Without You (3)

These colored diamonds are recognized as being worth about 10 to 100 times more than colorless diamonds, the more intense the color.

Ultimately, I am searching for the Black Diamond, but as a backup plan, I also inquired about Blue and Pink Diamonds.

If the Black Diamond is for the engagement ring, the Pink and Blue Diamonds would be for our matching couple rings, so to speak.

Of course, if I explained the meaning of the ring to Rurin, she would love it even if it was made of aluminum, but I want to give her the best.

The pink one for Rurin, and the blue one for me. Pink and Blue Diamond couple rings!

Anyway, after hearing the news, I moved to obtain the diamonds.

Thanks to Elena’s efforts, I was able to get the diamonds. Of course, I paid a much higher price than market value.

But that’s just giving back to society, as expected.

Having obtained what I wanted, I was satisfied as Elena and I got back in the carriage to return to Greek City.

A brief moment of silence settled in.

Breaking the silence, I spoke to Elena.

“By the way, don’t you think Sereina might be throwing a fit?”

“Oh! She might be.”

Elena nodded, her face showing surprise as if she had completely forgotten about it until now.

“When that happens, just smack her.”

“What? How could I hit such a Great Being…?”

“So what? You’ll be taking the great first step of an elf smacking a dragon! Don’t worry, I’ll protect you no matter what happens.”

Of course, that’s never going to happen. There’s Sereina’s pride to consider, and it was just a joke because Elena is kind.

“Are you really that worried? Your face looks serious…”

“Well…now that I think about it, I didn’t prepare any meals before we left…”

“Hm, don’t worry. Give her this, and she’ll calm down.”

I took Elena’s hand, opened it, and placed a gemstone in her palm.

It was an uncut gemstone, but even as a raw stone, its pink glow was dazzling.

Elena followed me without a word, treated even our enemies, the dwarves, and always helped in many ways.

Since I purchased a larger gemstone than what I needed for the ring, I set aside a share for Elena as well. She played the biggest role, so it’s only right she gets her share.

“Oh my, what’s this? It’s pink! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“It’s called a Pink Diamond.”

Elena stared intently at the gemstone in her hand before handing it back to me. She truly has no greed.

If it were Sereina, she would have gulped it down before I even told her to take it. Elena didn’t seem to realize it was a gift for her.

“I’m sorry it’s still a raw stone, but it’s pretty enough as it is. One piece is for you, Elena, and give the other to Sereina, so she doesn’t cause a fuss.”

If I only gave it to Elena and left Sereina out, the gem enthusiast, she would give Elena a hard time, so it’s a precaution.

“Th-this…I can’t possibly accept something like this…”

Elena stopped mid-sentence and tightly clenched the hand holding the diamond.

“Yes, I can!”

I expected her to say she couldn’t accept it, but her answer was the complete opposite. She nodded with a determined look, mumbling something to herself that was barely audible.

“This…is a gift from Mr. El…so…”

She murmured to herself and then began bowing her head repeatedly to me.

Well, she accepted it, so that’s good.

I laughed, playfully shaking my ears, and teased the flustered Elena.

“Don’t let Sereina take it all.”

“I won’t! If she tries, I’ll smack her!”

Earlier, she was firm in saying she could never hit a dragon, but now her attitude changed, and she made a bold declaration.

“Uh, right. Smack her and then come back to me.”

Nod, nod, nod, nod.

Elena nodded vigorously. It’s just a gemstone.

Elves hardly have any attachment to gold or jewels.

But she seemed to like the gemstone I gave her. She didn’t open her hand, holding it tightly.

It was just a token of thanks, so I purposely didn’t have it made into earrings or a bracelet. I didn’t want any misunderstandings. She might not accept it otherwise.

This was my way of thanking her for helping.

And the real gift is the ring, which will be given to Rurin.

The one who really needs to like it is Rurin.

Soon, the carriage entered Greek City.

At the Lord’s castle, a decoy had been set up.

By condensing mana into a Dragon Orb and creating a massive ball of light energy, it would give off a flow of mana similar to its own.

I wondered if I really needed to go this far to deceive Rurin, but a gift loses its excitement if it’s revealed too early.

Besides, if Rurin didn’t feel a similar flow of her own mana in Greek City, she definitely wouldn’t stay still.

After dismantling the energy ball that emitted mana identical to mine, I stopped by the clockmaker’s workshop.

The gemstone had to be crafted. I entrusted it to the clockmaker, a trustworthy dwarf, and then returned to the restaurant.

I figured there would be chaos since the restaurant had been left unattended for a long time.

Fortunately, no one had stormed into the Lord’s castle. As I entered the restaurant, I wondered how I would quiet the complaints.

Rurin came into view.

She was sitting in a chair, dozing off.

Well, her dozing off was something that happened often, so this wasn’t an unusual scene.

The only difference was the note in front of Rurin.

I told her to practice writing, but she never listened. She had written “I’m out-!” in her usual scribbled handwriting, yet here she was, sleeping.

I had no idea how she could be out somewhere while asleep.

