Gardenia’s Heart

Regardless of cultural or ideological differences, every society had people they regarded as heroes.

As a title, it had only ever been granted to five individuals in the entire world. Even so, that word could carry a different meaning for different people.

Whether it was someone of immense strength and countless achievements, or a ruler who worked tirelessly for their people, every group chose someone to admire in times of hardship.

However, the heroes chosen by the majority were not everyone’s heroes.

To a child, it might be their parents. To someone wounded, a doctor. Heroes appeared in many different forms throughout a person’s life.

And for that woman, it was no different.

Fafnir, the Untamed Sky, was the person Ignis respected above all others.

He was her hero.

A flawless leader, that man had led the Wing Clan to glory during the Great War, earning his place as a legend among dragons.

From the moment she hatched from her egg, Ignis devoted herself to becoming worthy of serving him someday.

She trained, struggled, improved herself, and fought until at last she had earned a place by his side.

As the clan responsible for politics, it was their duty to judge the fools and criminals who sought to threaten order.

The war had only been the first step.

They needed to uphold the law across the world.

And for that, she would become even stronger to carry out her leader’s will.

That was what she wanted most.

That was Ignis’s greatest desire.

Until, one ordinary day...

Lord Fafnir was found dead.

It was impossible.

Her hero couldn’t have died.

Ignis refused to accept that such insignificant creatures had brought down that legend. As the new leader of the Wing Clan, she had to crush the inferior beings who had dared stain her lord’s glory, even if it meant starting a war.

In her mind, it was the right thing to do.

There was nothing to worry about.

She would make those women pay for what they had done.

Every last one of them would suffer for their crimes.

“Why?”

And yet...

“Why?”

Everything that happened from that moment onward was unmistakably captured by her black pupils.

But why? Why, even as she watched it happen, had her body failed to react in time?

”Aaaaaaaaargh!”

Two hundred meters? Or was it three hundred? As her colossal, limp body was hurled down the mountainside, Ignis couldn’t even make out her surroundings well enough to tell.

She crashed into the sea of clouds, smashing through rocks and trees. The enormous indigo dragon didn’t even manage to spread her wings before gravity slammed her into the ground.

”Ah... Ah...”

Breathing heavily as her dragon blood reconstructed her body, Ignis tried to calculate how many times she had died.

Her head throbbed, the horrifying sensation of having her brain destroyed and rebuilt over and over again making her nauseous.

Planting her arms against the mountainside for support, Ignis shoved aside the massive boulders pinning her body down with her tail, finally managing to free herself.

The Demon King’s mist mingled with the dust of the earth. Thorn-like trees lay shattered throughout the area around her.

In the darkness of the night, even her reptilian eyes had to narrow to see. And yet, when she looked toward the horizon, as though her very existence stood out even amidst the darkness, there was a single girl.

Amethyst-purple hair that shone brilliantly flowed down to her shoulders, swaying gently in the wind. Crimson eyes, so vividly red they seemed to contain flames, contrasted against the black dress filled with stars that covered her entire body.

She was a single individual.

Compared to their size, she was smaller than the tip of the claw of any of the dragons gathered there.

Even so, that lone girl slowly walked across a crimson lake formed between the lifeless bodies of two dragons.

Ignis didn’t know who that woman was. Her appearance resembled a human’s, yet her eyes were unmistakably those of a demon. It didn’t matter. She was an ally of the elves, and for that reason, she had to die.

”Everyone, attack!”

Roaring with all her strength, a thunderous cry spread across the entire mountain.

In response to her command, numerous dragons descended from the skies, their four platinum wings generating tornadoes with every flap.

And there, before the natural disasters created by the dragons’ sheer power, the girl clad in the cosmos leaped—

No.

She vanished completely.

”What!?”

Grunting in confusion, Ignis watched the countless tornadoes crash into the mountainside. Scales and bones were pulverized beneath the pressure of dozens of raging cyclones, the corpses of her already fallen comrades torn apart by the impact.

Yet there was no sign of their target.

”Where did she go?!”

Swinging their enormous necks in every direction, more than forty dragons searched for the tiny creature they had to eliminate.

Had she hidden among the trees using her size? Or slipped into one of the caves? Even this close to the mountaintop, countless branching paths wound down the cliffs where she could have concealed herself.

”There!”

But unlike what the dragons expected, the voice that roared among them wasn’t pointing downward.

