TENKEN 427 (1650 words)

The Dragonmen Now
竜人の今

Fran and Colbert are kicked out of the room by the Count, who says the conversation is over. Colbert sighs in exasperation.

「Haah. Frederick, you don't want to go after miss Velmeria?」

「She's in her room, so it's better to leave her alone for now. If we talk to her now, she'll just get more stubborn」

「As expected, but you should play your role as her teacher, you know」

I guess Frederick played the role of Velmeria's teacher. That must be why they have such an easy relationship.

But there was one to worry about. Count Bailleys was overprotective. He was more worried than overprotective, though.

But if that's the case, why are he raising her as a warrior or a covert agent? If he were really worried about her, he could raise her as young ladies of high society. I'm sure there are many noble girls who don't know anything about fighting and spend all day learning.

Even if she was the child of a concubine, she seemed to recognize that she would be carrying the family name, and she should be able to get a good education.

When Fran asked that question, Frederick and Colbert answer it.

「There are various circumstances.....」

「Well, we can't stand and talk here. Let's go downstairs and have a cup of tea and talk.」

As Colbert suggested, we were told about Count Bailleys and Velmeria's situation while drinking tea in the dining room.

First of all, to answer the question of why he taught Velmeria fighting skills and raised her as a warrior, he said that it was simply because it was his family tradition.

「Count Bailleys came from a renowned military family. Men and women alike are educated to be knights and join the military. Even if they are the children of concubines, they are not given special treatment」

「Rather, it's because she's from a concubine, isn't it? If he treated only Miss Velmeria like that, we'll be talking about how much he loves his concubine more than his real wife」

「That's right. Because in the end, the one who would be hurt the most by that would be Velmeria. So Sidre-sama trained Velmeria with a cold heart」

「Well, it's bad enough when that wife stares at you. I've met her a few times, and she's an awful person. I guess she thinks adventurers are just relatives of bandits. She looks at us as if we were insects. And yet, she had the good looks to make up for it. That's what we call a noble's wife.」

I see, for Velmeria, who lives far away from her mother at Count Bailley's residence, it's important to be on good terms with his real wife.

「Well, I guess that's why she don't blame her for being a concubine's child. A concubine is a natural part of being a nobleman, and if you behave like a concubine's child would, she won't be worried about anything」

It seems that if she avoids putting her selves on the short end of the stick, they have to be rather strict. At the very least, he's not allowing preferential treatment to his wife's children. No matter what.

But then another question arose.

「....Isn't Velmeria a knight?」

It is said that Count Bailleys' families are educated to become knights. However, Velmeria is being raised as a covert agent. Even a concubine's child would become a knight if she was the daughter of a Count.....

However, this wasn't an usual story of a concubinage. Rather, the bottleneck was her race.

「Race? Half-dragonmen?」

「Oh. In the Kingdom of Kranzel, not only half-dragonmen like us, but dragonmen themselves are not allowed to obtain a special status. This naturally includes being knighted and holding important positions in public organizations.」

「Why?」

「Because dragonmen are considered as a symbol of abomination」

「Abominable species? They hate you?」

「Fufu, I wonder」

Frederick chuckled at Fran's blunt words. However, perhaps it was because that words came from Fran, a black cat kin who had been oppressed for many years. He didn't seem to be offended and told her how dragonmn were treated in various countries.

「Trismegistus, who caused the tragedy of Gordisia, was the king of the Dragon Men. That was the biggest cause」

「But, not all dragonmen are bad」

「No. It was Trismegistus who was judged by the gods, but the dragonmen enthusiastically supported and encouraged the king, with the vile delusion that he would conquer the world and make it prosper under the superior race, dragonmen」

I had thought that Trismegistus personally was the only bad guy, but apparently that was not the case. It seems that the entire dragonmen race welcomed his ambition and research.

「And as the result of the arrogance and greed of the dragonmen race, was that incident that nearly destroyed the world. The nations that were suffering from dragonmen race invasion began to eliminate the dragonmen race because they had been punished by God. On the surface, they look at us as a sinful race that had been punished by the gods, but behind the scenes, they were probably afraid of us, the dragonmen, a race with strong ambitions and aspirations.」

「Well, the dragomen race is powerful as a species. They were probably the eyesore of human's eye. Even now, they are feared along with Insect-kin and High Elves」

I can understand why the dragonmen are so strong. After all, they are dragons. But what about the insect-kin and High Elves? Are they as strong as the dragonmen? I'm not sure what to make of that.

「Don't you know the story little miss? The deadly dragonmen. The crazy insect-kin. The most powerful high elf. You must have heard of that, right?」

The dragonmen are a race with enough military power to control an entire continent, and yet they cause misery for themselves and those around them.

Although there are individual differences among the insect-kin, those of the warrior class are said to be born with overwhelming abilities. Their combat power is at least at the level of rank C adventurers. In addition, their loyalty to their country is high, and their values are different from those of humans, so they are sometimes seen as crazy by humans. For this reason, the insect-kin are said to be crowned the craziest.

「I've met an insect-kin before. They look like normal people」

Eliante was also from insect-kin, but she looks normal by all mean. But apparently that's because she only has half racial blood in her.

「Ah, she must be half-insect kin.....A pure-blood insect kin or their higher species are quite different」

Insect-people are born as a noble species or leader class. The battle type specializing in combat, or a leader to rule the civilian. But just because they were a child of noble species, doesn't mean they will become a noble, it's completely random and is strictly divided according to the species of the child born.

Among the four class of insect-kin, the noble class, the fighting class, and leader class are born with a strong sense of belonging and loyalty towards their country, and are said to be more difficult to understand than the civilian class.

「When they are from a civilian class, they're just like any other normal person」

「Both in appearance and in ability.」

That's interesting. Could it be that the higher species look like a certain Rider? I'm interested. I'd like to go to the country of insect-kin someday. Well, if it's safe, that is.

(TLN: ライダー raida- maybe he's referring Kamen Rider)

And finally, there are the High Elves. Elves, because of their longevity, have a very laid-back personality. The older they get, the more relaxed they become, and by the time they are over 300 years old, they spend their whole day by sleeping.

However, sometimes there are individuals who shows curiosity and behaviour not like any typical elves, and continue to train themselves even as they age. These special elves evolve over the course of several hundred years by continuing to grow. That is the High Elves. There are only a few of them in the whole world, but all of them are said to have rank S level strength.

The elves, with their superior magical power, will continue to grow for hundreds of years. Their power must be overwhelming. Even though I've never seen it, I can imagine it.

「Oops, I'm getting off topic. Anyway, in the Kingdom of Kranzel, as long as you have dragonmen blood, you can't become a knight」

「However, as long as she was raised by Count Bailleys, he had to train Velmeria. As a result, she was raised as a covert agent.」

「And in the future, she'll be serving the sons of his wife and help Count Bailleys」

In other words, she can show that she can be useful to his wife, and she can also show that she knows her place by being a covert agent under the knight.

「Nevertheless, she is the Count's only daughter. The truth is that he's very fond of Miss Velmeria. I'm sure he can't say it out loud to his wife, though.」

「Is that why, he remove her from dangerous mission?」

「Yea, that must be it」

「It seems that Miss Velmeria wasn't happy about it, though. They say you won't understand the heart of a parent, but in this case it's probably the other way around. He's obviously too overprotective.」

「....I know how you feel」

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