Chapter 19
Slice, slice, slice, slice. Thump, thump, thump, thump!
With the cheerful sound of a sharp blade meeting a cutting board, the purple skin was peeled away.
Sizzle—.
At the same time, a suffocatingly sweet smell and the sound of something frying in oil filled the kitchen.
Soon, the bite-sized, golden-brown pieces were evenly coated with a syrup made of sugar. Small black sesame seeds were sprinkled on top.
A plate, beautifully arranged with golden sweet potatoes, was presented before Leoni’s eyes.
“Have a snack while you work.”
Leoni, who had been flipping through a mountain of books, unconsciously lifted her head at the sweet smell.
“Thank… What is this? Potatoes?”
“Sweet potatoes.”
The surface glistened as if coated with a thin layer of honey. They looked just like amber jewels.
Leoni, who had been about to take a bite without a second thought, belatedly glared at Claude.
“But why are you so naturally cooking in my house?”
Since that day, Claude had been coming and going from Leoni’s house frequently.
The absurd reason was that since he had offered housekeeping as a condition, he needed to get a rough estimate.
“You’re busy studying. If I leave you be, you’ll just eat another poor meal. And I have to clean the house anyway.”
It was a ‘while I’m at it’ sort of thing. But something didn’t feel right.
“Sir, I think the roles of the liaison have been reversed. I’m going to be the liaison from now on, right? Then I should be the one attending to you.”
“You’re not the liaison yet. You haven’t taken the test. You haven’t passed.”
‘Is that so?’
Leoni tilted her head. Claude didn’t miss the chance and subtly offered a piece of sweet potato to her mouth.
‘Something about this doesn’t feel right…’
But it looked so appetizing. Without realizing it, Leoni accepted the sweet potato offered right in front of her nose.
“Delicious.”
“Of course it is.”
As the sweetness spread in her mouth, a sparkle appeared in Leoni’s eyes. Claude looked quite pleased with her reaction.
However, even though the food was delicious, a question still remained.
“Still, Sir. I may not look it, but I’m an employee of the Allied Nations. It looks strange for me to be receiving a meal from a dragon.”
“Oh, dear.”
Claude’s eyebrows drooped at once as he looked at Leoni. A sad expression appeared in his grey eyes.
“I came all the way to a foreign land and was wandering a grocery store when I saw some sweet potatoes, and I thought you would like it if I made mat-tang with them.”
“Huh? Um…”
“I worked up a sweat to cook this, but you say you won’t eat more. I’m so sad.”
“Sir, I didn’t say I wouldn’t eat it…”
The teary eyes, which stimulated the viewer’s guilt, stared straight at Leoni.
“Wouldn’t tasting this sweet potato mat-tang and giving me your thoughts also be part of a Dragon’s Liaison’s job? That’s what I thought…”
“…I’ll just eat it.”
Only after seeing Leoni take another bite of the sweet potato mat-tang did Claude finally break into a grin.
While stealing glances, Leoni moved her hands busily, tasting the sweet potato mat-tang.
“Did you go grocery shopping yourself?”
“Yes, with the dignity maintenance allowance.”
‘Dignity maintenance allowance for food?’
‘Of course, it’s money meant to be given to the dragon.’
But was it okay to use it to luxuriously feed a human instead of a dragon?
However, if she started this debate, it was obvious it would end up like before.
‘Well, okay. If his hobby is cooking and feeding others, I can’t help it.’
What’s good is good. Leoni decided to focus on the book she was reading.
Claude, who was watching her with his chin propped on his hand, casually opened his mouth.
“Is there anything difficult?”
At his voice, Leoni rolled her eyes and let out a small sigh.
“Hmm. If you were to point things out, there’s no end to it, is there?”
“In that case, I could explain it to you.”
The man, who had made a flower-cup pose with his arms on the table, smiled bashfully. The atmosphere of genuinely wanting to help her was palpable.
“It’s okay.”
But Leoni slowly shook her head. Then she added, “By the way, you can’t give me hints on the questions either.”
Claude, looking a little hurt, deliberately pouted for her to see.
“You seem quite confident.”
“It’s not so much that. Hmm. I want to try doing it on my own.”
One might ask what kind of leisurely talk this was in such a situation. But if there was one thing Leoni had ever achieved in her life, it was passing the Allied Nations exam at the top of her class.
So, she had a desire to accomplish this test on her own as well.
‘It’s a luxury to say this, after begging him to make me the liaison.’
