I Don't Want to Be the Dragon Duke's Maid! Serving My Ex-Fiancé from My Past Life: Volume 1 E-Book

Mashimesa Emoto

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Heart
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: I Don't Want to Be the Dragon Duke's Maid! Serving My Ex-Fiancé from My Past Life
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 321

Beschreibung

On her sixteenth birthday, Viscountess Mille-Feuille Forêt Noire, a member of a long-lived race called dragonkin, remembers her previous life as the murdered fiancée of Dragon Duke Vacherin. She immediately vows never to get involved with him again and aspires to live a peaceful life by hiding what she knows, but after a twist of fate or two...she soon winds up the Dragon Duke’s personal attendant!

Past intrigue now begins to yield problems in the present. Who killed Mille-Feuille in her last life? How can she improve the lives of fellow dragonkin women? Is she in love with the Dragon Duke, or are her feelings just lingering attachment from their old romance? And how will this all affect her new relationship with her former fiancé? History may or may not repeat itself in this romantic fantasy!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Characters

Chapter 1: Huh?! I Was a Tragic Princess in My Past Life?!

Chapter 2: An Unexpected Reunion

Chapter 3: Who Is the Witch Herbalist?!

Chapter 4: A Summons from the Dragon Duke

Chapter 5: Who Killed Charlotte?

Chapter 6: A Bridge to Peace

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Color Images

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Huh?! I Was a Tragic Princess in My Past Life?!

Father turned around and looked at me. “Mille-Feuille, stay close to Parfeil at all times,” he reminded me as we made our way through the crowd.

“I know, father,” I replied. Accompanied by my rabbit-eared female attendant Parfeil, I moved forward through the waves of people, nearly getting smothered along the way. My parents led the way, and Parfeil and I followed behind them. My older brother brought up the rear of our group.

“Mille-Feuille. We’ll leave you if you fall behind,” father threatened.

“Father, you fiend!” I cried.

My father often said: “Be aware that you are a noble, and act as such.” My same father, ignoring his own advice, now appeared to be very excited—elated, even—as we approached the festivities before us. My mother was strict and stern, but today, she opted not to chide my father for joking around and was smiling and enjoying herself. This joyful energy was not limited only to my parents—the crowd around us was ecstatic.

Suddenly, I tripped over a small bump on the stone path.

“Mille-Feuille, look out!” My brother Glacé, who was five years my senior, had been walking beside me and managed to catch me so I didn’t fall.

“Thank you, Glacé,” I said to him.

“Mille-Feuille, be mindful of where you’re walking,” he chided me.

“Yes, you’re right.” I had been overwhelmed by the crowd’s enthusiasm and wasn’t focusing on my surroundings. I needed to be more careful.

After a long walk, we finally reached the palace courtyard. However, the balcony was still a long way ahead. I would strain my neck if I tried to look up to see it.

“Mille-Feuille, do you see the balcony up there?”

“I see it quite clearly, mother.”

Of course, I couldn’t actually see it, but I replied as if I did. As for why I committed such an act, it’s because I simply had no interest in the events about to unfold.

This massive crowd was gathered here for one reason: to witness the majestic face of this country’s ruler, the Dragon Duke. For the last hundred years, the Dragon Duke hadn’t shown himself in public, not even once, and all were kept in the dark about him and his royal family. Yet today, for the first time in a century, the Dragon Duke would appear before his subjects from the palace balcony. Therefore, each and every dragonkin had gathered in this courtyard, which had been opened to the public for the occasion.

My family, too, was no exception. Even though today was my sixteenth birthday, my parents were more excited to get a glimpse of the Dragon Duke than to celebrate me.

This was the Dragon Duchy of Éclair, a state ruled by the world’s most powerful being: the Dragon Duke. Despite being a small nation, this land drew the attention of neighboring states by virtue of its inhabitants’ unique ability to transform into dragons. All its citizens held the Dragon Duke in high esteem—and even getting a fleeting glance of his royal visage inspired great enthusiasm in everyone.

My parents were ecstatic at the thought.

“Incredible... To think that we’d get to see the Dragon Duke himself!” father exclaimed.

