“Is it disconnected?”
“Yes. It seems it was physically removed.”
In a mansion in the North, where new life never grows, a man who had been watching the snowflakes fluttering in the sky today opened the window and asked.
The sound of crackling firewood from the fireplace, along with the interior of the room that looked quite old-fashioned, set the scene.
In the center of the room, a man kneeling with his head bowed was wearing a hood that hid his face. Â
In chess, a pawn is just a pawn, and a soldier never reveals who they are.
“How many spirits have we secured so far?”
“Unfortunately, we’ve only gathered about half of what we aimed for.”
“Hmm… You’ve figured that out. How did those dwarves catch on?”
“From what we’ve investigated, there was a person who arrived from outside a few hours before the device stopped operating.”
“Outside?”
“Yes. The investigation shows that the group was made up of students and staff from the Academy.”
“How did people from the Academy get here?”
“One of them is a half-dwarf who grew up in the fortress.”
“Why did they come?”
“We haven’t figured that out yet, but we received a report that they seemed to be here for the Breath of the Dragon.”
“The Breath of the Dragon… Hmm… I see. Investigate those people quickly.”
“Understood.”
“By the way, the monster-related matters are progressing without any issues, right?”
“Yes, we’ve secured about 20 young Pang Wolves, 7 young Ice Ogres, and six Cockatrice eggs.”
“Good. Now, go.”
“Yes, Lord.”
As the conversation ended, the hooded man quickly vanished into the shadows.
“Ha…”
The man, now left alone in the room, pushed his dark hair back with a tired look and slouched onto the sofa near the fireplace.
“…Am I feeling warmth even in this cold weather?”
Comparing the outside, where not a single blade of grass could grow, the man stared blankly at the fireplace, which blazed with intense heat. He slowly began to take off his clothes.
As he removed the fur-covered clothing, the first thing that became visible was a massive scar crossing his entire body.
The large scar, etched across his broad shoulders and muscular frame, gave off an impression of wildness rather than fear.
Other smaller scars told the story of how much his body had been trained and endured.
After tossing aside his thick fur coat, the man grabbed a thin nightshirt from nearby and casually put it on. Finally, the cold sweat on his forehead started to cool.
Wearing only a thin garment and shoes meant for indoors, he stepped onto the chilly floor, which could cause frostbite for ordinary people. He immediately picked up a crystal orb from the side of the table.
The orb began to ripple with a blue light.
[…Who are you?]
“Jin Boreas.”
[—Confirmation complete. Where should I connect you?]
“Connect me to the top. I have a report.”
The man’s voice, tinged with annoyance at the noisy static, was that of Jin Boreas.
The heir of the North.
The Empress of the Empire.
A cold-blooded beast.
And the master of the North.
Jin Boreas, head of the Boreas family, began to report something into the crystal orb.
“Do we transform here?”
After a night of drinking, eating, and falling asleep, Rosaria and her group woke up late the next day and immediately set out for the fortress.
“We’ve already set up a camouflage nearby, so feel free to transform.”
They came out through the same entrance they had used earlier and settled in a large clearing not far from the top of the mountain.
This was to begin the reactivation of the Breath of the Dragon and to gather the materials they needed for processing. Â
“Then… I’ll transform—”
Having become somewhat familiar with the transformation process, Tene’s dragon head, emerging from the black mist, immediately revealed itself in its true form.
“Just one scale, right?”
Thunk—
Tene then peeled off a scale from her forearm.
“Wow, look at the size.”
To her, it was just a small piece of skin, but to humans, it was a scale so large it could make a tent look tiny in comparison.
The black scale Tene removed was not only black but also had a mysterious shine and was in perfect condition with no scratches.
“Ha ha! Look at this! The strength! The shine! This is definitely a dragon’s scale!!!”
Louis didn’t just admire it; he immediately rushed forward and rubbed his cheek against the scale.
‘Come to think of it, isn’t he just rubbing his face against Tene’s skin scab?’
Rosaria, watching the scene, couldn’t help but frown slightly, thinking of the dragon’s scale as Tene’s dirt, but Louis was too excited to care about her expression.
