*** Bianca POV ***

"Ah…"

The plate I was washing slipped from my hand and broke into pieces.

"Oh, no! Are you hurt?"

Raon's mom dropped what she was doing and ran up to me.

"I'm okay. Rather than that, I'm sorry."

"Are you really okay? How about you rest a little?"

"No, I…"

"Don’t worry about the plate. I’ll take care of it.”

Instead of getting angry at me for breaking the plate, her first concern was my well-being.

'I think I can understand where Raon's care toward others came from.'

I smiled a little as I imagined my disciple's face.

'I wonder if he's awake by now.'

It was when I was about to raise my magic to detect Raon's presence in the room.

"Huh?"

A bad feeling.

My gaze went to the window, far beyond the forest, up the hill where my lair is.

'Did someone break in?'

My cave was filled with mana to scare out monsters and anyone who got close.

But that's not the only reason.

It also detected intruders whenever they came in, even if I was away.

'The fact that they broke the mana means that they must be an enemy, right?'

At the very least, they must be someone very aggressive in nature.

If you came into someone's house uninvited and even went so far as to break down the open gate when you could just walk in peacefully, then you must be doing it to provoke me.

'Hm… I don't want to leave Raon, but… Should I check?'

[White Dragon Vision]

It was when the world was filled with a myriad of colors and shapes.

"...!"

A familiar sight.

It seems like one of the intruders is someone I knew very well.

But, honestly, he's not a welcome presence either.

'I don't like it…'

I'm sure he also felt the same way.

We didn't part in a good way, so there were bound to be bad feelings toward each other.

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At the very least, he's not someone who would ever come to meet me unless he has something really important to say.

'Nicht…'

A black dragon who once used to be my close friend.

If I have to say it in human terms, he's my childhood friend.

‘Until he starts to dabble in black magic and curse, that is.’

Even his personality starts to become rotten by then.

'To think that he would bring such a rowdy bunch… His standards must have fallen so low.'

From the looks of it, my magic was cut by a sword attack.

'A power strike.'

A technique from Absolute Blade Arts.

'Must be his disciples… To think that even the techniques we developed together with the previous dragon lord have deteriorated to this extent.'

It wasn't supposed to be this rough.

Even though power strike was Nicht's specialty, it used to be more sophisticated than this.

If the previous dragon lord were still here, she would surely cry at the sight.

Then again, she had disappeared for decades already.

'It's not like she had perfect stealth like me. So where is she?'

From the moment I noticed Nicht's presence, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic and think of the lord.

It would be nice if she had at least left a disciple or traces behind, but if she suddenly disappeared like this, I couldn't find her even if I wanted to.

'It's not like I never tried, but…'

I raised my gaze to the sky.

'I should go, right? To meet Nicht.'

Still, even if I know what to do... I can't help but hesitate.

'Hngh… I really don't want to go!'

However, considering Nicht's current personality, he might just come to me and destroy the village in anger if I make him wait any longer.

'That would be worse.'

Of course, I can fight back.

I will never lose in a fair fight.

But I'm not sure I can protect the villagers if he went all out.

So, this is not the time for me to be selfish.

'More importantly, Raon would be sad.'

It's the village my cute disciple risked his life to protect.

If I can't protect it myself, then the least I can do as his teacher is to keep this village away from harm.

It can't be helped, I will go.

'Raon…'

My intuition told me that I would be away for a long time.

I trust this intuition and my eyes that can even catch glimpses of fate.

My heart became heavy as soon as I foresaw the long journey ahead.

So I took a paper and wrote a message on it.

It was a message written with magic.

It doesn't take a second to write down, as all I need to do is print my thoughts and feelings on the paper with mana.

'A handy technique.'

It would be even better if Raon had learned this skill, too.

There are many skills I didn't teach him.

Mainly because I didn't think I would leave him this early, but also because I didn't think he was ready to learn most of those skills.

'If I knew it's going to be like this, then I would just teach them all.'

It's not hard to create skill books.

The only condition is to master the skill to a very high degree and use a creation skill to write it.

It's not hard at all. It just takes time.

'And time is the one thing I don't have right now.'

I gave the paper to Raon's mom and told her to give it to Raon.

"Are you leaving?"

She's sharp.

"You noticed?"

"That child will be sad."

"I know. So I will try to come back as soon as I can."

"I see. I'm glad to hear that."

She smiled.

"Please know that you are always welcome in this home."

I smiled back.

"Thank you."

"No, thank you so much, for everything."

We said goodbye, and I went to my lair.

'Raon…'

But even then, instead of thinking about Nicht and whatever business he may have, my head was full of thoughts about the boy.

Will he be okay without me?

Can he grow properly in the future?

What if he gets hurt?

'Stupid disciple.'

To make his teacher worry this much…

Really, what a hopeless disciple he is.