Chapter 261 : Chapter 261
Side Story 20. Red Dragon (2)
Frelia’s next in line was a fellow named Ignis.
He had the appearance of a malicious-looking boy with red hair.
Ignis did not let down his guard.
He had seen even Frelia, an adult dragon, get beaten by me and turn into a puppy.
“You look pathetic, Frelia.”
Still, seeing one of his kin subdued seemed to naturally draw mockery from him.
“Shut up, Ignis! Do you think you’ll fare any better?”
“What? Fare any better? What are you trying to say? Are you saying I’ll get beaten by a human like this?”
Frelia cleared her throat and avoided answering immediately.
“I’ll just keep my mouth shut and watch.”
Ignis looked utterly exasperated.
“I can understand a Hatchling like Leviar, but you’re the shame of the Red Clan. Just live as a puppy for the rest of your life.”
Then he glared at me.
His blazing eyes looked quite angry.
Most living beings would lose consciousness from merely looking into those eyes.
Ignis did not stop there and unleashed a Roar.
“ROOOOAR!”
It was a violent voice that seemed capable of collapsing the shelter.
My honest impression was that his presence was similar to Frelia’s, yet slightly fiercer.
Ignis gave me a sly smile.
“Be honest. You’re scared, aren’t you?”
When I did not answer, however, he looked deeply displeased.
“The problem with humans is that they’re too different on the outside and inside. That won’t change the result, will it? I’ll start by melting one of your legs.”
Then he fired Fire Spears at my right leg.
FWOOSH.
FWOOSHHH!
It was a monstrous rapid-fire assault.
In truth, it did not even feel as though he was firing them.
It felt as though thin, long pillars of fire had been shooting toward me from the beginning.
My senses sharpened at the terrible speed that defied physical common sense.
Even I would not come away unharmed if I were hit by an attack like that.
SWISH!
Of course, as long as I did not let down my guard, such a thing would not happen easily.
SWISH!
I busily swung the Holy Sword, cutting through Ignis’s rapid-fire flames.
At the same time, the Fire Spears continued pouring down without pause.
‘He’s only aiming for my leg.’
Ignis was a remarkably tenacious character.
He could have changed the direction of his attacks to scatter my attention, but he stubbornly kept bombarding the same spot.
He intended to accomplish exactly what he had declared.
FWOOSH!
FWOOSHHH!
Ignis’s barrage grew faster and faster.
Yet its power did not lessen in the slightest.
It revealed his pride that no matter how much mana he poured out, he still had more than enough.
And that was true.
No matter who I was, competing with a dragon in the quantity of mana would be foolish.
STEP.
STEP.
In the end, I began walking leisurely toward him while splitting apart the flames.
The place he continued to target was still my leg.
Flames like hellfire formed in midair and vanished, repeating countless times.
“You’re quite good, human!”
From my experience, words like that were proof that he had grown anxious.
Ignis’s breathing finally became uneven when the distance between us had closed enough.
My calm gaze had made him realize that something was wrong.
“HUFF!”
But until the very end, he stubbornly aimed for my leg as he had declared.
This was one thing I had to acknowledge.
FWOOSHHH!
Of course, the flames were scattered once again by the Holy Sword.
The sword’s following path headed straight for the center of his chest.
“No chance!”
Ignis swiftly created a Barrier and blocked the Holy Sword.
Within a massive, transparent egg-shaped shield, he gave a broad grin.
But that smile did not last long.
CRACK!
CRACKLE!
The Yeti’s power erupted and froze Ignis’s Barrier.
His startled eyes widened.
It would soon be time for him to become a puppy as well.
There was a very simple rule governing the order in which the Red Dragons appeared.
The later they appeared, the stronger they became.
It also meant that the older dragons took the later turns.
Four dejected puppies were already tied to dog leashes in the shelter.
“Do you think even Veilos will get beaten?”
“Veilos is no different. He’s only five hundred years older than me.”
“But is that fellow really human? It makes no sense for a human to be this strong! Could he be a Dark Elf?”
“There are no Dark Elves in Kalia! And even if he were a Dark Elf, it would make no sense all the same.”
The four puppies huddled together, chattering away.
Their concerns could be narrowed down to two things.
How many minutes it would take to defeat Veilos.
And whether Seo Ji-han was truly human.
Leviar spoke quietly.
“Want me to tell you something even more shocking?”
“There’s something more shocking than this?”
“Stop dragging it out and tell us, Leviar!”
Leviar looked triumphant.
He was proud to reveal high-level information only he knew.
“Somewhere in Kalia, there is a human even stronger than him.”
“What?”
“The master who taught that man swordsmanship. I heard it directly.”
In an instant, the puppies were seized by shock and horror.
A turning point had been reached.
After I dealt with Veilos, the remaining dragons poured into the shelter all at once.
