It had been three days since Allen departed on a night train. 

"*Sigh* Don't tell me that girl is still coped in her laboratory?"

At the entrance of the laboratory nestled within the Dragoon estate—a building inherited by the subsequent gifted researchers of the Dragoon family—Sera, the secretary, stood up in a flurry when she took notice of the visitor, putting aside the documents she had been going through.

"Good day to you, Meria-sama. And yes, Fey-sama has yet to leave the laboratory, buried in research of that metal pole. I fear the interest it holds for her surpasses any precedent."

Meria's face scrunched in an exasperated expression. 

"My words, she had never stopped saying how it's a true love or whatnot, but she herself didn't accompany him to see him off. ...Like father, like daughter. I may have lived a lifetime with my husband, but I didn't feel as if I had understood even an inch of what made those artificer so obsessed with their research."

Meria heaved a tired sigh, a wry smile tugging on her lips. Sera opened the laboratory door for her to enter. 

"Hey Fey, how long do you plan to st—what are you doin this time?"

Meria hoped she could draw her granddaughter out of her little space, but her statement turned into a question when she found her. 

Fey had been looking through microscope, a sheet of glass set up beneath the lenses, instead of the BBQ Skewer-kun that she had been expected to see. Fey raised her up. 

"Hehe! Alright, Allen. I see what you did." Her eyes gleamed with feline glint. 

"What had you so hooked up that you would miss Allene Rovenne's departure... Are you still planning to make him fall for you, or give up?!"

Fey flashed a grin, nodding assertively. 

"Why would I stop, grandmother? But I know the last thing Allen would want from me is to see him off." 

She picked up the silvery white metal pole—BBQ Skewer-kun by her side, and raised it near the source of light above her. 

"We had thought Allen Rovenne might find us the key to revive the golem at the end of Satowa's request. I think that's what we discussed, right? Well, I sure hadn't paid it a great deal of attention, but either way, I decided to not interrupt even if that was costing us a fortune. It's something that we must have to make a breakthrough when you consider the current tumultuous chaos outside... Wait, is this metal rod…was it BBQ Skewer-kun?, the final key in your research?"

Fey shook her head in denial. 

"Haha, no. I doubt this metal pole means anything in our research. But, you recall his explanation? He had said how he pried open the warehouse door that was supposed to be automatic, right? So, I think the ruins before the frog's nest  should still be there. And this traces of the mysterious metal dust on rod's top is most likely to be our 'key.'"

She pointed toward the glass slide under the microscope as he spoke. Meria’s jaw dropped.

“So… wait, you’re telling me the rod itself is just… a useless stick!?”

Fay laughed again, shaking his head with clear delight.

“Kyahaha! Well, this is the thing, I can’t tell what this rod is made up of. I’ve done some basic material analysis, but its rigidity and melting point are off the charts. It’s on a whole different scale. If I were to quote, it can be one of the fabled ‘Three Divine Metals’ you hear about in old legends.”

Fay said it so casually, but Melra and Sera both gaped at her in shock.

"T-the three divine metals...  The ones they say are so valuable, you could buy an entire nation with just one? As far as anyone knows, the only surviving piece is the Divine Spear made of Hihirokane, kept as a sacred treasure by the Starlight Theocracy... and even that is widely considered a myth.”

Fay beamed and nodded.

“I’m not sure yet, okay? But even if this is the real deal, it’s not Hihirokane for sure. More likely, it’s a different legendary alloy—a ‘deca-source Alloy,’ a fusion of common minerals synthesized into the ultimate metal. Anyway, grandmother, I think this research is going to cost a fortune, so I apologise beforehand."

"...Hmm. Let me say this, it's really not a strain on our budget if you've truly figured it out. Though, I still can't feel as if we've done much... Why had Allen Rovenne chosen that roundabout explanation to give it? He downplayed its value deliberately. He could've had the Dragoon family owe him an unimaginable favour... Haa, I am confused."

Fey giggled and gave a shrug. 

"Hehe. But would you truly want him to do you a favour back then, in the presence of Satowa and Knights no less?"

"......Are you saying he played the role of fool so that no one's unsavory glance fell on Dragoon? Even then, he could’ve pulled us aside afterward and let us in. There are plenty of ways to cash in a favor.”

