Dion spoke while watching the Elmar Ocean from Southford’s harbor. Berche, behind Dion, stepped forward.

Berche hadn’t seen Dion’s smiling face in quite a while. Except for very early childhood, his face had always worn a smile even during battle. Such a bleak attitude was surely because of the Duchess of Drasia.

“It’s been five days since they departed for Drasia. If it’s Mago, she would have arrived in Drasia in one day even staying up all night. You’ll have to wait two more days, so stop that and go inside.”

Berche sensed something amiss about Dion not properly drinking even a sip of water. Until three years ago, Leon had been by Dion’s side. When Leon was nearby, he didn’t worry like this. After Leon died, Dion seemed to control his emotions fairly well, but his sharp nerves couldn’t be hidden.

Always smiling, but the sharp feeling couldn’t be erased. Cynical and crooked gazes often slipped out as sneers.

That feeling disappeared after the Duke of Drasia married. He didn’t immediately change to a relaxed personality. Like dye soaking in, he gradually changed that way. He became warm in a different way than when Leon was nearby.

But now neither Leon nor the Duchess were by the Duke of Drasia’s side.

Berche couldn’t remember how he’d dealt with such a sharp Dion. Though he’d done it well just a few months ago.

Despite Berche’s worried concern, Dion gave no answer, just crossed his arms and glared at the Elmar Ocean.

“Glaring at it won’t make the order arrive any earlier. And the person you’re waiting for won’t come back on their own either.”

Dion turned his head and glared at Berche crookedly. His gaze was frighteningly cold.

“If something happens to you right now, Duke, I’ll die at the hands of the Duchess. You’re not eating, and you’re not drinking water properly either.”

“You want me to eat well and stay hydrated all by myself?”

“Starving yourself won’t make the Duchess know, will it?”

Dion slowly turned his head and glared at the Elmar Ocean again. His gaze had softened slightly from before.

“I’m not refusing to eat. It won’t go down. Whenever I try to eat something, I keep feeling nauseous. Even the water smells bad, so I can’t drink it.”

“You’ll collapse at this rate. No matter how great a knight you are, Duke, you can’t beat hunger. You need to eat well to have strength. How will you go looking for the Duchess like this?”

Every dragon rider knew the Duchess of Drasia had disappeared. Clementina had always been by Dion’s side until now. They’d always been stuck together, so when the Duchess suddenly wasn’t beside the Duke of Drasia one day, everyone couldn’t help but notice.

But no one brought it up. One wrong word and their head might fly off. That was the atmosphere around Dion. Berche was admirably breaking through that atmosphere. It was for Dion’s sake, and for the entire Gold Dragon Order’s sake. Dion had to hold on to protect the Emperor and Empress. To protect the Ronakia Empire.

But Dion was trying to throw all this away like a pitiful protagonist over one woman. Not on the surface, but his attitude showed it. That excellent knight was falling apart over just one woman.

The Duke of Drasia was desperately holding back. He wanted to throw away his position as commander of the Gold Dragon Order and go find Clementina. But he hadn’t done so yet.

He’d been delayed two days because of one letter from Clementina. He’d been about to leave right after slaughtering all the demonic beast dragons. But then this mess happened. This dog-like Akarti Kingdom never had a single redeeming quality.

Dion bit the soft flesh inside his mouth. First priority was retaking Kentlen Palace.

The despicable Akarti bastards were as always—at first their operation seemed plausible, but later it turned out to be nothing but a ragtag mess. They deserved more praise for just pushing through and smashing things the way they always had, rather than planning with their heads.

“The ones who pulled this off aren’t the Akarti bastards. It’s Umbarot Kingdom.”

“Correct. They’re bastards who don’t know gratitude even a fingernail’s worth. Moreover, they’re ignorant bastards who don’t even know the size of their own bowl. They’re more cunning than the Akarti bastards.”

Dion nodded at Berche’s words, unable to hide his excited emotions as he spat. No matter how he looked at it, this was different from Akarti’s methods until now. Treating the truce agreement document like toilet paper was something they would do. But to push into the capital by taking advantage of Kentlen Palace being empty during the Empress’s ball?

He’d thought something seemed strange, but when he heard Issiliad summer palace had been surrounded by Umbarot Kingdom’s army, the mystery was solved.

Setia alone wasn’t enough—now Issiliad summer palace too. Dion’s plan to go find Clementina had turned to bubbles. He couldn’t step forward to find his wife in this situation.

“Kentlen Palace must be filthy now.”

“We’ll have to clean it. From bottom to top. Berche.”

“Yes, Duke.”

“Prepare.”

