Chapter 162 \n<h1>Chapter 162:</h1>\n“Even if this is all based on a book and it feels kind of contrived, it’s not too weir…..”“Of course it’s contrived. I had a hand in making sure that you thought this was a world in a story, after all. I tried to use black magic to try and make Swanhaden fall in love with Hestia like in the novel, too, but it wouldn’t work. I didn’t know if it was because of how strong his feelings are for you or if it’s because he’s a white magic user, though. Maybe it’s both.”
Wait, what did she just say? This world wasn’t a story in a novel, but everything that had happened had been staged in order to make me think that it was a story in a novel?
“Please explain everything from the start.”
It felt like she knew everything I was curious about. I was so curious that the fear that I had felt because of her status as a dragon dissipated slightly.
Noirelle watched as I tried my best to nibble at the monster food to be polite and burst into loud laughter. She said, “Wow, even I can’t eat that.” and then immediately replaced all of the food on the table with food that humans could eat. The ogre meat turned into duck meat, and the slime slush changed to a green grape slush.
She pulled my chair closer to her before grabbing me and placing me on her lap. She was much taller and bigger than me, so her lap was a comfortable as a chair. She swept her hand through my hair as if she was dealing with a child.
“Okay. Okay. Both you and Hestia are so cute that I want to take a bite out of you. Oh. Did I kill Hestia like that once before?”
Noirelle said, laughing as she said that. I frowned when she said that she had killed Hestia, who was clearly alive, but I decided to keep quiet before she explained everything.
“First, you’re probably aware of my hatred towards the Orde Empire.”
I nodded. That was inevitable. She had been pushed to the brink of death, had her powers stolen from her, and had Blanchielle, her family, murdered.
“You can probably tell just by seeing me alive like this. The first emperor wasn’t able to kill me. He just took a portion of my heart and failed in capturing me. I used all of my power to escape. They had underestimated my strength. Seeing all of them attacking me in droves, I really could’ve lost.”\nNoirelle, who had been overly excited earlier, seemed to calm down as she told her story. She looked like she was recounting old memories. The contents of her story had to hurt her as she explained it, but she spoke as if she had overcome the pain in her story a long time ago.
“While I was out of it, unable to even move my wings, they took my sole family, the only one of my species and used them as they wanted. I heard Blanchielle’s resonance but I couldn’t move. More than half of my heart had been taken from me, so only my mind was wide awake. Blanchielle had the magic of life, so she couldn’t end her own suffering. She kept asking me again and again to kill her, so I let her go with my own hands.”
My lips felt dry as I listened to her explain how she had killed her with her own hands. Moreover, Blanchielle’s body had been taken apart and sold over to the merchant guild, right?
I wondered if all of the white leather and bones around the estate I had been at with Yves had been Blanchielle’s. A chill ran up my spine. I squirmed.
“I used up all of the magic I had in my heart for revenge. My body was half dead but my mind was awake, so I was thankfully able to use a bit of magic to prepare things.”
I quietly nodded as I listened to the story.
“I scraped up all the power I had left over to control some people to set up an academy near the capital. Somewhere close to the royal palace. After the academy was built, all of the nobles who had participated in the murder of Blanchielle and myself started flocking there. Even those disgusting sprouts. Oh, you’re excluded. You’re not disgusting.”
Noirelle said, raising an eye towards me and patting my shoulders.
“After I controlled a few people, I exhausted all of my power. When a dragon’s heart doesn’t have enough magic, they all lose consciousness and begin to wander through the mentalscape. To regain control and get my revenge, I forced students to collect monster cores for hundreds of years to get my power back. Then I boosted the power of the monsters, who would soon become my army.”
Was the reason why we went to monster subjugations and collected monster cores to help increase Noirelle’s power? I had seen the cores we had collected in the mountain being transported back to the mountain before.
Monsters were said to keep all of their magic and strength in their hearts, or their cores. A human emperor had earned their strength through Noirelle’s heart, so a magical being, Noirelle, would regain their strength by eating a monster’s core.
Noirelle continued her story as she poked her long black fingernail at my cheek.\n“Then as soon as I had enough power to move around, I was going to, Boom! Explode and kill everyone.”“So the reason why the monsters kept getting stronger was……”“You’re right. I assume it meant that my plans were going just they way they should’ve.”
Her explanation of killing everyone included Hestia, myself, as well as everyone else.
I sat ramrod straight with both of my hands placed neatly on my legs. My legs were neatly together. My head was down.
I stared down and tried to organize the thoughts in my head before I spoke. Even though goosebumps were running down my arms, the words just flowed right out of my mouth.
“So you were lacking power and you were wandering the mentalscape, and the reason why you stained the academy in a wine-color was when you used the academy as a starting point to your revenge? All of the main nobles were in the same area, so it must’ve made it a lot easier to wipe them all out at once. Most of the nobles in the capital would all enroll in this academy, so all of the nobles’ lines would be wiped out at once.”“Oh? You’re right. Just as I thought, you’re smart. Magical beings react strongly to my state. Even as I slept, I was still stuck in the place of my memories, and I still had to face those dark red, wine-colored lights on my own. The monsters I had raised right until my awakening would’ve carried my resentment and would’ve attacked the academy first. Lovable little things.”
At the sudden burst of curiosity, I raised my head quickly.
“Then is the school principal one of the people who had been controlled? If the principal’s plans were your plans, then the empire is doomed.”
Noirelle looked surprised at my words before her lips began to twitch. Then, she began clapping and burst into a fit of laughter. Noirelle kept muttering about how funny this was.
I just stared awkwardly as I watched her laugh.
“You’ve never seen the principal before, right?”“Yes. I don’t think anybody ever has. They’re someone who’s behind a veil.”\n“I tried to throw away the prince’s soul before reincarnation because he had the biggest grudge against the royals of all, I tried to weaken the monsters, I tried to take back my plans, and I tried to close down the academy. Nothing was really much use. Yvnes Lunaasha always made sure that my plans would go through, and if it wasn’t him, then Swanhaden did. Ugh, thinking about it makes me pissed.”
Noirelle was shaking her leg, so I ended up being shaken too. How strong.
Noirelle rubbed the back of her neck with a bitter expression on her face.