When they said they’d stay a few more days, Tahan was willing to give up Caroline’s nest. But Clementina didn’t accept. She feared that if she used her mother’s nest, even the faint traces of Caroline that remained would disappear and affect Tahan.

But Tahan only laughed at Clementina’s words.

〔Batum. That won’t make the Caroline I remember disappear. Caroline’s scent has long since vanished from that nest.〕

“You knew?”

〔Of course, don’t you know how sensitive a dragon’s sense of smell is?〕

“I know, I do. But you had your nose against Mother’s clothes smelling them.”

〔That’s just habit. Looking for Caroline’s traces. It helps. I’m an animal, you know. Hehehe〕

So in the end, Clementina decided to stay in Caroline’s nest. Lili was a perfectly good excuse, but Clementina strangely liked this place. Perhaps this was truly where Clementina should stay.

Only the fact that she’d be alone with Dion kept bothering her. Dion didn’t mention future matters. Though Clementina didn’t bring up their future either, she felt frustrated not knowing what Dion was thinking.

Still, sitting with her feet in the pond quietly watching dragons fly made her feel like she was flying through the sky. Kitan and Tahan even gave her rides sometimes.

To Clementina, Kitan and Tahan were strange dragons.

Though Kitan had abandoned his dragon rider, far from being sick, he seemed happier.

Though Tahan’s dragon rider had died, he was alive.

Both lived healthily without their chosen batum. But Lili, whose Dimint had died, couldn’t. Like falling ill, death was gradually approaching.

What was the difference? Perhaps people had decided based on dragons like Lili. Dragons who couldn’t live without humans, dragons who had to die when humans died—they’d set those standards themselves.

Only then could humans control dragons. By controlling dragons and keeping them in their grasp, they could rule the world with dragon power.

Sue had also used dragons as tools of power. For a moment, she hated those who regarded dragons only as tools. No one truly knew dragons.

What was the true nature of dragons?

‘What’s my true nature?’

Clementina hoped her sisters Claire and Bella wouldn’t experience such things. Knowing that hating someone while dying was pointless, she prayed their futures would be smooth.

Still, perhaps not mature enough, she found herself laughing at the thought that she hoped they wouldn’t live too well.

“Come at me! Kitan!”

〔Hehehe, don’t get cocky, batum!〕

Dion swam in the pond playing with Kitan like a child. Dion splashed water and Kitan launched water bombs with his wings. Then Dion dove underwater and instantly grabbed Kitan’s neck.

When Kitan flew into the sky, he leaped up, rode Kitan’s back, and flew together. Seeing this, Clementina burst into laughter. Then Dion recited dragon spells and created light everywhere. Dazzling light rain fell over Clementina’s face.

To spend such peaceful time on Diahart Island. Thinking of what came before, it was absolutely unimaginable.

And with Dion too. These were perfect days beyond compare.

Clementina couldn’t bring herself to use Caroline’s nest. Instead, Dion made a new nest using dry wood and soft grass.

When night came, Clementina slept in the cozy nest Dion had made, and Dion slept outside with the dragons.

But from the next morning, drizzle began falling, and by evening, thick raindrops started pouring.

Clementina had no choice but to bring him into her nest in the cave behind the waterfall. Though Dion smiled awkwardly, he didn’t refuse.

Clementina took out her mother’s diary and showed it to Dion. This was better than an awkward, strange atmosphere flowing.

They sat side by side and looked at the diary together.

“You’ve read a lot. May I ask what it says?”

“Mother said she got sick from the moment she learned Father met another woman. She must have been so angry she could hardly bear it. I would have been too.”

“I’ve never met another woman.”

Flustered, Clementina turned her head to look at Dion. Dion was calmly reading Caroline’s diary.

“I didn’t mean that.”

“I know, but I wanted to tell you too. That I have no intention of meeting another woman.”

Dion met Clementina’s eyes with a serious face. Clementina felt embarrassed for a moment and quickly buried her head in her mother’s diary.

“Hehe, then I can’t see the diary.”

She heard Dion’s giggling from above her head. Only then did Clementina raise her head so Dion could see the diary.

“So where did it hurt?”

“Mm, mm! No appetite, and she lost weight.”

Clementina cleared her throat and recited her mother’s symptoms. Most of what she’d read before was about Caroline’s illness symptoms.

Though Caroline’s body hurt, she liked living on Diahart Island. She hadn’t formed close relationships with dragons from the start. Like Clementina, she approached them slowly. The dragons who didn’t reject Caroline gradually grew accustomed to living with her.

Tahan was one of them. When Caroline first saw Tahan, he’d been keeping Leon’s egg alone for a long time. Right after Leon resonated with Dion and left Tahan, he guarded the egg alone. Though female dragons had no interest in eggs they laid, Leon had cared for Tahan as he kept the egg he’d laid.

