novelAlta Chapter 226: I made a mistake.
Chapter 226: I made a mistake.
Just as Arendt was about to speak, Lexion beat him to it.“I’m telling you in advance, if you ask me to get involved in a war or take sides, I’ll melt you down on the spot.”
“That’s ridiculous. What kind of person did you think I am, asking for something like that on our first meeting?”
The blunt reply came back immediately, without a moment’s hesitation.
“Or what, if you interfere, the situation will change drastically… are you confident that you can just wipe out those guys who keep nagging and annoying you?”
“…”
“That’s excessive self-consciousness.”
Lexion looked up at the ceiling calmly.
Perhaps due to the aftereffects of the struggle with Laius, the tiles on the ceiling also appeared to be cracked in several places.
After a while, Lexion blurted out.
“This guy really gets on my nerves.”
“…Sorry.”
Laius rubbed his face, feeling as if he had to apologize.
That damn guy was embarrassing no matter where he went.
But Arendt didn’t care.
“You’re annoyed, but what can you do about it? Who was it that destroyed someone else’s house?”
“Let’s make it clear, it was your senior who drew his sword first. Not me. And you were the one who called me here, you damn brat.”
“I know you were just venting your frustration because you couldn’t find what you wanted even after digging around here and there. Why are you blaming others for your own stupidity?”
“Someone shut that bastard’s mouth.”
Finally, Richt, who couldn’t listen any longer, spoke.
Unfortunately, his order was not carried out.
Lexion spoke first.
“So, what do you want? Do you want me to take your side or something?”
He found this situation incredibly annoying, and on top of that, he felt bothered.
Anyway, the young human probably wanted something trivial, so now that it had come to this, he planned to just resolve it quickly and leave.
“Just wait a minute.”
As if he had been waiting for those words, Arendt left Lexion standing there and entered his room.
The knights were bewildered.
Lexion was also puzzled, but he waited quietly for the time being.
Arendt reappeared a moment later, lugging a mountain of documents that were so thick they easily surpassed his torso.
“…”
Everyone froze.
It was because they failed to assess the situation immediately.
Regardless, Arendt placed the things he had brought in with great difficulty in front of Lexion.
.
Debris fell from the ceiling again with a heavy thud.
Arendt gave a plain answer to Lexion, who asked with his eyes, “What is this?”
“Here it is. Your work.”
“What?”
“Translate it.”
“…”
Lexion’s face turned blank for a moment at the short command.
Arendt kindly repeated it again.
“Translate it. Verbs, ancient languages, pre-war documents left by all sorts of races, and so on. There’s more, but start with these. You can read it all since you’re a dragon, right?”
“…”
.
The knights sighed silently.
Sympathetic gazes gathered one by one towards Lexion, who was at a loss at the unimaginable demands.
As all sorts of feelings welled up inside him, Lexion repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, sighed, and looked up at the ceiling.
While a silence of a different meaning flowed, Arendt took out the communication device he had brought with him and connected it.
“Count Stadler, about the ancient language documents you brought, please prepare all of them. If there’s anything left in the lab, have your assistants send it directly to the palace.”
– Yes, yes? What are you talking about all of a sudden?
The Count’s confused voice was heard from the crystal ball.
Arendt chuckled and glanced at Lexion, who was still standing there blankly.
“A person who can read them has arrived.”
– Yes? Wait a minute, Lord Arendt! What do you mean? A person who can read… wait, don’t hang up!
After hearing the Count’s scream, Arendt abruptly ended the communication.
“…”
“…”
No one was willing to open their mouth.
Arthur, who had been observing the situation, slowly took a step back.
“Oh no, I think I broke a bone. I’ll go to the infirmary.”
“…Can you walk properly? Should I come with you? What about you, Senior Richt?”
“That sounds good.”
Rider suggested to Arthur, who was walking normally.
Richt quickly snuck in.
Even Laius gave the dragon a brief, pitiful look.
Lexion just stood there in a daze, seemingly unable to decide how to react.
‘That was not strange.’
This was probably the first time in his long life that he had suffered such humiliation.
“Hah…”
Lexion, who had been frozen for a while as if nailed in place, suddenly slapped his forehead with a loud smack and let out a deep sigh.
Then he began to glare at Arendt with menacing eyes.
“I don’t know about the others, but I will kill you. I will never let you live a long life.”
At first it sounded like a curse, but in the end it meant that he would accept the offer.
“Oh my, I’m scared to death.”
Arendt, who didn’t even blink an eye at the dragon’s threats, only pretended to scratch his ears absentmindedly.
“Oh, right. Please restore the broken things back to the way they were before.”
“Why me?”
“Well, if you want to spread the rumor that a dragon has appeared in the palace, call the servants and have them do it.”
“…”
Lexion’s fist trembled.
A workshop for the dragon was set up in one of the rooms in the Third Knights’ dormitory.
“…”
And Count Stadler, who visited the place in the early afternoon, was left speechless.
Count Stadler was originally a timid person.
However, when his passion for learning bordering on madness was ignited, his innate nature became sealed and only the ego of a researcher who would stop at nothing remained.
It was usually Arendt who provoked him and turned him into a mad researcher.
