Flutter—

A single sheet of paper tucked inside fell out, revealing a drawing. No, it looked like writing.

Clementina’s golden eyes widened as she stammered.

“Di, Di, Dion!”

At Clementina’s call, Dion rushed over in one stride. Clementina opened the book and showed it to Dion. Like her, he looked amazed and frowned.

These were things they’d seen at Siara Mine and drawn on the final protective barrier placed on Leon now.

The first page listed characters whose meaning they couldn’t understand. Seventy-four characters total. Clementina picked up the fallen paper. The paper was written in Ronakia Empire’s language. Her mother’s handwriting. When she placed the paper alongside the book, the letters were written at exactly the same intervals.

Her mother had written the translation herself. An absurd thought suddenly came to mind. But she felt certain her guess was correct.

“This is……”

“I think you’re right. It’s dragon magic.”

Dion took the book Clementina offered and slowly turned it page by page. He placed Caroline’s translation beside it and tried reading one easy-looking sentence.

“Bico— Pachika—”

When Dion opened his mouth, light simultaneously shone from his left arm. Then the small campfire flames before them suddenly intensified and began blazing fiercely.

“Kyaah!”

When Clementina raised her hands at the hot flames, Dion blocked the front and embraced her. The flames showed no sign of dying down. Dion frantically flipped through the book he’d just looked at and spoke.

“Bico— Ksika—”

Before Dion’s words finished, the fire instantly disappeared, leaving only embers.

“Whoa!”

Dion breathed roughly. He seemed startled too.

“How did you do that?”

Clementina asked while lifting Dion’s left arm and examining it from all angles.

“I wonder, how did it happen? Amazing!”

Dion also looked at his left arm with suspicious eyes. Since Leon had newly created it, he’d considered it part of his body, but his left arm suddenly felt unfamiliar.

“You try too.”

Dion stood Clementina up and stepped back two paces. Since he was like this, he worried that Clementina, with dragon blood flowing through her, might create even fiercer flames. This had to be confirmed.

The book filled with dragon spells wasn’t for Dion but something Caroline had prepared for Clementina just in case. But Clementina hesitated. She wavered uncertainly, not knowing what to do.

“How do I do it? Dion clearly has dragon power. But I have nothing.”

“Caroline did it too. You can do it.”

“Mm, mm!”

Encouraged by Dion’s support, Clementina straightened her index finger and pointed at where embers remained.

“Bi, Bico— Pa, Pachika?”

“You need to speak confidently and clearly.”

“Bico— Pachika—”

Clementina recited the spell in a clear, precise voice, but nothing happened.

“Uh……”

Having expected tremendous flames, Dion couldn’t find words and scratched his head. Glancing down, he saw Clementina’s entire body had flushed red. Of course, her body wasn’t on fire.

“Dion, I’m incredibly embarrassed right now.”

Clementina finally buried her face in both hands and mumbled. When Dion carefully patted her shoulder, she swatted his touch away.

Whoosh—

Before the embarrassing moment could even end, Kitan, who hadn’t shown himself for a long while, finished flying and approached Dion and Clementina, folding his wings.

Feeling glad, Clementina readily reached toward Kitan. Kitan offered his head and accepted Clementina’s touch.

“Where did you go?”

At Clementina’s question, Kitan briefly met Dion’s eyes. Dion slightly shook his head without Clementina knowing.

〔I went to check where that woman is.〕

“Really? You went alone? Why?”

〔When I saw her last time, something seemed off. That woman doesn’t seem sane.〕

“What do you mean?”

Kitan swallowed his answer and turned his head to look at Tahan.

〔Tahan.〕

Tahan, who always lay on the flowerbed, raised his head to look at Kitan. Though his attitude seemed extremely bored, his face never lost its smile.

〔Looks like we need to help our Clementina.〕

Only then did Tahan rise. Sensing Kitan’s ominous atmosphere, Clementina stroked Kitan’s neck with an anxious heart.

“What’s wrong?”

〔That woman seems to be trying to kill one of the dragons she chose.〕

Kitan’s story went beyond shocking. Clementina couldn’t believe it at all. Not a wild dragon, but trying to kill her own resonated dragon?

“Why?!”

〔Really?〕

Tahan had quietly approached their side without anyone knowing when. At Clementina’s shrill scream, the wild dragons pricked up their ears and watched them.

〔I don’t know what that batum is trying to do. But she’s tied up the dragon, and beside it she’s sharpening a knife. Then she brought out a man and sharpened another knife. Like a knife for the man.〕

“What? What does that mean? Who is she trying to kill? This won’t do, let’s go there with me now.”

〔No.〕

Tahan spoke while lowering his head. Clementina felt anger surge up instantly.

