Gawain watched as Miss Agent staggered out of the room, her steps unsteady. None of her usual elegance, composure, and dependability remained.
He felt quite guilty—he felt he should have stopped her, that he should have arranged proper medical care and rest for her and offered sufficient compensation. Even if it had been unintentional, he had genuinely harmed the agent. There was no excusing that.
However, after thinking it over calmly, he decided to abandon the idea—the main reason being that he was afraid the dragon would simply die here...
"Why be so stubborn..." Gawain muttered as he watched Melita leave. "If you didn't want to answer, you could've just refused..."
A short while later, Heti arrived at the study after hearing the news. The Empire's Grand Chancellor spoke the moment she entered. "Ancestor, I heard reports that the Mithril Treasury agent was in a rather strange state when she left... Ah—what happened here?!"
She noticed the blood splattered around the room and immediately cried out in alarm.
"Find someone to clean it up," Gawain said with a sigh, glancing at the desk that Melita's blood had corroded and ruined—it had not even been in use for two weeks. "Also, I need a new desk again. And a new carpet."
"Ah? Oh, yes," Heti answered after a brief daze. Carefully avoiding the bloodstains, she came up to Gawain. "Ancestor, you and that Mithril Treasury agent... didn't have a conflict, did you?"
"No, but I may have accidentally caused a little collateral damage... I should compensate her when I get the chance," Gawain said, shaking his head. Then his gaze fell upon the bloodstains, and his expression changed slightly. "By the way, Heti, dragon blood is supposed to be quite a valuable magical material, right? The sort with great research value."