P. 152
The lord of the land was in the beginning the King of a small country and had an army of his own.
However, be it luck or not, Edgar knew of a more powerful way to fight than the n.o.bles in the past.
The point was you just had to win.
Good lord, this was an absurd outfit. No one could ever tell who he was.
P. 153
Using the strength of pirates, he made them practically attack the villagers’ house who were feeling hostile towards him while they were asleep, and didn’t spare them a moment to fight back and subdued them, and was just about to surround the last remaining ten or so men who were all barricaded themselves in the mayor’s residence.
Already, at the stage of scouting, he knew the names of those who would put up a fight to the end.
It wasn’t going to be difficult to barge in, but there was a possibility that they would chose to counterattack in desperation.
The sky was just barely beginning to brighten up.
“Lord Edgar, we’ve found the fluorites that were dug into the wasted farm grounds. It turns out to be quite the amount.”
“So, I guess they could work as evidence. And the freyas?”
That precious freya could be hidden by the mayor. Or perhaps already in the hands of the fake lord.
Edgar judged that the pirates were starting to be bored, and decided to begin giving out his threats.
He stopped just right before it.
Of course, there was no reply.
He thought he could see a vague commotion arise among the shadows beyond the window gla.s.s that had the curtains drawn.
“Go ahead and throw those in.”
“It’s already day break. They shouldn’t be needing lights anymore.”
“Fluorites are said to release a beautiful light compared to a flame. Don’t you want to see what color the fluorites that are only able to be found here throughout the whole world glows?”
Even as Edgar was speaking, Raven emotionlessly was about to throw in one of the torches.
“Wa-wait just a moment, we’ll surrender!”
“I was getting a portion of the profit, but I was told that if we’re caught we’ll be convicts and so our only option was to resist till the end, and so I barricaded in here….”
“And the mayor?” asked Edgar, cool and steady.
P. 156
Hearing that, all the pirates went das.h.i.+ng into the building.
Edgar watched as a number of them seemed to find something like gunpowder and came carrying that outside quickly, and entered into the mayor’s house.
“Hey, Sir John, ……I mean, uh-“
Edgar turned around towards Pino. Like it was tiresome for him, the large-framed young man knitted his brows.
“I’ll listen to what they have to say at the estate.”
“I’ll have that secret pa.s.sageway found.”
“Oh, yeah, Lota had taken out your fiancées somewhere.”
“Lydia was? Where?”
“Just the two of them?”
He had a bear-like large body with a hairy face, but the part of him that was relying on Lota was like a young boy.
Pino twitched his brow like he was bothered at being treated like a fool.
That must have made the blood rush to his head, as Pino reached out his arm to try and grab the scruff of Edgar’s s.h.i.+rt, but he only ended up having it twisted up by Raven.
“…….You can see how Lota is much more fitted to be the captain. She may be a female, but she has more guts than any man, and wouldn’t lose to a fight. Everyone also trusts her.”
P. 158
“How she wants? Don’t say like Lota thinking that she doesn’t want to be a pirate. You don’t know anything.”
To Edgar who was about to go down the stairs again, Pino opened his mouth like he was throwing his anger at him.
Seeing Edgar who didn’t think and stopped, he made a grin.
As Edgar turned around, he was tightening his hand into a fist.
“Yes, that. He was quite the pretty face that wouldn’t lose to you.”
“Hmm, oh, really. Well, there are more than plenty of women, so even if you had Lydia taken away, it would be easy to just go looking again for someone to pretend to be your lover, I guess.”
P. 159
No, that isn’t true, Lydia isn’t like that. I that moment he felt that objection in himself, then he realized he wasn’t in any position to argue to Pino in regards to Betty.
With Lydia, he was serious than he ever was before.
“Lord Edgar, it’s a hidden door.”
He took his eyes away from Pino and hurried to the depths of the underground bas.e.m.e.nt.
