With the celebratory mood still in full swing, Chelsie arrived at the castle after receiving a message from Jade.
“Chelsie-saaaan!” Ruri exclaimed, not having seen Chelsie in a long time. She was so happy that she went to hug her, as if to say that she missed her dearly.
Chelsie rolled her eyes with a smirk as she accepted the overly excited Ruri’s hug without dodging her. She looked like an old woman, but she was a dragonkin all the same. Ruri pounced on her at full speed, and she didn’t even budge.
“Sheesh, you may be a mother now, but your self-control needs work.”
“I’m just so happy to see you, Chelsie-san.”
“I was worried when I heard you were bedridden for a week, but you look pretty darn healthy now. You had me worried for nothing.”
“Aah, yeah. I think that’s thanks to the berries Kotaro and Rin brought me.”
“Berries?”
“They said they’re rare berries that the Spirit of the Trees in the Nation of the Spirit King can make.”
“Well, I’ve never heard of that before.”
“Oh, you neither, Chelsie-san? Jade-sama also said he’d never heard of it.”
Even Jade, who had a long relationship with the Nation of the Spirit King, and Chelsie, who served the previous Dragon King Quartz, were clueless about the berries, so it must not have been a very well-known fact.
“It was super effective. I feel like I recovered all the mental and physical energy I lost up till then. In fact, I feel like I have too much energy now,” Ruri said, moving away from Chelsie and swinging her arm around and around to show how much energy she had.
“You don’t have to prove it. I can see for myself,” Chelsie said, exasperated. “Where is His Majesty?”
Jade was nowhere to be seen in the room; only Rutile stood guard near the door, along with Kotaro, Rin, a few other spirits, and last but not least, Citrine.
“Euclase carted him away because the fruit put me back in proper shape. They said that work had badly piled up,” Ruri explained.
Including the week that Ruri had been bedridden, Jade had stayed by Ruri’s side, leaving all of his royal duties to his retainers. It was only natural that work had piled up. Even with Euclase, the chancellor, there were many decisions that couldn’t be made without his permission. He had been bringing work that could be done into Ruri’s room, but the Dragon King couldn’t just stay cooped up and away from his duties forever.
This entire time, he’d been let off the hook because Ruri’s recovery process came first, but that consideration wasn’t necessary now that Ruri was feeling better. Despite him throwing a tantrum like a child and refusing to leave, Euclase had dragged Jade away kicking and screaming. Chelsie’s arrival was probably another reason Euclase had felt comfortable doing so. After all, she was like a parent to Ruri in this world.
Nevertheless, Ruri couldn’t help but secretly think that Euclase’s strength to drag away the Dragon King—a position decided by brawn—was quite impressive. Euclase had never even participated in the tournament to decide on the king. Jade might have been holding back, but it was clear that Euclase was quite strong nonetheless.
Then again, even being a royal official, they would likely be looked down upon by other dragonkin if they didn’t have a certain level of strength. Considering that, it felt necessary that Euclase possess especially formidable strength among the dragonkin.
Chelsie peered into Citrine’s basket. “Oho. So this is your and His Majesty’s child?”
“Yes. His name is Citrine.”
“That’s a fine name.”
“Right? Jade-sama gave it to him,” Ruri said, smiling from ear to ear, as if she herself received the compliment.
“He has quite the mana reserve too.”
“It seems a lot of my influence shows in him.”
“So I see,” Chelsie said, understanding without much explanation.
Ruri felt Chelsie’s dependable aura as a veteran child-rearer. Dragonkin fed on mana from the moment they were born. And mana from their parents was their most important source of nutrition as children. That was why, with some exceptions, the parents’ mana greatly influenced the growth of their offspring. The more magic power they gave, the stronger their children became.
Citrine had been feeding off the mana of the strongest of all the dragonkin, the Dragon King Jade, so he was naturally going to be strong. However, the influence of Ruri, a Beloved, was even greater. Quantity was important, but quality even more so. Beloveds had the highest-quality mana in the world, and Citrine had received Ruri’s mana at birth. Also, after Ruri had regained her strength by eating the berries from the Spirit of the Trees, she’d been taking turns with Jade giving Citrine mana meals.
Moreover, Ruri possessed mana that rivaled Jade’s. Given an abundance of high-quality mana that even the spirits favored, Citrine’s own mana was growing stronger at a pace that made all the other dragonkin nervous. That was likely influenced by the fact that he had the qualities of a Beloved himself.
His future looked promising. But the only ones happy about that were Agate and the other elders; Euclase and everyone else were a tad worried about Citrine’s future.
“I’ve been waiting for you to come, Chelsie. I wanted to ask you all about dragonkin child-rearing.”
“Child-rearing? What’s there to ask?”
“Well, the specifics of raising them and whatnot.”
“Just leave them alone and they’ll grow up on their own.”
“Huh?” Ruri uttered, freezing at the haphazard advice.
“If you give them magic at first, they’ll take human form in two weeks, so after that, they can do whatever they want.”
“No, no, no. I mean things like how to educate them or what to watch out for to raise them properly.”
“I don’t remember paying attention to any of that.”
“Arghhh... You’re saying the same thing as everyone else!”
Ruri was truly shocked. Chelsie had been her only hope. The female dragonkin court ladies around Ruri were all unmarried. Generally, dragonkin didn’t work outside the home after marriage because they were a race that didn’t like to leave their mates.