Chapter 273: Sowing Discord

Dragons are powerful beings that no normal mortals can match. Axel and the girls have captured two of these formidable creatures.

At this point, they face two completely divergent choices.

The first option is to let the dragons live. This would be the riskiest choice, considering the potential for them to rise against their captors. However, it could also be the perfect solution for Axel’s current situation. With two dragons under their control, they would have the strength to take on almost any adversary.

The question of how they would make the dragons obey is a separate issue altogether.

The second option is to kill them.

This would eliminate the “threats” before they could become a problem.

After all, the dragons are enemies—beings that have already attempted to deceive and kill them in their quest for the power of an omniscient flame.

Axel, of course, leans toward the latter choice. Keeping dragons as allies is far too risky, especially when they could be considered “enemies.” However, apart from him and Fenrir, the rest of the girls support the former choice.

“Let’s keep them,” Eve pleaded.

“I understand they’re powerful, and it’s a risk to have them by our side… but we can’t overlook how much stronger we would be if we could bring these two into our camp!”

Arianne stepped forward to voice her agreement.

“I agree with Princess Eve. Right now, we can’t afford to be choosy about how we strengthen our camp. Having two creatures like that on our side would be a significant advantage.”

“But the problem is that they’re wild creatures—dragons,” Ethernina pointed out, crossing her arms.

She was neither fully for nor against the idea; she stood somewhere in the middle, undecided.

“And just to clarify, no Obedience Curse would work on these dragons. They’re too powerful for such trivial spells.” She continued. “So, the question of how to tame them becomes crucial.”

“Wouldn’t the shop have something suitable for this situation?” Ria chimed in, tilting her head in curiosity. “Perhaps something like slave collars for dragons or something similar…”

“If such a thing existed, dragons would have been hunted to extinction, and they would all be pets by now,” Axel sighed.

The group’s opinions leaned toward saving the dragons, seeing them as an extra set of hands—or rather, claws. Axel, however, refrained from forcing his agenda on them, even though he believed that the option of killing the dragons seemed simpler and less risky.

“Then, what if…”

But when Beatrix contributed her thoughts, everyone quickly became convinced.

The plan was modified and implemented without delay.

…

CLANG!

The sound of metal grinding echoed in the air.

Bellachrona slowly opened her eyes, staring at the marbled ground illuminated by the faint flames flickering from the torches mounted on the walls.

“This place is…” she whispered as she took in her surroundings.

She found herself in a large room that resembled a dungeon, with concrete floors and walls—material she could likely shatter with a single swing of her hand.

“Ugh…!”

Yet, her mind was foggy, as if she had been asleep for centuries and had just awakened. Thoughts eluded her, and a pulsing pain throbbed at her temple.

Looking up, she realized she was chained to the walls. Her hands were bound above her head, leaving her to dangle from the ceiling, her feet hovering about a foot off the ground, also shackled to the floor.

“…!”

The issue, however, lay in the material of the chains.

They rang like metal, appeared to be blue metal, but felt like leather and silk against her skin—a strange sensation that contradicted their appearance.

“You’re awake.”

“Huh?!”

A voice echoed, prompting her to raise her head quickly, eyes focused straight ahead.

From the darkness, a single figure emerged. A man in a suit walked in with confidence, wearing a thin, calculated smile. It was Axel!

“It’s been about 24 hours… Do you still remember me?” he asked teasingly.

“Axel!”

Bella’s voice was deep, laced with resentment and anger.

CLINK! CLANK!

She struggled against the chains, trying to break free, but the sound echoed loudly in the silence around her. It was strange; with her strength, uprooting the chains or lifting the entire floor shouldn’t have been difficult. Yet, despite her efforts, they barely budged.

“Ah, don’t waste your energy,” Axel said, shaking his head with a sigh. “The chains binding you are modeled after Gleipnir—but they’re specifically designed for dragons. In short, while they are weaker than Gleipnir, you can’t remove or break them, no matter how hard you try.”

“What did you say…?”

Bella’s eyes widened in shock.

But it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, Gleipnir was crafted by the dwarves as well. One form exists in a different, higher dimension, closer to that of the Gods themselves.

This meant that even the dwarves Axel had now “should” be able to create something similar, provided they had the right tools, skills, stats, and knowledge.

“Don’t tell me…!” Bella quickly pieced it together, showcasing her sharp dragon intelligence. “Did you use the Hearthfire of Nidavellir already?!”

