“I’m afraid this may come across as rude...” Bruno turned to Amelia with a firm gaze, making her flinch and tense up. “But Ms. Amelia, I believe you have yet to understand how extraordinary His Majesty is.”
“I-Is that so...?”
“Yes. Had you known, then this would not have been enough to surprise you. When it comes to magic, His Majesty has long transcended human limits.”
Amelia’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Of course.”
Amelia whipped her head to me with a wide-eyed and questioning gaze.
I responded with a strained smile. Praise from Bruno was nothing new, but it felt like he was really putting his back into it today. “Bruno, aren’t you exaggerating a bit?”
“Not at all. Your magic is superb, Your Majesty. Although this is just my speculation...” His eyes narrowed. “You only crafted about twenty of this magic item, yes?”
“Yeah? What about it?”
“Then that must mean you haven’t exerted your full effort.”
“Well...” Multicasting twenty-three spells was far from my full effort. If I were to use my full capacity, plus an aria, then... “I could probably make 101.”
Amelia gasped. “Five times more?!”
“Oh, uh...” The quantity was five times as much, but in terms of effort it was a lot more. Of course, I was too embarrassed to point that out myself—but before I could brush it off, Bruno got the jump on me.
“No, I believe it is more than five times,” he told Amelia.
“What do you mean?”
“The difference between cooking one dish and cooking five simultaneously is not a mere matter of exerting five times more effort, no?”
“Ah... Surely, it must need ten times more effort,” Amelia agreed.
“Precisely.”
Amelia turned to me again. The awe in her gaze grew each time she looked at me. I...really didn’t know how to feel, seeing my idol look at me this way.
After racking my head, I finally figured out how to put an end to this conversation. “More importantly, Amelia, could you sing a song for us? Just once will do—I’ll record it on all these units at the same time.”
“Oh, of course. Er...” She hesitantly turned to Bruno.
Bruno immediately bowed. “I shall wait outside. I would be loath to disrupt the recording with other sounds.”
“Thanks. I’ll call you when we’re done.”
I was relieved that Bruno volunteered himself out of the room. For some reason, he was stopping at nothing to place me on a pedestal today. As if the shower of praises wasn’t enough, Amelia’s gaze of adoration made me feel extra awkward—but at the same time, Bruno praising my magic made me really happy, and I couldn’t bring myself to deny him... My mind was a terrible mess from it all.
“Pardon me, then.”
I watched Bruno leave the room with a bow to us both, then quietly breathed out a sigh of relief.
After stepping out, Bruno turned back to face the room before shutting the door with both hands on the knob, as shutting it while facing away was simply against etiquette.
“Good,” Bruno muttered under his breath.
“What is?” asked a voice behind him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What does that mean?” Lardon asked.
“If I may speak as a lowly human,” Bruno began, “I believe the ‘heavens’ must not be gazed upon directly.”
Bruno had called himself a “lowly” human both to humble himself and to extend his point—though his clever wording did not interest Lardon. After some thought, she said, “Do you mean something must stand in between?”
The idea hadn’t come to Lardon initially, but all Bruno had to do was give a single remark before she understood his point. This was the difference between the divine dragon and Liam: One was transcendent on all fronts, while the other had single-minded devotion to magic. However, Bruno kept this thought to himself—he had no need to aimlessly flatter Lardon now.
“To gaze upon them directly is to feel a sense of closeness,” he went on. “But if people were to look up to someone else, then learn that this person furthermore looked up to the ‘heavens,’ the gap between them widens considerably. Then they would come to revere the heavens that much more.”
“I see... I did not think of that. I suppose humans are fond of such hierarchies and structure.”
“Indeed. We humans speak of deriding greater existences yet secretly look up to them at times.”
“Hence, you thought to place someone of great renown between him and the masses?”
Bruno bowed. “Precisely.”
Lardon could take his life with a flick of her finger, but Bruno showed her no excessive humility. If the respect he showed to Liam could be quantified at a hundred percent, then his respect to Lardon was at a slightly lower ninety-five. At the end of the day, Bruno served Liam. Lardon was important to Liam, which warranted an appropriate level of courtesy, but nothing more.
Bruno suspected that Lardon was well aware of this. Perhaps those obsessed with status and power would have been enraged by his behavior—but not Lardon. She likely didn’t care about such superficial etiquette to begin with. Regardless, he maintained his outward stance of full and devoted loyalty to Liam in order to indirectly enhance his worth in their eyes.
It was this kind of shrewdness which allowed Bruno—despite his lack of combat ability—to presently face Lardon on equal ground.
“And that role...goes to that girl, hmm?”
“Correct. If marketed properly, a songstress like her could easily serve as that ‘person of great renown’ to the masses,” Bruno affirmed. “Fortunately, Ms. Amelia seems rather fond of His Majesty. Even if she discovers my intentions and grows to detest me for them, I believe she would be willing to aid my cause.”
“So this is why you’ve been so cooperative,” Lardon mused, her lips curling into a smile. “I’d been thinking you were simply impressed by her talent as well.”
Bruno shook his head. “I am a merchant. We can only judge the arts by their value, not their skill.”
“Oh...?”
“Take painters, for example. Most paintings increase in value after the painter’s death, and only then do merchants come flocking. If merchants judged purely by skill, then they would have gathered much earlier on while the painter was alive.”
“It’s all about the money, hmm?”
“Yes. The value in Ms. Amelia lies in her prestige as a songstress whose voice captivated the Monster King. Of course, he had been captivated long before...”
Lardon chuckled. “Indeed, he had. It would be quite the contradiction to the image you are trying to build up.”
“But it would still stand.”
“Ahh, humans... Such interesting creatures.”
Bruno recognized that look in her eyes. That was the look of someone who’d learned something new. Much to his fascination, it seemed even a dragon revealed some very human expressions when taking up a human form.
“Are you going to use the feelings of love budding in that girl?”
“No,” Bruno said plainly.
Lardon raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I thought you were a merchant, no?” Bruno had struck her as the type to mercilessly use a girl’s heart if he deemed it necessary.
“His Majesty is astoundingly charming. Simply by being himself, he captivates the hearts of all the ladies around him,” Bruno explained. “I believe it would be most effective for Ms. Amelia to develop those feelings naturally, with no external influence.”
“I see... So you’ve even considered that. It seems you trust him quite a lot.”
“Of course. His Majesty has never proven me wrong for doing so.” There wasn’t the slightest hint of hesitation in Bruno’s words.
Lardon chuckled, looking genuinely pleased. “Very well. I understand now.” Curiosity satiated, Lardon left as suddenly as she’d appeared. Bruno figured that she must have returned to Liam’s body.
“She is much fonder of His Majesty than I’d thought,” he mumbled thoughtfully. “Hmm... What a miraculous relationship.”
After staring at the door for a while, Bruno turned around and walked down the hallway like nothing ever happened.