Chapter 1087: 74. Test
“Cruel?”
Muen chewed over the word.
For the current him, what kind of situation could still be described with the word “cruel”?
A dangerous enemy? A hopeless situation? A difficult road ahead?
No...
He had experienced all of those. Looking back over the road he had walked until now, which one of his circumstances had not been worthy of the word “cruel”?
But judging from Teacher Mela’s tone, what he was about to face next actually surpassed even those?
Don’t tell me... this time, he really had to go head-to-head with an Evil God?
Wasn’t that too fast? No matter what, he should at least develop to the level Teacher Mela had mentioned, where he could crush a Crowned One to death with his little finger, before participating in that kind of peak-level match. Right now, even a certain true protagonist was still quietly developing!
“Relax. No matter what, I won’t send you directly to your death. The cruelty I’m talking about is on another level,” Mela said, her tone still just as meaningful and impossible to grasp.
“Can’t you be a little more specific?”
The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched. “You know I hate riddlers the most. Even if you can’t say a lot of things, for the sake of our teacher-student bond, can’t you at least hint around and reveal a little?”
“There’s no need. You’ll see it with your own eyes and experience it yourself very soon. And for the current you, the most dangerous thing isn’t those matters, but what’s beside you.”
“Huh?”
“Bye-bye, brat.”
Mela’s lips moved, but the sound did not come from between them. Instead, it appeared directly inside Muen’s mind:
“Just like I said earlier, absolutely do not provoke that mother dragon. Otherwise, this former peaceful dreamland of Tars will be your warning.”
Mela’s figure gradually faded. She gave Muen no further chance to make her stay, completely merging into the space and vanishing.
A breeze stirred the leaves, startling several crows into crying out. Around the vast lake and the vast wilderness, only Muen was left again...
Along with a certain Miss Dragon leisurely floating in the lake.
“What does that mean?”
Muen was completely baffled.
What did she mean, Tars would be his warning? Wasn’t this just a lost ruin, a city buried in a corner of history? Now there wasn’t even a single living person here. What could it still...
Wait?
A ruin?
Buried?
Not a single living person?
A bolt of lightning flashed through Muen’s mind, and only now did he abruptly realize an extremely terrifying question.
How had this ancient city, this peaceful dreamland that old hag in a little girl’s body had spoken of, become what it was now?
Who had turned it into ruins? Who had buried it in a corner of history? And who had left it without a single living person?
Muen pondered for a moment, then suddenly tilted his head ninety degrees.
The vast lake before him was calm and beautiful, but once his angle of view shifted, everything became different.
The ancient city was wrapped in green vines, its old remains mottled with age, arranged in steps along the cliffside. But as the distance narrowed, that stretch of cliff suddenly became steep, as if a section had been sliced away out of thin air.
And on this side of the steep cliff was this gem-like, beautiful lake.
The lake was embedded at the city’s edge, as if it had already fused with the city itself. At the edge of those cliffs, one could even see half-buildings that seemed to have been cut cleanly apart.
All of it combined together, and a certain image began to appear in Muen’s mind on its own...
Some terrifying attack descended from the sky amid blinding light... completely destroying that once-prosperous city.
So...
This was not some lovely scenery of mountains and water depending on each other, of an ancient city beside a lake.
Instead, after an ancient city had been destroyed, this was the only thing left behind in history, the thing that spoke of that horrifying and miserable scene...
A scar.
An unimaginable, enormous scar!
“You guessed correctly.”
The aloof voice woke Muen from his contemplation.
Muen abruptly came back to himself and discovered that those golden eyes had been watching him for who knew how long.
The majesty of those golden eyes, combined with the guess in his heart, made his mind shake for a moment. Fortunately, Hamreign did not continue staring at him. Instead, she shifted her gaze away and looked into the distance, toward the dead-silent city ruins.
“Tars was destroyed by me. Eight hundred years ago.”
“Is... is that so?”
It was the answer he should have expected.
Setting aside that graceful figure, the legends of the Dragon of Death and Doom surfaced in Muen’s mind once more.
Natural disaster.
Source of destruction.
Pitch-black evil dragon.
Dragon that destroyed nations.
Source of all withering.
In almost every legend and story, this person appeared as a villain, turning prosperous countries one after another into the dust of history amid deathly black mist and surging flames.
She was the foremost of natural disasters, the embodiment of calamity. Wherever she passed, all she brought was fear and despair.
So... the fact that Tars had been destroyed by her did not seem particularly surprising.
It was just a little... chilling.
“Eight hundred years ago, I came here for the first time.”
Her golden eyes flickered. Hamreign ignored Muen and unexpectedly began to tell a story from long ago.
