“……”

Ilion remained silent, Royden smiled brightly, and Spinel munched on cookies, seemingly uninterested in the two.

Even if I had assembled a party, it couldn’t be more perfect, I thought, feeling uneasy like I was sitting on a bed of thorns.

Contrary to my expectation that Spinel would be in a panic when we disappeared, she was calmly waiting for us.

Upon seeing us with Royden, she merely remarked, ‘You found him quicker than I thought.’

Ilion’s gaze fell on the crumbs of cookies crumbling to the floor.

“It’s been a while, Spinel.”

“Not really.”

“Didn’t you miss me?”

“Not at all.”

Her response was so cold that even as a third party, it felt like a scratch on my heart.

Ignoring Royden’s clueless attempts at conversation, Spinel turned to me.

“What about the auction house?”

“There shouldn’t be any issues.”

Everyone at the auction house would remain in a trance until the guards arrived.

After that, well, Ilion would handle it.

“More importantly, why were you at the auction house, Royden?”

Trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere, I asked Royden, who seemed the most talkative among the three.

“Well, I was waiting for a princess on a white horse to come rescue me.”

“…….”

I realized too late that I’d picked a bomb of a question, but by then, my hand was already caught by his.

“Is that so? A princess on a white horse.”

Why would a dragon need a princess on a white horse? I was curious about the reason but strangely didn’t want to hear it.

Thinking that unnecessary conversation would only negatively impact our images, I quickly got to the point.

“As I mentioned earlier, I have a favor to ask of you, Royden.”

“What kind of favor, my master?”

“Uh… I’d rather not be called ‘master’…”

Since the moment I won the bid, he had been calling me master. While I didn’t place much importance on titles, being called master made me uncomfortable in many ways.

For some reason, it pricked my conscience!

“Don’t like being called ‘master’? Then should I call you my little baby bird?”

“No, just call me master.”

The creepy title made me immediately frown and shake my head.

Baby bird! Just how much of my memory did he read?

“And please, don’t read my memories without permission.”

“What’s done is done.”

Royden answered with a bright smile as if it wasn’t something he could control.

Are all dragons this self-centered?

I took a moment to catch my breath, feeling swept away by Royden’s pace whenever I let my guard down.

“As you might know from reading my memories, everyone here has lost their memories. I heard you can use magic related to memories, Royden. Could you help restore the lost memories?”

“If that’s the case, it’s not difficult.”

Contrary to my worries, he nodded readily.

I didn’t expect him to agree so easily. I’ll take back what I said about him being a strange dragon. Royden, you are…

“But what will you do for me in return, master?”

…a dragon after all. Right. He wouldn’t just do it for nothing.

Nervous about what strange condition he might bring up, I asked,

“W-What would you like?”

As Royden’s gaze slowly approached, Ilion spoke up.

“If you have a request, speak. I will do my duty to my benefactor.”

Royden glanced at Ilion before stepping back from me. At the same time, my hands, which were held by him, were freed.

“It’s nothing much. I just want to hear your story, master.”

“My story?”

“Yes. Collecting stories is my hobby.”

“What kind of story…?”

Didn’t he already read all my memories? I don’t think I have any more stories to tell.

Royden leaned in and whispered softly to me.

“I haven’t read your past life memories yet.”

By past life, he meant the memories before I possessed Ravenne.

I was impressed by his incredible ability, but it was also an unsettling one. Showing my past to someone else was uncomfortable in many ways.

However, if Royden set his mind to it, my consent wouldn’t matter. In the end, it was better to receive help this way, even if he read it on his own.

“It might be a boring story, but if you wish, I’ll tell you as much as you want.”

“Boring? Have more confidence. You’re the second most interesting human I’ve met.”

Second? Then who was the first?

I quietly smiled, recalling a similar comment from Spinel once.

Dragons, indeed.

***

I asked Sebastian to gather all the servants in the mansion in one place. They seemed curious about the identity of the guest who arrived without a word, but they quietly watched for now.

Royden glanced around at the people and approached Lily.

“You seem to be the closest to my master.”

Whether he could read thoughts as well as memories, Royden added while looking at me.

Lily seemed startled by his words, which was a bit hurtful.

“Memories can be worn down or distorted over time. However, the traces engraved on the soul are clearer than anything else; they can’t be erased or changed.”

