No matter how thick the skin is, it burns red. Ed lowered his head, speechless. He heard Is's relief, but he was even more ashamed of it—he was always the first to step back, but no matter how stupid he made, his friends could always easily forgive him.

“...... I don't want to force you. Is's voice lowered, "I don't want to put all the blame on you, but ......"

He was silent for a moment before asking, "Do you know when a dragon will truly inherit the memories of its ancestors under normal circumstances?"

Ed shook his head. Since Iss asked this question...... That's obviously not what he was meant to be, and he can inherit everything as soon as he is born.

"At least, when I'm about two hundred years old. "The newborn soul is too fragile to have its own consciousness if it is covered in stale colors when it is still a blank sheet of paper." It takes two hundred years for a dragon's soul to mature and strong enough to be distorted and shattered even if it is overwhelmed by memories that don't belong to it...... If my mother were still alive, she would have built a dam in my soul the moment I was hatched, and she would have taught me how to merge those memories and make them a source of my strength rather than be dominated by them, when I was able to accept everything. But ......"

He stopped, stunned for a moment. Ed cautiously moved closer to him, but didn't dare make a sound.

"My mother, before I was born, gave up on me. Isse muttered, "Sometimes I hate I can remember so clearly......"

He remembered his despair and fear, and his mother's endless boredom in her long loneliness. It lives, it gives birth to offspring, it is all purely instinctive, what it expects from him...... Maybe not as gentle as Lydia's hands in front of her lower abdomen.

"It's the power of the Blazing Wings that keeps me alive. "But if everything goes as it seems, I will come out of my shell without a soul of my own—I will be an empty shell filled with the memories of my ancestors in an instant, a puppet of the best, with no instinct and no ego...... But I was born as a human baby. ”

He looked at Ed and smiled bitterly, "I don't know if your goddess also plays any role in this...... I possess a human soul that I can't ...... even when I know I'm a dragon Get rid of it, because that's the only 'me'. Sean Fletche once said that if I can't see who I really are, I'll never be as powerful as I want ...... He's right, I need those memories, especially in this situation...... I need the knowledge and experience that I have accumulated over thousands of years, but I dare not face them. I have been hiding in the deep sea for so long, and what I have done is not to try to accept it at all, but to desperately repair the that is about to collapse—the embankment that I have worked hard to build, because my soul is as weak as a grain of sand, and when the sea rolls up, it will disappear without a trace......"

He lowered his head, his voice low and inaudible: "Ed...... I was scared too. ”

I've been scared all the time...... But how can a dragon admit his weakness and fear?

Ed rubbed on the roof until their shoulders were pressed together.

"It's okay. He whispered, "I said, I'll hold you firmly...... If my strength is not enough, there are Naria, Alan, Bertram...... We will hold you firmly in the palm of our hands, and no matter how big the waves are, we won't be able to sweep them away...... Okay?"

He turned his head to look at his friend and repeated, like anticipation and promise: "...... Okay?"

The wind carried the sweet fragrance of osmanthus flowers up to the roof. When Naria's call came, Is, who had lowered his head and said nothing, quickly spat out a word, and then jumped off as if he were fleeing.

Ed propped his chin and couldn't help but laugh - he really, hadn't seen Is's shy look in a long time.

.

Two days later, Ed, who appeared in front of Stobel, was full of energy and even his gray hair seemed to be glowing.

In contrast, the middle-aged mage who had not yet finished cleaning up the mess was haggard, and the kind of exhaustion that simply emanated from the depths of his soul and could not even hide his deliberately tidy appearance made Ed sympathize.

Along the way, he could see the half-charred spires that had been like overbaked biscuits with strange patterns, and there were almost no signs of damage, and even the burned trees had been replaced by lush shrubs and flowers that had been quickly transplanted...... But the mages who came and went in a hurry on the road seemed to be calm and even proud, but their expressions were inevitably confused and panicked.

Ed felt that it was too much to spend the effort to cover up and whitewash the peace when the magic was about to disappear, and it was better to learn from the pain and take the opportunity to clean up this place that had begun to rot because it had been feared for too long...... But he wasn't a member of the Archmage Tower after all.

As the host of the invitation, Stormbell actually took a moment to come back to his senses and apologize to Ed with a little embarrassment.

"I know you're no less troublesome than I am," he said, "but I really need your help." ”

He took Ed to the Mithril Hall. Although he had a certain hunch, Ed couldn't help but shudder when he saw the master of Verona, who was dry and thin, cowering motionless on the soft couch.

The old mage looks like a corpse...... He's a corpse.

"When he fell, he said, 'Go find that little sage.' ”

Stormbell stared down at the old man's baby-like body, unable to even smile bitterly.

Ed was speechless - even the mocking approach to asking for help was indeed Verona's style. But what could he do?...... You can't just walk away.

"You...... You know?" he said dryly.

“...... Do you know that he is already dead?" Stobel's face was not much better than that of a dead man, "Yes. ”

"So what do you expect me to do?" Ed sighed, "I can't bring him back to life." ”

Although he once brought Borena back from the dead...... But that's not what he did. Or would Verona not think that he could let him continue to be an undead?

Stobel shook his head.

"I don't think he wants to live in any way. "He felt that he had completed his mission, and that it was his duty to 'live' for a few more days to help me stay on the scene...... But the situation was not right when he fell. ”

Ed looked suspiciously at the face he didn't dare to look at—a crumpled and lifeless grey ...... But there is indeed a certain kind of emotion that a person who is waiting for death should not have.

It was amazement and anger.

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