Stella stared at the faintly smiling boy in front of her, frozen for a long time.
When she finally snapped out of it and realized she'd been staring at his face, her cheeks flushed without warning, and her words came out in a stammer.
"Wh-who would look for a place to belong with you!"
The reaction was a bit much.
"Then where else are you going to go?" Leo shrugged. "You don't exactly have options."
Stella bit her lip.
He was right. Where could she go?
In this era, she had nowhere.
"...Can you help me find the Dragon God?"
Suddenly, as if something had occurred to her, Stella asked.
"Dragon God?" Leo frowned. "You mean Great Red?"
"...Yes." Stella was quiet for a moment. "I want to meet the Dragon God."
In Stella's era, nobody had known the name "Great Red."
The Kingdom of Familion had worshipped the Dragon God, but they'd never learned the deity's true name. They didn't even know the title "True Red Dragon God Emperor."
That wasn't unusual. Both "True Red Dragon God Emperor" and "Infinite Dragon God" were titles people had given them in later ages. Neither Dragon God had ever used those titles themselves.
As for their true names, in the ancient era when Familion still existed, legends about the Dragon Gods were scarce. They weren't the type to announce their names wherever they went. Unless there was a special reason, they stayed in the Dimensional Gap and never appeared in the mortal world. Very few beings in that era knew the Dragon Gods' real names. "Ophis" and "Great Red" had never become widely known.
So even a nation blessed by a Dragon God like Familion only knew their patron as "the Red True Dragon," "the Dragon among Dragons," "the God among Dragons," and other such vague descriptions. They had no idea that their object of worship was the being famous in the modern era as the True Red Dragon God Emperor, Great Red.
The royal family, Stella included, had simply called it "the Dragon God." It wasn't until Leo and Ophis had broken into the throne room and shattered her seal that Stella finally learned what the Dragon God's true name and title were.
Honestly, discovering that Ophis was also a Dragon God, an existence of the same standing as the one her kingdom had worshipped, had been quite a shock. In Stella's time, all of Familion had only ever known of one Dragon God. The idea that a second one existed had been unthinkable.
And this second Dragon God was apparently hostile toward their patron. That shocked Stella even more.
If Ophis hadn't already left, Stella wouldn't have been able to stay calm.
As for Leo, someone who could speak directly with a Dragon God and seemed to have had direct contact with one, Stella couldn't help but see an opportunity.
After all, when the Kingdom of Familion fell, they had poured all their remaining strength into sealing the last dragon bloodline and dragon treasure inside the castle and sending it into the Dimensional Gap. The whole purpose was to meet the Dragon God again and receive its aid.
They'd hoped the Dragon God would notice Stella's presence, descend in person, break the seal, and help her return to the real world to rebuild the nation and restore Familion's glory.
But Great Red had never noticed that one of its former beneficiaries was here. Or perhaps it had noticed, and simply hadn't done what Familion's people had hoped.
True, Great Red had once been drawn by the first king of Familion's dream and descended to the mortal world. But it had been attracted only by that one king. The rest of Familion's people had no such power to draw its attention.
Without attracting Great Red, it naturally wouldn't pay them special attention, let alone consider them worshippers or subjects.
Great Red didn't operate on faith. It had no need for anyone to worship or revere it.
In other words, after bestowing the dragon bloodline and dragon treasure, Great Red had washed its hands of the matter. It had zero interest in the Kingdom of Familion itself.
In a way, Great Red was just like Ophis: extremely pure, extremely straightforward. It would take interest in a dream that captivated it and help that dream's bearer on a whim. But that was all.
Just like the original story's protagonist, who had once attracted Great Red's attention. Great Red had provided its own flesh and blood to rebuild the protagonist's body, even crashed into the Underworld with him and combined their power to defeat a rampaging Super Beast. Then it had flown off humming a tune, without the slightest interest in sticking around to clean up.
Toward anything it didn't find interesting, Great Red's approach was total indifference. Even if someone held a sword to its neck, it would just lazily drift over their head and keep going, like an old man out for a stroll.
A being like that was never going to rebuild a kingdom for a group of royals with delusions of grandeur.
And Familion shouldn't be forgotten for what it had become. Empowered by the dragon bloodline and dragon treasure, the kingdom had expanded its territory relentlessly, drunk on violence, until multiple factions joined forces to destroy them. They'd brought their own ruin.
A people who had abused the power Great Red gave them... even if they'd seen the error of their ways in the end, how could they possibly still harbor a dream capable of attracting Great Red?
Great Red ignoring Stella and this castle was only natural.
From the very start, Familion's plan had been flawed. That was why their princess had spent countless years sleeping in a sunless castle until even the spark of life had nearly faded from her body.
If not for Leo. If Leo hadn't happened to want to take her as a servant, if the Evil Piece reincarnation ritual hadn't revived her, Stella would have slept here forever.
Leo didn't know whether Stella understood any of this.
But she wanted to meet Great Red. She wanted to see the Dragon God that the Kingdom of Familion had always worshipped.
It was the only thing left connecting her to anything.
"Do you actually think Great Red is going to help you rebuild your kingdom?"
Leo's frown deepened, and he asked the question bluntly.
"...It's the mission my predecessors entrusted to me."
Stella was silent for a long time before answering.
