Chapter 3: The Awakening of the Guardian Dragon

It was dusk, and the sun was nearly hidden below the horizon. And despite being this late, the booms and sounds of extraordinary magic phenomena showed no sign of stopping.

“Damn it! One more time!”

“Ya know, yer wasting yer time trying to enchant a sword without the power of magical ores embedded within it. Just be good and save up money to buy the real deal.”

It was the miraculous power of those who were loved by the spirits. Today, like always, the training field made for spell practice was filled with magic shooting from wands and the clash of sword fighting. It was almost as heated as training grounds where real soldiers practiced their military drills.

The long-awaited dungeon expedition was finally around the corner and would commence next week. Everyone practiced in their own ways so that they could fight as best as they could when they came across monsters in the dungeon. One student was working on controlling their spells. Another was trying to learn new ones, gripping a textbook in their free hand. There were even commoner students, holding swords instead of wands, among the crowd.

For these youths who wished to join the army after graduating from Kirsch, a visit from Duke Denning held more weight than one from Princess Carina. And among them, the princess of a destroyed kingdom and a girl with black hair waved their wands as well.

“Speaking of which, Miss Charlotte. You’ve talked to the princess before, right?” Tina asked.

“Princess Carina? Yeah, I have. But...only just a tiny bit.”

“What is the princess like? I wanted to talk to her, but there’s always that crowd of boys around her...” Tina pouted. “I’ve only seen her from a distance, never up close. Ah, but I was able to tell that the princess was a little disgruntled about it all.”

To Charlotte, the personal retainer of a direct descendant of House Denning, the visit of the duke was also a very big event. It was a sad fact that even though Duke Denning doted on Slowe Denning, she didn’t matter to him at all, despite being Slowe’s retainer. Her absence wouldn’t change a thing in the duke’s eyes. Charlotte wanted to prove that evaluation wrong, and if possible, she was also hoping to get a raise.

Charlotte thought for a moment. “Hmm, how do I put this? She’s gentle, she’s great at magic, and she’s beautiful too... I guess I’d call her a perfect human? Ah, but Master Slowe said that she was a little similar to you, Tina.”

“The princess and me? Reeeally? I don’t think we’re alike at all, though...” Tina was lost in her thoughts for a while. Then, she stared at Charlotte’s chest, and then her own.

“...Um, Tina? Why did you just look at me like that?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing. I just thought that Lord Denning is quite the closet pervert, that’s all. It can’t be helped, though, since Princess Carina’s are quite big. But wait, the princess often calls Lord Denning to her room... Are they possibly doing the you-know-what up there...?”

“Th-There’s no way that would happen!” Charlotte exclaimed.

Tina laughed. “Miss Charlotte has finally gotten mad!”

“I’m not angry at all! It’s all because you said weird stuff, Tina!”

“Oh really? You’ve been in a bad mood for a while, Miss Charlotte. But...I also understand how you feel. Lord Denning was supposed to watch over our spell practice today but he suddenly got summoned by the princess. I had also been a little excited for today too, and yet... However, I think it would be better for us to leave those feelings behind for now and focus more on magic.”

“I am focused!”

“But Miss Charlotte, your spells haven’t succeeded in a little while,” Tina pointed out. “You’ve failed five consecutive times.”

“That is...” Charlotte stammered. “That’s just because I’m not feeling that well, that’s all.”

Tina’s words had hit the bull’s-eye.

Lately, Charlotte’s master seemed to have Princess Carina on his mind all the time, and Charlotte would spot them standing very close to each other several times a day as she walked through the campus.

It wasn’t like Slowe was only hers or anything. Even just the thought of that was presumptuous. She had become Slowe’s retainer pretty much out of pity; for her to think of the son of House Denning like that was...

How do I put it? It’s almost as if a boy, whom I was always with, was taken away by a person who appeared out of nowhere, Charlotte thought. In other words, she was feeling a little lonely.

But, well, if Slowe planned on spending all his time with Princess Carina, Charlotte had to make plans of her own. She would practice hard at magic and knock Slowe off his feet with her progress!

“Ah! Now you’re frowning and you’ve got wrinkles between your eyebrows, Miss Charlotte!”

“N-No, I don’t! I was just a little gloomy because I was worried whether Master Slowe was really being useful! Being Princess Carina’s companion is his job, after all! Okay, now that’s the end of this conversation! I won’t talk about it anymore, you hear me?!”

“Uh...I was joking, Miss Charlotte. Please don’t be so mad.”

“Hey, you’re being too loud, commoner.” A voice cut into their conversation. “Still, you two seem to be talking about something just a bit interesting.”

Suddenly, the silhouette of a very noble person appeared. The owner of that shrill voice was a person who didn’t usually come to the training field.

The arrival of the small Queen of Kirsch Mage Institute, Alicia Bulla Dia Cirquista, caused whispers to break out all over the field. It was very rare for the noble Cirquistan princess to come to this place at all. Rumors said that there was a small room on the top floor of the female dorms where one could practice magic, so they speculated that its existence was why she wasn’t usually present.

“Lady Alicia!” Charlotte exclaimed. “May I ask what you are doing here?”

“Miss Charlotte, I would like to ask you something. May I have some of your time? Wait, why are you holding a wand? Didn’t the duke ban you from having one, if I remember correctly?”

“Ah, this is, um... I was granted temporary permission, well, kind of, and...” Charlotte mumbled.