“Indeed. What an event!” mother replied.

It seemed that not even my parents had ever seen the Dragon Duke.My brother, normally a quiet person of few words, was gazing at the balcony with tears of joy in his eyes.

We dragonkin live very long lives, with the oldest living up to a thousand years. The Dragon Duke was said to be very young; he had yet to reach two hundred years of age.

Parfeil had been gazing at the balcony all smiles, and I decided to ask her about this.

“Hey, Parfeil.”

“Yes, milady?”

“Have you ever seen the Dragon Duke?”

Parfeil, who hailed from a similarly long-lived race like the dragonkin, was 205 years old. Even so, in appearance she was much younger than me—and much smaller too. Her cute, childlike appearance belied the fact that she was older than the Dragon Duke himself.

“Hmm... I think I might have seen him before, but he was smaller than a tiny bean, so I don’t remember what he looks like,” Parfeil replied with a big smile. Her long rabbit ears swayed left and right as she did.

“Unfortunately, I think he’ll be smaller than a bean today too,” I said.

“N-No way!” Parfeil replied, disappointed, though she still seemed to be enjoying herself.

As for myself, my birthday only came once a year, and I couldn’t help but feel that it’d been canceled by the Dragon Duke’s public appearance. How could I possibly enjoy any of this?

All dragonkin held a deep reverence for the Dragon Duke, so much so that one might think that this devotion was carved deep into our souls. But, somehow, I felt none of that same awe the Dragon Duke supposedly inspired. My parents kept telling me that I’d understand when I grew up, but for as long as I could remember, I’d been aware that I was different from everyone else.

Suddenly, the crowd erupted in celebration. A shock wave that could have shaken the very earth swept across the venue. The Dragon Duke had finally shown himself on the balcony.

Father shouted in wild excitement while mother bowed her head to the Dragon Duke, tears pouring from her eyes. Glacé trembled in awe.

“Wow! Lady Mille-Feuille, look! It’s the Dragon Duke!”

“I can’t see a thing.”

“The lady accompanying the Dragon Duke is gorgeous too!” Parfeil remarked.

Everyone raised their fists and waved their hands in the air. In an instant, the balcony disappeared completely from my view, and I could only see the heads and backs of the crowd in front of me.

“Shall I carry you on my shoulders then, Lady Mille-Feuille?”

“Huh? No, you don’t have to go that far,” I said. “I’d just be a burden to you.”

“No need to be shy! The Dragon Duke showing up is a once-in-a-century event! You might get some kind of blessing if you see him!”

“He’s not some kind of lucky object, you know...”

I couldn’t care any less if I saw the Dragon Duke or not, but Parfeil used her supernatural strength—quite incongruous with her appearance—and lifted me up high. And just like that, I was able to see the events unfolding on the balcony.

The Dragon Duke’s long, silver hair and cool gaze caught my eye. He was a dashing man and looked rather young, as if he were only in his twenties. He was also clad all in black like he was mourning the loss of someone.

The moment I laid eyes on him, I felt my heart leap, but not out of excitement. Why is my heart beating so quickly?

“Lady Mille-Feuille, what do you think?” asked Parfeil.

“Put me down right now!”

“Gotcha, milady!”

I calmed down as soon as I felt my feet touch the ground. The uneasy feeling disappeared, perhaps because I couldn’t see the Dragon Duke anymore. Was it out of fear of his overwhelming power? I couldn’t be sure.

“I think he’s trying to say something,” Parfeil told me. She twitched her ears, trying to pick up the Dragon Duke’s words. The hearing of a rabbitkin like her was many times more sensitive than that of a dragonkin.

“Hmm, let’s see here... ‘Why must I be reduced to a public exhibit on the day I parted with my dear Charlotte?’”

“Charlotte...?” I repeated.

The words from Parfeil’s mouth pierced my chest like a hot knife. At that moment, a stranger’s memories began flooding into my head. I could see a scene of a strange night with the moon shining brightly, despite a heavy downpour.

“Charlotte...! Charlotte...!”

That wail of grief must have been louder than the raging storm.

Long ago, I had once lost my life in the arms of my beloved.

