Clementina thought Kitan was strange. Though Kitan had left his dragon rider, he didn’t fall ill. He didn’t go back to find the master he’d chosen. Though he’d chosen, he said that choice had ended.

Clementina thought Kitan was the only dragon of his kind in the world. A dragon different from typical dragon characteristics. Like a mutation? Clementina sincerely hoped other dragons like Kitan could also survive even if their dragon riders died or betrayed them.

The deeper they went, the fiercer the water sound grew. When Kitan lifted his wing to raise a large palm leaf, a massive waterfall appeared before their eyes. Water droplets falling from the waterfall spread into the air, creating a rainbow.

Moreover, many minerals were exposed above ground. Orange, blue, and transparent glowing rocks existed. Various crystal minerals lay scattered like street stones.

But what made Clementina’s heart sink wasn’t the surprisingly beautiful landscape. At least dozens of wild dragons were leisurely roaming about there.

Clementina gulped. Only one thought filled her mind.

‘Can we get out of here alive? Friend?’

Clementina put more strength into her clasped hand with Dion’s. Dion released his hand and intertwined it between her fingers. Then he squeezed harder than her. Like he’d never let go again.

“You’d better not do anything foolish. If you eat me, this person here won’t leave you alone.”

Clementina pointed at Dion’s face with her index finger. Dion deliberately made a scary expression and sent a fierce look at the dragon ahead.

The white-faced dragon with no left eye and a long scar didn’t bat an eye at Clementina’s threat. Rather, he began laughing as if amused, only worsening Clementina’s mood.

〔I’m Tahan. You must be Clementina.〕

Just as Clementina was about to snap again at the fierce-looking dragon, the white-faced dragon introduced himself with a languid face, propping his front paw under his chin.

〔I recognized you at once. I heard a lot about you. I heard you used to be quite tenacious.〕

“Who said that?”

Clementina frowned at the sudden praise. It didn’t seem like Kitan’s impression. Had her mother told him?

“Did Mother tell you?”

Clementina’s heart fluttered briefly at the thought that someone properly knew her mother. Hopefully someone who could properly talk about her mother was needed. If not a person, even a dragon would do.

Then she could know precisely about her body’s condition too.

〔I heard you were a persistent child, yet such a one easily gave up her batum.〕

“I didn’t give up—I’ve said that so many times. Do dragons really not listen to people at all? Look, I came here with him now.”

Clementina tapped Dion’s chest. Dion puffed up like a small bird inflating its chest.

Tahan shifted his gaze from Clementina to Dion.

〔Your batum? But why does a batum have dragon power?〕

“Me? You mean this?”

Dion raised his left arm exposed under his rolled-up sleeve.

“Rana- pachika-“

Dion recited the dragon magic spell Leon had given him. Then light flashed like lightning from his left arm. This had never happened before. The light that instantly illuminated the surroundings began shattering finely. The shattered light scattered and poured down through the air like snowflakes.

“Wow! What is all this?”

Clementina raised her hand and reached toward the finely shattered light, like trying to grasp snowflakes.

“I know, this has never happened before.”

〔Dragon power exploded momentarily. Pretty, right? Our dragons only have such gentle and beautiful things. Only you batum like spilling blood and fighting. But who did you receive this power from?〕

“Leon. He was my dragon.”

〔Leon? A nostalgic name. I saw him once a few years ago for the last time. The hot spring water there was quite tasty.〕

Tahan smacked his lips, then narrowed his eyes and examined Dion’s face carefully. Dion likewise looked at Tahan’s face with one missing eye.

〔Wait, then are you that cheeky little brat from back then? You pointed a sword at Carry. Right! Hehehe.〕

“You, you?!”

Only then did Dion seem to recognize the dragon’s identity and circled around Tahan. Only then did the diagonal stripes drawn in white and yellow from beside the eye to the tail become noticeable.

“A dragon you know?”

“I met him once.”

“Really?”

Dion swallowed with a dumbfounded face.

“Uh, well. When I met your mother, Caroline, I came with this one.”

〔Hehehe. Did you come looking for Carry’s traces?〕

Dion had said he’d met her mother only once. She’d thought Tahan would know her mother well, but the fact that Dion had also met Tahan was surprising.

Clementina felt the strange sensation that a clock was turning around her without her knowing.

“I didn’t come just for that. I want to properly know why I’m dying. Is there a way for me not to die? Kitan said you know a method?”

〔Well, did I say that?〕

“What? You said you wanted to meet me.”

〔I did?〕

Tahan turned his head toward the warm sunlight and enjoyed sunbathing with closed eyes. He seemed to enjoy Clementina’s chattering like a lullaby.

