Ch. 262

“To the Black Market, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you…….”

“Who said I’m taking you? I’m not! Get lost! Please just disappear from my sight!”

“I’ll follow on my own, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

He ignored me completely and spoke only to Ash. I shuddered with kindred hatred, wondering how a person could be so self-centered.

“I can’t get a read on this woman, so I’ll have to watch her a little longer. I need to confirm with my own eyes whether she’s really going to the Black Market, and I need to see what kind of suspicious items she buys.”

Was it my imagination, or was there deep-rooted distrust in the way Rovenin looked at me?

I haven’t even done anything that wrong to him.

Except for gulping down Tenebra, I was innocent.

[Master, you do know what innocent means, right?]

[Of course, I do. That’s why I said, except for the Tenebra thing.]

[……As long as that exists, you’re not innocent, are you?]

[That’s your opinion.]

‘It’s my life, so I’ll think what I want. Keep your complaints to yourself.’

“……Do you really have to go that far?”

“If she were just a passing stranger, I wouldn’t care. However, I have something to get back from her, and since she knows the Dragon’s whereabouts, it seems we’ll be entangled for the long term. Her very existence is grating, and besides……”

“Is there something else?”

“She seems physically intimate with Your Highness……”

“That’s enough.”

Ash cut him off quickly, but there was no one who didn’t know what Rovenin had been about to say.

‘We’re not that intimate.’

I considered snapping back, then stopped, thinking Ash might get embarrassed.

“For my part, the easiest thing would be to kill her if it comes to it, but since Your Highness is in the middle, I will observe for now.”

“What are you spouting on about! I’m not taking you! Don’t you dare follow me!”

Getting angry at Rovenin was like a cat hissing at a wall.

He didn’t react to my fury at all. Instead, he asked, calm as ever.

“What about the promise?”

“What?”

“The Dragon’s weakness.”

Right. I’d made that promise because of Undine. It had worked so well that even I’d been surprised when I said it.

“Geenie, what kind of promise did you make in the meantime?”

“Ah, I told him I’d teach him about the Dragon’s weakness.”

“……Please stop trying to kill the young master!”

I didn’t dislike quick-witted Ash.

Rovenin, meanwhile, hung on my every word.

When a guy who usually ignored me couldn’t take his eyes off my lips, it naturally made me want to tease him.

“About the Dragon’s weakness… there is no weakness.”

“……?”

“I said I’d teach you about its weakness, not that it has a weakness.”

(T/N : What a scammer. HAHAHAHAH )

Maybe I was wrong for teasing him, but Rovenin—who drew his sword over something that trivial—was just as wrong.

“Young master!”

“Mwahahaha! You’re the fool for falling for it!”

“Crowell!”

[Excuse me. Master? Wasn’t the plan for the future to get close to Rovenin? That’s why you said you’d backstab him! But what are you going to do if you keep provoking him!]

Maybe because he was watching from a step back, Rai’s judgment was sharper than mine.

Still cackling behind Ash like he was my shield, I belatedly fixed my expression.

“Getting all worked up over a little joke. Fine. I’ll tell you not just one of those darn weaknesses, but two.”

“……You!”

“I’ll tell you, so can you lend me your ear?”

I beckoned with my finger and put on the most benevolent smile I could manage.

If I touched his ear with my ringed hand, I could read his inner thoughts. All it took was bare skin against bare skin.

“I refuse. For some reason, I feel like I shouldn’t touch you.”

What was with that animal-like intuition?

It was ridiculously hard to steal even a peek at his thoughts. As I licked my lips in disappointment, I met Ash’s eyes.

“……Do you have to… whisper it… in his ear?”

“It’s not like that……”

‘Who is it. Who made my Ash sad.’

[It was you, Master!]

Pretending not to hear Rai’s accusation, I cleared my throat and pointed toward the mouth of the alley.

“Let’s talk as we walk to the main street. It’s too dark here.”

“The weakness?”

Rovenin was a little taller than Ash. He was slimmer than Chad overall, but broader than Ash, enough that when he stood close, his shadow covered me.

“So persistent. Fine, I’ll tell you.”

I hadn’t watched him closely for long, but Rovenin had a habit of obsessing over anything that caught his interest.

Dragons and fights with the strong were clearly at the top of that list.

“First, Dragons do this thing called Hibernation. You know that much, right?”

“I do.”

I spoke as we headed toward the main street where the light spilled in. Naturally, Ash was on my right and Rovenin on my left.

“The important part is that during Hibernation, they almost never notice even if someone invades their Lair. That’s why most Dragon Lairs don’t have an entrance. You can only enter and leave with Teleportation Magic.”

“I see.”

“If you want to hunt a Dragon, you have to aim for its Hibernation period. They usually sleep for about a hundred years once every five hundred years, but there are individual differences. If you’re asking for the biggest weakness, that’s it.”

“Is that all?”

Truthfully, there wasn’t anything mind-blowing about the weaknesses I knew.

“Other than that… Ah. It’s a species trait, but every Dragon has one or two things they obsessively collect.”

“Collecting?”

“Right. The Dragon that kidnapped me had a hobby of collecting weapons. He also made them.”

“If we know what a Dragon collects, we could use it as bait.”

“Exactly! You do use your head when you need to, huh?”

The small problem was that every Dragon collected something different.

