* * *
Ancient Dragon Eruhaben chuckled in admiration and disbelief.
“Ha. I didn’t know there would be such a large cave underneath the capital.”
The northern part of the Haru Kingdom's capital.
Eruhaben left the palace with Bailey to a small hidden door underneath the northern wall of the capital.
He walked through the door and down to see a large cave that was multiple times as large as the palace.
In the darkest part of that cave…
"Excuse me, could you please let me know who you are?”
Clear green things were sparkling in the darkness.
Eruhaben was amazed once again.
“How huge.”
Dragons reached large bodies close to 30 meters when they became adult Dragons, and Eruhaben was that large as well in his Dragon form.
However, he still could not help but gasp.
“I can’t see the end.”
He could see it despite being in the darkness.
A large snake dozens of meters long was coiled up, quietly observing Eruhaben.
“Ha.”
The ancient Dragon was truly flabbergasted.
He had never seen such a large Snake beast person, no, he had never seen such a large Beast people even including Dragons.
However, he could not just keep standing here in awe.
“I am Eruhaben.”
He introduced himself to the white snake in front of him.
"Also-”
Eruhaben stopped for a moment before tossing a comment.
“I came to this world to destroy the Purple Bloods.”
Ssss–
The air in the basement changed for a moment.
The stuffy and damp air turned sharp for a moment. Bailey subconsciously curled up.
The white snake and Eruhaben…
She realized that staying back and feigning ignorance was the answer for her between these two individuals.
She heard a voice at that moment. The voice coming from the darkness was as calm as before.
“Sir, are you not from his world?”
"That is correct.”
Eruhaben answered and the white snake asked another question.
“Sir, have you come to take down the Hunters?”
“Yes. Well-”
Eruhaben chuckled and added on.
“I also came to beat up some annoying Dragons.”
“Pfft.”
The sound of the white snake chuckling could be heard in the darkness. However, the voice calmly asked another question.
“Oh Dragon from a different world than hours. Do you know of Maxillienne?”
Eruhaben answered him.
“The ring, crown, and sword. We’ve brought them all.”
Maxillienne.
The traces of the Dragon they found in the secret area within the Sichuan Castle Lord's study.
That Dragon was Maxillienne and the ring, crown, and sword were the items she had left behind.
Shhhhhhh-
He could hear the white snake moving.
“Sir, who brought those items?”
The white snake asked another question and Eruhaben answered.
“Qualified individuals have received those items.”
Eruhaben could see the white snake that extended her head out of the darkness.
The snake’s head was a bit taller than Eruhaben.
A snake that large moved over to Eruhaben and lowered her head.
“Sir, are you the master of the ring?”
“I do currently possess it, yes.”
Of course, it was not for Eruhaben.
He was just holding it without giving it to Raon.
"Then sir, are you the hope?”
What was the white snake saying right now?
She was saying that the master of the ring was the hope.
She was asking if he was that hope.
Eruhaben answered her without any hesitation.
"Let’s cut the nonsense.”
Bailey's eyes opened wide as she watched.
Eruhaben didn't care and just stared into the white snake's green eyes.
“You have Dragon Fear as well.”
“!”
Bailey silently gasped in shock after hearing that.
Eruhaben shook his head.
“No. You are a Snake so it is not Dragon Fear.”
Shh.
Eruhaben waved his hand in the air.
“Let's not do this useless battle of will.”
Bailey finally realized the sharp aura surrounding the entire cave disappeared. She also realized that this was the white snake's fear.
The white snake slowly opened her mouth.
“…You called it nonsense?”
“Yes. It is nonsense.”
One corner of Eruhaben's lips curled up.
"Why are we the hope of your world? We have no responsibility or duty to fight for that hope.”
Eruhaben already had negative emotions toward Maxillienne.
He got extremely annoyed at the fact that that motherfucking Dragon called Raon the hope or whatnot to save Aipotu.
‘Did she age without any brains?!
How can you leave such a heavy duty on a six, no, it’s the new year, now seven year old baby Dragon?!
If her attribute is the future and she knew about Cale’s existence, she should have known that Raon was young!
Terrible shits.
Aren't they all ashamed of their own ages?
1,009 years old. No, as now a 1,010 years old ancient Dragon, Eruhaben could not accept this situation.
Eruhaben's attitude was getting worse since Cale wasn't here with him. His original personality was slowly coming out.
‘Is it because I became rejuvenated?’
Eruhaben could feel himself being more honest with his emotions and being less controlled.
It was how he had been at times during his youth.
The ancient Dragon did not stop himself from acting this way. He treated this as how it was meant to be as well.
Those wild emotions soon calmed down.
The years he had lived, his years of experience, had given him a sense of understanding.
‘Of course, that could have been the only way for them.’
He understood how desperate they must have been to leave all of their hopes on a young Dragon.
