“Henry surely has antidotes, but Drasia is too far.”

The dragon riders searched Sue’s wooden house. Looking for antidotes that might exist. Someone who used poison would surely have antidotes.

Jerbek’s corpse was loaded on the wooden cart with Sue’s corpse and pushed aside. With luck they might be buried, but those poisoned came first now.

But Nolan was fidgeting and restless alone.

“What’s wrong? Does it hurt a lot?”

Clementina approached Nolan and asked carefully. Since she’d had few chances to befriend Nolan, she worried he might be frightened. But Nolan neither disliked nor feared Clementina. He just fidgeted like a puppy needing to pee.

“Kogogo—”

“……?”

“What does that mean, Nolan?”

Though she widened her eyes in puzzlement, unlike calm Clementina, Dion felt urgent. Nolan had just said something strange.

“Kogogo—”

Nolan spoke again. Dion and Clementina looked at each other with bewildered faces.

“Did I hear that right?”

“I think I heard the same thing.”

Berche and Vance were unconscious, sweating cold sweat. Black veins spread in circles from Berche’s forearm where the poison dart hit, now spreading below his neck. Vance’s condition wasn’t good either. The poison dart hit his hand, but now black veins covered his entire forearm.

Looking around, Arakan, Bun, Mago, and Pink Lili were all pacing around lightly hopping.

“Good! Jeremiah, Ray, William, Lillian! Go to Sue’s house and look for large water jars or pots!”

“What? Look for what?”

“Find something big enough to submerge Berche and Vance’s bodies!”

“Yes, sir!”

While the other dragon riders entered Sue’s wooden house, Dion and Clementina removed Berche and Vance’s upper clothes. Then the dragon riders came out carrying the bathtub Sue had used.

When they set the bathtub on the ground, the dragons all approached at once and began urinating. Splash, splash, splash—five dragons’ urine filled the bathtub.

“Ugh! What are you doing? Gerard? If you were that urgent, you should have gone earlier.”

Already holding Berche’s armpit, Dion tapped Jeremiah’s shoulder.

“Don’t just stand there—lift Gerard and Vance and put them in here.”

“Put them where?”

Dion pointed with a serious face at the bathtub filled with dragon urine.

“Wh-where did you say to put them?”

Lillian had screamed. She seemed unable to watch her husband and brother fall into and emerge from a tun full of dragons’ urine, making all kinds of faces.

“Just put them in first. Put them in and we’ll talk.”

Sue’s bathtub was large enough for both Berche and Vance. Sue had prepared a bathtub for herself and Jerbek. The foolish woman had begged for love from Jerbek until the end.

When Berche and Vance were placed in the bathtub, the contents sloshed. Dragon urine was clear in color and had no distinctive smell. However, unlike human urine, it was somewhat sticky.

But if Berche and Vance in the bathtub hadn’t been unconscious, they would have jumped up.

Watching Berche and Vance, Clementina understood why dragons were such difficult and unapproachable animals. From dragons’ heads to toes, nothing wasn’t beneficial to humans. If these facts were revealed, dragons would surely be hunted indiscriminately.

Nolan twisted his body and let urine flow over where the poison dart hit. Dragons with small populations continued their lives through various methods.

“Wow! If Berche and Vance saw themselves now—oh! That would be amazing! But Your Majesty, how did you know? We’ve never treated poison like this before!”

Jeremiah widened his eyes and looked at Berche and Vance with a serious face. No matter how colorless and odorless, he seemed to have not even a fingernail’s worth of desire to enter a dragon urine tub himself.

“Ah, Nolan told me.”

“What?”

“I said Nolan told me. I was so bewildered when I first heard too. I never want to experience this. I’ll pass on poison even if it means getting cut by a sword.”

“What?! Nolan told you? What do you mean? Nolan talks? How?”

“What do you mean how? I said I knew because Nolan told me.”

“So, so you’re saying Your Majesty talks with dragons? Your Majesty! You’re not sick anywhere, are you?”

Dion narrowed his eyes and glared at Jeremiah. Wasn’t he the first among dragon riders to know?

“You mean you didn’t know until now? After sticking with Clementina so much over Gerard’s matter? Don’t tell me you didn’t even know Clementina understood dragon speech from the beginning?”

“What?! The Duchess also converses with dragons?”

“This is maddening.”

Dion shook his head, and Clementina giggled beside him. Jeremiah was on the verge of foaming at the mouth and collapsing. He actually grabbed the bathtub, sat down, and began muttering to himself.

“I see, that’s it. That’s why. That’s why it was like that then. Now I understand. Ah…… If only I’d known when fighting at Kentlen Palace……”

Jeremiah suddenly looked tearful. Only Jeremiah never forgot Dimint. Dion subtly informed Jeremiah and Gerard that Lili was here. Then Gerard, with his burned body, went into the forest looking for Lili and didn’t come out for a long while.

