In the small room of the weapons workshop, Lydia opened the lid on the floor with a key, revealing a dark hole just big enough for a person to walk through.

Lydia looked at the two of them and said malice.

"Which of you wants to take the lead?"

Emile and Sain looked at each other, and after looking at the hole for a while, they looked at Lydia again, and then made a unanimous decision.

"Of course it's you, knight."

Lydia was dumbfounded, seeing their excited looks, she thought they would rush to go, so she hurriedly asked.

"Why?"

"Well, emir, come on." Sain shirked.

"Ahem, think about it, we don't know how deep this hole is, if the two of us go in first, won't you just be on top? Then we just have to lift our heads and ...... You should get the idea. ”

"Poof, I'm worried about that," Lydia laughed, and explained, "It's okay, my armor is covered and won't go away." ”

"Really? What a pity. Sain blurted out.

"Huh?"

"Well, he's saying it's a shame I can't let you take the lead." The emir hastened to defend him.

"Oh, then Sain, you go down first." Lydia smiled and said.

"Huh? Well, well. ”

Unable to shirk Lydia's suggestion, Sain reluctantly leaned into the cave, and soon his feet touched the ladder leaning against the inner wall of the cave.

Seeing Sain enter, Emir had no choice but to follow, regardless of whether Lydia had protective measures or not, it was a gentleman's practice not to look up at this time.

But for some reason, he suddenly felt the urge to look up, and his heart began to beat faster.

Although the reason in his heart had been telling him that this was disrespectful to the knight, after a few seconds of mental struggle, he finally chose to look up, only to be dumbfounded, because he found that Lydia had not come in at all, but was looking at him at the entrance of the cave, looking very happy.

Emir's cheeks burned all of a sudden, and he just wanted to find a hole to get into...... However, he suddenly realizes that he is in the hole.

"That...... Lydia, why don't you come down? Emir asked humbly.

"Hehe, don't worry, it's too crowded and inconvenient, you go down first, and I'll be there later."

“…… Uh, well-then,"

The Emir breathed a sigh of relief, he could probably understand that Lydia was giving him a step.

After two minutes of climbing in the cave, the two finally reached the end, but it was pitch black around them, and they couldn't see their fingers.

Immediately afterwards, Lydia also came down, and she really seemed to be following the emir, and at this time, Sain was not happy.

"Hey, Emir, didn't you just look up?" Sain leaned into the emir's ear.

"Why, what, am I that kind of person?"

"Really? If it were me, I would definitely watch it. Sain was blunt.

"Tsk, I didn't expect you to be this kind of person." The emir looked at him with strange eyes.

"Huh? What kind of person do you say Sain is? Lydia suddenly appeared in their ears and said quietly.

"Ahhhh ”

"I'm sorry, aren't you two just getting close to each other and whispering? Of course, in such a quiet environment, I could hear it clearly. ”

"Ah......h

"Hehe, it's really disappointing you, I said I did a good job of protection, and you can't see it if you want to, but if you beg me, it's not impossible." Lydia continues to tease them.

"Don't, don't mess with us anymore, okay? I'm really sorry, we shouldn't have bad thoughts, and you should apologize quickly, Emir. ”

Sain lowered his head, and pressed the Emir's head down as well.

"Okay, okay, I'm kidding you." Lydia waved her hand.

“……”

"But it's pitch black here, Miss Lydia, what is that secret you are talking about?" The emir finally got to the point.

"Hmph, wait for me."

Lydia said, groping for the basement wall to a corner.

Immediately after that, a few sparks appeared on the wall, as if they had touched some kind of flammable material, and immediately produced flames, no, a fiery snake to be exact, which was moving rapidly along the wall, and finally circled the entire basement before stopping.

The pitch-black space lit up instantly because of this fiery snake, and Emir finally understood what was happening, it turned out that there was a groove filled with oil in the surrounding wall, and near the door there was a lighter mechanism, which was in the shape of a black crow, and a special beak could knock sparks on the flint.

According to Lydia, it was also easy to turn off the fire when leaving, with a lid on the trench that could be closed with the help of a mechanism to extinguish the flames.

