Chapter 110
If one had to name the safest place in the Imperial capital, Kim Yul’s mansion would unquestionably be the number-one choice.
That was why he had brought Chloe here, despite the problematic possibility that another monster might attack, or that the enraged remnants of the black mages might come seeking revenge.
The reason it could boast security as impregnable as a dragon’s lair.
“Huh? What happened, Kim Yul! You said there was a barrier outside, but why do you look like that? Are you hurt?”
The reason was that the dragon (in the flesh) was still enjoying cyber labor in ‘Animal Forest,’ ensnared in the schemes of the wicked Nook and the fox girl while working off her debt.
After personally giving Kim Yul’s condition a cursory once-over with a sidelong glance.
“Hmm, your hands and arms seem fine!”
She officially declared that there was no impediment whatsoever to writing or playing musical instruments.
Immediately afterward, Kim Yul’s head creaked back toward the extra-large wall-mounted TV he had hauled out of the laboratory, returning to the game screen.
He had taken the very posture of a model gamer!
At that dignified sight, Kim Yul became a little miffed.
Mortal fingers pinched and tugged at the great being’s soft cheeks as though they were grabbing an elf’s ears.
“Ow! Why?”
“If you don’t worry a little more seriously, I’ll confiscate your Nin■do charger.”
Horror spread across Esthea’s face.
After a long, long dragon life.
Had anyone else ever threatened her so brazenly to her face? Of course there had. They were all dead now.
And so.
Esthea’s fangs poked out.
Her long-suppressed instincts spread their wings.
On top of the instincts of a liberated calamity dragon.
The wise dragon knowledge she had kept well sealed away because she hated using her brain awakened.
People are born one day and die another.
But this ancient relic called the Nin■do Switch.
She could not give up this inexhaustible fountain of amusement, this collection of every kind of creativity……!
And no matter how she looked at it, Kim Yul’s existence was indispensable to its maintenance!
“Ah, nooo……! I was wronggg……!”
Esthea treated Kim Yul’s wounds with utmost sincerity.
Though she did not bother saying it aloud.
Deep down, she was a little surprised.
Kim Yul’s soul.
When had it grown so enormous?
* * *
It was not a leisurely situation in which he could sleep soundly for a night, drag himself along the next day, and then report the whole affair.
Since he had dumped Chloe, who was even less useful than him, at the mansion.
Kim Yul immediately prepared to head out again.
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? Shall I come with you?”
“No. Tin Can, stay safe at home. I have a way.”
Just as Historie had said.
Kim Yul was currently in a dangerous state.
Most of his skills had either been exhausted or were on cooldown because of Divine Possession, with the exception of his evasion skill, Jo Sik’s Seven-Step Retreat.
But.
What Kim Yul had shaken down from Esthea was not merely treatment.
- Wooo…… I don’t have many of those……
What Kim Yul had pried from her was a Dragon Tooth—龍牙.
He had brazenly committed the atrocity of stealing one of the baby teeth she had lost during her infant Esthea days!
As a result.
“Come on, Es Unit 2.”
『I shall protect you, Master.』
Although it could not last long, it was a being imbued with a fragment of a dragon’s power.
Under the guard of the Dragonfang Soldier, Kim Yul proudly set out into the dawn streets once more.
Ultimately, that choice had not been wrong.
In the capital at night, the monsters he had seen at Chloe’s house were roaming about here and there, as though Shadow Time had opened.
“────!”
『Extermination complete.』
“A Dragonfang Soldier click-clacking away, normalizing monsters…… Something like that.”
Yet even if the original dragon was pretending to be somewhat foolish while enjoying her games, the Dragonfang Soldier was different, faithfully carrying out its assigned duty with neither reason nor emotion.
It annihilated every monster that displayed even the slightest hostility toward Kim Yul or itself, opening the way for him.
And so, at an easygoing pace.
Already tired as he was, he boldly strolled through the Imperial capital as though he were out for a walk.
Kim Yul found himself thinking about something pointless.
When he and Roselin had split up to clear out the black mages individually, people had still been naturally walking through the streets.
So he had wiped away the bloodstains and done this and that.
But after the sun had gone down and the new moon had risen.
The black mages’ headquarters had been devastated nearly to the point of collapse, and Chloe’s mansion was a prime piece of real estate in the middle of downtown, yet.
Why hadn’t anyone come outside?
What on earth was the Capital Guard doing?
It was a realistic question anyone would naturally have asked.
But the question was soon easily answered.
『Disengaging the distortion barrier at will.』
A Dragonfang Soldier that vaguely resembled Esthea, though it lacked the original’s cuteness, raised a hand and swiped its claws through the air with a nya-nak.
Crack──
The boundary touched by its hand began to crack like shattering glass.
At that sight, Kim Yul instinctively turned around.
“Wow.”
“Haaah……”
As though a glass dome were breaking.
From somewhere far beyond the reach of his vision, the afterglow of magic began to shatter into fragments and scatter.
And.
On the dawn streets of the Imperial capital, which had been unusually quiet.
The raucous singing coming from the tavern district in the distance. The sound of a thoroughly drunk citizen lying in the street and snoring. And the sound of someone shaking out something wet, as though they had done laundry at this ungodly hour.
To put it somewhat less romantically.
The sounds of everyday life settled back into the streets.
Kim Yul’s expression hardened slightly.
The fact that such a barrier had appeared without his even knowing was a major problem in itself.
But the existence of a barrier with such overwhelming magical pressure meant, in magical terms.
