Chapter 284 – Dragons (1)

“We have no words.”

The deputy leader of the Amaranth Taemusas, Nathan slightly lowered his head.

“We should’ve been a little faster…”

His face was filled with regret.

“This is not your fault.”

With a faint smile, Roan shook his head and at the same time, his deeply sunk eyes glanced around the area.

“I can smell something disgusting… sir.”

Beryn who had been standing next to Roan gave a frown due to the disgusting odour touching her nose. Nathan’s report continued.

“We had succeeded in following the mysterious group into the Grain Mountain Range. However, the roads were unmaintained and strange, and for some reason, their appearances and presences had suddenly disappeared. After all the combined efforts of the Taemusas, we had succeeded in finding this altar but as you can see, it was after everything had been destroyed.”

He once again lowered his head and Roan gave a slow nod. As Nathan had mentioned, pieces of rocks and branches were randomly placed with all of them shining greasily in a reddish black colour. That was the cause of the disgusting and horrible smell.

‘Blood. An extremely large amount at that.’

Roan closed his two eyes shut. Something hot filled him up to his throat – that was rage.

‘That dark elf called Arikan talked about altars and rituals.’

Although he didn’t know the exact details, an uncomfortable horrid thought filled his head.

‘Miss Beryn said that she had seen the slave merchants taking out the hearts of the kids…’

All the circumstances connected like cogs. Roan opened his closed eyes from which a deep red light shone.

‘A ritual with humans as sacrifices was held.’

He still couldn’t be completely certain as to what this ritual was for. Pouring mana into his eyes, Roan’s vision was coloured gold.

‘As expected… the flow of mana was manipulated.’

Focusing on Kalian’s tears, he stared deeply at the empty ground and the places where the altars had been. After the altar had been broken the flow of mana in the surroundings were returning to normal so there was a need to hurry a little.

‘They had installed something around this empty plot of land and its entrance.’

Roan moved his feet to a place where the mana didn’t dare to stay and tried to avoid. And then,

“Hmm…”

A low mutter escaped his lips.

‘Why is there…’

It was an unexpected situation and his face turned slightly stiff.

‘This is definitely a sign of sorcery.’

The reason why the mana in this area had flowed unnaturally was due to the powers of sorcery.

‘I was too lax.’

Roan clenched his teeth.

With the death of Sorcery Master Hestle, he had thought that all the sorcerers around the kingdom had been killed. Even if they were alive, he thought they would’ve been hiding themselves thoroughly or that they would have escaped the country.

‘To think they were committing atrocities deep inside the kingdom.’

He was angered by both the sorcerers and himself. The thing that was more annoying was that even from within his memories of the sorcerers, there were no information on the locations or whereabouts of other sorcerers.

‘I must actively use the Argens and the Evishun.’

Turning his head back over, Roan stared at the altar. It was to look for any other traces that could be there but he couldn’t find any signs of sorcery from around the altar. Instead, there were signs of the magic that was presumably used during the explosion of the altar.

‘The explosion might have erased the signs of sorcery.’

Roan kept several possibilities open.

“There’s not much remaining.”

After a short mutter, he heaved out a deep sigh.

“Nathan.”

Hearing the low voice, Nathan approached and lowered his head.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Staring at the remains of the altar, Roan ordered in a low voice.

“Organise the altar well and make a grave. I’ll console the spirits of the sacrificed ones.”
“Yes sir. I’ll follow your command.”

Together with his reply, Nathan quickly made gestures and the Amaranth Taemusas quickly neared the altar. During that, Roan walked towards Beryn who was blankly standing alone.

“Miss Beryn. Are you okay?”

To the soft question, Beryn made an extremely surprised expression. Awkwardly she followed what Nathan and the other Taemusas had done by lowering her head.

“Y, your majesty. Please forgive the discourtesy from the past.”

Roan shook his head in response.

“I was the one being discourteous as I had approached hiding my identity.”

He glanced towards the altar.

