“A marriage?!” I gasped—Sheila’s expression turned dubious at my outburst. “Ah, I was talking to Lardon just now...” Unlike Scarlet or everyone else in this country, Sheila wasn’t very familiar with how Lardon sometimes piped into our conversations.
“Lardon... You speak of the divine dragon?”
“Yeah.”
“Hm... Is that the divine dragon’s counsel? I understand... But are you certain?”
“Huh? About what?”
“As stated previously, I am a virgin. I highly doubt that I can satisfy the Monster King’s desires.”
“Ah... Uh, yeah...” Just like before, I had no idea how to even react to that information.
As my head swirled in more confusion than ever, Lardon emerged from me in her typical young human form. She took a seat perpendicular to both me and Sheila.
“Divine Dragon Lardon,” Sheila greeted.
“I have heard your plight, lass. My suggestion was not made to ‘satisfy the Monster King’s desires’ or from any such base motives,” Lardon clarified. “I was suggesting a political marriage—an alliance.”
Sheila’s eyes blew wide in shock, like she couldn’t believe what she’d heard.
“Hmm? Is it so shocking?”
“Quite,” Sheila replied after a pause. “Never had I expected a divine dragon to be so well-versed in human politics.”
“After all this trouble they have caused us, I’ve naturally given it some thought.” Lardon sat even more pompously than Sheila. “We crush them time and time again, yet our three neighbors always come crawling back for more trouble like brainless buffoons.”
“So this stems from your pride,” Sheila surmised.
“I have been entertaining the idea of simply crushing the entire nation and placing a controllable ruler at the top.”
“And that would be me?”
“You are certainly one of the more reasonable humans.”
“Hmm...”
Lardon’s and Sheila’s gazes clashed. Lardon’s speech was haughty, but her demeanor was leisurely and composed. On the other hand, there was a tense touch to Sheila’s features. She seemed to be feigning composure to stand on par with Lardon.
“What do you demand in exchange for the alliance?”
“Oh? Does the alliance not balance the scales already?”
“If anything, I feel as though I’ve been slapped with a wad of bills.”
“You’re mistaken. This is plenty of reimbursement for providing me entertainment.”
“Entertainment...?”
“You see, I am rather fond of this lad. There isn’t a dull moment when watching him develop his magic. Never in history has anyone possessed more magical talent than him, among humans...and us dragons.”
“Lardon...” I muttered, moved by her praise. Hearing her compliment my magic always put me in a good mood.
“Watching him from a front-row seat keeps me entertained,” Lardon continued. “Alas, he is human. His lifespan is mortal, his time limited. It irks me to waste a prodigy’s limited time on such inane power struggles. As a noble, you must understand, yes?”
“I do... Though, you strike me as more of a noble than myself now.”
“Pay it no mind. What I mean to say is that this is a meager price to pay to end that country’s incessant interruptions.”
“I see...” Sheila slowly lowered her head, deep in thought, before once again raising it to look me in the eye. “Are you fine with this?”
“Sure,” I agreed with a quick nod. “I’ve never gone wrong trusting Lardon’s advice for this sort of stuff.” That was how it’d been till now, and that was how it was going to be from here on out as well.
Besides, in this particular case, I wasn’t just blindly trusting Lardon. All of Parta, Quistador, and Jamille’s stunts had been getting on my nerves too. Lardon said she wanted them dealt with so I could focus on magic? Well, so did I. I basically had no reason to object.
“There you have it,” said Lardon. “I only need your word that you will not turn against us once you ascend the throne.”
“You...” Sheila narrowed her eyes. “You’ve grown more favorable toward him, haven’t you?”
Lardon smirked. “Hmph... I suppose so, compared to the last time you visited.”
Sheila turned to me with a conflicted expression.
“You look as though you’ve only now realized his true worth,” Lardon mused, her bright chuckles ringing in the air.
✦ ✦ ✦
After a short pause, I turned to Sheila and admitted, “It’d honestly be a huge help if you became the Grand Duchess of Parta.”
“Oh?” Sheila’s eyes glinted with intrigue as she urged me on with her gaze.
