The sound of someone entering through the front door in the early morning.
I slowly got out of bed, careful not to wake Elena, and checked the clock in the room.
It was still dark outside, but it seemed to be around 5 AM.
Thud thud.
The footsteps grew closer. I sat up fully in bed to confirm the identity of the person approaching.
“…?”
Someone was coming down the hallway. At first, I thought it was Felicita.
But… it was a stretch to assume that. For one, the person was taller than her, and the hair color was similar to mine.
“You···.”
“Shh. Be quiet.”
Veronica.
I wondered why she was here at this hour. I almost raised my voice instinctively, but Veronica clamped her hand over my mouth.
“Brother, follow me.”
“…Wait a second. This is too sudden.”
I was still in a daze. Yet, I could tell things were taking a strange turn.
“Hurry up.”
“…!”
When I hesitated, Veronica hugged me and threw me over her shoulder. I couldn’t make a sound to stop her in time.
It was too late to resist now.
In my pajamas, I was being carried out of the room by my sister.
“…What’s going on? Where are we going?”
But the direction was strange. Veronica didn’t turn right toward her room but went left instead.
“Sister Felicita said to bring you.”
“No, if that was the case… you could have said that from the start.”
“There wasn’t time to explain everything.”
Could it be because Elena might wake up?
Anyway, now that I knew the destination, I hoped she would put me down, but it seemed Veronica had no intention of letting me go.
Veronica walked straight into Felicita’s room, still carrying me effortlessly.
Then a strange smell greeted us.
“…What is that smell?”
“I don’t know either.”
It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was quite peculiar. It smelled like some herbal medicine was being brewed.
“Veronica, did you bring Luke?”
“Yes.”
As soon as Felicita spoke, Veronica set me down.
Heading from the entrance toward the inside of the room… I caught sight of Felicita in the living room, busy sharpening her horns.
Since Felicita was focused on sharpening, it was actually Heb who welcomed us first.
“….”
Or maybe “welcomed” isn’t the right word? Heb simply flew over my head and landed. At the same time, he seemed to hesitate about whether to pass by Veronica’s head.
It looked like he was indifferent to whatever his owner was doing.
“Felicita, is that the horn you showed me yesterday?”
“Yes. It’s almost done.”
So that’s why Felicita didn’t come herself but sent Veronica instead.
There was one bag of finely ground horn. And one bag that was still in the process of being ground.
Aside from the powdered horn, there were also other substances, like milk or syrup.
“I’ll grind that.”
“…Thanks.”
Felicita pondered for just a moment, but she clearly seemed to be struggling.
While I was grinding the horn, I had Felicita do something else. Even without us saying a word, Veronica was moving to help us.
“Do I just grind this finely?”
“Yes, grind it as finely as possible. That way, it absorbs better.”
I never expected that a day would come when I’d be grinding golden dragon horns. The machine used for grinding looked very unique.
It held the horn in place, and as I turned the lever on the side, the horn was ground down.
“Vera, can you hold this?”
“Yes, just a moment.”
“Have you two already become friends?”
Seeing Felicita call my sister by her nickname felt refreshing to me. Usually, the nicknames for Veronica might be Vera, Beca, Roni, or Lani.
“Of course.”
While saying that, Felicita was sweating a lot as she focused on grinding the horn.
For some reason, seeing her in that state made her even more attractive than usual.
“Brother?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
It seemed Veronica sensed something in my gaze toward Felicita.
“Luke, which do you prefer? Should I mix it with milk? Or coffee?”
“…Is it normal to mix horn into drinks like that?”
“It’s a method people never thought of back in the day. But, well… there’s a new way these days, right?”
Felicita said calmly.
Still, considering it was a dragon’s horn, mixing it into milk and coffee felt a bit off.
“I don’t care either way. It probably won’t taste much anyway.”
“…What?”
Oops. That was something I didn’t need to say out loud.
“I’ll take it with milk then. It’s best to add a lot of syrup, right?”
“Yes.”
“Brother, what did you just mean?”
While Felicita and I continued chatting like nothing was wrong, Veronica didn’t seem like she would let it slide.
“Just as it sounds. Luke has a reduced sense of taste.”
“….”
“Felicita, saying it like that makes it sound like he has no sense of taste at all.”
Veronica’s expression turned so serious, I quickly clarified.
There are different kinds of taste reduction, after all.
If taste is completely gone, it’s called anosmia.
If taste isn’t lost but is diminished compared to normal, it’s called hypogeusia.
If taste isn’t lost but sweet tastes are perceived as bitter, it’s called dysgeusia.
And if taste is heightened to an abnormal level, it’s called hypergeusia.
“So, are you saying Brother is….”
“I have hypogeusia.”
Veronica expressed pity toward me with her face.
How did I end up like this? The reason is quite simple.
*
It was a story from before Vito Felini, my father and Elena’s father, became a godfather.
When the Wolf’s leader showed their fangs toward their masters.
My father and I were considered public enemies to the Five Families. It goes without saying that a huge bounty was placed on our heads.
As a result, there were numerous attempts on our lives.
Among them, someone tried to poison my father and me by mixing poison into the coffee.