She’d picked flowers for him, fetched water. But Leon met Dion. In the end, she had to leave Tahan.

Until meeting Caroline, Tahan had kept the egg like a habit for a very long time. But the egg wouldn’t hatch. Caroline knew the egg Tahan kept wasn’t dead.

It was a special dragon that would wake when the time came. But Tahan couldn’t keep it until that time came. So she cast a spell. Then with Tahan, she hid Leon’s egg deep in the mines of the Siara Mountains. It had been owned by Caroline’s mother, and her mother, and their mothers before them.

When the time came, it would be the golden land hidden by stone mountains that would belong to her daughter.

Once Leon and Tahan’s egg safely fell asleep, only then did Tahan finally let go of his obsession with the egg and begin living properly.

Clementina continued the stories written in the diary she’d read so far to Dion. Dion nodded and asked questions.

Sometimes Dion’s questions helped Clementina find answers.

They talked through the night. Clementina didn’t know when she’d fallen asleep. She only knew when she opened her eyes, she was in Dion’s arms.

The warmth she’d been so familiar with instantly narrowed the distance in her heart she’d tried so hard to widen.

The one-year gap didn’t feel noticeable.

Clementina pulled a blanket over Dion and went outside the cave. Thanks to the umbrella Dion had made from branches and large leaves, she no longer got wet passing through the waterfall.

Outside, rain still fell. Though the downpour had weakened, it was enough to cool Diahart Island’s scorching heat. Clementina stood for a long time watching the rain cool the hot earth. Hoping her own heat would subside too.

“Why did you come out already?”

Dion, awake at some point, approached Clementina standing before the densely wooded forest and entered under her umbrella. He’d run through the rain after passing through the waterfall defenseless and was thoroughly soaked.

“You should have brought the umbrella. You’re all wet.”

“The rain’s heavy so I can’t hear you well. What if I get a bit wet. This works.”

Dion gently embraced Clementina and drew his body close. After spending just one night together, he immediately crossed the line like this. Though his intentions were obvious, the pouring rain sounded affectionate, so she decided to let him do as he wished.

There wouldn’t be much time like this left. Clementina had missed his affectionate embrace, sweet body scent, and refreshing breath too.

“What were you doing here? Want to go into the forest?”

“I was curious where Lili’s nest might be. Could we walk through that forest?”

“There’s nothing you can’t do. If there’s no path, we’ll make one. But let’s go after the rain stops. Okay?”

Instead of answering, Clementina nodded. Strength entered the hand holding the umbrella. Lili might be deep in the forest. Clementina wanted to meet Lili again. Talking about her mother with Tahan had given her great strength. Telling Dion about her mother was enjoyable too.

Clementina wanted to talk about Dimint with Lili. She hoped it might heal Lili’s heart sickness a bit.

Just reminiscing about the same person felt like wounds were healing.

To Clementina, her mother was someone who’d abandoned her child. That fact didn’t change, but it at least became an opportunity to understand her mother a little.

When she confided this to Dion, he made a slightly sad expression.

“Why?”

“I felt that way these past few months too. Like I was abandoned.”

At Dion’s words, Clementina laughed for a moment.

“How shameless. You’re someone with three fiancées.”

“They’re not fiancées. I’ve never been engaged.”

Dion drooped his eyes and made a tearful face. For a moment he looked pitiful. But she mustn’t let her heart weaken.

Dion subtly took Clementina’s hand and went back into the cave. He grilled fruit he’d picked earlier from the nearby forest and fish caught from the pond.

After eating the simple breakfast, Clementina felt herself growing drowsy. She had barely slept at all before, but since falling ill, her rest had gradually increased.

Dion laid Clementina on the nest and covered her with a blanket. Then he quietly went outside the cave.

The rain had stopped.

The sky was clear and clean. Dion put his hands on his waist and looked up at the sky for a while. Then he approached Kitan, sleeping with his belly exposed near the pond, and tapped him awake. Kitan raised his head to look at Dion while his body remained lying down.

〔What?〕

“Let’s fly together.”

〔Where are you going?〕

“I want to find Lili.”

〔Hmm. Must you find him? That dragon won’t budge anyway.〕

“Clementina wants to see him.”

〔Foolish.〕

Kitan tilted his head back onto the grass. He clearly didn’t want to wake up yet.

“Men are originally foolish. When the woman you love wants something, you have to do it. Right?”

〔So you let her run away?〕

“I didn’t know she’d run away so well. So cooperate a bit. I need to look good to Clementina. There’s not much time left. You don’t want to see me die, do you? Will you help? Or not?”

〔Hehehe. Fine, let’s go together.〕

“Then let’s fish first until Clementina wakes up.”