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93. Lord Emesmes

「Chains and… dragon.」

In the center of the hall was an altar-like structure. You could even call it a pyramid. It laid at the very top of where a huge staircase led.

A crimson dragon was sleeping quietly, tied to golden chains.

「Master, this is…」

「It seems like the traces of a battle.」

However, the more you look at it, the stranger it gets.

There is no doubt that this dragon is the owner of the room. Someone broke in here. And a battle was fought…

But why is it chained up? If they were able to restrain it, why didn’t they defeat the dragon? There were too many things that I didn’t understand.

「What the hell happened here?」

As we were pondering, a voice suddenly echoed in our heads.

『Who is it…?』

「The dragon spoke…?」

「No, it’s not sound.」

A man’s voice that echoed directly in my head. I hear Koe-san’s voice in my head when I use [Skill Lender]. It felt somewhat similar to that.

That voice was coming from above the altar.

『Hmm, you guys aren’t alchemists. Am I right?』

「Yeah, we aren’t. Who are you?」

『It is common courtesy to name yourself first. I am Lord Emesmes. In other words, the head of the alchemist family called the Emesmes family.』

Emesmes.

Did he just say that was the head of the Emesmes family? It’s the same name as the mansion we used as our base. It’s Angelina’s family name.

「I’m Marge. This is Koe-san. … By any chance, do you know Angelina? Angelina Emesmes. She’s an alchemist.」

『Oh, Angelina! Dear daughter Angelina! I never expected to hear that name again!』

As I expected, he is related to Angelina. And he also called her his daughter.

Koe-san covered her mouth with her hand as she realized the truth.

「Are you saying that Angelina-san’s father was a dragon? Master, so humans can sometimes be born from dragons, I see.」

「…I don’t think that’s the case.」

Koe-san was impressed by the new knowledge she gained, but common sense told me that that was impossible. Even if it’s a dragon, a monster is still a monster. Their nature as living beings is very different from humans.

Besides, humans and dragons wouldn’t physically match in size.

『A dragon and a human mating to produce a child. That is very interesting. I want to research if that is actually impossible, but… that’s not me. I am not the dragon, I am over here.』

My consciousness was drawn to the word “over here”. As I moved my gaze, I saw the golden chain.

The cone at the end was pulling my consciousness towards it.

『Yo, I am the chain.』

「Are you saying that Angelina-san is a child of a human and a chain…?」

『She’s a pleasant young lady, isn’t she? Don’t worry, she was born back when I was still “human”.』

「Did you transform yourself through alchemy?」

『Indeed. That saves me the explanation. I fought this dragon with my wife, but we couldn’t defeat it. It was all we could do to restrain it like this.』

「You fought with this big guy?」

『A lot happened.』

The gold chain clinked like a wry smile.

The fact that he can laugh even in such a predicament was just like Angelina. His wife, Angelina’s mother, might also be here.

「Where’s your wife?」

『The other chain is my wife. However, her consciousness has become very thin. Even I could only barely speak, so I kept calling for my daughter.』

「So that’s why I felt like someone was calling out, huh.」

『So, where’s Angelina? I have something important to tell her.』

「She’s not here. She’s waiting outside the dungeon.」

『No, no, that can’t be true. I sensed my daughter entering the dungeon and called out to her.』

「Inside the dungeon…?」

Angelina approached the dungeon entrance, but she did not step inside. Now that I think about it, I think the female dwarf who wandered in said something. She said she was being called.

「…Lord Emesmes. How did you sense Angelina?」

『The wavelength of the mana, and the size and shape of the body.』

「You probably mistook the female dwarf nearby.」

『Dwarf?』

「She was standing just next to Angelina, and was lured into the dungeon by the gold. I think you ended up calling her instead.」

『…Our ancestors from seven generations ago left behind what we should say at times like this.』

「What’s that?」

『We got got!』

「Master, I think this person is really Angelina’s father. She also said the same words was passed down.」

「Is that so?…It was just bad luck.」

That Angelina was by the dwarf’s side.

Angelina is short and not much different from tall dwarves.

He must have made a mistake because they overlapped.

『Now that I think about it, the Angelina I knew was from over five years ago. Is she about eighteen now? I’m sure she have grown taller and into a beauty like Koe-san over there.』

「…Well, you’ll find out once you see for yourself.」

I felt like it was kindness to not tell him.

I understood his relationship to Angelina. However, I still have many more questions. First of all, why are Angelina’s parents sealing the dragon as chains in this place?

「So, Lord Emesmes. Why are you here? Why is an alchemist trying to conquer a dungeon?」

The answer to this question was almost immediate.

『To save all humans.』

「To save all humans, huh… Another big plot.」

『It is not an exaggeration. I won’t go into the details because it’s too long, but we, the Emesmes family, have mastered alchemy for this purpose. For over a thousand years.』

「More than a thousand years?」

『This is our duty. This is the fate of the Emesmes family. That is what Angelina was born for.』