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Chapter 352: Observers (2)

Oscar’s room.

Seiro, sitting on the sofa with his eyes wide open, muttered a chilling warning.

“Don’t forget. I’ll remember what happened today for a long, long time.”

Flick!

“Ah!”

“Where do you get off speaking casually to an adult? Do you even know how old I am?”

After flicking the boy’s forehead, Oscar quietly brewed coffee.

The Mad Fiend naturally leaned back against his usual spot in the corner of the room.

“Want a cup?”

“Coffee, you say. A beverage that forcibly stimulates the nerves to maintain a temporary state of alertness. It may help with immediate arousal, but in the end, it merely postpones current fatigue to later. Above all, it’s extremely bitter and tastes awful.”

Slurp.

So that last part was the real point.

“Then cocoa?”

“…If I had to choose, that would be better than coffee. Instead of forcibly elevating the nerves, it stabilizes them more gently. And it replenishes sugar as well, so for a human, it’s quite a decent suggestion. Give me a cup.”

Yeah, a child’s palate.

Oscar handed him a mug of cocoa and sat down on the sofa.

“Then was it the Dragon Lord who sent you?”

“That’s right. The Lord personally entrusted me with this task.”

Saying that, Seiro puffed out his chest proudly, clearly brimming with pride.

“Hmm.”

Oscar stroked his chin, thinking.

To be honest, the lizard in front of him was weak.

So weak that he felt it would lose even if thrown among the troublemakers of the Special Operations Division.

‘Then did they deliberately not send a strong dragon for this reconnaissance?’

After a moment of thought, Oscar asked:

“The dragon that headed north—are they around your level too?”

“No. Elder Valterion went there. For reference, he’s not even comparable to someone like me in terms of strength. So you’d better start treating me well in advance.”

After giving the smug Seiro another flick on the forehead, Oscar sank back into thought.

‘Valterion… I’ve met him before.’

He remembered him as a rather aggressive red dragon.

In that case, it meant they had sent a strong dragon to the north and a weak one to the south.

‘This one said their purpose in coming down was reconnaissance.’

But even if this was the Demon Realm, there was no reason to deploy an elder-level dragon just for reconnaissance.

Which meant Valterion might have been assigned ‘another mission’ that even this one didn’t know about.

‘It’s not certain yet. I’ll have to meet him to know.’

Oscar set down his coffee cup and asked:

“You said you’re joining up in two days?”

“Yeah. He said he’d come find me where I am.”

Basically, dragons can sense each other’s locations or states.

That was how Edna had noticed the presence of the two lizards.

Of course, if one deliberately suppressed their presence, even that became difficult.

“Good. Then stay put quietly until Valterion arrives. I think I’ll need to have a proper conversation with him.”

“Are you planning to use me as a hostage?”

“Then what did you think you were until now?”

“Tch, if I just open my mouth—”

“Go ahead.”

Oscar spoke calmly, crossing his legs.

He was certain—the hatchling in front of him couldn’t defeat him.

The moment it opened its mouth to use word magic, he was confident he could cut off its tongue.

Perhaps it knew that as well, because it only made an unpleasant expression and didn’t argue further.

“…Then give me more cocoa.”

“There’s some in the cupboard. Make it yourself. And Mad Fiend.”

At the call, the Mad Fiend in the corner raised his head slightly.

Oscar gestured toward Seiro with his chin.

“I’m going out for a bit, so keep an eye on this guy.”

“W-wait.”

Startled, Seiro hurriedly spoke.

“You’re telling me to stay alone with that monster?”

“It’s fine. The Mad Fiend doesn’t bite people recklessly.”

“…I’m a dragon, though?”

Seiro shouted desperately toward Oscar’s back as he left the room.

“D-doesn’t bite dragons either, right? I’ll be fine, right?”

* * *

The place Oscar went to was the rooftop of the White Tower.

Looking around, he saw Edna, who seemed to have grown taller since the first time he’d come here.

“What are you looking at?”

Even as he approached, her gaze remained fixed on the distance.

“When I see humans—who live at most a few decades, or at longest a hundred years—living so busily… it makes me reflect on myself.”

“Because you wonder why you don’t live that diligently?”

Oscar stood beside her and looked out over the bustling city.

“Isn’t it inevitable? If anything, it’s because life is short that they can live so busily.”

“Is that so?”

“If we could live for thousands of years like you, even up to ten thousand, we’d probably take it easy too.”

Edna, mulling over his words, gave a small nod.

“…That may be true.”

With a slightly relieved expression, she asked:

“Did you come because you had something to say to me?”

“Ah, right. I heard Valterion went beyond the Red Mountains.”

“Valterion… I see. No wonder they both felt familiar.”

“What do you think their real purpose is? They didn’t just come to check if the war is over, right?”

“They’re probably most curious about the current state of the continent. Whether the war has ended, and if so, who won, and what has changed compared to the past.”

When distance grows, so does emotional distance—and eventually, interest fades.

But after leaving the planet for 21 years, they suddenly send a reconnaissance mission?

