By Zephyria 
Wednesday of the third week. Today, Professor Steven came dressed to the nines as usual.
The lace pattern on his silk robe looked familiar, so during the break in class, I grabbed Marianne and subtly asked her about it. She explained that it was a fabric currently in vogue in the capital. Apparently, a certain Countess was working hard in collaboration with a merchant to popularize it, so I figured that must be the case.
Marianne, who had been about to discuss the most expensive and cheapest fabrics woven by that Countess, stopped her explanation when she realized I wasn’t fully listening and made a pointless remark.
“Still, Sierren, you’ve become quite the aristocrat, Michael. You can even distinguish between different types of lace now.”
“Well… I saw the other guys wearing them at the New Year Festival…”
“But at first, you called light green blue, and green blue, and navy blue blue too! You didn’t even distinguish between cobalt blue and yellow-green!”
“Um.”
I used to see everything that looked vaguely watery as blue. Of course, there must have been painters and dyers in the Central Plains who were trying to show off their skills. It wasn’t a matter of the land, but rather my nature of only focusing on what I cared about.
I tried my best to see the subtle flows of the sword, but I had never taken the time to carefully examine how different the colors of leaves and the sky were.
As if making excuses to the chattering Marianne, I said that I could now recognize and distinguish certain colored fabrics. Rubel, who was listening from the side, held out his sleeve and asked.
“Then what color does this look like to you?”
“…Blue.”
The answer was cut short.
It was because the shape of the gold trim around the jewel button decorating his sleeve looked familiar. It was the button from the vest he had brought to the Hunting Festival.
I looked at the button that resembled the color of my eyes, then at his face.
Noticing something from my expression, Marianne quickly turned around and sat facing the blackboard again. Oh my, the sound of her sighing while fanning herself was quite loud.
I met Rubel’s black eyes looking at me and stopped myself from saying something.
Ruben’s ears were red again.
I couldn’t understand why he would play such a prank when he was so shy. I felt tickled and amused, so I looked at him for a long time. After watching him for a while until Ruben hid his sleeve again, I finally managed to open my mouth and ask.
“Did you think I wouldn’t recognize it?”
“…No.”
“Then?”
“I just… I wanted you to recognize it, but you didn’t notice for so long.”
…How long has Ruben been wearing this?
I felt like I had done something wrong and hesitated to answer immediately. Professor Steven stood in front of the podium again and announced the resumption of class. My heart was in turmoil.
Class had started, so it was awkward to continue the conversation, but it wasn’t something to put off.
After a moment of hesitation, I whispered softly in the child’s ear.
“…From now on, I’ll pay more attention.”
“No, it’s not that I was upset… I just wanted you to notice.”
Ruben turned to me and smiled brightly. I vowed in my heart to pay more attention to the child.
Today, Professor Steven explained the difference between the Monsters near Duke Grimsbein Family and the Monsters near Duke Widro Family. Although both Dukes were located in the north of the capital, a high mountain extending from the Yuil Mountains blocked them, causing significant differences in terrain and climate.
Steven drew a large circle on the northeast side of the Sierren map, on the right side of the map.
“Duke Grimsbein Family embraces a mild and warm sea. Rock salt is often found in the deep bays. However, due to the saltiness, the variety of plants is not diverse, and there are many bare mines and rocks. Small Monsters such as Goblins, Kobolds, Gremlins, and Armor Crabs mainly inhabit the area, allowing ordinary workers to mine minerals.”
Then, he drew a large circle on the left side and filled the gaps with diagonal lines.
“On the other hand, Duke Widro Family is located here, between the Owen Kingdom and the Yuil Mountains. The winds from the Shatun Desert blowing from beyond Owen are scorching hot during the day and freezing cold at night. And here, the Dunmel Gorge, which divides the Yuil Mountains and Duke Withrow.”
Tap, tap. The sound of chalk hitting the blackboard was sharp. It was a story I had heard several times, but none of the children listened carelessly and concentrated.
“It is filled with primordial Mana, fiercely surging Mana. Not only is farming or mining development impossible, but people cannot even breathe and live there. It is safe to say that most of the medium and large Monsters in the Yuil Mountains are gathered near here. Therefore, most of the civilians of Duke Widro Family live in the south of the Duchy, and only trained Knights and intermediate border villages for them are established above this area.”
“Do Monsters appear even below the gorge?”
“Yes. Since we share a border with the Owen Kingdom, large-scale military movements are prohibited due to diplomatic friction. Because medium-sized Monsters frequently appear near the Dunmel Gorge, you will begin your Yuil Mountains subjugation from right here.”
Duke Widro Family had inherited the duty of defending against medium and large Monsters for generations and received food and military supplies from the capital. The place where I and my comrades, who would participate in the Yuil Mountains subjugation operation, had to go was naturally towards Duke Widro Family.
Although I would learn it again when I got there, I carefully learned how to find my way in an emergency.
