Dragons being friendly toward Dion was true, but they’d never been this affectionate before. They weren’t house pets like dogs or cats, yet dragons competing to fawn over Dion was a sight he’d never seen in over ten years as a dragon rider.

If anything had changed, it was that Dion’s dragon magic power was growing stronger. It had started after he went to Kentlen Palace to attend the celebration ball for the Duke and Duchess of Drasia’s marriage that the previous Emperor had arranged.

More precisely, it happened after Clementina’s confession.

Dion’s left arm, which had only been able to confirm dragons’ presence or emit light besides forming dragon contracts, was getting closer to true dragon magic.

Berche thought that was why Dion had resonated with twenty rock dragons.

Moreover, he’d barely slept since becoming Emperor. Partly to reorganize the new kingdom, but Dion had devoted himself to work day and night to find Clementina.

Yet he didn’t tire. His rest with closed eyes was truly brief.

It might be psychological, but his body actually knew no fatigue.

“Berche, just enjoy the vacation. Where else could you vacation more comfortably than here? We’ll stay here for a month and then return. So what did Arthur say?”

Dion was gently scratching the belly of Rata, now lying completely flat, with his fingertips. To Berche, this didn’t look like someone who’d given up at all. The Emperor of the Ronakia Empire definitely had some other scheme.

He couldn’t give up this easily. Especially when Clementina was sick—he’d turn away this easily? The person before Berche’s eyes must be someone else wearing Dion’s mask.

Clementina had given a one-month grace period, but opposed living together. If he really wanted, she said he could commute to the teahouse and return to Issiliad Palace. It meant she wouldn’t spend nights together.

Dion readily agreed. If Clementina refused even that, Dion would be the one in trouble.

Today too, Clementina had pushed Dion’s back saying it was past quitting time and he should go. Dion smiled and turned away. Tomorrow morning he’d see her again.

In the end, Dion had to create a way for her to seek him out herself during the month.

Anticipating Clementina would refuse him, Dion had already helped Jerbek escape prison and arranged for him to stay at a dye house in Langberry. If Clementina had returned obediently, he’d planned to kill Jerbek cleanly.

After everything ended, it didn’t matter if Clementina discovered his plan. Dion would do his best to satisfy Clementina’s curiosity.

Clementina appeared gentle with a flowing, soft personality, but Dion knew how curious and inquisitive she was. That’s why she’d spent a year agonizing in the herb garden.

Dion was certain only he could satisfy Clementina’s desires.

“Jerbek can’t walk at all. His fingernails and toenails were all pulled out again recently, and he has no teeth so he can’t eat properly. Would that woman take such a cripple?”

“That woman will. That’s why she hasn’t rescued Jerbek until now. She’ll want him to live long and thin. To have him completely, she won’t care that his body is a wreck.”

“So you deliberately kept him alive?”

Berche tilted his head and began pondering.

“Right. For that woman to take him.”

“Kentlen Palace’s prison security must be tight. If Your Majesty hadn’t deliberately released him, there would never have been an opportunity.”

“Everyone works too hard. I told them to do it moderately.”

“If the execution date had been confirmed, that woman might have appeared faster.”

“Then if that woman had been caught, both she and Jerbek would have died. But that can’t happen. Clementina wouldn’t be able to meet that woman.”

“Was that the reason? You said you’d given up.”

Unlike Berche’s flashing eyes, Dion calmly scratched his nose bridge.

“So I gave up on persuading her. I need a way to make Clementina come to me herself.”

Berche swept his forehead with an expression that said “I knew it.” He’d thought it strange that the stubborn, perfectionist Emperor would give up so easily.

“Do you think something will change if you’re by her side for a month?”

“If nothing happens, it’ll end like this. Clementina always cared about that woman. I should use that woman well.”

Dion sighed and squinted. He remembered Clementina’s gaunt appearance. He’d heard vaguely she was sick, but hadn’t known it was that bad.

While he wore fine clothes, ate well, and slept comfortably at Kentlen Palace, Clementina wore clothes only commoners would wear in that teahouse and couldn’t eat properly. Dion felt deeply ashamed of his complacency.

Of course, others would click their tongues saying it was all Dion’s delusion. True, Dion had worn fine clothes in a good palace, but he hadn’t slept or eaten properly either. That was no different from Clementina.

Moreover, Dion didn’t know Clementina greatly enjoyed her current life. If he’d known, Dion would have been ready to throw off the Emperor’s crown immediately. And that was also why the two didn’t fit.

“News should come soon. I’ve thrown out the bait, now I need to catch the fish.”