“Hey!”

〔Clementina. Tahan is old. Don’t be too hasty.〕

Just then Kitan tapped Clementina’s shoulder. But Tahan chuckled as if Kitan’s words were funny.

〔I don’t know the method either. But Carry lived quite long for a betrayed dragon.〕

Caroline had left home twelve years ago. Combining Dion and Custus’s stories, she’d clearly lived about six years. Six years after getting sick. Was living that long considered long?

“Can that barely be called living long?”

〔Dragons with wisdom live longer than humans. Wild dragons live at most four or five years. Among wild dragons, there are no dragons that became adults and grew old. But do you know how long dragons abandoned by their chosen batum live? At most one year.〕

“That short?”

〔But Carry lived about six years. Even for a human, that’s too short. Right?〕

“Why on earth did Mother pass away?”

〔We couldn’t know either. But without a chosen batum, dragons’ personalities change. They don’t eat well and just bury their heads in the ground all day. If such a dragon is nearby, we suffer too. The feeling is really, how should I say. Like sh*t. And what’s more unbearable is that whining, crying sound.〕

“Crying sound? Dragons cry?”

〔They sob. They cry every single day without fail. So they have no choice but to die from exhausted energy.〕

Tahan’s words were somewhat strange. The way dragons died was peculiar. The dragons’ end that no one knew. Dying from sadness, dying from missing someone—these were words hard for Clementina’s mind to understand.

Could such a fragile animal exist?

〔You don’t believe it?〕

“Of course not. Dying from sadness missing humans. People don’t even die like that. It’s hard to love or miss another person enough to die. And if that’s the reason, why am I like this? Why exactly am I sick?”

Tahan turned his head and looked Clementina’s body up and down.

“What?”

〔How about you? Didn’t you miss this batum?〕

Clementina glared at Tahan. She was angry at being told to speak honestly with the person in question right there. She could neither speak honestly nor lie.

In the flowing silence, the sound of Dion gulping was heard. Because of that, Clementina, who’d been straining her eyes, lost her energy.

“Mm, mm! But I wasn’t holed up in a corner crying because I missed this person. I learned herbs, learned archery, and took care of Leon. I was living well. So why? Why should I be sick?”

At Clementina’s firm words, Dion sighed so loudly it was noticeable. She wanted to hit his drooping shoulders for no reason.

〔You didn’t miss your batum?〕

“I told you. I was fine. I was living well. I was living well doing my work!”

〔You don’t love your batum?〕

“Ugh, fine! Yes! Yes! I do! I love him! I still love this person! Yes, I missed him. There are days I’m crazily missing this person. Being together was always natural, but now I can’t. It’s natural to miss him. How can a person’s emotions be cut cleanly like bread? I’m not a stone.”

Clementina sat down and began sobbing. She felt like the dam of her heart she’d tried so hard to gather had collapsed. The emotions she’d pressed down because Dion was beside her seemed to have spread.

Even with Dion by her side, Clementina couldn’t freely hold his hand. On the way here, Dion’s hand that grabbed hers saying it was dangerous felt familiar, which irritated her more.

It had been a hand she’d held well even without any reason. But now there had to be a reason. She’d cast the spell that they were nothing to each other, yet Dion entered Clementina’s world without hesitation. He was someone who could enter casually and leave casually again.

Clementina hated that.

They’d separated due to a contract made with dragon magic. But though their married life had ended, if they’d tried, there might have been ways to be together.

But in the midst of that, Dion had become Emperor.

Unless she was Empress, there was no way for Clementina to be by the Emperor’s side. Even more so as a divorced ex-wife.

So Clementina had given up early. Knowing it wasn’t hers, she’d decided not to be greedy.

Otherwise, she knew she’d surely collapse like now.

But how could she bind Dion to her side with her selfishness when she was dying?

If Clementina stayed by his side, Dion would have to fight fiercely with other kingdoms and Ronakia Empire’s noble officials. She didn’t have the confidence to watch that from the side. That would be cruel to herself watching too.

Dion knelt on the ground and patted Clementina’s shoulder.

Clementina’s face became a complete mess with tears and snot. Though Dion was happy at her sincerity, his shoulders shook as he forcibly held back laughter flowing out because of her messy face. Finding that hateful, Clementina pounded Dion’s shoulder with both fists.

Though Dion pretended to be hurt and exaggerated, he accepted all of Clementina’s fierce punches.

〔More serious than Carry.〕

In the old dragon’s eyes, it just looked like a lovers’ quarrel, so Tahan shook his head.

“What?”

Clementina glared at Tahan with eyes showing much white.

〔Carry wasn’t this bad. You really like this batum, don’t you?〕