Chapter 276. Bringing Home the Dog That Ran Away
A white space remained after the dark blue one had burned away.
There had been two people in the dark blue space. He had pushed one out and woken the other.
If he had not helped and awakened her then, her mind would have slept forever.
Having received a helper's aid to keep his prisoner a prisoner, the youngest son spoke into the empty air.
“It seems I was right.”
No answer came at once. But he knew she was listening, so he continued.
“Wisdom's Family Head tried to crush the Second Daughter's mind by force. You and I both saw it plainly, Lady Arasil.”
[…You were right. There is no room to argue.]
“Then, under the contract between a dragon and a human, the West can no longer use the dragons' strength in the East-West war.”
[…….]
Arasil fell silent again, but she could neither refuse nor change the subject.
A contract was a contract, and both dragon and human had agreed to its terms. Yet it was not the contract that troubled her.
It was the course of events that had led to it, something she had never experienced and could not put into words.
[Child of the East… No. An innocent word like child does not suit someone like you.]
The Western guardian dragon changed what she called him.
[From now on, I shall call you little snake.]
“As you wish.”
[Little snake. I sensed it from the moment we met: you have an aura of dignity that no ordinary human could possess.]
Arasil was not the only one to sense it. Alicious, the Imperial Family's Ancient Dragon, had felt it too.
The effect of the Epic Title ‘Scales Teacher’ worked on Arasil as well, sending the number of possibilities she had to weigh soaring.
[Were you born with that aura? As the legitimate heir of the snake family and the blood family, did you inherit a dragon's profundity?]
“I do not know.”
[Then you were born with it…]
The aura wound around the young snake had set that strange course in motion. His lips had kept it going.
Unlike the lips of many noble ladies, his had a reddish tint though he had applied nothing to them. Those lips stood for his gift with words.
[Young snake, what is your aim after the West? What will you try to swallow next?]
The young snake's mouth curved upward.
She truly was nearly an Ancient Dragon herself. Had she not seen far more than she needed to in a single human face?
“Isn't that asking rather much of someone who hasn't even put a blade to the West yet?”
[I can feel that your eyes are on the West, yet also elsewhere. I want to hear your true aim.]
“You have already guessed, yet you insist that I say it myself. That is cruel of you as well.”
[…The world?]
Arasil murmured her guess, and the little snake did not answer.
Receiving his silent assent, the silver-haired dragon offered a human advice, as she always did.
[Remember this saying: a clever snake never eats a wild boar, no matter how hungry it is.]
“It is a saying I like very much, too. I will take it even more to heart now.”
[I enjoyed our conversation.]
THOOM―
With a sound like a heartbeat, the youngest son opened his eyes.
The white space where he had stood a moment ago was gone. He had awakened in the dim prisoner's room.
The prisoner who should have been beside him had vanished, leaving only her warmth and the Binding Rope.
That did not mean he was alone.
“Young Master.”
The Head Maid, whose stealth gave off no sense of warmth even when she stood nearby, approached him.
“Where is the Second Daughter?”
“I came to tell you just that.”
The youngest son looked up at her face, and an unpleasant possibility occurred to him.
“…Don't tell me my elder brother caught her.”
“The Fourth Son caught her while she was fleeing. She is now at the Black Colossal Fortress.”
“Sigh.”
He rose with a faint sigh.
“Throw this away. It no longer has the strength it once did.”
He handed the Head Maid the Binding Rope, whose blue glow had faded, then opened the curtains and the window.
“The beanstalks are growing well.”
Against the setting sun, he could already see four beanstalks that had climbed as high as Sky Island.
“This is hardly the time to admire them.”
“You did not wake me, either.”
“I could not touch you. Mist had spread around you while you slept.”
That was Arasil's power. At the Head Maid's level, there was certainly no way to lay a hand on him through it.
More time than he expected might have passed.
“When was the Second Daughter taken?”
“About forty minutes ago.”
“What sort of mood was my elder brother in today?”
“He seemed in a very poor mood after losing badly at rock-paper-scissors to decide the sparring order.”
“Oh dear.”
There was no time to dawdle.
WHISTLE―!
FWOOSH—!!
The youngest son leaped from the window, took on his blood demon form, spread his wings, and flew through the sky.
A floating castle was moored a short distance from Sky Island.
He had not moved the prisoner. She had changed her own location and been caught all the way over there.
THOOM―
Landing at the entrance to the Black Colossal Fortress, the youngest son shed his dark red rocky scales.
Someone was waiting for him at the entrance.
“Fifth Son.”
The Fourth Son's Chief Secretary bowed respectfully.
“You know why I am here.”
“Wisdom's Second Daughter is in the Fourth Son's possession. If you ask why, he told me to say that what falls to the ground belongs to whoever picks it up.”
“…It was a simple accident. Nothing serious. I will explain it to my brother myself.”
“I am sorry, but…”
The Fourth Son's Chief Secretary stepped into the youngest son's path.
“The Fourth Son ordered that no one be admitted for the rest of today. He said you agreed to this as well.”
“…….”
The Fourth Son had said he would not stand by if the Second Daughter caused trouble over her pride.
The youngest son had agreed and nodded. Now this mess had happened.
It was a ‘small’ disturbance he had to get through.
“Do you see that?”
The youngest son pointed to the sky. The sun had set completely, leaving it as dark as night.
“If you mean the night sky, I can see it too.”
“The day has passed.”
“…Pardon?”
“When the sun sets, people's day ends. It is time to finish everything and go to sleep.”
“…….”
The Fourth Son's Chief Secretary answered without the slightest change in expression.