“I’ll find you... No matter where you’re reborn, I promise that I’ll find you!”

They were words powerful enough to be carved into my very soul.

My field of vision went white. For a moment, I heard Parfeil’s earsplitting scream, but I couldn’t figure out what was happening.

My consciousness faded right then.

***

My memories had returned. I was once Princess Charlotte—the beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed princess of the Kingdom of Sacristain, and I had lived without a single worry in my life.

And on my sixteenth birthday, I had fallen in love.

“Oh, who is that gentleman over there?”

“That is the chief of a minority group, the dragonkin. His name is Lord Vacherin.”

“Lord Vacherin... What a wonderful man.”

We had been drawn to each other the moment our eyes met. And by the time we’d held each other’s hands, we were already in love. We kept our romance a secret until one day, when we were finally allowed to marry. My days had been filled with happiness...until I’d been murdered. And I couldn’t remember who had killed me or how. Despite all that, I could clearly remember Vacherin’s wrath as I lay dying.

***

Lady Mille-Feuille...! Lady Mille-Feuille...!

“I am no mere lady. I am a royal princess!”

“P-Princess?”

A bewildered voice woke me up from my slumber. When I opened my eyes, a teary-eyed Parfeil was there before me.

“Lady Mille-Feuille...! Oh, sorry, Princess Mille-Feuille!” Parfeil said, correcting herself.

“P-Princess?” I stammered.

“You just told me to call you that.”

“Forget about that. You can call me what you always have.”

“All righty.”

My head was throbbing in pain, quite understandably so. It was hard to believe, but my memories from a past life had come back to me. It sounded like a fairy tale, but it was the only explanation I could think of. My past life was that of the Kingdom of Sacristain’s princess, Charlotte, a beautiful maiden with long, wavy, golden locks and eyes as blue as the deep ocean...or so it seemed.

“Parfeil, bring me a mirror,” I said.

“Got it.”

As ordered, Parfeil brought me one. The face reflected on its surface was completely different from that of Charlotte when she was alive. I had my mother’s milk tea-colored hair and my father’s spring-green eyes. I had been told once or twice that my almond-shaped eyes suggested a “strong-willed” personality. It appeared that being reborn didn’t mean that I retained my old appearance.

My memories from a past life, huh...

“Lady Mille-Feuille, are you all right?” Parfeil asked. “Should I call the doctor?”

“No need, I’m fine. I was just a little dizzy. Could you bring me some water?”

“Got it.”

I tried to organize my thoughts while drinking the water from Parfeil.

When a person died, by divine providence, their soul returned to a blank slate before being reborn in a new body. This cycle was known as “reincarnation,” or so said a book I’d read somewhere. A case like mine, where I suddenly remembered my past life, must’ve been rare. It had probably happened because I’d seen the Dragon Duke—someone I was connected to in my past life—and because he’d mentioned the name “Charlotte” on top of that. Of course, this was all just conjecture.

The Dragon Duke Vacherin... He was Charlotte’s lover during her life and they had even been engaged. And people said that he hadn’t shown himself in public for the last one hundred years...

I turned to my attendant. “Parfeil, what year is it in the Aela Calendar?”

The Aela Calendar counted the years since the creation of the world. It wasn’t used by dragonkin, so I hadn’t been keeping track in this lifetime. If Charlotte had died in the year 3200 of the Aela Calendar, how many years had it been since then?

Parfeil took out her pocket watch and opened it to confirm the date. “It’s the year 3300 in the Aela Calendar.”

“Year 3300?!”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Parfeil pointed to the window on the watch that showed the year. There was no doubt about it—this was the year 3300 of the Aela Calendar. In other words, it was exactly one hundred years since Charlotte’s death.

I remembered the Dragon Duke’s words from earlier. “Why must I be reduced to a public exhibit on the day I parted with my dear Charlotte?”

To think that he still remembered his fiancée Charlotte, a hundred years after her death...!

“Parfeil, is the Dragon Duke married?” I asked.

“I don’t know. For the last hundred years, there’s hardly been any information about the Dragon Duke’s royal family. There was talk of him getting married a century back, but it seems his fiancée passed away young. There hasn’t been any news since then.”

