Chapter 200

“Will your appearance…never go back to the way it was…?” Mariela asked timidly. Yuric didn’t seem to mind at all, but the limbs that had exceeded human size and the face that most likely had a different silhouette now would probably make it difficult for him to live in the imperial capital or the Labyrinth City. “I think it’s a temporary thing. My demi-dragon ancestor didn’t look like this. However, this isn’t without benefit. It’s granted me some offensive abilities. It would probably be better to stay like this for the time being.” Franz seemed to think he could return to normal, and Mariela recalled the dream she’d had not long ago. The recollections of Franz that Mariela had gotten a glimpse of weren’t just those of his ancestor. It was probably a case of genetic throwback. None of Franz’s forebears had scales. At least, there’d been no mention of it in his family’s oral history. Franz’s father loved his son’s aptitude for healing magic, but his mother shunned him as a “lizard boy.” The memories Mariela witnessed had included a heartbreaking one of a young boy who begged for his mother’s love by whittling down his own face with an edged tool and regenerating it with magic. Surfeit Heal wasn’t merely healing magic. This unique spell was innate to the blood of demi-dragons, and it reflected the will of the practitioner when it restored the subject. Of course, since that wasn’t his natural form, the skin the young Franz generated by carving up his own face grew back all its scales within a few weeks due to his body’s tenacious recovery abilities. I wonder if Yuric saw Franz’s memories… It was probably natural for a man who grew up being despised as a “lizard” to be comfortable living with a girl who loved beasts more than people. Mariela couldn’t guess from the way Yuric nestled close to Franz whether she had seen Franz’s past. Maybe Franz’s history doesn’t matter to Yuric. If it was necessary, the pair would discuss it, because they lived together. Even Mariela had had that sort of experience. “Even so…” Franz had saved them after regaining a bit of his sanity, but what had sparked that? And why had dawn arrived so suddenly? Mariela turned her gaze away from the endlessly flirting Yuric and Franz and walked toward a window. Maybe… She had a guess. That said, just how many days had it been? It was quite likely the flow of time differed between here and the real world, but that sort of thing was irrelevant. If feelings could be resolved with logic, surely the world would be forever peaceful and boring. “There it is, a seventh.” The passage connecting east and west on the north side had largely collapsed along with the wall and cut off the route. When night came, the black monsters would close in like an avalanche from there, but a new tower stood in the middle of the collapsed outer wall. After glancing at Franz and Yuric in their own little world, Mariela faced the seventh tower and thought to herself, Maybe I’ll listen to his explanation now… What had happened to Mariela’s extreme stupidity back when she had rushed out of Sunlight’s Canopy? Was the unsociable Yuric’s lovey-dovey behavior affecting her?