Chapter 296

A dragon flies.

The black mass of a body, though split and cracked all over, still flew.

Dripping blue flames from the gaping fissures, groaning in persistent agony, I burst forth, as if sprouting a new shoot, rising up from the depths of the earth.

“—Oh!”

“Ha, haha, ha—!”

Velgil and Yosef Haider were on my back.

They did not spare their admiration for the black dragon that had ripped through Kosavagarobira in one go.

Especially Yosef Haider, who let out a huge laugh at the fresh air he was breathing for the first time in seven years. Even for Yosef Haider, seven years of confinement was bound to be stifling.

“Incredible! You are more remarkable than I thought, Zionis, Your Highness!”

Yosef jumped up and down on my back.

This was in contrast to Velgil, who held firmly onto one of the scales for fear of falling.

He was exhilarated and showered me with praise.

Seven years ago, I was just an eleven-year-old brat whose motives were unclear!

“Good! Fly now, Your Highness! Fly!”

I paid no mind.

My half-shattered soul had no strength to care about Yosef’s trivial words.

I merely flapped my wings. The wings I had only just found, the wings that were so weak, but still wings.

I flew.

Continuously.

To a place that was not here.

***

“…A hole.”

Ruckerdius muttered.

Even after having all his teeth broken, he somehow managed to articulate the pronunciation accurately.

Lest it be forgotten, I will explain again: he was one of the prisoners confined in Kosavagarobira.

He was famous as a bandit among bandits, but he was left in a gruesome state for having defied Yosef and his comrades had dragged him away to be used for food.

Ruckerdius was desperately resisting with both legs shattered, and was on the verge of becoming someone’s meal.

If I had not torn a hole in Kosavagarobira and flown out.

“…The sky.”

“It’s the sky!”

Prisoners crawled out from all corners of Kosavagarobira.

Their numbers exceeded one hundred. These were the ones who had somehow survived in the worst prison, where they were given neither food nor water.

Ruckerdius, the ones who were about to eat him, and the other prisoners immediately took off running.

They eagerly headed towards the hole.

Towards the sky, the place where the blue they thought they would never see again shone through.

Shouts that were hard to distinguish who they belonged to erupted everywhere.

“We can, we can get out!”

“Finally…!”

Ruckerdius groaned, dragging his broken legs.

He could not join the procession of prisoners and only shouted from behind.

The crowd of prisoners ahead gifted him with wretchedness.

“…Take me, take me too! I also…!”

“Kahat.”

A scratching sound of laughter.

Ruckerdius knew the boy standing beside him.

Because of that, he dared not look up.

Ruckerdius stopped, filled with terror.

He thought it was a relief that he was not in the group of prisoners he had so desperately wanted to join.

“Like a bug.”

The boy’s name was Belcram.

He claimed to be a Pilgrim, a being who crossed star to star.

However, he was not simply a mentally unstable person.

He was the second most dangerous being in all of Kosavagarobira.

There were nine rings on Belcram’s forearm. He lightly flicked his wrist, and the rings flew.

The nine rings flew through the air, increasing in size, and sparking with lightning between them.

The sudden lightning struck the fleeing prisoners directly.

“Tingly, isn’t it?”

The lightning held the prisoners fast.

In the meantime, there was a flame flying through the sky.

It was Mileyu, a Spirit-human.

He blocked the hole leading to the sky so that no one could pass.

The prisoners wailed.

“Things from the bottom…!”

“…Why! Why are you blocking us!”

“Let us out! Didn’t you want to get out too!”

The prisoners of Kosavagarobira collectively cursed, raged, and cried as they gnashed their teeth.

They couldn’t overcome Mileyu and Belcram no matter how hard they struggled.

Meanwhile, the hole I had made was gradually closing.

The distant blue sky was filled with nothing but resentment.

Why, why? Everyone asked for a reason.

They cried out, wondering why their fellow prisoners were stopping them.

Neither Mileyu nor Belcram answered. Instead, from below, from the deepest bottom, a woman draped in purple cloth walked out.

