CH 162

“Even if this is all based on a book and it feels kind of contrived, it’s not too weir…..”

Wait, what did she just say? This world wasn’t a story in a novel, but everything that had happened had been staged in order to make me think that it was a story in a novel?

“Please explain everything from the start.”

It felt like she knew everything I was curious about. I was so curious that the fear that I had felt because of her status as a dragon dissipated slightly.

Noirelle watched as I tried my best to nibble at the monster food to be polite and burst into loud laughter. She said, “Wow, even I can’t eat that.” and then immediately replaced all of the food on the table with food that humans could eat. The ogre meat turned into duck meat, and the slime slush changed to a green grape slush.

She pulled my chair closer to her before grabbing me and placing me on her lap. She was much taller and bigger than me, so her lap was a comfortable as a chair. She swept her hand through my hair as if she was dealing with a child.

“Okay. Okay. Both you and Hestia are so cute that I want to take a bite out of you. Oh. Did I kill Hestia like that once before?”

Noirelle said, laughing as she said that. I frowned when she said that she had killed Hestia, who was clearly alive, but I decided to keep quiet before she explained everything.

“First, you’re probably aware of my hatred towards the Orde Empire.”

I nodded. That was inevitable. She had been pushed to the brink of death, had her powers stolen from her, and had Blanchielle, her family, murdered.

“You can probably tell just by seeing me alive like this. The first emperor wasn’t able to kill me. He just took a portion of my heart and failed in capturing me. I used all of my power to escape. They had underestimated my strength. Seeing all of them attacking me in droves, I really could’ve lost.”

Noirelle, who had been overly excited earlier, seemed to calm down as she told her story. She looked like she was recounting old memories. The contents of her story had to hurt her as she explained it, but she spoke as if she had overcome the pain in her story a long time ago.

“While I was out of it, unable to even move my wings, they took my sole family, the only one of my species and used them as they wanted. I heard Blanchielle’s resonance but I couldn’t move. More than half of my heart had been taken from me, so only my mind was wide awake. Blanchielle had the magic of life, so she couldn’t end her own suffering. She kept asking me again and again to kill her, so I let her go with my own hands.”

My lips felt dry as I listened to her explain how she had killed her with her own hands. Moreover, Blanchielle’s body had been taken apart and sold over to the merchant guild, right?

I wondered if all of the white leather and bones around the estate I had been at with Yves had been Blanchielle’s. A chill ran up my spine. I squirmed.

“I used up all of the magic I had in my heart for revenge. My body was half dead but my mind was awake, so I was thankfully able to use a bit of magic to prepare things.”

I quietly nodded as I listened to the story.

“I scraped up all the power I had left over to control some people to set up an academy near the capital. Somewhere close to the royal palace. After the academy was built, all of the nobles who had participated in the murder of Blanchielle and myself started flocking there. Even those disgusting sprouts. Oh, you’re excluded. You’re not disgusting.”

Noirelle said, raising an eye towards me and patting my shoulders.

“After I controlled a few people, I exhausted all of my power. When a dragon’s heart doesn’t have enough magic, they all lose consciousness and begin to wander through the mentalscape. To regain control and get my revenge, I forced students to collect monster cores for hundreds of years to get my power back. Then I boosted the power of the monsters, who would soon become my army.”

Was the reason why we went to monster subjugations and collected monster cores to help increase Noirelle’s power? I had seen the cores we had collected in the mountain being transported back to the mountain before.

Monsters were said to keep all of their magic and strength in their hearts, or their cores. A human emperor had earned their strength through Noirelle’s heart, so a magical being, Noirelle, would regain their strength by eating a monster’s core.

Noirelle continued her story as she poked her long black fingernail at my cheek.

“Then as soon as I had enough power to move around, I was going to, Boom! Explode and kill everyone.”

“So the reason why the monsters kept getting stronger was……”

Her explanation of killing everyone included Hestia, myself, as well as everyone else.

I sat ramrod straight with both of my hands placed neatly on my legs. My legs were neatly together. My head was down.

I stared down and tried to organize the thoughts in my head before I spoke. Even though goosebumps were running down my arms, the words just flowed right out of my mouth.

“So you were lacking power and you were wandering the mentalscape, and the reason why you stained the academy in a wine-color was when you used the academy as a starting point to your revenge? All of the main nobles were in the same area, so it must’ve made it a lot easier to wipe them all out at once. Most of the nobles in the capital would all enroll in this academy, so all of the nobles’ lines would be wiped out at once.”