“Kelpie, you have to turn back! I must return to rescue Lota and Nico!”
“We’ll be found by the Wyrm.”
“Now look, we’re lost our way.”
They had gotten out from the ocean tides. Which means they entered the Wyrm‘s territory.
“Everything’s fine, if I go in the direction where I sense water, we’ll get out into the sea.”
Hold on, said Lydia and stopped her pace.
"You’re not planning on going all the way to the nest entrance, are you.”
“What are you going to do about Lota and Nico.”
When she started to walk off, Kelpie walked and stopped right in her path to stop her.
“I’m not asking you to come along.”
Suddenly, there was a rumble in the ground.
“…..What, what was that?”
“Tail? You’re saying that was just the tail?”
“More importantly, it’s obviously gone by now. Would you let go of me.”
“Yeah.”
“Huh? I’m just trying to get you on your feet.”
“Why is that not allowed? You don’t complain when it’s any other place.”
P. 162
“It’s common sense of humans!”
Oh, don’t start talking about such lewd things, meant Lydia as she grew embarra.s.sed and hurried to start walking off.
“If it was just getting back the changeling, then there is a way without having to go against the Wyrm.”
The only remaining option was to snap the wild rose that was in the fairy’s nesting ground and break the magic that was binding the human baby to the fairy.
“Hey, Kelpie, where would the Wyrm’s rose be?”
P. 163
“But that’s the only option I have.”
She didn’t know. But, more than that, there was something that Lydia should be concern about.
The human baby should be returned to the hands of its mother and the magic that was making the dobie’s baby look like a human will be undone and it should be returned to the hands of the dobies.
If she originally was the child of a fairy, then the magic casted on her to make her look like a human would break.
“And furthermore, the wild rose that’s in the fairy’s nest, you say it so simply but it really is something important. It’s natural for the Wyrm to be protecting it carefully. That itself is reckless. Hey, Lydia, are you listening?”
Lydia asked him in a serious tone, but Kelpie only replied carelessly.
“It does matter. If I was a changeling, then when I break the rose, I’ll forget about absolutely everything.”
That’s not what I meant.
“Wh-what, of course not! I just, I’m just worried about father.”
So, that’s how its going to be.
Although her father would be saddened, from the time she decided to become a fairy doctor, he should have prepared himself for whatever he didn’t know might happen. He would surely accept Lydia’s decision.
There were a lot of girls who he had a little interest in all around him. Even Ermine is by his side, so he was sure to forget about Lydia in no time.
But if she did remember, was she going to feel painful?
“Don’t make such a face. I think to find the wild rose is a much greater feat then to try and defeat the Wyrm. That’s why it’s better to leave. If your opponent was a Wyrm, then it’s natural that there’s nothing a fairy doctor could do. There is no necessity in fixating on helping humans and going all the way as to put yourself at risk.”
“If I were to forget, would you tell me what kind of human I was? Whatever you know will be fine.”
Mumbled Kelpie like he was sourly amazed, and murmured “I’ll tell you” and patted Lydia’s head violently.
Suddenly, there was another voice.
The one to peer over towards them from the shadows of the cave’s bolder was a young girl who seemed around the same age as Lydia.
P. 166
“Oh…., I’m sorry. We lost our way.”
“Geesh, why do fairies all have to be so good at transforming into humans so well. I wish you all wouldn’t do something so misleading.”
For the time being, that was what she believed right now.
“Wait, hey, are you, perhaps Betty?”
“Why do you know my name?”
She had been courting Edgar, but Lydia tried to erase that mixed feeling that bubbled up to her consciousness and took a deep breath.
P. 167
P. 168
“Lota? You’re lying, Lota would never come here.”
“We’re not friends. Because I betrayed Lota.”
She wondered what had happened between the two of them. Lota hadn’t mentioned anything that seemed related to that.
“Anyways, would you go and leave. If you say you’re human, then you’ll be killed if the dragon finds you.”
