Chapter 248
“…Snnnnrrr! Fwiiiu.”
This was the Dragon Cave.
The Dragon King’s abode, and a sacred place revered by every dragon in the world.
A vast dungeon cavern so spacious that even ten enormous dragons could form teams and play a full-court basketball game without it feeling cramped in the slightest.
Within it, the sound of Dragon King Verkis’s snoring rang out rich and loud.
His current posture, fused together with the sofa, was simply too comfortable.
The blanket that some human had draped over him was wonderfully warm.
And on top of that, the gentle breeze from that human’s fanning was refreshingly cool.
There was no way it could not feel this cozy.
His eyelids slowly drooped shut on their own.
Before he knew it, he had started charging full speed into dreamland.
In other words, Verkis had entered a state of perfect deep sleep.
That made the corners of Lloyd’s lips curl upward.
‘Heh-heh, perfect.’
Mission: Put the shut-in bum to sleep, success.
A deeply satisfied smile spread across Lloyd’s face.
He quietly observed Dragon King Verkis, who had completely passed out.
Just in case, he even checked whether the Dragon King had truly fallen asleep.
He waved his carefully spread hand back and forth right in front of the Dragon King’s face.
As expected, there was no response.
If anything…
“Fwiiiiuuu! Nngh, smack.”
His breathing grew even more comfortable.
This was real.
He was fully asleep.
Once Lloyd was certain, he rose onto his toes and quietly backed away from the Dragon King.
Javier, who had been watching from the side the whole time, asked,
“Lloyd-nim, what exactly did you do?”
“What do you mean, what did I do?”
Lloyd grinned.
“I put the Dragon King to sleep.”
“I saw that part myself, so I know that much, but…”
The suspicion on Javier’s face deepened.
“What exactly are you planning to do after putting the Dragon King to sleep like that?”
“Two things.”
“Two things?”
“Yeah.”
Lloyd continued,
“One, not getting on the Dragon King’s bad side. I got the feeling the moment I first saw him. You saw it too, didn’t you? He looked at us and then went straight to sleep without even greeting us.”
“Yes, I saw it too.”
“Right?”
“Yes. He looked rather like the old Lloyd-nim.”
“…Huh?”
“I mean the Lloyd-nim from back in those days, when no matter how much people tried to wake you the morning after getting completely drunk, you absolutely would not get up.”
“……”
“You may not remember, but back then you were exactly like that. You never got up. The more people tried to wake you, the more you’d explode in anger, hurl curses, and throw whatever objects happened to be within reach.”
“……”
“Thinking back on those days, I understand your intention now. Indeed. There is probably no surer way to irritate someone than forcibly waking a person who wants to keep sleeping.”
“……”
Was that a compliment?
Or had that shameless direct hit just knocked all his teeth out?
Lloyd felt sorrow bubbling up inside him in waves.
It was a little unfair.
‘Ah, damn it. The Lloyd from back then wasn’t me, you idiot.’
But neither Javier nor anyone else in this world could possibly know that.
That truth was his alone to know.
His own private secret.
So this was an original sin he would simply have to carry.
Thinking that, Lloyd forcibly put on a brazen expression and let out a sharp snort.
“Tch. Seriously, you’re way too consistently talented at beating people with words. Anyway, you’re right. My first intention was exactly that—not to get on the Dragon King’s bad side.”
“Then what’s the second?”
“Loafing around.”
“…Pardon?”
“Did you not hear me? I said I’m going to loaf around.”
“Here, of all places?”
“Yeah.”
As though it were the most obvious thing in the world, Lloyd nodded vigorously.
Then he continued in a thoroughly shameless, matter-of-fact tone.
“Think about it. The Dragon King called us here, didn’t he? He even sent a manticore for us. And after seeing us come in, he didn’t say a word, right? So what does that mean? It means we’re officially invited guests here. Isn’t that right?”
“That much is true, but…”
“Since we’ve been invited, we ought to enjoy ourselves. The Dragon King is dead asleep anyway. Forcing him awake doesn’t feel right. And it’s not like the Dragon King is going to sleep for years, right? So while we wait, we might as well have some fun.”
“And what exactly do you intend to do for fun?”
“Lounge around.”
The corners of Lloyd’s lips slowly lifted.
Lolling about with nothing to do.
Simply sprawling out like an unemployed bum.
It was what he had wanted most of all for the longest time.
And seeing the Dragon King stretched out like that only stimulated that desire even more.
Because deep down, he had been exhausted.
“To be honest, I want to rest a little. Just think about it. How long have I been doing nothing but work now?”
“Well, nearly five months in Hell, and then…”
“And right before going to Hell, I spent what, about half a year doing construction on Her Majesty the Queen’s Termina Grand Garden, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“Exactly. So that means I’ve spent nearly a whole year busting my ass nonstop without getting any real rest, right?”
“You’ve been quite diligent.”
“I am not happy to hear that.”
“You have been unable to be lazy.”
“Yeah, exactly that. Anyway, that’s why.”
Lloyd pointed deeper into the vast cavern of the Dragon Cave.