“Oh? You’re right. Just as I thought, you’re smart. Magical beings react strongly to my state. Even as I slept, I was still stuck in the place of my memories, and I still had to face those dark red, wine-colored lights on my own. The monsters I had raised right until my awakening would’ve carried my resentment and would’ve attacked the academy first. Lovable little things.”

At the sudden burst of curiosity, I raised my head quickly.

“Then is the school principal one of the people who had been controlled? If the principal’s plans were your plans, then the empire is doomed.”

Noirelle looked surprised at my words before her lips began to twitch. Then, she began clapping and burst into a fit of laughter. Noirelle kept muttering about how funny this was.

I just stared awkwardly as I watched her laugh.

“You’ve never seen the principal before, right?”

“Yes. I don’t think anybody ever has. They’re someone who’s behind a veil.”

“Oh, that’s funny. Just thinking about the principal makes me laugh. You need to see how pitiful they look on your own, too.”

Once again, I had no idea what she was talking about. But she was laughing, so I forced one corner of my lips to curl up and tried to laugh.

You’re right, I really need to see it. I said monotonously. I slowly tried to inch myself off of her lap before I was caught.

“But you’re really calm about it, huh? I just said I was trying to kill all of you? I didn’t think you were going to start shaking, but I thought you’d still be shocked.”

“Looking at the current state of things, I think you’ve probably changed your mind. The monsters have calmed, I don’t know who the principal is but I’ve heard they’ve taken back their plans, and you’re nice to me, a human.”

“Mm….. You’re right. I did change my mind. The gross little royals and the nobles, the innocent children, the unrelated humans…. After I destroyed them hundreds of thousands of times….. When I first succeeded in my revenge and everything had been destroyed, it was so refreshing! Incredibly so!”

“You took revenge thousands of times, what do you mean?”

“Oh. The cursed DuBois realized my plans for revenge and planted a time circle around their estate to protect their family members. The circumstances for activation was the destruction of the empire. I think they drew it after I built the academy and planned out my revenge. Not too long after the empire’s destruction, I lost consciousness and ended up back in the Augran Mountain, deep asleep.”

I remembered the incredibly large time circle I had seen when I had been at Cory’s residence before. I couldn’t speak as all of the truths began to uncover themselves, one by one. My eyes were wide open in shock.

“Even after I was caught by the time circle, I couldn’t forgive the humans. So I killed, burned, erased from existence…. I destroyed this world countless times.”

Their voice was dry. Noirelle tapped the table with her fingernails.

“Then right before destruction, Hestia always came to me. You know, right? Your friend. She would somehow figure out my plan and find me and blurted out apologies. Even if she was ripped apart by monsters on her way here, even when she was killed by me, she always persuaded me to change my mind. That she had so much she wanted to accomplish here. That she needed my help to achieve her goals.”

Noirelle stopped tapping the table with her nails.

“And after hundreds of repeats, destruction became boring, and the meaning behind my revenge began to fade away. I felt like the innocent descendants didn’t deserve to suffer for their ancestors and decided to give up halfway. Well, after a lot of reincarnations, I was able to find Blanchielle’s soul too. After that, I felt like I wanted to live peacefully and comfortably.”

At the mention of Blanchielle, I stared at the pillar made of white magic. I was staring at the egg embedded in the pillar when Noirelle explained that that was where Blanchielle’s physical form would be born from. I didn’t know what kind of process that was, but I nodded.

“So I was trying to escape the chains of time, but a problem occurred.”

Her voice had been dry and matter of fact while she had talked about the first emperor, but her voice had gotten taut as she mentioned the problem. I could feel the frustration in her tone.

“Because of the circumstances of myself and the people who had founded this empire, this land was already headed towards destruction to begin with. And the ones who would help bring forth destruction were the people you’re expecting. They always tried to bring destruction closer and closer.”

“By them, you mean Hylli and… Cory, Yves, and Swan.”

“You should’ve seen the last scenes of it all. The DuBois boy kept using destruction magic until his magic overflowed, the prince slayed anything and everything in sight, and the Lunaasha, who watched all the chaos with a gleeful smile. I don’t even have to mention the little duke. He’s just literal trash and he’s so cruel that I’d rather not explain.”

Wow, Swanhaden. How incredible of you to be accepted by a dragon of all things. What did you do to get all that acceptance?

When I raised one corner of my lips and thought of the Swanhaden from my dream, Noirelle looked at me before smiling.

“Seriously, they were such a pain. You know because I sent you to see in the middle, but those nutsos were seriously something else. I did everything I could to try and stop them.”

“Like what?”