Nolan’s words were true. After staying in the bathtub for a while, Berche and Vance’s arms gradually regained their original color. The black veins disappeared, and black water seeped from where the poison darts hit, drawing black lines over the transparent urine before vanishing. They disappeared without a trace, like melting away.

Berche and Vance, pulled from the bathtub, woke up with clear minds shortly after, like waking from a refreshing sleep. Though they remembered when and why they lost consciousness, they didn’t know how they’d recovered. Of course, this was after learning the full truth, but since they insisted they’d lost their memory, nothing could be done.

Now it was truly time to return home.

After much time passed.

Clementina had to get out of bed because the morning sunlight was too bright. Having fallen asleep stargazing last night, she’d forgotten to draw the curtains, so hot heat rushed in through the window. Here, Clementina no longer needed to prove herself. She could rise when she wanted and just take care of herself.

Clementina rubbed her eyes and stretched. Since then, she’d coughed up blood two more times. But like that was the last, nothing strange remained in her body. Now she’d regained considerable weight, and her skin and lemon-colored hair gleamed.

Clementina could now use magic freely, but hadn’t used it once since then. She grew vegetables herself, lit fires, and cared for herself. She acted like ordinary women did.

Today she planned to cook horned chicken stew she’d learned from Aiba. Clementina found cooking truly difficult. Though she learned other things quite quickly, her cooking skills showed no improvement. Even Dion, always on her side, was busy stopping her when she tried cooking. She’d clearly used all her cooking skills making candy.

She’d tried at first too. When alone in the small wooden house without Dion, she naturally had to manage herself. But effort was just effort—she realized some things didn’t work. All she could do was eat fruit or grill meat. Fortunately she didn’t burn the meat, so how nice was that?

Tonight, Lillian and Berche were visiting after a long time. Though they said they’d bring lots of delicious food, Clementina wanted to present at least one dish for them.

When Lillian last came to Diahart Island, she was already six months pregnant. Being a knight who moved her body a lot, movement posed no problem, but Toter volcano’s ash wasn’t good for her. After giving birth, Lillian’s bleeding wouldn’t stop and she’d nearly lost her forever.

Berche spent all his time caring for her. Clementina also stayed by her side in Drasia while Lillian was unconscious. When Lillian recovered, Clementina shed tears of joy. Today they were coming here with their child.

The wooden house Dion built himself stood at the path entering the forest before the waterfall. The front lawn was made into a field growing vegetables and fruit. Wild dragons still flew around the pond.

Tahan lay sprawled sleeping on one side. Lately Tahan slept much more. She thought Tahan’s time might not be long. Clementina walked around plucking flowers holding dawn dew. She filled a basket with those flowers, placed it beside Tahan, and looked up at the sky.

She thought of Leon.

After Sue’s matter concluded, Clementina visited Custus’s teahouse. But Leon had already disappeared. Whether he simply wasn’t showing himself or had left that place forever was unknown. But even after spending a night at the teahouse, Leon didn’t appear.

Dragons instinctively sought this place, so believing Leon would someday visit Diahart Island, Clementina waited.

Kitan still quietly disappeared and suddenly appeared. Clementina didn’t worry about Kitan at least.

“Hmm…… What if I put flowers in horned chicken stew? It would look good. Or that milk I brought from Sheaf Village last time was incredibly savory. Should I add that too? Strawberry juice seems good too. Should I just add everything? What do you think, Tahan?”

When Clementina stroked Tahan’s nape and spoke, Tahan sighed.

〔Still don’t know why your batum told you not to cook? Don’t add this and that randomly. That’s really a bad habit of yours.〕

“I’m trying to make it more delicious.”

〔Your batum is coming. Make him cook. You staying still is helping. Hehehe.〕

At Tahan’s words, Clementina quickly rose. Dazzling brown-gold hair flew toward her, swaying in the wind. Before the rock dragon landed, Dion jumped down. Upon landing, he scooped up Clementina and burrowed into her embrace.

“Ha! I missed you.”

“Haha. It’s only been two days.”

Dion spent two days at Kentlen Palace once every ten days. The first thing he did upon returning to the palace was send home the three women who’d been empress candidates for the past year. Next, he established Count George Winter as regent. The ministers naturally opposed. After sharp confrontation, they’d reached the current situation.

Dion and Clementina took morning sky walks on dragons every day, and at night rowed following starlight atop dragons. The two lived here like an ordinary woman and ordinary man. Small things, but the happiness she’d wished for.

“Listen.”

Dion kissed near Clementina’s eyes and spoke.

“I heard something. A dragon with two heads was discovered in Kingdom of Paco.”

How did he know? Dion had already noticed that the ordinary, happy days she’d so desired were sometimes boring.

“Want to go see that dragon?”

Joy seeped into Clementina’s golden eyes. She nodded to her one and only batum and answered with the most beautiful smile in the world.

<The End>