“The dragons disappeared? Magic died out?”

“Y-yes.”

The physician repeated.

“According to legend, magic disappeared when dragons went extinct several hundred years ago.”

Helix’s face turned pale.

This was more shocking than learning he had been sealed away for several hundred years.

“So that’s why the mana is so faint…”

Watching Helix stagger while muttering, Leah blinked.

From when she first found him in the cave, he had been going on about dragons, and now he was turning pale like it was the end of the world at the mention of magic.

“But it’s been several hundred years…?”

“Right. Several hundred… several hundred years have passed…”

Helix’s eyes darkened as he laughed hollowly.

“What have I been living for all this time?”

What’s this?

Leah found it a bit strange but laughed anyway.

“Haha, why are you acting like this is the first time you’re hearing this? Everyone knows this. Someone might think you were actually trapped in that cave for hundreds of years.”

“…”

Helix’s silence made Leah dumbfounded.

Could that be true?

Is that even possible?

‘Wait a minute.’

In a world where possession from another world is possible, what’s so impossible about being sealed away for hundreds of years?

Thinking about it that way, everything she had experienced started falling into place.

The mysterious herb gatherer who disappeared after scamming her with talk of hot springs.

The suspicious silver maple tree that connected directly to the cave when touched.

How that cave looked just like a secret space where treasure would be hidden.

‘That’s not all.’

The way he had frozen like in a game of freeze tag when she first saw him, and how he had asked if she was the one who woke him up and who had sent her.

‘Did you wake me?’

Even his somewhat antiquated way of speaking and dress made sense now.

‘So this person was sealed in that cave for hundreds of years, and that herb gatherer tricked me into waking him up?’

***

Leah carefully told him about what she had experienced.

About the mysterious herb gatherer who had recommended the hot spring to her, and about the silver maple tree that had transported her to the cave when touched.

The physician’s mouth fell open, and surprise and anger flashed across Helix’s face.

“How dare they deceive Lady Piert and put her in such danger… They must have multiple lives to spare. We should call the knights right away to chase after that person!”

“It would be useless.”

Helix said.

“That herb gatherer, didn’t you feel a dignity that didn’t match their status and attire? With a strange blue tinge to their eyes and hair?”

“That’s right! They had this strange noble air about them despite being an herb gatherer.”

At Leah’s answer, Helix’s grey eyes darkened.

Dragon Lord Azura.

It was definitely the master of the lair who had deceived and imprisoned him long ago. Even the unusual tree was a method dragons often used for secret passages to their lairs.

The physician interjected.

“Then was it that person who gave My Lady the dragon mana you mentioned?”

“Dragon mana?”

“Yes. Helix said while caring for My Lady that he could sense dragon mana ever since you ate the cookie…”

Helix and Leah’s eyes met.

She belatedly found it strange and looked back and forth between the physician and Helix.

“I remember collapsing after eating that cookie… but why are you in my room checking my pulse and explaining my condition?”

“You asked me to save you.”

“What?”

“He said he treated My Lady after meeting you in the mountains when you had consumed dragon mana. Don’t you remember?”

Leah was surprised.

“You were a healer?”

“I am a guardian.”

Helix said.

“A guardian who controls mana.”

What does that have to do with treating me?

As Leah’s eyes grew cloudy, the physician got excited.

“My Lady, this is amazing!”

The physician explained.

Mana, the formless energy present in all things in the world. That mana exists in human bodies too.

“Remember what I’ve always told you, My Lady? That your body’s qi is weak. That qi… in other words, it’s mana!”

Leah’s eyes lit up.

“Then does that mean he can strengthen my qi?”

“I can. However.”

“However?”

Helix said.

“It seems most of my guardian abilities have been sealed. I probably won’t be able to do it for long.”

…What?

Leah grabbed the back of her neck as her blood pressure rose.

“My Lady!”

“…Do you enjoy messing with sick people?”

“I’m not messing with you.”

Helix said seriously.

“Unless I had my original abilities, I shouldn’t mess with matters of life and death with my current meager powers.”

He thought for a moment before speaking.

“There is a way I could strengthen your mana even with my current abilities…”

“There’s a way?”

Leah pressed.

“Tell me quickly. What’s the way to strengthen my mana?”

Helix looked down at Leah.

She who had collapsed after consuming dragon mana after waking him.

If someone had fed Leah dragon mana, doesn’t that mean there must be a dragon to provide the mana?

At first he suspected it was Dragon Lord Azura’s, but the nature of the mana was different.