“By the way, how are we going to carry this huge thing?”
Although they had obtained the dragon scale, the size made it difficult to carry or hide.
“I’ve already thought of that. Tene!”
[Yes.]
With a smile, as if she already had a plan, Louis called to Tene. She then began to press down on the center of the scale with one of her large dragon claws.
Click—
Soon, the dragon scale was perfectly split in half.
“Now we can just take it in two parts!”
“Ah, I see.”
No matter how hard a dragon’s scale is, it seemed like it couldn’t withstand the strength of the dragon itself.
“If I could, I’d love to cut off those claws to use too… And the teeth and horns!”
[No! My horns are not for sale!]
“Really, just a little bit? Just a tiny bit?”
[No—!]
Louis, watching the scene with pleasure, continued speaking, his obsession growing as he stared at Tene’s claws, teeth, and even her horns with a gleam in his eyes. Terrified, Tene shouted in response.
“Tch, what a shame.”
“You’re really a pervert.”
“A pervert? If you’re a craftsman, you should always be interested in good materials!”
Rosaria frowned at Louis’s behavior and called him out, but Louis confidently argued that he was perfectly normal, even though the madness in his eyes couldn’t be hidden.
“Anyway, does this mean we can just take this with us?”
Before long, the dragon scales, now broken into pieces, were small enough to be carried, and Rosaria started putting them into the bag she had brought.
“Let’s hurry and go eat lunch.”
[Yes—!]
With the task outside completed, Tene, excited about the thought of going back and having a meal, was about to polymorph.
“Wait, Tene. Come with me for a bit.”
[…Me?]
Felix, who had stopped Tene, spoke up.
“Where are you going?”
“I have something to do now that I’m in the North, and I can’t do it alone.”
[Eh…?! But I need to eat lunch…]
Tene weakly protested at Felix’s request, but in the end, she had no choice but to bow her head at the insistence of Tene, who had jumped onto her back.
“When will you be back?”
“I’ll be quick. You stay and help Louis with the crafting.”
“You’ve been really interested in making this. Don’t you want to watch?”
“I can’t help it.”
“Hmm… Alright, go ahead.”
Before coming to the North, Felix had been interested in crafting weapons from dragon scales, and Rosaria, puzzled by his decision to give up on observing the process, didn’t think much about it and just waved them off.
“Be safe! Go on!”
[Hee-ing… I’ll be back…]
Whoosh—
“Cough! Cough, cough! Ugh… the dust…”
With a flap of her huge wings, Tene kicked up a cloud of dust and quickly flew off, soon becoming a distant dot.
“Alright! Let’s hurry! My hands are itching to make something!”
“Okay, okay.”
Rosaria paused for a moment, watching Tene leave, but with Louis’s excitement about finally getting the materials, she sighed and followed him back into the fortress.
[So, where do we go?]
“Just a moment… if you look here… over there. Get off there.”
After parting ways with Rosaria, Tene and Felix flew across the vast, snow-covered land, passing over the mountain with the fortress, and eventually landed in a forest.
“Why are we here?”
“We were supposed to meet here. Ah, here it is.”
Tene, who was confused to have arrived in the middle of a snow-covered mountain, didn’t know why they were here, but Felix paid no mind. He started looking around before leaning against the stump of a nearby tree.
“They should be arriving soon…”
“Who’s coming—”
Ears twitch
“Sis! Up in the tree!”
Not knowing who they were meeting, Tene tilted her head in confusion but instinctively looked up at the tree branch where Felix had been standing.
Having now become accustomed to the senses of a dragon, Tene was sharp enough to catch even the slightest hint of discomfort.
Then…
Thud
The branch shook, and a figure appeared in front of them.
A man, dressed in a dark hood that seemed to blend with the shadows, stood up and revealed his face to the two.
“Greetings, young master. And, the great Black Dragon.”
“…Who?”
The man, who gave off an air of considerable experience, greeted them politely as though he knew them already, bowing his head.
