Chapter 228

“We have to go now!”

At that moment, one of the rebels keeping watch in the corridor hurried us along.

Putting thoughts of kissing aside for later, I sprang to my feet. As I moved to hoist the unconscious Berius onto my back, Varen raised a hand to stop me.

“Ceryl, I can carry—”

“No. I can do it.”

“He’ll be heavy.”

“What do you mean, heavy? Besides, this isn’t about strength. It’s about technique.”

I draped his limp arms over my shoulders and hitched up his slender thighs.

The human on my back was shaped differently from a dog, but the sensation reminded me of the days when I used to carry a sick Berry and run to the hospital.

The old memory made the left side of my chest ache.

Taking °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° a deep breath, I steadied myself and confidently took a step forward.

“I’m carrying him.”

As I marched off determinedly, Varen draped a transparent cloak over me.

The moment my figure vanished, the rebel operatives began whispering among themselves. Even so, they hurried ahead to open the door for us.

The royal palace was in complete chaos after the incident. The moment we stepped into the corridor, a sharp, acrid smell hit me.

Poisonous gas was rising from underground.

I grimaced and held my breath, weaving around frantic people as I pushed forward.

“Tch. Stubborn as ever.”

I pretended not to hear Varen muttering under his breath.

***

Because of the transparent cloak, Berius appeared to be floating through the air.

As for me, I hung limply from Varen’s side.

“Huff... huff...”

“I told you. Why insist on being stubborn?”

“M-My lungs... huff... feel like they’re... tearing apart...”

“Lungs don’t tear that easily, Ceryl.”

I’d confidently declared that I would carry Berius myself.

Unfortunately, there had been several factors I hadn’t accounted for.

The first was that poisonous gas had spread throughout the palace, making it difficult to breathe.

The second was that Berry was no longer a twenty-eight-kilogram companion dog but a human being.

And finally, Ceryl Lavier’s body was not nearly sturdy enough to sprint while carrying an eighteen-year-old boy.

In the end, my legs had given out completely and I’d collapsed.

As a result, Varen was now forced to fly while carrying two humans.

We cleared the building and crossed the magnificent gardens.

Glancing back, I saw that the royal palace, once so imposing, now looked alarmingly unstable.

The explosion that had begun underground was devouring the structure like kindling. Thick black smoke spread in every direction.

People rushed desperately to extinguish the flames.

They dragged over heavy hoses and sprayed water continuously. When that wasn’t enough, they began hauling buckets as well.

My lungs still burned, but the moment we reached open air and I could breathe cleanly again, it became much easier.

Dangling from Varen’s side, I weakly thumped his thigh.

“Put... me down...”

“It’s better if we keep going like this. Stop being stubborn for no reason.”

“It’s... not for no reason... huff...”

In the end, Varen failed to break my stubbornness.

After looking around, he set me down in a secluded corner of the garden, hidden behind two-meter-tall ornamental hedges.

Sheltered in the shadows, I ripped off the transparent cloak and greedily sucked in deep breaths.

At last, free again, I stood there inhaling and exhaling over and over.

Varen lowered Berius onto the grass.

Then he stood beside me, both of us watching the palace.

The fire that had started underground was not spreading nearly as dramatically as the noise suggested.

Even so, dozens of people were pouring water onto it, yet the flames refused to die.

Once my breathing had finally returned to normal, I frowned and asked,

“That fire... could it be Kaldrok’s child?”

“No. That isn’t dragonfire.”

Varen answered immediately.

Folding his arms, he continued staring at the palace.

His face remained unreadable as he spoke.

“No matter how young Kaldrok’s child is, those flames are far too weak to have come from a dragon. The fire we breathe possesses life.”

His words brought old memories flooding back.

Whenever Varen transformed into a golden dragon and unleashed his flames, entire forests became seas of fire.

The blaze pouring from his jaws spread with terrifying speed.

Thinking back on it now, dragonfire truly had seemed alive.

Crimson tongues of flame writhed and surged, devouring every living thing in their path.

Compared to that, the fire consuming the palace looked weak.

It refused to go out easily, but it wasn’t particularly threatening either.

I stared uneasily at the distant building.

We had escaped like the wind beneath the concealment of the transparent cloaks, yet my feet felt strangely heavy at the thought of simply leaving.

A dry voice escaped me.

