Sue’s hands finally stopped. Sue pulled out a fruit from the bag she always carried and bit into it, filling her mouth. Fruit juice dripped down her chin and neck. Sue raised one eyebrow and looked at Clementina while chewing the fruit.

“What?”

Clementina swallowed and muttered a low curse. That cruel woman ate even one fruit all by herself.

“Bring sugar. I’m going to make candy to give the dragons.”

After staying up all night, Bella dressed as a maid and knocked urgently on Jerbek Sichenti’s door as soon as dawn broke. Last night, she’d realized that pressing him had been a mistake. She’d shown herself as an innocent, delicate country noble’s daughter until now, but unable to control her temper, she’d revealed her true nature.

Her heart had felt ready to burst after seeing the terrifying dragon up close, yet the man she called her lover seemed to be subtly backing away, making her angry.

They weren’t even married yet. A proposal hadn’t even been exchanged. Even when proposals were sent, broken engagements happened—showing her temper already weighed on her mind.

So as soon as the sun rose, she knocked on her lover’s door. She simply couldn’t lie still in bed.

Bang, bang, bang.

But Jerbek’s room remained firmly closed.

Bang bang bang bang!

Bella didn’t care about others’ gazes. Not until a passing maid grabbed her shoulder.

“Um, what’s wrong?”

“Kyaah!”

Bella flinched at the unfamiliar maid’s voice. Naturally a scream escaped.

“My goodness, what did I do to startle you so? I haven’t seen your face before—where do you work as a maid?”

“Maid nothing, Bella is—hup!”

Only after saying her name did Bella cover her mouth and hand. Then she looked down at herself. Having stolen and worn a maid’s clothes, saying she wasn’t a maid would only invite greater suspicion.

“Who are you?”

Click.

Fortunately for Bella, Jerbek Sichenti’s door opened then.

Disheveled brown hair, soft brown eyes, revealing a smooth upper body with moderate height and appropriately lean muscles—the person who opened the door was a man Bella had never seen before.

Bella stepped back in shock, thinking she’d come to the wrong room. But the maid beside Bella recognized who he was immediately.

“Gasp! What are you doing here?”

“Huh? Ah, ah!”

The man who emerged from the room wore only a thin blanket around his waist. He rubbed his face with his hands and blinked hard.

He seemed not fully awake. The maid stepped closer to the door and lowered her voice. But the sharp criticism couldn’t be hidden between her clenched teeth.

“How dare you come out of that room—where do you think this is? What have you done?”

But the man shrugged with an attitude showing no intimidation.

“I didn’t do anything. That person did. I just did my job when told to bring alcohol yesterday.”

“Then you should have just brought alcohol. Why are you coming out of this room n*ked?”

Bang.

While the two conversed, Bella struck the wall beside the door with her hand. Only then did the two turn to Bella and look surprised, as if noticing a forgotten presence.

“Is the person lying in that room right now really Duke of Kowan from Umbarot Kingdom?”

Bella ground her molars and glared at the man. The man nodded with a bewildered expression. Bella pushed past the man’s bare chest with her forearm and entered the room.

The room was full of the smell of alcohol and a strangely sour odor. Bella knew this smell. It was the smell that came from Tina’s nanny when she emerged from Count Sustain’s room.

The smell after sordid *ntercourse.

On the bed, Jerbek’s round n*ked buttocks were visible between piles of blankets. White buttocks that had never seen proper sunlight from doing no outdoor activities.

“Excuse me, who exactly are you? Where do you work as a maid? You can’t just come in here like this.”

The maid belatedly came to her senses and hastily grabbed Bella’s arm. Bella coldly shook off that hand and slowly turned around. After taking a long, quiet deep breath, she glared at the maid and man.

“I’m not a maid. Don’t dare touch my body.”

“Wh-what?”

Leaving the two bewildered people behind, Bella left Jerbek Sichenti’s room.

Last night’s threats were useless on that man. Even coaxing him sweetly now would be useless. Why were all the men who approached her like this? Bella’s self-esteem hit rock bottom.

Though already late, she had to do her best to get Tina back.

Time was already flowing.

It was the second day since Clementina disappeared. Dion judged he could wait no longer. The night he learned of her disappearance passed with the thought that it could happen. But a day passed and night came, yet Clementina didn’t return to the room. Dion had waited in the room for her return the whole time, but when pitch-black night came, he tilted his head. No matter how much it was a sister’s matter, leaving her husband alone for two nights was strange.

