/
Leonard and Agoth, who had left for Halshtar two days before the wedding, returned. Caesar, Hamilton, Roman, and I greeted them together.
The result was not very good.
“We found a trace, but he was no longer there,” Leonard reported the results with a slightly sad expression. We all nodded stiffly.
I had expected it to some extent, but I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
“What do you mean by trace?” Hamilton was quick to deal with his disappointment and asked Leonard.
“We found traces of magic in an abandoned monastery. And
”
“And?” As Leonard hesitated, Caesar asked urgently. Still, Leonard found a hard time opening his mouth.
He looked at me once and then spoke with difficulty, “And corpses too.”
“
 Corpses?”
I was genuinely surprised.
Corpses?
“I think it’s probably the members of the cult who are said to be missing.”
“Have they been murdered?”
“Well, why did he kill the believers who followed him?” Caesar answered Hamilton’s question with a frown.
The answer to that question came back from Roman.
“Maybe he used magic at the cost of human lives.”
In response, everyone’s eyes turned to Roman. As a lot of attention was focused on him suddenly, Roman coughed with embarrassment.
“Most taboo magic requires a price. Perhaps they were used as a sacrifice to perform some magic.”
“Are you saying
that the person named Noe incited the people to the Draco religion because he needed sacrifices, Mr. Romang?”
“It’s Roman, Miss Agoth.” After Roman smiled bitterly and corrected Agoth’s words, he looked at us again and continued, “It’s not just about the lives. The strong ‘belief’ of the majority is a strength in itself.”
“You mean the belief that dragons will be resurrected?”
Roman nodded slowly as if affirming my words. “That is the power of religion. Well, if you talk about this at a church, you will be accused of heresy, and your head will be cut off
”
As he said the final words, Roman exaggeratedly shuddered. He pretended to be frightened, but his expression didn’t look very frightened.
Well, the mages and the church had a bad relationship in the first place. That action just now, rather than being frightened, was probably to ridicule the church’s inflexibility.
“To sum it up—” Hamilton said after attracting attention by raising his hands to shoulder height. “Noe Lable established the Draco religion to resurrect Krusech. And he performed some magic by sacrificing the lives of some of them. Right?”
“What kind of magic was it?” Caesar asked, looking at Leonard.
There’s no way Leonard knows anything about magic, right?
However, Leonard was not taken aback and put the stack of papers he had prepared on the table. “I copied patterns found all over the monastery. Some are written on paper, some are written on buildings.”
Naturally, Roman took the bundle of papers first and examined them. It was something we wouldn’t know even if we saw it anyway.
Slowly and carefully examining the picture drawn on the stack of papers, Roman groaned.
“What’s that?” In the end, Agoth, unable to hold back her curiosity, asked Roman.
“It is not one type of magic. Magic to control demons and magic to prevent body decay
”
“Body decay? Was it to keep Dante’s corpse from decaying?” Caesar asked, frowning. But I shook my head at those words.
“Noe Lable is from over 100 years ago. Dante, on the other hand, died 500 years ago. No matter how quickly Noe stole Dante’s body, it’s time to rot.”
There was no way to try to stop the decay of the body now.
Roman also agreed, “I am of the same opinion, Your Majesty. I think it might have been the magic he used on himself.”
“You mean Noe Lable himself?”
“Yes. He is a pure human being. It is impossible for him to stay young for over 100 years.”
Shrak. Roman turned over the paper and continued, “Perhaps people’s lives were used for magic to extend his own life.”
“What kind of person is that
 How corrupt is he to do such a thing
!”
My fingertips were trembling unconsciously. It was an inexplicable obsession for me. How could there be such selfishness of trying to survive even at the expense of others?
“And in fact, what bothers me is a completely different magic.” Roman, on the other hand, was full of academic curiosity. Morals seemed to be out of his interest.
That’s why he could continue talking with a nonchalant face like that.
Roman stood up and placed several sheets of paper in order on the table.
Strings that seemed to not connect to each other unfolded.
“What kind of magics are these?”
“Not magic‘s’, Your Majesty. This is all one magic.”
“One?”
“Yes. But this is not a complete magic circle, which phrases missing in the middle.”
“You mean it’s supposed to be a bigger magic circle than this, Mr. Romang?”
“It’s Roman, Miss Agoth. Hmm
 In fact, it’s hard to deduce the whole magic with just this syntax. But if I’m right, it’s probably a magic circle three times the size of this room.”
Three times?!
Hamilton and Agoth, as well as me, looked around the room wide-eyed at the same time.
This room isn’t even small, it’s three times this?!
“Like, what kind of magic circle is so big?!” I asked, frowning.
“As I said beforehand, this is a ‘hypothesis’.” As befits an academic historian, Roman dared to avoid categorical words in his explanation. “These phrases overlap significantly with the sealing magic remaining in the records.”
“Sealing
magic?”
“Yes. The magic that sealed Krusech.”
Really?
I was there at the sealing time, but I hadn’t looked closely at the magic circle. Of course, I hadn’t thought about memorizing it, so I didn’t remember anything at all.
‘But it was surely
big.’
Yes. It must’ve been three times the size of this room. Because it had to wrap the whole dragon.