Brushing her bangs back, Fey nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“That’s just Allen for you, Grandmother. His common sense has a mind of its own. I happened to saw, by chance, that he’d been seriously learning about ores for months in advance, so I’ve been looking forward to seeing what he’d pull. But as always... he blew every expectation straight out of the water that I felt dumb to be excited.”

Meria plopped on the nearby sofa, and murmured absentmindedly.

"...Knight's investigation team has finished their investigation of the second Steinberg at the Roozenia Mining Ruins. It appeared that the mining depth had been completely obliterated, so they'd have to pave a path through Area 81. But from a conservative view, Allen Rovenne had undoubtedly used the coal dust to trigger an explosion, and brought down that monster alone... 

So, like, his reason to explore was to look for golem material which might help his friend who had lost his arm, right? But this is completely contrary to his goal. Now that the facilities have been destroyed, he won nothing... and the incident is merely a selfless cause. I really don’t get it.  Neither he seeks fame, and... wait, and shouldn’t it fall on Dragoon to replay his effort, yet, he said he will pay back the favour one day??”

"Hahaha. Fame and achievement are not something Allen truly cares for, grandma. Neither he's interested in making a discovery of the century, or to be called a legendary monster hunter. Nope, all of this, that others would kill to have, is deadbeat to him. Occasionally, I felt like we look at the world from entirely parallel lenses. So much that you might come to hate him."

Fey's face, however, wore an expression of joy. 

“…When you came to me asking for a massive investment to relocate your research facility to the royal capital, you remember what you said when I opposed it? ‘If we don’t move now, we’ll be left behind by Allen’s common sense. And as the head of House Dragoon, I can’t accept that.’ …What on earth is driving that boy?”

For once, Meria’s face had turned bitter, drawn in doubt and fatigue. Fay burst out laughing again.

“Pfft! I haven’t the slightest idea. Why Allen is in such a rush to live… who knows? The logical guess would be that he’s preparing for war. But it’s Allen, you know? Maybe he had triggered an explosion simply to stop the pursuing frogs. It might as well not have any deep meaning, and it's not a ground for us to criticize him. Beside—"

She paused for a moment, the gleam in her feline-like eyes exhibiting incredible brilliance.

"He had said it to me—it's a fool's errand to chase after past glory. I can do it better, and far better than any past legend!"

Meria sunken further on the sofa, feeling a headache. 

Their ancestor, Moon Dragoon, was nothing short of a legendary persona. However their familiarity with his legacy was no more than a few pages in a notebook. 

Every single one of the brilliant engineers their family had produced over the generations had spent their lives trying to recreate his work, poring over the few scraps of hints he left behind. And all of them died having tasted the bitter truth: that no matter how high they reached, the star that hung in the heavens was always, always out of reach.

Meria's husband—Fey's grandfather, now deceased, had been one such name among the long list of Dragoon family artificers. And what she heard now? This new voice was telling them chasing after the past was done enough, and now is the time to write new legends. So much so that he unhesitatingly destroyed the legacy, a prospect humanity could've gained to achieve one step closer. 

Meanwhile, they'd be fast approaching a turning point as a great war loomed above their hand, one such that would overturn the current geography and dynamics in the pages of history. Rumours were anything but settling.

She knew her granddaughter might be smart, but she was still a naive girl who had yet to comprehend the horror of the war. Despite that, she was chasing—no, running a marathon to surpass what they'd been trying to get a glimpse of. Perhaps, she could only let the situation take its course. 

"Hehe, but Allen is mistaken if he thinks he can leave me behind. I will chase after him, no matter the height he reached. And one day—"

Meria glanced at her giggling granddaughter. She had always kept up a polite smile in front of her, who had navigated the world with delicate, almost unnatural poise—but now bore a bold, combative grin. She made no effort to hide her true thoughts.

It only now dawned on her that the granddaughter she so adored was no longer a chick who had just left her shell, but a full fledged bird ready to pounce on what she seemed her prey. A helpless smile tugged on Meria's lips as that thought crossed her.

"—I, Feyrune Von Draoon, will be standing next to him, and with an achievement others would've to bow down!"