Blue-Eyes White Dragon: Adopted by the King of Knights [83]

[Ahoge Girl, I’ve defected.]
[Don’t contact me anymore—Jeanne Alter might misunderstand.]

When Bluey’s message reached Artoria’s mind, she was in the middle of discussing strategy with Martha.

“What’s wrong?”

Martha clearly saw the change—just moments ago, Artoria had looked perfectly composed, but suddenly her smile froze. At the same time, that golden ahoge atop her head sprang straight up, like an exclamation point.

Artoria was silent for a full three seconds before she slowly exhaled and let her expression relax a bit.

“It’s nothing,” she replied.

A confident smile once again returned to the King’s face.

After twenty years as a ruler, she’d weathered countless emergencies—her heart had long been tempered until not even a collapsing mountain could shake her composure.

As for Bluey’s “defection”… It sounded jarring at first, but thinking it over, it probably meant he’d come up with his own plan.

That’s only natural. We were never exactly on the same page to begin with.

Artoria understood her relationship with Bluey perfectly.

They were not like a king and her Knights of the Round Table—rather, it was more like the relationship between a white dragon and a red dragon, or a deity and a holy king.

They were close, their goals broadly aligned, but when it came to methods and philosophies… they’d never truly walked the same path.

All this means is that our plans need to be revised.

The demon dragon Fafnir—he’s a real threat. Looks like it’s time to take Siegfried’s strength more seriously.

“Siegfried said he’s found a true saint… Martha, see if you and that saint can try to reverse the contract on us.”

“If this works, this city will become a real trap—if she dares to come, there’s no way she’s getting out alive!”

Looking out the window at the sunlight, the King’s face already wore a victorious smile.

---

That same afternoon, under the same sky.

Bathed in the same sunlight.

While Artoria was still hard at work perfecting her tactics, Bluey—fully fed and content—was lying side by side with Jeanne Alter, who was covered in soot from grilling food, on a bed.

—or rather, on a haystack out at the pasture.

The dry hay, fragrant with the scent of grass, shimmered gold in the sun. Lying there felt like melting into the sunlight itself—even the witch who wanted to destroy the world found herself letting go of her anger, if only for this quiet, peaceful moment.

“Little dragon, did you know?”

After who knew how long in silence, Jeanne Alter finally spoke.

“I’m actually not Jeanne d’Arc.”

She turned her head to look at the big white dragon beside her. She had no idea whether he could understand her—or maybe, she hoped he couldn’t.

“Even if I have all the memories of that village girl called Jeanne d’Arc…”

“Even if I know everything she thought and felt…”

“I know I’m not her.”

“That woman… she never once felt anger or despair. She never cursed this country, or the people living on this land.”

“Even at the moment of death, she was praying for them—hoping God would forgive their sins.”

“—Isn’t that ridiculous?”

Jeanne Alter curled her lips into a mocking smile.

Her expression was full of scorn, but there was no hint of laughter in her eyes.

She couldn’t even bring herself to hate that woman.

Because she understood one thing very clearly: she was nothing more than that woman’s shadow—a darkness cast on the ground when the sun shone upon her.

Someone like her couldn’t even be called a “counterfeit.”

“The root cause of my existence is anger… My rage will destroy the world—and, in the end, it will destroy me too.”

She might look brash and easily fooled, but there was no one more aware of her true nature than Jeanne Alter herself.

No matter if her “revenge” succeeded or not, born from anger as she was, her fate was always destruction.

Bluey looked at the girl before him.

It was the first time a girl had confided in him like this.

Maybe he should thank their difference in species… If he were in human form, this prideful and tsundere Dragon Witch would never have opened up like this.

At that thought, Bluey felt a brief pang of guilt—then grew serious.

Because he realized that he, and everyone else—Martha, Artoria—had been fundamentally mistaken about Jeanne Alter:

Until now, all of them had approached her with the same mindset: She must be saved.

Which was only natural.

Anyone who heard about the fate of the sainted Jeanne would feel pity, a sense of injustice. People wanted someone so noble to have a happy ending—not to die in flames, and certainly not to be resurrected as an avenging witch.

But after hearing Jeanne Alter’s true thoughts, Bluey suddenly understood their mistake:

Jeanne Alter was never Jeanne d’Arc.

She didn’t need—never wanted—redemption.

Maybe, in the beginning, she was just Jeanne’s “shadow,” a creation in someone’s mind… But the moment she was summoned through the Holy Grail, she became real.

A real, living being.

And once you’re alive, no matter what kind of power is buried at your core, one thing is always true:

The joy of being alive.

A living being naturally sings of life’s joys, instinctively rejects the pull of death.

And Jeanne Alter, more than anyone, was like that.

Because she knew her end was always going to be destruction—whether she alone died, or whether she dragged an entire era down with her.

So what she truly needs… isn’t redemption at all.

It’s to live, as a real human being would.

---

This is a fan translation of 综漫：青眼幼龙，被骑士王捡到了 by 歌冰丽月. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!