“You already know the reason.”

Strangely, as the woman appeared, the prisoners knelt.

No, it was not strange.

It was quite natural.

She was once the ‘Last Emperor’, this was the Cordis Empire, and they were the imperial people.

Thus, kneeling and obeying was only natural.

Both the prisoners who were wailing to get out and the ones from the bottom who were blocking them all knelt before Aurelia.

Only Belcram watched the situation, laughing with a Kahat.

He was unaffected by Aurelia.

Perhaps he truly was a being from beyond the stars.

“You have sinned.”

Aurelia spoke in a benevolent voice.

She did not seem to intend to scold them, but she was utterly resolute.

“And you have not yet paid the full price.”

At her gesture, the prisoners turned around.

Their desire to leave was instantly, sharply broken. Aurelia’s single word was more powerful than their deep wailing.

Over a hundred prisoners simultaneously turned around and began heading toward the prison, toward the place where they belonged.

Tears were streaming down their faces.

“So wait quietly for your time.”

The hole closed.

The visible sky was obscured, and once again, earth and fire blocked their way.

***

Velgil looked down.

Kosavagarobira was already far away.

“So fast….”

He muttered without realizing it.

Having turned into a black dragon, I was carrying the two of them and flying north.

“At this rate, we’ll reach the Silver Dragon Magic Kingdom soon. Yes. If we just keep going like this….”

“Hey! Velgil! Don’t say things like that…!”

No sooner had Yosef flared up than a Roar echoed.

With a KABOOM sound, flames erupted from my flank.

This was followed by thousands of volleys of Booming Sound.

Artillery fire.

The Cordis soldiers were not fools.

They would not leave the black dragon, which had broken through Kosavagarobira and appeared in the sky, alone.

I writhed in agony from the shelling.

“…Damn it! Hold tight, Velgil!”

…Oh! I somehow endured the bombardment.

No matter how weakened I was, I was still the ‘Dragon of Six Horns’.

The iron-wound sinews were not something that could be pierced by ordinary cannonballs.

However, a bright yellow flame soared up from the ground. It struck my chest, eventually causing me to plummet.

…Oh, ohhh….

The black dragon crashed.

My massive body rolled across the ground, pushing aside trees and hills.

The displaced clumps of dirt amounted to the size of several citadels.

The crashed dragon writhed and then I returned to my human form.

Yosef clicked his tongue as he looked at me, the wounded regressor prince.

“…I knew this would happen!”

The one-eyed man complained, yet quickly approached my side.

He wiped the wounds on my body and bandaged the ones that looked particularly severe.

All the while, he did not stop complaining.

“It was unstable from the start. Tsk. Since I promised, I have to protect you. Pick him up, Velgil. Get out of here.”

“…I apologize.”

“Apologize! Do you really think we crashed because of your words?”

Yosef chuckled in disbelief.

Then he firmly gripped his double-edged sword. Velgil was confused because it looked like he was preparing to fight.

Yosef answered his confusion with irritation.

“Ah. I told you to take His Highness and get out! What are you doing!”

“…And you, Yosef Sir?”

“I can’t go!”

The old man scratched his eye.

The empty eye socket side.

He finally couldn’t stand it and put his hand inside the eyepatch to scratch furiously.

Yosef Haider bared his yellow teeth and laughed heartily.

“Didn’t you feel it?”

“……?”

Velgil tilted his head.

He was a promising young warrior from Volmark.

As he caught his breath and broadened his senses, he felt a great tremor coming from somewhere.

No, he had been feeling it all along, but had unconsciously ignored it.

This was because the tremor was so vast that he didn’t think it could be human.

A massive tremor, no different from the fire pit of Lake Yechern, was approaching them.

“I was wondering whether Deballo or that bastard would come, but considering the location, it must be you.”

Yosef snickered.

He had already seen through the enemy’s identity from the bright yellow flame that had caused me to crash.

“Sen. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”

“Sen Sorti?”

