Chapter 198: Ancestral Blessing, II

Juicy

The slightly firm peel broke, releasing sweet and refreshing juice that filled my mouth. The pulp, with its refreshing fragrance, quickly slid down my throat.

Gulp.

Louis’s eyes widened as he tasted the grow fruit.

”…This is… delicious?”

The grow fruit was a precious elixir. Of course, there were no cheap elixirs, but even dragons rarely saw the grow fruit.

The field guide said it was moderately rare, but…

Contrary to the information in the field guide, grow fruit was difficult to find. Even Louis, who had tried all sorts of elixirs, was eating it for the first time.

Perchance, when that field guide was penned, grow fruits were more readily available.

Munch, munch.

As Louis savored the lingering sweetness of grow fruit on his tongue, the twins approached with a flurry of steps.

“Hey! You swindling sneak!”

“You wanna hog all the goods, don’t you?”

“Come on, I’ve never even tried one!”

The twins’ reactions brought a victorious grin to Louis’s face.

Is there any sweeter victory than depriving others of their due?

It was an undeniably successful tasting experience. Though he couldn’t feel it in his organs just yet, the energy of the medicinal herb gathered in his Dragon Heart, eliciting an involuntary smile. As Louis chuckled to himself, Pablo entered his field of view, frozen in bewilderment.

“What’s with you?” Louis asked, his tone charged with the thrill of his victory.

“No…b-but can you just eat that?”

“Why not?”

“Well…”

“I didn’t catch it to decorations on my wall, you know.”

“O-of course, I understand.”

Pablo knew Louis was right, but it still felt pointless for all his trouble to vanish like a puff of smoke.

Krrrrp.

Seeing Louis let out a small burp after eating the fruit sent an emotional pang through Pablo.

After all I’ve endured these past few weeks…

And it all ended with just a burp…

Pablo bowed his head again and wiped away tears.

Ignoring Pablo, Louis eagerly approached the twins.

His face brimmed with anticipation.

“Well? Do I look bigger?” Louis twirled like a child showing off new clothes.

Yet those observing him were filled only with confusion.

“Hmm…?”

“Umm…”

“To be honest, I’m not sure, Lord Louis.”

“Just take a closer look! I told you this would be incredible! It transformed Pablo from a runty bag of dwarven shit into a giant!”

“…Well, although I’m a dwarf myself, you truly seem more… Aaaaack!”

Louis casually stepped on one of Pablo’s outstretched fingers. Meanwhile, Kani approached Louis from the side.

Kani placed her hand between Louis’s forehead and her own to measure their heights. She continued to frown, still puzzled.

“Hmm… No matter how I look, I just can’t tell. You two seem exactly the same,” she admitted with a shrug.

Unsatisfied with this response, Louis turned his head to seek out his next victim.

“Lavina!”

“Yes?” Lavina had been slowly inching closer, paying close attention to the scene. She now stood attentively, awaiting instruction.

“Do you think I’m taller than him?”

“Taller? In what way?”

“In height, of course!”

Quick as a flash!

Lavina’s always on the ball!

Seeing an opportunity to score points, Lavina nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes! I think you’re taller! Absolutely!”

“Are you sure?” Louis’s eyes sparkled with interest.

Just then, a hand suddenly smacked Lavina on the back.

Thup.

“Argh!”

“You liar! Louis was expecting something real!”

”…I-I’m sorry, sis.”

Lavina rubbed her brother’s back.

Disappointed by their exchange, Louis turned to the last person.

“Pablo.”

”…Yes?”

“What do you see?”

”…Just a long, skinny shape to the side.”

“If you don’t get up within two seconds, I’ll stomp on your mouth instead of your hand this time.”

The brutal threat made Pablo spring up, and he carefully scrutinized Louis.

He then shook his head.

“Uh… I’m not sure either?”

“Take a good look.”

“No matter how hard I try, all I see is a tiny mouse-like creature with just its head visible… Ack!”

Pablo babbling away without a hint of fear got another kick to the shins and crumpled back to the ground.

Meanwhile, Louis’s face grew more serious.

…Why is this happening?

Why wasn’t a single person… not even one person acknowledging that he had grown taller?

I’m clearly taller now… The potion’s effects should be working properly.

So why couldn’t anyone see it?

”…Is the potion defective?”

Just then, a thought crossed Louis’s mind.

Could it be?!

His eyes flashed as he quickly used spatial movement to vanish.

“L-Louis-nim?”

“Louis?”

“Where’d you go?”

His sudden disappearance left his confederates blinking in surprise.

A few minutes passed…

Whoosh!

Louis reappeared once more.

“Oh…” His face was full of disappointment as he trudged over to sit on the couch.

Kani had never seen Louis so helpless before, and she worried about him as she sat down next to her partner.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

His small voice answered:

“…Tall.”

“Huh?”

“I…was 1 centimeter…taller…”

His frustration was clear.

Kani patted his shoulder reassuringly.

“Growing one centimeter is a lot! You should be happy!”

As encouragement, Kani’s hand reached out again but froze after hearing Louis’s voice.

“The actual me…”

“What?”

“The original me…grew by 1 cm.”

“…”

Even Kani’s eyes twitched, realizing that this time, she had no words of comfort.

Louis had always been sensitive about his height and would measure it regularly.

My original height is 2020 cm. When I transform, I become exactly 170 cm tall. But just now, when I went to measure my height again, it was 2021 cm.

