"Is this Maya priest's patient journal actually a surveillance log to monitor me?"
"There's a pretty high chance of that. Knowing Rormane."
"Ah, you're right. Why didn't I think of that?"
"Because she's a priest."
As I scratched my head, Celine spoke up.
"Priests are generally difficult people to deal with. That's why your thinking gets fixed when interacting with them. We were casual with Rormane because she was our comrade."
"When I get back to the academy, I need to secretly check this out. Seriously..."
"It's overwhelming to receive Rormane's attention and love," Linus said, watching me massage my stiff neck.
"I suppose the silver lining is that she's currently the Secretary General of the Order, which limits her freedom of movement. Without those heavy shackles, probably..."
"As an Oracle Priest, Rormane can never leave the Order. So that's a meaningless assumption."
I lost my appetite, put down my fork, and leaned back against the chair.
"Let's stop talking about Rormane. We're here to have fun, and this is depressing."
"Haha, sorry."
"What's that guy doing these days?"
I changed the subject to shake off thoughts of Rormane.
"That guy? You mean Kaiden? He's working as a professor at the Illusion Magic Tower now."
"Wasn't he with the Magic Federation? And what's with the sudden Illusion Magic Tower? Shouldn't someone with his talents be at some Attack Magic Research Institute or something?"
"What you're good at and what you want to do aren't always the same."
"It's weird that someone obsessed with smashing things would go into illusion magic. Illusion magic involves creating virtual worlds and such... completely opposite of his style."
"I heard he's actually achieving some results."
"Well, that makes sense. A genius like Kaiden would succeed at anything. I have a favor to ask him."
"What is it?"
"I want to place a magic seal on Hindrasta to prevent her from escaping."
"Hmm, magic on a dragon."
Linus stroked his chin.
"That's definitely something only a mage of Kaiden's caliber could do. I'll stop by the Illusion Magic Tower later and ask him. But it's quite far from here, so we'll need to schedule a visit."
"There's a magic professor at our academy who can open dimensional gates. We can use that."
"But has this been agreed upon with Hindrasta?"
"Of course not. Would she ever agree to that? That's exactly why we need to take her there and do it. This is a secret."
"I see. But it seems someone has already heard everything."
"Huh?"
Linus pointed toward the dining room entrance.
I got up from my chair and went to check, but there was nothing there?
"Hic..."
As I turned around, I heard a strange sound and looked down.
"When did you get here?"
Hindrasta was crouched against the wall, trembling with tears in her eyes.
"A magic seal...? You're going to make me a slave...?"
"Not a slave. I just want to keep you at the academy until graduation."
"Liar... Because I look like this... you have evil intentions..."
"Oh, for crying out loud."
When I raised my hand as if to flick her forehead, Hindrasta covered her head and crouched down flat.
"Dian. Bring Hindrasta in. Let's eat together. She must be hungry."
"Come here. Let's eat."
At Linus's invitation, I grabbed her arm to pull her up, but Hindrasta staggered and violently pulled back.
"No! I can't eat with you hero bastards!!"
"Just eat what's prepared! Stop being stubborn!"
"Aaaaargh!!"
Hindrasta was dragged into the dining room, screaming as if being led to a slaughterhouse.
"Please sit down, Miss Dragon. Everything here is safe to eat."
Celine smiled brightly and nodded to the maids, who set tableware and plates in front of Hindrasta.
"Uuugh..."
Hindrasta trembled, lowered her gaze, and made strange noises as she looked at Linus sitting across from her.
"Here, as a dragon, you like meat, right?"
When I tore off a plump turkey leg and placed it on her plate, Hindrasta looked at me with desperate eyes.
"Dian, please..."
"Just eat first. If you don't eat now, we'll have to prepare food again later."
"Yes, Hindrasta."
When Linus spoke, Hindrasta panicked and pressed herself against me.
This brat is clinging to me because Linus is here. Must be a pretty desperate situation.
"Let's forget about the past. Neither you nor we had personal feelings about it. You're now a student at Dian's academy, so I'll treat you accordingly."
"That's right, Miss Dragon. It's been 10 years already. That's enough time for us humans to erase old feelings, isn't it?"
"Th-that's nonsense..."