“I see.”

The talk about him getting married over a hundred years ago must’ve been referring to Charlotte. Since there hadn’t been any other public information about the royal family over the last century, it was impossible to know if he was still single or if he’d gotten married since.

“Speaking of which, I heard that there was a woman among the Dragon Duke’s royal family. What about her?” I asked.

“Who knows? Like I said, nobody knows anything about the Dragon Duke or his royal family.”

What if she was his consort...?

I felt a sharp pain in my heart as that thought crossed my mind. It must’ve been due to Charlotte’s memories that lingered in me. There was just no way I would feel that much shock from hearing about the marriage of a man I’d never even met. I pressed my hands to my heart, trying to suppress the pain. I had to hold back my tears.

“Lady Mille-Feuille, are you really all right? I really think we should call the doctor...” Parfeil said, concerned.

“I’m fine. No need to worry about me.”

“Got it. Please tell me if you start feeling sick again, okay?”

“Of course.”

It seemed like I had passed out in the royal courtyard from the shock of remembering my previous life. I had been out cold for three hours.

“Parfeil, I would like to be alone for a while,” I said. “Could you please tell father, mother, and my brother that I’m fine now?”

“All right,” Parfeil replied, and once she left the room, I let out a sigh.

To think that my previous self was Princess Charlotte of Sacristain and that her fiancé was the Dragon Duke... That wasn’t something I could just immediately accept. Even though I had her memories, I was still me. It wasn’t like I had become Charlotte all of a sudden.

When it came to Charlotte, I just couldn’t see her as being me. Despite now having her memories, it wasn’t like her will was overpowering mine or anything. In fact, her personality was the complete opposite of mine. She was a pure and innocent princess, almost childlike, and I couldn’t imagine her being averse to other people.

On the other hand, my personality was cool and calm, even as a child, to the point that grown-ups knew me to be quite composed for my age. I didn’t need to study much to remember my lessons. When I learned how to curtsy—the noblewoman’s greeting—from my etiquette tutor, it didn’t take much practice for me to do it perfectly. I was sure that Charlotte had learned all those noble customs over years and years of effort.

It made me feel like I hadn’t worked hard enough to get where I was. Thinking about it made a mixture of frustration and embarrassment well up inside me.

“Can you believe all this?” I absentmindedly started talking to a fish in the aquarium atop my bedside table.

The fish paid me no heed and kept swimming along its merry way.

I felt like all my confidence had crumbled away. I needed to put in more effort and not be haughty about my achievements.

I let out another sigh—I had completely lost count of how many times I’d sighed today.

Previous life or not, even though I wanted to live my life as usual, memories of Charlotte spending her days with the Dragon Duke had returned to me.

Despite the barriers between humans and dragonkin, they had seemed to be a completely normal couple. They’d held hands in the garden, enjoyed talking to each other, and exchanged warm smiles.

The Dragon Duke had seemed to be a kind man back then. I could hardly believe that the Dragon Duke I’d seen today was the same person. Was society so harsh to him that he became dejected over the last century?

A couple tragically separated only to reunite after a hundred years was the stuff of fairy tales. In fact, I bore no romantic feelings for the Dragon Duke at all.

But what about the man in question? I suddenly remembered the last words he’d uttered by Charlotte’s side as she died...

“No matter where you’re reborn, I promise that I’ll find you!”

Shivers ran down my entire body as I recalled his words. His wail had been mixed with pure hatred. Despite the memories I now had, I didn’t know what could have happened to make him scream like that. Had Charlotte done something to make him angry? In fact, what if it had been the Dragon Duke who’d killed her in the first place? If so, then I couldn’t afford to let anyone know about my past life. Thankfully, despite having my past life’s memories, it wasn’t like that person had started taking over my entire personality. Charlotte’s memories just happened to reside within me.

“I really wish I didn’t remember my past life...”

If the Dragon Duke found out about this, it would mean nothing but trouble for me. I just had to keep quiet about it and take the secret of being Charlotte in my past life to my grave. I wanted to live a calm and peaceful life, without needing to experience someone trying to kill me.

And with that, I swore to never get involved with the Dragon Duke in any way.