He was the one who brought the most entertaining research materials in the Empire.
But at least presently, he couldn’t be purely happy.
The Count was at a loss as to which side to listen to: his timid personality or the research desire boiling inside him.
“…Sir Arendt. Is this really okay?”
The frozen count barely opened his lips and spoke to Arendt.
But Arendt nodded indifferently.
“What’s not okay? People who always try to take the easy way out need to get a taste of the consequences to learn.”
“…”
But what if the opponent was a dragon?
The Count barely managed to suppress the words rising to the top of his lips.
The dragon, with all sorts of grand titles attached to him, was now surrounded by piles of documents so high on a single desk that he could barely even place his feet on the ground.
There weren’t many of them written in verb language.
More than half of them were written in the languages of other races, ancient languages, etc.
The Count’s face became even more awkward as he recalled this.
In other words, Arendt left tasks that could be done even without a dragon to Lexion.
“Hey, what are you doing there, babbling like that?”
“Eek…”
When Lexion, who was busy working, suddenly burst into annoyance, the Count instinctively hid behind Arendt.
“This is really ridiculous. You really know who I am, don’t you?”
“I know. You are the dragon who holds the Nephele Kingdom in your hands.”
“But how dare you treat me like this now?”
Lexion glared fiercely.
Count Stadler shrank further, but Arendt paid no attention.
“I don’t know why you’re complaining. Did I ask you to do something too difficult? It’s something you can do.”
“Talking about whether to commit suicide or not, you’re not asking me to kill anyone, nor are you demanding a fortune. What? Translation?”
“I can do the killing, and I already have a lot of money. I can probably live comfortably for three generations.”
Lexion suddenly lost his temper at the quick response and threw the pen he was holding.
“And besides, you said something about verbs, but isn’t most of this ancient language? Even humans can read this!”
“That’s just how life is. It seems meaningless, and it’s a series of things you don’t want to do.”
“What kind of nonsense is this, you little brat who won’t even live a hundred years?”
Count Stadler felt very desperate as he looked at the glowing Lexion.
‘Whether you’re a dragon or not, it seems like everyone ends up like this when they stand before Lord Arendt…’
It wasn’t for nothing that the Crown Prince was tearing out his hair.
He made a firm resolution once again: he would try not to resist unless absolutely necessary.
The only people who knew what was happening were the Emperor, the Crown Prince, the three Grand Masters of the Knights Templar, the Count, and Prince Llewellyn.
They decided to keep the situation a secret because it was impossible to know what would happen if it was known that there was a dragon in the palace.
“About Prince Llewellyn…”
“He came by earlier. It was quite a sight. He looked like he was about to bang his head against the floor.”
Arendt answered the Count, who was clinging to his back..
The Count could fully understand that feeling.
“I guess that was normal…”
He sent people to tail the dragon, and even sent Arendt’s crazy provocations.
So, he had no choice but to beg for his life somehow.
Arendt opened his mouth coldly.
“He wasn’t in his right mind either. He hit his head a few times and then suddenly asked if he could touch the dragon’s arm once, so I kicked him out.”
“…”
It seemed like there was no one sane here.
Meanwhile, the Count, feeling a little excited, timidly looked at the dragon.
“That, Lexion… by any chance… could I observe those eyes…”
“How can this be possible! Is there some kind of plague in the Caerleon Empire? How is it that not a single person is sane!”
Lexion, who just lifted his pen, suddenly shouted.
The Count burst into awkward laughter.
Arendt glanced at the Count, who was still clinging to his back.
“How long are you going to keep doing this? Count, you have other things to do.”
“Haha, that’s right…”
The Count, who had smiled awkwardly, finally broke away from Arendt. Then he cast a regretful glance at Lexion and nodded.
“I’m going to go now. If you need anything, feel free to call me.”
But, it was a pity that he kept looking towards Lexion.
He had stayed there until now, trembling with fear but still wanting to observe the dragon up close.
The Count was unable to give up his obsession until the very end, so he looked back several times before leaving.
.
The door closed, leaving Arendt and Lexion alone in the room.
Lexion put down his pen again and leaned back.
“It’s really absurd. To fall into such a trap.”
“Oh. Did you notice?”
“Of course. Am I stupid?”
Lexion responded annoyedly to Arendt’s unexpected question.
Asking someone to kill or asking for money were requests that Lexion could grant with just a wave of a finger.
However, the condition that Arendt set was to translate the materials one by one.
Whether they were a dragon or a human, it was something that had to be done with equal time and effort.
In the end, Lexion had to be held captive until this matter was resolved.
Arendt chuckled.
“I think you’re wrong, you must be a fool. No matter how much I think about it, the acting was pretty sloppy.”
“You’re weird. I didn’t know you were this crazy.”
Arendt shrugged at the curt answer.
“It was a lack of analysis. The more distinct the characteristics of a role, the easier it is to act it out.”
“You’re really getting on my nerves.”
Lexion, who had been glaring at him with disapproving eyes, turned his chair around to face Arendt.
Then, he muttered irritably under his breath.
“Now that it’s come to this, I might as well play along a bit more. What is it that you want to talk about?”
It was the question Arendt had been waiting for.
A faint smile passed across the apprentice knight’s lips.