Chapter 7
‘Come to think of it, is it okay to treat a dragon like this?’
A belated worry surfaced.
She had forgotten amidst the chaos, but he was a dragon, after all.
A noble fortress soaring through the sky, a living, magical siege weapon.
Was it alright to commit the disrespect of making such a man, to whom any superlative of power could be applied, sit on the cold floor?
Moreover, Leoni only knew of dragons in theory; she had no experience attending to one directly.
Occasionally, Ivan, who was a dragon, would come to her and get in her face, but that was more of a quarrel than service.
The rest was the responsibility of the ‘real’ handlers.
So, there was no way Leoni would know how to treat Claude properly.
“It’s alright. I’m used to the floor.”
As if her worries were unfounded, Claude plopped down on the floor without complaint.
Leoni could finally examine the boxes in the corner of the room.
They mostly contained odds and ends from her childhood. Just like when they were walking around town, Claude bombarded her with questions.
“What’s this?”
“I think it’s a toy I played with as a child.”
“How old were you in this picture?”
“Five.”
“You’ve had beautiful handwriting since you were young.”
“Sir, please put down my diary.”
Only Leoni was seriously searching for the item. Claude seemed to be simply enjoying himself.
‘He said it was an important item?’
He didn’t seem at all interested in finding his supposedly precious treasure.
“You’ll never find it today if you look at everything one by one like that.”
Unable to watch any longer, Leoni interrupted his trip down memory lane and opened a sealed box.
“…….”
Items frozen in time from fifteen years ago spilled out. A well-loved rag doll, a storybook, cheap glass beads that couldn’t be sold at a jewelry store.
“What’s this?”
Claude, peering over her shoulder into the box, picked something up with his fingertips.
“Ah.”
It was a faded piece of stationery. It probably would have been a bright lemon yellow about five years ago.
“It seems to be a letter I wrote when I was young.”
“A letter?”
“My father often went abroad for research, and I used to write letters to him every time. He promised to buy me local specialties as gifts whenever he sent one.”
“You wrote them for a price.”
Claude nodded as if he had expected it. Leoni smoothly ignored his quip.
“I heard that mythical creatures used to deliver letters back then. Maybe that’s why? I used to write quite often…”
Leoni was surprised as she muttered to herself.
To think she would be talking about her father. And not because she was forced to, but of her own volition.
Her gaze naturally shifted to the dragon examining the stationery. He was genuinely curious.
‘Maybe it’s because he doesn’t react much when I tell him these stories.’
It felt rather comfortable.
After Theo’s death, the reactions around her were far from indifferent. Quincy, who had often looked after her since she was young, was cautious about mentioning Theo, and her aunt Helen shuddered and spewed curses at the mere mention of his name.
Not to mention other people.
So, it felt strange to have someone she could comfortably share her memories with.
Honestly, she felt quite good.
She had earned a decent amount of money today, and she didn’t have to clean the dust. She didn’t feel depressed even after seeing things she would never have looked at alone.
‘This isn’t a bad day.’
Considering the suffocating meeting, the crumpled bills, and the unpleasant encounter with her landlord, it could have been much worse.
As Leoni was lost in thought,
“By the way, I think we’ve looked through everything here.”
Claude stopped rummaging through the boxes. Leoni snapped out of her reverie.
“It seems the item we’re looking for isn’t here.”
He chuckled. It was a very sly chuckle, and it was troublesome how easily she found herself staring at him.
‘I need to find a clue soon so he’ll leave.’
If the item wasn’t in the storage room, the number of places to search would increase exponentially.
‘My father’s old lab? Or what if it’s mixed in with the items confiscated by Parliament?’
If that were the case, access would be much more difficult than the storage room.
“But what’s this?”
Claude asked while she was racking her brains.
He had stood up and was intently staring at the opposite wall.
Leoni craned her neck to see a desk covered with a white sheet between the tightly packed boxes. The desk, flush against the wall, had a flat surface with nothing on top.
“What? There’s nothing there.”
“Come out for a moment.”
He pushed the desk aside without hesitation and stood before the wall.
Knock, knock!
As he knocked twice on the seemingly empty wall, green characters began to swirl on the surface.
Leoni’s jaw dropped.
“What did you just do?”
“I didn’t do anything, I just revealed it. It seems someone cast a spell here.”
A spell?
Judging by his tone, it seemed to mean a magical spell.
Wait a minute…
“Who would do that?”