“Already? The order hasn’t all gathered yet. We can’t leave Southford empty. No matter how urgent, we must guard Southford. If we leave here empty, the Monk Principality or Fabrochinita tribal confederation might invade to help the Akarti Kingdom. That could be the next plan.”

“Of course we won’t leave Southford empty. So hurry and prepare. Lillian’s here.”

Dion raised his finger toward the Elmar Ocean. At his fingertip, a purple dragon flew elegantly through the sky, sparkling dazzlingly in the sunset. Behind it, hundreds of ships rushed toward Southford.

The army had gathered. Now it was real war.

Dragon rider Sir Arthur Reta faced quite a difficult situation right now.

Arthur Reta thought he was quite skilled at disguise. That was actually true. Until today at twenty-eight years old, while serving Dion closely, he’d transformed into people of various occupations and become the Duke of Drasia’s hands and feet.

Though the name dragon rider was ironic since he couldn’t ride dragons, making this a solution he’d found, regrettably Arthur Reta showed excellent skill at disguising himself and gathering information.

He didn’t regret meeting dragon Rata. He didn’t want another dragon either. But very occasionally, Arthur Reta too wanted to aim his bow at the enemy ahead without looking at the whole picture.

When the Gold Dragon Order left Issiliad summer palace except for the Dragon’s Eye imperial knights, the Duke of Drasia told Arthur Reta to remain at the summer palace. Not because he was weak in combat. Because he had to move most nimbly.

In a reception room at Issiliad summer palace, Arthur Reta was pacing back and forth across the room’s center. Rata slept in Arthur Reta’s hair. Today Arthur Reta wore a wig rolled up on both sides, so Rata seemed to regard it as a nest.

Another dragon rider, Ray Luium, watched that sight. Ray lay on a long sofa with his long legs propped up on the armrest, swinging them.

Of course Ray Luium wasn’t only watching Arthur Reta. He also stole glances at the brown-haired woman sitting on the sofa opposite where he lay, rolling her eyes—Bella Sustain.

Bella had her thumb in her mouth, chewing on it. At a glance, her thumbnail was worn down enough that someone should probably stop her.

“So.”

When Arthur Reta suddenly stopped his busy steps and spoke forcefully, Bella’s shoulders flinched as she sat.

“Why are you only telling me this now?”

“Better than too late.”

Bella’s shrinking voice was hard to hear, but that didn’t mean she was cowed. She thought she had nothing to say, but believed she’d done her best in that moment.

“Why are you so angry? What did I do so wrong?”

So her deflation was brief—rather, she could speak loudly.

“Are you calling that words right now, Lady Bella?”

“Ah! Don’t talk so loudly. Bella’s heart is pounding.”

“Are you certain that Akarti Kingdom mage woman took the Duchess?”

“……I don’t know that. The woman I know was just a maid. A woman with a mole under her eye.”

“And the Count of Suderel knows this too?”

“That’s what I said. Why do you keep asking the same thing?”

Bella began to suspect with her large brown eyes whether Arthur Reta’s head was lacking. But Arthur wished that misunderstanding were true. He wished he’d gone mad instead. This wasn’t something he’d planned or known about.

This woman was truly beyond common sense. If she’d betrayed them, she should have kept her mouth shut to the end! Why confess to him now?

Moreover, she seemed to have caused trouble and was throwing a tantrum asking him to solve it.

“Lady Bella, is this some child’s prank?”

“If I thought it was a prank, I wouldn’t have come here. Bella’s worried too, that’s why I’m telling you.”

Clementina was the Duke of Drasia’s only woman. Moreover, she’d gone missing while enemy nations invaded. Yet this person calling herself her sister was only reporting this now. Until now, Dion and the order had mistakenly thought Clementina was with Bella.

Moreover, this wasn’t a normal situation. The Duchess’s disappearance alone wasn’t the problem. A bigger problem had arisen.

“Do you know what situation we’re in?”

“I know, His Majesty the Emperor collapsed. But why did he collapse? Was he originally sick somewhere?”

“Lady Bella, you should be very careful with her tongue.”

“Oh my! What kind of speech is that? To a lady—isn’t that too rude for a knight?”

“Be honest. If you were worried about the Duchess, you would have spoken that very night when it happened.”

“How can you say that? The Duke of Kowan is my lover. We might get married—why would I tell you, covering him in guilt?”

“Th-th-this woman, really! Then why did you change your mind now?”

Arthur Reta wanted to slap a woman’s cheek for the first time in his life. Arthur only glanced at his colleague Ray Luium. Ray’s shoulders shook as he lay on the sofa with his back to them. He seemed to be barely holding back laughter.