However, Douglas, who came to help Rubel with his Breathing and regulating energy in the afternoon, offered another hypothesis about why there were many medium and large Monsters in Duke Widro Family and only small Monsters swarming in Duke Grimsbein Family.
“There’s also talk of a Dragon Lair near Duke Grimsbein Family.”
“…Excuse me? A Dragon Lair… are you serious?”
“Of course, it’s just a hypothesis and hasn’t been proven. But the legends about Dragons have been consistently seen, from very old records from thousands of years ago. Since it was recorded in history books, I think it must have been observed by humans at least once.”
Benjamin quickly took Douglas’s words and explained.
“That’s right. Dragons are said to build Lairs in caves on rocky cliffs, like shiny precious metals, and use lower Monsters like limbs. If Dragons exist, the theory that they are in Duke Grimsbein Family is the most likely. If there is such a strong Monster, it is natural for Ogres to flee to the west of the mountain range.”
…He wasn’t usually this talkative.
Perhaps because I had heard so much about Dragons, I even felt familiar with them now. I wondered if it was because I didn’t need to deny it since he believed it so much, and I just nodded.
Benjamin continued to speak in a slightly faster tone than usual.
“And I think there are several Dragons living beyond the Yuil Mountains. According to the complete translation of the 21 Dragons in history…”
After that, I listened to Dragon praise for a long time.
Like all races, Dragons could not live forever, and since there were legends about Dragon eggs and hatchlings, they must reproduce sexually. Just as there are Ogres with red skin and Ogres with blue skin, there would be several species, he explained at length.
After listening to the explanation for a while, Rubel squinted his eyes, looking a little tired. Marianne yawned softly. To cut off Benjamin’s words and satisfy my curiosity, I asked Douglas, who was looking at Benjamin with a happy expression next to him.
“Are Dragons that great of a being?”
“Giant, strong, sometimes benevolent, and long-lived high-dimensional beings are bound to be admired. Besides, Dragons are said to be able to use Magic too.”
“…But in class, I heard that Monsters cannot use Magic.”
“They can’t use Magic Formula to develop Mana. Among Monsters that can learn languages, like Kobolds and Goblins, shamans often appear. It’s closer to Spiritism than Magic, though.”
Douglas explained in a calm tone that most Monsters have evolved to survive even in high Mana density, and thanks to this, they can survive even if they accumulate Contaminated Mana in their bodies.
Monsters are nothing more than lumps of Contaminated Mana, and because they can convert this Contaminated Mana into a kind of bioenergy, Kobold shamans live longer than ordinary Kobolds, he said.
I was tired of hearing the story that Wizards in Sierren draw Mana from the atmosphere, grab it in the Circle, that is, the Middle Dantian, activate it with a formula, and then discharge it outside the body using the Circle again.
Benjamin was about to add various explanations, saying that Dragons, unlike ordinary Monsters, have high intelligence and know more advanced Magic Formula than humans, so I cut him off again.
“If they are such great beings, why don’t they show themselves?”
“Well… there are endless hypotheses about that. Some say they live in villages north of the Yuil Mountains, where the Mana flow is abundant, and others say they are enjoying games in the human world in Polymorph form rather than forming societies among themselves.”
“Um.”
“Well, if we keep pushing the border north like this, we might meet a Dragon someday, right? Dragons are said to have a hobby of collecting shiny gold, so finding a Lair would be incredibly lucky.”
Would such a giant monster willingly give up its treasure if we met it?
Benjamin and Douglas told stories about travelers wandering around to find Dragon Lairs as if they were great adventure stories. But the more I listened to the stories, the more bitter I felt. What’s so different about stealing people’s things or stealing animals’ things?
A similar thing happened in the Central Plains. The will of the Sword Saint, who was said to be the greatest martial artist of the previous generation, to hide his insights in his tomb shook the Central Plains, and thousands of heroes gathered with treasure maps in their hands. Until they found out that it was a fake treasure map created by the Demonic Cult, they couldn’t count how many had died.
Human greed to get treasure is so great and terrifying. After a moment of thought, I asked again.
“If you meet a Dragon, which has a higher chance of survival, persuading it or killing it?”
A chilling silence fell.
Dragons rise to the sky and play with immortals, and Imugi stay on the ground and disturb the human world with greed. Dragons who stay in Sierren for a long time and accumulate wealth seemed to be closer to Imugi than Dragons.
Douglas stammered and opened his mouth.
“The Dragon’s weakness is, usually… the heart, it is said to be the Dragon Heart…”
“You’re already thinking about catching this and killing it…”
“What do you expect from Michael? It’s obvious.”
After that, we stopped the pointless chatter and talked about what to do if Rubel swallowed Contaminated Mana while Breathing and regulating energy on the Yuil Mountains.
It was not much different from treating when swallowing a non-material poison, so I thought it was fortunate to have learned anything in advance.