“Are you from Lord Fenrir’s household?”
“That’s correct.”
“Ah…! From that person…”
This man was Gilbert, a subordinate of Fenrir, who was the former boss of Red Fang and now the head of the Evergarden family’s knight order.
He was the one who had once blocked Freya’s path when she first went to meet Fenrir, showing his teeth to Gordon, but being a loyal follower of Fenrir, he had entered the Count’s household to follow her.
Afterward, following Freya’s orders, he had been gathering intelligence in the north, so Tene and Felix were meeting him for the first time.
Of course, the ordinary employees of the Count’s household didn’t know that Tene was a dragon, but Gilbert, who was Fenrir’s right-hand man, had received the information in advance and knew.
“As instructed by my lady, I’ve gathered information on the current situation in the north and the movements of Baron Bjorn.”
“You’ve prepared the original documents, right?”
“Yes, the original has already been sent to where my lady is.”
Gilbert, who had been rummaging through his belongings, handed Felix the documents he had gathered while staying in the north.
“Hmm…”
Felix began reading the documents he had been handed.
“It seems Baron Bjorn has already captured quite a number of young monsters.”
As expected, the documents detailed the activities of Baron Bjorn in the north, and Felix learned that he had already begun capturing monsters.
“We still don’t know who’s backing him, though.”
However, they still didn’t know who was supporting Baron Bjorn from behind.
But then…
“…The movements of the Bores family are quieter than expected?”
Even this piece of information revealed a lot.
“The Bores family?”
“They are the family responsible for this northern border.
The north is harsh, with difficult living conditions, and it’s both the Empire’s border and a place where monsters appear, so they’ve taken it upon themselves to be the shield of the north.” Â
“Effectively, they’re the rulers of the north.”
The Empire’s northern region was a snow-covered mountain, with a boundary line that had been carved out after the Demon War.
Although they had pushed the Mi tribes back, the threat of their return still loomed, so the border was maintained, with the Bores family guarding it.
The land was vast, but farming was difficult, and with frequent infiltrators and monsters appearing, there were almost no cities in the north except for the Bores domain.
“So, for such a family to let a baron like Bjorn stir things up in their own backyard… their reaction is rather lukewarm…”
But no matter how much of a noble he was, it felt strange that Baron Bjorn, who had no direct connection to the north, was roaming the snow-covered mountains of the north and capturing monsters, yet the Bores family had taken no action.
On top of that…
“Who is currently the head of the Bores family?”
“It’s Duke Jin Bores.”
“…Jin Bores? Isn’t he still an heir, not the head?”
“Five months ago, following the sudden death of the previous head of the family, Duke Jin Bores inherited the position.”
“…Huh.”
In the original story, Jin Bores had appeared as an heir at the academy, but now Felix was taken aback to hear that Jin Bores had left the academy, dropped out, and had completely taken over as the ruler of the north. Felix couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it.
“Got it. Gilbert?”
“You can call me casually, young master.”
“Then… Gilbert. There hasn’t been any order for us to return yet, right?”
“Correct, no such order.”
“It seems like we’ll need to look into something a bit more. This is going to be tough.”
Felix, who had tucked the documents Gilbert handed over into his coat, sighed helplessly and continued.
“Then, I’ll be counting on you. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure the medicine you brought is delivered safely.”
“Understood.”
With that, Felix patted Gilbert’s shoulder. Gilbert gave a quick nod and, just like his arrival, swiftly left the scene.
“…It’s annoying how accurate my guess was.”
Afterward, Felix muttered to himself in a serious tone.
“Tell me too! What’s going on?”
“………”
“Don’t tease me!”
Tene, who had been right next to him and overheard the conversation but couldn’t follow it at all, puffed out her cheeks and complained as she stood in front of Felix, looking frustrated.
Seeing her like that was so cute that Felix said nothing and just watched her, but now Tene started bouncing around, getting even more upset.
“If my guess is right… Jin Bores. That person is probably a vessel.”
“Aha!… What?”
At Felix’s response, Tene crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, surprised and confused.