The Guardian of The Dragon

Chapter 20

"Oh my God. What is this?"

Ellie raised her voice.

Rachel and Frea, who were looking at something else, approached.

Inside a round glass fish tank, an inch-long lizard was sitting on a branch of a red-flowered tree.

Its coloring was very distinctive, unlike the green lizards they would usually see in the bushes.

It was speckled with brown and red.

Ellie was surprised to learn that the lizard was kept in a fish tank.

To her, lizards are like pests, the last thing you want in your house.

Peter laughed.

"I see you're surprised. Let me show you something funny."

Peter reached into the fish tank, pulled out the lizard, and placed it on a large open flower petal nearby.

Ellie's eyes widened as she watched the scene with a frown.

The color of the lizard changed to a scarlet that matched the petals.

"It's a rare lizard. It changes its color according to the color of its surroundings. It's a protective color to defend itself from natural enemies. It tries not to stand out. Sadly, that's why no one knows what its true color is."

***

'Protective color...'

Frea sat at her dressing table, lost in thought.

The day at the Grand Duchy had gone well.

Many things had happened, but the one that stuck with her the most was the lizard she'd seen in the greenhouse.

The words about changing its color to go unnoticed kept echoing in her head.

She realized something new.

She realized she had a similar temperament to that lizard.

'That's why I decided to become a priest.'

All the priests, all dressed in the same vestments and with the same serene expressions, were like it.

She was fascinated by their unremarkable lives.

From a young age, Frea suffered from an unexplained obsession.

She was afraid to stand out.

She thought her ability to see the robe of light was a curse that she had to hide.

After her pilgrimage, she changed her mind a bit.

Maybe it wasn't a curse.

Still, the uneasiness in the back of her mind didn't go away.

「Sadly, that's why no one knows what the lizard's true color is. 」

Frea chuckled as she recalled the count's words.

'I wonder if I have lost my true color, and if so, what is it?'

As she got up to go to bed, she glanced in the mirror and froze in her hip dance.

Her hair was blue-violet in the mirror.

She touched her hair.

She touched her hair in the mirror, which had also turned purple.

'Am I drunk?'

She only had a glass of wine at the dinner earlier.

Frea pressed her hands firmly over her eyes, then slowly lowered them and opened them.