The girl snapped her head up like she became worried.
“Then, you need to help me. Don’t you know a lot about the Wyrm’s nest?”
“And one more thing, when we leave here, you’re coming with us.”
P. 169
The pa.s.sageway that was in the mayor’s house was connected to a small underground room that was made like it was dug out of a rocky wall.
There were numerous big and small relief sculptures and pieces of art that were made of fluorites.
Fluorites are not expensive jewels, but this village had flourished by the limited rate of flow must have been because they could put added value onto them as pieces of art.
Edgar walked over to one of the reliefs and squinted to inspect the sign in its corner.
He thought it would be a sign, but that was what it said.
The Blue Knight Earl who appeared three-hundred years ago, Julius Ashenbert’s lover and illegitimate child was involved in a decorative art family guild and had founded the organization. However, when their descendants were murdered by Prince who feared the return of the Blue Knight Earl, the remaining artists pledged revenge and banded together to form an organization called the ‘Scarlett Moon.’
P. 170
Julius Ashenbert’s illegitimate child also had the middle name of Flendolyn and he heard that that child’s descendants were also the same.
“So there were descendants of the Blue Knight Earl who inhabited this village as craftsmen.”
“So that means around that time, the descendants of the Ashenbert family were here.”
The object Raven picked up was a letter box that was decorated with fluorites. It seemed like it was the work by the same person, but since it had scratches and black stains unlike the other ones must mean that it was a personal item.
P. 171
For a moment, Edgar’s eyes stopped on a signature. It was signed ‘Cremona.’ It was the Grand Duke of the dukedom Cremona.
It was a rare freya that only could be dug here.
He shared the blood of the Blue Knight Earl. On the other hand, the princess of Cremona was kidnapped by the man who called himself as the Blue Knight Earl.
So that he could verify the craftsman’s name, Edgar inspected the letter’s addressee.
Ulysses?
The mayor appeared himself from behind the door he was hiding in that was behind them.
“To be exact, Mister Barrow was one of two siblings. The older brother was a craftsman and the one who was the savior was the younger brother with the same name who came here later on.”
“Although this village was ripe with fluorites, we were only able to dig up a limited amount every year. Even if we tried to dig up more, the fairies would hide them. While that was happening, only he was able to communicate with the fairies and was said to be able to procure the lacking amount of fluorites.”
Most likely, to make his claim that he was right.
“How can you say that the amount that was determined by the earl in the past will be sufficient in any era? Our village at the time was just barely going by. We were all in trouble.”
Like he didn’t want to hear that, the mayor continued his own claim.
“Ever since then, this village has been deceiving your lord and continued to fraud and sell fakes.”
“And he went around acting like he was the lord here.”
“If he is the descendant of the illegitimate child, then he cannot inherit the t.i.tle.”
“……And the older brother who was in craftsmans.h.i.+p? He would surely object to his younger brother.”
The mayor only made a barely small grin, but seeing how the tradition of the artwork of this village had suddenly disappeared, it was easy to imagine what had happened.
P. 174
“Mister Barrow would periodically visit the village and made it so that the fairies couldn’t get near the mining grounds. The second Barrow who took after him was the same and possessed magical powers. If we did as Mister Barrow said, then everything would go well…. Everything was going well, until yesterday.”
“In order to get freyas, it couldn’t be helped that the infant was sacrificed. Mister Barrow visited this land two years ago saying that he would be able to awaken the dragon Wyrm that could create a true freya. Thanks to him, we will be able to mine the flaming fluorite.”
Did he say dragon?
“Lord Earl, if you claim to be the true Blue Knight Earl, then you just need to defeat the dragon on this land. Just like the earl had done in the past.”
“The villagers in the past had given up freyas in order to make the harm done by changelings go away. They begged the earl to defeat the dragon. However, our new lord did the opposite of that. Because he possessed that much power, he had the right to be the lord of this land. Since no one other than Ulysses Barrow has inherited the power of the earl.”