“This place was just as Mela said. It was very beautiful. Actually, you can see it even from what remains now. This was a city that had carved the word ‘beauty’ into its bones. It was worthy of the title peaceful dreamland, especially because that was right after the great age of chaos had passed, when the entire continent was in a special stage where all things were being born anew. Compared with it, that Saint Blancfazesiya that now calls itself the City of Art is simply blasphemy.”
“...”
Saint Blancfazesiya was so miserable. Its title as the greatest city had been taken by Belrand, and now even its title as the “City of Art” had to be beaten down by an eight-hundred-year-old thing.
Although that “old thing” no longer existed.
“The people here... were also good.”
Hamreign paused, then continued, “They were kind, simple, brave, and tenacious. It was their effort and resistance that allowed this place to become one of the few city-states to survive that chaotic era. They were optimistic and upward-looking. They never rejected outsiders, even if... the one who came was not human.”
Hamreign touched her own cheek. Near her neck, the dark-black scales were cold and hard.
The lake water, warmed comfortably by sunlight, reminded her of more details about that city.
Details of beauty and warmth.
But the cold touch that came from her fingertips shattered those imagined details again, bringing her back to reality.
“Tars was very good. Truly very good. But...”
Hamreign’s voice shifted. “I destroyed this place. I slaughtered every person here, even every living thing, until none remained.”
“...”
“The fire burned for thirty-seven full days.”
“...”
“I waited here for thirty-seven days.”
“...”
“Until I confirmed that every living thing here had died for certain, and that not even ashes remained.”
“...”
“And they were only one corner of the dead who have been buried by my hand.”
“...”
“I have killed many people. More than you imagine. More than those so-called human rumors... many more. Far, far more.”
“...”
“So...”
Muen’s vision suddenly blurred, and that figure woven from fiery red and pitch black instantly appeared before him.
Hamreign was tall, even slightly taller than Muen, so she could look down at him. Those molten-gold eyes also seemed even more majestic.
“Are you afraid of me?”
She asked it so lightly.
Compared with that pressure-filled stare, this question was gentle enough to sound like a greeting between old friends. But Muen genuinely felt a certain terrifying chill slip into his soul along that voice, which was clearly extremely pleasant to hear.
...Damn it. What was the meaning of suddenly asking this?
“Answer.”
“...If I say I’m afraid, will you let me go back?” Under that pressure, Muen could only barely squeeze out a smile.
Whether it was the pressure from a natural disaster itself or from the story just now, his little heart right now... was indeed trembling badly.
There was no one who would not tremble. It was like suddenly being kidnapped by some mafia boss. Originally, you had been getting along with him just fine... but then he suddenly began telling you all the great deeds he had performed during his glorious years, even telling you some of his most private secrets, secrets so private that even his wife did not know them.
So was the next step to kick him into cement, turn him into a bridge pier, and sink him into the lake?
“No. You still have use,” Hamreign said.
“In that case... it’s not too bad.”
Muen thought seriously for a moment. As long as she did not immediately turn him into a cement pillar and sink him into the lake...
“I’m afraid, but not that afraid.”
“Hm? What does that mean?”
Hamreign’s brows suddenly rose high. Her brows were also red, so they looked like tiny flames suddenly shooting upward.
“First, the first reason is that there have already been too many things that could scare me before. After being scared again and again, I got used to it...”
For example, the Withering King... the Silent Moon... the Mother of Abundance...
Although their current achievements might not necessarily be as high as the natural disaster before him, believe it or not, as long as a tiny opening was made in the world barrier for them, the top seat in this world would immediately change owners...
So simply having killed a lot of people had no deterrent force at all for him, all right? Among those he had faced before, which one was not a potential stock that could casually kill off an entire world?
“Second, the second reason is that although I don’t know why you did that, you definitely had your reasons.”
Muen lightly stirred the lake water with his hand.
Ripples spread, and light glittered across the surface.
This beautiful lake was proof of that city’s death eight hundred years ago.
But it also proved something else.
Miss Dragon’s objective was destruction.
The destruction of some kind of existence.
Not pure slaughter.
Because only absolute destruction would require this kind of terrifying violence that had completely surpassed the category of “killing.”
“Who hasn’t killed people?” Muen sighed. Speaking of this aspect, he was still carrying the blood debt of over a million souls on his own back. If there really were a ranking list for killing people, even if he was not among the top few, he felt he could still count as being toward the front.
The Holy Lord of Salvation might not even have killed as many people as he had now.
“...Interesting.”
