That’s why both the statement that they are difficult and the rumor that they are gentle aren’t entirely wrong. With a dragon rider, even the fiercest dragon in the world can become as loyal as a house dog.

Some dragons never meet their master from the time they hatch until they die. But once they decide on a master, dragons share a connection with that one master until death.

Dragons that have met their masters live healthier and longer lives. Above all, they gain the ability to develop special powers. Through resonance with humans, only dragons living with humans gain wisdom.

That wisdom becomes the source of magic.

Not once has a wild dragon ever used magic.

Leon was special. An already aged dragon met Dion, resonated with him, and began using magic, which extended his life a little longer. This was characteristic of Leon, who was gentle and liked humans.

A sad trait of dragons is that if their master dies, they cannot find another master. Even dragons that lived with humans would fly away somewhere alone and disappear if their master died.

No one knows where dragons that have lost their dragon riders go, or when and how they die.

A dragon that becomes alone lives alone somewhere and dies alone. A dragon rider means that much to a dragon. A being with whom they share their life.

Unfortunately, of course, the dragon rider doesn’t die when the dragon dies.

That’s why after a dragon dies, dragon riders sometimes struggle to find another dragon, but not once has anyone ever succeeded.

Strictly speaking, Dion doesn’t resonate with the Gold Dragon Knight Order’s dragons; rather, through Leon’s magic, the dragons treat him as a similar animal, accepting him as one of their kind.

This was necessary to associate with dragons. This was partly because resonance was difficult due to the small number of dragons, but also because dragons were temperamental and particular by nature.

Dion flung open the door to the garden filled with flowers. Two dragons lay there.

For a moment, he remembered Leon collapsing. As Leon’s image overlapped in his mind, he felt nothing. His feet simply moved automatically toward the two dragons.

A black dragon resembling darkness without any luster was heaving its massive body while gulping water.

Beside it lay a small dragon with pink scales stained with bright red bl＊＊d, completely motionless. Yellow tulips surrounded the small creature.

“Lili.”

Dion bit his lower lip tightly and called out to Lili with concern.

Clementina, who had followed behind, felt her heart sink as the scene looked like a grave.

“How terrible!”

Clementina stopped breathing as she covered her mouth with both hands in distress.

A tall man stood beside them.

It was Jeremiah Dezia, who had remained in the Siara Mountains to find the Tabopis tree after Makuro’s attack.

But Lili’s master was nowhere to be seen beside him.

“Where’s Dimint?”

Berche, who had followed, reported to Dion about Dimint Seches’s whereabouts.

“Dimint was unconscious, so we sent him to the infirmary first.”

“Well done. What happened to Lili?”

“There was an attack.”

Jeremiah, who had returned looking haggard after just twenty days, stepped forward.

“Are you injured, Jeremiah?”

Dion raised one eyebrow sharply and examined Jeremiah’s body from front to back. His short black hair and face were covered in dirt, and dried blackish-red bl＊＊d was stuck all over his body.

“It’s not my bl＊＊d.”

It was Lili’s bl＊＊d.

“D＊mn it.”

Lili’s condition was miserable. Lili’s body was small even among dragons. Agile with a small, cute, and pretty appearance. As sociable as Lili was toward people, humans also loved Lili very much.

Such a Lili now lay limp, unable to open his eyes. Between the ropes wound several times around his body, shiny pink scales were visible.

But his body was so covered in bl＊＊d that it was difficult to tell whether he was a red dragon or a red dragon with pink patterns.

If not for the obvious injury, they might never have noticed.

Tragically, Lili’s left wing was broken.

It seemed the bone was broken and twisted backward.

“Bring it quickly. Move, move!”

At Cherbest’s command, the servants of Aeskis Castle poured into the garden. Some came with buckets of water, while others carried plenty of fluffy towels.

“Give it here. I’ll do it.”