“This is basically a rare vacation. Who’s going to bother me while I’m inside the Dragon Cave? Right?”
It was true.
In a sense, this was the safest place in the world.
This was the Dragon Cave, where the Dragon King himself resided.
Who would dare come looking for trouble here?
Who would dare come calling for him here?
Quite literally, this was a place that guaranteed perfect freedom and rest, free from interference by anyone at all.
And from that moment on.
Lloyd openly began enjoying his rest in the Dragon Cave.
It was a vacation, or rather, a staycation.
There was even a place here to relax that rivaled a five-star hotel.
Unbelievably enough, that place was a royal palace.
In fact, there were two such palaces.
“…No matter how I look at this, it seems like he ‘pulled’ these from somewhere, doesn’t it?”
Two royal palaces standing side by side in one corner of the cavern.
Lloyd had discovered them while exploring the place, and the sight made his face turn blank with disbelief.
No matter how he looked at them.
Whether from the left or the right.
Those majestic structures before his eyes were unquestionably royal palaces.
But the lower portions of them were seriously strange.
‘These don’t look dismantled. They look ripped out. No, more like yanked out.’
He was certain.
The entire supporting structure of each palace, along with part of the ground beneath it, had been torn out wholesale and moved here.
Looking at that, Lloyd suddenly remembered something from long ago.
‘Right. There was a mention of this in Iron Blooded Knight too. Back when the Royal Capital Magenta used to be called by another name, there was supposedly some idiot king whose royal palace got yanked out by a dragon not once, but twice. I even talked about that story with the royal envoy the first time I went to the royal capital.’
Now that he thought about it, he remembered.
There really had been a story like that.
But now that he had come here to the Dragon Cave…
‘The dragon that pulled out that palace was the Dragon King!’
Only now did he understand.
That Dragon King had literally yanked an intact royal palace out of the ground like he was pulling up a radish from a field. Then he’d hauled it all the way here, humming cheerfully to himself.
‘And then he just stuck it here as an interior decoration.’
Lloyd felt faintly dizzy.
But he quickly pulled himself together.
Now that things had come to this, he figured he might as well inspect the inside of the palaces too.
And he soon realized something.
‘The inside of this palace is way better maintained than I expected.’
It was unexpected.
Everything was shining from top to bottom.
It looked as though someone had diligently cleaned and organized it right up until this very morning.
There was not a single dusty corner anywhere inside the massive palace.
Even the beds in each bedroom were fresh and fluffy.
‘Well, well, well. Jackpot.’
Lloyd made up his mind on the spot.
If not now, when would he ever get a chance to sleep in a king’s bed?
So he boldly settled into the royal bedchamber.
And began enjoying his staycation in earnest.
As it happened, there was no shortage of food in the Dragon Cave either.
The massive central cavern.
And the passages branching out from it in all directions like a spiderweb.
No matter which corridor one took, the soil in the floor was packed full of sweet potatoes.
And not ordinary sweet potatoes, either, but enormous ones the size of basketballs.
“Hey. Let’s roast these.”
“……”
“What are you doing? Hurry up and start a fire already.”
“……”
Groaning as he lugged over no fewer than five giant sweet potatoes.
Javier stared at Lloyd with utter disbelief.
Then he asked,
“Those look like valuable crops from the Dragon Cave. Are you sure it’s fine to just roast and eat them?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Because I asked the manticore.”
Lloyd replied casually.
It was true.
What if digging up sweet potatoes angered Dragon King Verkis?
With the caution of a man testing every stone before crossing the bridge, Lloyd had gone looking for the manticore.
And asked him outright.
Would it be all right if they ate some of the sweet potatoes growing all over the tunnels here?
The manticore’s response had been a very cool and breezy ‘YES.’
“He went ‘Purr!'”
“…And you’re certain that answer meant yes?”
“Yeah. He nodded while he said it.”
“So you did, in your own way, obtain permission.”
“Exactly. And as thanks, I introduced him to Ppodong too.”
“Sir Ppodong, you mean?”
“Yeah. At first the manticore tilted his head at him. But then Ppodong ate a red sunflower seed and got bigger, and after that he got all excited.”
“I can imagine. Their sizes are fairly similar.”
“Yeah, I think that was it. Luckily, Ppodong took to the manticore pretty quickly too.”
“So the two of them are off playing together right now?”
“Yeah. They’re probably playing tag. More importantly, are you going to light that fire or not?”
“……”
“Hurry up already. I’m hungry.”
“……”
And just like that, the Iron Blooded Knight who, in the world of the novel, had saved the world was now roasting sweet potatoes here with soot smeared all over his face.
So it went on.
For days on end, Lloyd idled around to his heart’s content.
After all the hardship and overwork he had endured, he did nothing but rest and play.
It was comfortable.
It was fun.
It was blissful.
And during all that time, Javier would sometimes watch Lloyd with an odd look in his eyes.
“……”
It had already been ten days since they arrived at the Dragon Cave.
After observing him all this time, Javier could now finally, little by little, feel it sink in.
