A Blend of Romance and Fantasy - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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23.
—If you’re going to sneak in without anyone knowing, at least show some courtesy! Knock on the window, or else I’ll call off the engagement!
Since Leonard possessed the ability to freely enter and exit the Princess Palace, I had no choice but to impose this condition.
Fortunately, it seemed the threat of a broken engagement frightened him enough—Leonard sat obediently on the window frame, waiting for me to open it.
“….”
Just moments before, I had been contemplating Leonard’s life. By any measure, it was a pitiful existence.
I couldn’t help but see him differently now.
“Come in.”
“Pardon the intrusion.”
He wore different clothes than last time. A thin robe draped over his shoulders, as if he’d been preparing for bed.
My sympathy lasted only a moment before panic seized me at the thought of what others might see.
“Leonard, what’s the matter? If possible, we should discuss this tomorrow in a public place—”
But when I turned my head again, there stood the Red Dragon—or rather, Ignis.
Still wearing that sullen expression.
“Ignis?”
I had nearly finished reading the book Leonard gave me, 【Habuildar】.
I now knew that the dragon before me was Ignis, a young Red Dragon who hadn’t yet reached full maturity.
And that his personality was exceptionally foul and arrogant.
“I came because I needed to discuss this matter with you urgently. It’s not something we can discuss in a public place.”
“What is it?”
“Can you summon?”
My eyes narrowed at Leonard’s question.
“Are you bragging about summoning a dragon? And how could I, without any magical power?”
“Don’t be so stubborn. Are you a diamond?”
“Good heavens… Are you joking right now?”
“This one’s sense of humor is the worst. What’s even worse is that he finds it amusing.”
Leonard scratched the back of his neck sheepishly as Ignis and I stared in shock.
“In any case… the reason I came is to ask if you would contract with Ignis as a summoner and summoned beast.”
After my initial bewilderment, my eyes widened.
“Wasn’t Ignis already contracted with you?”
“A transfer contract will suffice. It’s simple if both Ignis and you consent.”
“Why are you asking me to make a contract?”
“You don’t even know? A magnificent dragon like me wants to stay by your side to protect your female.”
At another outrageous word, my mind reeled as I grabbed Ignis’s body and shook him vigorously.
“Please stop using such words! Why do you even have the word ‘female’?”
“W-what’s wrong with what I said! You’re such a worthless thing without a summoned beast, so I’m being given to you, right? Stop, stop it!”
“Ignis.”
In an instant, Ignis slipped from my grasp.
It was Leonard. He pressed Ignis’s mouth shut with his index and thumb.
“Please be quiet. And that’s not the reason.”
“Bwup bwup! Bwup bwup!!”
He was clearly trying to maintain a stern expression, but the faint blush creeping up his neck betrayed him.
Well, he certainly had good taste in companions.
Despite his massive frame, he was rather… cute.
‘What on earth am I thinking?’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a chill ran down my spine.
Leonard finally managed to compose himself and asked.
“So, will you accept this creature as your summoned familiar?”
I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes. I kept my gaze fixed on a distant point as I answered.
“If… if Ignis is willing, then I’m willing too.”
“Anyone would be willing. He’s desperate to escape from me, after all.”
“What did you make Ignis do?”
“That’s a secret.”
As Ignis bounced frantically in Leonard’s palm, his grip loosened.
The sight was so trivial and adorable that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ignis, will you make a contract with me?”
“…If you give me plenty of jewels and gold. And I prefer beds.”
“How absolutely precious you are.”
“Wait until you see his true form. Those words will stick in your throat.”
“Then I’ll just take them back when the time comes. I want to make the contract. How do I do it? I don’t have any magical power.”
Leonard, who had been eyeing Ignis with a crooked expression, offered a faint smile.
“Deliño’s tears will be sufficient for the contract. Where are they?”
“Oh!”
I retrieved the jewel box from the very last drawer of my desk and took out Deliño’s tears, which I had carefully stored inside.
“You kept something so precious in a jewel box? Without even a protective barrier?”
“My Princess Palace has multiple layers of barriers. The fact that you waltzed in so easily is what’s strange.”
I shot him a glare, but all I got in return was an infuriating shrug.
…Scratch that sympathetic feeling. Scratch the ‘cute’ thought too!
I slammed Deliño’s tears onto the desk with a bang, and Leonard approached.
“Now then, let us begin the contract transfer.”
“Don’t you dare make it anything strange.”
“This is your home ground, and I’m here to help you. Why would I do such a thing?”
“You’re always suspicious. Honestly, I still question whether helping you is the right thing to do. Really.”
“What would it take for you to trust me?”
“Your face alone makes you untrustworthy.”
“Would you trust me if I looked like Cedric? Like a Romance Fantasy novel male lead?”
Leonard parried my endless complaints with ease, and at the end, he chanted some incantation.
Soon, golden letters began inscribing themselves above Deliño’s tears. They resembled the ancient language of dragons.
The script swiftly translated itself into the common tongue of Elysium.
[ Leonard Blackwood Blake has agreed to transfer his contract with the Red Dragon Ignis to Charlotte Sincester.
Do you agree?]
I hesitated for only a moment before nodding.
Then a small knife gleaming golden materialized from thin air.
“What is this?”
“Just prick your finger on the blade. A single drop of blood to bury your soul’s information.”
“I don’t like pain.”
Even as I grumbled, I did as instructed, and the golden letters vanished rapidly.
“Is that really all?”
“It’s a preliminary contract. If you think I’ve lied, we can perform a blood oath instead.”
A blood oath—it meant two people each wagering their lives on a contract.
It was a sacred law that the Pope presided over in the name of God, absolutely unbreakable.
“And you’re bringing this up now that everything’s finished…”
“Hurray! Finally it’s all done!”
Ignis’s delighted cry abruptly cut off our conversation.
He then raised his short front legs and shouted “Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!” three more times before spinning in circles.
“Finally I can escape that wretched Leonard! I’ll miss the bed, but good riddance to that bastard!!”
“I didn’t know you could be so happy. So you really are a vicious creature after all.”
“That’s a misunderstanding.”
It was when Leonard exhaled a laugh-tinged sigh.
Red light began emanating slowly from Ignis’s body.
“Why is Ignis like this, Leonard?”
“Aaaahhh!?”
Soon Ignis’s voice rang out loudly throughout the room.
Boom!!
With the sound of a balloon bursting, red smoke filled the entire room.
When the smoke had completely settled, I froze like a statue.
The Red Dragon that had been there moments before was gone, and in its place sat an unmistakable ten-year-old child.
The only differences from a human were the reptilian golden eyes and the strikingly bright red hair.
A vivid crimson far brighter than Leonard’s.
“This… what is… what is this.”
“…I didn’t anticipate this either.”
Unlike me, Leonard spoke without wavering even in his shock.
“Ignis, pull yourself together.”
Ignis seemed to be in such shock that he stared blankly into empty space.
“Ignis.”
“…!?”
When Leonard spoke to him calmly several times, light returned to Ignis’s eyes.
He sprang up and rushed toward the full-length mirror.
A few seconds later, as Ignis began to open his mouth to scream, Leonard moved like lightning and clamped his hand over Ignis’s mouth.
“Mmmph! Mmmph!”
“I’ll take him to my room for now.”
“Ah, understood.”
A massive teleportation magic circle materialized beside Leonard.
He leaped into it while cradling Ignis, and I could only stand there in a daze, watching the two of them vanish.
“What on earth is happening?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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