Chapter 70

Speaking gruffly, he pulled out a handkerchief and held it out. Sian stared at the handkerchief extended across the table for a moment before taking it and blowing her nose loudly. Carl, who had been quietly watching, suddenly frowned just as he had that other time.

“Since last time, Sister, I think you’ve been seriously misunderstanding something—when a man offers a handkerchief to a crying woman, it’s meant for wiping tears…”

“Tears or snot, what’s the difference? You gave it to me to use, didn’t you?”

There was no arguing with that. Carl fell silent, looking with complicated eyes at his handkerchief now covered in mucus.

“…How foolish.”

Sian didn’t cry for long, unlike at the Dragon Temple. After pouring out everything in tears—the musty memories, her fears, anxiety, all of it—her heart felt much lighter.

Once relieved, she felt pathetic for breaking down in tears. Sian muttered self-deprecatingly in a low voice.

“Right, I’ve been rather foolish lately.”

It wasn’t a soliloquy meant for agreement. Nevertheless, Carl nodded up and down, strongly agreeing with those words. Sian’s eyes inevitably turned cold.

“If I wasn’t going to speak up clearly, I should have just buried it completely.”

As Sian glared at Carl with eyes still marked by tears, he broke into a slight smile.

A warm hand reached out and stroked her eyes. The welling tears dissipated without a trace at Carl’s touch.

Sian stared dazedly at Carl’s fingers as they touched her cheek and withdrew.

‘I only hope you find a path to happiness.’

Had the Temple’s High Priest, who knew everything, known about this too? Was that why he had given that loving push to send her on her way?

“…Alright.”

If she had known it would be like this, she should have found the courage to go to the Temple first. She regretted it belatedly.

On that pitch-black night when even the moon wouldn’t rise in Luna the black dragon’s shadow, she should have sought out the Temple first instead of running away.

If she had done that, she could have met the morning earlier. If only she had known sooner that morning could be something so heart-achingly joyful and exciting.

“I like you, Your Highness, Idelin’s master.”

Sian conveyed her words more clearly and firmly to Carl, who looked as if he doubted what he’d heard. Carl’s eyes widened.

“…Uh…”

Caught off guard by Sian’s sudden confession, Carl fumbled with his words.

“So suddenly…? I knew, but it’s still startling to hear it said so directly.”

How foolish. Sian laughed inwardly.

The sharp perception he had shown moments ago when deducing her identity as the black dragon’s master had vanished completely, replaced by a dazed expression that was foolish and cute and handsome and utterly perfect.

“I thought you would surely be disappointed when you found out. Because you’re Idelin’s master.”

“What does that matter? Whether black dragon or silver dragon, it’s just ancient history from before the Empire was even founded.”

Carl pulled at the corner of his mouth as if incredulous at Sian’s sincerity. Sian smiled back at him.

“That’s comforting. But will the world think as simply as you do? To people already, my dragon is nothing but an evil being that will bring calamity to the Empire, just as my father said.”

“…That’s the problem.”

Carl spoke with a troubled voice.

“Actually, if the Dragon Temple were to acknowledge the black dragon’s existence in the current situation, it would only create more chaos. Revenant would try to pin even more accusations on the black dragon.”

Sian just listened to Carl’s words while fidgeting with her teacup. Accusations against the black dragon. Would that really be the extent of Revenant’s objective? She strongly felt it wouldn’t be.

“…My dragon’s name is Luna.”

Carl lifted his head and looked at her at this sudden statement.

“Luna hasn’t left her nest for a very long time. Afraid of being discovered by other dragons or people, she hasn’t emerged into the world since the day she chose me…”

“I know Brita’s attack is a lie. Not to mention the Dragon King’s assassination.”

Carl responded with a bitter smile, thinking Sian’s contextual confession was a claim of innocence. But that wasn’t her intention in bringing it up.

“Could I come along to the noble assembly?”

“You?”

Carl’s eyes widened. Sian nodded.

“You could attend as my fiancée, but…”

Carl carefully studied Sian’s face, trying to gauge what she was thinking in wanting to attend the noble assembly. But he could read nothing from Sian’s now-composed face.

“You’ll hear things that will upset you. And since your name isn’t in the noble registry, you won’t have the right to speak. Will you be alright with that?”

The assembly’s agenda was about the existence of the black dragon and how to deal with it. It was obvious the nobles would pick apart the widespread rumors about the black dragon and demand it be found and eliminated.

It would undoubtedly be an extremely uncomfortable situation for Sian, who had committed no crime and had kept her identity completely hidden until now. Though Carl watched her with concern, Sian only showed an enigmatic smile.

“I really, really like you, Your Highness.”

He couldn’t follow her train of thought at all. At this second confession coming from Sian at such an unexpected moment, Carl looked worried rather than embarrassed or happy.

“Carl, I can see it written all over your face that you think I’ve lost my mind. I’m perfectly sane.”

Sian burst out laughing at Carl’s honest expression. Carl cleared his throat with a startled look.

“I just wanted to tell you. At first I only liked your handsome face, but now I like everything about you.”

At her heartfelt sincerity, Carl finally sensed something amiss and furrowed his brows.

“…What are you thinking?”

“I’m not thinking anything. I’m just confessing that I like you—why are you so suspicious?”

Sian returned to a bright expression and smiled innocently.

“Then why…”

Why are you speaking as if it’s the last time? Carl tried to add, but Sian cut him off with a smiling face.

“A confession is just a confession. There’s no other meaning.”

“…”

“I’m glad I came to the Imperial Palace with you. Otherwise, I would have just been left with regrets, not knowing you would accept me so readily, living alone and anxious again.”

Her words seemed sincere. Yet Carl could only furrow his brow, unable to speak in the face of Sian’s atmosphere that somehow felt like she was delivering her final truth.

“Thank you. For neither being disappointed nor angry.”

“That’s only natural. You’ve just had bad luck until now.”

Sian nodded at Carl’s gentle consolation. It was hard to judge whether meeting Carl was good luck, or being born to such a father was bad luck. Nevertheless, Sian thought Carl’s words had merit.

Both the High Priestess who wished for her happiness and Carl who said a dragon was just a dragon must surely be good people. Their existence warmed a corner of her heart.

The black dragon. She had questioned and resented it dozens of times—why did it have to choose her, why did it have to be a black dragon of all things?

She had refused to be a dragon’s master and wandered the world while turning her back on the Temple, but perhaps that had been a self-defeating move born of her own stubbornness.

If she had proudly acknowledged from the start that her black dragon had nothing to do with the world’s prejudices, she would have met these good people sooner, and then there would have been no lonely path of such roundabout wandering.

‘The choice of life’s path is entirely yours.’

You were right, High Priestess. The path I thought I was forced onto was, in the end, the path I chose myself.

Sian smiled bitterly.