“It wouldn’t be a pleasant memory, but I hear about the story about that girl called Grace?”
“Ah…”

Along with a short cry, Beryn collapsed onto the ground. As she was a hunter herself, she had clearly known what the red marks left on the remains of the altar were. With her head lowered, Beryn slowly opened her mouth.

“There’s nothing much. It’s just I heard that Grace had been sold away to the slave merchants…”

Her story wasn’t very complex or rather, what she had said back in the bar was pretty much everything. After the bastards that pretended to be slave merchants killed Grace and took out her heart, they had disappeared into the deep mountains. Beryn who was familiar with the surrounding areas had quickly started her pursuit but the guys then vanished.

‘It must be due to the sorcery.’

Roan stared silently at Beryn.

“Miss Beryn.”
“Yes your majesty.”

Beryn lowered her head unknowingly. It was because of the tender dignity that warmly embraced her entire body not some kind of pressure. She was lowering her head on her own accord.

“I was amazed by your talents. Will you please use those talents for the Amaranth Kingdom and the citizens within?”
“T, talents? Me?”

She asked back with slight puzzlement. Of course, it was true that she was one of the top hunters of the village but she, who had never left onto a larger stage, did not realise how great of a talent she had.

Roan wordlessly nodded his head as Beryn repeatedly opened and closed her mouth. And soon,

“The bastards that had made that horrible and evil altar are still alive right?”

Roan once again nodded while Beryn formed a tight fist.

“If I go together with your majesty, can I destroy those garbage-like bastards with my two hands?”
“Of course.”

Roan replied shortly. Beryn’s face turned brighter devoid of worries and she nodded her head without hesitation.

“Then you can use my shallow talents however you want. I wish there were no more victims like Grace appearing.”
“Wonderful thinking.”

Roan made a faint smile and stared at Beryn’s two eyes directly.

“Then let’s go with me to Castle Longfort around Inpec.”
“Longfort near Inpec…”

It was more south from the current location and was also the area where Simon and sorcerers had based themselves in, during the war for the throne.

‘And is also the place where the Commander of the Western Armies, Harrison is the lord of.’

Roan was planning to introduce Beryn to Harrison.

‘If it’s Harrison, then he should be able to bring Beryn to another level.’

Harrison didn’t sit back relaxed, while only relying on his talents. He not only practised the methods for training mana, but also did not cease his efforts in attempting reformations and developments of bows and arrows. In addition, adding the several archery skills of different countries into one, he had created his own archery method.

‘I heard he was cooperating with the Magic Tower of Leno in making a magic bow these days.’

Harrison wasn’t just a genius. He was a genius who put in lots of effort, and if it was him, then he would be a great teacher for Beryn.

And,

‘If it’s Miss Beryn, then she would definitely become an archer as skilled as Harrison himself.’

From Roan and the Amaranth Kingdom’s perspectives, they were gaining a skilled general. Several plans were formed in his head.

Then,

“Your majesty. All the preparations are ready.”

Nathan approached and lowered his head. They had taken care of the remains of the altar and cutting off the trees nearby, they had formed a simple yet solid grave. Taking out a few simple foods from his luggage, Roan placed them down and lowered his head. Beryn and the other Taemusas saw that and copied as silence surrounded the area.

‘I was lacking and couldn’t protect you all.’

He said that he would make a good country where everyone could live happily but the reality was different.

Grit.

His hands formed fists and his teeth were clenched.

‘I’ll try harder. No in fact…’

Words and vows like ‘try harder’ were now insufficient.

‘I’ll do it well.’

He realised that it was important to not just try but to perform a lot better than right now. Even right now, the citizens were probably living through dangerous days with their lives on the line and telling them, ‘I’ll try hard so please wait’ was no different from a cruel order that asked them to wait with the resolve to lose their lives.

“Fu.”

Roan let out a deep breath. Looking at Nathan and the several Amaranth Taemusas, he ordered in a low voice.

“We’ll go to Castle Longfort.”
“Yes, sir.”

Their replies were short, and actions were faster than anything. Roan, Beryn, and the Amaranth Taemusas left the Grain Mountain Range and headed south towards the Inpec area. And two days after their departure,

“It seems that he had definitely been in this place.”

