How to Live Comfortably as an Abandoned Prince

Chapter 195. Invitation from the Esven Marquisate (4)

“Do not mind it. It’s a secret agent of the Ability Management Bureau.”

Soon after, Marquis Esven’s voice was heard.

It was about Armandy.

Radel stroked his chest.

‘I thought it was about me.’

However, on the one hand, he was also surprised by the fact that the Esven Marquisate knew of Armandy’s existence.

‘How much do they know?’

Radel briefly contemplated whether to turn back through the passage, but soon changed his mind.

Perhaps the Esven Marquisate even knew that he deliberately brought an Ability Management Bureau agent.

If so, it was better for him to learn as much information as possible too.

Radel quietly moved towards where the voice was coming from.

He didn’t forget to erase his presence.

It was a moment when his infiltration skills, excellent enough to be acknowledged by the employees of the Dice Shop who were former assassins, shone.

‘They must be in this room.’

There was a large room on one side of the passage, and the door was slightly open.

The voices were flowing out from inside.

Radel lowered his footsteps and approached to peek inside.

The room was dark, and only minimal light flickered.

It was dark so he couldn’t see in detail, but a large magic circle was drawn on the floor, and he could see tools used for various rituals and black candles placed on the magic circle.

And there, Marquis Esven and his three children were gathered.

They were wearing black clothes with the same family crest that appeared on the mural Radel just saw, and since it was so dark, it also looked like a gathering to use some suspicious art.

Marquis Esven opened his mouth with an expressionless face.

“It is better to show once than to let them keep suspecting.”

At Marquis Esven’s words, the eldest of the Marquisate refuted.

“But Father, he is someone who dared to touch Great-Great-Grandmother’s portrait. Should we leave this be?”

After the eldest finished speaking, the youngest calmly chimed in.

“……He sprinkled holy water. It feels unpleasant.”

The second child also added.

“It is certain he treats us like heretics.”

Then Marquis Esven nodded.

“I know too. But don’t you all know that the preservation magic our family has researched for hundreds of years won’t collapse from something like that.”

“That is true but…… Father.”

Marquis Esven stopped the children, who seemed to have a lot to say, with a hand gesture.

Then he said this.

“He is someone who cannot even properly recognize our historic magic. Indeed, how would the guys from the Ability Management Bureau know. This beauty.”

Beauty, huh.

Seeing him call magic beautiful, it seemed Marquis Esven was also a magic supremacist.

Because Armandy had talked countless times about praising the beauty of magic at any time or saying this is what a real mage is, Radel roughly knew what the mindset of magic supremacists was like.

‘Well, magic could be an object of praise for someone.’

It was when Radel was inadvertently thinking like that.

But what Marquis Esven pointed to was not magic.

While pointing to something huge behind him, he spat out admiration as if entranced.

“Ah, Lord Dragon……!”

Lord Dragon?

Radel followed Marquis Esven’s hand and looked behind him.

And was at a loss for words for a moment.

Because it was dark so he didn’t see it at first, but as he adapted to the darkness, something gradually revealed itself.

‘That is……?’

There, a gigantic dragon’s skeleton was spreading its wings wide while maintaining almost its original form.

It was a legacy of the past that had long since been lost.

* * *

So this is why it was called a Secret Exhibition Hall.

Radel gauged the size of the room displaying the dragon’s skeleton and accepted the name the system window informed him of.

So this room was a place to display that gigantic dragon skeleton.

Even if it was just bones, since dragons were incredibly large compared to humans, it seemed they designed this large room to recreate even the appearance of the dragon spreading its wings.

In other words, this was a dragon fossil exhibition hall.

‘How much is all that.’

Radel’s eyes shone looking at the dragon bones.

Recently, due to territory management and Dice Shop management, occasions of opening a street stall directly had decreased, but Radel wasn’t someone who wouldn’t recognize something profitable.

Dragon bones, leather, teeth, etc.

Already many remains of dragons were processed into artifacts or made into magical tools, so even obtaining them was impossible now.

But the Esven Marquisate possessed intact remains of tremendous size, enough to restore the original form.

It was difficult for Radel to imagine how much that value would be.

‘The Esven Marquisate was a hidden rich family.’

He thought just selling those dragon bones over there could buy two or three territories.

However, the people of the Esven Marquisate seemed uninterested in such things.

They were just staring at the dragon absentmindedly.

“……It is truly beautiful.”

“Right.”

“Lord Dragon’s bones…….”

A faint smile hovered on their faces, which had almost no expression.

All of them had a flush rising on their cheeks.

Since Marquis Esven and the three siblings were muttering such words in black clothes in the darkness, it certainly looked suspicious.

“It’s time.”

Marquis Esven, who was admiring the dragon’s bones, took out a staff from his bosom.

And spoke resolutely.

“Since appreciating Lord Dragon’s beauty can be done on other days too, let’s do what we must do today.”

“Yes, Father.”

“We will prepare.”

The three siblings went up onto the magic circle drawn on the floor according to Marquis Esven’s instruction.

As the Marquis infused magic power into the magic circle, the candles lit up and the three siblings started chanting a spell.