It was pointing at one of them.

Standing perfectly still atop the back of one of the colossal dragons, the purple-haired girl curiously observed the winged lizard’s shoulder blades.

The moment the indigo dragon realized his enemy was standing on him, he beat his wings violently, soaring higher into the sky to throw her off.

Yet she remained completely unmoved.

She was studying his scales.

More specifically, the flexible muscles connecting his four wings to his back.

Without the slightest hesitation reflected in her crimson eyes, the girl drove her right hand directly into the muscle and twisted.

Like a branch suddenly withering and losing all life, two of the dragon’s four platinum wings bent at an impossible angle as rows of nerves and cartilage burst apart in rapid succession.

”Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”

His scream was so agonizing it seemed to split the heavens.

The dragon instinctively curled his body in panic. Having lost one entire set of wings and with only the other side still beating, his lift collapsed completely, and his massive body plummeted toward the ground.

”Waiting for all of you to regenerate over and over is just a waste of time.”

Before the dragon even struck the earth, the girl thrust her hand even deeper into his body. Everything around her fist distorted and expanded as though viewed through a concave mirror.

A colossal cloud of dust erupted across the mountainside as the dragon crashed into the ground.

Yet even the dense curtain of dirt and rubble was dwarfed by the explosive jet of crimson blood that burst forth.

”Aaargh! Aaargh! Aaaaaargh!”

Convulsing violently, the dragon writhed in agony.

It hurt.

The pain ripping through his heart was so unbearable that he ground his fangs together and drove his claws deep into the earth.

It wasn’t just a wound.

The woman was relentlessly striking his heart, forcing his dragon blood to regenerate it without pause.

In desperation, he slammed himself into the mountainside, crashed through trees, and even rolled across the ground.

None of it freed him.

Blood loss was steadily numbing his body, but the pain never lessened.

Continuously striking him without mercy, the girl kept destroying his body from the inside out.

”Get out of the way, I’ll finish her!”

Flying forward while shoving the other dragons aside to clear his path, a dragon with an exceptionally deep male voice arrived.

Swinging his right arm, he extended his claws toward his opponent, even if it meant tearing apart his own companion’s body in the process.

With the ease of slicing through a cloud, his massive claws ripped the great indigo dragon into countless pieces. However, the crimson blood that should have boiled and reconstructed the draconic being’s body never moved again.

”You’re next?” Standing atop the motionless corpse of the fallen dragon, having suddenly appeared there, the purple-haired girl tilted her head curiously.

In response to her question, ten claws descended toward her. Flesh and bone scattered in every direction, but the dragon knew his target had not been eliminated.

Shooting into the sky, his black reptilian eyes swiftly scanned the surroundings for a brief moment, until the sound of thunder echoed through the night.

Calmly flying through the air as though floating, the lady clad in the cosmos beat her black lightning wings until she was directly before the great indigo dragon’s eyes.

”I am Alduin! I will be the one to kill you!”

Proclaiming his name to the night sky, the dragon stared at the woman with intense bloodlust.

Tilting her head thoughtfully for a brief moment, the girl lightly lifted the side of her dress and gave a small, polite bow.

”I am Gardenia. I can’t let you kill me, so I’ll kill you.”

Politely responding to Alduin’s declaration, Gardenia vanished into the air.

Alduin’s eyes widened as an enormous impact struck his stomach, sending a torrent of blood surging up his esophagus.

”Blargh—!?”

Lowering his head as crimson blood dripped from his jaws, he saw that the woman who had been standing before him was now striking him all over his body.

Alduin was colossal, yet Gardenia moved hundreds of meters across his body in fractions of a second, landing blow after uninterrupted blow.

Acting before she could inflict even more damage, the dragon accelerated and spun through the air, his four platinum wings beating fiercely.

Even within the mist, the friction between his scales and the howling wind should have been enough to incinerate anyone trying to cling to his body. Even so, the girl continued pursuing him through the air without changing her expression or slowing her attacks.

If speed would not work, Alduin would rely on overwhelming strength.

Twisting his body in midair, the dragon let himself fall backward in freefall.

He didn’t understand how his opponent was so fast, but to hit such a small target, he had to limit her options. If she moved onto his back while he fell like this, she would be crushed beneath his massive body weighing thousands of tons. Just as he expected, the girl clad in the cosmos appeared above him.

”You have nowhere to run now!”