***

Once the memories of my past life returned, I became curious about various things. In particular, the Kingdom of Sacristain—my birthplace in my previous life—caught my attention. Today, the Kingdom of Sacristain was a vassal state to the Dragon Duchy of Éclair. The royal family had been exiled to the countryside, and it seemed that they were unable to enter the capital. How had the dragonkin managed to defeat the Sacristain Army a hundred years ago?

I began working on deciphering the histories of the two countries.

A hundred years ago, the Dragon Duchy of Éclair didn’t exist. There was only a border region reserved for dragonkin in the Kingdom of Sacristain.

As I turned the page of the book I was reading, Parfeil called out to me in a reserved tone.

“Um... Lady Mille-Feuille, you seem to be reading a lot lately.”

“Yes, you’re right.” Ever since remembering my past life, I’ve become curious about a lot of things—but I couldn’t exactly tell her that outright. “I became curious about the history of the Dragon Duchy and its vassal states after having the honor of witnessing the Dragon Duke himself the other day,” I said.

“How diligent of you!” Parfeil remarked. She prepared some tea and biscuits and told me to take a bit of a breather.

“Thank you, Parfeil.”

“You’re welcome, milady,” Parfeil replied.

After taking a quick break, I returned my attention to the tome on the history of the Kingdom of Sacristain and the dragonkin.

Whenever the Kingdom of Sacristain became involved in a war, they poured a huge amount of funds into making the dragonkin fight for them. The dragonkin had returned the favor by leading the Sacristain Army to victory many times over. Thus, the dragonkin had been treated hospitably and honored by the Kingdom.

And yet, one day, this relationship had fallen apart. After the death of Charlotte, the dragonkin had rebelled against the Kingdom of Sacristain...and won. As for the casus belli, nothing had been written about it except that the Kingdom of Sacristain had “insulted the dragonkin.”

There’d been no more than a hundred dragonkin soldiers, and the Kingdom of Sacristain must have thought they could exterminate them with a battalion twenty thousand soldiers strong. That plan had fallen apart when a cohort of thirty dragonkin soldiers had managed to drive that same battalion to the brink of complete annihilation. The Kingdom had tried to regroup the army in haste, but it had been too late. The soldiers of the Sacristain Army could not hope to win against the dragonkin.

Why were dragonkin soldiers so strong? There were reasons, of course. Male dragonkin were able to fully transform into dragons. Once they took off into the air, none of the enemy soldiers’ attacks—not even their arrows—would be able to hit them. From there, a powerful breath attack could easily entrap a human soldier. Because of all that, a small number of dragonkin had been able to defeat the Kingdom of Sacristain.

“A powerful breath attack...”

Though the dragonkin had been few in number, they must have earned the attention of the neighboring nations because of the records of this battle.

Back then, the Dragon Duke had intended to kill the king of Sacristain but stopped at the last minute. He elected not to replace the king of Sacristain but to establish a new state: the Dragon Duchy of Éclair. The Kingdom of Sacristain’s capital city had then become the capital of the new state. After having taken over the country, its subjects, and its royal palace, the Dragon Duke had reigned for the last hundred years.

When I’d visited the royal palace and cathedral, it hadn’t felt like it was my first time being there. That must’ve been because I’d walked around those places several times in my previous life. The fact that I was oddly cool and composed all the time must’ve been because those memories had been etched into my soul.

I had mixed feelings about this situation, but I had no choice but to accept it.

Was my curiosity over the Kingdom of Sacristain, now a mere vassal state to the Dragon Duchy, also because I had Charlotte’s memories now?

There wasn’t any detailed information in any of the history books about the spark that had caused the war between the Kingdom and the dragonkin. Things about the event must have been censored, so there was a limit to what I could find out on my own.

I’m sure there’s something in the Dragon Duke’s library, but only members of his family and household can enter there. Perhaps, if I could become one of the Dragon Duke’s handmaidens, I’d have a chance to visit...

“No way, not a chance!”

