Chapter 25: To the Nation of the Beast King
“I still can’t believe it...” Ruri said gloomily as she walked out of Noah’s section of the dungeon with Joshua. The experience had left a sour taste in her mouth, to say the least. “What’s going to happen to Noah-kun after this?”
“Hired hit, attempted murder, town-wide arson, poisoning, destruction to the castle—and that’s just what I’m listing offhand. They’ll probably investigate how involved he was in all this and if he has any further offenses, but I’m guessing he’ll be sent to a prison for serious felons along with those fake Reapers, never to be let out into the outside world ever again.”
Ruri never thought that Noah would be pardoned, but it pained her to think of him forced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
“Isn’t there some sort of Juvenile Act in place?”
“Juve-whatsit?”
“You know, something like reducing an underage child’s sentence with hopes they’ll rehabilitate later in life?” Ruri said. It was a loose interpretation, given that she wasn’t knowledgeable enough in the subject to give a more apt explanation.
“Hmm, that kind of thing exists in your world, eh? Afraid we don’t have anything like that in this one. Adults and children are the same. He may be ‘underage,’ but the age of adulthood isn’t the same across all races. Something like that might be impossible here in the Nation of the Dragon King with it being home to so many different races. Adulthood in humans is fifteen, but it’s a hundred for dragonkin. You can’t use the human scale to determine if a dragonkin is an adult or not, because at fifteen all dragonkin are still actually children. On the flipside, use the dragonkin scale and almost all humans would still be considered underage and would have their sentences reduced.”
Ruri was taken aback. “Wait, adulthood starts at a hundred? How old are you guys?!”
“Everyone working in the castle is an adult. Dragonkin mature slowly, so reaching adulthood takes that much longer, which, well, explains why we end up living so long.”
That meant that Joshua, the same person standing next to her, and even Ewan, the person who everyone treated like their little brother and who looked no older than her, were all pushing their hundreds.
“Then, that would mean Jade-sama is also...” Ruri said, feeling her common sense crumbling down for the umpteenth time since arriving in this world. She had been told that dragonkin lived for a long time, but the fact that they were all older than her grandfather was a shock to her system.
However, once that shock passed, one person came back into her mind—Noah. It seemed as though he couldn’t avoid a heavy sentence. Noah clearly had been manipulated through his love for his parents, so Ruri considered her options to help him, but nothing was coming to mind. Due to the laws set in the Nation of the Dragon King and due to her unfamiliarity in the ways of this world, this wasn’t an issue where she found it fit to interject. She could probably get him a reduced sentence if she made a self-indulgent wish as a Beloved, but she knew she shouldn’t twist the laws of the nation just because she wanted to exercise her privilege. Even though she was a Beloved, there was little she could actually do.
Ruri unintentionally breathed a heavy sigh. Then her rage toward the Church of God’s Light for manipulating a child like that returned. Jade seemed to be ordering an investigation on the situation, but Ruri strongly wished for their immediate capture. At this rate, Noah was going to be the only one arrested, a scapegoat for their ploy.
Joshua then spoke up as if something popped into his mind. “Oh, right. About the punishment you suggested for those fake Reapers? Looks like we’re not able to do that.”
“Huh? Why?”
“You suggested we turn them into rats and put them in a cage, but apparently they’re not turning into rats even with the bracelets on.”
“What do you mean? Did you give them the wrong bracelets?”
“According to them, the bracelets have a usage limit. We tried that Noah kid’s bracelet, but no dice. Explains why he didn’t run away.”
After Jade apprehended Noah, it was quite some time before everyone learned of the existence of these bracelets, which was what prompted them to confiscate the one in his possession. In the meantime, he could have easily turned into a rat and escaped from that cell if he so desired. The fact that he didn’t meant that he exceeded the usage limit and couldn’t transform even if he wanted, according to Joshua.
“Usage limit?” Ruri repeated.
“Yours doesn’t have one of those?” asked Joshua.
Ruri shook her head. “Not to my knowledge... I’ve transformed into a cat plenty of times and I’ve never not been able to. I’m not sure about later down the road, though.”
