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Jeongjae opened his eyes and found a blue-eyed elf looking down at him, thinking he was dreaming of something.

At the last moment, although his consciousness had faded, he clearly remembered what had happened. Suddenly, his body became immobile, the fall, and then fainting… In the moment of losing consciousness, Jeongjae had braced himself for never waking up again. The shock of the fall was absorbed by the magical robe, which was better than any helmet, but once he regained consciousness, he wouldn’t be able to fend off even Dracula.

Maybe Jeongjae thought he had died once again and crossed into a strange world.

However, forcing open his fluttering eyelids, he couldn’t help but realize how familiar the face of the blonde elf looking down at him was.

His bodily sensations were returning. His limbs were intact, and he felt no critical injuries anywhere. The only awkwardness was the sensation of his head resting on a solid pillow and the elf lord before his eyes.

Jeongjae startled awake, sitting up abruptly.

“Margaret?”

Jeongjae blinked as he turned to face Margaret, who was kneeling before him. The Crown Princess of Eramenia lightly tossed her hair over her shoulder and tilted her head.

“You look like you’ve seen something you shouldn’t. What does that mean?”

“Not that I shouldn’t see it… but it’s not something that should be seen at all. Why are you here? What were you doing? Where is this place? What happened with the attack?”

“I understand you have many questions,”

Margaret said, standing up with a grin.

“Even I can’t answer all of that at once. First of all, you are in the Harker Count Territory. This is an inn where travelers stay. The Count wanted to take you to his castle, but unfortunately, the state of things wasn’t very good when I arrived.”

“A lightning bolt struck directly. But don’t worry. Thanks to you exhausting most of that guy’s power, he couldn’t wreak any more havoc and quietly retreated. That’s probably…”

Margaret pulled back the curtains on the room’s window. The sunlight that seemed just to have risen poured through the window. Jeongjae suddenly remembered that the fight with Dracula had taken place at midnight and his mouth dropped open.

“Uh… Hasn’t it been about 7 hours?”

“Probably. People should be able to sleep that long. You can’t become a vampire too, can you?”

Then, does that mean Margaret had kept Jeongjae resting on her lap for quite a few hours? Jeongjae felt a complex mix of emotions, along with a serious concern about whether Margaret’s thighs were alright.

“Uh… How long… were you in that position?”

“I didn’t count.”

Margaret smiled playfully.

“Since I’m a fairy, even the same amount of time feels short to an elf with a long lifespan.”

“You’ve said that you’d deny it directly several times before.”

“Is that so? Then there must be another reason why that time felt short to me.”

Margaret lightly stretched her body as if to release her tense muscles. Jeongjae turned his head and surveyed the room. There was nothing that could be called a proper room. It was such a shabby space that it would be believable if they said they had rushed him to just any roofed place nearby.

There wasn’t even a proper bed or mattress, so Margaret had to lay his head down herself, which needed no further explanation.

While Jeongjae hesitated, watching Margaret stretch, his gaze shifted toward the bandages wrapped around her arm. As he felt something amiss beneath the bandage, he frowned.

“Are you hurt? From the North?”

“It was quite a serious injury. Thanks to the little one you taught, I managed to survive. It’s probably something they learned by themselves, not from your teachings.”

“That might be true. But what did you get pierced by… or bitten? That’s…”

Jeongjae carefully approached Margaret and raised her left arm. As his hand touched her arm, Margaret flinched, but she showed no sign of rejecting or pushing him away.

With a serious expression, Jeongjae ran his fingers over the bandage.

“It’s a dragon, isn’t it?”

“Is it something you can tell without even unwrapping the bandage? Your skills are certainly remarkable.”

“It’s not that, but the poison is just too much. It feels like a curse poured into the last life of a dragon. Like being bitten while stabbing a dying dragon with a sword…”

While Jeongjae gently caressed Margaret’s arm, he had a sudden thought. Margaret seemed to find his words quite amusing as she giggled.

“Isn’t that something only Walter Hellhound would do?”

“W-Wait, really? Then… have you become a dragon slayer? Did you kill a dragon in battle?”

“Let’s just say that. The wound should be fine. Since you could sense it from a distance, it seems the curse’s poison hasn’t worn off yet, but the mana of the unicorn that child took down is definitely suppressing it.”

“That’s true. Unless you overexert yourself, there shouldn’t be any further complication with the wound. Considering your position, it’s going to be more difficult not to overexert yourself…”

Only then did Jeongjae start to piece together why Margaret was here. The Grand Mage chuckled as he let go of Margaret’s arm.

“You’re also on modified duty, huh?”

“It’s a transfer of duty. The hero asked me to return to Eramenia.”

