Julian signaled to Theodore with his eyes. The Personal Guard quickly nodded and hid the mace behind his cloak.
“Whew.”
Julian breathed a sigh of relief before shamelessly declaring,
“I thought another demon might come after you, Hatchling, but to think the culprits were Mages of the Liberation Army.”
“I-It was worth…… keeping watch.”
Theodore spoke stiffly. Julian hurriedly added,
“As the commander of the Liberation Army, I will take responsibility for these Mages and…….”
“Please hear us out! We were not targeting the dragon!”
Rob, the Mage from House Etain, shouted urgently.
“We merely wanted to check whether the face beneath the eggshell helmet truly belonged to a dragon!”
“Why is that for you to verify?”
“B-Because dragons are the gods of magic!”
Rob continued speaking as tears streamed from his eyes, which he could not open.
“Mages like us…… cannot help but revere dragons like gods and follow them. Th-That is why we were anxious to know whether he truly was a dragon and whether we could follow him wholeheartedly.”
“Ha.”
Julian scoffed.
“Mages, honestly…….”
“You need evidence before you can believe in a god? How does that make any sense?”
As a devout Holy Knight, Theodore was genuinely bewildered. Julian shook his head.
“That is how Mages are.”
A prince who possessed only Divine Power might not have understood, but Julian’s soul had once belonged to a Mage. He thought he understood what they had been thinking.
‘They must have found it suspicious that the hatchling avoided only me.’
Dragons were the masters of magic and possessed unfathomable Magic Power.
Mages naturally felt awe and attraction toward dragons.
However, rather than immediately acknowledging those feelings, Mages were also the sort who would first analyze what kind of dragon they were dealing with, what attribute its power possessed, and approximately how much Magic Power it had.
‘He was held captive by demons for a long time, and he avoids me even though my Divine Power is the strongest. They must have intended to uncover the hatchling’s true identity because they found him suspicious.’
They had probably also hoped to regain the favor they had lost with Julian and the Liberation Army.
One might wonder what they had been thinking when the hatchling could have killed them, but cornered men often resorted to extreme measures.
“F-For that reason…….”
The hatchling, who had been struggling to balance the broken eggshell on his head to conceal himself, stopped moving. Julian quickly infused his voice with Divine Power.
“Do not worry. I momentarily blinded them with the light of Divine Power.”
“!”
The hatchling’s eyes trembled. Realizing that his words were working, Julian spoke more sternly in his most princely manner.
“When a great being does not wish to reveal himself, who would dare defy his will? This was nothing more than the foolish act of ignorant men. None of them could have seen the great dragon with their naked eyes.”
Tears continued to stream from the Mages’ tightly closed eyes as they nodded frantically.
“Th-That is correct!”
“There was a sudden flash of white light! It felt as though our eyes were burning, and we could not see anything!”
The hatchling watched them and contemplated Julian’s words.
CRUMBLE.
The piece of eggshell in his tiny hand shattered and fell to the floor.
The hatchling opened his mouth.
“Rrrawr…… I may still be a hatchling, but I am a dragon, rawr. Among humans, I intended to look kindly upon those who follow the Path of Mana, rawr.”
“W-We were wrong!”
“Please forgive us……!”
Rob and the other Mages wept as they pressed their foreheads against the floor. The hatchling growled.
“I am deeply disappointed, rawr. If I followed my heart, I would throw you insolent fools to the monsters as food, rawr.”
The Mages began hiccupping in terror. The hatchling continued.
“But that would only fill the monsters’ stomachs, would it not, rawr?”
He was not sparing them because he found them endearing.
He could throw insignificant creatures like them to the monsters at any time.
The Mages trembled before the cruel magnanimity unique to a transcendent being.
The hatchling watched them, flicked his tail sharply against the floor, and spoke.
“For now, I still hate monsters and demons more than humans, rawr. I will spare you this once, rawr.”
“Th-Thank you!”
“But I cannot simply let you go, rawr.”
