After Fien left, Jill, all alone, sighed out in flower garden.

In-in the end, this still feels like I’m somehow being conveniently used, though…

From over her pocket, she gently touched the card she had hastily shoved inside that morning.  If one were to say it was convenient, then it was.  This also provided a great opportunity to investigate the letter designating the flower field where dragons are laid to rest.  If the First Empress truly does visit it, then a possibility existed that it wasn’t unrelated.

Jill pulled herself together and stepped into the flower garden.  By following the buried pathway, she came to stand before the Dragon Consort Palace.  She once again looked up at the palace from the entranceway.  Surrounded by dull-colored walls, the heavy-looking double doors were strangely ominous.

It-it’s kind like that… like… like a fortress.  Ah, it’s unlocked.

The instant she opened the door, a moldy smell hit her and she grimaced.  The inside was dim, there were no lights.  The sunlight streaming in from the windows was stagnant.  Their glass panes were clouded over.  Even the marble floor was lightly covered in filth.

Considering that it’s been left abandoned for three hundred years, maybe this can be considered being on the cleaner side?  No, Fien said there’s a caretaker.

“Excuse me for in—truding…?”

When she took a cautious step forward, dust could be seen swirling up.  She shuffled along, careful not to breathe it in.  The crude door, with an unpleasant, Giii, shut behind her.

Suddenly, the floor fell open with a pop.

“!?”

Her arm instinctively shot out and she grabbed the edge of the opened floor.  Looking down revealed spears, swords, and other blades sticking upright.  While shuddering at the white objects visible between the weapons and the filthy scraps of clothing impaled upon them, she put strength into both arms, lifted her body up, and climbed back onto the floor.

An arrow grazed past above her head.

“Wh-what is it this time!?”
“Who are you, little girl!?”

It was a loud voice that seemed to shake the open-ceilinged hall.  A figure on the upper stair landing held a bow ready.  It was a small old man.  He wore simple, dull colored, upper and lower garments, and had a cloak draped over himself, perhaps for protection against the cold.  The deeply wrinkled corners of his eyes were raised as far as they could possibly go, and he was pointing the bow at her.

“Ah, could you perhaps be the caretaker?”
“What did you come here for, get out!”

An arrow stabbed into the ground at her feet with his shout.  As arrows continued raining down one after another, Jill took a step back.

“W-wait please, I am— wait, you’re not hitting me at all!? Are you just terrible at this!?”
“Shut up!  Just one more step!”
“Ha?”

The instant she asked back, she stepped on something.  The floor glowed and ropes of magical power flew in from all directions as though weaving a cage.

—A binding barrier! The arrows were guiding me!

A hoarse laugh echoed out.

“Serves you right, I read it perfectly—”

She thrust her fist upward and smashed through the magical cage from the middle. The magic circle dispersed into mist, and the old man’s laughter stopped.

“…”
“A-ano, are you the caretaker-san?  I’m… the Dragon Consort…”
“……………………The Dragon Consort, you say?”
“Correct.  My name is Jill Saber.”
“—As if I’d know anything about that!”

He took a bold and imposing stance as he asserted himself.

“This is where I live!  Get out!”
“Ha——haa!?  No, this is supposed to be the Dragon Consort’s palace!?  The Dragon Consort Palace!?”
“I don’t know what I don’t know! More importantly, there’s no way a little girl like you still smelling of milk could be the Dragon Consort!”

Piku, the corner of Jill’s mouth twitched.

“Listen up!  The Dragon Consort’s breasts need to bounce!  That is the kind of Dragon Consort I seek!  I will never acknowledge some little girl like you as the Dragon Consort!  The only thing huge and overflowing about you is your magical power!”

He stuck his tongue out at her with a beh and a vein bulged on his forehead.

Who the hell made a guy like this the caretaker?

She had been underestimated plenty up until now, but never for such a ridiculous reason before.  And precisely because of that, it was strangely refreshing.  Jill’s knuckles popped as she cracked them.

“Fine then, I’ll make you understand that I am the Dragon Consort…!”
“Come at me then, you flat girl!”
“Who are you calling a flat girl— — — — — — — — — — —!?”

Enraged, Jill leapt.  The old man, whose name she didn’t even know, did not flinch.  He released an arrow upward and dropped an iron ball from above.

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