A facility located on the outskirts of Arcane.
It was a place designated for healing, with a large number of personnel stationed there.
In the hospital room on the topmost floor, there was only one person.
Theonar, who still could not open his eyes.
Visits were strictly prohibited to ensure absolute rest.
However, there were a few who disregarded that and entered.
“…You said he’d wake up soon.”
“I thought so too. There were no external injuries, and his magical energy had stabilized.”
“Then why isn’t he waking up?”
“There is one thing I suspect, but…”
Vanice continued speaking, trying to ignore the sharp stares directed at him from all sides.
“Hm, the most likely cause right now is a magical energy imbalance.”
“That’s no big deal, right?”
“Isabel, perhaps not for you. The bodies of those born in Aldonia are naturally robust. But he is different. Even though the overwhelming magical energy—of unknown origin—has calmed down, the vessel containing it is far too fragile. So, until the disrupted balance is restored, he might be in a hibernation-like state, unable to regain consciousness—”
“…What are you even saying? Explain it so I can understand.”
Seeing Isabel tilt her head with a massive question mark on her face,
“Hah… It was my mistake trying to make you understand.”
Vanice sighed, then turned his head to look at someone else.
“To put it simply, he’ll wake up once the balance is restored to some extent.”
“Yes, that’s correct, Rozennia. As expected, your understanding is on a completely different level from this foolish thickhead over here.”
“That… That tone of yours…!”
After nodding at Vanice’s explanation, Rozennia pondered over a way to resolve the issue.
“Wouldn’t a general elixir work for this?”
Magical energy imbalance usually isn’t this severe.
At most, it would make someone suffer for a few days.
However, he had been unconscious for nearly a month.
While mental shock could be a cause, Vanice had ruled that out.
“Elixirs could provide temporary relief, but… as you all know, this may not be the last time he uses his mysterious power. Just as he has in the past.”
That was true.
They couldn’t keep feeding him elixirs every time he used that dark-blue magical energy.
In that case, they needed to fundamentally create a new vessel capable of safely containing such overwhelming magical power.
“We’ll have to retrieve it.”
“Even this brat calls herself a saint… Huh? Retrieve what?”
“You know, the thing I was bestowed with before I set off on my journey.”
“But Rozennia, that’s…”
“I know. You might think it’s excessive. But there’s no other way, is there?”
At Rozennia’s words, both Isabel and Vanice stood there,
Their mouths agape as if they’d just heard something shocking.
“You’re saying… you’ll bring the Dragon Heart?”
“Stealing a royal treasure—no surprise the imperial princess’s scale is different.”
“I’ll bring it back quickly. If anything happens, contact me via the crystal orb.”
Since the founding of the Lumiere Empire, there had only been a handful of incidents that caused a stir across the continent.
Even when lowering the criteria, only about 20 events were significant enough to be recorded in history books.
Those were all major events, yet none posed a threat to the empire.
But now, things are different.
Two incidents, each worthy of being written into history, had occurred in quick succession, leaving the imperial family deeply troubled.
“Hurry up and find it! It’s an imperial order! If we fail, we’re all as good as dead!”
“Where the hell could it be…?”
“If you don’t want to be executed, turn over every piece of underwear in the royal palace if you have to!”
One incident was, of course, the Arcane raid that had occurred not long ago.
The other was the loss of the Dragon Heart, the most symbolic treasure of the royal family.
The Dragon Heart had been obtained by the first emperor when he slew a rampaging golden dragon in what would become the empire’s capital, marking the birth of the Lumiere Empire.
It was a treasure of unparalleled importance.
‘My apologies…’
Rozennia silently apologized to those who would be harmed by this, as she calmly walked out of the imperial palace with the Dragon Heart in hand.
Some would undoubtedly face execution, but she had already pinned the blame on those who betrayed the empire and engaged in shady dealings.
No innocent people would die because of this.
‘Though their salaries might be docked a bit.’
The Dragon Heart required no additional refinement.
It was the purest concentration of magical energy.
Rozennia herself had used it before and knew that, as long as it was absorbed in small portions, there were no side effects whatsoever.
Although inserting another mass of magical energy into someone already suffering from a magical imbalance seemed akin to assassination,
The Dragon Heart wasn’t merely a storage for magical energy.
It was an auxiliary device that helped control magic.
A sturdy vessel capable of withstanding even the most immense torrents of magical energy.
The dragons, who possessed extraordinary magical energy enough to paint the skies, owed their survival to the Dragon Heart.