There was a reason Dion didn’t immediately go looking for Clementina that night. At first, as soon as he realized Clementina had disappeared, he tried to move right away. But he held back. Now there was something called trust between them. They knew they thought fondly of each other.

One letter left by the considerate Clementina grabbed Dion’s ankle.

[Dion.

Bella wants me to meet him separately. It’s the first request my sister has made. So this time I think I’ll listen to that child. I don’t like him, but if I look very carefully, couldn’t I find one good point?

I’ll be back shortly. If something happens, don’t look for me first—watch the situation. There will be something I can do. I don’t want Bella to get hurt by rushing in needlessly. It’s a foolish decision, but this time I want to try. It’s a family business.

But it can’t be too late. Everything has its proper time, so if the time comes, please find me.

I love you, Clementina Aeskis.]

It was the first time Clementina had said she loved him. Clementina had never demanded anything regarding Dion’s feelings. That was why she didn’t express her emotions overtly. She always put a time limit on their married life. Dion had vaguely sensed it too.

Dion had knowingly pretended not to know Clementina’s feelings. He hadn’t given her certainty. Her attitude of taking their marriage’s end for granted had sometimes twisted his mood, but above all it was because of the contract.

Thanks to Dion’s left arm created by Leon’s dragon magic, he’d led the Gold Dragon Order’s dragons. Until now, Leon’s legacy had been the driving force making Dion strong.

So because of that strong dragon magic, the contract with her became something that absolutely had to be kept.

His head already ached over that matter. How could he maintain their relationship while keeping the contract?

That thought filled his mind. Though the ball schedule the Empress prepared had all ended, the Gold Dragon Order had work remaining due to the new demonic beast dragon’s appearance. They had to recover the demonic beast dragon’s corpse. And they had to confirm exactly whether this bizarre animal was a demonic beast or dragon.

The demonic beast dragon’s bulk was too large and heavy to move elsewhere for examination. And since it was already a dead animal, they judged it better to examine it at Tarian Gorge. Count Jacob Bass from the magic department was also there, so it was perfect.

Dion happened to be cutting the demonic beast dragon’s tail. An ordinary sword couldn’t cut dragon skin. So he used a knife made from a dragon’s fallen claw.

But unlike ordinary dragons, this demonic beast dragon had no scales at all. It was strange.

Dion rolled two small stone fragments in his palm. Then Arakan flew down from the sky. Berche jumped off before Arakan even landed.

“Duke! Those Akarti bastards pushed their army in through Lonzstone!”

Berche snorted and shouted. His thick bastard sword already drawn glinted in the sunlight.

“Setia has fallen.”

Dion couldn’t go look for Clementina. Instead he flew to Southford in the east of the Ronakia Empire. Southford was a port city—when coming by ship from Drasia, one passed through here to reach Setia.

The disadvantage of Drasia being an island showed at times like this. The thousands of knights in the Gold Dragon Order couldn’t all board ships. So half the Gold Dragon Order was stationed in Drasia, the other half in Southford, rotating periodically.

Only from Southford did a safe sea route to Drasia connect.

Dion divided the Gold Dragon Order’s numerous forces into three regions—Setia, Southford, and Lonzstone Abbey—excluding knights guarding Drasia. Of course the dragon riders also split into three groups.

To show the Emperor how loyal they were along each army’s path, lords would compete to offer their knights. The reason resembled why Jihelona Kingdom and the Kingdom of Paco, allied nations of the Ronakia Empire, supported knights.

Everyone showed sincerity for their own interests. On the surface it looked like loyalty toward the Ronakia Empire, but underneath it was like stamping their mark in advance on the most likely next Emperor.

Everyone’s nerves were on edge about where the next power would go.

The Akarti Kingdom attacking the Ronakia Empire’s capital didn’t use Southford, the long gateway to Setia. They occupied from where Lonzstone Abbey was in the southwest of the Ronakia Empire and pushed into Setia.

It was an atrocity that overturned expectations that they wouldn’t violate sacred land where those serving God had practiced for hundreds of years in an abbey.

Well, religion was only important to believers. To the Akarti bastards, Lonzstone Abbey was probably just known as a place making expensive tapestries.

Only after the Akarti Kingdom pushed in could they realize how geographically suitable Lonzstone was for pushing into Setia. When the situation came to organize the Akarti Kingdom’s army and reorganize the Ronakia Empire’s territory, it would also be the first place an army would be established.

“When will they come?”