A lowly maidservant? Sure. But one of his handmaidens? Impossible. A handmaiden was a woman who would serve as her master’s arms and legs. A woman chosen to be one had to be married and have a great deal of experience in life. An unmarried, lowly, under-twenty noble like myself could only become a maidservant. And even if I happened to become one, it would be a massive incident if I were found sneaking into the royal library. The best-case scenario would be my family falling from grace. The worst? My entire family could be executed. Just the thought of it gave me the shivers.

As I closed the book in my hands, I heard a knock on the door.

“Lady Mille-Feuille, it’s almost time to leave for the magic academy!” Parfeil informed me from behind the door.

“Yes, I’m getting ready.”

Young dragonkin ladies attended the magic academy four times a week. This was important to the Dragon Duchy of Éclair for a certain reason.

I put on the academy’s uniform and my hooded mantle, laced with protective magic.

“Parfeil, let’s go.”

“All right.”

We rode the carriage heading toward the girls’ magic academy. As the term suggested, it was a school that taught magic to students. It was attended by not just dragonkin but also ladies from the Kingdom of Sacristain. While students still formed cliques, they mostly stuck with others of the same social standing. The school grounds were more peaceful than one would expect.

The academy’s campus was surrounded by walls of red brick. The carriage made its way around the wall, and we eventually reached the academy gate. We were immediately greeted by the sight of the school plaza’s rotunda, where students would often climb into or out of their carriages.

“Oh dear, just getting into school is such a hassle again today,” Parfeil complained.

“Yes, indeed.”

As the students started arriving at the school, a long line of carriages from near and far formed along the school gate. Every morning, it took about half an hour to get through this line.

After a long wait, I was finally able to leave the carriage. Parfeil wasn’t allowed to go any farther onto the premises, so I waved her farewell. It was forbidden to bring maidservants and handmaidens into the school itself; it was apparently the headmaster’s idea in order to encourage students’ independence. Was it really all right for them to encourage young ladies like that? It was a pretty big question, but this was still a girls’ school. All the staff here were women, so there was no need to worry about the students getting involved with men either.

The walk from the rotunda to the school grounds usually took about ten minutes. It was actually possible to take the carriage all the way to the school grounds, but I elected to walk every day. I just didn’t like crowded places.

As I walked, I heard a voice call from behind me.

“Millefie, good morning!”

I turned around to see Madeleine, my brother’s fiancée. She always called me “Millefie” as a nickname. At seventeen years old, Madeleine was one year older than me. Since we were close in age, I was pretty friendly with my future sister-in-law. She’d enrolled in the magic academy the same term as I had—she had prioritized learning useful household skills, so her enrollment had been one year late.

“Millefie, did you do the homework for Suppression?”

“Yes, I did.”

“I’m not very confident in my work. Could you please take a look at mine before I submit it?”

“Of course,” I replied.

Madeleine hailed from the family of a count. In truth, my brother—who was bound to inherit the title of viscount—was a poor match for her family’s rank. Why did this engagement work out for them, then? It wasn’t anything as romantic as love at first sight. Simply put, it was because their mana was highly compatible.

In marriages between dragonkin, mana compatibility was an important factor. The role of dragonkin women was to suppress their family’s draconic transformations with magic. Male dragonkin, upon transforming into dragons, could go into a berserk state when agitated. While it was a very useful state to be in during battle, it became a curse when trying to return to human form. The men could lose control of themselves and become unable to revert. The only thing that could suppress this berserk state was the Suppression Magic that female dragonkin used, and it was most effective when coming from a dragon’s spouse or family members. Thus, while dragonkin women were unable to transform themselves, they had the important role of suppressing transformed dragonkin men.

As for the berserk state, its nature differed with each individual. The general rule was that the stronger one’s dragon form was, the more violent it became. Our family’s dragons didn’t have a particularly violent berserk state, so our transformations were relatively calm. Therefore, even someone with a low mana pool like Madeleine could suppress them. That was what made their engagement possible.

“Yesterday, I tried using Suppression Magic, but it affected my skin...” Madeleine lamented, pointing to the pimple on her cheek. Suppression Magic put a huge strain on dragonkin women. Of course, a mere pimple was a pretty minor symptom, but some women suffered obviously terrible side effects—they could fall unconscious or become bedridden for a whole week. As a result, dragonkin men bowed to the women with respect.

