Her anxiety levels rose. She also felt like the egg in her arms was trembling slightly. Its temperature seems to have dropped even more.
"What the hell was that just now?"
The lord's people looked at Humming with suspicious eyes. Humming shook her head in embarrassment, but they were not convinced, their eyes stayed trained on her.
'What do we do, Allen?
Alan was also equally embarrassed. Obviously the spark was from the egg and it was clearly refusing to stay here.
"...Heh, heh, heh. Me, I'm fine," The lord, who had fainted, got up with a pale complexion.
He seemed a little dizzy, but fortunately he was fine. He waved his hands faintly a few times as if to say he was okay. Humming carefully studied the lord's face with attentive eyes, but saw no suspicious energy.
'Then what the hell was that ominous shadow?'
At that moment, Humming, tilting her head, made eye contact with the lord. The old lord's eyes stilled for a moment. Humming saw his blue eyes tear vertically so the pupils resembled slits, like a snake's eyes. 1
She opened her mouth without realizing it, but the lord's eyes had already returned to normal in the next blink. He still had a nice smile on his face, but his voice was a little murky.
It seems the egg doesn't want to be left here. If so… "
The lord's gaze on Humming and Allen were deep, as if he had already caught them.
"Why don't you stay in the castle and protect your egg until the wizards come?"
'Miss, you're wrong.'2
Humming gulped, her mouth dry.
***
'Damn it. Damn it, you guys.'
In front of the huge mansion, with his heart in his throat, Derek sat, tearing at his hair. He felt a sense of shame, wondering why he had to walk to this dreadful place and after ending his golden vacation on his own accord.
'...Ah, my vacation!'
To escape the growing number of tasks these days, Derek had spent the vacation days he had been painstaking saving up for the past 3 years.
It was a 40-day vacation.
Derek deliberately chose a vacation spot far from the Capital so even if there were urgent business, they wouldn't be able to find him. The place he chose was a resort island located at the southeastern tip of the Empire called Barco. It takes more than 15 days to get to and from the island. The island was so remote that it would have taken another week of travel had it not been the mobile portal that this resort island had heavily invested in. Indeed, the island was a fantastic getaway, enough for Derek to come from so far.
Exotic birds, beautiful people, and joyous moments made it seem as if time was moving by slowly.
...Just four days of this happiness when, this morning-
'Derek, Derek, Derek! We've got some great news!'
He got an urgent call from the guys at the tower.
He shouldn't have picked it up…
No, he had gotten a call through the emergency contact line. He couldn't not answer it.
'The egg of a living dragon has been found!'
This surprising news brought his vacation to a halt. The discovery alone was surprising news but when he heard that the dragon egg was mature to the point that it could hatch immediately, he jumped out of the sunbed Derek had been lying in.
'I- I'll be right back! A dragon egg was found, how could my vacation be a problem?' The excited Derek shouted into the communication line, making a fuss.
'No, Derek! The dragon egg isn't in the tower right now. So, uh, I don't want to give this opportunity to you, but it's better to save the egg.'
Carlo, who was on the other side of the communication line, said with a deep sigh. His tone sounded exaggerated but Derek, who had been overly-excited at the time, went crazy and didn't notice the oddity.
'Where is it?'
'The egg was found, but has not been retrieved yet. I'm sorry to bother you on vacation, but could you please retrieve the egg? It just so happens that the egg is not far from your vacation spots.'
'Oh, my God!'
He'd even be the first to see the egg!
It was a pity that Derek was so excited that he did not properly listen to Carlo's next words, which burst out like rapid cannon-fire.
'Ah, of course, you won't be alone. I think it'd be better for you to go with another wizard. You know Arno, right? It's not far from where you are. Drop by the magic branch there and pick up the wizard. What, why are you taking another wizard with you? Don't be stupid, Derek. Did you forget that a dragon egg on the verge of hatchling has to be infused with a lot of mana? What? Is there a wizard capable of doing that there? Uh, uh…no, he's just passing by there coincidentally. Do you know him? Oh, hahahaha. Well, you'll find out when you get there. Anyway, hurry up! The egg is dying! Hurry!'
At his urging, Derek3 packed his luggage in a hurry as if he was being chased and ran to Arno through the teleportation portal.
A series of long-distance teleportations made his head ache, but that didn't deter him from hurrying to Arno's magic branch with thoughts of the hatchling dying looming over him.
"Why all of a sudden, Vice-president Derek? ... Ah! You've come to see the President4! The President is currently living in a temporary residence. I'll guide you!"
...Why did he mention the President here?
Before a startled Derek could judge the situation, he was dragged before Simon's temporary residence. He could only take a few seconds to roll his stiff head in front of the door. After understanding the situation, Derek sat down and cursed his colleagues.