Despite bleeding from countless wounds and covered in pain, Alduin did not hesitate. Like someone trying to crush a fly between their palms, the dragon closed both claws around the girl’s body.

His claws collided. In a furious attack, like two mountains closing around the girl, a sound like a massive earthquake echoed through the sky. Not wasting the opportunity, Alduin squeezed his claws with all his strength.

Then, from the tips of his claws, to his wrists, then his forearms, and finally his shoulders, all of his flesh expanded in an impossible way.

And then, blood exploded.

”Aaaaaaargh!”

Even a dragon as resilient as he was could not suppress a roar of pain as both of his arms were torn apart beyond recognition.

Purple-red tendrils burst into the surroundings. Ethereal fissures resembling the cosmos itself floated through the air.

”That woman’s scales are much harder to break than yours.”

Emerging amid the rain of blood, Gardenia looked down, watching the colossal dragon fall without his arms after trying to crush her.

Without making a single movement, the girl disappeared, reappearing directly beneath where Alduin’s massive body would land.

Raising her palm in a precise motion, all the air around her seemed to distort.

Then the dragon struck the ground.

As though it had been impaled on a sharpened stake, the dragon’s massive body bent in half, its spine snapping in two with a horrifying crack that echoed across the entire mountain.

Resting in the palm of the girl clad in the cosmos was a still-beating heart, suspended above its owner’s body, nerves still attached.

Before its dragon blood even had a chance to save it, the great crimson heart began to pulse uncontrollably. Purple-red tendrils spread across its surface like cracks until, at last, it exploded.

”Next.”

Turning her head toward the other dragons within the night’s mist, Gardenia whispered.

At that moment, every dragon felt terror grip the very core of their being.

”Alduin is dead! Don’t charge in alone! Attack together!” Slamming his enormous tail against the ground to snap his companions out of their panic, another male dragon, younger than the others, shouted.

Without needing to exchange a single word, that dragon and four other young dragons beat their wings in unison, charging toward the purple-haired girl.

The speed and coordination with which they acted made it obvious they had received the same training.

With determination and fury now reflected in their reptilian eyes, the five dragons lunged at the purple-haired girl with their claws and jaws extended.

At the edge of the battlefield, watching everything unfold before her with so much adrenaline that time itself seemed to slow, Ignis couldn’t ignore the feeling of déjà vu.

She had felt this before.

A magic so complex that the lesser races had used it to stand a chance against dragons.

A power so absurd that it had carved itself into her very existence.

”She’s just like the human hero!” Like a flash of realization, the leader of the Wing Clan shouted at the top of her lungs. ”She’s teleporting herself without portals! Stay alert!”

But it was already too late.

With precision and efficiency bordering on the impossible, the girl vanished and reappeared five times.

Each punch that followed echoed louder than a cannon blast.

Striking all five dragons with perfect accuracy, as though enormous craters had been carved into their flesh, holes appeared where their hearts had once been.

In unison, the five dragons crashed to the ground, sending a tremendous tremor through everything around them.

”Don’t mock us!”

Grinding her fangs together, Ignis felt something she had never experienced before begin to well up inside her.

Even her lord had instructed her never to provoke that man and his magic.

And now, standing against her clan, was a woman wielding the same kind of power.

Thanks to their mana-absorbing wings, with the exception of the aberration known as Bahamut, the members of the Wing Clan possessed more extra lives than any of the other three clans.

Even so, by killing each dragon over and over until the mana within their bodies was completely exhausted, that single girl was annihilating them.

Screams and agonized roars echoed across the mountain.

Ignis watched the grotesque spectacle in complete disbelief.

It was a nightmare.

Teleporting without pause, the woman clad in the cosmos slaughtered dragon after dragon.

One by one, every one of her soldiers fell dead to the ground. Even without looking, she could feel the earthquakes caused by their colossal bodies collapsing. The dry impact of their bones breaking and the wet sound of their blood spilling out.

Whether in the sky or on the ground, no matter where they tried to fight, nothing her men did could stop that woman.

What order should she give?

What should their next strategy be?

There wasn’t even enough time to organize her thoughts and find an answer.

In her draconic form, one of the functions of her scales was to act as thermal insulation. Her sweat glands naturally became inactive whenever she fully transformed into a dragon. No amount of exertion would make her sweat, and her unparalleled vitality meant she would never tire from mere combat. That was precisely why Ignis knew the moisture covering her body was neither excitement nor exhaustion. It was cold sweat.

