Chapter 5 Part 4

Seeing that Melissa didn’t seem willing to talk further, he chose to let it go.

“It’s a managed forest, so it shouldn’t be dangerous, but when the sun sets, the forest changes. If you hear the conch sound more than three times, you must come out.”

As a token of gratitude, Melissa pressed her cheek against his and said her thanks.

“Thank you, Philip.”

“…If you’re truly grateful, please make sure to contact me even after returning to the capital.”

Seeing his reddened cheeks, Melissa gave a bitter smile. She thought, ‘The South is really open-minded,’ and felt an ominous sense that she might not be able to return.

“I’ll definitely send word.”

She looked around. Although the hunting grounds within the estate were open to the local people, the places where the nobles gathered were separate. Franz and Alexander were also preparing to move on horseback, far from where she was. She could sense Boris nearby, looking for her.

Melissa quickly pulled up her hood and slipped into the group heading into the hunting grounds.

Alexander was in the plains where the vassals participating in the festival and the castle knights were gathered, a place at a higher elevation than the forest open to commoners. From there, everything below was visible.

He observed everything she did from afar. From refusing to wear the hunting clothes he had sent her, stubbornly sticking to the shabby hunting clothes she had brought herself, to disappearing into the crowd.

Sighing, he was about to follow her. But just before she pulled up her hood, he caught sight of her swollen lip and cheek.

“My Lord?”

Alexander stopped where he was and dismounted. The sound of Boris awkwardly approaching him and the murmurs of several vassals asking what was happening buzzed faintly in his ears. In that moment, a gunshot signaling the start of the hunt echoed through the sky. At the same time, Alexander’s hand gripped the reins of Franz’s horse, which was just about to bolt. The horse, restrained by its head, seemed to resist, but when Alexander yanked the reins even harder, it settled down.

“What the hell, Alexander.”

Franz, almost thrown from his horse, looked down in alarm. His face showed he was barely holding back curses.

Expressionless, Alexander reached up and grabbed his brother’s upper garment.

“You bastard, what the hell are you doing!!!”

Franz tumbled to the ground with a thud. However, his younger brother remained impassive, planting his foot on Franz’s fallen shoulder.

“Brother. I’m sure I told you.”

He spoke with a tone devoid of emotion.

“Everything in Bergritz is mine.”

His hand traced a wide arc as he slapped Franz’s cheek. Franz’s eyes rolled back while lying down. The force was enough to make his skull ring, almost shatter.

“Everything I can touch.”

He struck Franz’s right cheek again, as if reading from a book, with a flat voice. Blood spurted from Franz’s mouth.

“Everything I can destroy.”

“Ha, ugh, aaagh!!!”

Franz struggled, but Alexander stepped on his arm and raised his hand again.

“All of it belongs to me.”

Delivering one final slap, Alexander reached for his sword, but Boris grabbed his arm.

“My lord. There are too many eyes watching.”

“So what?”

“…He’ll really die like this.”

Franz, whose face had been struck repeatedly, couldn’t even open his right eye. Moments later, blood trickled from his nose, and he even wet himself.

Alexander looked down at his brother with an expressionless gaze.

The Franz who once towered over him, who would beat him and look down on him just for amusement, was nowhere to be found. Now, only a pathetic man who preyed on the weak lay before him. And so, a wave of futility washed over Alexander—the realization that proving Tavalon’s territory to such a man was meaningless.

If there was no need for proof, then it would be best to kill him right here and now.

As Alexander’s arm tensed, Boris’s grip tightened in response.

“Haven’t you endured this long already?”

Boris sighed.

He had a rough idea of the reason behind Alexander’s conquest of Tavalon’s territory—to restore the old glory of Bergritz and present every aspect of it to the Bergritz family, who had once abused Alexander. To mentally and physically break them, reducing them to something even lower than worms.

It was a goal too noble to be called revenge, but for this, Alexander had spent over ten years.

Though branches of the family and noble houses that sided with Bright, deeming Alexander illegitimate, still remained, he had nearly achieved his objective.

Eradicating the barbarians was an easy task for him, and he was managing the dragon somehow as well. Reclaiming the old Bergritz territory was only a matter of time.

For such a goal, he had always acted with precision and poise. Yet, it was from the moment Franz and Melissa got engaged that he began to act emotionally.

What exactly was it that irritated him so deeply? Boris couldn’t understand.

Bright’s schemes were nothing new, and wasn’t Melissa just being used for the dragon? There was no reason for Alexander to become this violent. He was a master she couldn’t quite comprehend.

Deciding to stop judging his master, Boris chose instead to be his reason.

Gripping Alexander’s wrist, he met the eyes of the attendants who had followed.

“Take the young master to the physician. Check his condition and report immediately.”

Franz, carried away on a stretcher, sobbed,

“I won’t let this go, I’ll tell Mother, hic, I’ll tell her everything.”

Ignoring Franz, Boris tightened his grip on Alexander’s wrist, ensuring he fully sheathed his sword.

“Violent men aren’t popular, my lord.”

Alexander slapped his hand away and mounted his horse again. Boris was right. Franz had dared to touch what was his, which made him furious, but it wasn’t something he couldn’t control.

In fact, Melissa must have endured things like this dozens of times over the years, trapped in the mansion, while Alexander had turned his back on her. She was a woman he had long ignored.

