She’d thought that was it when someone died. Dimint had died fighting as a knight. She thought mourning Dimint’s death would rather insult him. She’d just thought that way and never thought about the disappeared Lili.

“I’ve never thought about it.”

Clementina smiled faintly, rose from her seat, and poured tea from the boiling kettle. Pale golden tea water flowed gently, steaming.

“I think Lili died. Or he’s dying now.”

“……?”

The three people stared at her with surprised eyes. Clementina smiled with a troubled face, then placed teacups in front of Custus and Hessen. Then she placed one at Lillian’s wandering seat and one in front of herself before sitting.

Only after Lillian sat did the round table fill completely. Lavender blooming abundantly in the table’s center gave off a subtle fragrance.

The three people couldn’t touch their teacups with expressions that said they couldn’t understand. When Clementina heavily lifted her teacup and drank tea, the three finally came to their senses.

“So Duchess, do you mean you’re also dying like a dragon?”

Hessen was the first to speak.

“It seems that way.”

Clementina laughed as if it weren’t her own matter.

“How do you know? Dying, without any reason?”

Lillian shot up from her seat.

“There must be a reason. Right? When does a resonated dragon die, Lillian?”

“Th-that’s when betrayed, when the master dies, and also…… But what reason do you have to die, Tina?”

“We’re like that. When betrayed, we hurt.”

Clementina spoke calmly in a gentle voice. Then Custus looked at her with curious eyes and asked.

“Caroline said that. Tina, who betrayed you?”

“I can’t know. I haven’t been betrayed by anyone.”

Clementina smiled faintly. Custus fell into the illusion of returning to long ago. Even while dying emaciated, Clementina’s mother Caroline had smiled this beautifully too.

“You’re saying you’re the same as a dragon now. Right?”

Custus vowed not to miss this opportunity. Only after losing Caroline did he painfully realize how deeply she’d entered his life. Life without her felt empty. He blamed himself belatedly for losing a good friend. He regretted not trying to know her more.

And during her time here, Clementina had become an even better friend to Custus than Caroline. He vowed not to lose Clementina easily like before.

“I seem similar to dragons. I understand their words, and though only three times so far, I’ve used magic.”

“Magic?”

This time the three voices merged together. The teahouse rang loudly.

“What magic? You can’t even properly brew herbs!”

“I mean not the kind of magic people talk about now. Real magic, dragon magic.”

The three people rolled their eyes and checked each other’s reactions. They seemed to wonder if Clementina had lost her mind from her weakened body. At that sight, Clementina burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! I haven’t gone crazy. Really. I can’t do it anytime, but Dion said so too. That it’s definitely dragon magic. For some reason, I’m connected to dragons.”

Hearing the Emperor acknowledged it, Hessen and Lillian readily agreed, and Custus began nodding his head vigorously.

“Right, Caroline used magic too. Real magic that human strength can’t do. That’s dragon magic. You have that magic power, but you don’t know how to use it properly yet, right? But is that related to you dying?”

“Do you know about the golden people?”

At Clementina’s words, Lillian and Custus shook their heads, and Hessen hesitated. Clementina asked playfully.

“Then do you know Bisha and dragon Rakane?”

It was a story everyone living in the Ronakia Empire heard from their mothers before sleeping. A story people from other kingdoms also admired. When the Ronakia Empire was a kingdom, it was the story of brave King Bisha who conquered the scattered large and small kingdoms and built a great kingdom, and the dragon who always fought by his side.

The golden village smelled fragrant everywhere. Taking a deep breath brought in refreshing air that cleared the head. Just breathing felt healthy.

Thanks to the herbal water Rakane brought and the herbs applied to his wounds daily, Bisha’s serious wounds had healed cleanly.

Rakane, whom Bisha loved, was special even among the golden people.

In the golden village lived an elder called ‘Pata.’ Pata meant wisdom—a name given to the tribe’s wisest person. Rakane was Pata’s granddaughter. And when the current Pata died, she would become the next Pata. No one older than Rakane was wiser than her.

But Rakane fell in love. Someone in love could make choices far more foolish than a five-year-old child.

Pata advised Rakane with eyes turned completely white even in the pupils.

“Don’t trust batum.”

Batum. It meant foolish one, human.

Pata sincerely advised Rakane, but Rakane only smiled.

“Two batum already left the village. They were naive and dull. Bisha is different. He’s brave and strong. He won’t make foolish choices.”

When Rakane defended Bisha, Pata raised white eyes and stared piercingly at Rakane. At times like this, Rakane couldn’t believe Pata couldn’t see her.

“Who is blind—me or you?”