“Will she move this quickly? I think it’ll take more time.”

“Berche, it’s been a year. That woman waited a year. She must be anxious. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t approach the prison.”

“But she’ll definitely be suspicious. How could anyone escape from Kentlen Palace’s prison? He got out too easily. She might not take the bait.”

Dion frowned and looked at Berche with an incredulous expression.

“Berche, what do you take me for? Do you think I’d handle things that sloppily?”

“As an Emperor mad for a woman. Yes, I’m worried you rushed things out of impatience.”

“Hmm……”

Dion leaned back lengthwise on the sofa and crossed his arms. Berche seemed quite displeased about being left out of the proceedings. Only he and Arthur Reta knew about this. Moreover, even those carrying out the work didn’t know who’d ordered it.

“Do you know who delivers the meals?”

“……I know. Aren’t they knights from Umbarot Kingdom?”

“Oh! You did some investigating.”

At Dion’s sincere exclamation, Berche held his head high. He hadn’t done it for praise, but being surprised like this didn’t feel bad.

After Jerbek escaped prison, Berche immediately began investigating. His pride was hurt that something was happening without his knowledge.

A month ago, the person transporting Jerbek’s meals had changed. Apparently there’d been opposition when it turned out he was a defector from the Akarti Kingdom. But this wasn’t actually a big problem.

After becoming Emperor, Dion had permitted anyone who wished to defect to the Ronakia Empire from countries considered enemies like the Akarti Kingdom and Monk Principality.

It was a way of following the previous Emperor’s will.

But some opposed it severely. Though traces of war no longer remained at Kentlen Palace, they remained in people’s minds. No one had expected Kentlen Palace to fall so quickly.

It was a great shock to those who’d believed the Ronakia Empire was strongest. They’d been confident the Ronakia Empire with twelve dragons would never fall. But it had.

Most shocking of all was that the Emperor, who’d firmly held his position for twenty years, had been poisoned to death overnight like a candle snuffed out by a single breath.

Kentlen Palace’s broken walls and the Emperor’s death affected not only nobles but common people too.

That small crack gradually created division. Dion as Emperor showed the strongest power of any Emperor in history, but reminded people of his great-grandfather’s brutality and obsession.

Personally, Dion’s brutality and obsession stemmed from Clementina’s absence, but people who didn’t know this fact just felt like they were walking on thin ice.

Not knowing when the Emperor might go mad, they felt both respect and fear.

To calm that anxiety, Berche wanted to help Dion get Clementina back. Not simply for the Ronakia Empire. He wanted his lord, with whom he’d spent so long, to be truly happy.

Moreover, since Clementina stopped being with them, Lillian increasingly didn’t come home.

For his own happiness too, Berche had to pray for his lord’s happiness.

So he’d decided to return Jerbek to Sue. Only then would peace come to both households.

Clementina was picking up Leon’s scales in Leon’s nest behind Custus’s teahouse. Lately, many scales fell off after Leon slept and woke. The fallen scales didn’t disappear like Leon. Like other dragons’ scales, they crumbled at the fingertips over time.

She picked up Leon’s scales one by one, pale yellow similar to her hair color, and put them in a basket.

Sue had said she used dragon scales to dye cloth. Clementina recalled the dress she’d worn on their last night at Issiliad summer palace. Which dragon’s scales had been used for that?

Lillian had once brought rock dragon scales. Unlike regular dragon scales, they were flat plate-shaped scales that fell as powder, so she’d collected them.

After checking the rock dragon scales, they couldn’t be used to dye cloth. Swamp dragons were already all dead so she couldn’t confirm. But judging by color, it was unlikely to be swamp dragons.

Then were there other dragons experimented on?

Clementina was making various things with Leon and Kitan’s scales together with Custus. What helped Clementina right now was the painkiller her mother Caroline had made and used.

Caroline’s painkiller was made by mixing dragon scales with lily of the valley berries, but Clementina couldn’t quite make an effective painkiller. She’d been combining various things and taking them herself, succeeding in reducing pain slightly, but it wasn’t perfect.

Still, there had been a time when it worked.

Around the time Clementina entered puberty, Count Sustain reacted with extreme dislike and wariness toward the changes in her body. He seemed afraid of her becoming a woman. That fear led him to interfere with her diet.

He hated the idea of her gaining weight and wanted to control her. Eventually, from a certain point onward, unhealthy changes appeared in her body.

One month passed, then two. As the years went by, menstruation never began. The same remained true even after she arrived at Aeskis Castle. No matter how well she ate or how much weight she gained, nothing changed.

So Clementina gave up. She decided there would be no children in her life.