“Well, even if you were to someday betray me, you’d at least come straight for my neck rather than use some convoluted scheme.”
“My, my. Are you sure you want to say that? I will have you know that I can use an underhanded trick or two. In fact, that is my specialty.”
“Hmm... Well, that may be so...” I looked Sheila in the eye, our battle still fresh in my mind. “But I still think you’d come at me directly.”
Lardon hummed. “On what basis?”
“I felt it during our clash earlier.” I clenched my right hand, recalling the sensations. “Recently, I’ve noticed that I can sense a bit of a person’s personality from their mana... I know that’s not the most convincing reason, but I just feel like you’re the type to approach me head-on, Sheila. That’s all.”
“And you are fine with that?” Sheila asked.
I shrugged. “Sure. Compared to what the three nations have been doing, I’d appreciate a more straightforward approach for once.” I’d much rather my enemies come directly to me than target the dragons like they had with Dragon Slayer, or take hostages like Amelia’s parents. “So, like I said—I’d love for you to become the grand duchess of Parta.”
Lardon hummed. “I see... In that case, I shall concur.”
“But how are you going to take over Parta?” I still wasn’t entirely sure where I came into play in this whole plan either.
“I’ve obtained half of the grand duke’s historic followers.”
“Historic followers...?” I cocked my head at the unfamiliar term.
However, Sheila just continued. “I had a family tree made for me. It shows that my ancestor two centuries ago was related to the grand duke of Parta.”
“Oh, wow. You were related?”
“I had it made.”
“Hmm...?”
Lardon huffed. “She means to say, it is a new ancient document.”
“Precisely,” Sheila replied with a smirk.
I looked between them. “Huh? What does that mean?”
“It is a common human tactic to forge blood relations into existence to serve as pretext for legitimacy,” Lardon explained.
Sheila nodded. “With this, I shall have the counts insist that I am the rightful duchess. From there, we will wage a war.”
“Will that work?” I asked.
“As long as we win, of course.”
“No, that’s not what I meant... Won’t they insist that the document’s a fake?”
“Oh, they will certainly think it’s fake—but they shan’t voice their doubts. Everybody already knows that it’s mere pretext, so hardly any backlash will result of it. All that matters is that we win in the end.”
Lardon nodded. “Moreover, many are eager to cut ties with Tristan. Nobody would bother to point out that it’s fake.”
“Of course, I would gain more allies with an authentic document. However, even with a falsified one, nobody will say a word till the outcome of the war is clear.”
I hummed. “So, it’s better if it’s real?”
Sheila looked a bit taken aback by my question. “Well... Yes. Of course.”
“What do you have in mind?” Lardon asked.
“I’m thinking...that we can make an authentic document.”
Lardon and Sheila looked at one another with identically perplexed expressions.
A while later, Sheila came back into the room with a sheet of parchment. “Will this suffice?”
By the way, she’d made sure to take Crimson Rose with her when she left the room earlier...only to toss it into a random corner when she came back. Is she being careful with it or not? I can’t decide...
Anyway, I looked over the sheet of parchment that Sheila handed to me. It detailed exactly what she’d said earlier: her family tree tracing all the way back to her “relation” to Parta’s grand duke. It looked as official as could be.
“Hmm... It looks really new.”
“Of course. It is a very new ancient document.”
I chuckled dryly. Although I got what she meant, a “new ancient document” just sounded so ridiculous.
But anyway... “All right. I’ll work on this parchment, then?”
“Yes... That’s why I brought it over. But just what will you do?”
“Dust Box.” I stuck my hands into my dust box and took out a single barrel.
“What is that?” Sheila asked.
“Grape juice I prepared after you left.”
“For making wine?”
“Yep.”
The moment I lifted the lid, a rich scent wafted through the air.
Sheila sniffed. “This smells like...wine? Huh? But you just made it...”
“Yep. In this dust box, a year passes by in an hour. So...” I stored the parchment into the box. “We’ll put this in here for nine days to make it a two-centuries-old document.”
Sheila gasped.
Authentic or not, with this method, we could make it into an actual two-centuries-old ancient document!