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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Dragon Heart
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“Sigh.”
At my sigh, the elders, who had been stuffing their faces with dessert, flinched.
“Now what do we do?”
The elders had blurted out that Enoch and I were seeing each other with marriage in mind, and then there was the public kiss.
Everything lined up so perfectly that not a single noble present doubted their words.
Thanks to that, the protests directed at Enoch, claiming his actions were too harsh, did disappear.
Which was to be expected, I suppose.
Family matters aside, the duke had just struck a woman who might one day become empress. In that light, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on even if his hand were cut off, leaving the other nobles with nothing more to say.
I don't know if they'd anticipated this when they said it, but…
In any case, thanks to the elders' absurd claim, a situation that could have turned against Enoch was resolved with anticlimactic ease.
“For now, it would be best to pretend to be lovers until things quiet down.”
“Haaah.”
As I sighed once more, Enoch, who was beside me, finally spoke up.
He'd seemed out of it this whole time, but it looked like he had finally come to his senses.
“Riana, I'm sorry. You've been dragged into this troublesome affair because of me.”
“No, it's not Your Majesty's fault—”
*Thump.*
I glanced over, and my eyes met Enoch's mid-air.
Our gazes naturally drifted down to each other's lips, and our faces, which had just begun to cool, flushed crimson once more.
I knew it had been necessary to stop his rampage, but the memory of that soft touch kept returning, making my face burn. I quickly turned my head away.
“Ahem! It's not your fault, Your Majesty. In fact, I was worried I might have caused you trouble, so I'm glad I could be of help.”
“A-ahem! Thank you for saying so.”
Watching the two of us needlessly clearing our perfectly fine throats, the elders chuckled softly.
“Your Majesty, Little Marquess. This situation might actually be a blessing in disguise.”
“It is?”
“To stop His Majesty's rampage, the two of you need to be in contact, don't you? Isn't it much better to have a reason to touch than to be doing so when you're nothing to each other?”
“...That's true.”
Caught up in their enchanting chuckles, I found myself nodding along. Then I noticed the bedsheets rustling and turned to see a pair of green eyes sparkling from under the bed.
“Ariel?”
“Muma!”
“Goodness. When did you get in there?”
I hadn't seen her since the partition fell.
Who knows how long she'd been hiding, but Ariel came wriggling out from under the bed.
“A-achoo!”
Covered in a fine layer of dust, her nose must have been itchy, as a few cute sneezes echoed through the room.
I hastily dusted her off and used a handkerchief to wipe her sniffling, tiny nose. Then, feeling a peculiar gaze on my back, I turned and flinched.
“What is it? What are those looks for?”
Seeing the two old men with twitching cheekbones, I scooped Ariel up defensively.
“The child resembles you a great deal, Little Marquess.”
“Yes, I know.”
I returned to the sofa and set her down, and Ariel crawled over to sit snugly between me and Enoch.
“Hehe.”
I stroked the head of the beaming child, wondering what had made her so happy, and her chestnut-brown hair rustled between my fingers.
‘She couldn't have heard what Elisha said earlier, could she?’
I worried that if she'd been in the room the whole time, she might have heard Elisha denying her existence. But as she met my gaze with a bright, innocent smile, I smiled back.
Ah. I guess not.
Even if she had heard, she's too young to understand such words. I must be worrying for nothing.
“Muma, I wuv you!”
I patted the back of the child, who must have been startled by all the commotion, and Ariel threw herself into my lap.
As I picked the remaining dust from the hair of the child rubbing her face against my soft dress, one of the grinning elders' eyes lit up.
“Is she your daughter, Little Marquess?”
“What?”
“Could she perhaps be between His Majesty and you...”
“Ah! What are you talking about!”
“She is not!”
I knew there was a reason they were looking at us with those strangely pleased expressions.
At the ridiculous suggestion, Enoch and I shot up from our seats at the same time. Our eyes met, and we awkwardly sat back down.
“Oh... she isn't?”
What's with that tone? Why do you sound so disappointed?
No. But now that I think about it, it was absurd.
Common sense dictates that if we've only been holding hands for a little over a month, we couldn't possibly have a child.
“But the resemblance is too strong for that to be the case.”
As the elders glanced between me and Enoch, unable to let it go, Ariel, who had been watching them while sucking her thumb, poked me.
“Muma!”
Then she poked Enoch.
“Papa!”
“...”
“...”
I feel like this has happened before...
The child's sudden declaration made both my and Enoch's eyes tremble in shock.
“So all this time, when she was saying ‘abu, abu’...”
“She was really trying to say ‘papa’.”
