Once the memories of my past life returned, I became curious about various things. In particular, the Kingdom of Sacristain—my birthplace in my previous life—caught my attention. Today, the Kingdom of Sacristain was a vassal state to the Dragon Duchy of Éclair. The royal family had been exiled to the countryside, and it seemed that they were unable to enter the capital. How had the dragonkin managed to defeat the Sacristain Army a hundred years ago?
I began working on deciphering the histories of the two countries.
A hundred years ago, the Dragon Duchy of Éclair didn’t exist. There was only a border region reserved for dragonkin in the Kingdom of Sacristain.
As I turned the page of the book I was reading, Parfeil called out to me in a reserved tone.
“Um... Lady Mille-Feuille, you seem to be reading a lot lately.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Ever since remembering my past life, I’ve become curious about a lot of things—but I couldn’t exactly tell her that outright. “I became curious about the history of the Dragon Duchy and its vassal states after having the honor of witnessing the Dragon Duke himself the other day,” I said.
“How diligent of you!” Parfeil remarked. She prepared some tea and biscuits and told me to take a bit of a breather.
“Thank you, Parfeil.”
“You’re welcome, milady,” Parfeil replied.
After taking a quick break, I returned my attention to the tome on the history of the Kingdom of Sacristain and the dragonkin.
Whenever the Kingdom of Sacristain became involved in a war, they poured a huge amount of funds into making the dragonkin fight for them. The dragonkin had returned the favor by leading the Sacristain Army to victory many times over. Thus, the dragonkin had been treated hospitably and honored by the Kingdom.
And yet, one day, this relationship had fallen apart. After the death of Charlotte, the dragonkin had rebelled against the Kingdom of Sacristain...and won. As for the casus belli, nothing had been written about it except that the Kingdom of Sacristain had “insulted the dragonkin.”
There’d been no more than a hundred dragonkin soldiers, and the Kingdom of Sacristain must have thought they could exterminate them with a battalion twenty thousand soldiers strong. That plan had fallen apart when a cohort of thirty dragonkin soldiers had managed to drive that same battalion to the brink of complete annihilation. The Kingdom had tried to regroup the army in haste, but it had been too late. The soldiers of the Sacristain Army could not hope to win against the dragonkin.
Why were dragonkin soldiers so strong? There were reasons, of course. Male dragonkin were able to fully transform into dragons. Once they took off into the air, none of the enemy soldiers’ attacks—not even their arrows—would be able to hit them. From there, a powerful breath attack could easily entrap a human soldier. Because of all that, a small number of dragonkin had been able to defeat the Kingdom of Sacristain.
“A powerful breath attack...”
Though the dragonkin had been few in number, they must have earned the attention of the neighboring nations because of the records of this battle.
Back then, the Dragon Duke had intended to kill the king of Sacristain but stopped at the last minute. He elected not to replace the king of Sacristain but to establish a new state: the Dragon Duchy of Éclair. The Kingdom of Sacristain’s capital city had then become the capital of the new state. After having taken over the country, its subjects, and its royal palace, the Dragon Duke had reigned for the last hundred years.
When I’d visited the royal palace and cathedral, it hadn’t felt like it was my first time being there. That must’ve been because I’d walked around those places several times in my previous life. The fact that I was oddly cool and composed all the time must’ve been because those memories had been etched into my soul.
I had mixed feelings about this situation, but I had no choice but to accept it.
Was my curiosity over the Kingdom of Sacristain, now a mere vassal state to the Dragon Duchy, also because I had Charlotte’s memories now?
There wasn’t any detailed information in any of the history books about the spark that had caused the war between the Kingdom and the dragonkin. Things about the event must have been censored, so there was a limit to what I could find out on my own.
I’m sure there’s something in the Dragon Duke’s library, but only members of his family and household can enter there. Perhaps, if I could become one of the Dragon Duke’s handmaidens, I’d have a chance to visit...
“No way, not a chance!”