“Oh really? Well, that has nothing to do with me, though,” Alicia replied.

The red-haired boy who was normally next to Alicia was absent. It was quite a rare thing for the domineering princess to go somewhere without a servant. However, Alicia didn’t seem to have even one bit of intent to practice magic.

Why was she here?

“Oh, Lady Alicia, long time no see! Well then, some of my friends over there are calling for me, Miss Charlotte, so I’ll head over there for a bit!” Tina was always quick-witted and the first to move. She also excelled at noticing the slightest change in people’s feelings.

Immediately sensing the bad mood Alicia was in, Tina made a run for it. She didn’t want to be caught up in the cross fire. Better to be safe than sorry, as they say. After all, she was a commoner, and on the bottom of the hierarchy in this school, so issues between nobles were out of her wheelhouse.

“She’s a restless commoner as usual,” Alicia noted. “That aside, Miss Charlotte, that guy... What does that guy usually...talk to the Little Daryth about?”

“Huh? Are you talking about Master Slowe?”

“Who else could I be talking about?”

“Um, well... I don’t know much about that myself,” Charlotte admitted.

“You don’t know? Aren’t you his personal retainer, Miss Charlotte?”

“I am assigned to him...”

“If you’re specifically assigned to him, then why don’t you know?”

“Even if you say that, I can’t really...” Charlotte, of course, was also curious about what Slowe and Princess Carina talked about. However, she couldn’t just interrogate her master about every single little detail of his private life.

Not only that, but this was the future queen and the former prodigy of Denning they were talking about! They probably were discussing the future of this country or something, topics that Charlotte wouldn’t understand. As proof of that, Slowe sometimes came back looking exhausted when the princess wouldn’t leave her room. Charlotte had a rough guess of what was going on; surely, they had debates about difficult topics in that room.

“Listen, Miss Charlotte. You are his personal retainer. Personal retainers of House Denning are totally different from normal retainers. You understand that, right?”

“Um... Yes, I know that, but...”

A personal retainer of House Denning was a servant whose life and death was intertwined with their master’s. They would always wait by their master’s side, understand the dilemmas their master was in, and wield their power together with their master on the battlefield.

In other words, a personal retainer of House Denning was a human with a very special station, whom even soldiers would acknowledge with respect.

“If you know that, then I don’t have to waste my breath. Go investigate and probe into what they are talking about!” Alicia ordered.

“I-I can’t! I can’t navigate conversations skillfully enough to do something like probing!”

“You can! You’re that guy’s personal retainer, right?!”

Charlotte said that it was an impossible feat, but Alicia also didn’t budge. Why is Lady Alicia angry at me? Charlotte pondered this question as Alicia forced her to promise that she would report any information she found out about the two after this.

●

“The princess looked at me and smiled!” a boy exclaimed.

“No! Me! She saw the funny face I was making and was smiling at me!” another boy argued.

For the past few days, Charlotte had kept asking me what Princess Carina and I talked about alone. Charlotte was probably worried about whether I was really able to successfully carry out the grand duty of being the princess’s companion or not. She spent a lot of time on this, even though she was supposed to be busy with spell practice. Charlotte was a retainer who was kind to her very core.

“Um! Uh! Please shake my hand!” a student stammered.

Still, Princess Carina’s popularity is really off the charts, huh? There was one guy who had described Princess Carina as an angel who had descended onto the campus from the heavens. Honestly? He might not have been too far off. After all, people who had the same classes as her would dance wildly out of elation just from that fact, and they would do weird stuff in class in an attempt to make her remember their faces. Even during the brief periods of time when she was moving between classrooms, crowds of people would gather just for a glimpse of the beautiful princess.

However, those idiots... Excuse me. I mean, those guys didn’t know one very important fact about her. Once she stepped out of her room, Princess Carina would put on the act of a graceful and perfect angel. If one observed her veeery carefully, however, they could tell what she was feeling from the subtle changes in her expression.

“Mounds— Your Highness! Ah, I mean, Princess Carina! Won’t you look my way?!” a boy yelled.

“Hey, you! What did you just say to the princess?!” a girl squealed in indignation.

“I didn’t say anything! If I had to explain it, well, it’s my inner voice!”

Take what just happened, for example. The princess heard someone call out to her with a disgraceful name, but she still kept up her pleasant front, saying, “No, it is fine... Aha ha... Everyone is as energetic as always today, I see...”

But if you looked closely, her shaking hands were clenched into fists.

When asked for a handshake, she didn’t show any negative reaction and only smiled quietly. However, her large eyes were slightly narrowed, and her forehead twitched. Oh no. That’s reeeal bad. Princess Carina looks pissed off. Her face is also getting red.

The male student from earlier piped up again. “Whoa, up close, those are some great b— W-Whoa! Why is Sir Dalton here?! A-Ahhh!!!!!!!!!!”

Meanwhile, the princess fiddled with her rose-gold hair, twirling it around her fingers as she looked up towards the sky with melancholy on her face. Ah, here it comes. Her gaze wasn’t aimed at the clouds drifting by in the sky—she was looking at me. With a slightly reddened face, Princess Carina glared hard at me, who had been watching over her with gentle eyes from within the school building.

She was basically saying to me, “I can’t do anything about that, so do something about these troublesome people with that thing you do! Hurry up!”

Thus, I threw the windows wide open and glared at the surrounding people. Sometimes, when people didn’t notice me there, I would cast spells from my spot in the classroom and mess up somebody’s hairstyle or something. This time, they noticed me without the need for me to do anything else. They started to panic and made a ruckus about how the Piggy Duke’s mood was getting bad.

