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Chapter 155 - The Dragon Lord
Cecile was speechless. She wondered if she should applaud the dragon lord who proudly stated she was a ghost. The sudden overload of information was overwhelming, and it took her a minute to organize her thoughts.
“I see… There are so many things I wish to know. May I ask a few more questions?” Cecile asked cautiously.
“What is it?”
“What did you mean by the books being worlds? And that I’m the Cecile of ‘this world’, while there is a Cecile in the other worlds too? What did ‘this is the last time’ mean? And most importantly… would you be able to send me back home?”
Cecile let out all her questions in a rush, feeling that the dragon lord would readily answer. Truthfully, the last one was the most pressing, since she needed someone to help send her back.
“To start with, I can’t answer the first question you asked.”
“Why not?”
“I can speak of it, but it’s impossible to give you an explanation. It’s something the Archwitch did, you see.”
‘The Archwitch? Wasn’t that name mentioned by Aled?’ Cecile wondered. She remembered the spirit letting slip that name when he reappeared after a long absence. She hadn’t given it much thought since she assumed witches lived in the spiritual realm. However, intuition was telling her that the one Aled and the dragon lord were referring to were one and the same.
But what had the Archwitch done? Cecile felt woozy as the questions only seemed to pile up. She wished she was in the imperial palace with a large sheet of paper on which she could jot down all her notes and spend some time calmly contemplating what she’d learned, rather than be here.
“Then, what about sending me home?”
“Impossible.”
Cecile clicked her tongue in annoyance. She knew she should be careful with her attitude, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to go home!
“…But somewhere other than home seems possible,” the dragon lord added.
Cecile immediately fell to the floor and prostrated, while saying, “Oh venerable and esteemed dragon lord, I have long held deep respect for you. Please, send me anywhere but here.”
“You sure are a spineless one, aren’t you?” the dragon lord remarked with amazement.
Cecile merely curved her lips into a smile. She could bear with anything if that meant getting out of here. “You’d be able to meet Girgantia if you came with me… He’ll be so pleased to see you,” Cecile said persuasively. Obviously, the dragon lord could go without her, but Cecile needed to feign usefulness while making an appeal that it’d be better to return to the imperial palace rather than some other place!
“You think I’m crazy? It’s enough that I gave birth to him. Why should I meet my son again at this age?”
“I guess you didn’t have such a good relationship with Girgantia?”
“Don’t even get me started. You don’t know how much he stressed me out. Come to think of it, how is it that you lot are coexisting with Girgantia? I’m sure the rascal would’ve tried killing everything in sight as soon as he hatched.”
Cecile contemplated on lying that he turned out to be a good boy, but ultimately decided honesty was best. “I recited a spell from some book, which made him cry out ‘this is mommy’s power’ in agony. We managed to catch him thanks to that,” she explained.
“Oh, you saw it in a book. I thought that might be the case.”
“You believed that?” Cecile had expected the dragon lord to react with disbelief, but instead she’d readily accepted it, as if it were natural that a ‘book’ had taught her such a method.
“Were you lying?”
“I wasn’t! I just find it strange that you’d believe that I found a spell in some book so readily.” Even Cecile had doubted whether it had truly happened, since the book later disappeared without a trace. It was odd that the dragon lord was so unfazed.
“What’s to be surprised about? Some of the books here must’ve slipped out and reached you. There must’ve been a spell for slapping Girgantia’s back among them.”
Now it was Cecile’s turn to be surprised. That mysterious book came from here? But how had it reached her? It’s not like books have legs. Was it a puppy she’d lost once upon a time? How had it found her? Her curiosity was only growing by the minute. Suddenly, Cecile realized she still had no clue as to where she was.
“Where is this, by the way? Is it possible to return to the empire by going up?”
“This is the gap in space. To walk from here to the human realm… Let’s see… Going by the average walking speed of a human woman in their twenties, I’d say it would take about 737,749,299,233 years?”
“That… Thank you for the calculation,” Cecile replied dryly. Putting aside the ridiculous amount of time it would take, she decided to focus on her relief that it was technically possible to return. Obviously, she had no intention to accomplish this by walking.
“Then, you mentioned you could send me somewhere other than home… Would that be to the human realm?”
“Well, I think I can send you there with the page that’s being used.”
“Then, I’m really sorry… but could I please trouble you to do that for me?” Cecile had already given up on trying to comprehend what the dragon lord meant anymore.
“Well, I may as well. Time’s about up for me too anyway. Let’s see…” the dragon lord’s voice trailed off, as if she was searching for something, “…found it. Let’s send you now.”
“Huh, so quickly?”
“What’ll you accomplish by staying here? Hurry back. You’ll probably end up where the one you seek is.”
Cecile wondered if she’d misheard the urgency in the dragon lord’s voice, but before she could think too deeply, something resembling a gate opened up before her.
“Go, quickly! Just run! And…” the dragon lord said.
“And?” Cecile asked.
“It’s nothing! Go already!”
“Y-yes ma’am!”
Without hesitating, Cecile rushed forward into the gate at the dragon lord’s command. She didn’t know what would happen next, but believed it would all work so long as she didn’t die. Suddenly, she heard the distant whisperings of the dragon lord’s voice.
“And just like how it is in stories, you’ll forget everything you heard here! Don’t try to remember! It’s futile!”
“What? You should’ve said that sooner!” Cecile cried, as she tumbled into distant space. No reply came to her. All she could do was clutch the scepter tightly and flip her body. She was intent on seeing where she’d land without passing out this time.
Gazing straight ahead as she dropped downwards, a scenery came into view. “The dukedom of Etia?” she whispered. Beneath her was a city of death dyed black.