A lowly maidservant? Sure. But one of his handmaidens? Impossible. A handmaiden was a woman who would serve as her master’s arms and legs. A woman chosen to be one had to be married and have a great deal of experience in life. An unmarried, lowly, under-twenty noble like myself could only become a maidservant. And even if I happened to become one, it would be a massive incident if I were found sneaking into the royal library. The best-case scenario would be my family falling from grace. The worst? My entire family could be executed. Just the thought of it gave me the shivers.
As I closed the book in my hands, I heard a knock on the door.
“Lady Mille-Feuille, it’s almost time to leave for the magic academy!” Parfeil informed me from behind the door.
“Yes, I’m getting ready.”
Young dragonkin ladies attended the magic academy four times a week. This was important to the Dragon Duchy of Éclair for a certain reason.
I put on the academy’s uniform and my hooded mantle, laced with protective magic.
“Parfeil, let’s go.”
“All right.”
We rode the carriage heading toward the girls’ magic academy. As the term suggested, it was a school that taught magic to students. It was attended by not just dragonkin but also ladies from the Kingdom of Sacristain. While students still formed cliques, they mostly stuck with others of the same social standing. The school grounds were more peaceful than one would expect.
The academy’s campus was surrounded by walls of red brick. The carriage made its way around the wall, and we eventually reached the academy gate. We were immediately greeted by the sight of the school plaza’s rotunda, where students would often climb into or out of their carriages.
“Oh dear, just getting into school is such a hassle again today,” Parfeil complained.
“Yes, indeed.”
As the students started arriving at the school, a long line of carriages from near and far formed along the school gate. Every morning, it took about half an hour to get through this line.
After a long wait, I was finally able to leave the carriage. Parfeil wasn’t allowed to go any farther onto the premises, so I waved her farewell. It was forbidden to bring maidservants and handmaidens into the school itself; it was apparently the headmaster’s idea in order to encourage students’ independence. Was it really all right for them to encourage young ladies like that? It was a pretty big question, but this was still a girls’ school. All the staff here were women, so there was no need to worry about the students getting involved with men either.
The walk from the rotunda to the school grounds usually took about ten minutes. It was actually possible to take the carriage all the way to the school grounds, but I elected to walk every day. I just didn’t like crowded places.
As I walked, I heard a voice call from behind me.
“Millefie, good morning!”
I turned around to see Madeleine, my brother’s fiancée. She always called me “Millefie” as a nickname. At seventeen years old, Madeleine was one year older than me. Since we were close in age, I was pretty friendly with my future sister-in-law. She’d enrolled in the magic academy the same term as I had—she had prioritized learning useful household skills, so her enrollment had been one year late.
“Millefie, did you do the homework for Suppression?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I’m not very confident in my work. Could you please take a look at mine before I submit it?”
“Of course,” I replied.
Madeleine hailed from the family of a count. In truth, my brother—who was bound to inherit the title of viscount—was a poor match for her family’s rank. Why did this engagement work out for them, then? It wasn’t anything as romantic as love at first sight. Simply put, it was because their mana was highly compatible.
In marriages between dragonkin, mana compatibility was an important factor. The role of dragonkin women was to suppress their family’s draconic transformations with magic. Male dragonkin, upon transforming into dragons, could go into a berserk state when agitated. While it was a very useful state to be in during battle, it became a curse when trying to return to human form. The men could lose control of themselves and become unable to revert. The only thing that could suppress this berserk state was the Suppression Magic that female dragonkin used, and it was most effective when coming from a dragon’s spouse or family members. Thus, while dragonkin women were unable to transform themselves, they had the important role of suppressing transformed dragonkin men.
As for the berserk state, its nature differed with each individual. The general rule was that the stronger one’s dragon form was, the more violent it became. Our family’s dragons didn’t have a particularly violent berserk state, so our transformations were relatively calm. Therefore, even someone with a low mana pool like Madeleine could suppress them. That was what made their engagement possible.
“Yesterday, I tried using Suppression Magic, but it affected my skin...” Madeleine lamented, pointing to the pimple on her cheek. Suppression Magic put a huge strain on dragonkin women. Of course, a mere pimple was a pretty minor symptom, but some women suffered obviously terrible side effects—they could fall unconscious or become bedridden for a whole week. As a result, dragonkin men bowed to the women with respect.