Hindrasta forced out a voice in response to Celine's words.
"Maybe for you... it's a long time... but to me, it feels like just yesterday..."
"Even so, you need to forget it now. There's no other choice."
Linus smiled gently as he cut his steak.
"Dian and I encountered you a total of four times. You were always the one running away, and back then, you were in your true form. But I understand you can't return to your true form now."
Despite this, when Hindrasta still wouldn't eat, Linus pulled out his trump card.
"Just the other day, I saw a wyvern flying over our territory, and it reminded me of that time."
"Eek?!"
"Haha!"
I couldn't help but laugh.
The story Linus brought up was from our third encounter with Hindrasta.
At that time, we had tamed a wild wyvern on the spot by beating it into submission and rode it to chase after the fleeing Hindrasta.
We approached right above Hindrasta's head and jumped down onto her back, but unfortunately missed catching her by a hair's breadth.
After that incident, Hindrasta disappeared for several months.
She must have been quite shocked to discover how desperately humans were trying to capture her.
Well, Hindrasta is quite young for a dragon, and she was stirring up trouble on battlefields purely for fun, not out of malice.
She must have been startled when humans, whom she had considered insignificant, showed such hostility toward her.
That Linus.
Seems like eating at the imperial court has taught him how to intimidate others quite well.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap—
Perhaps recalling that memory, Hindrasta's hands trembled, her nails noisily tapping against the plate.
"Hey, Celine. Don't you have something to put on the floor? Looks like she might wet herself again."
When I made that joke, Celine responded with a somewhat stern expression.
"That's enough. She's clearly terrified."
At Celine's words, Linus raised both hands with a smile.
"I only said that because she wouldn't eat. If she agrees to eat properly, I won't say anything more."
Celine offered with a friendly smile.
"Come on, Miss Dragon. Don't be afraid and eat. If they say anything unnecessary again, I'll scold them."
"Okay..."
Hindrasta sniffled and tore off a small piece of the turkey leg with her fingers, putting it in her mouth.
Suddenly her eyes widened, and she looked at me sharply.
"It's delicious!!"
"Why are you looking at me?"
Hindrasta hurriedly grabbed the turkey leg with her bare hands and began devouring it.
Oh my, I'll need to teach her table manners first.
Having been a dragon before becoming human, and then only spending time with the uncouth Reblanc Mercenary Corps, she never had a chance to learn formal dining etiquette.
With Hindrasta joining us, we continued our cheerful conversation.
Though it was unfortunate for Hindrasta, the main topic was our memories from the war.
Since so many incredible things happened during those four years, the stories were endless.
Linus kept bringing wine from the cellar, each bottle being an extraordinarily expensive premium wine.
They all tasted amazing, which led Hindrasta to start drinking like crazy.
Perhaps her mindset was to drink since she couldn't join our conversation and was afraid of Linus.
"Being a dragon must make her good at holding her liquor."
Celine laughed out loud, watching Hindrasta who had already downed more than a dozen bottles.
"Take it easy, seriously. Don't clean out someone else's cellar when you're a guest."
"It's fine, Dian. The imperial court regularly restocks our cellar."
"I'm worried she might cause trouble if she gets drunk. This one may look like this, but she's incredibly strong."
"Well, I don't think she'll cause any trouble."
Linus pointed his finger, and when I turned around—what the?
Suddenly, Hindrasta was half-closing her eyes and tilting her head.
She was fine just a moment ago.
"What are you doing now?"
"Hueeunggunghuga..."
Making completely unintelligible slurred sounds, Hindrasta planted her face on the table.
"She drank too quickly and got drunk suddenly. Would you mind taking her to the bedroom?"
"Huh? Why me?"
"As you said, despite her appearance, she's a dragon and apparently quite heavy. The maids had trouble with her."
"Really? Alright, I'll take her."
I carried the unconscious, drunk Hindrasta to the second-floor bedroom, to the bedroom, to the bedroom...
What kind of house is this big?
After walking for quite a while with a maid's guidance, I finally reached the guest room and tossed Hindrasta onto the bed.
"Urgh..."
Watching Hindrasta sprawl out on the bed, reeking of alcohol, I sighed.
How is this thing even a dragon?