“Millefie, did you know Count Deuce’s heir went on a Bridal Quest?” Madeleine asked.

“Huh.”

Normally, marriages between dragonkin were negotiated by the parents, and the couple would arrange a meeting later. After that, the decision was made on whether to push through based on the compatibility of their mana.

A Bridal Quest, on the other hand, was a very forceful method. It involved the man in question transforming into a dragon in front of a crowd, and women in that crowd would need to try to suppress the transformation. Regardless of their family’s social standing, challengers would step up to try their hand.

“But no one was able to suppress him, and a Sealing Enforcer had to step in and seal him on the spot for a whole month.”

“What a horrible thing to happen.”

“Truly,” Madeleine agreed.

If a dragon’s berserk state wasn’t suppressed, they’d go insane and become a monster. Once someone got to that point, they became known as a Corrupt Dragon, feared as a threat to everyone. All sorts of problems would arise if a family produced a Corrupt Dragon. To avoid this, Sealing Enforcers were entrusted with sealing berserk dragons on the spot until they could be suppressed.

“The thought of being married to someone like Count Deuce’s heir terrifies me,” Madeleine said, shivering.

“That will never happen to my brother,” I said, reassuring her. “He always says that he doesn’t want to transform into a dragon anyway.”

“That’s a relief to hear.”

While there were hotheaded dragons like Count Deuce’s heir, there were also ones who hated confrontation like my brother. It really depended on the individual. A dragonkin’s noble rank was determined by the strength of their draconic transformations. As we were low-ranking nobles, one could easily guess just how strong our dragon transformations were.

Madeleine was quite reserved and not the ambitious type. I could tell that she cared about my brother a lot. She truly was the perfect partner for him.

We arrived at the classroom. The students were split up into smaller groups of friends, all engaged in lively conversation. The main topic of today was none other than the first public appearance of the Dragon Duke in the last hundred years.

“What a wonderful event that was!”

“Nobody knows if he’s married or still single, right?”

“As long as we don’t know yet, I can keep dreaming!”

“He should do a Bridal Quest like Count Deuce’s heir!”

“Are you planning to try your hand at the Quest if he does?”

“Of course! What about you?”

“Hmm, I don’t know yet...”

The bride of the lord of the dragonkin would absolutely need to have a massive pool of mana. Trying to suppress him even once would likely burn away your entire life. Charlotte, my previous incarnation, had known about the berserk state and the dangers that came with it. A normal human like her would be completely unable to use Suppression Magic. And yet, with teary eyes, she’d insisted that she would stay by his side nonetheless. The Dragon Duke had been greatly moved by that, and he’d sworn to make her his bride. In retrospect, if the engagement had proceeded, there was no doubt that only doom would’ve awaited the two of them.

Madeleine whispered to me. “Mille-Feuille, did you ever think about becoming the Dragon Duke’s bride?”

“Absolutely not,” I said, shooting down the idea. Getting involved with that man had gotten my previous incarnation killed. Thankfully, I felt no lingering regrets regarding that, and I refused to be the plaything of love and romance in this life. I would rather be married to someone like my brother or father—dragons whose berserk states didn’t require that much energy to subdue. The Dragon Duke was not one of those dragons.

That said, was I getting these strong feelings toward him because of Charlotte’s memories? If so, how deplorable! I tried to shove these thoughts into a far corner of my mind.

I checked on Madeleine, and she stared at me, trying to glean my thoughts. Did she want her future sister-in-law to marry the Dragon Duke?

“Madeleine, did you think I was so ambitious that I wanted to marry him?”

“N-No, I wouldn’t say that! If you married the Dragon Duke, you would be so distant from us. I want you to stay close to me and Lord Glacé, okay?”

What she’d said was so adorable that I just had to give her a big hug.

The bell rang and class began. The teacher came into the room with massive bags under her eyes. Her complexion was also paler than usual.

“I apologize for showing up to class in this state,” the teacher started. “Last night, my husband transformed, and I had to keep suppressing him until dawn.”

The teacher’s husband was a royal guard to the Dragon Duke. The class began murmuring to each other in worried voices, inquiring if something serious had happened.