To be grateful or not. My father didn’t drink that coffee. I reacted violently after drinking it before him.
No matter how powerful a poison is, it can’t kill a person immediately.
Fortunately, I didn’t die and managed to survive.
I still vividly remember the ones who took me to the hospital at that time: Giovanni and Armo.
“…Do you not know who the culprit is?”
“How could I? Anyway, because of that incident, my tongue is still troublesome.”
I stuck out my tongue at Veronica.
According to that doctor guy, he said I had a high chance of recovery, but my sense of taste still hasn’t returned properly.
“…Is that why you eat so much food?”
“Ah.”
Actually, it’s not like that. My sense of taste is weaker than others, but I can still feel it.
Moreover, I can feel the texture of food and the sensation of chewing it well enough.
But in Veronica’s mind, I seemed like a poor brother who couldn’t taste food at all.
“Veronica, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re mistaken.”
“Here, Luke.”
“Thanks.”
Meanwhile, Felicita handed me the dragon horn juice that matched my request.
“Veronica, do you want some too?”
“Am I drinking it as well?”
“Of course. You’re my husband’s sister, after all.”
“Felicita, aren’t you overdoing it?”
She definitely said there were two horns. There’s no way she would give me everything… I thought we might be sharing half.
“It’s alright. The horn you ground from Lia is bigger anyway.”
Then it seemed that the horn I was grinding from Manfredi was the one for Felicita and our child.
“Thank you, Sister.”
“You’re welcome. It’s nothing at all.”
While the two showed each other warmth, I downed the horn juice in one go.
It had a sweet syrupy taste mixed with milk, with a very fine, almost imperceptible grainy sensation.
“Felicita, I’ve finished this. Is that all?”
“Yes. That’s it.”
It was a bit different from what I had expected. Wasn’t there a chance for something to happen where light bursts out of my eyes and I transformed into something like a dragon?
“….”
Meanwhile, Veronica also started drinking her share of juice. However, unlike me, she was struggling.
“Alright, a little more and I’ll be finished.”
“Already? That’s quicker than I thought.”
“Well, I do have more strength than you.”
“….”
“Of course, it’s partly thanks to you grinding it so much.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
At that moment, I decided to ask about the exact effects of the horn. It was like asking, “What good does this medicine do for the body?”
“First, it makes the body stronger. It becomes less susceptible to poison.”
“And that’s it?”
In a way, could we consider drugs to be poison as well?
If so, it made sense why Vito Marinelli was relatively fine even after being addicted to Blue Eyes.
“No, there are more effects, but I just mentioned the most important ones.”
Among the other effects that Felicita mentioned… extending lifespan, preventing aging, disease prevention, improving memory, recovering from fatigue, boosting vitality.
And on rare occasions, if taken frequently, one’s appearance could even change to that of a dragon.
‘This really feels like some sort of tonic.’
“But Felicita, aren’t you drinking it?”
“I’ll pass. I’d rather give it to the child than have it for myself.”
“Veronica.”
“Yes.”
“Wait, wait!”
Both Veronica and I couldn’t let that slide.
Understanding that sentiment was one thing, but the health of a mother carrying the child is also important.
While Veronica was holding Felicita back, I finished grinding the horn completely.
“Is this enough for half?”
“Wait! That’s too much!”
“Then how about this amount?”
It was about three-tenths to four-tenths. It was clear that I was giving more for the child.
“Felicita, should I mix it with milk? Or coffee?”
“….”
Considering Felicita’s taste, I decided to go with coffee.
“Vera, can you loosen this now?”
“Just a moment.”
“Here you go.”
“I’ll hold it, so I think it would be best if Brother fed it.”
“Is that so?”
If someone saw us, they might think we were forcing Felicita to take a confession or something.
Even though Felicita insisted she would eat it herself, I fed her out of concern.
“Felicita, don’t spill any and swallow it properly.”
Even as I said that, it felt a bit strange.
“…That’s enough now.”
“Yes.”
Finally, Veronica released Felicita.
“Really. I was planning to let the child have all of it.”
“If there’s more horn, that’s fine. But other than that, you’re important too, Felicita.”
If the effects of the horn were indeed as various as she said.
“…It’s alright. Actually, I have one more horn.”
“What?”
Felicita mentioned the existence of another horn she had received previously, just in case.
“Well, there’s no helping it. Should I just give the remainder to Elena?”
It felt odd how Felicita was handling Elena, but it wouldn’t be easy for her to offer that horn to her.
Considering their relationship isn’t exactly rosy.
Meanwhile, a stranger appeared near Lupus Carlton Hotel.
An extraordinarily old-looking fox human.
The stevedores at the port and the members of the Felini Family scattered around were on guard against this newcomer.
But he was merely sitting in a reasonable spot where the morning sun was shining down on him.
While basking in the warm morning sunlight, he seemed to be relaxing… causing the surrounding tension to gradually dissipate.
However, he was one of the members of Palmas Family.
After Salido went missing, he had volunteered to assassinate Luke Felini and come this far.
His true targets were Elena Felini and Luke Felini…
But if those two proved difficult, he could settle for a high-ranking member of Felini Family.