FLAAAASH!

The magic circle shone inside the dark room.

‘What magic is it?’

Radel held his breath and watched them.

To think it’s magic prepared by mobilizing even a magic circle with dragon bones in front.

Furthermore, Marquis Esven and even the children, who were still young but could use magic, were mobilized.

At this level, it was magic of considerable scale.

“Father, it seems almost complete.”

“Got it.”

When the eldest turned his head and spoke, Marquis Esven pulled a rope hanging from the ceiling.

Then the curtains covering the ceiling were drawn back.

There was a round window on the ceiling of the room, and soft light flowed out from there and poured down onto the dragon’s bones.

‘It’s moonlight.’

Radel recalled what he learned in magic circle class.

Some magic borrowed nature’s mana to amplify the power of the magic circle.

Among them, the most commonly used one was exactly the mana harbored by moonlight.

Just in time, today was a night with a full moon.

The day when the moon’s power becomes strongest.

Finally, Marquis Esven waved his staff as if he had waited and chanted the spell.

“Shake off!”

FLASH!

The magic was completed.

Radel could clearly witness with his two eyes the essence of magic created with heart and soul by the Esven Marquisate.

Surprisingly, the dragon bones where dust had settled were becoming clean little by little.

“It is a success, Father.”

“It seems so. If we don’t clean it once a month, too much dust piles up.”

“……That’s right. Then Lord Dragon won’t be able to breathe.”

“It seems worthwhile that our ancestors poured their heart and soul into this magic.”

At the words of Marquis Esven and the three siblings, Radel realized clearly what magic they used.

That was cleaning magic to manage the dragon bones.

Marquis Esven and the three siblings conversed with proud faces looking at the dragon bones becoming cleaner.

“……It would be nice if the full moon rose twice a month. Then we could clean Lord Dragon more.”

“I agree.”

“As expected, it seems the effect is best when done when the full moon is up.”

“Because mana is full on the night of the full moon. Now, let’s present how much progress each has made in research.”

Their conversation proceeded to a place increasingly incomprehensible.

“I researched magic to regenerate skin attached to bones.”

“Mine is magic to strengthen the magic power remaining in bones.”

“I tried researching magic to call forth the soul of a life already extinct.”

Isn’t the last magic almost necromancy?

Thinking about why such magic was necessary, Radel could know the answer.

To Radel’s hearing, the magic they were researching was all related to dragons.

After the research presentation ended once, Marquis Esven looked around at the children.

“Our goal is…… you must not forget that it is Lord Dragon’s resurrection. For that, we must make Venus the Emperor. Everyone knows, right?”

“We know, Father.”

The three siblings nodded with resolute expressions.

“Like our ancestors, we are returning to the beautiful days of serving Lord Dragon by his side. Ah, Lord Dragon…….”

Radel could finally feel how much the Esven Marquisate loved dragons.

That was love to the extent of wanting to make one person the Emperor.

* * *

‘It was a truly fascinating experience.’

Radel thought while exiting the passage.

Marquis Esven and the three siblings didn’t stop discussing the plan to make Venus the Emperor even after that.

It was an impressive sight to Radel.

Their goal was solely the resurrection of the dragon.

However, resurrecting a dragon was akin to resurrecting an ancient ruler.

In other words, it meant it could threaten the Emperor’s authority if things went wrong.

Because they could be hindered by the Emperor if he noticed their plan, the Esven Marquisate had thoroughly hidden their goal until now.

And contemplated how to achieve the goal.

The answer they came up with was the conclusion that an Emperor just needed to come from their family.

‘It’s not a bad strategy. But would there be a way to resurrect a dragon that has already disappeared.’

How would they revive a dragon with only bones remaining?

Reviving it as an undead wouldn’t be their goal.

As far as Radel knew, reviving a dead existence was impossible even with magic.

That was an unchangeable law of the world.

‘The plan to make Venus the Emperor would rather be more realistic.’

However, the Esven Marquisate’s affection for dragons gave Radel a deep impression.

As a cryptozoology major, there was a lot to learn.

It was when Radel was about to exit the passage while recalling the new side of the Esven Marquisate he learned today.

‘What is that room?’

A room he hadn’t discovered when looking at the murals earlier caught his eye.

He thought about just passing by, but considering the dragon bones he just saw, somehow it seemed like there would be something fascinating.

Radel couldn’t pass by that room and peeked inside.

He intended to just secretly watch what was there.

And this time he was genuinely surprised.

“This is……?”

Radel’s eyes widened.

Inside the dark room, only one large egg was placed all alone.

Judging by the size, it seemed like a magical beast’s egg, but it was huge to the point it was hard to find anything bigger among eggs in the world.

The magical beast born from this egg would definitely be as big as a dragon.

And the moment he thought so, Radel came to realize the secret of the Esven Marquisate.

‘Dragon!’

The real secret of the Esven Marquisate that Armandy tried to find out was right in front of his eyes now.

What they wanted to revive wasn’t dragon bones.

It was the egg of the last dragon that had been sleeping for a long time.