Thanks to the commotion, Princess Carina was able to scuttle out of the area quickly.

“Hey, the Piggy Duke’s at it again, bullying people getting close to the princess.”

“He isn’t satisfied with just keeping people away from his retainer... He intends to even make the princess his own girl now, huh? Just because he’s from House Denning, he thinks he can do anything he wants,” the student spat before noticing me. “Ah, i-it’s nothing, Lord Denning!”

I didn’t reply.

With this, my reputation had worsened again. Not only that, but whenever Princess Carina sent out an SOS signal more than once in a day, the next day was a given.

“Slowe Denning. A job for you.”

Princess Carina would, without fail, clam up in her room. In other words, she was skipping classes, and I would go to her room again under the request of the Royal Knights. Lately, this had become a set routine in my everyday life.

“Lord Denning came here today again. Look at that face of his,” one girl muttered with distaste.

“Huh? He looks serious to me.”

“How? You don’t know what kind of disgusting desires he’s hiding under his face. Maybe he’s purposefully bullying the princess because he wants to come into the female dorms...”

Hearing someone whisper that, I felt my whole body jump. Huuuh?! I was indignant. H-How dare you say that, you damned people! It’s the opposite, you hear me?! It’s the complete opposite! Hey, my reputation had finally recovered into a relatively good one! Having it crash into the ground again because of something like this is out of the question!

“Yikes, he’s looking this way. Was that rumor really true?”

“He looks like he wants to say something. Hmph, I wonder what kind of lewd things he’s thinking,” the girl mocked.

I’m not thinking about such things at all, I protested inwardly. Hey, you guys might not know this, but Princess Carina has the tendencies of a hermit! She has a heart of glass, and she’s a person who immediately holes up in her room whenever the slightest troublesome thing happens!

I wanted to shout this out loud into the world. However, if I thoughtlessly told the truth, I would be killed by the Royal Knights next to me.

“What are you looking around for? Follow me, Slowe Denning,” Sir Dalton barked.

I sighed. “Ugh, I’m so unlucky.”

“Being invited into the private quarters of the princess herself is the epitome of honor.” The knight cocked an eyebrow.

“That’s not what I’m arguing about!” I retorted.

Today, just like every other day, I headed to the princess’s room on the top floor of the female dorms.

I entered the bedroom and was greeted by the scent of refreshing perfume and the sight of Princess Carina sprawled out on the bed. Princess Carina wore her light pink pajamas once again today. Maybe they’re her favorites? She didn’t seem to have the motivation to do anything today either. Her current slacking-off phase had continued for two consecutive days.

“You were not at our meeting place at our usual time, Princess Carina, so I came here, only to find you being a hermit again... Please know that even entering the female dorms is a difficult task for me,” I said.

“Th-That’s not it... I’m actually feeling sick today, and that’s why I’m here...” she stammered.

“Someone feeling sick would not take so many snacks into her bedroom,” I said slowly.

Everyone imagined her to be the resident of some kind of paradise, and probably nobody could imagine in their wildest dreams that the princess was actually such a sloppy girl. She wasn’t all that prim and proper, and her eating habits were not very regular.

“Those greedy eyes of yours...” she muttered. “Fine, I get it. Here, I’ll give you your share.”

“No! Please do not randomly assume what I am thinking! And I said that I was in the middle of a diet, did I not?”

“Really? Are you really not forcing yourself? An extreme diet is bad for your body. Plus, I don’t think you’re a shockingly obese boy like the rumors said you would be, to be honest. If we’re talking about your current measurements, then there’s probably at least five people of your size in town right now.”

“What you’re seeing is the result of a successful diet. I have actually lost a lot of weight already.”

“Oh, really? I wish I’d seen you back before you lost all that weight,” Princess Carina said as she munched greedily on the snacks on the bed.

It seemed that she was the type who tended to overeat to deal with stress. When she finished eating, she hid herself under the sheets again.

I heaved a long sigh. Those guys who called Princess Carina “an angel from the heavens” probably would never believe their eyes if they saw her like this. The princess showed me such a frank side of herself without a care. I wonder what kind of position she ranks me in her heart... Nowhere good, I bet.

“Come on, please come out, Princess Carina. If you come out now, we will make it in time for classes at noon. So, please get changed. You are still in your pajamas, right?”

“I don’t want to, Slowe...” she whined. “I made up my mind that I am not going to go outside at all today. I won’t get changed.”

I had thought about why she’d made me join the Guardian Selection, and why she’d chosen me to be her companion while she was at school. On top of that, she also demanded that I call her by her name, without her title, when it was just the two of us. Of course, I firmly declined that order, but... Why in the world was she so intimate with me, and only me? Why did Princess Carina trust me so much?

There, I came to a theory. Surely, she felt a sort of camaraderie with me since we were both treated as giant problem children of this country.

“If you don’t come out, Princess Carina, your knights will give me an earful.”

“We already know that the dragon hatchling is no longer in the dungeon, so there isn’t any reason for me to be in Kirsch, and yet...” The princess groaned in frustration. “‘Become more familiar with others,’ you say?! That old geezer Maldini.” She cursed at him.

The princess poked her head out from under the sheets, looking disgruntled. From the bottom of her heart, she thought that the position of princess being imposed on her was troublesome.