Furthermore, he also believed that they should save Aipotu, which was tangled up with Choi Jung Gun, the Hunters, and all sorts of messes.
It still didn't change the fact that Eruhaben didn't like the white snake’s demeanor with her mentioning the hope as soon as he met her. He frowned even more.
“Seeing as how you brought up Maxillienne, I guess I was right.”
He continued to speak to the white snake.
“Move your head. No, move that large body of yours.”
He looked into the darkness past the white snake.
“Hey.”
Eruhaben nonchalantly commented.
“You. Yes, you.”
Cale had told him.
Aipotu. Cale said that there was a Dragon they had to find once they got to this world.
It was an existence Cale believed to be an ally.
He said that the Dragon's attribute was highly likely to be helpful to them.
Eruhaben had noticed it the moment the white snake mentioned Maxillienne.
Furthermore, he understood the reason the white snake suddenly released a power similar to Dragon Fear.
"Are you that Dragon who can see the past?”
The existence that the white snake was trying to hide…
Within the darkness… There was a middle-aged individual whose hair was a mysterious color that was neither black nor dark blue.
Step, step.
That person walked forward.
‘My goodness.’
Bailey was shocked that someone was really there.
She had not noticed this person at all.
“!”
She was then shocked once more.
The shabby looking middle-aged man's beard and hair was extremely messy.
‘His eye-’
He had one eye closed.
The other eye was covered by an eye patch, making her unable to see it.RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only
“…….”
“…….”
Both Eruhaben and the middle-aged man… They silently observed each other.
The middle-aged man was the one to break the silence.
“I saw the past.”
Eruhaben’s eyebrows slightly rose up.
“Hold on.”
He raised his hand to stop the middle-aged man from speaking.
Everybody looked toward Eruhaben. His reaction seemed serious.
Only the middle-aged man was quiet.
Eruhaben finally asked after a bit.
“How old are you?”
Bailey’s pupils started shaking.
Eruhaben added on at that moment.
“By the way, I’m over 1,000 years old.”
“…….”
The silent aged opened his mouth.
“…Senior, I saw the past.”
“Good, good.”
Eruhaben finally seemed satisfied and nodded his head for the middle-aged man to continue.
Bailey's jaw dropped as she watched in shock, but the white snake, ancient Dragon, and the middle-aged man all paid her no attention.
The middle-aged man calmly continued to speak.
“Approximately 250 years ago.”
The cataclysmic period had struck Aipotu about 200 years ago.
250 years would be much farther in the past than that time.
As Eruhaben's eyes clouded over…
“Senior, I saw a moment of that period of time.”
The middle-aged man continued to speak inside the quiet cave.
“There were two existences who came to see the current Dragon Lord.”
Bailey realized that she was learning about the inside story, at least a part of it, that started this whole thing.
"Senior, they advised the Dragon Lord about how to suppress this world and rule over it.”
The middle-aged man stopped for a moment and Eruhaben asked.
"Who were those two existences?”
“Senior, one was a wanderer.”
Wanderers.
Single-lifers like Choi Han became wanderers if they did not become gods or at least work as god candidates after their deaths.
Cale’s group had learned before coming here that some of those wanderers were Hunters.
"That wanderer must have been from the Five Colors Bloods.”
Eruhaben's calm comment made the middle-aged man gently smile for the first time.
“Senior, you seem to know more than I expected.”
“This is nothing.”
Eruhaben responded that this was no big deal before urging the middle-aged man to continue.
“Who was the other person?”
“…….”
It was at that moment.
‘!’
Eruhaben’s eyes opened wide.
“You-”
Drip.
Blood dripped down from the middle-aged man's mouth.
There was silence for a bit. The middle-aged man acted as if it was nothing and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his mouth.
He then faintly smiled.
"Senior, I was unable to see from the moment I was born. However, while this eye could not see the present, it showed me the things that have come to pass. That was why I thought to myself the moment I learned about my attribute. I thought that I must have lost my eyes because I saw things that I was not supposed to see.”
Eruhaben scowled as if he was hearing some nonsense when the middle-aged man continued to speak.
“Sometimes I end up like this when I try to say things that I should not be saying. It is especially like this when the truth in my mouth is extremely heavy.”
“…….”
Eruhaben closed his open mouth.
How heavy was this truth, just what was the past that this Dragon saw?
What was it that was making a Dragon bleed from his mouth?
‘Mmm.’
Eruhaben had a bad feeling about this.
A truth that even a Dragon could not handle…
That-
Eruhaben could not hold it in anymore and asked.
“Was it a god?”
A clear smile formed on the middle-aged man's face.
"Senior, I cannot see all of the past. I can only see the short glimpses that I am allowed to see. That is why I was unable to see or hear about the method the Dragon Lord used to rule over this world.”
However…
“However, I was able to clearly make out the two individuals who taught him that method.”
They were imprinted in his mind as if it was part of his instincts.