The hatchling spoke sternly.
“I am not the sort of dragon who does nothing after being attacked, rawr. You attacked my head, so the hair on yours will disappear too, rawr.”
“!”
The moment the hatchling finished speaking, the Mages’ hair began falling out in clumps. Even though they could not see, they felt the chilling sensation and rubbed their heads in horror.
“Wh-What is this……?!”
He had said that he would spare them, only to make them bald!
‘That is not what you said!’
‘This is too cruel! Sob!’
They opened and closed their mouths, unable to voice their thoughts. Noticing the insolence creeping into their expressions, Julian warned them coldly.
“Would you prefer your heads to be covered in scales?”
Theodore added,
“Or would you prefer your heads to be separated from your bodies?”
“!”
Cold sweat instantly ran down the Mages’ backs.
The dragon, Julian, and Theodore were all capable of separating them from the world of the living in an instant.
Yet instead of being grateful that their lives had been spared, they had nearly become insolent again!
“N-No!”
“We will never forget the mercy you have shown us!”
“Get out, rawr!”
The hatchling ordered them to leave.
Rob and the other Mages began crawling away while remaining prostrate. None dared open their eyes or attempt to stand.
Once they had desperately crawled through the door of the Headmaster’s Office, the hatchling threw away the remaining eggshell fragment in his hand.
“Humans truly cannot be trusted, rawr……!”
He shouted before collapsing onto the floor.
“This is too cruel, rawr. I thought I could trust humans who practiced magic, even if I could not trust the others, rawr…….”
“Hmm.”
Julian looked down at the hatchling’s small head.
He saw the appearance that both the Mages and Julian himself had intended to uncover by breaking the eggshell.
Black, blotch-like stains had spread across the hatchling’s head.
Julian asked,
“……Has Lucifer’s energy seeped into you?”
“Rrrawr, that is right, rawr.”
Sniffling, the hatchling confessed what had happened.
Lucifer had often remained in the Headmaster’s Office in the form of a snake, cradling the Dragon Egg within his coils. The hatchling had still been weak inside the egg and had become contaminated by the Demon Lord’s sinister Magic Power.
“Rrrawr…… Black demonic Magic Power has mixed with my own Magic Power, rawr. I was afraid you would notice it with your Divine Power, rawr.”
“So that is why you avoided me. Even so, you could have cooperated in restoring the Magical Defense Barrier, could you not?”
“But what if my demonic Magic Power created a breach in the Magical Defense Barrier, rawr? That would be dangerous…….”
The hatchling spoke dejectedly. Julian clicked his tongue.
“You cannot avoid the problem forever. Without the Magical Defense Barrier, the demons will target the areas we have painstakingly reclaimed. Even with a breach, having the barrier would still be better than having none at all.”
“But activating the Magical Defense Barrier requires a human Headmaster, rawr.”
The hatchling continued.
“I was told that humans are greedy and will tear pieces away from a dragon if it reveals that it is imperfect or has a weakness, rawr.”
Who had taught him something so painfully accurate?
Julian flinched inwardly.
In a situation like this, even if the hatchling went to the trouble of erecting the Magical Defense Barrier, the humans would complain whenever a demon entered through the contaminated breach.
As expected, he is unqualified!
How can a contaminated dragon serve as the guardian of the Academy?
What of our history and tradition, and so on and so forth……?
Julian contemplated the problem.
‘How do I sell him on this?’
Simply telling the hatchling, ‘Trust me. I am different,’ would not work in this situation.
Rescuing Sion from Lucifer’s Bottomless Pit and helping the hatchling during the recent incident might have earned Julian a little trust, but that was all.
‘Asking for the position of Headmaster now will only have the opposite effect. I need to offer him something that will provide practical help and win him over.’
Julian looked down at the small, dejected head.
He recalled the particularly young or small freshmen who had struggled to adjust after arriving at the Academy.
-I am not sure whether I truly belong here.