As his mind cooled, a sudden, aimless surge of murderous intent welled up inside him. It was hard to control his emotions.

“I’ve caused concern.”

With a graceful smile, Alexander addressed the vassals, who stood as expressionless as he was. They were long-time loyal followers of Alexander, none of whom were of the main bloodline. They assumed that there must be a reason behind his actions and, since they didn’t particularly like Franz either, seemed largely unfazed. They focused solely on Alexander.

“In honor of Apostle Kaladaame’s blessing, bring me a beast to sacrifice.”

Alexander drew his sword and held it high.

“Under the blessings forged by the apostle, I, Alexander, swear to be your eternal sword and shield.”

His honeyed words slithered like a snake. As he lowered his sword, the sound of conch shells echoed again, shaking the ground.

For Tavalon, for bloodshed, for Alexander, they rode off at a gallop.

“Where are you going?”

But when Alexander turned his reins down the slope, Boris, puzzled, asked.

Alexander dropped the expression he had used to stir the vassals’ spirits and replied coldly.

“Hunting.”

***

Melissa moved as far away as possible from any traces of animals. In places where there were no beasts, there would be no people either.

Indeed, as she left the mansion, the sensation on the back of her right hand became even more vivid. It was almost painful.

Avoiding people, she soon followed where the sensation led her.

“…Who is it?”

She sensed movement in the bushes.

A boy with ebony-black hair and dark eyes, who looked somehow familiar, appeared. He couldn’t have been more than ten years old.

“Are you lost?”

The boy nodded without taking his eyes off her.

“…Where’s your mother? Your father…?”

“I don’t know where they are.”

The boy’s small lips trembled.

“Please help me…”

After some hesitation, Melissa finally picked him up.

The boy, seemingly not expecting her to lift him, clung to her neck with wide, surprised eyes.

“…Warm.”

“Where’s your home? I’ll help you find it.”

It wasn’t unusual for hunters or logging supervisors to live in the forest. She thought the boy might be their son and asked kindly.

But the boy responded with a question of his own.

“Where do you want to go, sister?”

“…Huh?”

“I wasn’t really lost. I just wanted to see how you’d react.”

Burying his face in her neck, the boy chuckled softly.

Before Melissa could react in shock, the boy calmly whispered.

“I’ll take you there. I know this place well.”

A thought flashed through her mind—this might not be an ordinary child.

Ignoring the chill that crept over her, Melissa looked at the boy.

“I want to go where the dragon, the egg of Harmonia, is.”

“Okay.”

The boy smiled faintly and suddenly pulled back Melissa’s hood.

Then he pressed his small lips against hers.

The boy smiled.

“As expected, you’re warm.”

Before Melissa could even react, the boy was already standing at a distance, watching her.

In the midst of the green bushes, his bronze skin blended in perfectly, as if he were part of a painting.

“Follow me.”

As if mesmerized, she followed. The place they emerged from was a cliff.

The boy standing at the edge beckoned her as if urging her to come closer.

“Here it is.”

Indeed, as the boy had said, a perfect pattern was appearing and glowing on the back of her hand. Melissa carefully stepped toward the pointed edge of the cliff. She believed it would be safe to approach where the boy was.

However, just as she thought she had reached him, the boy’s figure vanished without a trace.

“See you again.”

The voice came from behind. The face of the now-grown boy was flushed, as if he had been beaten by someone. And Melissa instantly recognized exactly who the boy was.

“Alexander?”

The moment she whispered the name, he pressed his hand against her solar plexus and gently pushed.

Melissa fell without resistance.

She had experienced falling from a cliff before, so the sensation of floating was not unfamiliar.

As she plummeted rapidly toward the ground, what she saw was a field filled with blooming purple jasmines. A surge of emotion welled up from within.

Melissa, remembering the feeling when Alexander had opened the door, stretched out her hand.

The pattern on the back of her hand shone so brightly it was blinding.

“Please… please…!!!”

At the point where she was about to land, amidst the pile of jasmines, a small circle appeared and then expanded like a dragon’s gaping mouth.

The sky beyond the portal was one she had seen before.

Without hesitation, Melissa threw herself through it.

She braced herself for an impact. If not that, then she thought, in this otherworld where sky and ground were reversed, she would continue to fall endlessly.

However, when she opened her tightly shut eyes, she was neither falling nor crashing.

Melissa was atop a flying dragon.

Beneath her, thousands of red scales trembled as if to flaunt their presence.

Kneeling down, she hesitantly reached out her hand.

A warm sensation radiated from beneath her palm.

Lifting her head, she looked toward the dragon’s head.

Unlike the dragon Tiassat, who had two horns, this dragon had only one horn protruding from its head.

“Harpax.”

A dragon known for breathing fire to both heal and destroy. But it was also known that its temperament was not exactly gentle.

Suddenly, the dragon began to ascend.

Startled, Melissa grabbed the horn, and the dragon let out a low rumble, almost as if it were mocking her.

Harpax, who had been steadily rising, abruptly came to a halt.

Melissa, clinging to the horn and nearly sprawled flat, regained her senses and found that, instead of the sky, the sea was now before her.

The sea, like a ceiling, appeared so close that she could reach out and touch it.