"That's amazing, isn't it?" Sain was incredulous.

The emir was not too surprised by this, for he had seen such a mechanism in a storybook before, but now it was only the first time he had seen it in kind.

However, the next scene shocked all three of them.

I saw that in the spacious basement, there was a behemoth, the size of that thing was too huge, even if there was a fire that could illuminate the entire space, it was impossible to fully see the true face of that thing.

"Well, it's ......," Lydia whispered.

"Could it be some kind of creature?"

Emir guessed because he could feel the thing breathing.

"Miss Lydia, is it your first time here?" Sain asked suddenly.

"Yes, grandpa didn't tell me before, he only told me that there is a secret to shortening the forging time in the basement, maybe grandpa thinks this is the last chance to forge, there is no need to hide it anymore, so he let us in."

Perhaps hearing the three of them talking, the behemoth suddenly moved, and then, a transparent sphere appeared in the dim corner, in which the fire on the wall was reflected.

Seeing this scene, Emile was so shocked that he forgot to breathe, this is something he has only seen in storybooks, and it is also something that he has always been full of infinite yearning, but even he finds whimsical.

Because it was actually a dragon, and the transparent sphere was the dragon's eyeball.

"W-what is this?" Sain couldn't help but exclaim.

"It's a dragon."

Lydia was quite calm after learning the true identity of the behemoth, and she seemed to have expected it.

According to the historians of the empire, after studying ancient books, and then archaeological excavations of many ruins, it was found that there are other races in this land in addition to humans, and the dragon race is one of them, and it is a very powerful and warlike race, not only has a huge body and human intelligence, but also can freely use magic, they can fly to a height of 10,000 meters at once with their huge wings.

However, since the empire was founded nearly 500 years ago, humans have not seen dragons again, so historians have speculated that dragons have perished.

Later humans can only see their traces from storybooks, however, it is such a legendary creature that actually appears in front of Emir and others.

"Wow, who are you, why did you get to my room?"

Just when everyone was stunned, a girl's voice suddenly appeared.

Emile wondered, it was obviously not Lydia's voice, and there was only this dragon in the basement except for the three of them, could it be that the dragon was talking?

"Hey, why don't you speak, if you don't give me an explanation, be careful that I burn you to ashes."

Obviously, it was indeed a dragon who spoke, and it was a dragon with a girlish personality, and she also said very terrifying things in a lovely voice like a silver bell.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we shouldn't have trespassed into Lord Dragon's room." Sain hastened to apologize.

"Huh? Wait a minute, you're not going to be delivering me food, are you? It has always been the old man Moswood who sent it to me before, why did I change it today? Something should happen to the old man, right? ”

"Huh? Food delivery? ”

"Yes, the old man let me live here, of course you have to give me food, otherwise people will starve to death."

"What, what? Dragons also starve to death. ”

"Tsk, how do you speak, dragons are not human...... Oh, it's really not human, you guy is really rude, the dragon also has to eat to live, not to mention that I'm here to assist the old man in forging, you humans also have wages for work, so what's wrong with me eating something? ”

"Oh, so you're what Moswood said, the secret to shortening the time it takes." It dawned on the emir.

He knew that dragons in general breathed fire, and this kind of flame was called "dragon's breath", which was hotter and burned longer than the flames made by humans, and even did not require fuel.

In this way, even the iron flakes doped with leukite can be burned red in a very short time, and the iron flakes can be easily softened, which is also easy to remove impurities and shape.

"What's the matter, bring the food quickly, I'm going to starve to death, and if I die, Moswood's mission won't be finished."

"Oh, well," said the emir, who hastened to promise her, and then, with an idea, "we will just say hello to you first, and we will deliver all your food later." ”

"Really? Something happened to Old Man Moswood, he won't die, right? ”

"Tsk."

Lydia was about to blame her for her disrespectful words, but on closer inspection, the dragon didn't seem to know much about human feelings, and it was likely that she meant that she cared about her grandfather.

"No, grandpa is still alive." Lydia said calmly.

"Oh? It was a disappointment, I thought I could finally be free. ”

"......" Lydia decided to retract her thoughts.