It was as if this was information he must know, part of the way things were supposed to be.
“Oh esteemed ancient Dragon.”
The middle-aged man was bleeding again as he spoke.
He then slowly opened his eyes.
Bailey flinched.
There was nothing where his eye should have been.
There was only deep darkness.
Eruhaben looked into that darkness.
The Dragon continued to speak.
"War. It was War who came.”
Then the middle-aged man's body staggered.
The white snake moved her tail so that the middle-aged man would not fall.
Eruhaben watched him with a stiff expression.
War.
He must have been talking about the God of War.
‘The God of War came with a wanderer from the Five Colors Bloods to tell the Dragon Lord about how to rule over this world?
Is the God of War on the Hunters’ side?’
As Eruhaben's mind was about to turn chaotic…
‘The God of War-
Has some ties to us.’
First of all, Cale’s ancient power, the Sky Eating Water, was originally the Water of Judgment as coined by the God of War.
Eruhaben's face turned extremely cold.
The God of War.
Eruhaben thought about when he last met a believer of that god.
‘Endable!’
Arm and the White Star… The person serving the God of War helped Cale’s people avoid danger in Endable, the city where the White Star was king.
“…Deputy Chief Priest Cotton.”
Eruhaben recalled her name as well as something else.
‘The White Star’s Palace… We found a weird place deep in the basement. There seems to be traces of going through to a different dimension here. I would not have noticed it without having experienced going through different dimensions through the Church of the God of Death.’
‘There is also the aura of a god in those traces.’
That was what he had said to Cale.
While Eruhaben remained in Roan instead of going to the Central Plains, he had found those traces of dimension travel in Eruhaben with the aura of a god.
He had not thought much of it, but-
‘What if Deputy Chief Priest Cotton was not an ally but one of the people behind it all?
What if that was the reason she hid her identity as a follower of the God of War and stayed by the White Star's side as the Deputy Chief Priest?’
Similar to how the Hunters had treated the White Star as a sacrifice or a means to an end…
What if she had been there to spy on the White Star and assess the situation?
“Ha!”
Eruhaben subconsciously scoffed.
“Unbelievable.”
He felt as if he could slowly see how things were going.
“Hey.”
He approached the middle-aged man and asked.
"Who else knows about this?”
“Huuuuu.”
The middle-aged man was breathing out to calm himself but answered without any hesitation.
"Senior, it has not been long since I saw this past. It has not even been half a year. Everybody in this cave right now… And one more person knows about it.”
"Who is that other person?”
Eruhaben asked and the middle-aged man looked at him.
"Senior, do you know Choi Jung Gun?”
Eruhaben instantly had a thought.
‘I need to go to Cale as quickly as possible.’
That was why he immediately started to move.
"White snake. And you.”
Eruhaben extended his hand toward them as he spoke.
Ooooooooong-
He released his Dragon Fear and golden dust started rising around him.
“Come with me somewhere.”
He saw the large white snake’s body, but it didn’t matter.
Ooooo—
A large teleportation magic circle that seemed to cover this entire underground cave appeared.
“Tell us the rest once we get there.”
A teleportation magic circle to the Black Castle was completed.
* * *
Cale was enjoying the warmth around him from the furnace as he leaned back against a couch.
Shh.
The cloth covering the entrance of the tent was lifted up and someone walked in.
It was Choi Han.
"Cale-nim, I don’t see the enemies yet.”
“They apparently passed the border, so they should teleport here soon.”
Cale calmly spoke as he looked toward the open door flap that was letting cold air in.
He could see the snow covered empty plains.
It was one of the few flat areas on this dangerous mountain range and the place they had made Captain Zenyu kneel.
However, that plain had changed a bit.
“Miss Rosalyn truly is amazing.”
On both sides of the plain…
There were large ice walls.
“I heard that Miss Witira helped as well, Cale-nim.”
“But the magic circles inside those ice walls were done by Miss Rosalyn and the mages.”
"That is true.”
Cale calmly commented.
"Those are not walls but weapons. Siege weapons at that.”
Cale shook his head as if he really couldn’t control Rosalyn. He then pointed to the entrance as he spoke to Choi Han.
“It’s cold. Let's close it.”
He then turned his gaze.
“Hey.”
There was someone on the ground completely bound.
It was Kendall, who could not even look at Cale properly.
"What is the Holy Water?”
He closed his mouth at Cale’s question.
Cale asked one more time.
“It’s the World Tree, isn't it?”
Kendall flinched.
Smile. Cale smiled brightly as he commented.
“It's obvious so just tell me.”
He then quietly added on.
“If you wish to live, that is.”
“!”
Of course, Cale had no plans on killing Kendall.
He had many uses for this bastard.
Kendall's pupils were shaking nonstop.
Cale relaxed in this cozy tent as he waited for the subjugation squad to arrive.
—
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