“Even if that guy doesn’t have the authority to give you orders, asking is essentially the same as giving a command.”

“Something like that. I didn’t really want to, but there was no choice. That little one also said that I don’t possess the invincible body like the Crown Princess and that further expedition could lead to truly irreversible results.”

“Jenis…”

Jeongjae frowned in contemplation. Jenis’s talent had been outstanding all along. However, he felt such a significant disparity compared to the little one Margaret spoke of and the student he knew.

The curse of the dragon is powerful enough that even a great hero wouldn’t be able to endure it for a moment and would turn to ashes. Especially, if that curse came from a dragon pouring its last strength into its bite, it was a miracle that Margaret was even alive.

Even if Jeongjae had been beside her, he still wouldn’t have performed such a painful and daring healing as pouring magic into the wound. Before that, Jeongjae was not that adept at wielding the power of unicorns. Unlike him, Jenis seemed to have become even more competent in that area, thanks to the power from her necklace.

“That child is different from you.”

Margaret said.

“I know that. I know what it feels like to be trapped in a role, and how it feels when that role disappears, not knowing what to do. Also, I know the pressure of feeling like I must do something, leading to pointless exertions.”

“Margaret, I…”

“You told the Count a bit about what you were up to. It wouldn’t have been very meaningful, but it wasn’t that significant either. The reason we haven’t sent our forces to hunt down the monsters in the Mungun Mountains isn’t that it was impossible to do. There’s efficiency, priority, and other such matters in work. It isn’t noble to deliberately seek out and brutally kill vampires who are hiding without any malicious intent.”

Even though she called it “nobility,” it was fundamentally an issue of efficiency. Jeongjae’s worth could not be compared to that of two or three vampires by any measure.

If there was a situation now where the ambush plan was suspected, perhaps it would have made sense to take risks. But in a situation where the enemy was lying still, there was no need to take risks by searching and hunting down their hiding places thoroughly.

Such tasks could be done as part of clean-up operations after the war had ended. After all, there was no need for the Grand Mage to overexert himself to the point of collapse.

“Are you pleased, Park Jeongjae? Is it enjoyable to see the enemy’s blood, to trample the enemy to satisfy that thirst for revenge?”

Margaret’s voice was hard and cold. Jeongjae lowered his head, unable to meet the elf princess’s eyes.

“Y-Yeah… I guess so. Why, are you disappointed in me for being just that human?”

“Your humanity has always been just that.”

Margaret’s voice once again radiated warmth. The elf lord gently patted Jeongjae’s shoulder, encouragingly.

“You were never great. You weren’t ever sacred. The human race is originally all highly sensitive, and a little poke is enough to turn them into formless clay.”

“What you’re trying to say is…”

“The point is, you haven’t changed as much as you think. You might have come to your senses a little, but once you’re fully aware, I’m worried you’ll fall into despair and ponder over what you’ve done.”

A moment of awkward silence hung between them.

After holding his tongue quietly, Jeongjae finally asked Margaret.

“What do you plan to do now? Are you going back to Eramenia as planned?”

“Of course. There’s hardly a better place than there to heal my wounds. If I’m lucky, I might get a little more control over one or two legions on the way back. Well, the odds seem low, though.”

“Do you think an all-out war with Eramenia is impossible?”

“It isn’t an easy decision. Not to father or anyone else. Of course, if my father steps in, then I’d have nothing more to desire…”

“What’s happening with the war? We can’t get news of the Northern Expeditionary Force here, so I wonder if they’re doing well or not…”

Margaret smiled brightly at Jeongjae’s question.

“I can’t answer that. Especially not for you. Do you know why?”

“Huh? Especially not for me…”

As Jeongjae was about to say more, he understood Margaret’s meaning. She was still worried that if Jeongjae found out the location of the enemy’s gathered forces, he might use forbidden magic.

Realizing that her worries were not entirely unfounded, Jeongjae had no argument to counter her. Especially since Margaret was aware of how disconnected he had become in recent days.

“Got it. Then I’ll do what I can here.”

“That’s a good thing to say. Remember, only do what you can. No one desires more than that.”

The elf princess placed her hand on the doorknob as she seemed ready to leave. Jeongjae asked.

“Are you leaving?”

“I must go. In times like these, it’s best to move as far as possible during daylight. We may see each other often, but each time is unfortunately very short.”

There was something overly blatant in Margaret’s words that made Jeongjae flinch for a moment. And just before she opened the door, she looked back at him and delivered the final blow.

“Just think about it, it seems to me that the human experience of feeling time long or short isn’t really affected by lifespan. In the end, what matters is how much one enjoys that time. I clearly enjoyed the time I spent with you resting on my lap.”

 

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