“Leah, you’re going to stay and watch the duel until the end.”

“Of course. Lord Trow is getting what he deserves.”

Her face suddenly became full of life as she emphasized.

“I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must watch.”

“…Alright.”

With a resigned expression, Helix took Leah’s hand and placed it on his thigh. While she flinched at the touch that was not just firm but hard, mana flowed over pong pong pong.

“Actually, I wanted to watch too.”

Helix whispered lowly.

‘Though I’d rather beat him myself.’

Thinking about what that bastard had done to Leah, even flaying him alive wouldn’t be enough. His uncontrolled emotions transferred through his hand as he pressed down firmly on Leah’s hand.

As she turned red with embarrassment at suddenly having to press against his thigh, the duel began.

“…Wow.”

The ensuing duel satisfied their expectations in many ways.

Duke Seigan was an extraordinary warrior, and his skills were honed through actual combat, mainly from pirate subjugation. Whatever real combat had trained him, his artistry in hitting only the unseen and painful spots again and again was truly artistic.

“…We did well not making an enemy of Duke Seigan.”

“I think so too.”

***

Meanwhile, Prince Archaik Oken returned to the imperial capital.

After failing to kidnap Leah, he felt internally shocked. Helix’s ability had been too powerful and unexpected.

‘To think he could absorb mana…!’

He possessed the most powerful mana and magic in the world, inheriting the power of dragons. He couldn’t help but feel afraid of Helix’s ability to nullify his power.

Imperial Magic Scholar Viscount Paipers tried hard to calm Archaik.

“If it was truly such an amazing ability, why did he run away instead of subduing Your Highness? Even if he has such a talent, it must be either very weak or momentary.”

“…It wasn’t weak. Even I became powerless when my mana was stolen.”

The Viscount blamed himself inwardly for his poor choice of words as he tried to soothe the prince.

“Then it must have been a momentary ability. You’ve been wary of him from before, haven’t you? It seems you had already sensed such an ability.”

“So that was the identity of that disturbing feeling.”

After pondering deeply, Prince Archaik ordered.

“Search through ancient books and legends about mana-stealing abilities, just in case. The sooner the better.”

“I shall obey your command.”

After Viscount Paipers withdrew, Archaik headed to a deep abandoned palace. He was going to meet the covenant bearer.

“Grrrr…!”

Pain-filled groans echoed even in the corridor. The sound of a massive creature reverberated through every corner of the abandoned palace.

“Hah…”

Archaik sighed at those echoes as he descended the stairs.

It was a secret stairway that only some royalty, the Snake Knights, and magic scholars could access.

“Grrrr…”

The prince who finished descending the stairs peered into the stone cave blocked by iron bars. A dying young dragon lay imprisoned there. He spoke to it.

“Hold on just a little longer.”

The dragon’s clouded eyes turned toward him.

“Until when… until when must I endure?”

The voice of the dragon, supposedly the strongest living being, sounded hoarse like bubbling phlegm.

“You have grown stronger. You’ve grown stronger. When will you fulfill my wish?”

“Soon.”

“You must hurry. My scales are falling out. I can barely see through the eye discharge. Yet they still draw blood from near my heart… saying they need to make that damned elixir!”

Urgh.

The dragon coughed violently and spat blood. The prince spoke.

“Archaik. Finally, a mage has appeared. More mana is being released into the world.”

The chained dragon tried to raise its body halfway but collapsed in pain.

“Then your power will grow stronger too.”

“Yes. But there’s a variable.”

The prince answered briefly and closed his eyes to share his memory.

It was the memory of that moment when Helix absorbed his mana and he became powerless. The prince and dragon, who shared similar trauma, shuddered together in shock.

“I plan to find out what this person’s ability is. If the mana absorption ability is real, we cannot achieve our goal while he exists.”

The dragon nodded at his words. The prince continued.

“However, Archaik… if I was so easily subdued by him because you have grown weak…”

Golden flames flared in the prince’s black pupils. He whispered.

“Our oath, promise, soul trade… might all come to nothing.”

“Please, please keep your promise.”

The dragon pressed its massive face against the iron bars, clinging to them.

“Keep your promise. I endured everything in your stead. I will endure more. So… keep your promise!”

The dragon’s urgent voice echoed.

“I bet everything on you. On our covenant!”

Boom boom, the dragon’s desperate voice reached beyond the laboratory of the abandoned palace to the corridor. The Imperial Magic Scholars who had come to experiment on the dragon and were waiting in the corridor couldn’t believe their ears.

“…Did you just hear that?”

They rushed away in surprise.