Axel smiled but remained silent.

He didn’t need to clarify.

The dwarves might possess skill, but they were far from capable of forging something akin to the real Gleipnir. Without enhancing their “knowledge” and “skill,” creating the chains binding Bella would have been impossible.

And that problem was resolved directly through the use of the Hearthfire.

With knowledge drawn from the planet itself and skills refined through generations of dwarven research, the dwarves forged a fetter to control dragons—The Fetters of Drómi!

These chains were crafted from Mithril and God Mineral.

Not only would they “not break,” but they would also “weaken the target by 99%.”

With these on her, Bella was effectively 100 times weaker than usual!

In short, escaping from this place would be nothing more than a dream within a dream!

“Wait…” As her mind settled, she recalled something else. “W-Where’s Fafnir?! You didn’t do anything to him, did you?!”

Axel frowned, pressing a finger to his chin as he contemplated.

“Ah, you mean him?” he said, gesturing behind him with a thumb.

As if on cue, the torches in the next room ignited one by one, casting orange light into the adjacent space. This was a room surrounded by steel bars.

In the center lay a single figure—a dragon approximately 10 meters long. Its obsidian scales were missing several pieces, some stained with blue blood. Its limbs trembled, with blue stakes protruding from some of its body, pinning it to the ground.

“Faf…”

Bella fell silent, her eyes wide with disbelief.

She couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing.

The proud, greedy dragon—the infamous Evil Dragon, Fafnir—had been reduced to a mere plaything. It lay there, reminiscent of a frog on a dissection board, pinned helplessly in place.

A storm of emotions surged within Bella.

First came disbelief, then shock, followed by worry and anger, until finally, rage consumed her.

CLANK!

Bella tugged at the chains binding her, desperately trying to lean forward, her eyes burning with rage and her teeth grinding. “BASTARD! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!”

“Oh, no. Don’t get mad at me.”

Despite facing a dragon’s fury, Axel maintained his earlier smile, as if he were casually chatting with an old friend.

“This is something he wished for,” Axel explained. “We asked him before all this: to undergo torture himself or to let us torture you instead, and… ah! What a touching outcome…”

He whispered, moving exaggeratedly like a theater actor.

“He chose to save himself!”

Then he dropped the bombshell.

“…Huh?”

Bella was flabbergasted.

If that was his choice, then shouldn’t she be the one battered and injured instead?

However, it was the opposite. Despite his desire to save himself, it was Fafnir who was beaten black and blue, teetering on the edge of death.

“His greed, selfishness, and glib tongue worked, asking us to beat you up instead of him. He didn’t want us to harm him. He was even willing to give you to us if it meant saving himself… So we did the complete opposite!”

“…”

Bellachrona struggled to believe Axel’s words.

Yet, she also understood that Fafnir would certainly say such things when pushed to the edge. Greed was the very trait that had transformed him into a dragon, after all.

The greed for knowledge, for power… for attention.

“Shut up…”

She wanted to deny Axel’s claims, to refute him.

Yet deep down, she was already convinced that his words held a kernel of truth.

Her expression fell as her struggle ceased. She lay there silently, almost like a corpse.

Seeing this, Axel smiled.

’Too easy,’ he thought.

Of course, his words were far from the truth.

Right after the dwarves completed the Fetters of Drómi, Fafnir was bound and awakened. Then, they made a simple declaration: “Starting now, you will be beaten. Each time you cry out in pain, we’ll beat Bellachrona twice.”

Almost immediately, his answer came.

[Don’t touch her. Beat me all you want, but don’t you dare touch Bella.]

A manly declaration that even made Axel feel a fleeting sense of camaraderie for the dragon… but he quickly dismissed it. After all, this was all still part of the plan.

Thus, Axel proceeded to beat Fafnir mercilessly.

With his stats sealed by Drómi, it wasn’t even challenging to kill him. Axel could do it as easily as breathing, but he didn’t. He controlled his strength, ensuring the injuries were near-fatal, but never closing that last half-step to the edge.

However, contrary to his expectations, the dragon endured the full four hours of torture before finally fainting. Not once did he groan, let alone cry out in pain.

Even under Nina’s and Ria’s curse, which inflicted agony akin to having his soul torn apart, his lips remained sealed.

Reflecting on all that, Axel couldn’t help but wonder.

’How the fuck is this an evil dragon… He’s naught but a fucking man with balls of steel!’

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