“I apologize, Fifth Son. Under the Fourth Son's orders, I cannot obey an instruction without proper grounds.”
The youngest son, by contrast, smiled calmly.
“That is all right. My elder brother would understand if you nodded off once during your shift.”
“…!”
The Chief Secretary sensed someone behind her, but that was as far as it went.
The Head Maid elegantly sealed her airways with a touch, and her brain naturally switched off.
“Well done.”
“I was merely following orders. Just as this Chief Secretary was.”
“There is nothing personal in it. Just as there was nothing personal in what she did.”
“I shall wait outside. It seems I am not permitted to go any farther.”
The Head Maid was an Intelligence Department operative who had spent a long time serving under a blood relative, even if it had been for an assignment. She knew her place.
On her master's orders, she could knock out another blood relative's subordinate, but she could not enter that relative's residence as she pleased.
So the Head Maid folded her hands politely and saw the youngest son off.
“Please go. I hope you return with the Second Daughter.”
“She is not some mangy mutt we have only just brought home. I loosened her leash for a moment, and now I cannot imagine where she has run off to.”
“I hope you find her safely.”
The youngest son smiled faintly as he walked through the Black Colossal Fortress for the first time in a while.
***
“Ahh~. This has become a nuisance.”
The Fourth Son twirled a billhook in his hand as he approached the Second Daughter.
Her mouth, gagged some time ago, mumbled something he could not make out. So he went on saying what he wanted to say.
“My youngest brother is coming here after getting past my subordinate. Well, I expected it to some extent, but now that it's actually happening, I don't know what to do.”
THUNK―
He brought the billhook's thick, short blade against the Second Daughter's neck.
The First Son's gray blade had been near that neck a little earlier, but this one was different at its very root.
Where the gray blade looked as though it would sever her neck cleanly, the billhook promised the opposite.
It would saw slowly, placing pain above all else. The savage curl of its owner's mouth suggested that was what he wanted, too.
Now she understood why the Fifth Son's Head Maid had warned her so strongly before and called her fortunate at the time.
‘…My mana isn't bound by the Binding Rope anymore, but…’
The Second Daughter breathed a little faster and glanced around.
Along with the bone gag in her mouth, human bones bound her entire body. Unlike before, though, her mana was not sealed.
The intense heat of a 6th Circle mage was still hers to unleash, but something told her she must not show it now.
Her instincts sounded an alarm: lying perfectly still as though dead was her only way to live.
When she obeyed them, the billhook did not bite into her skin, at least for the moment.
The Fourth Son continued to tap her shoulder with the billhook's crude, flat blade.
“What to do~? What to do~? How can I cut off at least one of this loathsome thing's limbs~?”
The slight lilt in his voice was enough to raise goose bumps on her arms.
She felt down to her bones that not a word he said was an empty threat.
Then someone knocked on the door.
KNOCK, KNOCK―
The knock was courteous, but there was plenty of force behind it.
The Fourth Son knew who stood outside. So did the bound Second Daughter.
Yet Pia bit her lip, for she had realized something.
‘Why am I relieved? The Fourth Son and the Fifth Son are both Millesdusk. What am I feeling relieved for?’
The moment she heard the knock, she had let out a breath of relief.
She had reassured herself that, for now, she would live.
RATTLE―
The door opened, and, as she had hoped, the youngest son walked in.
“Brother. I have a sincere request.”
“A request without even a greeting when we meet~? Is that all there is between us?”
He acted as if he might simply remove the bone gag from her mouth, but the billhook remained close to her neck.
“Youngest, do you know? This thing was outside with its hands and feet completely free. It was even trying to get to the basement~.”
Why she had been heading for the basement was obvious. Even so, the youngest son could not hand Pia over to the Fourth Son.
Now that she had unofficially become a discarded child, she would have value to him from this point on.
He had to take Pia, the Second Daughter, back into his custody, even if it meant pushing matters a little.
“I was careless. If punishment is called for, should it not fall on me?”
“Punishment? Hmm, punishment~.”
The Fourth Son stroked his smooth, beardless chin, then nodded.
“True~. The Second Daughter of Wisdom was your responsibility. You were careless in watching her, so it's your fault.”
SHING―
The billhook left Pia's neck. Its point turned toward someone else instead.
“What will you do, then~? Dante, will you give up an arm in her place?”
“I will.”
“…!”
The Second Daughter jolted, so sharply that the tremor reached the bones binding her.
But the youngest son approached his elder brother as though it were nothing and held out an arm just as calmly.
His brother, equally unconcerned, took the arm and gripped the billhook firmly in his other hand.
“Since you're a good boy, Youngest~. I won't draw it out. I'll do it in one stroke~?”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
SLICE—!!
THUD, THUD―
His left arm was cut off as though it were a log. There was hardly a process to speak of: the blade simply fell from above to below.
His left arm could no longer be called part of the youngest son, and the Second Daughter saw it all.
“Grrk….”
Was it a shocking sight for a Western blood relative raised in a greenhouse?
The Second Daughter slumped to the floor, and the Fourth Son said nonchalantly,
“Put it back on now~.”
“I should.”
The youngest son picked up the severed arm and held it to the cut. It stuck as though coated with glue and soon regenerated perfectly.
“What a shame~. If you'd come just a little later, or if this thing had resisted even a little, it would've been a different arm on the floor.”
“I can only apologize for causing you concern.”
“No need~. But if you went as far as giving your own arm to protect her, there's more to this, isn't there?”
The youngest son smiled and nodded.
“Do not worry. I intend to collect the price of my arm, with interest.”
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