“Why would Sen Sorti be here, you idiot!”

Yosef shouted at Velgil’s question.

Aish, I thought he was a smart guy…. He pointed his finger at the approaching enemy.

“Sen Hostanio is coming!”

“……The Two-Flame Grand General!!!”

***

A Thud sound.

A bright yellow flame enveloping his entire body, an old man holding a single sword.

The 2nd seat of the Ten Great Generals of the Empire of Cordis, the Two-Flame Grand General, Sen Hostanio.

“Yosef.”

Flames flickered every time Sen Hostanio spoke.

He breathed fire from his nose and mouth with every breath. Velgil trembled at the massive, inhuman presence.

“When I heard that a dragon burst out of Kosavagarobira, I figured you would be involved.”

“Huh? That’s unfair! Why did you think it was me?”

“Aren’t you actually involved?”

Sen Hostanio held up his double-edged sword.

The sword, too, was aflame, blazing fiercely. Yosef also snorted and gripped his double-edged axe.

Both their sword and axe were sharply honed and flashed a brilliant blue.

The Two-Flame Grand General glanced at Velgil and me, whom he carried on his back.

It was hard to recognize me because of the wounds and soot.

But my small physique and blonde hair were discernible.

“…That must be Zionis, Your Highness. If you set him down and leave, I will pretend not to have seen anything.”

“Pretend not to have seen anything? The rigid Two-Flame Grand General?”

“…Too much blood has been shed lately.”

Sen Hostanio showed clear signs of fatigue.

It had been months since the war ended.

But Sen Hostanio’s heart was still in the middle of the war. He had had to kill several innocent children and old people, and he remembered their faces.

Therefore, he simply did not want to fight anymore.

“Hmm. You don’t want to fight… then I have something to ask too. Velgil!”

“Yes, Yosef Sir.”

“Rene Haider, how is my only grandson doing?”

“Yes. He is stronger than me now.”

“Hoo-oh! He’s living quite well! While his own grandfather is rotting in prison!”

Yosef chuckled.

“Then the answer is clear.”

Yosef chuckled.

He was a frog-in-a-well old man. If told not to do something, he wanted to do it more.

If asked to do something, he wanted to do it less!

“Velgil! Run!”

“…Yes, Yosef Sir!”

Velgil, carrying me, sprinted.

As a man resembling a reindeer, his running speed was extraordinary.

Sen Hostanio tried to chase him immediately, but Yosef Haider’s interference prevented him from doing so.

“Yosef, you’ll be hit by this pillar of fire…!”

“Listen, Sen.”

Yosef Haider was thrilled.

He had just gripped his axe for the first time in seven years, and he couldn’t help but feel joyful.

“I also accumulated quite a bit of fatigue from being confined for seven years. I’d rather just rest.”

“…Then you should have! Wasn’t Zionis, Your Highness, the one you tried to kill seven years ago!”

“That was then. Now, I’ve grown quite fond of our prince.”

Sen Hostanio was an old man who was all fire.

Not only was he enveloped in flames, but every sword strike he unleashed was intense, resembling a fierce blaze.

However, Yosef still wore an impish smile.

As if Sen Hostanio’s sword strikes were easy.

“More than anything…….”

Yosef had seen it.

He distinctly saw me weeping, saying, Poesia, Poesia, my beautiful Chyallo flower, my only daughter. At that moment, he decided.

He would save that boy, who had already become wretched at such a young age, and then die.

His life was old anyway; he would give it to that boy.

“…You don’t do that to a parent who has lost their child.”

Yosef Haider also knew.

He knew the heart of a parent who had lost their child better than anyone.

The very edge of his heart was still deeply rotten. If he did not laugh exaggeratedly, Ha, haha, ha, the stench of rot would rise up at any moment.

“Let’s die together, old man, Sen. You’re too tired too, aren’t you?”

“Who decided that…!”

“I did!”

Yosef Haider’s Ars,

Solagarmr (Sun Hound).

“Ha, haha, ha—!!!”

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