“The ones I beat down were just small fry…… There’s one big one left.”
* * *
First Princess Belia alternated her gaze between the man kneeling on one knee before her and the evidence he had painstakingly gathered.
“Raise your head.”
At her words.
Kim Yul, the Empire’s new hero, raised his head.
Black hair, black eyes.
A handsome face that seemed layered with fatigue, yet somehow made that fatigue accentuate his decadent charm, and a slender jawline.
A body that looked frail at a glance, but had been solidly trained and was beginning to mature.
And not only had he seen through the conspiracy that had occurred in the Imperial capital today more accurately than anyone else, he had also personally gone to the front lines and stopped the black mages’ uprising.
He could be called the Empire’s growing future, a man who possessed the qualities of a loyal subject.
Only.
“Unfortunately, the First Prince you claim is the mastermind behind all this, my dear younger brother Iscarion, left the capital some time ago.”
She did not bother explaining this to Kim Yul.
The First Prince had neither the intelligence nor the meticulousness to plot all these schemes and boldly summon black mages into the capital to carry out such an undertaking.
It would be more accurate to describe him as rash and impulsive.
The First Princess was beginning to develop a slight headache.
But then Kim Yul’s words made her eyes widen slightly.
“If the First Prince is absent…… could one of his closest aides, someone who might have inspired his actions, or perhaps someone capable of becoming a major backer, still be in the capital?”
Just as Kim Yul had suspected.
There was someone manipulating her foolish younger brother from behind while keeping him tucked under her skirt.
It was the First Prince’s consort.
She was the younger sister of the Northern Grand Duke, and had been joined to the First Prince in a political marriage.
Yet she was the one who had wrapped the First Prince around her finger in an instant and, as far as the First Princess could see, was gradually eroding his intelligence.
Perhaps she had noticed the agitation on First Princess Belia’s face.
“It is an extremely rude thing to say, but…… there is a possibility that the person you just thought of, Your Highness, truly is the mastermind. Can you confirm her current whereabouts?”
The evidence in the First Princess’s hands was far too clear for her to dismiss Kim Yul’s suspicions by invoking royal authority.
She cautiously summoned an attendant and gave him an order.
The attendant who returned soon afterward had an unusually grim expression.
“A-a calamity has occurred……!”
At those words.
The First Princess led the way out of the palace, while Kim Yul followed close behind, his nose twitching with curiosity.
Before their eyes.
“Whoa.”
“Haaah……”
Black flames that anyone could see had been deliberately kindled through magic.
They were roaring from the direction of the First Prince’s palace.
* * *
Twice.
She had missed her opportunity twice.
The Northern Grand Duke’s younger sister.
The First Prince of the Empire’s consort.
Codename Vanta Black ground her teeth inside the carriage.
She had always known Duke Bertus was an opportunist. But in that plan called the Night of the Dagger, he should at least have eliminated some of the Emperor’s close aides.
Those useless fools who seriously worshipped the insane name ‘The Lonely Wolves Who Reveal the Truth of the World’ should have taken out Duke Schnaisen, at the very least.
How could she face the great Ahriaman after this?
“No, there’s still a chance……!”
The First Prince, a puppet but an excellent pretext, had already been spirited away to the North, and the Emperor would not be able to question him immediately.
Demanding answers would amount to allowing a pretext for all-out war.
Therefore.
The man and woman who had ruined both plans, neither of which had been especially likely to fail despite their somewhat sloppy aspects.
Yes.
She wanted to get rid of that damned hero and saintess.
But Ahriaman never tolerated failure.
Though she was leaving the Imperial capital for the time being……
Next time, with her own hands.
She would surely avenge the humiliation of today.
Even as she made that vow.
She had no choice but to leave the Imperial capital without ever learning the most important piece of information.
“Your molar was really something.”
“If you’re finished, give it backkk!”
“Then hand over the Nin■do too.”
“Grrrr……!”
“Ack! Don’t bite……!”
That a yellow mutt so powerful that it would be difficult to fight without bringing at least a black dragon was wagging its tail beside the hero.
* * *
And another person far too stingy to be called a hero.
“Saintess, Saintess.”
“Yes, Kim Yul. What is it?”
“There’s someone I’d really like to screw over somehow……”
“Oh my, that sounds fun……!”
He was not content merely to have a dragon’s might at his back; he had no intention of ever forgiving the mastermind who had made him suffer so terribly.
Of course, it would take some time before he could act directly.
Although he had experienced an incredibly eventful two days, his real profession was a writer, not a hero.
“But aren’t you going to write your novel?”
“Oh, crap. The deadline……”
“Come to think of it, you took a hiatus yesterday…… didn’t you, Author?”
Kim Yul put down his coffee and tried to scurry away, but Roselin soon caught him.
Roselin wrapped Kim Yul up just as he was and tossed him into the mansion.
“No more hiatuses, desuwa!”
“Extra chapters! Extra chapters!”
“Aaaagh! Tin Can! Save me! I want to rest……!”
“A writer’s profession has no rest, Kim Yul.”
“Tin-tus, even you……!”
He returned to a peaceful daily life, albeit with somewhat more housemates than before.
From the hands of Kim Yul, whose exploits in expelling the evil First Prince and his consort from the Imperial capital were so great that he could easily be called a hero of the Empire, the passage depicting a hero staging a coup against the evil royalists and the republican presidents with agendas of their own and establishing a dictatorship was now ready to see the light of day.