Oscar frowned.

“They’re not thinking of coming back, are they?”

“I think that possibility is rather high. Otherwise, there would be no need to send scouts.”

“Hah.”

It’s not like some former lover who cheated and left, only to come back saying, “It’s still you after all.”

They ran away because they were afraid of the demons, and now they want to return shamelessly?

Oscar clicked his tongue lightly.

“This is going to be uncomfortable. And even if they do return, a lot will be different from before.”

“That’s likely true.”

First of all, no one would welcome the dragons’ return.

In the past, dragons were respected because they were observers and recorders of the world—and ultimately, its final arbiters.

But they had abandoned their duty and fled at the most critical moment.

“Sigh, the Emperor uncle is going to be furious when he hears this.”

Wasn’t he the one who, enraged by their departure, erased records as soon as the war ended?

“What kind of face do they think they can come back with? Is it because their skin—no, their scales—are thick?”

“Oscar.”

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you.”

“No, that’s not it…”

Her voice cracked as she swallowed, barely managing to force out the words.

“He… is dead.”

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“…What?”

“He’s dead. I’m certain. He’s dead. I can feel it.”

Not understanding her words, Oscar straightened from where he had been leaning against the railing.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Who’s dead?”

“Valterion. Just before dying, he sent his location data.”

As Edna stirred her mana, a massive map of the continent appeared before her.

Her eyes moved quickly before she pointed to a spot with her index finger, marking the location.

“Here.”

“….”

Oscar’s gaze did not waver as he looked at the marked point.

He asked in a more serious tone than ever before:

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

That place was one he knew all too well.

How could he not—it was where he had died in his previous life.

“That’s the Great Emperor’s Castle.”

“I don’t know why Valterion went there, but the place where he died is indeed there.”

His mind filled with stormy thoughts.

‘…Valterion is an elder-level dragon.’

Meaning he was among the highest-ranking beings in his race, aside from the Lord.

Such a being went north—and was killed.

Oscar’s thoughts raced.

‘If he died at the Great Emperor’s Castle, is the culprit likely the Second Great Emperor?’

Then why had Valterion gone there in the first place?

Could it be that he was surveying the north, happened to pass by the castle, and encountered the Emperor?

‘No way.’

Dragons are observers of the world.

No map in existence would be more accurate than the information in Valterion’s head.

‘He must have gone there deliberately.’

And he was killed there.

The missing middle of that sequence couldn’t be deduced here.

Oscar abruptly turned around.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to see Seiro.”

When the two returned to the room, Seiro wore a dazed expression.

But the moment his trembling eyes spotted Edna, he sprang up and ran toward her.

“A-aunt. Just now, did Elder Valterion send his location data—no. No, that’s not it. Elder Valterion didn’t send any signal, right? Right?”

“….”

Edna lowered her gaze slightly.

A strong tremor could be felt from the sleeve he had grabbed.

The source of that tremor was fear.

Letting out a faint sigh, she spoke as gently as possible.

“Listen carefully, Seiro. Just now, Elder Valterion died.”

“….”

Edna grabbed Seiro’s shoulders and shook him as he stood frozen in shock.

“Do you know why he went to the Demon Realm? Do you know why he died?”

“I, I…”

Terrified, Seiro shook his head and tried to step back.

But Edna gripped his shoulders even tighter.

“If you know anything, you must tell us. Do you really know nothing at all?”

“….”

After hesitating for a long while, Seiro finally parted his lips with difficulty.

“F-first, I came south to find out whether the war had ended. And if it had, what species currently rules the continent, whether the Human Alliance still exists, and things like that.”

“Go on.”

“But Elder Valterion… seemed to have another purpose as well.”

“Why do you think that?”

“…Before we came here, the Lord told us what to do if a companion died.”

Seiro’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the sofa.

“At the time, I thought it was just something adults say out of formality…”

“What did the Lord say?”

At that question, Seiro raised his head and stared at Edna.

“He told me to go find you.”

“…Me?”

Edna’s brows furrowed slightly.

“Why? Because I have enough power to protect someone like you?”

“I-I don’t know. He said that if a situation arose where I had to find you, then I should say this.”

Recalling the Dragon Lord’s words, Seiro slowly opened his mouth.

“He said to find the place that contains eternity.”

“A place that contains eternity? Edna, do you have any idea what that means?”

At Oscar’s question, she answered calmly.

“…Dragons have observed and recorded all of history since the birth of this star, but they could never find a medium to record it on. No matter how durable the material—paper, stone, even vast natural formations—everything changes and disappears over time. So the first Dragon Lord thought: if it doesn’t exist, then we will create it ourselves and record all history there.”

“A place like that exists?”

“Yes. That place is a colossal repository created by the first Dragon Lord, who liberated the world with his own hands.”

Walking to the window, she pulled aside the blackout curtains, revealing a dark night sky where the sun had already set.

Piercing through that darkness was a brightly shining gray moon.

Looking up at it, Edna spoke.

“That place is the Memory of Origin Node. Commonly called M.O.O.N. The place we call the moon.”

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