There were four of them in total, all polymorphed into human forms.
Two boys, one girl, and...
‘An old man?’
This one was different.
It was not merely a matter of appearance.
The very quality of the aura I felt from him differed from that of the other dragons.
It was not difficult to reach a conclusion.
“Are you Ancient-grade?”
“You recognized it immediately. I have used the name Abner for a little over ten thousand years.”
Ten thousand years.
By human standards, it was a mythical span of time.
He was, of course, overwhelmingly the oldest among the Red Dragons gathered here.
It was a number that naturally made one solemn, regardless of strength or realm.
“Why? Are you surprised by my age?”
“I can’t help it.”
“But we are far more surprised. To humiliate our dragons like this.”
I merely smiled in response.
“But did you keep Leviar with you to lure us here?”
“So that there would be no needless sacrifices while you searched for me.”
Abner looked intrigued at those words.
“Truly remarkable. But what would you have done if our clan had attacked all at once? Do you not think the result would have been different if those five humiliated fellows had joined forces?”
Of course, I thought it would have been different.
No matter how much I had grown by leaps and bounds over the past seven years, facing five of these astonishing beings at the same time would have been impossible to handle.
“I did not think dragons would go that far merely to face one human.”
“Heh heh! You have tremendous nerve.”
That was what I said, but it was not merely courage.
I had learned the habits of dragons beforehand from Rosie.
Dragons never fought while taking advantage of their superior numbers.
“Am I wrong?”
“No. That is exactly right. Did Leviar give you advance notice?”
“No!!”
Leviar hurriedly waved his front paws and denied it.
He looked deeply wronged as he did so.
“Then it is all the more astonishing. I do not know how you learned it, but we dragons are such beings.”
It meant that they would not break that unwritten rule this time either.
The Ancient-grade dragon, Abner.
This was the first time I had felt such pressure from an opponent.
It was like facing an immense force of nature.
Of course, that did not mean I was being overwhelmed by his presence. It was respect for my opponent.
‘Of course, not fighting would be best.’
I had not come to Kalia to settle a life-or-death matter with the Red Dragons.
My sole cause was to protect my homeland peacefully.
If I could hold peaceful negotiations with Abner, I was willing to set aside my competitive spirit as a swordsman for the moment.
“Let me ask you directly. Why did you kill Devrias?”
There was something strange about Abner’s plain voice.
It made me feel as though I had to give him a truthful answer.
Of course, I could not tell him the truth about my reincarnation.
“I am a human living in Kalia, so I have the right to go anywhere on the continent. Even if it is where a Red Dragon has built its nest.”
That had been my belief in the days of Johan Raven.
“Your words make it sound as though Devrias was an intruder in Kalia.”
“Not necessarily. But I think Devrias needed to be more cautious. He was an outsider who had come to our territory.”
“But a dragon’s nest is not what you think it is. Only the entrance to the nest lies in Kalia. The world inside the nest has nothing to do with Kalia. As far as I know, Devrias lived only inside his nest.”
“That is sophistry.”
“Sophistry?”
“Once a nest is built in Kalia, anyone in Kalia can enter it. If that disturbed the nest’s owner, they could have quietly sent the intruder away. But I heard that Red Dragons never let anyone who enters their nests leave alive. Devrias was the same.”
“So that is why you killed him?”
The one who had died was me, not Devrias.
“The rules of dragons are too dragon-centric.”
“I acknowledge that point, but dragons are beings who may be that way.”
“Why?”
“Because our strength is absolute.”
“And yet there are five puppies here now.”
“You have touched upon an embarrassing point.”
Abner gave an awkward laugh as he looked at the five puppies.
“Our clan has one more unwritten rule. We repay tenfold those who kill our kin.”
“If I had not shown myself and remained hidden, did you intend to destroy Kalia?”
“It would have been entirely possible for us to do so. The place where Devrias died was unquestionably Kalia.”
Once again, I thought it had been good that I came to Kalia.
The Demon King of Silence and the Red Dragons alike were fated to turn my homeland into a complete wasteland.
“Lord! It is time to punish this human!”
“That is right! Leave him to me!”
In particular, the blue-haired fellow who seemed to rank next after Abner showed intense hostility toward me.
The moment the Lord gave an order, he looked ready to turn the shelter into a sea of fire.
The puppies, except for Leviar, began making a racket as well.
Abner merely listened silently to the commotion.
He spoke again only after some time had passed.
“As the Lord of the Red Dragons, I will make you a proposal.”
At the word proposal, the other dragons looked as though they could not understand.
They likely expected a brutal judgment upon me and the people of Kalia.
But before the Lord’s dignified voice, no one could object.
“A proposal... It sounds rather gentle.”
I raised one corner of my mouth and took a step toward Abner.