‘Is there another dragon?’

The dragons who had betrayed him and struck him from behind.

They could be alive somewhere, pretending to be extinct.

“…How did you end up consuming dragon mana? It doesn’t seem like you knew what you were consuming.”

“I don’t even drink snake wine, why would I consume dragon mana?”

Leah recoiled in disgust.

To treat dragon mana the same as snake wine. Helix was surprised internally but didn’t show it as he calmly asked.

“So you were tricked into consuming it without knowing. Are there any suspects?”

“I don’t know yet. But.”

Leah said with a stiff expression, “This isn’t a simple matter. I’m not even the heir to the family, yet they went as far as poisoning me.”

“Knight Biden must be investigating right now. Focusing on the maids and servants in charge of bringing in goods. He said he’s also watching a few suspicious individuals.”

At the physician’s words, Leah shook her head.

“We can’t catch them for certain with just that. We need to investigate all the way to the bakeries in the capital, but it won’t be easy to look into that from here.”

“We’ve already sent a letter to the ducal family.”

“Good.”

Once the ducal family found out, her eldest brother Rikeil, who was good at gathering information, would step in.

Helix, who had been listening quietly, spoke.

“From what I hear, it seems there’s a spy within the villa.”

“It does seem that way, doesn’t it?”

“Do you have any groups you suspect?”

At Helix’s question, Leah thought carefully before answering.

“If they sent a spy, I think it must be… the Trow Count family?”

“The Trow Count family?”

She explained.

The Trow Count family had deep roots in the merchant guild and was eyeing an opportunity to establish themselves in the pharmaceutical industry.

The Piert Ducal Family, which had a firm grip on the pharmaceutical industry, was their number one competitor.

Though ironically, the Piert Ducal Family had come to dominate the pharmaceutical industry while searching for medicine to treat Leah.

“It could unexpectedly be someone else.”

The physician said, “My Lady has become too famous, so aren’t there a lot of flies buzzing around?”

“Flies?”

At Helix’s question, the physician sighed, “Huh.”

“Don’t even get me started. You wouldn’t believe how many people throw tantrums claiming My Lady ignored them just because they didn’t get replies to their love letters or invitations.”

“What garbage people.”

Helix’s beautiful brow furrowed.

Leah waved her hand.

“It’s all just speculation for now. We need to find the real culprit from here on.”

“What will you do once you find who fed you the dragon mana?”

“I suppose we’ll have to bring them to trial?”

“Trial.”

Helix asked again, somewhat bewildered.

“That’s it? No blood revenge, branding their forehead, exile… none of that?”

“…What era are you from?”

“…”

It seemed the world had changed quite a bit while he was sealed away.

‘I’ll need time to adapt.’

Helix felt a bit rushed.

He needed to find out where the dragon mana came from and which dragons remained so he could take his revenge.

But the world had changed too much, and he had become a weak human with most of his guardian powers sealed.

‘There is one way.’

Helix, who had been gazing intently at Leah, spoke.

“Make a contract with me.”

“A contract out of nowhere?”

“I’ll teach you how to handle mana so the dragon mana won’t harm your body.”

Leah blinked.

“Teach me how to handle mana? Self-healing?”

“Something similar.”

“How?”

“You’ll become a mage.”

A mage?

Leah’s eyes wavered.

The physician beside them looked at the two with a face like he might faint.

“A mage? Our Lady?”

“Yes.”

Helix explained.

In the process of him stabilizing the dragon mana Leah had consumed, she had gained the qualities of a mage who could sense mana.

If she made a contract with him, she could learn how to use magic as well.

“If you use magic, and I help stabilize your mana, your body will become healthier than you could ever imagine. Once you can freely manipulate dragon mana, you won’t even know what pain is.”

Not knowing what pain is. Her heart raced.

For Leah, who would cough up her organs at the slightest breeze, it sounded like a dream.

“…What level of mage do you need to be to freely manipulate dragon mana?”

“You’d need to be at least an archmage.”

Helix said easily without even blinking. He said there was nothing to worry about since he had never had a contractor who didn’t become an archmage.

“Even the slowest learner would inevitably become an archmage after training with me for about a hundred years.”

“What? Training for a hundred years?”

Leah went blank at the astronomical number before blinking.

Wait a minute.

Doesn’t that mean she could live at least a hundred years?

He’s saying he’ll teach me magic to make me healthy, let me live over a hundred years, and even make me an archmage?

The conditions were so extraordinary that Leah felt dazed.

‘Isn’t this a scam?’