“In imperial currency conversion, about ninety million gald. That’s this time’s reward, and if I roughly calculate future reward amounts based on the scale of the surveyed ore veins, I think it will easily exceed one billion.”
It was an amount beyond Falsen’s comprehension.
But there was something even more incomprehensible.
“…Why would Kurtz-dono give us such an amount?”
“I don’t know. From my perspective as a merchant, I’d say it’s an impossible contract, and anyone else would clearly see it as disproportionate and excessive.”
But, Edel continued with a smile.
“Kurtz said it was the amount necessary for Falsen and the others to continue living on Mount Fleet in the future. While Falsen and the others have the racial trait of withstanding lava heat, this time many casualties occurred due to pyroclastic flows. So if money is spent on equipment, there won’t be casualties.”
While lava flows posed no problem, this eruption had generated massive pyroclastic flows that claimed many villagers’ lives—not from heat, but from being swallowed by ash and rocks.
But even hearing this reason, he couldn’t accept it.
“If something bothers you, you should go ask him directly.”
To the silent Falsen, Edel pointed toward the center of the territory.
“Lucia contacted me saying he returned to the territory a little while ago. You can probably meet Kurtz without missing him if you go now.”
Falsen bowed slightly to the smiling Edel and began walking.
While hearing his compatriots’ joyful voices behind him, Falsen walked alone, thinking.
Why extend such a helping hand to them?
Even if Kurtz had some agenda or plan, Falsen could understand that there was no need to provide such generous assistance.
Even if it were pure goodwill, he couldn’t understand any reason why a human child with no previous connection to them would offer such charity.
That’s why—
“—Kurtz-dono.”
Falsen called out to the boy standing in front of the mansion.
Hearing the call, Kurtz turned around and spoke.
“Oh, Falsen. It seems the mining plan went well.”
“…Yes. Even from Edel-dono and the others’ perspective, it was better results than expected, and the villagers are rejoicing as they’re holding a celebration feast today.”
“So that’s why there were other carriages besides ours. Knowing her, she probably knew how much profit would come out beforehand and had prepared for a celebration feast from the start.”
While watching Kurtz laugh innocently, Falsen voiced the question he had prepared.
“…Kurtz-dono, I heard again about the contract details regarding this mining operation.”
“It was good terms, wasn’t it?”
“Too much for us. That’s precisely why… I can’t understand why Kurtz-dono would provide such assistance to us, so I came to ask your true intentions.”
Without trying to cover anything up, he threw this pure question at Kurtz.
However, Kurtz’s response was unexpected words.
“First, what I can say for certain is that I’m bad at making friends.”
“…What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. I’m from the slums, and I didn’t have a single person I could call a friend. There were humans and children I acted together with, but those were just cooperative relationships for survival.”
After speaking of his past, Kurtz quietly nodded and looked at Falsen.
“So I extended my hand to become friends with you, I suppose.”
“…And that was us?”
“Yes. I particularly wanted to become friends with you, Falsen.”
“…We and Kurtz-dono should have been complete strangers with no connection.”
“That’s how it looked to you. But I knew about the legend called the [Dragon King’s Graveyard], and I knew that you believed in the legend and refused to leave the land, continuing to live while maintaining your faith. You never bent your will no matter what others said to you.”
As if seeing through Falsen’s heart, he spoke while looking straight at him with black pupils.
“My precious person was someone who took pride in their family name, and protected and maintained the thoughts and beliefs that had been passed down without breaking, bending, or defiling them, even staking their entire being to protect them. Because I overlapped your figures with that person’s way of life… I wanted to become friends with you.”
Kurtz speaking this way appeared more mature than his years, and his black pupils seemed to be gazing at something other than Falsen.
“But since I don’t know how to make friends, it ended up taking the form of creating a debt of gratitude to you. That’s the first reason.”
“…First?”
“Yes. The second reason is—a tribute to the will and faith you maintained.”
Approaching a carriage, Kurtz put his hand on the rope of the cargo bed.
“Because you maintained your clan’s will and faith and continued to live in that land, I was able to reach the legend of the [Dragon King’s Graveyard] and obtain a means to save my precious person.”
While untying the rope that bound the cargo bed and reaching for the covering cloth, he spoke.
“As tribute for that, I decided to fulfill your [dream]. I wanted you to know that you weren’t living as grave keepers, but as a proud clan that protected the [Cradle].”
And Kurtz nodded greatly and then—
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“—You are a clan that protected the [Dragon King] through your will and pride.”
With force, he removed the cloth covering the cargo bed.
“——”
Falsen involuntarily held his breath.
Seeing what was loaded in the cargo bed, he forgot to speak.
“Mount Fleet was a resting place for the [Dragon King], where he could rest his body without affecting others or his surroundings. And your distant ancestors were given the mission by the [Dragon King] to guard this resting place, but someone accidentally saw the [Dragon King] taking rest, and mistaking his motionless state for a remains, it transformed into the legend of the [Dragon King’s Graveyard].”
While listening to Kurtz’s words, Falsen approached the carriage with trembling legs.
“However, if it were merely a resting place, there would be no need to post guardians. The number of people who could enter the interior of a volcano wrapped in high heat could be said to be extremely few. Yet to eliminate even the slightest possibility, protecting the precious existence sleeping in the cradle was the true mission given to you.”
Past events flowed through Falsen’s mind like a revolving lantern.
When he became aware of the world, Falsen was told about the [Dragon King’s] existence by his father and grandfather.
His father and grandfather spoke joyfully of their clan’s history, the villagers spoke of their feelings toward the [Dragon King] who was their ancestor, and Falsen himself, who grew up hearing these stories, remembered being captivated by the existence of the [Dragon King] and feeling his heart race.
He remembered running around Mount Fleet with peers seeking the [Dragon King’s] form, peering into the nests of dragons living in the surrounding area and making a fuss saying “this might be the Dragon King’s egg.”
When mocked by fellow clansmen in town as “country bumpkins who still believe in old-fashioned legends,” he remembered one childhood friend saying, “I’ll go out and study dragons, and when I return to the village, let’s search for eggs like when we were kids, find eggs no one has ever seen, and show proudly that we who kept believing in the Dragon King all along were right.”
He remembered the day he bumped fists with his departing childhood friend and sent him off from the village.
The more he recalled such past events—
The [egg] before his eyes radiated overwhelming presence.
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