“They only used theirs a few times. Since that was enough to drain them, I’d imagine that their bracelets are either poorly made or cheap knockoffs in comparison to yours.”
“I got this from Lydia’s place, so maybe Lydia would know if I asked.”
“Well, either way, if there’s a lot of these things being used and abused, then it’s a problem. The Church of God’s Light are a bunch of extremist zealots that need to be nipped in the bud fast.”
“No objections to that!” Ruri vehemently agreed.
“... Well, I certainly have one!!” Rin abruptly interjected. She fluttered in Ruri and Joshua’s faces, stopping them in their tracks.
“What’s the matter, Rin?”
“Don’t you ‘what’s the matter’ me! If you can’t turn those two into rats, then how are we supposed to punish them?!”
Rin had a point. Now that they couldn’t turn the fake Reapers into rats, they couldn’t proceed with Ruri’s punishment plan.
Kotaro said, “I want to strike them quickly... No, that’d let them off too easy. I want them to experience hell on earth nice and slow, then finish off their pathetic existences...” His remarks were unsettling, to say the least.
Ruri quickly tried to pacify the situation, saying, “You can’t do that. Jade-sama said they would be punished according to the law, didn’t he?”
“But! But!” Rin pleaded.
“Grr...” Kotaro growled.
Both of the supreme-level spirits were extremely dissatisfied. Ruri’s concerns were elsewhere by this point, and to be completely honest, she didn’t care what happened to either of the fake Reapers. However, that sat well with neither Kotaro nor Rin, which left Ruri in a bind until Joshua spoke up.
“I don’t think you’ll have to go out of your way. There’ll be others to take revenge on your behalf.”
“Care to explain?”
“A Beloved’s presence is a cause for celebration in any nation. Inflicting harm on one is met with contempt, and the heavily religious types see it as blasphemy. The jailers and the religious prisoners will probably persistently torment them ’till their dying days.”
Normally, that would be a sympathetic situation, but it served them both right for all the torment they caused. Ruri thought that to herself, but then she remembered that those two weren’t the only ones who tried to harm a Beloved.
“Hey, doesn’t that mean Noah-kun is going to get tormented, too?!”
“He’ll be fine. He’s a kid. And they’ll be more sympathetic since he was just being used.”
“Well, that’s less concerning, but... Anyway, that’s how it is, so Rin and Kotaro, you’ll just have to deal.”
“Grr, fine...” Kotaro agreed.
“...Fine,” Rin followed.
Seeing the two nod their heads in reluctant agreement, Ruri felt relieved.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
Ruri parted ways with Joshua and headed toward sector two. She would normally have no business down there, but since she accidentally partially destroyed sector one when trying to catch the fake Reapers, Jade moved his office and bedroom down to sector two for the time being.
As she walked the hallways, someone stopped her from behind.
“Lady Beloved!”
When she turned around, one of Azelda’s groupies that had accompanied her to the Nation of the Dragon King—the marquis’s son—greeted her.
“Can I help you?” Ruri asked in a tone flatter than she’d intended. Her dislike for this man seemed to be irrepressible.
Seemingly oblivious to her tone, the young man spoke with panic. “Lady Beloved, I implore your assistance.”
“My... huh?”
“Our nation’s Beloved suddenly lost her powers and cannot receive the alms of the spirits any longer.”
So much had happened since then that Ruri had almost completely forgotten, but Azelda losing her Beloved powers was fairly recent. To the Cerulandians, that was a far greater issue than any Church of God’s Light or Reapers.
“At this rate, we will face punishment as soon as we return home!” He was part of Azelda’s entourage, but he was also apparently in charge of keeping an eye on their nation’s Beloved. And with their Beloved now devoid of her powers, it most likely meant a state of emergency for their nation. This would be viewed as a failing on their part since they were by her side and couldn’t help to avoid it.
“And? What do you want me to do?” Ruri asked, unable to provide much help despite his plea. She could certainly ask Kotaro to lift the ban on her, but considering that there was a chance she would use the spirits to harm people yet again, she wanted to keep things this way as much as humanly possible. From what she’d seen of Azelda’s personality, she wasn’t the type to reflect upon her actions apologetically so easily.