As expected, the Lloyd-nim before his eyes was not the real one.
He truly was a person from another world.
‘So that was why. Why he suddenly seemed to become a completely different person.’
A certain morning from several years ago came to mind.
The day before, Lloyd Frontera had been causing trouble in a drunken stupor.
And yet the moment morning came, he had acted like a completely different man.
It had been strange.
But Javier had let it pass.
Because it had been a change he had welcomed, in its own way.
‘Now I understand. Even the meaning behind the name Kim Suho, which the King of Hell used when addressing that man.’
Kim Suho.
That was probably the name the fake Lloyd had carried in his original world.
If that was the case, then the unexpected qualities he had displayed all this time.
And the strange construction knowledge he would occasionally reveal.
They must all have been things he had learned in that world.
He felt as though he finally understood.
Only now did it all make sense.
At the same time, there was something he found himself a little curious about.
‘If this fake Lloyd-nim ever realizes that I know the truth… how will he react?’
Would he act brazenly as always?
Or would he start fearing him?
And when that day came, how was Javier supposed to treat this fake?
He did not know.
But there was one thing he was certain of.
‘As long as you do not lose the person you are now, I too will stay by your side to the very end.’
A faint warmth settled into Javier’s gaze as he looked at Lloyd.
Lloyd tilted his head at that look.
“Hey. What are you thinking about?”
“Yes?”
“The way you were looking at me just now felt kind of greasy.”
“……”
“Be honest. You found something tastier than sweet potatoes and you’re hiding it from me, aren’t you? Right?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
To be honest, there is something I am hiding.
But for the time being, I intend to keep hiding it.
Thinking that, Javier let out a faint chuckle.
A bitter smile spread across Lloyd’s lips as well.
“Then hurry up and finish roasting the sweet potatoes. I’m starving.”
“Understood.”
Javier’s hands became busier as he roasted the sweet potatoes.
Another day passed for the two of them as they enjoyed their rare staycation.
And at that same time.
In one corner of the Dragon Cave.
The Dragon King, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly opened his eyes with a strange sense of crisis.
♣
“…Hk?”
Dragon King Verkis opened his eyes.
Was it because the sleeping position he had so happily settled into had become uncomfortable?
Or because the gentle breeze of the fanning had disappeared?
Neither.
His sleeping arrangement was still comfortable.
And it did not matter whether the breeze was there or not.
So why, then, had he suddenly awakened with such a sense of danger?
The reason was simple.
‘This is bad. I forgot the most important thing.’
One forgotten promise came back to him belatedly.
It was a promise he had made with his beloved wife.
‘…We promised to contact each other every day!’
He had forgotten.
Not once had he done it.
But since when?
‘I don’t know. Just how long have I been wandering around half-asleep?’
Verkis searched his memory.
At least before he had fallen into that hazy half-sleeping state.
On that day, his wife had gone out into the world beyond the Dragon Cave.
It was for a filial piety trip with her mother-in-law, the Flame Dragon.
‘She said she’d be traveling for about a year. She told me over and over that while she was gone, I absolutely had to wake up every morning and contact her.’
In other words, it was homework.
And he had completely forgotten all of it.
Verkis felt as if all four chambers of his heart were tightening up.
He immediately raised both hands.
A magic circle formed in the air.
It was an advanced communication spell that could contact his wife instantly no matter where in the world she was, even if he did not know her coordinates.
Shhhhhh…!
The magic circle spun through the air, traced his wife’s position, and attempted a connection.
Then it failed.
Crackle!
With a burst of sparks, the communication magic circle vanished from the air.
The transmission had failed.
Verkis understood the reason at once.
“…She refused the call.”
His wife was sulking.
This really was a disaster.
‘What do I do?’
Verkis’s head spun.
His wife was such a kind and gentle woman, one who never got sulky.
But if she was even refusing his calls like this, then perhaps this time she was truly furious.
So how was he supposed to fix this situation?
‘Should I run to her immediately and beg with all I’ve got? No. That’s way too bothersome.’
Traveling a long distance was bothersome.
He would have to move a great many muscles.
He would probably even have to mobilize vast amounts of mana and perform spatial movement.
But that was far too much trouble.
‘Then what am I supposed to do?’
How, exactly, could he make up for all that overdue homework and soothe his wife while exerting the smallest amount of effort possible?
“Ugh… think. Think.”
Dragon King Verkis clutched his head with both hands.
He plunged into ferocious contemplation.
But right then.
Before he even realized it, so lost was he in thought.
Someone quietly slipped up behind him.
Then, in a shamelessly casual tone, asked,
“Oh my, Dragon King-nim? Have you perhaps run into some sort of problem?”
The man who came sprinting over the instant he realized the Dragon King had awakened.
The man who, even in the middle of it, was diligently rubbing his palms together to manage his first-impression score.
The man who had loaded his saliva-slick tongue with every flattering line he could think of.
At some point, Lloyd had appeared before him and was now flashing Verkis a bright, scam-artist smile straight out of an insurance fraud ring.