"Rosette, get behind me. This man is not a normal person. You might not be able to see it, but he is brimming with power. He might hurt you if you are not careful around him."

Of course, since Rosette was here, Adam could not be far behind.

Just as Layla expected, the original Male lead made his way to help his friend (future lover) out as soon as possible.

He stood before Rosette and blocked her from being viewed by other people. His eyes looked at the man before him in wariness and anger.

If Raziel were to attack, Adam would attack back as well. And between those two, it was clear that Raziel would come off as the winner right now.

But this was the situation when the kids were younger.

In the future, the Male Lead would overtake anyone in terms of strength and influence. He would even win over the royal family and become the new king.

So, he was someone Layla had no intention of making an enemy out of.

"Raziel, back down for now. They are just kids and do not know better. Rosette, as much as I would like your help, Cardinal Bishop has told me not to let any foreign power inside my body for now.

My core is too fragile to handle any stimulation, no matter how gentle it is."

Layla would not call herself a good diplomat, but she had convinced the two sides to put their weapons down and talk things out.

Neither Adam nor Raziel looked ready to follow. But Rosette pulled Adam back first, making the situation feel lighter.

"Oh, I see! I did not know that. Thank god you told this to me. I would have made a mistake and put a lot of divine energy inside you to heal you."

Layla let out a relieved breath as soon as she heard those words. She felt grateful that this had not happened, and she quickly backed away out of freight of what could have happened if she had not interfered in Rosette's matter.

"So, what are you going to do now? Will you go back to the Duke's once you have recovered enough? Isn't that a bad idea, considering your condition?"

Adam asked, and his expression told Layla he knew exactly what he was talking about.

The male lead had always been aware of what was happening around him and the others.

As such, he had also realized that Layla would be at a disadvantage if she were to head back to the Duke's mansion right away.

She needed time to heal and people to become her support.

Besides, now that she was injured, the Duke would surely look for a way to get rid of her. That was a given and also something that Layla expected to happen.

"I can head back to the Duke's mansion, but I also have a backup if that does not work. I recently opened a business that has a marginally great profit. I can use those funds to support myself."

Moreover, Layla registered herself as an employee of that business in case such a situation were to arise in the future.

She could always go out and live with the Dark Elves if things were to get dire.

The contract she had signed on behalf of the Duchy made the Dark Elves Duke Lockhart's responsibility.

'All this won't be the problem. What would be a problem is the mana stones that I need to feed to the dragon egg. I cannot let it starve.'

Considering how costly mana stones could get, Layla still wanted time to gather her funds before getting her stones.

Alternatively, she could look for the stones on her own to become more independent from others and fluctuating market rates.

'The original work said something about the purest mana stone mine's discovery. As far as I remember, it would be a long time before it would be discovered. There was something else about that mana stone mine, but I don't remember it.'

Layla wanted to push herself more to remember, but Raziel's disapproving gaze told her this was enough for the day. She needed to rest now, or else she would collapse again and would have to hear more nagging.

…. At the same time, in the Mana stone cave somewhere unknown...

"Keith, that is a sword stuck in the stone. It has ruins all over it. Are you sure you want to try your luck? You have never been lucky with stuff like this in your life."

The bulky man of the group, Keith, looked at the magician of his small group with joyous eyes.

"Don't be like that! Look at that sword! Doesn't it look like it is calling my name? I need to head toward it and free it of its shackles."

The bulky man spoke arrogantly before he headed toward the magical and holy sword and grabbed its handle.

It was the sword that the hero of legends and the book's male lead was supposed to pull out. And as such, Keith was not able to pull it off.

The magic circles that held the sword in place drained Keith of his power, and he felt slightly strained.

"Keith, let it go! That magical sword is not for you. We will find you another one in the next town-"

The magician spoke, but Keith had taken it as a challenge to pull that sword out. He used his sheer will to do so.

But nothing happened

Well, not to the sword. Instead, the ground around the rock and the sword began to shake until Keith pulled both the ground and the sword embedded in the rock out.

"Look, I managed to pull it out. Does that mean I get to keep this sword? Am I the legendary hero now? Oh wow! This sword feels so weird to wave around. It's weighted in weird places."

Keith complained, and the magician looked equally dumbfounded and scared. He had never seen or heard of such a thing happening before.