'If they'd told me the wizard I was coming to pick up was Simon, would I have cut my vacation short to come here?'
...If he had known, he would still have come. Because the dragon egg's life was depending on it.
"Ha. Ah. I don't know. Yeah, it's better if I go with Simon. I don't have to worry about the dragon hatching. Yeah, it's alright. Who knows? He or I might be imprinted by the hatchling when it's born, right?"
Imprintations are a once in a lifetime event. Dragons are said to place an 'imprint' on the one they trust the most. Even if the imprinter and imprintee are apart, the "spiritual imprinting" allows them to sense each other's life or death. If necessary, they can also share their mana or life force.
Most dragons were known to imprint with their mother when they are a hatchling. Dragons, who did not imprint until they were adults, sometimes imprinted on their companions.
Derek tried to calm down his excited heart.
But can it be?
Derek clenched his fists and sniffed as he thought.
'There's no chance I'll encounter an opportunity like this ever again! I must hatch it with my mana and make it follow me like a mother! I handed over the title of the youngest archmage, but I will definitely get the title of the first dragon wizard!'
Filled with a sudden surge of fighting spirit, he rushed to the handle to open the mansion door, his eagle eyes glowing with all sorts of plans.
At that moment, the door burst open from the inside.
Pawk!
Derek, who collided into the door face first, collapsed on the spot, screaming in pain.
"Argh!"
'It hurts so much!'
A long shadow fell over him holding his forehead and weeping. A familiar handsome man, dressed in a loose shirt that was fluttering in the wind and gloved in his signature black leather half-gloves, casually glanced down.
Seeing Derek sitting on the floor, he emotionlessly asked without a change in expression, "What are you doing there?"
In a pitiful voice, Derek replied with tears in his eyes. "I fell, Simon."
"I didn't ask that, Derek."
A small dog with a translucent body and a palm-sized snake stuck their heads out from Simon's shoulders and shook their heads at the disheveled scene before them. There was even a small bird made of water sitting on Simon's head.5
"Huh? Is that…!"
After recognizing the spirits, Derek's eyes widened, instantly forgetting that his forehead hurt.
"Hey, how are the spirits here?"
"Because they signed a contract with me."
It was fun to be recognized. 6
The small dog, Iru, and Fuego, the snake of fire, slipped down Simon's body and crossed over to Derek.
-Arf?
Diligently wagging his short tail, Iru breathed into Derek's red forehead. The breath blew through the wound like a gentle breeze.
Simon, who was looking at the scene indifferently, extended his hand to Derek, who was still sitting on the ground. Clutching the hand that he had unexpectedly extended, Derek stood up with Simon's help.
"You know how to deal with spirits? Since when?"
At Derek's surprise, Simon replied indifferently, "Well, a month or two ago?"
'No7, he learned the spirit arts in a month or two?'
Derek spaced out in his surprise. Not really caring about Derek's reaction, Simon walked past him, leaving Derek to stare blankly at Simon's back. It was only after seeing Iru, who had been playing on Derek's head, chase after Simon that he too followed after him.
"Where are you going?"
"The dragon egg, aren't you going to pick it up?"
"Oh, yeah. That's right. I said I'd pick it up. Yes, ah, yes. Oh! But are you just going with me alone? Why don't you take the people from this branch?"
"Annoying."
Well, if a lot of people went, there would be nothing for them to do anyways. In addition, a small number of people was advantageous in reducing the travel time. No matter how close it was, it was still more than 500km away. Soon the two arrived at the teleportation spot.
It was possible to travel using their own magic, but it was better to use magic branch's facilities to save mana. It was better to conserve their mana to supply the dragon egg.
"Recover the egg within a day's time and go back to the Tower by yourself tomorrow, Derek."
"...What?"
"I'm not done with my work yet."
For the past few months, Simon had been out and about, investigating something. It's already been 3 months. He entrusted the Magic Tower mages to occasionally visit the bodies of chimeras or fairies he found, leaving the investigation to them. While he was away, the vice-presidents were in charge of overseeing the Tower and the Ministry of Magic' overall work was carried out by them too. The vice-presidents didn't know what was going on but Derek was convinced that Simon's investigation was related to the missing General Kalia.
It's already been eight months since she announced her provisional retirement and disappeared. During the first three months, Derek didn't even dare look at Simon's face. He was, to put it simply, a wizard possessed by madness.
At that time, the Tower was not the tower, home to the imperial mages, but instead, became the castle of the devil. Of course, Simon didn't bother anyone when he was walking around, but it was very hard to face someone whose whole body was emanating ice, let alone meet their boss' crazy eyes.
'…I hope he'll be back as soon as possible.'8