During his loss of consciousness,
Elric was dreaming.
It was a dream about a magician.
He was wearing a robe pulled deeply over, making his face unrecognizable.
It was impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman, an old person or a youth.
The only thing recognizable was the inscription on the back of the robe, which bore the crest of the family.
However, even that seemed to have a different design from what he had recently seen. It looked like a design that might have been used a long time ago.
But…
Somehow, Elric couldn't shake the feeling that the magician's back was very familiar.
A suffocating yet longing emotion.
Who could it be?
Then, as the magician's robe billowed, he stood at the edge of the cliff like a screen, far away.
As the sun set and twilight spread across the sky, a massive darkness began to emerge.
The pitch-black darkness coalesced stickily, gradually taking on the form of a monstrous shape.
Just by watching it, Elric felt a sense of foreboding. There was something unsettling, something that made his heart itch.
At first glance, one might mistake it for a demon, but it seemed to be a being far superior to demons... a demon god, perhaps.
A demon god .
Shouldn't it be expressed like that?
However, the magician, as if unconcerned, chuckled cheerfully and waved his right hand into the air.
Then, from the sky, hundreds of dragons appeared in formation, attempting a rapid descent.
This time, as he waved his left hand, the ground shook as giants, believed to have been extinct long ago just like the dragons, came forth wielding axes.
They began the battle against the demon god as if they were mere puppets under the magician's control.
The sky darkened, lightning struck, blizzards raged, and flames erupted, ravaging the earth multiple times.
It was like a battle straight out of myth.
Yet, even in such a brutal battlefield,
The magician was genuinely smiling.
As if he were enjoying this moment to the point of ecstasy.
"Charge!"
* * *
"Whoa, it's dangerous!"
Elric screamed as he opened his eyes.
And when he reflexively sat up and looked around, for a brief moment, everything seems blurry.
Soft sheets and a rocking sensation. And a familiar ceiling.
It was a carriage.
The academy's carriage he had ridden in when they were moving to find the dragon's nest.
Why am I here? That thought crossed his mind.
"Argh!"
Elric had to groan from the intense shock of being struck hard on the back of his head.
"Argh!"
"Argh? Did you just say 'Argh'?"
He turned his head.
There, glaring at Elric with a face contorted like crumpled paper, was Sean.
"Does it hurt? Good, I'll make sure it hurts for a lifetime. And you said it was dangerous, right? Fine. I'll make your life dangerous right here."
Sean swung the bat he had conveniently placed next to him.
Elric had to quickly move away, thinking he might really die if he stayed like this.
But the carriage was too narrow to escape.
Shortly after, while gently rubbing his sore, bruised eyes with his hand, Elric had to gauge Sean's still aggressive demeanor.
"...So, you led the rescue team to save me, is that what you're saying?"
"Yeah. That jerk."
"Yeah. Still, picking on each other among humans is a bit..."
"What did you say?"
"...Oh, nothing. Forget it."
As soon as Elric felt Sean's glare, he quickly turned his head to the side. He knew that prolonging the conversation might just spark Sean's anger.
Sean glared at Elric for a while longer, then sighed heavily.
How did he end up in such a tough situation, tangled up with this lunatic?
After Elric sent all the exploration team members outside,
Sean immediately contacted his family instead of the academy.
With Professor Berex at the academy, it was impossible to predict how he would react, so Sean decided to leverage the influence of his family first.
'In such urgent circumstances, if the dean sends out a rescue team, even a slight delay could make Elric's fate uncertain.'
Of course, mobilizing a family as politically calculating as Professor Berex was never easy.
But this time, they actively pressured the academy and even moved the tower directly.
The family that discovered the dragon's nest, a valuable resource-rich site, and rescued Elric!
Just this alone would bring them great fame in the future.
Sean thought it was a profitable deal.
In the end, during the rescue operation that started like that,
When they nervously opened the stone gate with the knowledge that a dragon might burst out at any moment, alongside the magicians,
Sean was able to find Elric alone and collapsed in the empty chamber.
He couldn't describe how much his heart sank at that moment.
Fortunately, Sean could breathe a sigh of relief after confirming that Elric had only lost consciousness and wasn't seriously injured.
Of course, for the magicians who were excited about the prospect of studying dragons and dragon diseases, it was nothing short of absurd.
Anyway,
What happened afterward was just like it is now.
They were on their way back to the academy in the carriage.
"What about the nest?"
Elric cautiously asked, fearing Sean's anger.
Sean was still not pleased with Elric, but he answered without further ado.
"There are still quite a few magicians left."
"Well, nobody has ever seen a nest preserved that well...."