Dion soaked a towel in the warm water in the bucket, then took it out. He spread it well and placed it around Lili’s neck. Still, Lili didn’t move.

Was he dead?

Everyone watched Lili’s condition with tense feelings. Time seemed to stop as if no one could move a finger.

Splash.

Clementina approached with quick steps and dipped a towel in warm water. After wringing it out, she placed the wet towel in Dion’s hand.

Dion turned his head to the side at the feeling of something tapping the back of his hand.

“Do what you can. He’s not dead yet.”

“You think so?”

Only cynicism remained on Dion’s face. Clementina took a deep breath and spoke loudly.

“Yes, I know this. Look, his nose is running.”

Clementina pointed at Lili’s face with her finger. The moistened nose twitched slightly, and mucus formed.

Dion’s eyes flew open. He exhaled the pain pressing on his chest and bit his lower lip tightly. Gripping the wet towel Clementina had given him, he began carefully wiping Lili’s body.

While Dion wiped Lili’s body, all four dragons in Aeskis Castle flew over to watch them.

Dion’s towel became completely stained with bl＊＊d. He stared blankly at the red towel, losing focus again.

“Focus. Here, I’ll give you a fresh one.”

Clementina took away the red towel and handed him a clean one. When Clementina pushed his back, he quickly regained his composure.

Dion slowly approached the wing area and applied the wet towel around the broken part.

“KRAAAK!”

Lili suddenly raised his head. Unable to move his body, he twisted his head and screamed before collapsing. Tears streamed down from Lili’s eyes.

⟨”If he can scream, it’s probably not as serious as we thought.”⟩

Henry approached Dion and Lili, pulling a rattling cart. The small cart was filled with brown glass bottles of various sizes. Instead of the doctor who was checking Dimint’s injuries, he had brought medicine.

“Anesthetic.”

Dion snapped at Henry as if giving an order. His tone contained a rebuke for being so late.

Henry took out the largest glass bottle from the cart. It was a glass bottle large enough to cover a man’s entire upper body. He placed the brown glass bottle near Lili’s mouth and took out a cotton rope twisted from cotton inside the glass bottle.

Then he put it in Lili’s mouth so the medicine wouldn’t drip to the ground.

“Groo.”

Lili, who had been moaning weakly, sucked on the rope and gulped down the medicine. After swallowing some of the medicine, Lili’s mouth stopped moving. Henry took a small ladle and poured the medicine from the glass bottle around Lili’s mouth.

Only after emptying one bottle did the dragon riders move. They inserted cloth into the rope wrapped around Lili’s body, wrapped it, and then moved him to a large cart.

“There aren’t many ways to injure a dragon this badly. First check if there’s magic involved, or what attacked him. Then, take him to Hessen.”

⟨”Will do.”⟩

After confirming that Lili had disappeared into the castle heading toward Henry’s magic laboratory, Dion turned around. The black dragon Gerard, lacking luster, was watching Lili’s retreating figure.

Gerard was visibly the largest dragon among them. Naturally, she was also the strongest. Gerard had ropes tightly wound around her body. They say she arrived at the castle carrying Jeremiah on her back, with Lili and Dimint connected by ropes.

Gerard was extremely exhausted.

Next to her, Jeremiah stood trembling with his fists tightly clenched. Dion questioned him with the demeanor of a cold lord.

“Tell me, Jeremiah. What happened?”

“I don’t know either.”

“What?”

“After separating from Dimint in the gorge, I only found him ten days later. Lili……”

Jeremiah pressed his eyes tightly with his hand. Tears from a knight with a bear-like build was a somewhat unfamiliar sight.

“It seems Lili had been guarding the unconscious Dimint with his broken wing the entire time.”

⁕⁕⁕

Dimint lay unconscious in the infirmary, and Lili had been moved to Henry’s magic laboratory.

The ducal couple and the remaining five dragon riders gathered in the knight order’s dining hall in Aeskis Castle.