“Everyone will be okay, right?”

We had entered this place together with our rebel companions.

Yet aside from Varen and me, we hadn’t even confirmed whether the rest were alive.

Crow’s team had gone to investigate the underground prison and become caught in the sudden explosion.

The companions who had accompanied us to the king’s bedroom didn’t seem to have escaped yet, either.

Most of all, I couldn’t stop worrying about Morpha.

They had scoffed at the idea of me worrying about them, but sending them alone into the middle of a disaster still sat badly with me.

“That concerns me as well.”

Thinking he had somehow read my mind, I looked up at him in surprise.

Varen’s gaze never left the burning palace.

Surely he wasn’t worrying about our rebel companions the way I was.

Then again, he always trusted Morpha with the aftermath of every situation.

Maybe he regretted sending them off alone.

“Those flames are radiating extremely unpleasant and powerful magic. This isn’t the work of an ordinary mage.”

Ah.

So it wasn’t our companions bothering him.

It was the magic.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, I turned my attention back to the palace.

Just as Varen had said, the flames still clung stubbornly to the structure despite being blasted continuously with water.

Suddenly, I remembered something Morpha had said immediately after the explosion.

“They said the barrier imprisoning Kaldrok’s child seemed to have exploded. There shouldn’t have been anyone among the rebels capable of tampering with something like that.”

“Correct. A barrier of that level could only be touched by a mage on the Drunkard’s level.”

Varen readily agreed.

I rubbed at my mouth and sank into thought.

There had been no mages among the rebels participating in this operation.

They were all informants skilled in infiltration.

Which meant it wasn’t us.

Someone else had caused the underground explosion.

Who?

And why now, of all times, while we were conducting a covert operation?

No answer came easily.

After a moment, I voiced the only theory I could think of.

“What if... Kaldrok’s child broke the barrier themselves? With help from the rebels.”

“What help could humans who aren’t mages possibly provide?”

Varen dismissed even that slim possibility outright.

I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it again.

I, a human who wasn’t a mage, had freed Varen from the underground prison.

But I was hardly an ordinary human.

I had been a reader of the novel.

I had known Varen’s name.

Because of that, I’d been able to transform a giant dragon into a human and help him escape.

Without a similarly extraordinary method, dismantling high-level magic would be nearly impossible.

“And if the barrier were weak enough to be broken that way, the dragon never would have been captured in the first place.”

More importantly, Varen—who had spent years trapped within human barriers—understood their power better than anyone.

The more we discussed it, the deeper the underground explosion sank into mystery.

Who possessed enough magical power to accomplish such a thing while also having reason to rescue Kaldrok’s child?

“Why now...?”

The question slipped from my lips.

I was curious about the culprit, certainly.

But even more unsettling was the timing.

If this wasn’t a coincidence, then the culprit knew we were infiltrating the royal palace.

“Someone’s coming.”

Lost in thought, I immediately looked up at Varen’s words.

Several familiar guards and attendants were running across the garden.

They were the rebels Morpha had disguised with magic.

I had flown off first, too distracted by Berius to think about anyone else.

Seeing every last one of them escape safely eased a weight from my chest.

Letting out a relieved breath, I grabbed Varen’s hand.

There was no point standing here watching any longer.

Finding answers could wait.

Getting somewhere safe and regrouping with Morpha was far more important.

“Let’s go too. Morpha will be fine.”

I could still vividly picture the expression they’d worn while mocking me for daring to worry about them.

Morpha wasn’t the sort of dragon who charged ahead without a plan the way Varen and I often did.

Instead of surrendering to vague anxiety, I decided to trust my dependable problem-solver.

At my words, Varen finally looked away from the palace.

He nodded once and reached toward Berius, who still lay unconscious on the grass.

I immediately grabbed his wrist, putting on my most pitiful expression.

“Um... I don’t know if I should even ask this, but... could you move him gently?”

“He’s unconscious. It’s not as if he’ll get motion sickness.”

“It’s not motion sickness. I think there might be something wrong with his head. If that’s true, then we need to be careful about any impacts to—”

Varen, who had been listening casually, suddenly froze.

His outstretched hand stopped in midair.

Then he stared into empty space.

“......”

The sight wasn’t normal.

But I’d witnessed it enough times now that it no longer startled me.

All I could do was hope that whatever future Varen was seeing this time would bring good news.