“I tried to throw away the prince’s soul before reincarnation because he had the biggest grudge against the royals of all, I tried to weaken the monsters, I tried to take back my plans, and I tried to close down the academy. Nothing was really much use. Yvnes Lunaasha always made sure that my plans would go through, and if it wasn’t him, then Swanhaden did. Ugh, thinking about it makes me pissed.”

Noirelle was shaking her leg, so I ended up being shaken too. How strong.

Noirelle rubbed the back of her neck with a bitter expression on her face.

“Even if this is all based on a book and it feels kind of contrived, it’s not too weir…..”“Of course it’s contrived. I had a hand in making sure that you thought this was a world in a story, after all. I tried to use black magic to try and make Swanhaden fall in love with Hestia like in the novel, too, but it wouldn’t work. I didn’t know if it was because of how strong his feelings are for you or if it’s because he’s a white magic user, though. Maybe it’s both.”

Wait, what did she just say? This world wasn’t a story in a novel, but everything that had happened had been staged in order to make me think that it was a story in a novel?

“Please explain everything from the start.”

It felt like she knew everything I was curious about. I was so curious that the fear that I had felt because of her status as a dragon dissipated slightly.

Noirelle watched as I tried my best to nibble at the monster food to be polite and burst into loud laughter. She said, “Wow, even I can’t eat that.” and then immediately replaced all of the food on the table with food that humans could eat. The ogre meat turned into duck meat, and the slime slush changed to a green grape slush.

She pulled my chair closer to her before grabbing me and placing me on her lap. She was much taller and bigger than me, so her lap was a comfortable as a chair. She swept her hand through my hair as if she was dealing with a child.

“Okay. Okay. Both you and Hestia are so cute that I want to take a bite out of you. Oh. Did I kill Hestia like that once before?”

Noirelle said, laughing as she said that. I frowned when she said that she had killed Hestia, who was clearly alive, but I decided to keep quiet before she explained everything.

“First, you’re probably aware of my hatred towards the Orde Empire.”

I nodded. That was inevitable. She had been pushed to the brink of death, had her powers stolen from her, and had Blanchielle, her family, murdered.

“You can probably tell just by seeing me alive like this. The first emperor wasn’t able to kill me. He just took a portion of my heart and failed in capturing me. I used all of my power to escape. They had underestimated my strength. Seeing all of them attacking me in droves, I really could’ve lost.”

Noirelle, who had been overly excited earlier, seemed to calm down as she told her story. She looked like she was recounting old memories. The contents of her story had to hurt her as she explained it, but she spoke as if she had overcome the pain in her story a long time ago.

“While I was out of it, unable to even move my wings, they took my sole family, the only one of my species and used them as they wanted. I heard Blanchielle’s resonance but I couldn’t move. More than half of my heart had been taken from me, so only my mind was wide awake. Blanchielle had the magic of life, so she couldn’t end her own suffering. She kept asking me again and again to kill her, so I let her go with my own hands.”

My lips felt dry as I listened to her explain how she had killed her with her own hands. Moreover, Blanchielle’s body had been taken apart and sold over to the merchant guild, right?

I wondered if all of the white leather and bones around the estate I had been at with Yves had been Blanchielle’s. A chill ran up my spine. I squirmed.

“I used up all of the magic I had in my heart for revenge. My body was half dead but my mind was awake, so I was thankfully able to use a bit of magic to prepare things.”

I quietly nodded as I listened to the story.

“I scraped up all the power I had left over to control some people to set up an academy near the capital. Somewhere close to the royal palace. After the academy was built, all of the nobles who had participated in the murder of Blanchielle and myself started flocking there. Even those disgusting sprouts. Oh, you’re excluded. You’re not disgusting.”

Noirelle said, raising an eye towards me and patting my shoulders.

“After I controlled a few people, I exhausted all of my power. When a dragon’s heart doesn’t have enough magic, they all lose consciousness and begin to wander through the mentalscape. To regain control and get my revenge, I forced students to collect monster cores for hundreds of years to get my power back. Then I boosted the power of the monsters, who would soon become my army.”

Was the reason why we went to monster subjugations and collected monster cores to help increase Noirelle’s power? I had seen the cores we had collected in the mountain being transported back to the mountain before.

Monsters were said to keep all of their magic and strength in their hearts, or their cores. A human emperor had earned their strength through Noirelle’s heart, so a magical being, Noirelle, would regain their strength by eating a monster’s core.

Noirelle continued her story as she poked her long black fingernail at my cheek.

“Then as soon as I had enough power to move around, I was going to, Boom! Explode and kill everyone.”

“So the reason why the monsters kept getting stronger was……”

Her explanation of killing everyone included Hestia, myself, as well as everyone else.