“It’s nothing serious. He just got drunk and transformed,” she said, reassuring us. Relieved voices echoed throughout the room.

There were different situations in which one could transform. It could happen voluntarily, or because of emotional agitation, or one could be forced to do so from a threat to one’s life. It could also happen if one was exposed to mana or for myriad other reasons.

The stronger a dragon was, the more difficult he was to suppress and the bigger the burden it would be on the family member doing the suppressing. To address this, polygamy was allowed in dragonkin culture, but the majority of dragonkin men preferred to be faithful to one wife and disliked having several. Truly polygamous households were a rarity.

The teacher’s husband was strong enough to be assigned to the Dragon Duke’s royal guard, and therefore his dragon form was as powerful as one would expect. He was strong enough to require multiple wives to suppress him, yet she did it by herself. As a result, the teacher looked as if she were on the brink of death as she stood on the lecture podium.

Isn’t it practically abuse to force the task of suppressing a dragon transformation onto one woman? That thought bubbled into my head—one that had never even crossed my mind before. It must have been from the memories of Charlotte—someone who had been able to question things that were otherwise completely ordinary to dragonkin.

I looked at my classmates around the room. All of them expressed sympathy for our teacher’s plight, but none of them felt angry about this situation. It had been drilled deeply into us that it was the responsibility of women to suppress the transformations of the men.

Only women who’d had enough training were allowed to practice Suppression Magic. Once I graduated, I would have to suppress my brother, and perhaps my father too. Even just using this power in class ate away at us. Some young women developed skin problems, some became pale and sickly, some lost the shine in their hair, and some even started to develop eczema. If I tried to write down all the side effects, there’d be no end to the list.

Why did the dragonkin just accept this as fact? Even if the men lost their minds while transforming, was there really nothing they could do about it on their own?

My irritation just kept on growing, and as a result, I didn’t retain anything from the lecture.

During break time, Madeleine called out to me.

“Mille-Feuille, are you all right? You look pale.”

“I’m fine, Madeleine.”

Having memories of my past life was such a huge pain. I hadn’t been thinking about it until now, but inside me were my thoughts as a dragonkin woman and the thoughts of Charlotte. From her point of view, things that the Dragon Duchy of Éclair found commonplace seemed strange and unusual.

Madeleine looked worried about me as she fiddled with the pimple on her chin.

“Madeleine, don’t touch your blemish. It will get worse if you do,” I warned her.

“Oh, um, you’re right. I did it without thinking.”

Moonlight was said to heal conditions caused by using Suppression Magic, like pimples or a bad complexion. The moon could be said to be a large magicstone—a gigantic pool of magic. The moonlight that fell onto the land was infused with mana. Bathing in it helped people to replenish their mana and to restore their skin. However, recovering from mana depletion required bathing in the moonlight for an entire night. It could even take three full nights to fully recover. In any case, lost mana was not easy to restore.

“Oh, but wait a minute. What if we get ointment, let it sit in moonlight a few nights, and then use it on your pimple? That could make it heal quite quickly,” I suggested.

One could absorb and store moonlight with magic. Normally it was used on people, but it wasn’t particularly effective. The composition of mana differed from person to person, and a person could not absorb all of the rays of mana from the moon at once.

But what if I used that magic on an object instead of a person? If I reconstituted the mana into a form that most people could absorb, it might have some effect.

“Mille-Feuille, I’m not quite following what you mean. Use an ointment bathed in moonlight on my pimple? Where could we buy such a thing?” Madeleine asked, confused.

“It’s not sold anywhere yet. I was thinking that we should make one ourselves,” I explained.

Charlotte’s interests had included creating ointments and potions for cosmetic use. Thanks to her knowledge, I had just come up with this idea.

“But we can’t just make one,” I continued. “We have to let it absorb mana and store the mana in it with magic.”

“Can you use Enchant, Millefie?”

“Just a bit.”

Enchant was a spell taught to us in class, but most students weren’t able to successfully cast it due to its difficulty. Madeleine wasn’t able to use it either.

“I’m not sure if it’ll work out, but do you want to try it?” I asked her.