Hamreign’s expression suddenly became more vivid, and the haziness that covered her face seemed to show signs of dispersing. “Continue.”
“As for the last reason...”
Muen scratched his cheek and smiled. “Actually, in a certain sense, compared with the few girls over in Belrand who have probably transformed into demons because the wedding was interrupted, I feel like it might be a little safer around Miss Dragon. Mm... temporarily.”
“Why?” Hamreign seemed faintly surprised.
Safe?
Although it was a comparison, very few people had ever used that word in front of her.
“Because... back in Belrand, although you were domineering, you didn’t cause any real harm, right?”
Muen said, “In that kind of densely populated area, you didn’t kill a single person, didn’t actively hurt a single person, and even... when it came to Celicia, you held back in the end.”
When Celicia launched her attack, Muen had indeed been begging this natural disaster at the time.
But he did not believe that the mighty Dragon of Calamity would stop just because of his tiny bit of pleading.
There was only one reason she had done that...
She had never intended to truly hurt anyone in the first place.
So, for a terrifying existence who destroyed everything and annihilated everything wherever she went in all sorts of legends, wasn’t such behavior a little inconsistent with her character setting?
And even that ancient little brat had said it. The danger only started if he “provoked” her.
Muen did not plan to provoke her. Absolutely not!
“In summary, I believe that Miss Dragon’s side should still be very safe. At least before I fully perform my function for you, what happened to Tars will not happen to me.”
Muen spread both hands and made his smile as peaceful as possible.
After this round of analysis, even he himself felt that the Miss Dragon before him did not seem to be any kind of danger...
But just then.
“There are... elements of deception in your words.”
The chill abruptly condensed. At some unknown point, hazy black mist had covered the entire lake, like an ancient demonic beast awakening from hibernation, licking Muen’s cheek with hunger.
Cold sweat... began sliding down Muen’s forehead.
He had overlooked one thing.
The gap in strength between him and this natural disaster meant that all analysis was actually not very useful.
Because the initiative had never been in his hands.
“Um... Miss Dragon, although I am a first-rate good man, because of certain external conditions, I have still been forced to master a little of the way one speaks to please girls. So even if what I said sounds like a scumbag trying to seduce an ignorant young girl, I think I don’t mean it that way. I’m just...”
“To dare imagine and speculate about me based on these things, you are indeed very bold. Among all the humans I have seen, your courage ranks near the top, just as that woman said.”
Hamreign directly interrupted Muen’s excuse and drew close again. She extended a jade hand and, carrying a bone-piercing cold, touched Muen’s completely defenseless neck.
Muen wanted to struggle, but his strength was still far too frail before a natural disaster. Resistance was utterly meaningless.
That jade hand drew closer and closer to his vital point. It seemed that with only the slightest exertion of force, his life would vanish here.
The string in Muen’s heart was almost stretched to its limit in that instant.
...But that hand suddenly moved upward and lifted Muen’s chin.
The golden eyes watched Muen, revealing a trace of almost imperceptible transgression, as if she were playing with some interesting new toy.
“But fortunately, that is the case. Consider yourself passed, human.”
“...Huh?”
Muen, who had almost been frightened into cardiac arrest, widened his eyes blankly. “Passed? Passed what?”
“Although I chose you and believe you are not so easy to kill on the coming journey, if you only have thick skin and tough flesh without sufficient courage and brains, you will merely drag me down next.”
Hamreign’s voice turned cold. “I do not like anyone dragging me down.”
“...Then I?”
Muen pointed at himself. He wanted to point at Hamreign next, but could not, so he could only point at himself again.
What was all this?
Some kind of test?
“We’re leaving.”
Miss Dragon was still just as concise and self-willed.
Only a moment ago, she had toyed with Muen cruelly like a wicked woman. Then, in the next turn, she pushed Muen away in one motion, as if nothing had happened, and appeared at the center of the lake.
“Leaving... where?”
“To do proper business. Enough time was already wasted just now.”
Hamreign opened her palm.
Some small object appeared in her hand. Muen’s gaze sharpened, and he discovered that it was actually... a clock.
Old, simple, like the kind of clock that might appear in some old house.
And to Muen, it was very familiar.
Because during one particular operation, he had once borrowed this very thing from that old hag in a little girl’s body.
So... that ancient little brat hadn’t come over just to talk nonsense after all?
“It’s starting. Focus.”
Tick.
The moment Hamreign’s voice fell, the clear sound of a clock hand moving echoed beside Muen’s ear.
The black mist suddenly rolled back around the lake. In an instant, Muen discovered that all the scenery around him had changed.
The broken, ancient ruins disappeared.
Replacing them...
Was a prosperous city.