Together with a familiar voice, a red-haired beautiful young man showed himself. He, Kalian, made a strange smile when he saw the graves made by the Amaranth Taemusas.

“He seems to have buried the remains of the altar. Quite a good bloke that Roan or whatever.”

In response, Pierce lowered his head from nearby.

“That is right. O great being.”

Ever since he found out that Kalian was a red dragon, he had been using extremely formal words but Kalian did not find that to his liking.

“I told you to get rid of that ‘great being’ thing.”
“But how can I possibly do that to sir dragon…”

Kalian had an expression that he could take it no more and whispered softly.

“Do you want me to run amok a little?”
“Ah…”

Seeing Pierce unable to find any words, Kalian made a little grin.

“Just call me Sir Kalian.”
“Yes I understand. Gre… Sir Kalian.”

Pierce made an awkward smile while Kalian stared back at the empty plot of land with a content expression.

“Hmm.”

A low mutter escaped.

‘It’s a lot worse than we thought.’

The situation was a lot worse than they had presumed.

‘This is why the seal is getting weaker even with all our efforts.’

His mouth felt bitter. Then, Kalian’s two eyes were painted deep scarlet as the scene before him changed. Within the red waves, blurry shadows moved around busily.

‘Due to a lot of time having passed, the memories of the location have blurred out a lot.’

The only things that could be seen clearly were the shadows of Roan, Beryn and the Amaranth Taemusas who had been recently there.

It was then,

‘Hmm?’

Kalian gave a frown. It was because he had seen a trace of something he did not want to see from amongst the blurry shadows.

“Hu.”

Heaving out a short sigh, he stared at Pierce.

“Pierce.”
“Yes, Sir Kalian.”

Pierce who had been looking around at his surroundings came closer and with a little smile, Kalian continued his words.

“There’s a place to visit before we go find Roan Lancephil.”
“Where could that be?”

Carefully, Pierce asked but only a smile came back from Kalian as he reached out his right hand silently. Pierce grabbed onto that hand with an awkward smile and,

Paat!

A pillar of light reached into the skies – once again, the teleport magic had been used.

“Uu.”

With his eyes shut tight, Pierce let out a short moan. He had experienced teleport magic once already but it was still hard to get used to that feeling; his head turned and vomit threatened to escape.

“You can open your eyes now.”

He heard Kalian’s voice coming from the side and pressing hard on his aching temples, Pierce slowly opened his closed eyes.

“Ah…”

In that instant, a short mutter escaped. There were no more signs of the humid, frustrating scenery of the mountain and instead, an extremely large and wide space was before him. However, the reason for his bewilderment was not just the size of the place.

‘J, jewels? Gold? Treasures?’

It wasn’t easy to put anything into words. Only his two eyes moved around busily and wherever they pointed to, there were all sorts of treasures.

“Surprised?”

In response to Kalian’s question, Pierce could only nod his head. And when he was about to move his foot without any thought,

Chwaruruk!

Along with a pleasant sound, the treasures all fell and the mountain of treasures collapsed. Pierce stared at Kalian.

“C, could it be that this place is…?”

He couldn’t end his words but Kalian still gave a nod.

“Right. This is a dragon’s lair.”

Kalian opened his arms wide.

“It is probably the first time after centuries that a human had entered a dragon’s lair.”

Gulp.

Pierce swallowed deep and glancing around the lair, he carefully asked.

“Then is this Sir Kalian’s lair?”

In response, Kalian smiled bitterly and shook his head. Staring at the place where the owner should have been in, he whispered softly.

“No. The owner of this place is a different being. I thought he was hibernating but that wasn’t it.”

It was the instant that his bad premonitions had been on the mark.

Pierce asked once again carefully.

“Then who’s lair could this be?”

Kalian replied nonchalantly.

“Black Dragon Lunark.”

As soon as he finished, Pierce opened his eyes wide and screamed. His astonished voice filled the entire place.

“The Mad Dragon!”

<Dragons (1)> End.

Translator: Lunargrasp
Proofreader: Deathwing