"That mission is completely unrealistic." Leo didn't mince words. "I can tell you right now, with absolute certainty: Great Red is not going to help you rebuild your kingdom."
Stella grew agitated.
"How would you know without even trying...?!"
Her emotions surged, and she lost control of her power for a moment. Crimson flames flickered to life around her.
"This is the only thing I can do! It's the mission my father, my family, my people entrusted to me! No matter what, I have to try...!"
What burned in Stella's eyes now was no longer wariness of this unfamiliar era. It was something heavier. An obsession, almost crushing in its weight.
She could still hear those voices in her ears...
"You're our last hope, Stella!"
"Go! Bring back our great Dragon God!"
"Whether Familion's glory continues to shine upon this world depends on you!"
"We cannot let this great nation perish on our watch. You must take up your duty as a member of the royal family and restore our kingdom!"
These were the words her father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters, and all her other siblings had repeated over and over before she was sealed and put to sleep.
Remembering those words, recalling the hope and desperation in their eyes and on their faces, Stella felt the fire in her own heart blaze.
That's right. The Kingdom of Familion couldn't die with her.
She was Familion's last princess. The one with the purest dragon bloodline. The Crimson Princess.
She had a duty to restore the nation and bring back Familion's glory.
To do that, seeking the Dragon God's aid was essential.
"You..."
Leo saw how worked up she was and was about to say something when he suddenly raised his head and looked skyward.
At the same time, the dragon treasure still embedded in the ground beside Stella began to vibrate, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Stella felt the dragon bloodline inside her boil. Burn. Cheer. Rejoice. Like a lost child catching sight of its mother.
Instinctively, Stella raised her head too and looked toward the sky above the castle.
The next instant, both Leo and Stella saw it.
With the air itself trembling, an enormous shadow appeared without any warning.
Over a hundred meters long. Covered in crimson scales. Ferocious and imposing. The colossal dragon materialized above the castle, drifting leisurely through the warped Dimensional Gap.
It wasn't releasing its terrifying aura, yet its presence was overwhelming and unmistakable. It wasn't roaring, yet everything in its path seemed to tremble in reverence. The disturbance was anything but subtle.
"Great Red..."
Leo's heart rate spiked.
Why was it here?
Drawn by Stella's dragon bloodline and the dragon treasure?
No. That wasn't it.
Leo realized almost immediately: Great Red had come because it had picked up on the traces of Ophis's presence lingering in the area. It had come to check.
The instant he understood that, Leo shoved the Queen piece containing Ophis's Snake back into his storage space, his heart pounding.
Stella, on the other hand, went from worked up to electrified the moment she laid eyes on Great Red.
"The Dragon God! The Dragon God has descended!"
Forgetting all about the jacket barely covering her, Stella shot to her feet and screamed toward the sky, shaking with emotion.
"Great True Dragon! Great True God! Have you finally turned your gaze upon your people?"
Stella's impassioned cries received no response whatsoever.
The massive red dragon drifted lazily above the castle, and its gaze did drift downward, but it wasn't looking at Stella. It wasn't looking at Leo either. It was looking at the black vortex of the exit portal, still open and visible in the throne room.
Great Red stared down at the swirling portal for a moment, apparently sensing traces of Ophis's power on it.
But upon confirming Ophis wasn't actually here, that she'd only opened a passage to the real world, Great Red lost interest.
"Hmm hmm hmm~~~"
Humming what sounded like a victory song, Great Red drifted off, seemingly satisfied that it had chased its old rival away once again. It swayed leisurely into the distance, its mood obviously excellent.
As for Leo, Stella, and everything in the castle, the dragon bloodline and dragon treasure included, Great Red chose to ignore all of it. As if it hadn't seen a thing.
"Dragon God! Dragon God!"
Stella panicked when she saw it leaving.
"Please hear my plea!"
She shouted toward Great Red with everything she had, but no matter how loud she screamed, the dragon never looked back.
Stella unfurled her flame dragon wings and launched herself skyward like a streak of fire, chasing after Great Red.
"Please listen to me! I'm begging you!"
She chased and shouted, but Leo couldn't even stop her in time.
Great Red didn't acknowledge the girl behind it. Its flight looked slow and lazy, but it was actually far faster than Stella. The distance between them didn't shrink. It grew.
Before long, Great Red's massive silhouette vanished into the depths of the Dimensional Gap, gone from sight.
Stella stopped. She stared after it, motionless, all life draining from her expression.
Watching this, Leo didn't know if he should feel relieved or sorry for his newest servant.
It was clear: Great Red had no intention of answering the last princess of Familion's plea.
Just as he'd said. Perhaps Great Red hadn't been unaware of Stella and the castle. But in the end, it had chosen to ignore them.
That utterly indifferent departure, leaving without so much as a glance at Stella, said everything.
"This is what a god is."
Gods were merciful. Gods were also merciless.
Even a Dragon God with the purest, most straightforward personality was still a god.
Stella wanting Great Red to help her had been a pipe dream from the very start.
"Compared to Great Red, Ophis actually has more of a human touch."
At least, that was how it seemed from Leo's perspective.
Thinking of the promise between them, Leo felt a fresh wave of uncertainty.
Perhaps it really was time to start thinking about what to do...