That was probably why she’d chosen me. The most widely circulated public rumor was that the Piggy Duke had been crushed by the weight of House Denning and gone mad. Princess Carina probably had been jealous of me, who lived my life as I pleased.

My infamy as the blackhearted Piggy Duke had spread far and wide, even into other countries, so surely Princess Carina had heard about it too. Thus, she’d chosen me because she wanted someone whom she could dump all of her inner complaints on.

“Making such a sad face is of no use. I won’t be deceived by that,” I declared.

The princess pouted. “Fine, I get it...”

Maybe she had finally relented. She started squirming out of her bedsheets, and...

“Wha—” I choked.

What the hell did I just see? For a moment, I thought I saw Princess Carina naked. But not quite: she had her underwear on. However, that was all she wore. How...how do I put this? Most of what I saw was bare, exposed skin. While I rubbed at my eyes in disbelief, Princess Carina seemed to have noticed her immodest getup and she let out a small, cute squeal. She hid her body with her sheets immediately. She had absolutely no dignity at that moment.

“Whoa! D-Did you see that?! I...I’ll make you pay money for that, you know!”

The bewitching sight of her body had been suddenly revealed to me. W-Wait. Wasn’t she wearing pajamas before? Her chest jiggled just now, right? Her white thighs, her belly button... And of course, my eyes had been glued to the two mounds that could be distinguished even from above her clothes, when she did have clothes on.

“I-I cannot be held accountable for what just happened!” I exclaimed. “More importantly, why aren’t you wearing clothes?!”

“W-Well, that’s because I’m the type who likes to just be in my u-underwear in bed!”

“Nobody cares which type you are! Please, just put on something, quickly!” I hurriedly turned my back on her.

Though the princess didn’t usually have strong bursts of emotion, she seemed embarrassed by the whole thing, and her cheeks had grown rosy. I heard that portraits of Princess Carina were currently being sold for silver coins in Kirsch right now, but the sight of the princess earlier would probably be worth at least one gold. I’d never even once had such a, well, lucky situation with Charlotte up until now, though we had been together for a long time...

Still, what she had below her clothes was more magnificent than what I could have imagined. Speaking of which, that’s right. I had been waiting for this kind of protagonist event. I never really wanted the mercenary or the Traitor Knight.

I tried my hardest to ignore the shuffling behind me. Princess Carina was currently changing her clothes. Though she probably didn’t take too long, it felt like an eternity to me.

“More importantly. You’re going to classes properly today too, Slowe. I heard that you had been a wild child who went berserk all the time and that your attitude in class had been horrid, but...”

“I have stopped being the opposite of serious.”

“What a waste. This is the only time you could spend your time as you please... Ugh, this is too tight.”

“Even in the past, Princess Carina, I had never skipped classes. Now, please hurry up and get changed.” I hesitated. “Also, I do not know what is too tight, but I shall wait downstairs.”

“Ah. Wait a minute, Slowe.”

Cautiously, I waited before speaking up. “What is it?”

“It’s a little difficult... Hey, can you help me get changed?”

“I’ll be waiting for you downstairs!” I exclaimed hastily.

The princess chuckled. “Okaaay.”

Damn it! I cursed inwardly. Now that I think about it calmly, I should have taken more time to burn the sight of her into my mind!

Sir Dalton, who had been waiting at the entrance of the bedroom, seemed to have deduced what had happened inside from overhearing our conversation. He gave me a big, approving nod, praising me for a job well done.

Like our earlier interactions had shown, the princess thought of me as her comrade. She felt that I was the same type of person as her. She, as a princess who didn’t want to become something like a queen, and I, who’d fallen from the Prodigy of Wind and lived a carefree life now.

If she’d sought out a comrade whom she could show her true self to, then I decided to try to carry out that role. As the Prodigy of Wind, I had carried the expectation of becoming Duke Denning on my back, and I understood how she felt more than anyone else, wanting to run away from such a weight.

That was why, even if it was just for a short while... I hoped that she could lead the life of a normal student while she was at Kirsch, at least.

“Huh? Charlotte, your gaze is more fierce than normal. Did something happen? Huh? What? ‘What did I talk about with Princess Carina last night?’” I echoed her question. “I mean, we didn’t talk about anything significant, but...”

Since the dungeon expedition was complete, Princess Carina had wanted to return to Yoram where the Order was staying. However, the Cardinal had decided to extend her stay at Kirsch since this was a rare opportunity.

Still, whoever invented the saying “time flies” was very accurate. The time I spent with Princess Carina flew by very quickly. I was fortunate enough to continue my assignment as Princess Carina’s toy for passing the time, and I brought the princess, who was oozing with dissatisfaction, to all kinds of interesting places within the campus.

“Huh? Oh, you want to know what I am doing, as my retainer? Well... If I had to put it into words, I think I mainly listened to Princess Carina’s complaints yesterday. You know, being the princess of Daryth and all, she seems to be tied down by all kinds of duties. Uh, Charlotte? I don’t think it’s a topic important enough to take notes on...”

Most of these outings took place early in the morning, when most students were still asleep. Instead of doing my daily weight-loss routines, I used that block of time for Princess Carina’s sake. We did all kinds of things: feeding the horses, telling her the names of flowers, strolling in nature to the chirping of birds... Sometimes, Charlotte would join us and she would sneak food for Princess Carina from the dining hall kitchens.