Royden gently placed a small orb in Lily’s palm.

“Here, this is your lost memory.”

“This?”

“Yes. If you swallow it, your memory will return.”

Lily looked at the orb, which seemed like a child’s toy, with a slightly skeptical expression.

If it were me, I’d worry if swallowing it might be fatal.

However, unlike my cautious and skeptical self, Lily seemed bolder. She closed her eyes tightly and swallowed the orb in one gulp.

Perhaps because of the orb’s effect, when Lily opened her eyes, she looked at me with a slightly dazed expression.

“Lily?”

“Miss…?”

“Do you remember anything?”

Unable to contain my impatience, I urged Lily for an answer.

“What are you doing here?”

Lily shook her head slightly, dizzily looking around. She seemed confused about why everyone was gathered in one place.

“Lily, do you remember what we did yesterday?”

“Yesterday? We had a snowball fight, didn’t we?”

At the answer I longed to hear, I hugged Lily tightly.

“…Why are you doing this? Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened.”

Feeling as if I might cry, I held Lily for a while.

Starting with Lily, Royden distributed the memory orbs to everyone in the mansion. The servants, like Lily, looked around with dazed expressions like they were waking from a dream.

“Is everyone okay?”

“When forgotten memories rush back all at once, it can be overwhelming for a while. Still, it’s a relief they regained their memories quickly. If not, the new memories mixed with the old ones would have caused more confusion.”

Spinel approached and muttered while patting my head.

“I’m glad the effort was worth it.”

“We could resolve it quickly thanks to your help, Spinel.”

I smiled brightly at Spinel. But did I celebrate too soon?

As memories returned one by one, Ilion alone stood without any reaction. Had he not received a memory orb from Royden yet?

“Excuse me, Royden. It seems the Duke hasn’t regained his memories yet.”

At my words, Royden shrugged and shook his head.

“Ilion isn’t in a state that I can do anything about.”

“What?”

“I can’t restore Ilion’s memories.”

“Why not?”

Startled, I stammered, and Royden replied with a troubled expression.

“To restore Ilion’s memories, you must first deal with the magic sealing them, which I can’t undo.”

“Magic sealing his memories?”

Was such magic cast on Ilion?

Even as someone who read the original story, this was news to me.

“So what do we do now?”

“What else? He has to break it himself.”

Royden continued, looking at Ilion.

“From the start, Ilion, who inherited Ceras’s blood, isn’t weak enough to be swayed by such trivial magic. So, once the memory seal is broken, his forgotten memories will naturally return.”

Then what’s the problem?

“Is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all?”

“As I said, the seal must be broken by him. It’s something Ilion can do with his current abilities. The problem is he refuses to regain his memories.”

“Refuses? Why?”

Urged by anxiety, I pressed for an explanation, and Royden paused, looking intently at me.

“Do you want to know?”

What? Is he playing games with me now?

I stared in disbelief at his absurd question, but he smiled ominously, seemingly amused.

“If you want an answer, you need to give a suitable price.”

Of course, there was another condition.

“What price?”

“I told you, I want an interesting story.”

“But I have no more memories to give.”

I had no entertaining story left to tell him, who already knew all my memories. What more could he want after scraping the bottom of the barrel?

“If it’s not about the past, the future will do.”

How am I supposed to give that now?

I asked Royden, who was speaking in riddles, for more explanation, but he fell silent. It meant he wanted a price if I wanted more.

I turned to look at Ilion. While everyone else was recovering their memories one by one, what was he thinking alone?

Recalling the miserable feeling when no one remembered me, I approached Ilion.

“Are you alright?”

“What?”

“Because you haven’t regained your memories.”

Unlike my concern, Ilion remained expressionless.

“If I’m subconsciously rejecting it, it must be a memory I don’t need to find.”

He must have overheard my conversation with Royden.

Ilion immediately called for Sebastian, asking to be informed once the situation was settled, and left.

Feeling like he made a fool of the person worrying about him, I stared blankly at his departing back before hastily chasing after him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What?”

“A memory you don’t need to find! How can you say that?”

Angrily crying out, Ilion finally turned to look at me.

“How can you be so sure?”

“What?”

“How can you be sure what kind of memory is sealed?”