“Tahan, I don’t know how close you are with that woman, but you can’t just say no so easily. It’s a dragon that resonated with that woman. That dragon must know exactly what’s going to happen to it! Being killed by its own master. Just staying like this is too much! We can’t just sit here with our hands folded.”

Even when Clementina shouted, Tahan only lowered his head glumly without budging. He looked so pitiful that anyone watching might mistake her for scolding the dragon. Moreover, Kitan kept looking back. He glanced behind unusually often and sniffed.

〔That’s not what I mean. We can’t handle Sue. That child has already grown too much. She’s not the girl I knew. Did you finish reading Carry’s diary?〕

Tahan examined the book Clementina held. After confirming it wasn’t a diary, he nodded.

“This one and one more remain. Mother seemed to like Sue very much. Like a daughter. While throwing away her real daughters.”

〔Looks like the part where Carry and Sue fought hasn’t come up yet?〕

At Tahan’s words, Clementina’s eyes widened. Until now in the diary, her mother and Sue had seemed like a well-matched teacher-student relationship, affectionate mother-daughter, friendly companions.

“Mother fought with Sue? There was no such story. Is it in the remaining diary?”

Clementina shook the two books Dion had brought.

〔Carry wrote constantly while here. That child became a woman as time passed. And she fought a lot with Carry. Carry genuinely cared for Sue. But Sue found Carry bothersome. Then eventually came to distrust her.〕

“What does that mean?”

〔Sue only thought of using Carry. Used her as a tool to survive. Though Carry seemed willing to be a tool even knowing this, Carry’s thoughts gradually changed as Sue became an adult.〕

“Why did she suddenly change? Looking at this, it doesn’t seem like she’d change easily. She seems to cherish her very much.”

〔Sue once brought a batum to this island. When Carry went there, the batum was already dead. With dragon wings attached to the back. Carry was shocked, but Sue laughed. When Carry got angry asking what she was doing, she said she was curious. Curious what would happen if dragon wings were attached to a human body.〕

“She’s insane.”

〔She said it didn’t seem to work well, so she’d try carefully from the beginning. Sue was curious how dragons affected humans. She wanted to experiment on people to see if eating dragon eggs or dragon meat could make them transform like dragons. Carry tried to stop Sue. Said she mustn’t do such things. But Sue didn’t listen to Carry. Carry couldn’t help it either. Just then, Carry’s body rapidly worsened.〕

Transform like dragons? King Langston of Akarti Kingdom came to Dion’s mind. With skin transformed like snake scales, he’d clearly been Sue’s test subject.

“Then, now perhaps?”

〔What state did you say Sue’s batum was in?〕

Tahan looked up at the sky blankly with a despondent face. He seemed to recall that place, that time from long ago that Clementina didn’t even know. Those briefly good times worth remembering.

〔I didn’t approach close enough to see in detail, so I don’t know exactly either. But the condition isn’t good. Breathing heavily and hunched over.〕

Kitan narrowed his eyes and tried hard to recall the scene he’d just seen.

〔Looks like Sue’s experiment is almost finished.〕

“But though she experimented on demonic beasts and dragons, she never experimented on humans. Would she really recklessly do such a thing with someone she loves?”

〔What if the batum that child chose is really dying?〕

“How exactly does she plan to save him? That woman is really insane! What do we do? We can’t leave it like this. I don’t care whether that man lives or dies, but shouldn’t we save the dragon?”

〔Hehehe, the batum can die but let’s save the dragon? You’re really crazy too? Hehehe.〕

“Don’t joke. So what are you saying we should do? Are we going now?”

〔That’s why I’m saying we can’t go like this. The two dragons there will desperately try to protect Sue. Because she’s their master. If they attack seriously, we’re no match. Kitan and I are old. How can we beat young ones?〕

“I’m here too.”

Dion showed his left arm and raised his chin. His face was full of confidence as always.

〔Hehehe. Still no good. Do you know how many years that child lived here? What else might she have hidden that you’d go like this? There might be more experimental dragon packs somewhere else.〕

Unlike the serious-faced Clementina, Tahan yawned long. He seemed to have no interest in outside affairs, but that attitude kept provoking Clementina’s anger.

“Tahan! Is this the time to yawn?”

〔Tina, old age makes you sleepy. This is my illness. I’m not taking it lightly, so please stop shouting. My head is ringing. Mmm-nya.〕

Kitan subtly raised his head to look at Dion and gestured with his chin toward the forest. Following Kitan’s gesture, Dion’s gaze turned to the forest. Kitan rolled his eyes eagerly like he’d hidden something, then turned his body entirely toward the forest. It was the path they’d first taken to enter this place with the waterfall.

When Dion moved to follow Kitan, Clementina grabbed his arm.

“Where are you going?”

“I think I need to go meet someone.”

Dion scratched the back of his head with an awkward face.