“Please come to our nation instead.”
“Uh, pardon?” Ruri asked, momentarily unable to process what she had just heard.
“If you come to our nation instead, then the problem will be resolved. Cerulanda can go on without losing a Beloved. In fact, you would be more welcomed than the selfish girl we serve now.”
“W-Wait a second. I’m the Beloved of this nation. There’s no way I could go to Cerulanda like that.”
“But you are a human! In which case, you would be much happier being a Beloved in a human nation. You can live far more comfortably there than in this nation filled with monstrous demi-humans. This is not the place for a human such as yourself,” the marquis’s son said with disdain. He was apparently bigoted against demi-humans as a whole. His eyes shone with desperation, like a man at the end of his rope. It sent shivers through Ruri’s body. “And I will humbly be there, by your side.”
“No, I would rather you not be there,” Ruri replied, the man’s slimy gaze filling her with disgust.
The young man reached for Ruri. Rin and Kotaro, standing by her side, were about to act until...
“What are you doing?” said a voice from behind. When they turned around, they saw Jade and a few soldiers standing there with stern expressions.
“Jade-sama...”
Jade pulled Ruri over and placed her behind him as if to shield her. He then shot a piercing glare straight at the marquis’s son.
“Eep!” shouted the young man. The color drained from his face, as if he were a weak frog and a ferocious snake was leering at him.
“What business have you with our nation’s Beloved?” Jade asked, looking down at the young man with squinted eyes.
“Oh, yes, well...” he replied, flapping his gums wordlessly.
“Take him away,” Jade ordered to the soldiers accompanying him. The soldiers hooked his arms and dragged the young man away.
Once he was gone and out of sight, Ruri heaved a sigh of relief.
“Are you all right?”
Ruri nodded. “Yes, I’m fine.”
Jade patted her on the head. Then he looked toward where the young man had been dragged away and sighed. “Now that the whole raider targeting Beloveds matter is settled, I’ve made arrangements to send those people back to Cerulanda quickly. I suspected they might pull something since they’re set to leave tomorrow, but I see they’re taking forceful measures,” Jade said. Seeing that Ruri was clueless as to what he meant, he proceeded to explain. “I had our intelligence operatives investigate Cerulanda. I had my doubts about how Azelda heard the Nation of the Dragon King was so safe and how Cerulanda abided by Azelda’s self-serving request to come here in the first place. Seeing as how she’s so ignorant of the ways of the world, the nation could easily persuade her away from us.”
“Good point.”
“I figured there was some reason they wanted to send her to the Nation of the Dragon King. And when I had it investigated, it was just as I suspected. Cerulanda heard news of a human Beloved cropping up in the Nation of the Dragon King and apparently had designs to bring said Beloved back to their own nation. Most likely, they were fed up with Azelda and her selfish ways, desiring a new Beloved to take her place.”
“Well, I can certainly see where they’re coming from,” Ruri commented, finding herself agreeing with their plans once she thought of Azelda.
“However, an audience with a Beloved isn’t a simple task. Apparently, they used their own Beloved as a key to get inside the castle, ordering a handsome young man to accompany her and entice our Beloved into coming along. They probably thought they could easily convince you if they made you fall in love. After all, Azelda seemed to be under a similar impression.”
The marquis’s son was indeed quite handsome, but Ruri saw Jade, the most beautiful of all the already beautiful dragonkin, every day. There was no way the young man could have captivated her enough to change her allegiance.
“To them, it would have been a godsend if Cerulanda managed to bring you back. After all, making contact with a Beloved isn’t easy no matter what the nation. But they tried to give it a shot regardless. However, an unexpected situation thwarted their plans.”
“You mean Azelda upsetting Kotaro and being barred from employing the help of the spirits, right?”
“That’s right. With their Beloved lost and forced to return to their nation tomorrow, they were in a mad dash to get you to come back with them. I sent a letter to Cerulanda explaining why she lost her powers along with some grievances. I said that she would not receive the alms of the spirits until Lord Kotaro quelled his rage.”
