Chapter 22

Meanwhile, Claude and Henricks were walking towards their destination.

There was no conversation between them, to the point that a chill could be felt from their footsteps alone.

“……”

“……”

While they were both silent, there was a clear difference in their expressions.

Unlike Henricks, who was walking ahead, Claude was humming a tune, clearly in a good mood. He even strolled with his hands behind his back, admiring the flowers blooming nearby.

His cheerful mood was palpable even from his back, and Henricks couldn’t help but blurt out resentfully.

“When we get there, you will officially receive the title of Duke. And a knight’s commission as well.”

“Is that so?”

A nonchalant reply came back.

It made sense.

What would a title like Duke or Knight matter to him? It sounded impressive, but it was really just a scheme born from humanity’s dirty intentions.

In other words, it was a desire to place the dragon under the Emperor, at least on the surface.

‘What a useless act.’

Their opponent was a dragon, after all.

The two were now crossing the middle of a quiet garden.

Just as a small stone was kicked by the tip of a shoe, Claude spoke.

“What did you say your name was?”

“……It’s Henricks.”

“Right, Henricks.”

A cold voice pierced Henricks’s ear. Startled, Henricks stopped in his tracks.

An explicit chill radiated from him. He didn’t hide his displeasure. Just as Henricks had done.

“I don’t think this is the right way.”

Claude didn’t even bother to hide the smirk that crept onto his lips.

Indignant, Henricks opened his mouth again. Unlike Claude, he was in no mood to smile. He had felt like he was stuck in a mud pit this whole time.

“Sir Claude.”

A sharp hostility enveloped Henricks. With his neck and shoulders tensed, he spat out in a sharp voice.

“It is unusual for a dragon and an officer-in-charge to stay in the same place. Are you aware of this?”

“Is that so?”

“Depending on the circumstances, a human can suffer from great scandal. Perhaps……”

The veins on Henricks’s fist stood out.

“Something along the lines of trying to fix their life by sucking up to a dragon.”

Muttering this, even he couldn’t understand why he was so angry.

His throat felt tight and his chest was stuffy.

To be precise, it had been this way since he opened the director’s office door a little while ago. Since he saw Leoni smiling brightly at Claude, holding a bouquet of flowers in her arms.

After a moment of silence, Claude shrugged his shoulders.

“Do I need to concern myself with that?”

His tone was thoroughly arrogant.

“And besides, anyone can see that I’m the one doing the sucking up.”

It was also a tone that made it impossible to tell if he had any pride or not.

At the response, which seemed to say he didn’t understand what the problem was at all, Henricks felt his stomach turn over.

“Humans usually consider that to be unfair.”

“Unfair?”

Then, in an instant, the atmosphere changed.

The sky darkened as if storm clouds had gathered over the garden where they stood. A desolate energy swirled around the man who had been smiling slyly.

Ah, right.

He had forgotten, but the man before him was a being at the top of the food chain. Unlike Henricks himself.

“That’s not the kind of word that suits me.”

The eerie gray eyes narrowed into slits.

“Privilege, exception. Immunity, preference. And awe.”

“……”

“Those are the words. The words you should expect from me, and offer to me.”

At the same time, an ominous smile overcame him.

“Don’t forget. ‘We’ only deign to play along with this little game of house when we are in a good mood.”

For a moment, Henricks felt the illusion of being devoured by him from head to toe.

The ash-gray eyes that met his trembling gaze were supremely arrogant and awe-inspiring.

The being that a certain human had longed for seemed to find it as natural as breathing to receive such a gaze.

As if it was only natural for everything to be beneath his feet, and that benevolently watching over them was part of his duty.

Like a king who had reigned in a barbaric age.

Claude, taking a step closer, patted Henricks’s shoulder.

“Scandal? I’ll take care of that myself. A man should be able to protect his partner. Not lock her up so she can do nothing.”

Then, he added as if in passing.

“Oh, and don’t look at my partner with those eyes.”

The hand gripping Henricks’s shoulder tightened.

“Because I want to pluck them out. They’re such pretty eyes, it would be a waste, wouldn’t it, hm?”

