Chapter 73
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After Eki left, Cassius leaned limply against the sofa, the mouthpiece of his pipe between his lips, and exhaled a long breath.
The smoke that rose in a hazy curl above his head soon dispersed, but the turmoil clouding his mind did not fade so easily.
‘A fairy… newly born.’
Since Ikelid hadn’t reported anything to him, Eki’s fairy was likely the first sign that the world had begun to turn in accordance with its proper order once more.
‘A few days from now, fairies will probably be born elsewhere, too.’
It was something he had wished for over centuries, and yet it brought him far less joy than he’d imagined.
Cassius looked toward the sleeping fairy enclosed within the glass cylinder, his expression complicated.
Eki had brushed it off without much thought, but the truth was, the reason he and Ikelid had tried to summon fairies from another world was because there was a grave problem in this one.
‘The restoration of the world’s shattered dimensional barrier.’
Humans believed that the great mages of each nation, who had brought an end to the Age of Darkness, had already restored the barrier.
But that was not the case.
Through countless sacrifices, they had merely patched a thin layer over the fissure. It was merely a stopgap measure that wouldn’t last even a thousand years.
‘Once that crack opens again, the massacre will begin anew.’
For the barrier to be fully restored, the world itself needed to recover first.
And the ones who could most effectively aid the world’s natural recovery were the fairies.
Fairies were pure and blessed beings who, from the moment of their birth until their final fading, spread happiness throughout the world.
Through that blessing, life was preserved. And Cassius’s aim, too, was to restore the world’s natural balance through the return of the fairies.
‘I thought summoning fairies from another realm would be faster than rebuilding the world’s sustaining force…’
But since things had come to this, it seemed best to contact Ikelid and let him take the lead in guiding this rebirth.
Cassius set down his pipe and rose from his seat, walking toward the window.
At the end of his gaze was the small flowerbed he had built on the balcony.
There, Eki was tending to the brightly blooming flowers.
Kneeling down and bending close to smell them, her round head looked almost endearingly small.
Cassius smiled faintly… Then, as if realizing someone might see, hastily stiffened his expression.
Originally, he had planned to place the flowerbed in the front yard of the Thousand Tower, but this area was home to many forest beasts, and unauthorized monster-hunting squads sometimes passed through.
He had worried the flowers might be damaged, so he’d chosen the widest balcony instead.
Thanks to that, he could enjoy the view of the flowerbed freely.
Together with Eki.
‘…How long will it take for the dimensional barrier to recover?’
For now, with only one fairy in existence, the effect would be minimal.
But once their numbers multiplied exponentially, the barrier’s restoration would progress rapidly.
Within a few years, the torn edges of the world’s veil would surely mend completely.
Which meant that before then, he would have to leave.
‘Leave this world.’
Cassius quietly watched Eki, who was smiling brightly.
After a while, he drew the curtains and returned to his seat.
Leaning back against the sofa, his face hardened into an almost frightening stillness.
‘There’s nothing good left for me here.’
Dragons were sinners, no longer welcome in this world.
The only reason Cassius, one of their kind, could join hands with Ikelid, the archmage representing humanity, wasn’t simply to help him with his magical research.
Cassius, the last dragon of this world, had been imprisoned in this tower to protect the dimensional barrier.
Without Ikelid’s permission, he could not take a single step outside the Thousand Dog Tower.
‘Eki thought I was just a recluse.’
But she was wrong.
In this perfect prison, the only way he could ever leave was to travel to another world, to rejoin the dragons who had gone before him.
Before the dimensional barrier’s full restoration, Ikelid had urged Cassius to depart for the other world.
And Cassius, left alone in this world without his kin, had also wished to leave.
“……”
The veins on the backs of his clasped hands bulged with tension.
He stared silently into space for a long while, then covered his weary face with one hand.
Why has a fairy appeared now, of all times?
Why had his long-held wish come true only after meeting Eki?
Accepting Eki had been his first mistake.
A disciple with decent magical skill, yes… but foolish, noisy, and forever sneaking glances at his face.
“…Why did I… keep her by my side?”
Still covering his brow, Cassius lowered his head.
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