Ignis was no novice.

She had fought in the Great War. She had battled demons and even stood against Twilights.

Even those opponents still had emotions as they fought.

Whether it was rage driving their attacks, fear making them hesitate, or twisted bloodlust taking pleasure in stripping away their enemies’ dignity, everyone revealed something of themselves in battle.

Those emotions made them predictable. Their movements could be analyzed, their personalities understood, and strategies devised accordingly.

But that girl was different.

Killing with nothing but perfect efficiency, without showing the slightest emotion, she was eradicating the battlefield without so much as raising an eyebrow.

Some dragons had their skulls crushed. Others had their entrails spilling out. Others lost entire limbs.

The woman wasn’t even wielding a weapon.

Her movements were beautiful, as natural as offering someone a greeting, yet each one took another life.

She wasn’t fighting.

She was simply carrying out a routine task.

Her footsteps were light, as though she were dancing across pools of blood.

There was only a single opponent, yet there was nothing they could do against her.

Not even a drop of blood reached her body in the darkness, the ethereal fissures surrounding her ensuring the crimson never touched her skin.

Consumed by terror, Ignis felt her limbs grow cold and her thoughts freeze.

Her mind became numb. Her tongue went dry, and her heart pounded so violently it felt ready to burst.

In battle, the side that held absolute destructive power was supposed to be the victor.

”It can’t be true...”

She was the one who had ordered the attack.

She was supposed to have the advantage.

Yet she was the one whose face was consumed by fear, whose eyes saw nothing but terror.

She was afraid.

From the depths of her existence, from the deepest part of her soul...

She was afraid.

Then, at last, the woman clad in the cosmos reached her.

With her mind completely consumed by fear, Ignis could only feel her body being destroyed over and over again without being able to react.

Death.

For a dragon, such a thing should never have been frightening.

With reserves of mana greater than any other race and a vitality that made them akin to immortal gods, dragons should never have feared something as trivial as death.

Yet as she was mercilessly beaten, again and again, Ignis feared death for the very first time since she had hatched.

”We surrender.”

Accompanied by a blue radiance, the enormous dragon shrank, transforming into a beautiful woman with indigo hair and a dark blue dress.

Dropping to her knees—or rather, bending so deeply that her face pressed against the dirt—Ignis prostrated herself.

”Please... take only my head in exchange for the lives of my clan.”

Speaking through tears, the leader of the Wing Clan extended both arms before her, her palms turned upward in a complete gesture of submission.

There was no way to win.

As her tears mixed with the soil and turned to mud, Ignis felt that bitter truth carve itself into her soul.

Even with her eyes closed, she could feel the woman’s presence standing before her, looking down at her.

Once a battle had begun, it could not simply be stopped without a price.

She had to pay for her mistakes.

She would offer her own life to save her clan.

However...

”No.”

That single, curt word made Ignis raise her head in complete panic.

Teleporting away, Gardenia went after the next dragon.

A single strike from the sole of her high heel was enough to sever the massive reptilian head of her target. Twisting her hips, she teleported once more, appearing behind a group of three dragons before piercing their hearts one after another.

She had no interest in the lives being lost. Taking no pleasure in the battle, as though she were merely carrying out her duty, the woman continued to fight.

”Please, stop! We surrender!” Ignis cried desperately, still kneeling as she tried to get the woman’s attention. ”We won’t go after the elves anymore. Take my life instead of theirs! Just mine!”

”I already told you before.” Appearing in front of Ignis, Gardenia fixed her crimson eyes on the girl. ”This has nothing to do with the elves.”

It was Gardenia against the Wing Clan.

No one else had anything to do with it.

”If I had been the one defeated, would you have spared my family?”

Ignis was left speechless by the girl’s question.

Gardenia’s family... was she referring to those humans traveling with the elves?

The woman didn’t need an answer.

”The strong rule over the weak. Your clan’s philosophy isn’t so bad after all. It’s easier for me to understand than most of humanity’s complicated laws.”

Calmly placing a hand around Ignis’s neck, Gardenia tightened her fingers as though examining something.

”With the amount of mana left in your body, this is your last life. You wouldn’t be able to resurrect from even the smallest wound now.”

Tilting her head, the woman, who hadn’t blinked once, stared deeply into Ignis’s eyes.

