The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 223

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 223

 

“Ah.”

 

The girl, who looked like she had forgotten something, quickly said.

 

“The Dragon Knight’s dragon, ahem, went outside the building alone, so I was wondering if you knew.”

 

“What?”

 

Rita, startled, looked at the foot of the bed. There was only a round impression in the fur, and the black dragon was nowhere to be seen.

 

To her, it was ‘Gid’ and a black dragon, but in reality, he was a monster who had gone out into a village full of people. Outside her sight, alone.

 

A chill ran down her spine.

 

“Thank you for telling me, Marien.”

 

She hurriedly greeted the child and got up from her seat.

 

Moving her body hastily in its worst condition made her vision spin, but fortunately, most of her wounds had healed, so there wasn’t much pain. After briefly holding onto the door frame to settle her dizziness, she ran down the stairs and headed outside the assembly hall.

 

As soon as Rita went outside, she saw Elision running toward her with a pale face.

 

“Your Highness?”

 

“Dragon Knight! Right now the Black Dragon is—”

 

She didn’t need to hear more. She interrupted him and asked back.

 

“Where?”

 

“In the clearing outside the cave.”

 

Rita ran toward the cave entrance without another word. In the process, dizziness struck again and she staggered, touching the cave wall, when Sion quickly approached and supported her.

 

“Excuse me, but may I carry you—”

 

“Yes, please do.”

 

When she readily answered, he lightly lifted her up. Rita, held in his arms, stared at the cave entrance rapidly approaching.

 

Outside was already the middle of the night. But people carrying torches had swarmed out, making it as bright as day.

 

Beyond those torches clustered like a swarm of fireflies, a massive shadow could be seen towering up, blocking the stars in the night sky. A silhouette bristling with horns, tail, wings, and spikes.

 

Black flames flickered around its mouth.

 

“Gid!”

 

Rita immediately called out his name. All the villagers who had been murmuring and gathering turned to look at the cave entrance.

 

Jurlene, who was at the front of them, looked at Lillieta with a face pale as paper.

 

“Dragon Knight, your dragon…”

 

Her words trailed off as Jurlene’s complexion contorted. Soon after, she opened her mouth and hugged her own body with both hands, shrinking back. Her pupils dilated and shook.

 

Rita immediately realized what that reaction meant upon seeing it.

 

‘Contamination reaction!’

 

She practically pushed herself out of Sion’s arms and ran toward Jurlene.

 

People stepped aside in surprise. As she got closer, she could see the barrier that Jurlene had put up behind her. Under the barrier, melted snow was flowing like a stream.

 

It seemed that when the black dragon breathed fire, the startled Jurlene had put up a barrier. Since it wasn’t contamination prevention magic, it was naturally useless and got pierced through, melting the ground.

 

‘Looking at the melted location, it wasn’t aimed at people in the first place.’

 

Seeing that the ground where no one was standing had melted, it seemed to have been intended as a threat. Along with the judgment that Gid hadn’t gone berserk again, both relief and worry surged up.

 

She first grabbed Jurlene, who had collapsed.

 

“Jurlene, from now on, don’t resist or fight back against the power you feel! I’m trying to heal you!”

 

Before transforming into a monster, one could resist contamination with Oaths.

 

If she had been a knight who used aura integrated with the body, she would have transformed into a monster without any chance to intervene, and if she had been a priest who used divine power in a way similar to Transition Pact Holders by separating it from the body, this level of contact wouldn’t cause contamination.

 

Mages who used magic in a way similar to Fabrication Pact Holders were somewhere in between.

 

Magic that was completely fired off like Matan didn’t spread contamination immediately, but magic maintained in a connected form like barriers quickly became a pathway for contamination without preventive measures.

 

Rita interlocked both her hands with Jurlene’s.

 

When mages became contaminated while using magic, it usually started from both hands. This was because the magic power maintaining the spell extended from both hands.

 

Fortunately, even for users of old-era staff magic, this point wasn’t much different.

 

She forced her Oath into Jurlene’s body through their clasped hands.

 

Though Jurlene groaned and shook her head, whether she heard her words or not, she didn’t block the unfamiliar energy from penetrating her body.

 

From the elf-born mage’s arms, contamination—more precisely, contaminated magic power—was spreading toward her heart.

 

Once it reached the heart, it would be almost impossible to remedy. Rita’s Oath, which had traveled up through her arms, blocked and wrapped around the spreading contaminated magic power.