I sat ramrod straight with both of my hands placed neatly on my legs. My legs were neatly together. My head was down.

I stared down and tried to organize the thoughts in my head before I spoke. Even though goosebumps were running down my arms, the words just flowed right out of my mouth.

“So you were lacking power and you were wandering the mentalscape, and the reason why you stained the academy in a wine-color was when you used the academy as a starting point to your revenge? All of the main nobles were in the same area, so it must’ve made it a lot easier to wipe them all out at once. Most of the nobles in the capital would all enroll in this academy, so all of the nobles’ lines would be wiped out at once.”“Oh? You’re right. Just as I thought, you’re smart. Magical beings react strongly to my state. Even as I slept, I was still stuck in the place of my memories, and I still had to face those dark red, wine-colored lights on my own. The monsters I had raised right until my awakening would’ve carried my resentment and would’ve attacked the academy first. Lovable little things.”

At the sudden burst of curiosity, I raised my head quickly.

“Then is the school principal one of the people who had been controlled? If the principal’s plans were your plans, then the empire is doomed.”

Noirelle looked surprised at my words before her lips began to twitch. Then, she began clapping and burst into a fit of laughter. Noirelle kept muttering about how funny this was.

I just stared awkwardly as I watched her laugh.

“You’ve never seen the principal before, right?”

“Yes. I don’t think anybody ever has. They’re someone who’s behind a veil.”

Once again, I had no idea what she was talking about. But she was laughing, so I forced one corner of my lips to curl up and tried to laugh.

You’re right, I really need to see it. I said monotonously. I slowly tried to inch myself off of her lap before I was caught.

“But you’re really calm about it, huh? I just said I was trying to kill all of you? I didn’t think you were going to start shaking, but I thought you’d still be shocked.”

“Looking at the current state of things, I think you’ve probably changed your mind. The monsters have calmed, I don’t know who the principal is but I’ve heard they’ve taken back their plans, and you’re nice to me, a human.”

“Mm….. You’re right. I did change my mind. The gross little royals and the nobles, the innocent children, the unrelated humans…. After I destroyed them hundreds of thousands of times….. When I first succeeded in my revenge and everything had been destroyed, it was so refreshing! Incredibly so!”

“You took revenge thousands of times, what do you mean?”

I remembered the incredibly large time circle I had seen when I had been at Cory’s residence before. I couldn’t speak as all of the truths began to uncover themselves, one by one. My eyes were wide open in shock.

“Even after I was caught by the time circle, I couldn’t forgive the humans. So I killed, burned, erased from existence…. I destroyed this world countless times.”

Their voice was dry. Noirelle tapped the table with her fingernails.

“Then right before destruction, Hestia always came to me. You know, right? Your friend. She would somehow figure out my plan and find me and blurted out apologies. Even if she was ripped apart by monsters on her way here, even when she was killed by me, she always persuaded me to change my mind. That she had so much she wanted to accomplish here. That she needed my help to achieve her goals.”

Noirelle stopped tapping the table with her nails.

“And after hundreds of repeats, destruction became boring, and the meaning behind my revenge began to fade away. I felt like the innocent descendants didn’t deserve to suffer for their ancestors and decided to give up halfway. Well, after a lot of reincarnations, I was able to find Blanchielle’s soul too. After that, I felt like I wanted to live peacefully and comfortably.”

At the mention of Blanchielle, I stared at the pillar made of white magic. I was staring at the egg embedded in the pillar when Noirelle explained that that was where Blanchielle’s physical form would be born from. I didn’t know what kind of process that was, but I nodded.

“So I was trying to escape the chains of time, but a problem occurred.”

Her voice had been dry and matter of fact while she had talked about the first emperor, but her voice had gotten taut as she mentioned the problem. I could feel the frustration in her tone.

“Because of the circumstances of myself and the people who had founded this empire, this land was already headed towards destruction to begin with. And the ones who would help bring forth destruction were the people you’re expecting. They always tried to bring destruction closer and closer.”

“By them, you mean Hylli and… Cory, Yves, and Swan.”

Wow, Swanhaden. How incredible of you to be accepted by a dragon of all things. What did you do to get all that acceptance?

When I raised one corner of my lips and thought of the Swanhaden from my dream, Noirelle looked at me before smiling.

“Seriously, they were such a pain. You know because I sent you to see in the middle, but those nutsos were seriously something else. I did everything I could to try and stop them.”

“Like what?”

Noirelle was shaking her leg, so I ended up being shaken too. How strong.

Noirelle rubbed the back of her neck with a bitter expression on her face.