Since my transformed height changes proportionally to my original height, if my original height went from 2020 cm to 2021 cm, then Louis’s current height is…

“170.08 cm…”

Even though it’s theoretically 0.08 cm taller according to simple math… who would even notice that difference? It’s impossible to detect with both the naked eye and most measurement devices. In reality, it’s practically insignificant. Even a slight swelling on the sole of my foot would make a bigger difference.

A gloom settled over Louis’s face.

Despite being a dragon, I didn’t realize my growth would be so stunted…

Who ever thought that “One Centimeter Taller!” would actually mean just one centimeter? And it was his main body, to boot.

“Awww…” Louis slumped dispiritedly.

Seeing Louis’s dejection, Khan burst out laughing, while Fin and Pablo hurriedly turned away to stifle their own giggles.

Kani found Louis incredibly adorable and couldn’t help but embrace him tightly. “Even without growing bigger, you’re handsome already, Louis!”

“…Get off me.”

“Don’t worry about size—just stay exactly as you are!”

“But I swear I’m all grown up now… Sigh…”

“Heh-heh!”

Amidst this chaos, Lavina stood by, utterly confused as usual.

The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.

Disheartened, Louis spent the next few days feeling dejected and dispirited.

Meanwhile, several rumors began circulating like wild fire across the eastern Winter Continent.

Among these was one about the appearance of Pantheon in Islet.

Rumors of Pantheon first spread after news of the Snow King’s Army’s annihilation.

At that time, not a single resident of the Empire, nor anyone from neighboring nations, was unaware of Islet being besieged by the Snow King’s forces.

Had Islet fallen, it would have redrawn the entire political map of the eastern Winter Continent. Consequently, various institutions known for gathering intelligence had their ears tuned to news from Islet.

Day after day, time trickled by, until suddenly, a single piece of information rendered all those institutions’ efforts utterly futile.

No Damage to Islet

Situation on the Islet described in these brief lines.

Nothing unusual was expected, yet everything had turned out even stranger than anticipated. With their senses heightened, intelligence agencies began to focus on gathering information about how the Islet had repelled the Snow King.

The subsequent news that came in was frankly shocking:

Though utterly unbelievable, everyone scrambled to confirm the story, only to unearth more outrageous details.

Sometimes, truth was too incredible to be believed.

How could those who hadn’t witnessed it with their own eyes believe such incredible tales merely through hearsay? The truth flowing from this incident continued to spread, growing more sensational by the minute.

Rumors flew like wildfire:

The divine body has descended upon the islet!

The High Priest of the Divine Body is a half-breed between god and man!

In truth, he’s the legendary dragon from the land of Yoohee!

As these stories blazed through the land, an event occurred that doused all speculation about the Divine Body cult in an instant.

Once again, the epicenter of this crisis lay within the Empire itself.

It began like this:

What?! The whole army of monsters was annihiliated?!

Far from the turn of events the Empire had anticipated, the situation seemed to have resolved too swiftly for the western division commander, Duke Barcon.

Considering the emperor and his close associates must have anticipated the possibility of changing their stance, he could not expect them to sit idly by as he tried to win over support. That left him with only one viable option: to mobilize his forces as quickly as possible and capture the islet.

The impatient Duke Barcon wasted no time in launching their rebellion. However, it seemed as though the emperor had anticipated this move, for he swiftly raised troops to confront the traitorous Western Division. With this, the empire plunged into civil war.

Initially, many believed the Western Division’s commander would easily succeed in his rebellion. But then the emperor revealed his trump card: a thousand hidden Transcendent-class warriors. This display of imperial power made it clear that the conflict was far from over.

While the emperor held the advantage in terms of Transcendent numbers, Barcon commanded an overwhelmingly larger army. And leading this vast force was none other than Duke Barcon himself, who had spent his entire life on battlefields in the west.

With overwhelming military force and superior tactics, Duke Barcon gradually gained the upper hand. It was at this moment, when one last push from Barcon would have toppled the emperor of the Empire.

“Your Majesty! The commander is back!”

It was none other than the possibly deceased Hoan, the division commander of the eastern army, who returned with twenty thousand soldiers.

Hoan had expected to be cashiered for the failure of the initial forces, so he seized upon the rebellion as an opportunity for reinstatement. Though he had a hunch as to what was going on, the emperor was forced to take Hoan back, as there was no one else with his skills now that the Sword Master had fallen.

“I’ll cut off the traitor’s head or else!”

Though they had embarrassingly lost to the monster army before, that defeat was due entirely to Louis’s interference.

The balance of power, which had been tilted heavily against the Empire, was swiftly restored to equilibrium by none other than Marquis Hoan, the future “Guardian of Justice.” Once entrusted with the title of Commander-in-Chief, he rallied the forces and turned the tide of war. As a result, what had promised to be a brief civil war between the Empire and the Duncan Faction now stretched on day after day, showing no signs of abating.

The vast eastern stretch of the Empire, once so powerful, became engulfed in chaos as fracture lines deepened. Murmurings of discontent grew louder each day, while war refugees poured out of ravaged towns, swelling the ranks of those displaced and destitute. Bands of lawless raiders roamed unchecked, exploiting the lawlessness gripping the land.

Yet, as is the way of the world, amidst this maelstrom, there were those who found opportunity in chaos and smiled at their gains.