What seemed like normal everyday activities to me were all quite novel to the princess, apparently, and she said that time spent with us was more fun than class. But in my mind, it felt as if she was only hanging out with me, so it was hard to say whether she was truly interacting with her peers in the way the Cardinal wished her to.

“Hurry, Slowe!” the princess exclaimed.

“I am heading there right now, so please wait for a moment!” I replied.

A horse-drawn carriage came to a stop below the main gates, and the grand farewell event for the princess was finally over.

The sun had nearly set below the horizon, and there were Royal Knights on white horses around the horse-drawn carriage. Beyond the gate, a large crowd of onlookers bemoaned the departure of the angel. In that case, I was probably a very lucky guy, since I was able to attend to the princess until the very last moment.

“I’m heading out, Charlotte. Once I finish seeing Princess Carina off, I’ll return to school. When I do that, though, you must hand over that wand to me,” I said.

Charlotte was staying behind at Kirsch. Her time limit for using the wand was until tomorrow morning when my father would arrive. However, I didn’t want him to find out about it in the worst-case scenario, so I would take hold of the wand tonight.

I hesitated before continuing, “And...sorry. I was supposed to watch your spellcasting today, but...”

“No! Please don’t worry about it, Master Slowe! I’m fine, even just by myself!”

Lately, Charlotte had been using every moment of her free time to practice magic. She might even have been waking up earlier than me, who woke up quite early for the princess’s sake. Charlotte seemed determined to practice with her wand until the last second she had.

However, she wasn’t the only one using every precious second to work hard. The big dungeon expedition event held by the army was coming up tomorrow. There were many students who had headed to the training field to practice for that sake instead of coming to see Princess Carina off.

“I’ll be going, then. Best of luck at your spell practice,” I said.

“Okay! Have a safe trip, Master Slowe!” Charlotte trailed off when I didn’t respond. “Master Slowe?”

“Ah, nah. It’s nothing. I’ll come back soon.”

Among the students who were seeing us off, I spotted Alicia, and she had a worried look on her face. For some reason, her expression wouldn’t leave my mind.

●

After the grand ceremony, Charlotte headed to the training field where there was a bigger ruckus than normal.

“Finally! It’s tomorrow! The time I spent with the princess was like a dream come true, but nothing beats a dungeon!” Shuya exclaimed.

“‘With the princess,’ you say? The only person who can say that is the Piggy Duke, Shuya,” his friend retorted.

The dungeon expedition, long awaited by many, was slated for tomorrow. Perhaps because Duke Denning and a few other highly influential nobles were visiting, even the soldiers were oddly restless, and the whole campus was buzzing with excitement over the extraordinary event.

However, Charlotte was the only one who knew that Duke Denning’s first priority wasn’t the dungeon. He was here to see Slowe, and she knew that for a fact.

“I’ve finally found you, Miss Charlotte! What happened to your report today?” Alicia exclaimed.

“Oh! Lady Alicia, I’m very sorry, it slipped my mind. Let’s see...” Charlotte reported that her master had been hearing out the princess’s woes like usual.

“Oh, really. Well, I supposed that was the case. After all, she’s that Little Daryth,” Alicia replied and nodded with hidden meaning that Charlotte could not decipher. Alicia then disappeared from the training field.

From there on, everything was as usual again. Finding an appropriate opening, Tina met up with Charlotte and the two started practicing spells together.

“Miss Charlotte, Lady Alicia seemed somewhat in a good mood today,” Tina commented. “This is just my opinion, but she’s probably happy that Princess Carina is going back. With this, Lord Denning won’t have to be summoned by her anymore. Ah, in that case, she might be the same as you, Miss Charlotte.”

Charlotte had to take a moment before she could reply. “So?! Master Slowe is just doing his job, and I don’t have any opinion on it all!”

Tina continued her fun, lighthearted banter with Charlotte for a while after that as she waved her wand. With that, two mini golems fought each other with their fists, taking out chunks of each other’s earthen bodies.

“Hey, look at that. That girl’s the commoner from the rumors,” a student muttered.

“She’s controlling the golems subconsciously. Sometimes, people like her just appear out of nowhere... I’m so glad I wasn’t in the same year as her.”

Charlotte wasn’t the only one watching Tina. The noble students in the training field were staring at her too. Though she was a commoner, the girl’s skill had improved by leaps and bounds. At this rate, she might even surpass them. With this anxiety in their hearts, the noble students began to practice their spells once again.

Tina, who had only recently awakened her earth magic, was already at a level where she could make two mini mud golems fight each other while humming a tune. When she gained the skill to control three mini golems at once, she could finally take on the challenge of manipulating a bronze golem.

The bronze golem spell was significant. Being able to control one meant that she could properly call herself an earth mage.

“You’re amazing, Tina. The speed that you’re improving at magic is...” Charlotte searched for an appropriate word. “Well, you’re going off with a whoosh.”

“In my case, my abilities just happened to overlap with what I wanted to do, I guess... But your spell earlier was also amazing, Miss Charlotte!”

“My pebble spell? Not at all.”

Tina nearly choked on her words. “Please don’t be so self-deprecating, Miss Charlotte. Being a light mage in Daryth is a big deal, so please have more confidence in yourself!”

“I mean, you’re definitely more amazing than me, Tina.” Charlotte pouted. “Your spells are more useful than mine, after all. The only thing I can do is stop the movement of a small pebble, you know?” Charlotte heaved a heavy sigh.