“But Noe is trying to resurrect the dragon, so why use the sealing magic
?” Hamilton muttered to himself.
Roman responded to that monologue without delay, “I didn’t say that this was sealing magic. I just said that there is overlapping syntax with sealing magic.”
“What does that mean?”
“In other words, this is ‘reverse calculation magic’.”
“Reverse calculation,” Caesar murmured with a dark expression.
Reverse calculation.
The process of returning the result of a calculation to the number before calculation.
Roman looked at Caesar and me in order. And as if reading our thoughts in our eyes, he nodded. “Yes, it is as you think.” His expression was very bright. “This must be magic that unlocks what has already been sealed. It’s huge indeed. I really want to see the finished ceremony.”
I felt a faint chill at the morally innocent smile of a scholar who had gained new academic knowledge.
***
Based on clues found at the scene and the testimony of nearby residents, Leonard and Agoth predicted that Noe had headed northeast.
They seemed to intend to continue to pursue Noe after the wedding.
‘How many people were sacrificed?’
After receiving Leonard’s report, I felt uneasy.
The story of people who were sacrificed as sacrifices kept ringing in my ears. They had to pay a very high price just for foolishly falling into heresy.
‘If I had noticed and moved a little faster, I might have been able to save them.’
‘No, at least if I had focused on pursuing Krusech instead of fighting Marianne.’
‘If only I had paid more attention to my doubts during the subjugation.’
My thoughts kept spinning around.
At the same time, anger towards Noe rose silently.
Is the wish he wants to achieve truly worth sacrificing countless lives?
“You’ve been solemn since earlier.”
I was lost in my thoughts but suddenly came to my senses when I heard Caesar’s voice beside me.
Caesar, sitting next to me, was slicing the meat and shoving it into his mouth expressionlessly.
Oh, right. I was eating now.
Only then did I check the chunk of meat cooling down on my plate.
“I
don’t have an appetite.”
“Even Helena has times when she has no appetite. If the meal is not good, should I bring you a sweet dessert?”
“No. Rowena will be angry.”
I smiled as I recalled the wedding dress, which had not even a millimeter of room left.
“As expected, does it bother you?”
“Yes?”
“The things Leonard told you earlier.”
“Ah
 um. Honestly, yes.”
I don’t think it’s something to bluff about. I put down my fork and knife and sighed.
“Maybe I could’ve saved them.”
“Yes. It’s unfortunate. But I hope it doesn’t upset you too much.”
Caesar looked in my direction. The flickering candlelight from the candlestick above the table flickered over his eyes.
“You have no obligation to save everyone.”
“But-“
“Speaking of guilt, it would be my fault for not protecting the people.” Caesar’s expression looked somewhat lonely.
That’s true. There’s no way he would be okay with this case either. They are all his people now.
“
 Can I ask you a favor?”
“What is it?”
“Next time we find out where Noe is, I want to go too.”
Caesar didn’t answer. His expressionless expression somehow made me feel sorry.
In two days, I will become the empress of this country. The empress has the responsibilities and duties of an empress. The mission to kill a dragon is probably not included there.
“
 Does it have to be Dante Renatus who annihilate Krusech?” Caesar murmured quietly, averting his gaze from me. That probably meant refusing my request.
“That dragon is connected to me. It can’t be anyone else in this matter.” I grabbed my chest with one hand.
“That’s why I don’t want to send you away even more, especially now that you’re in danger.”
“But is there anyone stronger than me in this empire, Your Majesty?”
“Me?”
“You won once. After that, you lost twice in a row.” I pointed out with a bitter smile, but Caesar didn’t bother to answer.
“Why do you want to get rid of Krusech yourself so much? Helena hates bothersome things, doesn’t she?”
“In the old days, I just wanted the bounty. But it’s different now.”
“So what’s the reason now?”
“I want to keep the people I value.”
Helena Peresca is not alone. In this world, there are many things she loves.
“You promised to entrust your world to me.”
Because I’m your sword.
“
 You must be saying this knowing that I will never be able to refuse your request.”
“Your Majesty has always been weak at my request.”
“Yes. Haha, how did that happen?” Caesar rested his chin on his palm and sighed. “But no matter how much I think about it, I can’t send the empress to such a dangerous job.”
Ugh
 Is that a no again?
Caesar ran his hand through my long hair. My long, wavy hair caught on his fingers and fell one by one.
“But you are also my sword.” Caesar smiled bitterly. As if he had given up, he sighed lightly. “Let’s go together.”
“You’re going to go too?!”
“Yes. I should do something about the dragon. Seal it, kill it, whatever.”
“Oh, then I-?”
“Helena will protect me.”
In the end, I, too, gave up and smiled with a sigh.
“It can’t be helped. A master has to follow her disciple.”
***
It became clear what to do.
Block Noe Lable.
Stop Krusech’s resurrection.
In the worst-case scenario, reseal Krusech. I didn’t know if there was a mage who could do that.
As the goal became clearer, I felt somewhat relieved. I was able to hold the wedding with a lighter mind.
It should’ve been so. Because until now, I never thought that the ‘dragon’ would find me first.
That’s how the wedding morning came.