”I truly don’t care about the world’s stability. Since I’ve already devoured your leader’s heart, you and the rest of your clan have no further use to me.”

She was going to annihilate them.

The dreadful silence that had settled over the mountain wasn’t because no one was speaking.

It was because all fifty dragons already lay on the ground.

There was no salvation.

No hero would come to rescue them.

They had been the ones to seek battle first.

Perhaps this was simply the price they had to pay.

Yet that wasn’t what happened.

”But your clan might still be useful to Lily.”

Her crimson eyes glowed in the darkness.

”I deliberately left a few of them alive with enough mana for one remaining life. They’re unconscious now, so you’ll be my messenger.”

Closing her eyes, Gardenia spoke in a voice so deep it felt as though every word were being carved directly into Ignis’s soul.

”If, on any day for the rest of your lives, you or anyone in your clan so much as thinks about directing bloodlust, oppression, distrust, or hatred toward my family, I’ll know. If that happens, not only will your lands be destroyed, but every single one of you will wish you had died today.”

Leaning closer, Gardenia drove her words even deeper into Ignis’s soul.

”I’ll hunt down every member of your clan. That includes everyone who stayed behind in the city instead of coming here to fight me. Just as you went after my child, the bloodline of the Wing Clan will come to an end.”

Ignis understood perfectly what that meant.

Noncombatants. Children. Even the eggs that hadn’t yet hatched.

She would exterminate every last member of the Wing Clan without exception.

”How... how could you do something like that...?”

Unable to hide the terror in her voice, Ignis asked so quietly it was almost a whisper.

”I’ll tell you a secret...”

Even so, understanding the question, Gardenia leaned down until her lips were beside the girl’s ear and answered in an even quieter whisper.

”I’m a monster.”

Ignis’s mind went completely blank.

As though she could no longer bear the terror, the dragon woman froze completely in place. Rising to her feet, Gardenia began walking away from the battlefield.

”Rest. Become stronger. Lily has no need for trash serving her. Prove your worth. You know what you need to do. I’ll be watching you.”

---

Deactivating her spell, Nia let out a soft sigh as the mantle of cosmos faded from her body.

”So the time limit is around twenty minutes now?”

After absorbing the fourth Book of Truth, the amount of dark mana in her reserves had increased, meaning the duration of her spell had grown as well.

Creating a portal before her that resembled a star-filled sky, Nia began walking toward it, casting one final glance over her shoulder.

Ignis was still kneeling on the ground, utterly stunned as she stared back at her.

She would never challenge her again. It wasn’t a guess. Nia didn’t understand how she knew, but she was certain that the resolve within Ignis’s soul had shattered completely, beyond repair.

Besides, with fewer than ten soldiers remaining, the Wing Clan’s threat had fallen to a level where even that annoying healer could deal with them without much trouble, so there was no need to worry about another uprising.

”Mama Nia!”

More importantly, there was something far more important she needed to do.

Kneeling down, Nia opened both her arms and happily welcomed the little girl. Rose leaped into her embrace, wrapping both arms tightly around her mother’s neck.

”Hehe, was Rose a good girl while I was away?”

Rubbing her cheek against her daughter’s, Nia couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh.

”I was! I listened to Mama Lily the whole time!”

Her heart overflowing with happiness at seeing her mother again, Rose couldn’t stop smiling.

And just like her, another girl approached.

”Welcome back, Nia.”

”I’m back, Lily.”

Feeling the warmth in her wife’s gaze, the shapeshifter stepped closer and, still holding her daughter, gently rested her head against Lily’s chest.

Carefully, Lily wrapped both arms around Nia, pulling her close until their faces were only inches apart.

Beneath the full moon, their soft pink lips met in a long kiss. When they finally parted, a thin strand of saliva glimmered beneath the moonlight.

”You were amazing.” A blush spread across Lily’s face as she smiled and hugged her wife even tighter.

”Hehe!” Nia giggled softly at the praise, burying her face between her wife’s warm breasts.

As the family embraced, the sound of something crashing into the grassy plain echoed through the air.

Turning toward the impact, Lily’s heterochromatic eyes found a small cloud of dust with a humanoid figure at its center.

”Rookie!”

Jumping to his feet in a panic, a boy with ashen pink hair ran toward the group.

Although Lily had seen him beside the dragon hero before, they had never spoken, so she didn’t even know his name.

”You’re...”

Awkwardly beginning to speak, Lily was about to ask his name when a voice emerged from between her breasts.