Even though she was a light mage, Charlotte’s lack of skill meant her spell didn’t work at all on Tina’s mini golems. Charlotte groaned in frustration at another failed attempt. “Jeez!”

Whenever she failed at using her spell, Charlotte could feel how talented Tina was. This younger girl steadily improved her skills every single day without fail. Tina had said that she was jealous of Charlotte for being able to talk with the princess, but in Charlotte’s eyes, Tina was much more impressive, as she was talented at manipulating magic. In fact, Charlotte was very, very jealous of Tina!

“Ah, speaking of which, may I talk to you about one thing?” Tina asked.

“What is it?” Charlotte prompted.

“I know it’s late for me to say this, but... I’m considering joining the dungeon expedition tomorrow.”

“Huh?! You were interested in the dungeon, Tina? Are you hoping to join the army?!”

“I don’t really have any grand dreams of entering the army or anything after I graduate, but I’m curious about how effective my spells would be against monsters...” Tina said sheepishly.

“Really?! It’s dangerous! Monsters aren’t all silly and stupid like those orcs that end up coming onto the campus, you know.”

“Well, I mean, I know that, but... This is a rare opportunity where we can go down a dungeon with guards all around us. I hear that inexperienced adventurers commonly pay money to hire guards when they first enter a dungeon, so... Ah, but I’m not thinking about going deep down, though! I mean, I just want to test the waters in the top layers! So, about that. Miss Charlotte, you went down the dungeon a while ago with Lord Denning and Princess Carina, right? How was it? Was it scary?”

“When I went down? Weeell... I was...” Charlotte trailed off.

Charlotte thought back on her dungeon expedition and how she had panicked in front of the monsters, almost losing it completely. Her heart sank deep in her chest like a heavy anchor dropped into the harbor. I’m pathetic. How pathetic. Why am I so pathetic? she thought as her spirits sank further. Looking back, even Princess Carina had started chuckling at Charlotte. Reflecting on it all, Charlotte thought, Why am I so... Why do I always fail at the most important times? She began to reflect on every single mistake she’d made in there.

“Ah, you don’t have to force yourself to tell me, though!”

Charlotte tilted her head in question. “Why?”

“You probably messed up in the dungeon, right? You’re easy to read, Miss Charlotte.”

Charlotte was speechless for a moment. “No way! Am I that obvious?”

“Yes, very. I’ll be frank. Whenever I’m with you, Miss Charlotte, I never get bored.”

“I think that’s going a bit too far,” Charlotte said slowly.

An internal struggle started up once again in Charlotte’s mind. Seeing her like that, Tina couldn’t help but find Charlotte as cute as she often did. Though Charlotte was a far cry from the typical workers of House Denning, there would be very few people who complimented her slightly absentminded Denning master as much as she did.

“Oh, come on. How long are you going to mope, Miss Charlotte?”

Watching the still-pouting Charlotte out of the corner of her eye, Tina resumed her practice.

Though Tina had ended up asking Charlotte about something else, her words from earlier were the truth. Tina was honestly just curious about how effective her talents would be against monsters.

Charlotte returned to her room and heaved a big sigh. “I wonder whyyy... Why is Tina so good at magiiic?” she whined with exasperation.

Charlotte trained hard at magic with Tina, and she couldn’t forget how much Tina improved every single day. Watching Tina’s visible progress, Charlotte repeatedly wondered to herself whether she herself was making any. Not only that, but Tina seemed to have the interest of the teacher with the puffy, shaggy hair, and he would give her advice from time to time.

Charlotte probably looked at the two with a lot of longing in her eyes. Despite her not being a student, the puffy-haired teacher talked to Charlotte, asking, “Ah, you’re Dennin’s retainer, huh? What, are you practicin’ magic too?” He’d started to warmly give advice to Charlotte as well.

After he learned that Charlotte had an affinity for light magic, he’d told Charlotte that the light and dark elements were quite special among the Six Greater Magics. Dark magic lent its powers to people with trauma in their hearts, while the way someone carries themselves was important to mastering light magic.

Apparently this professor also had an affinity for light magic, but he hadn’t been able to fully realize his talent in it. The professor told her many anecdotes and he’d said that the reason why the light spirits ignored him was probably due to the weakness of his own heart.

“Will I be a failure forever like this? I don’t want that...” Charlotte mumbled.

Every night, Charlotte would be depressed as she compared herself to the talented Tina, and she would be filled with frustration at herself. Not only that, but Tina had found out about Charlotte’s real ability in magic and trod lightly around the topic for Charlotte’s sake. This fact made Charlotte’s heart plummet, feeling pathetic and sad at the same time.

Charlotte had been a mage for nearly ten years, and she had finally started finding success at spells against mere pebbles. Of course, even if she was only effective against pebbles, she had been delighted. However, if she stopped making further progress, everything would be meaningless.

“I want to become good at magiiic.” Charlotte whined to herself. She buried her head in her pillow with a poof, and she started waving her arms and legs back and forth.

Her real feelings were all out in the open, but she didn’t mind that. Though her room was so small that it couldn’t be measured against the princess’s room she had seen a while ago, this was still her own space. It was a place that she’d managed to obtain because she came to Kirsch Mage Institute.

“The way someone carries themselves... Is it maybe because I’m still lying?”

Even now, she continued to deceive everyone around her. “Charlotte” was only part of her real name, and she’d become a retainer by taking advantage of the kindness of the people of House Denning.

Who would believe me if I said that I was the princess of Huzak after all this time? she thought. It might have been different back then in the past, but many years had passed since then.

