Chapter 51

For a while, no sounds could be heard over the communication channel. The person on the other end, who had been silent in surprise, asked in a suspicious voice.

-Really…Are you sure it's a dragon egg?

Listening to the slight tremble in the other's voice, the lord's gaze turned to fix onto the translucent egg held in Humming's arms. Inside the egg, the white hatchling had buried its head in its wings and had fallen into a deep sleep. Though she might've been mistaken, the egg looked even less energetic than when Humming first saw the hatchling in the egg. It was still emitting a subtle glow, as if to express its presence.

The lord looked at it curiously and answered after a pause. "Actually, I've never seen a dragon egg before, so it's hard for me to give details but… yes, I think this definitely is a dragon egg."

-I see. How big is it? Have you checked the temperature and the strength of the shell?

This time, it was Allen who answered the other person's urgent questions.

"It's about the size of a curled up baby. 61 centimeters in height and 27 centimeters in diameter. The strength of the shell is about 3 Hertz, but the shell seems to be getting thinner. The hatchling is completely formed. My biggest concern is that the egg's temperature is dropping. The temperature this morning was 59 degrees but it's not 58 degrees." 1

At Allen's calm and professional explanation, the wizard on the other end of the communication channel let out a weak groan. Based on Allen's description, the hatchling had grown enough to break out of the egg at any time now.

Has anyone in the world ever found an egg that had grown to this stage before?

Even if the dragon eggs were found, it would be difficult to grow them. Most of the eggs found were weak, and the weaker the eggs, the greater the amount of refined mana was needed.

– Please follow my instructions. There's no time to delay. When the egg's temperature drops below 49 degrees, the egg begins to petrify. If an egg has completely turned to stone, it crumbles to dust under the slightest impact. There are countless hatchlings that have disappeared like that.

The wizard on the other end knew this better than anyone else.

Swallowing his saliva, he murmured – The fastest we can get there from the capital is two weeks.

"It won't last that long. Three days at most. Petrification can happen tomorrow at the earliest."

– Three days? That's too unreasonable… Ah! Please wait a moment.

The other party didn't say anything for a bit. After a stretch of silence, the faint rumble of conversation could be heard from the communication channel.

-…maybe…near…

-move south-east… in one day…

-I don't know if I'll be able to contact him.

-I don't know if it's that… Contact him first.

-Who?

After the wizards, who had been busy exchanging opinions, came to a conclusion, the line went silent again. Suddenly, voices were heard beyond the communications zone, even more than before.

-...Rick!

-...Derek?

-Derek… contacted Barco2… and told him…

-If I do it….will I die?

-…the bait…

-Oh, okay… yes, someone's… sacrifice is essential…

There was hope in that whispered line. The voices of the wizards deciding who to scapegoat ceased.

-Sorry to have kept you waiting. I happen to have a colleague who can travel there within a day. I'll ask my colleague to head there. It will take about two days at the longest for him to arrive.

At that time, the lord made eye contact with Allen and smiled. The old lord did not look like a nobleman, but instead, gave off a humble impression. Just as he tried to answer with confidence, Allen stepped in.

"I'm sorry if this is impudent meddling, but apprentice wizards or low rank wizards won't be of any help. As you know, the egg is already at its final stage of growth and it would need a lot of mana."

-Oh, don't worry about that.

With a chuckle, the wizard replied in a bright voice.

-An upper class wizard will go. One of a very, very high rank…. I hope that hatchling absorbs all his magic this time3. Ahahaha! Just you wait…. Damn it!

The wizard, who had started mumbling halfway through, cut off the communication channel abruptly at the sound of a sudden explosion. In any case, he said that the imperial sorcerer will arrive in two days.

"Thank god they'll be here in two days. In fact, it's a very burdensome thing for me to find such a thing. If rumours spread, bad guys might appear, targeting that egg," The lord said plainly, patting his chest in relief.

Allen nodded at his words.

He hesitated a little before opening his mouth, "Actually, I have something to tell you, my Lord."

Alan continued with a look of embarrassment, "In fact, this dragon egg was discovered a few days ago when my brother and I were walking around the Fairy Forest."

"Huh, near the Fairy Forest?"

"Yes. Thankfully, I had read about this in a book while I was studying medicine, so it was not difficult to guess that it was a dragon egg."

"That's good, that's good," the lord kindly added.

Looking at such a lord, Allen sighed exaggeratedly.

"But… it seems like the kids got into the forest through a gap in the wall we had broken down."

There were traces of guilt on his face.