 

‘I need to pull out the contamination like this…!’

 

Moving Oath incorrectly inside someone else’s body could cause serious injury. Rita, sweating coldly while delicately controlling her Oath, suddenly noticed something strange.

 

‘…With contamination spread this much, it’s this docile?’

 

The contamination had spread beyond both arms and approached near the heart. According to her knowledge, in this state, blood vessels should burst with blood pouring out, and she should be bleeding from the nose or coughing up blood while raving madly.

 

Then people would cling to her, pin down her thrashing, wipe away blood while driving out the contamination. It was a process close to a life-and-death struggle.

 

However, Jurlene only groaned and trembled intermittently, with no problems beyond that. She was docilely entrusting her hands to her.

 

‘How?’

 

While wrapping the contaminated magic power with Oath and slowly extracting it, Rita examined Jurlene’s body. The ‘mutation’ was less than she had expected. This meant that monsterification had barely progressed.

 

‘No, rather than not progressing, this is…’

 

Looking closely, mutation had definitely progressed. In an incredibly stable manner. A ‘peaceful’ monsterification with minimal external changes that she had never witnessed or even imagined.

 

‘That’s impossible.’

 

It really was impossible. Unbelievable.

 

When she extracted the contaminated magic power, even that returned to normal. The organs and muscles immediately recovered. Because they hadn’t been severely damaged in the first place.

 

When contamination was pushed out, aftereffects would remain, requiring recuperation and suffering for a while. Like how Hanna, who had nearly been contaminated after making a sonic attack through communication to monsters, had nosebleeds for a while and couldn’t properly perform long-distance communication.

 

‘Why? What’s different about Jurlene?’

 

Only one physical difference came to mind.

 

‘…Because she’s elf-born?’

 

Could this ‘stable’ monsterification perhaps be a clue to returning Gid to normal?

 

Separate from her confused mind, her body, which had performed countless emergency treatments, steadily removed the contamination. She scattered the extracted contaminated magic power onto the melted snow floor.

 

“It’s okay now.”

 

When Rita released their interlocked hands, Jurlene groaned and slumped down.

 

“Huhhh…”

 

“Jurlene!”

 

Sion, who had rushed over in a fluster, caught and supported her. Rita left Jurlene to him and stood up.

 

People holding torches were standing in a circle, holding their breath and watching.

 

She walked through their midst, approaching the massive dragon crouched with black flames in its mouth.

 

“Gid.”

 

She called out in a whisper and reached her hand upward. The black dragon, as if cut from the night itself, looked down at the human no bigger than its finger.

 

Soon, the black dragon swallowed the flames it had been holding.

 

Under the starlight, the fire subsided. The spikes that had been standing erect lay down one by one, starting from the side closest to her, drooping down. The house-sized head lowered down, and the large nose tip touched the white hand smaller than the tip of its own fang.

 

-Groooo.

 

The dragon rumbled low and rubbed its nose against her fingertips. In the most gentle manner.

 

“Ah.”

 

“Good heavens…”

 

The people who had been holding their breath finally exhaled in relief. As they relaxed their tense shoulders, the lights cast all around swayed.

 

They all realized once again.

 

Who was the master of the black dragon that had calmed the flames of that tremendous and terrifying existence that had instantly melted the Empire’s Heresy Inquisitors and golden-armored knights, flames that even the ‘Witch’ couldn’t stop.

 

That it was not merely a fearsome monster, but a mystical creature tamed by someone.

 

Majestic terror easily transforms into the sacred. Just as lightning striking from the sky and tsunamis surging from the sea come to be worshipped as gods.

 

And those who control such terror become objects of reverence. Like ancient priests or tribal chiefs.

 

Awe filled the people’s gazes.

 

Rita patted the black dragon’s nose and looked back.

 

“What happened?”

 

The adults looked around at each other in confusion, when one boy among them shouted out.

 

“Rupert climbed on the Black Dragon!”

 

“Right, he climbed on without permission!”

 

“That’s why the Black Dragon got angry!”

 

“He was really, really mad!”

 

“Because of Rupert, we almost got punished too!”

 

The children shouted one after another. Looking in that direction, Rita spotted the blue-haired boy being held in Priest Dorin’s arms next to the children, receiving treatment for his wounds.

 

There were wounds that looked like they had been pierced by the Black Dragon’s thorns, but fortunately, since he was an ordinary boy who wasn’t a mage or knight, he had almost no mana to be corrupted and didn’t seem to have turned into a monster.

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