The right-hand man of Prince and the who was after Edgar’s life.
The descendant of the collateral bloodline of Julius Ashenbert should have been all killed off by Prince who saw them as a danger. However, most likely, by Ulysses going over to Prince’s side, he was able to survive.
In order to make that power his own.
“Where is the freya? It still shouldn’t have fallen into the hands of Ulysses.”
As he aimed the end of his hunting rifle at them, the mayor slowly stepped backwards.
Immediately, Raven went after him.
The reason he was taking time here when he should be escaping must have been to take the freya with him.
At the end of the underground tunnel, it opened up to a natural limestone cave. Sea water had gotten into it, making a bay that had a small boat floating in it.
Just when they worried that he might escape at this rate, there was something that swept by right in front of them.
That thing seemed like it was suffocating and was thras.h.i.+ng around with its whole body. It slammed up against the wall and ceiling of the limestone cave.
And then, that thing opened up its mouth side and spitted out some kind of gray ball. And like it suddenly regained its calm, it swiftly went slinking away.
“A dragon perhaps.”
P. 177
A dragon, huh. As he stood himself up, Edgar felt like he wanted to laugh out loud.
“It looked like a gigantic snake or lizard.”
The voice could be hear from the gray-colored piece of filth that was spitted out by the dragon.
“Nico! What happened to you? Weren’t you with Lydia?”
When he saw and realized Edgar, then Nico suddenly stood up and yelled out angrily.
“So you’re saying I have to defeat that?”
“Ohh, yes, yes, right, you were only just a Blue Knight Earl in name only! There’s no way you could defeat it!”
“Ahh, d.a.m.n it, how dare it put me through something like this, how am I suppose to get back at it?”
“I don’t know. As soon as we neared the nest, suddenly the Wyrm appeared, and everyone got separated. I was slurped right up, but I used all my might to not get swallowed, and so I scratched its tongue as much as I could.”
“Yeah, most likely. At least she should be with that kelpie.”
“However, I heard that Lydia had gone to investigate about Betty. Why on earth did she go and enter a dangerous place like a dragon’s nest?”
“A bride for that gigantic lizard just now?”
Nico looked like he was finally able to calm down his rage as he was beginning to get worried about the sake of Lydia.
“About that dragon, did Lydia know about that from the start?”
“Then, why did she go without saying anything to me…”
Even if Edgar was able to uncover the misdeeds of the mayor, it was because he would not be able to go against a dragon.
“Nico, guide me to the Wyrm’s nest.”
“I can’t leave Lydia by herself.”
“But, you’re not any use at all……”
“No matter what, I am the Blue Knight Earl.”
“It’s always the knight to be the one to defeat the dragon to save the princess. I happen to be descended from a knight.”
I’ll do it, thought Edgar to himself, so that it would raise his fighting spirits.
Most likely, somewhere in him, Edgar had the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to become the real Blue Knight Earl at this state.
Was it the bond of blood that was needed in the lord of the Ashenbert family?
“Uh…..Earl. Before that, could I go wash myself?”
Nico, whose necktie was pocked by the tip of the blade let out a sigh of resignation.
“The Wyrm’s rose? I don’t know about that. I’ve never seen any gra.s.s or trees growing inside this limestone cave.”
It was a stone house that stood in the middle of a cavern. That awkward sight made Lydia realize that this was the territory that was casted under the spell of the Wyrm.
She had Kelpie go search for Lota and Nico.
“Uh, Betty, about your food, were you eating only the things that were being brought to you from the dobies outside?”
Which means Betty still hasn’t put any fairy food in her mouth. If Lydia was able to take her out of here, she would be able to take the girl to the human world.
P. 182
Betty still had a look of distrust, like she couldn’t believe that, and set herself down on the stone chair.
“Earl…..”
