After breakfast, I parted ways with Elen and Miina at the inn’s exit, waving goodbye.
“Well then, Douglas, Seraphina, see you tonight.”
“I’ll defer to Seraphina today. Go and enjoy your date to the fullest, nya. Have a great time.”
Elen and Miina said their goodbyes and left us.
Today was a date with Seraphina, just the two of us. Elen and Miina were free to do as they pleased. We planned to meet up again before dinner.
“Well, even if it’s just the two of us, Lombardia will be there too.”
As I spoke, glancing at the Axe I was carrying on my back, I received a disgruntled thought from my companion.
“Muuu. What is it, do you see me as an obstruction?”
“No, I didn’t say that. Don’t sulk. —Shall we go, Seraphina?”
“Yes, Lord Douglas!”
Seraphina replied with a bright smile, clinging tightly to my left arm. Through her Sage’s robe, I could feel the warmth of her ample chest.
Looking like the couple we were, we began to walk away from the inn.
Passersby eyed us with envy. Seraphina, beaming with genuine happiness, clung to me.
The Sage’s Girl suddenly seemed to recall something and called out to Lombardia.
“But honestly, I’m always jealous of you, Lombardia. That’s because you and Lord Douglas share such a deep bond, no matter what. I have to cling to him like this, or I’ll lose my connection with him.”
“Is that how it is? For my part, I’m the one who’s jealous of you all. My master always loves you all so much and rarely pays attention to me. He probably just thinks of me as a convenient Axe.”
“Hey, hey… Don’t say such things where people can hear. …No, it’s just that when you’re an Axe, I tend to forget about you. It’s different when you’re in your transformed form.”
“Then, if that’s the case, would you prefer to be in your transformed form whenever you’re not being wielded as an Axe?”
—Dorooon.
Lombardia transformed from the Axe into a human girl.
The girl, dressed as a Maid, clung tightly to my right arm, mimicking Seraphina.
“How about this, my master? Now you can’t ignore me, can you?”
The petite girl with tanned skin proudly showed off.
Lombardia didn’t have the same ample chest as Seraphina, but the soft feel of her skin was undeniable.
The people passing by stared at us with stunned expressions.
Well, it was only natural.
“Alright, alright, do as you please. Besides, carrying an Axe around to go to the library is a bit much, so this is perfect.”
“Muuu. Why are you so harsh with me? You really do think of me as a convenient Axe, don’t you!”
“I don’t! I love you, Lombardia.”
“Wh-what?! The way you say it! Your tone is so rough!”
Lombardia protested vehemently, her cheeks flushing. Seraphina watched with a delighted chuckle.
***
The three of us playfully made our way through the city and eventually arrived in front of the library, located in a quiet part of town.
The library in this “Sage’s City,” Vaijest, is known for having one of the largest collections of books in the world.
Its exterior was magnificent, rivaling that of a noble’s mansion.
I had a reason for coming to this library.
There was something I needed to investigate.
It wasn’t exactly the typical choice for a date, but Seraphina also enjoyed books, so she was surprisingly pleased when I suggested we visit the library.
Thus, after paying the entrance fee at the reception, Seraphina, Lombardia, and I entered the library.
Stepping into the book stacks, an profound silence permeated the air, so quiet that even the slightest sound echoed.
The scents of paper and ink tickled our nostrils.
In the dim interior, countless bookshelves stood in neat rows.
Each of these bookshelves was tightly packed with various books.
Lombardia exclaimed in admiration as she surveyed the scene.
“Fwaah, this is incredible! So, this is where most of the wisdom humanity has inherited from the past is stored.”
“Yeah. But Lombardia, be quiet in the library.”
“Muh… S-sorry. You’re right.”
I raised my index finger to my lips and whispered, and Lombardia shyly covered her mouth with her hand.
Meanwhile, Seraphina spoke to me in a hushed voice.
“Lord Douglas, you mentioned you would be researching the ‘Dragon people’ today, correct?”
I nodded at her words.
This was precisely what I wanted to investigate at this library.
I had encountered numerous Dragon people before—especially the exceptionally powerful “Ten Dragons Divine Artifact Generals.” I had managed to defeat most of them.
Some, I had even killed with my own hands.
While I didn’t regret it, I couldn’t say I was entirely at ease with it.
So, I thought, at the very least, I should try to learn about their history—or so I decided.
Knowing their history might not change anything, but it felt necessary as a form of closure.
It was for this purpose that I visited the library in Vaijest, the “Sage’s City,” a repository of human knowledge with the world’s largest collection of books—
“…None. Strangely.”
“Yeah. The descriptions of the Dragon people mysteriously stop around three hundred years ago.”
Seraphina and I had searched through various books on history, anthropology, biology, and other subjects, but we found no books detailing the recent history of the Dragon people.
It was as if human history itself had refused to record anything about the Dragon people.
Seraphina looked at me with a worried expression.
“Lord Douglas… does this mean…?”
“Well, it’s natural to think so. Though I didn’t want to believe it.”
I couldn’t help but purse my lips in a grim line. Lombardia, meanwhile, looked back and forth between me and Seraphina.
“What is it, what is it, you two? What is ‘that’? Don’t keep me in suspense and tell me.”
The Maid-clad girl pleaded impatiently. I responded with a wry smile.
“It’s not that I’m holding back… It just means that it’s highly probable that our human ancestors persecuted the Dragon people, or tried to eradicate them— a dark history of that sort. Probably around three hundred years ago.”
“Yes. And the rulers of that time likely refused to let that history be passed down to later generations. They might have burned books, suppressed speech and expression, and tried to erase that historical fact… It’s foolish.”
Seraphina lamented, shaking her head.
I had heard such stories—that the Dragon people had been persecuted by humans—from figures like Biner, the Archer among the Ten Dragons Divine Artifact Generals, and Spear User Marukt.
However, they were relatively young for Dragon people, not even having lived for two hundred years. They hadn’t witnessed those events themselves.
So, they too had only heard tales from older Dragon people…
Even so, at this point, it was reasonable to assume that the history passed down among the Dragon people was true.
That a history of humans persecuting Dragon people had indeed occurred.
Of course, that didn’t mean I would stand by and watch the Dragon people try to destroy humanity.
—It was precisely at that moment, as I was contemplating this, that a girl who had been browsing books nearby suddenly spoke to us.
“Um… are you perhaps researching the Dragon people…?”
The girl appeared to be in her late teens, wearing academic-looking robes and glasses.