Not only that, but if word of her real identity got out, she would become the catalyst for countries to start trying to seize Huzak back from the monsters. That meant war. People of House Denning would be the ones commanding the army. They might be injured on the battlefield, and someone might even die.

Charlotte went silent at that. The duke, the duchess, Master Slowe’s siblings... They were all strict, but there was always kindness in their strictness. She didn’t know what the people of House Denning thought, but to Charlotte, House Denning was full of irreplaceable, precious people. Charlotte didn’t want to cause trouble to the people to whom she owed a lot due to something she did out of self-satisfaction.

“Meeeow.”

“Are you trying to cheer me up?”

The cat then purred with a slightly distorted voice.

Charlotte chuckled. “What a strange sound. It’s like one of Master Slowe’s orc sounds.”

This black cat had followed her when she escaped Huzak. Even after Charlotte was all by herself after splitting off with everyone on the way, this little comrade had been with her the whole time. At this point, the cat was almost family to her.

Charlotte did think that the cat had quite a longer lifespan than usual, but calling it a demon cat was going too far. Up until now, Charlotte had witnessed her master talking to this black cat countless times. Whenever he did, Charlotte was a little surprised, thinking that her master had pent-up stress like she did, but...treating her kitty like a demon cat was mean.

Charlotte decided that she would tell him that outright the next time she saw him talking to her cat.

“All right. That’s the end of my sad time!”

She stood back up. A breath of fresh air was necessary when she was in a miserable mood like this. And for Charlotte, cleaning her room was exactly that. However, she had only just cleaned her room yesterday. Instead, she thought about throwing out things she didn’t need.

In the middle of doing that, she found a certain item from the bag she had taken to Yoram.

“Oh, this perfume is... It’s the family heirloom of the marquess house, and...” Charlotte gasped, slightly panicked. “I need to treat it with care!”

Charlotte took the perfume bottle into her hands and stared hard at it. It was a precious gift she’d received from a person who had listened to Charlotte’s resolve patiently back in Yoram, and then encouraged her forward.

Charlotte couldn’t decide whether he was truly a bad person or not. Not only that, her master had also said that Sepith wasn’t a bad guy.

“If only he had even just one friend he could confide everything in, he probably wouldn’t have done such a thing. But Sepith is a person who can get back up again. That’s why the Cardinal is putting all his efforts into covering up the incident Sepith caused.” There, her master had paused. “And well, this is just my opinion, but... The queen would surely take his complicated situation into consideration.”

Sepith had schemed to do evil things and conferred with the empire, and yet her master had declared with confidence that Sepith would pick himself back up again from this incident. Charlotte couldn’t decipher what her master’s thoughts were.

However, if he was going to say that, then Charlotte thought she would put her faith in Sepith too.

“If I remember right, he said that this perfume would declare my resolve to a dragon, right?”

Charlotte dragged out the monster encyclopedia she had received from Slowe and opened the page on dragons. The page was dog-eared; she didn’t know how many times she’d read this page of anecdotes on Sekhmet. It was the guardian deity of Huzak that had defeated monsters trying to invade Huzak from the north countless times.

However, Sekhmet was surely already dead. Back then...the Guardian Dragon didn’t appear when Huzak was attacked by monsters. As a result of that, Charlotte’s homeland was in ruins, and she was now a citizen of Daryth.

She would probably have to keep her secret in her heart for the rest of her life. Perhaps one day, like Sepith, she might also end up pushing on and rushing forward based on only her own feelings. If there was at least one person who knew her true self, would that fact bring relief to her heart? Like how her master had said Sepith’s fate could have changed if there was someone he could confide his deepest secrets to?

She thought about who that person would be in her own case, and...

It’s obvious. There was only one person who was on her side without fail, even though Charlotte was just a clumsy girl who couldn’t use magic properly.

“Ah. That’s why.” Charlotte realized the reason why Princess Carina had trusted her master so much. The reason why the princess had relied on him and summoned him for the smallest reasons she could find was...

“She’s probably a person who gets lonely easily, just like me.”

Sepith Pendragon had said that he’d made a vow to this perfume. That he had thrown away everything and abandoned his life as a commoner to live on as a noble.

Charlotte was envious of his strength. His ability to make such a hard decision. After all, she’d also longed to gain such strength all this time.

She had always waited for a time when she would have the courage to confess her secret.

Charlotte took a sharp breath. She took the perfume bottle into her hands, and she stood up. Opening the windows, she looked outside. Unlike the rooms of her master and the princess, the view wasn’t good from here. But I think it’s very fitting for my current self, so it’s better this way.

Voices flowed in from outside.

“Hey guys! I hear that the princess is going to sit in on one of Shuya’s divination sessions!”

“You what?! That fake is going to sink his teeth into her?! We need to stop this at once!” a boy shouted in return.

Now then, what vow should I make to this perfume? Do I wish to become better at magic? Do I pray that I improve as a retainer?

...No. If I did that, I would be doing the same thing as I always have.

“Sir Sepith wouldn’t have made a wish to become better at magic either...”

Very soon, the duke would be paying a visit to this school. Her future would probably be decided then. Maybe, since she was useless, unlike her master, she might be deemed a failure as a retainer and be separated from him. It was a sad thought, but that future was very possible.

However, if they were to be separated the way they were now, Charlotte knew in her gut that she would end up hating herself. She mustn’t let it end while she was still deceiving him.