Excavation work must be in full swing.
Elric felt a pang of regret for not being there.
Although he had obtained the most important information, he still wanted to monopolize other resources.
But...
"No. They've blocked access to everyone."
"What? What do you mean...?"
"You're the one who discovered it, so naturally, you have primary ownership of the dungeon, right? Why would anyone let that go easily?"
As soon as a dungeon was discovered, laws were enacted to ensure that it was primarily attributed to the discoverer.
If the dungeon was of considerable size, there were often disputes among different factions claiming ownership, making traffic management quite challenging.
Therefore, it was common for different schools of magic to negotiate secondary excavation rights and demand a certain share of the excavated goods.
Fully excavating a dungeon was never an easy task.
Sean had immediately blocked such excavation rights to prevent anyone from claiming them.
While Elric was unconscious, the tower and the academy could have tried to take advantage of the situation by offering their assistance.
'I've really got a good friend.'
Elric felt a subtle gratitude for Sean's consideration.
He knew how much Sean usually distanced himself from his family.
Despite that, he had lowered his head and taken action for his friend.
"What are you looking at?"
"Thank you."
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"Don't say stuff like that just because you're unlucky, okay?"
"... "
Elric couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
As expected, Sean was being Sean today.
Then, suddenly,
'Wait a minute.'
A thought flashed through Elric's mind.
'If I play this right, I might be able to take down Professor Berex in one fell swoop.'
He had originally thought about it, but if he could weave it together nicely, it seemed like it would make for an even more interesting picture.
Elric grinned mischievously for a moment.
Seeing that, Sean wrinkled his face in disapproval.
"...Don't laugh like that. Every time you laugh like that, something bad happens!"
"Now that it's come to this, let me make one more request."
"I can't hear you, I won't...!"
He shouted in frustration, feeling like he was going to get into trouble again, but Elric paid him no mind.
"Can you spread a rumor that I got seriously injured?"
* * *
The carriage was transferred to the Imperial Magical Hospital located in the Imperial City instead of the academy.
"This sudden change was due to the news that the rescued Elric Melvinger, while being urgently transported to the Imperial City, had suffered a sudden recurrence of the injuries he sustained at the nest... As a result, he fell into a coma. Our medical team is currently monitoring his condition for further developments."
Thanks to this announcement,
Various professors and officials from the tower, including Professor Berex who had been eagerly awaiting Elric's arrival, as well as officials dispatched from the palace upon hearing the news, were all taken aback and left in a state of confusion.
Just like at the dragon's nest, this time Sean's family guards, who accompanied him, thoroughly isolated the vicinity of the hospital from the outside.
As a result, Professor Berex and others had to reluctantly turn back, swallowing their bitter feelings.
While some expressed concern that Melvinger's hostility might never end, others wore smiles of satisfaction.
And then,
"Rest well."
As Sean left the room, leaving behind the hourglass he had placed there.
"...Phew! I thought I was going to suffocate."
Alone in the room, Elric let out a long sigh of relief.
He trusted the guards Sean had stationed at the hospital, and they were composed of individuals known for their discretion, so there shouldn't be any leaks of the truth to the outside world.
But that didn't mean he could let his guard down.
'Even if they're close to Sean, I can't trust them all.'
Some of the magicians had used the pretext of checking his pulse to secretly send mana into Elric's body without Sean's knowledge.
"[Mana Detection]."
In an instant, with a very low incantation, a faint shimmering aura rose from his body, then shattered into pieces, scattering throughout the room.
Mana Scan.
He evenly spread mana within the range of his sight to check if there were any hidden beings nearby.
There it was.
Elric was using a magic he hadn't been able to unfold until now with remarkable skill!
However, the source of the mana emission wasn't the heart, as the circle suggested, but near the nape of the neck.
There, a fist-sized dragon heart was fiercely pulsating, emitting mana wildly.
Dragon Heart.
The heart that bestowed absolute power upon ancient dragon species.
When he realized he had obtained this, Elric was more apprehensive about keeping this fact hidden from others than he was pleased.
Fortunately, he was able to get through this time unscathed. But there was no guarantee that such luck would last forever.
Even the most carefully laid plans required power to uphold them.
Asking Sean to disguise his injuries was also to secure the temporal space needed to skillfully handle the dragon heart.
"Actually, with magic mixed in here, should I call this a Demon Jewel?"
Elric chuckled cheerfully as he sensed the solidified bead, then suddenly turned his head to the side.
"What do you think, Mephistopheles?"
Where his gaze landed.
The Demon King Mephistopheles stood with his arms crossed, wearing a chubby expression.