'Heh. Allen's acting is so good?' Humming's eyes, which had only been watching from the side, gleamed.

It was fortunate that no one noticed or cared about her expression.

"Fortunately, we came back safely, but… I feel bad that it happened because of us."

"I see, so that's why…!"

Looking at the bewildered lord, Allen quickly added, "It's a shameful thing to say. I'm being brazen but it'd be shameful if the matter is spread around. We wouldn't be able to raise our faces to the villagers. That's why I hope that my Lord can say that you found this egg. All the rewards for reporting the egg will be given to my Lord." 4

The eyes of the Lord of Loa, Viscount Shelton grew wide. When such precious treasures were discovered, the imperial family often gave a reward for reporting them. The rewards would be an amount that commoners like them have never touched before, but to give it all to the lord without taking any of that large sum…

"…Oh, no, but how could I do that?"

Allen and Humming sighed inwardly at the lord's expression, who had on a face of not knowing what to do. If it were other nobles, they would naturally think of embezzling some or all of the reward somewhere in the exchange, but the lord here is so naive. Kalia liked this kind, simple and somewhat naive lord very much. Of course, it wasn't just because she liked the lord that they offered to hand the egg over to him.

'When the imperial mages come down, they will surely try to talk to the ones who discovered the egg. In order to avoid unnecessary entanglement, it would be better not to be known as the discoverers in the first place. So, turn the ball around with the right words.'

They didn't need the reward, they just needed to hand the egg over to the wizards safely.

"Please, grant us our request, my Lord."

"Oh my," The lord closed his eyes as if troubled, but still nodded his head heavily as if he understood.

"Okay, then I'll use the bounty on the town."

"Thank you very much."

At Allen and Humming's thanks, the lord only smiled awkwardly with a strange face.

Seeing as the meeting was coming to an end, Allen slowly got ready to get up from his seat. Humming, who was holding the egg in her arms, also tried to lay the egg on a cushion the lord had provided. But at that moment, electricity flowed out from the dragon egg.

"Huh?" A surprised Humming almost dropped the egg.

Fortunately, the current didn't flow through Humming.

The lord asked in surprise, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know. I was going to put it on here, but the egg suddenly let out an electric current."

Tilting her head, Humming tried to lay the eggs on the soft cushion again… The moment she tried-

Bzzzzz!

The burst of electricity was much bigger this time, making a loud zapping sound as the people around them got struck by the current. Thankfully, it only seemed to shock them a little.

"Huh?"

Only Humming, who was holding the egg, and Allen, who was standing next to her, were not touched by the current and were completely fine.

"…What?"

" I guess the egg is refusing to sit there?"

"...Hahaha. You're choosing a seat for the egg?" The lord laughed his own words off because of its ridiculousness, and asked someone to bring him another cushion.

But the same thing happened with the other cushion. Humming, who was hugging the egg was fine, but electricity continued to diffuse into the surrounding environment.

"I guess it doesn't want to part from your arms. Give me the egg. I'll hold it." The lord looked at the egg as if he were looking at a childish grandson and held out his hands for it.

Humming suddenly felt a little ominous but still handed over the egg she was holding to the lord.

No, she was going to, but-

Just before the egg was touching the lord's hands, she saw the beginning spark of an electricity current incomparable to anything before.

Gasp!

Reflectively, she only had time to take a quick breath and shout in surprise, "No!"

As quickly as she could Humming pulled back the egg out of the lord's reach, but the current had already passed on to the lord's fingertips. Fortunately, only a part of the current was delivered because of Humming's quick actions. Even then, the old lord staggered backwards at the shock.

It was then that Humming saw a strange sight.

'His shadow separated.'

The others couldn't see it because they were helping hold up the lord, who had collapsed because of his stiff body, but Humming saw it.

The darkness that remained as if pinned into the place where the lord had stood. As soon as the current disappeared, the darkness, which seemed to have been frozen by the flowing current, immediately crawled under the lord's feet.

'…What is that?'

Everything had happened in an instant so she thought she had seen something in vain, but that ominous feeling was still there. That was not the only strange thing.

'Come to think of it, how could there be such a dark shadow when we're indoors?'

Though the place didn't have a lot of sunlight pouring in, the dark shadows still gave a strange sense of incongruity. Humming briefly glanced around before lifting her feet to look under them. As expected, there was no dark shadow except around the lord. Just checking it out made her feel creeped out though.5 Well, the lord's feet were not dark anymore. The size of that shadow was small so the others probably didn't feel the sense of congruity she felt.

'What do we do?'

Can she leave the egg here like this?