On the morning two days after Ren returned to Clausel, Lithia made her way to his room in the Old Wing.
"Starting tomorrow, I’m going to use my Holy Magic to heal Ren's injuries!"
Those were the words she had declared immediately after Ren woke up on her lap. For the time being, these morning treatments were set to become their daily routine.
True to her word, Lithia took Ren's hand and spent over ten minutes channeling her Holy Magic. Once she finished, she suggested they have breakfast together at the Main Manor.
"In that case, I’ll take you up on the offer today," Ren said.
"Wait. You need to put on a coat."
It wasn't a long walk, but reaching the Main Manor from the Old Wing required crossing an outdoor corridor. Since Ren was still far from full strength, Lithia refused to let him face the winter air unprotected. Without waiting for his reply, she hurried to the corner of the room and snatched his coat from the rack.
"Here, come over here."
"I'm fine, really! I can put it on myself!"
"Just come here."
Having never helped anyone else into their clothes before, Lithia fumbled with the sleeves. When he was finally dressed, Ren offered a sheepish, apologetic thanks.
"Wait... what's this?"
Ren felt something hard in his pocket. He wondered if he had left a survival tool or some other supply inside during his recent journey. However, what he pulled out wasn't a tool at all. It was a small, grey object that looked like a common pebble.
"Where did you find that?" Lithia asked.
"I'm not sure. I can't imagine why I'd pick up a random stone..."
"I don't think it's just a stone. Look, the edge is glowing red."
"...You're right."
As Ren stared at the object in confusion, Lithia leaned in close. "Let me see. What could it be? Should we look at it in better light?"
"Let's try that."
Breakfast forgotten for the moment, the two huddled by the window. When Ren held the object up to the morning sun, the flickering red light became clearly visible, though its true nature remained a mystery.
They eventually decided to stop overthinking it and go eat—but the moment Ren set the stone down on his desk, everything changed.
Inside Selakia's Azure Orb, which sat on the corner of the desk, the blue mist and lightning began to churn with unprecedented violence. Deep red light began to pour from the pebble like a tide. A faint crack appeared on the orb, widening with a sharp crackling sound.
"Re—Ren!?"
"I don't know what's happening! Just stay behind me!"
Ren hurriedly pulled Lithia toward him and backed away from the orb. A blue wind whipped through the room like a localized storm. A bone-chilling cold swept across the floor while lightning licked at Ren’s boots. The air grew thick with dense mana, distorting their vision.
The cracks in Selakia's Azure Orb continued to spread.
Suddenly, the tempestuous energy filling the room was sucked back into the orb as if drawn by a vacuum. Then came a final, crystalline sound—a sharp shatter.
Could that stone have been...!?
Just as Ren suspected, Selakia's Azure Orb had split in two. And there, in the center of the fragments...
"Kyuu!"
A creature appeared—a tiny, adorable monster covered in fluffy fur. As Ren stared at it, his Game Knowledge bubbled to the surface.
By offering vast mana and a Great Dragon's Horn, the egg can be hatched. Once born, the creature will swear absolute loyalty to its master.
He also recalled the lore from the Legend of the Seven Heroes setting materials.
A legendary beast that bared its fangs at the Demon King long before the Seven Heroes arose. It once tormented the Demon King with its absolute dominion over ice and darkness...
That meant the pebble had actually been a fragment of a Great Dragon's Horn. When Ren had shattered Asval's Horn, a tiny shard must have slipped into his pocket. That fragment, combined with the mana the orb had been siphoning from Ren, had served as the ultimate offering to trigger the hatching.
I can't keep up with all of this...
He understood that "Great Dragon" referred to Asval, but the implications were staggering. Ren hadn't expected the orb to hatch so suddenly, and the sheer absurdity of the situation left his mind reeling.
While Ren stood there in a daze, Lithia walked up to the newborn monster without a trace of fear. "Oh, you're so cute!" she squealed, scooping it up into her arms.
"Kyuu?"
The sight of the elegant, lovely Lithia cradling the infant monster was a masterpiece in its own right.
"Well, we should bring it along," she said.
"Along where?"
"Hehe, isn't it obvious?"
Still cradling the newborn, Lithia led Ren toward the door. The monster didn't resist; it simply looked back and forth between Ren and Lithia with curious eyes.
"Whatever else we do, we have to report this to my father first."
Faced with her undeniable logic, Ren could only nod. "...Right."