”He’s my friend.”

Nia’s words were as flat as ever, but the reaction they caused was overwhelming.

”Did you hear that, Mom!? I made a friend! I finally made a friend!”

Unable to contain her excitement, Wisteria bounced up and down before running toward the tall woman approaching them.

”Yes, yes. Quiet now.”

Catching the boy by the ankles with her white tail and lifting him upside down into the air, the wheat-haired woman in the black dress let out a long sigh.

Looking at Bahamut, who had arrived carrying the boy through the air, Lily felt a gentle tug on her clothes from the girl in her arms.

”Lily... I’m going to sleep for a while.”

Murmuring softly, Nia rubbed her face against her wife’s warm breasts a few more times. Her eyelids grew heavy as sleep overtook her.

”You can rest now.” Supporting Rose with one tentacle, Lily lifted Nia into her arms like a princess, resting her wife’s head against her shoulder. ”Sleep well, my love. I’ll take care of everything.”

Gently stroking her wife’s soft purple hair, Lily watched as the hero approached.

”I don’t know if you’re interested, but Thelira went with the Fang Clan to administer Tiamat’s medicine.”

”I see.”

Without showing any particular reaction to everything that had happened, Lily looked at the tall woman, doubt visible in her eyes.

”Bahamut... did you kill the guardian Rain?”

”Rain?” Bahamut tilted her head in confusion.

Of everything that remained unresolved, Lily felt she needed to start tying up the loose ends.

”The one who possessed the book before you.”

After learning from Rhei that the guardian of the Book of Truth had supposedly been a dragon named Rain, Lily had wondered what had happened to her.

She had asked Thelira to investigate, but no records of any dragon by that name had been found. The only trace of Rain’s existence was a signature on one of the paintings inside the Library of Scales, leaving the silver-haired girl wondering what fate had befallen her.

Since Bahamut possessed the book and knew the location of its labyrinth, Lily had assumed the hero had conquered it and killed its guardian to obtain the book.

However, Bahamut’s answer was nothing like she expected.

”I already told you. I just found that book.”

Shrugging casually, Bahamut rested a hand on her hip.

”One day, while I was flying through the sky, I came across a floating island I’d never seen before. The book was just lying there, so I picked it up.”

The labyrinth had no guardian protecting it, and the book had simply been abandoned there.

None of it made any sense to Lily, but Bahamut didn’t seem to be lying.

”Can you answer one more question? It’s only a suspicion.” Although she wanted to press the matter further, there was something else Lily needed to confirm. ”Annona told me she saw Fafnir heading east before he disappeared. That was before he came to attack us. Did he happen to visit the Scale Clan’s territory?”

”Fafnir? Yeah, he came to the Scale Clan’s territory the other day and asked to read the book. I have no idea how he even knew I had it, since I hadn’t told anyone.”

Lily’s eyes widened.

”Don’t tell me...”

”He wanted to read the book Gardenia absorbed, so I simply let him.”

Someone other than Nia had tried to read the Book of Truth.

Lily remembered what Nox, the guardian of the Stardust Spring labyrinth, had told her—that the contents of the book could destroy the mind of anyone who read it.

Not even Elarielle could glance at a single page without suffering crippling headaches. If someone attempted to read the entire thing, it wasn’t hard to imagine the consequences.

”So that’s why Fafnir went mad and attacked us.”

His mind had been destroyed by the contents of the book, leaving behind nothing but insanity and an overwhelming desire for battle.

It had driven him to attack everything before him without exception.

They had simply been unlucky enough to become the targets of his madness.

”I’m not anyone’s babysitter except my brat. The choices people make are their own responsibility.”

Unable to hide the indescribable expression on her face after hearing the woman say something like that so shamelessly, Lily rubbed her temple.

In the end, much of what they had gone through was because Bahamut simply didn’t care about the consequences of her actions. She hadn’t even bothered to warn the other clans that Fafnir’s madness had been caused by her.

However, after hearing her explanation, Lily realized there was another problem.

”Lily, is something wrong?” Bahamut asked, noticing the worried look on the girl’s face.

A faint sense of unease settled in Lily’s chest. Turning toward Bahamut, she voiced the question that had been gnawing at her mind, one she couldn’t find an answer to.

”If you’ve kept the book hidden ever since you found it... then how did Fafnir learn about the existence of the Book of Truth in the first place?”