"What regains freedom? With your strength, you should be able to get out of here. The emir did not understand her words.

"Well, because of the contract, I signed a contract with Moswood decades ago that I would have to assist him in the forging work until he died, and if I left halfway, a lightning bolt would appear in the sky and kill me, which is terrible, right?"

"Well, there's such a thing."

"Of course, but our dragons have always been very trustworthy, and no dragon has ever been killed by lightning."

Listening to her tone, it seemed to be proud, and then she said.

"By the way, my name is Lilith Dorag, you can just call me Lilith, what about you? Introduce yourself, and I'll remember you too. ”

"Oh, good."

The crowd told her her names, and after that, they left the basement for a while.

"It's unbelievable that we actually saw a real dragon today." Sain couldn't help but sigh.

"yes, looking at her like this, she seems to be a very good dragon to get along with." The emir nodded.

At this time, Lydia was a little preoccupied, and the Emir keenly captured this.

"What's wrong? It's probably the first time you've seen a dragon, so why don't you look impressed? ”

"Hmm, I'm wondering when Grandpa met this dragon and why he didn't tell me."

“…… It should be to protect this dragon, the more people know, the more dangerous her situation will be, after all, with human greed, they may use her to do some evil things, or even harm her. ”

"Oh? So that's what you think? Lydia was a little surprised, then smiled, "Hehe, it's you, Émile. ”

"Don't talk so much, shouldn't we help Lilith find something to eat first?" Sain interrupted their conversation.

"Well, leave that to me." Lydia said.

Emile wanted to take this matter, but he thought that with Lilith's size, it was definitely not enough to eat a single piece of food, and the craftsmen outside needed to work overtime for so long in exchange for a barely full meal, and as an apprentice of Moswood, even if he knew that he had certain privileges, he was embarrassed to ask for a few more, after all, he still had this shame.

So, since Lydia took the initiative to bring it up, he had no choice but to leave the matter to her with confidence.

After about ten minutes, Lydia returned to the small room with ten portions of food, and Emir thought to herself that she would definitely leave two for them, and then give the rest to Lilith.

However, Lydia did not do so, and went straight through the dark hole and handed Lilith all the food.

From outside, you can hear Lilith feasting, as if she has been really hungry for a long time.

When Lydia climbed up and closed the hole again, Emir finally raised questions.

"Anyway, it's not early, will the two of us go to the cafeteria now and run out of food, and we only ate some dry food in the morning and at noon, and now we are so hungry that we can't do it, if we don't eat something, we won't have physical strength to train tomorrow."

"It's alright, Emir, let's go to the cafeteria now." Sain suggests that he doesn't want to trouble Lydia.

"No need, there is indeed no food in the cafeteria, and the ten servings just now are the last." Lydia shook her head and told the truth.

"Huh? Then we ......"

"Hehe, I'd like to take you somewhere," said Lydia, with a mysterious smile, "and you must not shirk it, because this is what my grandfather meant." ”

"Where?" The two asked in unison.

"Don't be in a hurry to ask, just come with me."

Lydia led them out of the weapons workshop and headed straight for the barracks gate.

"Do you want to eat on the street?" The emir whispered.

"Chances are, what if we get cheated like we did?" Sain was worried.

They were about to warn Lydia when they walked out of the gate to find a very ornate carriage parked in front of them, and Lydia motioned for them to get on.

This made them wonder that such a carriage was undoubtedly used to receive dignitaries, and if Lydia wanted to invite the two of them to dinner, there was no need for such a grand ceremony.

However, under Emile's thoughts, there seemed to be only one answer, and that was that Lydia was going to take them to her grandfather's house.

The Emir had heard from the veteran that Moswood had been made a nobleman by the Empire and had acquired a small piece of land, and that Moswood had a good chance of owning a manor, which was the standard for nobles.

As soon as he thought of this, the emir couldn't hide the excitement in his heart, although a lot of unexpected things had happened in the past few days, but at the same time he had seen a lot of new things, and now he could even be regarded as a guest by the nobles, what an honor it was for a commoner.

He sighed again that it was great that he chose to stay in the barracks that day, and it seemed that his future would be bright.