At that, the dark blue eyes glared at Claude as if to kill him.

The sight of this not-yet-whole being acting as if he couldn’t stand him was laughable, but it was also a bit pitiful not to respond.

‘Still, she did say he was her superior, so I suppose I’ll let him off this time.’

For Leoni, who worked in the outside world, the human hierarchy would be important.

There was no harm in looking good to one’s superior. This was also a form of spousal support (?), after all.

A slight smile formed as he recalled the woman with a pouting face explaining the duties of an officer-in-charge.

“Sir Claude!”

In the distance, Philippa, who had belatedly recognized Claude, was seen running over, out of breath.

Claude smiled brightly.

“That child will show me the way. You may go back now.”

With those words, Claude, with his hands behind his back, briskly walked away.

Henricks could only stand there, rooted to the spot, for a long time.

⊹ ࣪🍰˚⊹♡

I want to go home.

The people still remaining in the hallway prayed with all their hearts.

“If you have a mouth that opens, speak up.”

At Ivan’s angry voice, the people who had been standing in the hallway all held their breath. They all wanted to run out of there immediately but had to endure.

‘Damn it.’

Leoni had also thought that a day like this would come eventually. But it was too soon.

‘It hasn’t even been an hour since I was appointed as an officer-in-charge, you know?’

Contrary to his mocking, drawn-out words, the oppressive aura he exuded made her skin tingle.

“Hmm? What was it about me that little Miss Kid disliked so much that she rejected me?”

The grip on her chin tightened.

“You accept some bastard who rolled in from god knows where. But you turn me down?”

“……I told you. I wasn’t the one who rejected you.”

Her neck was starting to hurt from her chin being forced up. Her calves, which she had raised slightly to match his height, were also getting sore.

‘Right. This is normal.’

It seemed she had gotten used to things after spending the last few days with Claude.

Cases like Ivan’s were the norm. Dragons were originally ferocious creatures like this, who didn’t care for human circumstances.

“Ha.”

Dissatisfied with her answer, Ivan let out a dry laugh.

“Trying to make me the bad guy, are you? You rejected me afterwards too.”

“……”

“You know. I don’t usually ask twice. But I made an exception and asked you one more time.”

Will you come to me.

His boiling eyes wavered.

A sense of instinctual fear welled up, but she felt she had to say what needed to be said.

“It wasn’t as if you were asking because you truly wanted me to be your officer-in-charge, anyway.”

Honestly, Leoni had been happy at first.

She thought she had finally been acknowledged.

She had thought that even though Henricks had been a nuisance, ignoring her and excluding her from duties, there was finally someone who recognized her.

Despite Henricks’s interference, she was not one to give up.

Normally, the proper procedure would have been to protest to her immediate superior, but Leoni had daringly gone to see Ivan directly.

However, the first words out of Ivan’s mouth were:

‘Shall we take a bath together?’

The second words that struck the frowning Leoni’s ears were:

‘Why, I deserve to receive at least this much from a Winkelhild, don’t I.’

Ah.

In the end, it was her father. She couldn’t escape that name.

Whether for good or for bad.

That was why.

Knowing it was wise to accept, Leoni rejected the officer position on the spot and walked out. It was easier back then, as she wasn’t as desperate for every penny as she was now.

Above all.

As she glared at him, biting her lip hard, Ivan growled.

“Why, are you still bothered by Barsil’s death?”

Ivan’s brother, Barsil. The Dragon Lord who was called the pride of the empire. The name of the dragon who had met his end after being embroiled in Theo’s incident.

So, “I deserve to receive at least this much from a Winkelhild” meant he intended to collect the price for Barsil’s life.

She had heard that Ivan hadn’t been particularly angry when Barsil died. Still, there was no way he was truly unaffected.

‘Sir Claude said so too.’

Of course, terms like older brother or younger brother were human standards.

Rather, the quieter Ivan was, the more afraid she became.

Like a volcano simmering, just waiting to erupt someday.

And on top of that, he was capricious.

He changed his officer-in-charge at the drop of a hat, and the reason was always a love scandal.