Her head bobbed up and down.

She nodded off.

Each time, her thin eyelashes fluttered slightly.

A faint snoring sound came from her.

Her unique breathing sound escaped softly, and for some reason, the corners of her mouth were turned up in a smile.

If you just watched her quietly, the repetition of it was quite cute.

The first time I met her.

Suddenly, I remembered the first time I made a bet with Rurin, back when she always looked at me with cold eyes.

Back then, I never imagined I would one day want to put a ring on her finger.

“Die.”

The Black Dragon shouted. Her face was emotionless. It was strange to try and find emotions in a dragon’s face, but…

“Try smiling.”

I shrugged. She didn’t seem to have any emotions.

Iron maiden? Iron dragon?

Setting aside the dragon’s massive body, her large eyes, nose, and black skin felt extremely cold.

For some reason, just like people can read each other’s faces, I could read the dragon’s expressions too.

It was probably because of the Heart that the Lord had passed down to me.

It was the influence of my newly acquired heart.

“Die.”

The Black Dragon’s line was always the same. She wanted me to die.

Or to disappear.

Whenever she said that, her face showed deep annoyance, as if nothing mattered. It meant he was bothered.

The expressions this dragon showed were mostly negative. Anger, annoyance, and a cold, expressionless face like the ice of the northern lands.

“You must be annoyed to death right now, huh?”

“Of course.”

“You’re sleepy, annoyed, and angry about this and that, right?”

“Yes. Now that you know, die.”

“You look like you’re so mad your eyes are going to pop out and you want to cough up blood.”

“What? It’s not that bad. There’s no reason for me to be that angry at someone as insignificant as you.”

“Oh, really? If it’s not that bad, I’ll just stay here then.”

If it was her usual kind of anger, I figured it was just the way this dragon was and shrugged it off.

Even if it wasn’t her usual anger, I wasn’t planning on leaving.

Everything related to the Dragon Orb. That was my promise with the Lord. There was much I had to ask this dragon, who was strongly tied to the key to solving it.

“No! It is that bad! So get lost!”

The Black Dragon exhaled fiercely and stomped around her lair. If she kept hitting the ground like that, wouldn’t it cause damage somewhere akin to an earthquake?

So, I had to calm her down first.

“Alright, alright. It’s that bad.”

As soon as I acknowledged it to calm her down, the dragon suddenly began breathing fire toward me.

“Die or get lost.”

“I can’t do that. I plan on staying even if it’s that bad.”

Boom-!

Flames erupted wildly.

I was busy deflecting the fire breath. After spewing fire for a while, the dragon seemed to get tired, and she glared at me.

“Why won’t you die? How can a human like you be so strong?!”

“Good question.”

The dragon glared at me with cold eyes and then quickly turned her back on me.

She went deeper into the lair and curled up. She was so tired that she decided not to care anymore.

She stayed like that for days.

She was just growling, so I couldn’t gather any information. I hadn’t even broached the topic of the crucial information I needed.

“Alright.”

“What’s so good? It’s not. It would be good if you were dead.”

“Don’t be like that. How about a bet?”

“You, human. How dare an insignificant human like you propose a bet to me!”

The Black Dragon went into a frenzy and started stomping around again.

“It’s possible. There are dragons who lose to insignificant humans too, you know.”

Boom-!

As soon as I said that, the Black Dragon exploded in anger and began firing flames and spells at me.

The power of her attacks was enough to turn the area outside the lair into a wasteland in an instant, but I deflected them all, neutralizing them.

She was a dragon who couldn’t control her anger.

“Stop for a second. How about listening to the terms of the bet before getting angry?”

“……”

The dragon glared at me quietly, but her next words were unexpected.

“…What’s a bet?”

I let out a hollow laugh. “What’s a bet,” she asks. A bet is a bet.

“You laughed. Die. Die. Die. Die!”

She was about to breathe fire again, so I waved my hands to stop her.

“Hold on. Calm down. I get it, I get it. It makes sense that dragons wouldn’t know. It’s a human game.”

“Insignificant.”

We had barely started a conversation, but now she looked like she was about to leave again, as if it was too bothersome.

So I pulled out my trump card.

“If you lose the bet, I’ll leave this place.”

The dragon, who had turned her back on me, looked at me again.

“That sounds good. But!”

But she still didn’t know what a bet was, so her face showed frustration. I began to explain.

“So a bet is…simple. I’m going to cook food for two days, and if you eat it, I win. If you don’t eat it, you win. Got it? The terms are…”

“Are you stupid, human? There’s no way I’d eat something made by a human! You’re ridiculous.”

The dragon heard the terms and started nodding as if she had already won.

“Then the bet is on?”

“Do whatever you want. It’s a bother.”

I had lost the fight.

After that, she had asked me to kill her.

But I didn’t kill her. Instead, I shamelessly stuck around her lair. She never left her lair, as if it was precious to her, and treated my presence like a disease. I hoped that this situation would give me the chance to extract information from her, so I stepped outside the lair.

The plan was to feed her.