***

The Emperor of the Oken Empire was also surprised and asked.

“You’re saying Archaik isn’t just contracted with the dragon, but is a covenant bearer who exchanged oaths?”

“Yes. We heard it with our own ears.”

“The dragon was pressing Prince Archaik about whether he had forgotten their covenant.”

“Hmm.”

The Emperor stroked his beard in surprise.

“From what you heard, it seems the contract was made quite some time ago.”

“Must be due to Prince Archaik’s cautious nature. He probably wanted to avoid threats until he grew stronger.”

At Viscount Paipers’ words, the Emperor fell into thought.

It made sense. Archaik’s maternal family, being mere viscounts from the frontier, couldn’t protect the prince from palace intrigues. The young Archaik must have thought to survive by showing his usefulness while hiding abilities strong enough to get him killed from jealousy.

“Truly befitting one with dragon’s blood.”

“Indeed. It’s like seeing Your Majesty’s childhood.”

The Emperor’s lips curved slightly at the magic scholars’ flattery.

“How could a dragon’s son be a snake?”

“Wise words, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor drummed his fingers on the throne.

A thousand-year empire. A perfect empire. An empire where magic is revived and all imperial citizens move in perfect unison according to the Emperor’s will.

A dragon’s covenant bearer could create such an empire.

The Emperor spoke.

“I see no reason to delay any longer.”

“What do you mean?”

The Emperor smiled.

“The crown prince’s investiture.”

***

‘Is His Majesty really going to invest Prince Archaik as crown prince?’

Viscount Paipers, head of the Imperial Magic Scholars, felt so surprised his heart pounded.

He knew the Emperor was obsessed with magic. But he never thought he would actually support the first prince over the second princess who was born of the Empress and had the nobles’ backing.

‘Well… magic has been the dream of imperial generations.’

Long ago, a dragon’s egg was discovered in the southern part of the Oken Empire. When the legendary dragon’s egg appeared, the previous Emperor became greatly excited.

‘This is a sign that the Oken Imperial Family will be eternal!’

To him, who had ascended the throne young and strengthened imperial authority by overcoming his mother’s family’s interference, the dragon egg appeared as a symbol of imperial power. The previous Emperor burned with ambition.

‘I will revive the power of dragons, magic. And create a perfect empire that will last a thousand, ten thousand years!’

After that Emperor died and the current Emperor ascended, the imperial ambition continued.

‘I will achieve the magical empire that my predecessor dreamed of.’

The Emperor inherited his predecessor’s ambition and pursued it more specifically and ruthlessly. He gathered not just Viscount Paipers but scholars obsessed with magic, created a secret imperial research institution, and pressed them to find ways to hatch the dragon egg.

One of the scholars, known as particularly crazy even among them, suggested.

‘What if we try exposing the blood of royalty, who are said to inherit dragon’s blood, to the dragon egg?’

Even though they had gathered only magic-obsessed people, this was too much. Viscount Paipers felt appalled.

‘Are you insane? Do you want three generations of your family destroyed for insulting the imperial family?’

But the Emperor was obsessed too.

‘Royal blood! Yes. There was such a method!’

He had many consorts and children. The Emperor already thought most of his children fell short of the standard to bear the name of royalty. He drove many princes and princesses into cruel experimentation.

‘Born as Oken royalty, they must fulfill such duties!’

Princes and princesses whose maternal families were humble. Who had chronic illnesses. Who had no outstanding qualities. Who were branded as likely to lose in competition.

Though still young, they were dragged like livestock to have their blood drawn. The magic research lab always echoed with young royals’ screams and cries.

Then one day, the dragon egg really responded to royal blood.

‘The dragon has awakened!’

Viscount Paipers remembered that moment clearly. The golden eyes of the dragon hatchling that broke out of the egg.

Those eyes were full of defiance and distrust.

Every time they experimented, it would writhe in pain and glare at the magic scholars with eyes increasingly filled with hatred, making him shudder more than once wondering if this was right.

‘That dragon became docile after starting to communicate with Prince Archaik.’

He had to give the most blood to the dragon egg among the Emperor’s children because his mother’s family was the most humble and had no power in the palace.

But his position changed after he began communicating with the dragon.

The extraction of dragon’s mana to make elixirs, human experiments feeding people the elixir, and the Snake Knights created from those human experiments – none of it would have been possible without Prince Archaik.

Perhaps because of this, the Snake Knights were absolutely loyal to Archaik.

‘Though they’re known as the Imperial Guard… in the past few years, they’ve essentially become the prince’s personal guard.’