That was why, the vow she made to the perfume was...

“...Just one person,” she muttered. “I pray that I will be able to tell the truth to Master Slowe alone.”

With this, the girl who’d inherited the blood of Huzak’s royal family, the Royal White Lilies, declared her resolution to something she could not see with her eyes.

The personal retainer of Slowe Denning, the third son of Duke Denning, sprinkled the bottle’s contents into the air. The Pendragon perfume...a treasured item that could summon a dragon.

The perfume’s fragrance wafted into her nose. It was a smell she had never encountered before.

Her heart was light, and her mind was clear. She didn’t know why she had been so hesitant up until now. There was no way for her to know it, but this was an effect of the fragrant potion brewed by House Pendragon; it encouraged the resolution of the user. She almost felt as if she was a whole new person, and she had the feeling that her spells would succeed with the way she was now.

The moment she took hold of her wand, however, the incident occurred.

The ground shook.

“Wh-What?! An earthquake?!”

Her long-lived pet growled in her room. He was the only one that immediately realized that something was not right.

●

The trembling of earth was the specific side effect of the destruction of a dungeon core.

“Yahooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!” A monster yelled in triumph in the heart of the nameless dungeon spawned in the Lost Woods, a vast plot of nature surrounding Kirsch Mage Institute. “I cleared it! I reached the heart of the dungeon!”

This monster had admired Hannibal, who’d come to be known as the Demon Lord of the South due to their accomplishments: constructing the Great Dungeon in Cirquista and creating a paradise for monsters.

Wanting to follow in the footsteps of such a great monster, it had come all the way here from the north so that it could also absorb the power of a dungeon core.

It had searched for the dungeon for many days and it had finally found the place. It had then stealthily searched all over for an entrance that the soldiers with foreign clothing hadn’t discovered yet. Finding success, it had then managed to arrive at the heart of the dungeon before the humans.

The moment it laid its eyes on the untouched dungeon core, it felt a rush of joy that couldn’t be put into words.

“Do you see me now, you idiots?! I’ve done it! I’ve absorbed a dungeon core at last! And with this...I have also obtained my own army, just for Yours Truly!”

With that, the monster absorbed the dungeon core into its own body. At that very moment, it felt as if its brain was being rattled, and its body heated up like it was boiling over from the inside. Steam poured out of the monster’s body, and it spasmed, clutching its chest. A strong pulse shook its large body, and its muscles doubled in size. They strained against its skin, and taut, strong muscles suddenly bulged out.

The monster was overflowing with power.

“The legends were right! Like they said, the dungeon cores are a source of power for us monsters!”

The dungeon core was an extraordinary thing that created underground dungeons and spawned monsters. Humans and monsters vied for control over this source of miracles.

“I won’t lose with this! I will never, ever lose again to the adventurers, to those guys from Dustour! But before that! Those damned humans... How dare they all raze as they please! But I’m not interested only in strengthening the dungeon core for my foreseeable future like Hannibal. So, I’m heading outside!”

With the power it had now, it might even be able to go toe to toe with the general of the Northern Monster Legion. Having gained a great self-confidence, the monster that was now a dungeon master took its first step towards the surface.

The dungeon sensed its own destruction and the confused monsters inside started fighting amongst themselves. The dungeon was fated to slowly self-destruct since its dungeon master had decided to go outside.

“Aren’t you all frustrated about being walked all over by humans all one-sidedly?! I won’t do something boring and silly like holing up in a dungeon and amassing power!” it declared.

The cyclops was now a walking dungeon itself. Hearing its fiery speech, the monsters that had spawned in this place also hardened their resolve.

The Lost Woods was a dense sea of trees located in the southeast of Daryth. The light of the sun could not penetrate the many overlapping layers of leaves and branches of the tall and flourishing trees here and it was dark inside. This place was home to gentle animals and docile monsters, and usually, big commotions would not happen here. The peace and order of the forest was rarely ever breached.

However, that was not the case right now. The roaring of crazed monsters echoed throughout the sea of trees, and there was a commotion at the entrance of the dungeon.

“What is all this noise about?!”

A ridiculously large number of monsters poured out from a dark entrance. Most of these monsters had gone berserk and they attacked the soldiers there in their frenzy. There was no way the soldiers could have dealt with the great force of them all.

“Report this to the headmaster and call for Sir Highland!” one barked. “This isn’t something we can deal with, not at all!”

●

The fragrance of the Pendragon perfume floated far, far away, drifting past the forest and traveling across mountains.

Nothing could stop Sepith Pendragon’s perfume, which had lured out a sleeping dragon from the heart of the dungeon in Shuya Marionette. It dissolved in the rain and was carried away by the wind, spreading boundlessly across the land.

In this way, the perfume reached the nose of a certain monster who had practically been lost in a sea of chaos. Its memories were vague, and its own sense of self was unstable. In all honesty, it was practically dead. It didn’t know whether it was in this state because it had slumbered for too long, or because of age. The line between life and death had blurred, and the monster itself thought that it was long dead, but...

Within this limbo between life and death, it smelled a nostalgic fragrance.

Its body was heavy and it was nearly blind by now, but that didn’t matter. Almost as if it had been summoned by the scent during its slumber, the black dragon Sekhmet stretched out its wings, which hadn’t moved for the past hundred years.

There was only one thought in its mind as its thundering roar pierced the heavens. Just one more time. In my last moments, I want to meet the person who takes after you, just once...