“Is there anything else?”

“Hmm… Ah. Dragons aren’t supposed to break their promises. If they do, their Mana System collapses from within? They say they don’t make promises with humans lightly.”

“I didn’t know that. That’s somewhat useful.”

“I’m probably the only living person with information this valuable.”

When I turned around triumphantly, not only Rovenin but even Ash was listening with interest.

Nothing was as valuable as information earned through experience.

“I see. The Gold Dragon that kidnapped you demanded mithril to make weapons.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Huh? What is.”

“All this time, I thought you might not want to recall that incident… I thought it might be an utterly terrible nightmare for you, so I tried not to bring it up. I’m relieved you seem okay.”

Now that he mentioned it… asking someone who’d been kidnapped by a Dragon and barely escaped to tell you where the Dragon’s Lair was wasn’t something you should do.

‘The more I think about it, the more of a bastard he is, isn’t he?’

Realizing I’d overlooked something I absolutely should have been offended by, I belatedly got angry.

And I was reminded, again, just how different the two men flanking me were.

I was moved by Ash’s careful consideration, and I ground my teeth at Rovenin’s shitty lack of it.

“And Geenie? You still haven’t mentioned the important part.”

I’d been glaring daggers at Rovenin, but I wiped my expression clean the moment I turned back to Ash.

Yes, my pretty boy. Say whatever you want. Big sis can even buy you a building if it’s for you.

“When is it. The day the Black Market opens.”

“……Ah……”

“You were trying to sneak past without telling us, weren’t you?”

My pretty boy was becoming more and more of an expert on me.

“About that, the date hasn’t been set yet……”

“You’d be better off not thinking about ditching us and going alone. You won’t be able to deceive the young master and me.”

‘Two high-performance radars… Even I don’t think I can break through that encirclement.’

As I bit my lip and glared at an unrelated spot, Ash stepped in front of me.

“Geenie, it’s no use hiding it. Please tell us when it is.”

“……Tomorrow.”

“I knew it.”

“As expected of a woman who can’t be trusted.”

Rovenin’s distrust deepened again today, and I was furious.

‘To get caught with only one day left!’

—

‘Isn’t the highlight of a festival the Black Market?’

I was excited at the thought of visiting that unknown place—one I’d failed to reach ten years ago because of an unfortunate accident.

‘Hah, this is what it means to be an adult. Drinking, going to the Black Market. Ruining my life to my heart’s content.’

[I don’t think so….]

“Yes, it is.”

[I may not be human, but, Master? I don’t think ‘going to the Black Market’ is usually on the list of things people want to do when they become an adult.]

“What does a Spirit know! Everyone wants to go—they just can’t say it!”

I knew it was illegal.

But there was a thrill to these things. I had to enjoy it while I could.

Once I returned to being Dmitri, participating in places like this would be difficult. Not enjoying it to the fullest while I was free was basically the same as losing out.

I hummed as I examined the Black Market Entry Set I’d bought from the Information Guild for a hefty sum, one item at a time.

‘Fufufu… Perfect.’

When I opened the wooden box, an invitation and an instruction manual lay on top. According to the manual, every visitor had to wear the mask sent with the invitation.

Hiding your identity was basic common sense at the Black Market.

I lifted the simple black half-mask nestled neatly inside the box, bliss written all over my face.

It felt like proof of my hard work—proof that even today, I was living diligently for my freedom.

[I knew it! You look happier when you’re doing bad things rather than good things, Master. Your expression is completely different!]

“That’s true.”

[How come you’re not denying it for once?]

“Good deeds are boring, cringey, and difficult. Bad deeds are fun, exciting, and thrilling!”

I put on the mask and checked myself in the mirror.

As expected, there was nothing that didn’t suit me.

The half-mask only covered the area above my eyes and nose, with a matte finish that made it perfect for moving around in the dark.

“How is it?”

[It’s a perfect fit! You look like a villain boss today!]

“That doesn’t sound like a compliment, but I feel good, so whatever! I have to go out, so you get ready too.”

A dog as big as a wolf was too conspicuous to take to the Black Market.

Rai, without me even needing to explain, sensed what I wanted and began spitting out what he’d stored in his stomach so he could turn into a snake.

The longer our journeys got, the more stuff I carried, and I’d put most of what I considered important inside Rai’s stomach.

The wolf piggy bank was great in every way, but it had one downside: to turn into a snake, he had to take everything back out.

That was because in snake form, he couldn’t hold anything bigger than a snake.

I picked up the valuables Rai spat out and stuffed them back into my bag. Among them were the two Spirit Stones Annelia had given me, and they looked far more restored than the last time I’d seen them.

“What’s this, they look almost done?”

[I put in some effort! They’ll be perfectly restored in three or four days. A week at the latest!]

“Wasn’t it supposed to take longer?”

[I felt like I’ve been acting up a bit lately, so I put in some effort. I was also in good condition from eating Tenebra.]

“So you do know, huh? That my anger gauge is at its limit.”

[Most of all… I don’t want to be a bald wolf! No way!]

So that was why he’d done something so commendable without being told. Guilty conscience.

I wrapped the two nearly restored Spirit Stones in cloth and tucked them deep into my bag.

Then I picked up Rai—now a small, finger-thick snake—and set him on my shoulder.

“Shall we get going?”