For a dragon who had reached the point of casting aside human women he was toying with once they became bothersome, the daughter of the man who killed his brother falls into his lap?

‘A perfect toy to play with until she dies.’

The honor and gold of being a dragon’s officer-in-charge. Neither could be exchanged for one’s life.

“I told you not to worry about that crap.”

Ivan, who had been growling one moment, was now whispering coaxingly the next.

A dragon who was utterly unpredictable.

“More importantly, Sir. Aren’t you cold?”

Leoni carefully changed the subject so as not to displease him.

Appropriately defiant.

In her experience, mythical creatures disliked being treated as complete equals to humans, but they also hated being treated with too much deference.

It was a sentiment of, ‘I am superior to you, but I don’t want you to just nod and say yes like a doll.’

Sure enough.

At Leoni’s words, his grip weakened. Ivan released the chin he had been holding.

He bared his fangs and smiled.

“Why, are you concerned? Everyone else seems to like it this way.”

“Concerned……”

Yes, I am. Your chest is half-exposed.

“It’s easier to take off this way.”

Hiccup!

One of the people who had been frozen like a stone against the hallway wall started to hiccup.

‘Right. There were people here?’

Only then did Leoni look around.

“Ah, the mood was just getting good.”

Ivan, who had uttered the strange words, raised an eyebrow. Then he let out a low growl.

“What are you doing? Everyone, get lost.”

At that, everyone bowed their heads as if they had been waiting for it and quickly disappeared.

Leaving only Ivan and Leoni behind.

‘These people with no sense of camaraderie……’

Leoni could only pray that someone would report this situation to a superior. Even Henricks, if she was lucky.

Strangely enough, Ivan tended to listen quite well to what Henricks said.

‘Come to think of it, Henricks has been a huge obstacle.’

It seemed the reason she hadn’t run into Ivan lately was also due to Henricks’s work assignments.

“Well, seeing as you said you’d take on a dragon, it looks like you’ve changed your mind a bit. Think it over again. This is the third time I’m asking.”

“I don’t want to die.”

“I told you I won’t kill you.”

“I don’t want to bathe with you either.”

As Leoni pouted slightly, Ivan thumped his chest as if frustrated.

“Everyone loves it when I say I’ll let them bathe in gold coins, so what the hell is wrong with you.”

“I like money too. I just don’t want to bathe with you, Sir.”

At Leoni’s firm words, Ivan’s face contorted into a deep scowl. Several wrinkles formed between his brows.

Ivan bit his lower lip, then forced himself to speak nonchalantly. His voice was extremely slick.

“No, you’re wrong. You’d like it.”

“If you just give me the gold coins, I’ll think about it.”

As Leoni raised the corners of her lips, Ivan muttered in annoyance.

“She’s not falling for it.”

“Sir, if you want to seduce a woman, you need to be more sincere. You don’t even know how old I am.”

“What, are you about fifty now?”

No development whatsoever.

Even when she was walking around the research institute holding Theo’s hand, Ivan couldn’t properly guess a person’s age. Even if he had no need to know…….

Leoni couldn’t understand the women who would jump into bed with a dragon like that.

“Even a person who raises a dog can roughly tell how old a passing dog is. And you call yourself a seducer.”

“You’re cheeky.”

As he said that, Ivan flicked Leoni’s forehead with his finger.

Despite his words, he liked it when Leoni was cheeky. It seemed his tastes were seriously twisted.

“You have plenty of other women. You’re only doing this out of defiance because I said no. You’re mistaken.”

“Mistaken, you say.”

Ivan tilted his head crookedly.

“Unless they’re a half-wit, there’s no dragon who doesn’t know what they want, kid.”

A burning yet unwavering gaze and a firm tone.

He took another step closer.

Then, his gaze fell on the bouquet Leoni was clutching as if it were her lifeline.

“What’s this, flowers?”

“Give them here!”

A terrifyingly strong grip snatched the bouquet from Leoni’s hands.

“What is this.”

Staring at the tulips, his expression immediately soured.

“What crazy bastard shaved off their own life force to make a flower bloom?”