In our ordinary house? And why?
“Not me?”
Claude shrugged briefly.
A magic circle shimmered between the bewildered human and dragon. Leoni turned her head to examine it.
Upon closer inspection, the characters were written in ancient language.
“This… place… absolutely… not…”
“Hmm. You can read ancient language?”
Claude said, sounding surprised.
“Of course. I’m probably the best at it in the Cooperation Bureau.”
“Then, let’s see your skills.”
“…….”
Raising an eyebrow, Leoni focused on deciphering the ancient words.
“I don’t know the rest of the sentence, but it probably means ‘absolutely do not touch’…”
Thump!
Before Leoni could finish, Claude knocked on the wall again.
Rumble.
The house shook violently from side to side, as if an earthquake had struck. It was a short, powerful tremor.
There was no time to be startled. Only after the shaking stopped did Leoni, relieved, yell at Claude,
“I told you not to touch it!”
“Oh dear.”
The dragon, who had underestimated his own strength, chuckled.
“I didn’t know it would shake this much.”
As Leoni glared at him, he changed the subject.
“Anyway, this isn’t the kind of spell I can break. Whoever cast it, it’s quite nasty.”
Shrugging, Claude stared at the magic circle and muttered something in an unknown language.
It sounded similar to ancient language but with a slightly different pronunciation.
A sudden fear arose.
“Wait a minute. Are you about to use magic again? Don’t use magic in my house without permission!”
“It’s a spell to repel insects.”
“Then cast it on the front door when you leave too.”
Claude grinned at her quick change of stance.
A blue flame flickered from his fingertips and slowly moved to the corner of the room. The flame flared up and disappeared.
Claude, after carefully observing it, turned his attention back to the magic circle.
“It doesn’t seem to be a dangerous spell. Rather, it seems to be protecting something.”
Protecting something?
As Leoni scanned the room at his words, Claude asked,
“Leoni, which one is your room?”
“It’s right across the hall.”
Leoni pointed to the door across the hall. Next to the door she indicated as hers was another door. Claude muttered,
“Then what is this magic circle for?”
It was a question, but not really. It was a guiding statement, leading her to the answer of a riddle, as if urging her to figure it out herself.
After a brief moment of thought, Leoni concluded,
“There’s a hidden room behind this. There are two rooms on the other side, but only one here. Even though the width is the same from the outside.”
“Yes, that’s probably it.”
Why didn’t she realize it before?
The existence of an empty space was shocking.
“So, that means my rent has increased because of a space I can’t even use?”
Claude’s eyes widened.
“……I didn’t expect that to be your first thought.”
“Why? Rent is usually proportional to the area of the house. Objects don’t pay rent.”
“Yes. It’s truly astonishing that you, knowing that, live with trash that doesn’t even pay rent.”
Claude sighed, leaving Leoni speechless.
Did he really have to phrase it like that?
Unfazed by her expression, he removed his hand from the magic circle on the wall.
“Anyway, are your finances that tight that you’re worried about rent? You said this house was sold too.”
“They’re not great.”
Not great? She was practically destitute. But Leoni didn’t elaborate.
“As far as I know, Theo wasn’t short on assets.”
“I guess the Theo I know and the Theo you know are different people.”
Claude burst out laughing, as if he had heard an amusing joke.
Despite his amused tone, his gaze felt unsettling. Leoni fidgeted with her fingers.
‘Were they close enough to share financial details?’
Even if they were close, sharing financial situations was a completely different matter, wasn’t it?
Of course, he was a being who didn’t need to consider such mundane human affairs, but it would have been different for Theo.
To share each other’s assets…
A glint flashed in Leoni’s eyes. She felt she could trust Claude to some extent. She decided to satisfy his curiosity.
“My father caused an incident, and the remaining assets were seized by Parliament. Helen sold everything they didn’t take.”
Leoni didn’t specify what kind of incident it was.
“The rights to the book you bought earlier were also taken away.”
“Aha.”
Claude nodded.
The Compendium of Mythical Biology he had purchased at Quincy’s bookstore was also among the assets seized by Parliament.
Because the research findings was too valuable to simply discard, Parliament, after much deliberation, published it under the name of the Cooperation Bureau.
Thus, Theo wasn’t listed as the author.
“This house was sold around that time too.”
That was why Leoni decided to return as soon as she saved enough money to live independently.
Even though people told her the rent was exorbitant and the house too big for a young woman living alone, she never considered any other place.