Conversely, that could also be interpreted as her being able to receive the spirits’ alms as a Beloved again once Kotaro allowed it. Given that, Azelda probably wouldn’t be suddenly treated any differently even if she were to return back to Cerulanda since the possibility of her becoming a Beloved once more was always on the table. That being said, Azelda couldn’t keep being the selfish brat she had been this entire time.
That left the nation in a bind. They would need to keep treating Azelda as a Beloved like always despite the fact she lost the blessings of the spirits, but Azelda no longer had the means to keep up her selfishness. All in all, it was a pretty small price to pay for coveting what another nation had.
“I don’t think that Cerulanda will be trying anything again. And we won’t be inviting them to the castle like this time either,” said Jade.
“So, I take it that means things are wrapped up?”
“Yes, more or less. But, that doesn’t mean everything is over. We’ve caught the Beloved-assassin, but we still haven’t done anything about the Church of God’s Light, the ones behind the scenes. They might come after you and the other Beloveds again.”
The thought of being targeted again filled Ruri with dread.
“So, Ruri, would you like to go to the Nation of the Beast King?”
“To the Nation of the Beast King?”
“Yes. You see, I’ve begun reconstruction on sector one since it’s in disarray, but...”
Ruri was the one who’d partially destroyed the sector due to the good-luck charm’s power, and she couldn’t help but feel guilty about it. “Ulp. Sorry about that,” she said, slumping her shoulders.
Jade smiled wryly, replying, “What’s done is done. Never mind it. This incident served as a lesson, and a good chance to re-evaluate the castle’s security while I’m at it. I’m taking a multitude of countermeasures to ensure no one infiltrates these walls again. However, in order to do so, I’m going to be letting in a lot of people into the first sector—a place where people usually aren’t allowed. Doing so might make security as a whole more lax and security pertaining to you more negligent. Which is why I think you should go to the Nation of the Beast King until the castle reconstruction is finished.”
“I’ll be fine. I have Kotaro and the others.”
“This is for insurance. My heart won’t hold out if you end up missing again. If the Nation of the Beast King won’t do, then Chelsie’s house will work, too. I just thought it would be a good opportunity. You only know about Nadasha and this nation, correct? I thought it’d be good for you to take a look at other nations as well.”
Ruri did only know about those two nations. She had been in this different world for a while, but she hadn’t traveled very far.
As she pondered to herself about what to do, Jade looked as though he had something tough to say, but he continued speaking. “Well, that’s what I’m saying for show, but Celestine was the one who suggested you go to the Nation of the Beast King.”
“Celestine-san did?”
“She said she wanted to do some bonding with you.”
Ruri’s mind wasn’t allowing her to process that statement at face value. After all, this was the same Celestine that confessed her love for Jade. The commotion had prevented them from having any chance to sit down and talk, so she hadn’t been able to clear up the misunderstanding behind her relationship with Jade. Not to mention, hearing the word “bonding” evoked sheer terror...
“But Celestine-san still has the wrong idea about the both of us, doesn’t she? Wouldn’t she just pick on me?”
“She is a Beloved of an allied nation. She wouldn’t do something so reckless. And you’d have the spirits along with you.”
“Hmm...” Ruri was extremely concerned if she would be able to function while away on foreign ground.
“The Nation of the Beast King is famous as a recreation area. The royal capital is an oasis in a desert, and their hot springs are popular as well.”
Ruri’s eyes lit up at the word “hot springs.” “I’ll go!” she said. Her desire to go was now so strong that she deemed any matter with Celestine as trivial and threw it out the window. She’d go even if told she couldn’t.
She forgot how long it had been since she’d been to a hot spring. Baths weren’t general practice in the Nation of the Dragon King, so she was only able to bathe in the bath house she built in Chelsie’s yard when she visited. Other than that, she had to make do with Purification magic.
“I see. I’ll tell Arman, then.”
“Yes, please do!” Ruri emphatically replied, the idea of hot springs ruling her mind.
Finding her chipper attitude adorable, Jade looked at Ruri with a tender gaze and took her hand. “There’s something I want to give you first. Mind if we take this elsewhere?”