But she was that confident, too.
That’s why. That’s why she had requested Claude to change the liaison selection to a public test.
But that was as far as it went. She hadn’t mentioned her name in it.
‘I don’t know what means he used to persuade the Director General.’
Leoni had assumed Claude had made some appropriate threats.
But looking at Claude’s expression after their conversation and the atmosphere at the Allied Nations, it didn’t seem to be the case.
Besides…
“It seems the elders are grinding their teeth over the fact that there was corruption in the process of selecting successful applicants for the Allied Nations all this time.”
The elders had also agreed on this announcement.
From their perspective, the fact that an unqualified person had entered the Allied Nations through fraudulent means seemed to have been a considerable blow to their pride.
So they were grinding their teeth, vowing to make this Dragon’s Liaison test so difficult it would make one faint.
“Well, a theory test isn’t necessarily proof of ability. But when it comes to mythical creatures, it’s different.”
The saying, ‘knows only the theory but not the practice,’ usually carried a sarcastic meaning, but it was different when it came to mythical creatures.
People had suddenly encountered beings that had only existed in legends. And even now, those who could directly meet mythical creatures were limited.
So, it was all about an information war.
Myths, legends, and even mere neighborhood tales scattered across the world all became information.
It might be different later on, after continuously meeting mythical creatures and accumulating records about them, but for now, knowing a lot of theory was equivalent to being skilled.
“Then shall I take a question from you instead? It’s not like I’m the one making the questions, anyway.”
“Hmm.”
‘Would that much be okay?’
This time, her hesitation was visible in his eyes, and Claude’s eyes lit up. For some reason, she didn’t want to betray that expectation.
“About your hometown, Sir.”
Leoni carefully chose her words and then asked a question that seemed unrelated to the test but that she had been curious about.
“Are there many dragons there too?”
“Hmm.”
Claude rubbed his chin.
“If you mean similar beings, then quite a few.”
“Similar?”
It was a somehow unsatisfactory answer.
When she asked back with a questioning look, Claude added an unexpected explanation.
“Leoni. Have you ever heard of the concept of ‘convergent evolution’?”
Convergent evolution?
Leoni shook her head. At that, Claude smiled and lightly tapped the table.
“Even if they were originally different beings… if they adapt to similar environments, they end up having similar appearances. That’s convergent evolution.”
“Um, so, you mean a phenomenon like finding similar fish in the eastern and western seas?”
“Yes. Though it’s not exactly the same meaning.”
Claude smiled gently and popped a piece of sweet potato mat-tang into Leoni’s mouth. As the situation repeated, she became accustomed to receiving it.
“So, in my hometown, which is almost on the opposite side of the world from you, there could be beings that are different, but similar.”
“Hmm.”
Honestly, she didn’t fully understand. In any case, it meant there were many mythical creatures in the world that had not yet been revealed.
“Do they build lairs and live there like they do here? I mean, a dragon’s own territory.”
“Of course.”
One corner of Claude’s mouth lifted.
“You humans aren’t the only ones who do the childish act of drawing lines on land and sea and claiming it as their territory.”
It was a somewhat scathing remark.
“Though it’s a slightly different meaning from the ‘lair’ you’re talking about.”
“Different?”
Leoni, recalling the lairs of Ivan and Weisse, the other dragon in the Empire, cautiously opened her mouth.
“Then, are there no treasures or things like that in your lair, Sir?”
“There are, but I don’t hoard them foolishly. My territory isn’t hidden in the first place.”
Leoni’s jaw dropped. Because the lairs of the dragons in the Empire and the Central Continent were hidden away securely.
“Sir Ivan’s lair is in the southwestern mountain range. Sir Weisse’s is said to be somewhere in the north, but no one has found it yet.”
As the topic of dragons came up, her light green eyes sparkled.
“Sir Ivan is brothers with another dragon… who used to be here…”
At first, she had waved her hands, saying he didn’t have to teach her, but once the floodgates opened, she chattered on and on.
Claude watched her and slowly rested his chin on his hand.
“Do you have a family too, Sir?”
Leoni asked. Claude’s smile deepened.
“Of course, I do. Two boys younger than me.”
“You have younger brothers?”
Leoni clicked her tongue.
So, in Claude’s hometown, there were at least three dragons.
‘A dragon’s brothers…’
Leoni fell into thought, doodling a picture of a horned dragon on the paper on the desk.
