Kays Translations

Chapter 78: Some Kind of Egg

“You found something, didn’t you?” Chloe demanded.

“Suspicious,” Caro added.

“What did you find, Big brother?”

Was I truly so easy to read? I needed to practise maintaining a blank expression.

“Nothing. There’s nothing here. Let us move on.”

“Don’t say that after making such a face,” Chloe replied. “Now I’ll lie awake all night wondering about it.”

That was hardly my responsibility.

When she saw my indifference, Chloe made another remarkably unprincess-like expression.

“Fine. If anyone asks why I can’t sleep, I’ll say, ‘I couldn’t stop thinking about Julius.’”

“Don’t do that. Everyone will misunderstand.”

If those words reached His Majesty and Her Majesty, they might assume something entirely different. I wanted no deeper involvement in royal marriage discussions.

Admittedly, I already had one foot inside that door, but surrendering would make escape impossible.

“Why are you so determined to avoid me?” Chloe asked, genuinely hurt. “Caro, tell him he’s being cruel.”

“If Julius doesn’t want to, you shouldn’t force him,” Caro said softly.

“Betrayal!”

Perhaps this lively, impulsive girl was Chloe’s true self, while her formal royal manner was the mask. Maintaining that restraint every day must be exhausting.

“Very well,” I said. “But no one touches anything in the room beyond the passage. We don’t know what’s there, and if we damage a royal secret, I may lose my head.”

“Big brother…” Rosalia looked up anxiously.

I stroked her hair. Chloe and Caro finally became serious.

“I promise,” Chloe said.

“So do I,” Caro added.

They still had no intention of abandoning the search. Apparently, my head wasn’t valuable enough to outweigh their curiosity.

I stopped before the section of wall indicated by Search. It looked entirely solid.

“The passage should begin here,” I said. “There must be a switch.”

Chloe and Caro examined the stacked grey bricks, but nothing stood out. I activated Appraisal.

Writing appeared across the wall—perhaps the command that opened it.

“Open sesame? Why would that be the phrase?”

The bricks moved silently aside, revealing a dim corridor.

“How did you do that?” Chloe asked.

“I would like to know too.”

“As expected of the reincarnated ancient sage,” Caro said.

“Are we still using that explanation?”

Rosalia narrowed her eyes at me with the same disappointed expression everyone seemed to adopt eventually.

“Don’t look at me like that. And please don’t tell Father or Mother.”

“That seems impossible,” Chloe said.

“I agree,” Rosalia added.

“Betrayal. You were the ones who demanded that I open it.”

“I didn’t,” Caro protested.

“You didn’t stop us, so you’re an accomplice.”

Now all four of us shared responsibility. We entered the passage. Its walls emitted a faint light, enough to prevent us from stumbling.

After a short distance, we reached a small square room. A single pedestal stood at its centre, exactly where Search had detected the response.

“What’s that?” Chloe whispered.

“Don’t touch it.”

“I remember my promise.”

On the pedestal rested a pure-white object resembling an ordinary chicken egg.

We studied it from a cautious distance.

“An egg?”

“It certainly looks like one.”

“But what kind?”

“If we warm it, will a chick hatch?” Rosalia asked.

It appeared to have been abandoned for a very long time. Surely nothing could still hatch from it.

“Perhaps it’s a potion ingredient,” I said. “It might produce an extraordinary potion.”

The egg jerked.

“It moved!” Chloe cried, clinging to me.

Caro and Rosalia immediately did the same.

“You imagined it. We have solved the mystery, so we should leave.”

As I turned away, the egg rocked clearly from side to side. An inarticulate sound escaped me, and the three girls squeezed me painfully.

“Julius, that egg is definitely strange.”

“I know. Let us run.”

“I feel as though it’ll follow us,” Caro said.

“I’m frightened, Big brother.”

So was I. This was precisely when Appraisal was useful.

Holy Dragon Egg: Awaiting hatching. Supply mana to hatch it. The person who hatches it’ll form a master–servant bond.

We should leave immediately. Everything about this hidden room promised trouble.

Before we could flee, the egg floated into the air.

“It’s flying!” Chloe shouted.

“What do we do?”

“If it falls, it’ll break,” Rosalia cried.

The three girls who had feared it moments earlier now panicked over its safety. Perhaps seeing the lonely egg had awakened their protective instincts.

Unfortunately, it was floating directly towards me.

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