“Not at all. Lead the way.”
Jade proceeded to take Ruri to the garden on the second floor. This garden was just as well-kempt as the garden in sector one, but because this sector was for entertaining and housing royal guests, it seemed flashier—right down to the more lavish flowers. However, sector one might have been less extravagant overall, but that lack of bells and whistles didn’t detract from its quality or its mellow atmosphere. It was difficult to say which one was better than the other.
Once they came to the wide-open garden, Jade told Ruri, “Stand back a tad.”
Ruri did as she was told, and in the blink of an eye, Jade transformed into his jet-black dragon form.
“Why are you turning into your dragon form? Are you shedding your scales again?”
“No, not quite.”
Her head pointed up toward Jade, Ruri’s eyes stopped on something. “Huh? Jade-sama, that spot right there is a different color. Was that always there?” she asked, speaking of the one spot around Jade’s heart that was colored differently. She had no recollection of it, but it was possible that she had just never noticed.
As she pondered this, Jade used his giant mouth to skillfully pluck a single oddly-colored scale from atop his heart. Then he handed it to Ruri.
“Wow, it’s like some sort of gem.” It was the same shape as one of his shed scales, but with its beautiful jadeite-like color, it was hard to see it as anything other than a precious stone—an unprocessed, freshly-mined gemstone.
Jade returned to human form and pulled out a thin chain necklace. There was a small glass half sphere dangling from it. Taking the odd-colored scale from Ruri, he placed it inside the half sphere. Then he used another half sphere around the same size to cap it off. Finally, he used fire magic to melt the sides shut. He placed the finished necklace around Ruri’s neck.
“Huh?! You’re giving it to me?”
Jade looked in satisfaction at the scale adorning Ruri’s neck, and his lips widened into a sweet and kind smile. After stroking his fingers across the necklace, he trailed his hand over to Ruri’s hair and slowly caressed her locks.
Jade’s romantic gesture was convincing enough that it took Ruri’s breath away in a combination of confusion and bashfulness.
“It’s a good-luck charm. Make sure to keep it close to you at all times. As long as you’re wearing this, I’ll always know where you are no matter where. Just in case you end up going missing again.”
This necklace was to help Jade know where Ruri was, no matter the place. It was an item that exuded Jade’s desire to keep Ruri to himself, but Ruri herself was oblivious to this. She was filled with innocent joy over her lovely gift.
“Oh my, thank you so much. Look, it’s the same color as your eyes, Jade-sama,” Ruri said, grinning ear to ear. She was entranced by the stone, the same shade of green as Jade’s eyes, and its glass enclosure. “It’s hard to believe a color this different came from your dark dragon body.”
“...It’s because it’s more infused with my mana than any other scale on my body.”
Ruri nodded her head and gave a rather lukewarm reception to that news, almost as if saying, “Huh, you don’t say...”
Jade looked disappointed. “So, you didn’t notice that, I see,” he said as he bent down and lightly pecked Ruri on the forehead with his lips.
“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wha...?!” Ruri stammered, her face flushing red.
Meanwhile, Jade remained unaffected, as if he had done nothing out of the ordinary. The sight of Ruri so flustered made him snicker.
“Have a safe trip. We’ll fix the castle as fast as we can,” Jade said.
“U-Um, yes, I will.”
From a short distance away, Kotaro and Rin watched Jade and Ruri’s exchange.
“Hey, does Ruri not even notice that thing is a dragonheart?” Rin asked.
Kotaro shook his head. “She knows it’s a scale for sure, but she doesn’t seem to know that it’s no ordinary scale. She doesn’t know that it’s relevant to her, nor does she know the special meaning behind someone giving it to her. Maybe we should go ahead and fill her in?”
Rin thought about it for a second and replied, “Seems as though the king doesn’t plan on telling her yet. Might make for something interesting, so I say we leave the matter be until Ruri realizes herself.”
They proceeded to tell the other spirits to keep their mouths shut, to which all of them replied with a cheerful, “Okay!”
Although Ruri thought that the scale Jade gave her was a simple good-luck charm, it would be a little longer before she learned the true meaning it held.
To be continued...
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