha clan.”

“Can you read it?”

“Probably.”

Although it was his first time encountering the ancient language used by his clan’s ancestors, Cail judged that he could instinctively read those characters, just as he had once read Helasio’s magical energy from her body.

And the moment he placed his hand on the tablet, his guess proved correct.

“…Thus the master of the Golden Tower sealed the Dragon God’s body in the underground of greed…”

Cail quietly recited while running his hand over the characters on the tablet.

“Dragon God was the title the Hersha clan used to refer to Helasio.”

“The master of the Golden Tower is the first Emperor of Shunaibel.”

According to records, the first Emperor of Shunaibel, known to have sealed Helasio, built a Golden Tower and proclaimed the empire after ascending to the throne himself.

That Golden Tower was the imperial palace of the old Shunaibel imperial family.

Although he didn’t actually build a tower of gold, the first Emperor embedded gold into the outer walls of the palace to display his authority, which earned him the infamous title of the Emperor of Greed after his death.

“And the underground of greed probably refers to the underground of Shunaibel’s imperial palace…”

Jella murmured, swallowing hard.

Although the Shunaibel Empire had now disappeared from maps, Niel, who had become the Emperor of the new empire, had preserved the imperial palace where Jella had stayed without any damage.

So if the record on that tablet was true, perhaps…

“Helasio’s body might be under the imperial palace!”

[That’s impossible! I lived in that palace for years, how could I not have known my body was buried underneath it!]

Helasio whined grievously.

[Arne must have cast a spell on my body! Otherwise, there’s no way I wouldn’t have known! D*mn it, let’s hurry to the imperial palace!]

Helasio shouted, flapping his tail.

“…Right. If that tablet is telling the truth, there’s no need to hesitate.”

Jella nodded, looking at the Guiding Star shining brightly around Helasio’s neck.

Even if what was written on the tablet wasn’t true, it was worth checking.

However, to access the underground of the imperial palace, they would need Niel’s help, and if Helasio’s body was indeed under Arne’s spell, they would also need Yuphe’s help.

“I love you much, much more than you think.”

“I like you. I want to live as your companion, assisting you by your side for a long, long time.”

She still hadn’t forgotten their confessions.

Although she had left without answering them that day when she went to find Cail, she also hadn’t forgotten that she needed to answer before it was too late.

‘Since things have come to this, I might as well give them proper answers.’

Jella thought as she prepared to return to the capital.

***

The imperial palace of the Alpenhayer Empire, the Emperor’s office.

Niel was sitting at his desk, listening to Hayden’s report.

“Miss Jella’s pharmacy was closed again today.”

Niel’s hand, which had been elegantly turning pages of documents, stopped abruptly.