Of course, this wasn’t public knowledge.
Everything Rozennia had learned about it came from her own research.
And she doubted anyone else would ever discover it, nor would they want to.
‘With this, a new vessel to contain his magical energy will be created, and he’ll gain control over what’s to come.’
Although it wouldn’t be a complete solution unless his body became resilient enough to handle the power, it was better than having him unconscious and bedridden.
* * *
“A strange ceiling.”
When I woke up, I was greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling and lights.
Barely suppressing a splitting headache, I struggled to move my creaking muscles.
Lowering my gaze, I noticed the bandages tightly wrapped around my body and thought to myself:
“So, I survived…”
Yes, I had somehow made it through alive.
‘Did the people outside save me?’
I had passed out without being able to do anything, and even my last desperate attempt had been in vain.
It must have been quite some time since I had been lying down, as the muscles in my neck barely moved.
So, while keeping my gaze fixed forward, I used only the sense in my hand to grope around, trying to find a handle.
“How on earth did I… huh? What’s this?”
I felt something soft and squishy.
“A pillow? No, it feels more like human skin—”
“Mm…”
“AHHH!”
I screamed involuntarily.
Why?
Because Sylvia was lying next to me, completely defenseless.
“…Theo?”
Sylvia rubbed her eyes and forced her sleepy gaze open.
“Uh… um…”
While I was deliberating what to say in this situation, she looked at me with teary eyes and then—
Slam!
She roughly pulled me into her embrace.
“I’m so glad… that you’re awake…”
She squeezed the back of my head so tightly that I could barely breathe.
“Ugh, Sylvia… I can’t breathe…”
Without understanding why, I found myself choking.
After some time, when she had finally calmed down, she used a communication orb to call the others.
[Your Presence has increased.]
[EXP +10,441]
“…A 10% cashback came in, huh.”
This incident alone granted me over 10,000 EXP.
“I need to properly define what ‘Presence’ means.”
Guessing and inferring as I had done before left too much room for error.
‘Was that just a dream?’
After my defeat at the hands of Bakal, I had a strange dream.
Outwardly, I appeared to be Theonar, but the one inside was undoubtedly me, given the circumstances.
Yet, it showed me events I had never experienced.
‘A prophetic dream? No, it’s too different for that.’
The situation he was in was completely unlike mine.
Sure, the heroines are all a bit off in the present, but in that dream, things seemed to follow a pattern similar to the original story.
What was clear was that just because I was near Ian and the heroines, it didn’t mean I was safe.
And another thing—it felt like the higher my influence or renown grew, the more EXP I earned.
This wasn’t verified yet, but there was a lot to figure out over time.
For now, I had to deal with this wretched body of mine.
‘Magical imbalance, huh.’
Thanks to that accursed thing,
I couldn’t leave the bed despite having no external injuries.
I had used an enormous amount of magic power with the Chaos Shard, which was fine,
but the problem was that I hadn’t prepared for the backlash that would follow.
With this fragile body that had just barely reached the 4th rank, handling magic power several levels above me naturally caused issues.
‘Still, this is a problem… That should’ve been Rosénia’s to take.’
I’d heard the story.
Apparently, I had consumed the imperial treasure, the Dragon Heart.
Thanks to that, I had awakened from my deep sleep and felt no significant pain, but that wasn’t the issue.
‘The only Dragon Heart I know of is this one.’
The problem was that Rozennia, who was supposed to become a great mage in the future, had now lost a key part of her potential.
Even if I tried to compensate for it with something else, you wouldn’t find anything comparable to the Dragon Heart even if you scoured the entire continent.
Not even the EXP Shop had an item with similar effects.
‘Damn it, seriously.’
My head throbbed, but what could I do?
What was done was done, and spilled water couldn’t be scooped back up.
While I wouldn’t be able to utilize it as well as she would, the Dragon Heart was still a valuable gift for someone like me, who used the Chaos Shard.
‘I don’t know how many more times I’ll use it, but I can’t keep fainting like this every time.’
Although the magical imbalance had somewhat subsided, allowing me to regain my senses,
I wasn’t completely healed yet.
‘You could say I’m on borrowed time.’
The best solution would be to strengthen my body and raise my rank, but that was almost impossible to achieve in a short period.
‘There’s no way I can manage that quickly.’
However, there was a way to extend the time I had.
“Gray, that bastard must be around, right?”
This was precisely the moment when the information from the original story came in handy.
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