Seeker of First Light - Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Good. Naskan’s memory seemed confused. It seemed that if she covered it up well here, she could pass it on as something that didn’t exist.
“You came here yesterday after drinking and saying you had nowhere to go.”
“…Rea, really? Did I?”
Dawn Dragon had a generally carefree personality. She thought he would laugh and pass it off, but it seemed strange that his memory was suddenly cut off. There was something strange about his expression.
“You fell asleep as soon as you drank. Did you call that a summer drink? You said it makes the dragon drunk. Duskfell must be strong.”
“Immediately… after drinking?”
“Yes. Immediately. You must have been tired, don’t you even remember?”
As Chryselua forced herself to remain calm, she soon realized that Naskan had been glancing at the nape of her neck the whole time.
‘Ah, dear. I forgot this and left it as it is.’
Chryselua pretended to put the teacup down and opened her collar to cover the marks left on her neck. Naskan cleared his throat and looked away from her. Just looking at it, he was dripping with cold sweats as if he was sick.
“What’s wrong with you? Did you have a bad dream?”
“No!”
Just in case, she asked one more time.
“…Did you have any naughty dreams?”
“No way—!”
Naskan turned his head away. His ears, exposed through the tousled hair, were much redder than usual.
“It was just as usual.”
Hearing those words, she narrowed her eyes.
As usual… Did he usually have dreams like that?
“I was… a little more weak than usual.”
“What are you talking about?”
‘…What was he dreaming about?’
Sipping the tea instead of alcohol, Chryselua glared at Naskan. On the other hand, sensing the stare from her, he cleared his throat and gulped down the water as his throat burned. Then, Naskan bit his lip and said something rather out of the box to evade the situation.
“…It will rain for a while starting tomorrow.”
“Really. You do stupid things again.”
Chryselua clicked her tongue.
When a topic came up that he did not want to answer, he quickly changed his words. It was going to rain. It was really an act that would have been done by the Dawn Dragon.
Naskandeolux, the Dawn Dragon.
Dawn, which symbolized the light of hope among the Balaur, was endowed with the power of great prophecy. The current Lord was also a Dawn Dragon, and Naskan was brought by the Lord when he was young.
Naskan was special, just like his name.
His innate magical power was superior, he grew up quickly and even had a good sense of magic handling. He was also the youngest ever to fix a rift. When he was young, the current Lord carried Naskan as her successor.
Naturally, the dragons thought that he would take over the next Lord.
What did he just do? Chryselua playfully talked about the dream, so he used the power of prophecy, albeit in a small way.
It was the weather forecast.
“When are you really going to come to your senses?”
Naskan silently shrugged his shoulders.
Despite his previous fame, he started to get into trouble at some point.
He was busy playing around with his rift missions, he didn’t listen to the advice of the older dragons, and he often used his excellent abilities to quarrel with others. Or, use the power of dawn lightly as if it was insignificant.
The last time Naskan did his job properly was when he was living in the divine realm, and he was entrusted with escorting Chryselua. Even that was good, but Naskan made a fuss about quitting. It must have been around that time that he suddenly started getting into trouble.
Naskan’s reputation plummeted, but in fact, Chryselua got along better with him, whom he thought was difficult from then on. When she first saw him, she unilaterally avoided and hated him, asking why he, a normal dragon, had an escort attached to him.
Even though she wasn’t happy with this situation, she was glad he came to Sedition anyway.
Even though he acted like an idiot now, Chryselua remembered how he silently carried out his duties when he was young.
At the time, Naskan was not as talkative as he is now. He was always expressionless as if he had no emotion, and in the divine realm, it was expected that the most cool-headed monarch would emerge if he took over the Lord.
Anyway, albeit not now, he was the most trustworthy person she knew.
“Dawn.”
“Uh, huh?”
“Can you do me a favor?”
“Why would I not listen to your request? As long as you don’t hand over Lord’s request instead.”
Before Naskan could even hear what it was, he replied with a big smile. He was a really good guy. She was not sure why he was avoiding the Lord.
Even after hearing the answer, Chryselua hesitated for a long time. Seeing this, she wasn’t worried that Naskan would refuse the request. More than that, she was deeply concerned about her performance, which she was obsessed with at Sedition.
Of the two things she screwed up overnight, she had to choose the one she had to fix.
The first was the ceremony schedule. Wanting to gain the Lord’s recognition, she worked hard in Sedition and even became the representative of the ceremony. There was less than a week left until the event.
The second was a request from the Lord, whom she wanted to get acknowledgment from… the fruit thing.
Chryselua’s ability couldn’t catch both of these things, so she had to focus on just one.
It was clear which of the two to give up.
“Will you do the ceremony for me?”
“Pfff!”
Naskan spat out all the water he was drinking. He didn’t even think of wiping the ruined bed or his wet mouth and just stared her way.
“…What, what? The ceremony?”
Seeing his eyes wide open and quivering, he looked extremely flustered.
In fact, even Chryselua did not want to hand over this hard-earned opportunity to Naskan. But last night, the lab was in a mess, and all the medicines she had prepared were ruined. So, the magic booster that was prepared only for the ceremony would not be done even if it was made now.
From now on, she had to solve the problem of the fruit sent by the Lord. Preparing for the ceremony at the same time was too burdensome.
And if it were Naskan, the Dawn Dragon, no one would be dissatisfied with it, even if he suddenly assumed the role of representative of the divine realm… because Dawn was the successor to the Lord.
“Yes. You’ve done the ceremony as a representative of the divine realm before. Can you do it again?”
“Why would I do that?”
Naskan’s eyes, which had been curled up, subtly changed. His eyebrows drooped and he looked quite mellow and he looked completely different just by moving the small muscles under his eyes.
For a moment, Chryselua remembered him as a child.
The appearance of being obedient and mechanically performing only missions. Naskan, who had lost all his laughter before she knew it, glanced at her. Above all else, the gold eyes that were shining with red color looked cold.
“Chryselua, isn’t that your job?”
“Huh… you know?”
She had never told Naskan about this achievement before, so she was quite surprised. In fact, Chryselua tried to brag if they were drinking yesterday.
Naskan frowned.
“What do you see me as? The Lord has a sprained eye. I don’t intend to take on that—”
“It’s not the Lord, I’m asking for it.”
“…Of course there is. Because your eyes, who watched the ceremony I held, are much more trustworthy.”
Naskan’s expression loosened immediately. His voice changed to dripping with honey.
The content of the request was not at all important to him. At this point, Naskan was deliberately ignoring the Lord’s contact.
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