Despite Pata’s worry, Rakane cared for Bisha. Bisha and Rakane gradually became each other’s only person. Time kept flowing.

Time passed. Once Rakane’s love became familiar, Bisha could see his surroundings again. Rocks embedded with countless jewels, an inexhaustible spring extending lifespan, abundant food without hard farming.

How nice would it be if all his family could live here together?

Dragons lived in the golden village. Dragons laid eggs everywhere. Eggs sometimes hatched, but the golden people gave unincubated eggs to children and wished for eternal life.

Watching that, Bisha recalled his dying old father. Only then did he remember his injured brothers.

Bisha should have brought dragon eggs to the one king, but he couldn’t. Dragons and golden people were already Bisha’s family.

Then one day, the one king came to the golden village, holding the shield of old age forward and carrying the sword of midday.

The one king blessed the surviving Bisha. And told him to offer everything the golden village had.

Bisha answered he would gladly do so. Instead, he promised prosperity to the golden people.

The one king accepted that promise, but before long, his greed grew. He wanted to make even the dragons they had all his own.

Finally, the one king killed all the golden people. When only Rakane remained last, Bisha raised his sword against the one king.

The one king cut Bisha with the sword of midday and pushed him off a cliff. Following his beloved Bisha, Rakane disappeared below the cliff.

But the two’s disappearance below the cliff was brief—soon after, a golden dragon flew up into the blue sky holding Bisha in its arms.

The infinite rope connected the golden dragon’s front ankle and Bisha’s wrist.

The golden dragon burned the one king’s head.

The kingdom where the one king disappeared filled with chaos. Bisha carried the sword of midday, shield of old age, and infinite rope, bringing peace to the chaotic world. He went everywhere with the golden dragon.

For the crime of killing a human, the golden dragon could never become human again.

Bisha eventually became king of a great kingdom. He married a noblewoman and had descendants. Those descendants became kings for generations.

When Bisha no longer soaked the earth with blood, the golden dragon flew off to the eastern sky one day and disappeared. And the golden dragon was never seen again.

Clementina continued the story with a voice gradually becoming languid as if losing energy. Her story was very different from what they knew. The great king disappeared, and there was a cowardly man.

Clementina smiled playfully and spoke regretfully.

“I think I’ve been betrayed by myself. I’m being punished for abandoning the person I love. Definitely.”

Clementina smiled bitterly. Hessen gently placed his hand on hers and stroked it.

“You can just go back.”

Clementina turned her hand over, firmly grasped Hessen’s hand, and patted it with her other hand.

“Hessen, he and I are completely finished. I can’t go back just because I might die.”

Bang.

“Why not! Just go! Let’s go!”

Lillian pounded the table with her fist and shouted. But Clementina had now become accustomed to Lillian’s violent behavior.

“He’s His Majesty the Emperor. He’s different from me, Lillian.”

“His Majesty doesn’t want to be His Majesty either.”

“Even so, he’s not someone who’ll abandon that position. He has a strong sense of responsibility. Besides, if not him, who would rule the Empire? The world will probably want him again.”

“Tina. You’re too young.”

Custus rose from his seat, brought back a long rectangular box, and returned. Then he ground some berries, put them in, and blew a puff of breath into the opposite opening to produce smoke.

A subtle fragrance spread through the interior.

“You don’t know what happens when a man goes mad for a woman, do you? When an emperor becomes infatuated with a concubine, he neglects state affairs and the country heads toward ruin. Will you watch the Ronakia Empire fall to ruin?”

“Haha. Custus. You’re overestimating me too much. He doesn’t love me that much. The Empire comes first for him. And you’re underestimating him. He’s not someone who gets swayed by me. Even when I disappeared, he came late because he was protecting the Empire.”

On their last night together in Sinasalion, Dion had made excuses that he’d been delayed in finding her because of the letter Clementina left.

Clementina understood completely. It was an unavoidable choice, a position that required it.

So she held no resentment. Even in these words she’d opened up to them, no sign of blaming Dion appeared. She was simply stating facts, and Clementina naturally accepted those facts.

So she couldn’t go to Dion just because she was dying.

The Emperor had three women who could rise to the Empress’s position. Clementina couldn’t appear and shake him up.

She wasn’t Rakane. Just because she loved Dion didn’t mean she could watch him marry and have descendants from close by. She didn’t want to become miserable from dying. Clementina didn’t want to live like that.

“I don’t resent Dion. I love Dion, but I cherish myself too. Even if I die, I want to preserve my dignity. I won’t watch him love, marry, and have children with someone else by his side. That would make my life too…… sad.”

“Alright. Then let’s do that.”