I looked helplessly at the child, who was excitedly tugging at my and Enoch's clothes, and quickly added,
“Oh, please don't misunderstand! Her speech is still developing.”
“Gwanpa! Bwead!”
As if to refute my words, Ariel began pointing at things and speaking with pronunciation that had become clearer overnight.
“Sissy! Choco!”
At this display, the elders' eyes narrowed meaningfully.
“The young lady is very clever. She speaks quite well, doesn't she?”
I began to sweat nervously and held up my index finger in front of Ariel's face.
“Alright, Ariel, repeat after me. Ri. A. Na.”
“Muma!”
This time, Enoch, who had been watching, leaned down toward Ariel.
“Now, try to repeat after me. E. Noch.”
“Papa!”
“Why... why does she only call us that?”
“I have no idea...”
Focused on Ariel, we hadn't realized how close our faces had become. We both quickly pulled back.
“Ahem! It's a bit warm in this room.”
“Hmph! Indeed it is.”
Fanning my face with my hand, I turned to the two elders, who were watching us with sly expressions, and stated firmly,
“She's my cousin's child, who I'm looking after for a while. Please don't get any strange ideas.”
“Aww.”
My words seemed to disappoint them, and the two men smacked their lips and began to whisper.
“It's fine. There are still plenty of opportunities, are there not?”
Excuse me? What opportunities?
“Yes. If it's not true, we just have to make it true...!”
Hello? Make what true?
I eyed the two of them suspiciously as they seemed to be plotting something. They then nonchalantly changed the subject as if they'd said nothing at all.
“In any case, isn't it a stroke of luck? That you, Little Marquess, can stop His Majesty's rampages.”
“Hmm...”
Feeling deeply suspicious, I watched the elders for a moment before bringing up a question that had been on my mind.
“By the way, I have a question. That ice shard you said was embedded in His Majesty's heart—how can we get rid of it?”
I had already confirmed with my own eyes that physical contact warmed Enoch's body when a rampage occurred.
The problem was, I had no information beyond that.
Even Enoch didn't know the specifics of how to erase the power itself, the root of the problem engraved on his heart.
At my question, the two exchanged glances again, and the White Elder's eyes darted around.
“We have a theory, but...”
“What is it?”
“It's not certain yet, so we will tell you after we've looked into it further. For now, just keep making contact.”
“Contact? We're already doing that.”
As if to demonstrate, I took the large hand resting beside me, causing Enoch, who was lifting his teacup, to stutter in his movements.
“A lot. You must make contact as much as possible.”
“What? How much is ‘a lot’—”
“Just a lot! All the time. Whenever you see each other, hold hands, hug, things like that! You must melt the ice steadily, little by little!”
It was an answer delivered with an almost unsettling amount of enthusiasm, but I agreed for the time being. The White Elder smiled with satisfaction and stroked his beard.
“Hmm. It is strange, though. As far as I know, Little Marquess, you do not possess the power of fire.”
“I was just about to bring that up.”
Enoch, who had been fiddling with his lips ever since I took his hand, leaned forward.
“Can a special ability be stolen?”
“What?”
At Enoch's low question, the Black Elder put down the pastry in his hand, looking startled.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Earlier, the moment the duke's daughter touched Riana, I felt as if the power in Riana's body vanished in an instant.”
At Enoch's words, the elder's gaze, which had been probing the air as if measuring something, turned to me.
“Is what His Majesty said true?”
“Yes. I did feel something leaving my body.”
*Tap, tap.*
The wrinkled fingers slowly tapped the armrest of his chair.
“Did you notice anything unusual when you came into contact with the duke's daughter?”
“Unusual?”
The elder's question brought to mind Elisha's strangely glowing ring.
“Her ring.”
“The ring, you say?”
“Yes. A ring with a red gemstone. The moment that ring touched my skin, I felt something drain from my body.”
“A red gemstone... Don't tell me... Your Majesty! Could you please open a portal to the palace for a moment?”
Upon hearing my answer, the elder quickly disappeared through the portal and returned with a box layered in magic.
He carefully opened the box, took out its contents, and asked for my confirmation.
“How about this? Is this what you saw, Little Marquess?”
“It's similar, but the one I saw was much smaller, and its color was a deeper, more vivid red.”
Even as I spoke, I reached out as if mesmerized. As I touched it, I felt that familiar sensation of something being pulled out of my body.
“...Huh?”
The large gemstone began to glow with the same strange light as Elisha's ring. I stared at it, then looked at the Black Elder in confusion.
“...What is this?”
“A heart. A dragon's.”
