The boy blinked his blue eyes and introduced himself silently. He continued to look at the baby wyvern, Moyaya, with fascination.

“Now, shall we try to lift the curse a bit?”

Moyaya turned his neck and spoke leisurely.

“Miyaaong! (Fighting!)”

“Ao, you might get hurt, so stay back.”

Moyaya grabbed Ao’s tail, pulled him back, and then flew up to the height of the boy’s face again.
Ao looked at Moyaya, who was facing the boy at one corner, holding his breath.

Before spewing fire, Moyaya opened his mouth wide and exerted strength on his stomach.

“Kaaaaah—!”

Small flames started to come out of his little mouth.

However, the flames couldn’t last long.

“Kaaa, kaa? Kaaaaah… ah!”

For ten minutes, Moyaya fiercely spewed fire, but there was no sign of the ice breaking.

“Miyaaong? (What happened?)”

Disappointed, Ao ran to Moyaya.

“Ugh, my throat hurts!”

Exhausted, Moyaya sat down on the floor and spoke as if he were cool.

“Because I’m still young, this is all the fire I can produce, Moyaya~.”

“Miyaaong? (What? So, can’t he be rescued? Is that it? Huh?)”

Looking at Joseph with sad eyes, Ao pinched Moyaya’s neck and scolded him.

“Wait a bit. I can break this cursed ice easily once I’m bigger.”

Brushing away Ao’s two front paws, Moyaya said to Joseph with a tired voice.

“Miyaaong? (Then, does he have to stay like that until then?)”

“Not necessarily. I can let him move around inside the ice.”

“Miyaaong? (How?)”

“Using the great wyvern’s fire to melt the cursed ice, you know?”

“Miyaaong! (But we just failed!)”

“Foolish. It won’t work in one try. I’ve been out of the egg for over 300 years, but I’m still a cute baby, so my fire is weak.”

“Yaong? (Then, how many times do you have to do it?)”

With hopeful eyes again, Ao asked.

“Hmm? I don’t know.”

Moyaya glanced at Joseph and replied cheerfully.

“…….”

Joseph’s eyes looked much sadder than a while ago.

“Hey, kid. Don’t be too disappointed. I’ll rescue you once I grow up. Until then, I’ll melt a bit of the ice every day.”

“Miyaaong? (When will you grow up?)”

“It won’t take more than a hundred years. You’ll find out when you go in then.”

Coughing, Moyaya chuckled.

“……Miyaaong. (……Poor guy.)”

Ao approached Joseph with his tail down.

Joseph wanted to tell Ao that it was okay as he looked up at him with teary eyes, but besides his eyes, he couldn’t move.

“Ah, should we ask our orange-haired lady?”

Moyaya, as if lamenting ‘my throat,’ spat out and raised his head sharply.

“Miaong? (What?)”

“How to break the cursed ice. Even if Logi is as blind as a bat, he might know since he reads a lot of thick books, right?”

“Miyaaong! (Yeah, Logi might know! There might be a way written in those thick books he always reads.)”

“Yeah, that’s written in the ancient language of the Southern Continent. Logi is blind to that ancient language.”

“Miyaaong. (Well, Logi might not know then.)”

“If it’s our empress, it might be possible…”

Moyaya clasped his hands, sparkled his red eyes, and said.

“Miyaaong? (Empress?)”

“Yeah, Empress.”
At Moyaya’s words, Joseph’s blue eyes shook intensely.

‘Why is the empress the owner of this baby wyvern?’

After closing the lounge door, Lionel led me to a space away from the door.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

He held both of my hands, bent his waist in front of me, and asked.

The moment I met his worried eyes, tears poured out like a fool.

Anger toward Prince Tesla and worries for Bonice mixed, streaming down.

Moreover, if he hadn’t asked me with such a affectionate voice and expression, I would have swallowed the tears that I would have shed anyway.

“Zelda…?”

He didn’t know what to do when he saw me crying.

After grimacing heavily, he pulled me into his arms as it is.

“It’s okay, everything will be okay. I’m here.”

Instead of asking, ‘Why are you crying?’ Lionel comforted me directly.

Because of that, more tears poured out.

Lionel, comforting me, made everything seem like it would be okay, just like he said.

Separate from that, the suppressed emotions from Prince Tesla’s threats didn’t easily subside along with my crying.

He patiently waited for me, supporting my body like a reliable pillar until I calmed down.

He briefly separated me from his arms and took out a handkerchief from his uniform pocket.

“I’ve never seen a crying face like this before.”

Lionel said as he wiped my tears with the handkerchief.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to cry, but I didn’t know…….”

“That’s true. You didn’t know…… It seems I’ve become a fool.”

Holding my chin up with the hand holding the handkerchief, he followed my expression, which was crying.

When I slightly wrinkled my forehead, he chuckled.

“Do I look so ridiculous right now?”

I asked, sniffling my nose heavily.

“Do you call that a question?”

Without a hint of laughter in his serious tone, he raised my chin with the hand holding the handkerchief.

When I slightly narrowed my eyes, he smiled faintly.

“Is my face really so strange that it’s hard to endure right now?”

I asked with a pouty expression.

“Is that what you call a face?”