“Did he perhaps have faint blond hair?”
Before two years ago, when Betty claimed to have been brought here, Ulysses must had come to this village at the order of Prince before Edgar had gotten the t.i.tle of Earl and was claiming himself as the Blue Knight Earl.
She didn’t want that to be so. Lydia had given her help so that Earl would become Earl, because she believed that was the method that would save him.
P. 183
“That boy is a magician. He had awakened the Wyrm’s sleep by using a fire-colored fluorite. He said that if the Wyrm wakes up, then the same type of fluorites like that crested ring would be able to be dug up.”
“That isn’t me. I’m not the real princess of Cremona. I’m just a daughter of a pirate. Because I stole only hat ring!”
Lota was standing in the open stone doorway.
Lota entered into the stone house slowly, and she appeared to be alone. She must have been wondering around the cavern and had come to this place.
More than that, what does Lota mean, she gave the crested ring to Betty?
P. 184
“I stole it. No, I was thinking of borrowing it in the beginning, but I took it out on my own and was showing it off to everyone around me. And then, John told me that it was the crest of a royal family and in a matter of time, someone who said he was a messenger of the grand duke appeared and said that he was looking for the granddaughter who had the crested ring, and by then, I had just ended my relations.h.i.+p terribly with him and was feeling horrible, and Papa had just died, and I thought it didn’t matter if I lose everything if I could become a princess, and so I betrayed even you, and said that it was my ring.”
Betty made a panic-stricken face and turned to eyes away to look down.
“…..No, you’re lying, Pino was always complimenting about you, Lota,”
Betty went completely silent like she was totally confused.
P. 185
Betty had said she had lost her interest in Edgar because of Ermine, but the both of them weren’t able to tell their feelings to the one they really loved, and so they were two who were similar to each other and wanted someone as a replacement.
Even though, anyone, even Lydia, wasn’t able to be a replacement for the person he truly cared about.
“You’re so soft-hearted, Lota.”
Betty covered her face with her hands and burst out crying.
Lydia felt tears weld up in her eyes, and thought now, I really have to rescue Betty from the Wyrm no matter what.
It sounded like the whole limestone cave was shaking, and it gradually seemed to come closer.
It felt like the air outside the building was one pins and needles.
“To the Wyrm?”
Lota grabbed Betty’s arm to stop her from getting up.
“No, there’s no need for you to have to obey the Wyrm anymore.”
P. 187
“Lydia, I’m leaving her to you.”
In no time to stop her, Lota went out through the doorway.
“Hey, Wyrm! From today your bride is going to be me. Since Betty has already left!”
“What is Lota planning to do…”
As Lydia stopped Betty from going, she slowly eased herself to take a look outside.
(You are going to be? Don’t think you can do as you please. I only take n.o.ble maidens as my wife.)
The dragon’s irises that looked like they were split down the center of its eye, opened wide in surprise at Lota.
“Didn’t you notice? For a n.o.ble maiden, wasn’t that girl boorish, half-hearted and irresponsible?”
(Indeed, she couldn’t learn quickly and was quick to sulk. I was thinking of what a unmanageable wife she was.)
If Betty was able to escape from here, it seems like Lota didn’t mind to leave behind as the real bride of the Wyrm.
But still, she thought that this situation was better than the one before.
As Betty as here a very long time, that time alone was enough of an magic influence, so it wouldn’t be easy to lead her outside, but there still was a chance to get her out without having her being bound to the Wyrm.
In the end, Lydia had to take the dangerous step of getting near the Wyrm, but if that would save everyone, even the stolen baby then that means it was worth for her to brave that danger.
P. 189
“Wasn’t your bride the Grand princess of Cremona? I’m saying that I’m her. So, that means you’ll have to forget about Betty.”
(Come.)
The two large eyes blinked two, three times and backed away from the hole in the wall. At that same time, the Wyrm swayed its body again, and the rumble o