-Those bastards bully me whenever they get the chance.
‘The hatchling will not end up like them, will he?’
What if he followed the example of the students who had withdrawn and declared, ‘I am leaving this place filled with demons and untrustworthy humans, rawr!’ before spreading his wings and disappearing?
Julian’s face went pale.
Without the hatchling, they would be unable to protect the buildings they had reclaimed with the Magical Defense Barrier. Saving the Academy from the demons would become nearly impossible.
‘Still, that would only be the lesser evil. The worst outcome would be the hatchling falling to darkness.’
What if the hatchling declared, ‘An Academy crawling with untrustworthy humans cannot possibly be my domain, rawr!’ and melted every building with his Dragon Breath?
‘My Academy! My gold mine! My cushy position!’
The silver spoon, bloodline, and Divine Power Julian had gained through his second possession would all disappear, while he, his closest aides, and everyone in the Academy would be sent straight into hellfire together.
This was no time to hesitate. Concealing his mounting panic, Julian wiped his palms against his trousers.
‘To hell with it. Since it is dark Magic Power, perhaps Divine Power can do something about it.’
Ahem. He cleared his throat and asked in the reassuring tone he used when counseling students.
“May I try using Divine Power on you for a moment?”
The hatchling stared at him briefly before obediently offering his head. Julian gently stroked the black stains with a hand filled with Divine Power.
‘Hmm. The edges may have faded a little.’
However, this alone was not enough. Julian racked his brain.
‘There must be some method…….’
Julian’s gaze swept across the room.
His eyes landed on the hammer the Mages from House Etain had abandoned.
‘……Perhaps there is?’
***
The Welfare Building stood beside the Main Building.
Ruled by Moloch, the Demon Lord of Deprivation, the building had originally supported the welfare of the Academy.
It contained cafeterias for students and professors, numerous shops, branches of merchant guilds, and the largest bank in the Empire. It had once been constantly crowded with students from the Academy.
However, that had been five years ago.
The old Welfare Building no longer possessed its former liveliness.
“Hehe…….”
Inside an old kitchen storeroom—
Seir, a demon with beautiful long blond hair and eyes like ice, floated in the air and laughed.
“Take it all. Hehe…….”
Her voice was gentle and soothing. However, to the students listening, it sounded like a death sentence.
“P-Please spare us!”
“We were wrong! We will never try to steal anything from you again, Lady Seir!”
“Hehe. You were brave enough to try stealing from a demon, were you not? I, Seir, am generous toward people like you.”
She lightly waved her hand. With a single use of the demon’s Supernatural Ability, the spacious storeroom was filled with bread.
“Go on. Eat as much as you like. Hurry.”
The students swallowed at her soft voice.
Driven beyond endurance by starvation, they had secretly entered the storeroom because they had decided that, if they were going to die anyway, they might as well eat first.
The rich, savory aroma unique to fresh bread made their noses twitch involuntarily, while their stomachs cramped violently.
“Do not hesitate. When will you ever have another opportunity like this?”
At Seir’s words, one of the conflicted students finally picked up a loaf of bread.
SNATCH.
Cracked lips tore into the bread.
Then the gluttony began.
They ate and ate. Their stomachs, unaccustomed to receiving food after so long, rebelled and forced them to vomit, but they began eating again.
“GACK……!”
One student choked, pounded desperately against his chest, and collapsed with foam spilling from his mouth. Beside his twitching, unconscious friend, the other students clutched their stomachs, which felt ready to burst, and continued cramming bread into their mouths.
“Do not hesitate. When will you ever have another opportunity like this?”
Whenever they tried to stop, Seir repeated the same words. Her voice stirred the starving students’ anxiety.
Once they left this place, they would starve again. They might never even see bread. They did not know when they would next have the opportunity to eat.
After suffering from starvation for so long, the students’ minds were easily swept away by fear at the slightest provocation. With bloodshot eyes, they continued stuffing bread into their mouths.
“Urrgh…….”