Chapter 218
Cledwyn searched repeatedly for a chance to escape the dragon unnoticed.
The fact that the evil dragon from six hundred years ago was alive was astonishing. If the dragon’s lair was here, it was their duty to assess its condition. But that was the sort of task that required sufficient manpower and detailed planning.
Not something he and his fragile wife could accomplish alone after being suddenly thrown into the depths of a ruin and forced to confront the dragon herself.
A dragon would hardly be fond of humans. And she had even called Nerys a child of Elandria, and Cledwyn a child of Pheros. If she considered them descendants of the ancient heroes, then hostility was natural.
He had no idea why she was talking about hospitality.
If the dragon showed even the slightest opening, Cledwyn would have grabbed Nerys and run. Otherwise, he would have fought.
But the dragon revealed no such opening. Even as she walked far ahead without looking back, her presence was impenetrable. She swept aside the scattered corpses of monsters with a single gesture, without even glancing at them.
Even with only basic magical training, the two of them could sense her overwhelming magical power. She was someone who could accomplish mythic feats in the blink of an eye.
Astounding. The records from six hundred years ago described evil dragons, magicians capable of reshaping terrain alone, monsters, and fae. But there were no traces that proved their existence. If Cledwyn were to emerge from these ruins and claim he’d seen an orc, people would laugh.
‘These days, there are even scholars who insist the evil dragon never existed and that the three heroes were actually just the great human houses of the era mythologized into an epic.’
“How did you know this was a dragon’s lair?”
Cledwyn whispered to Nerys. She had worn a troubled expression since earlier but replied quietly.
“I read a battle log in the library. It recorded which monster species were deployed and how they resisted because humans were approaching. Who else could write that?”
Certainly not a novelist.
But she had seen gargoyles move and long-forgotten monsters attack with her own eyes. Nerys had no intention of wasting energy denying the obvious.
The dragon, walking ahead, inserted herself into the conversation.
“Oh, that must’ve been written by our Guardian.”
“Guardian?”
A foreign word. Cledwyn frowned in confusion. Nerys sighed.
“A Guardian is someone who resides in a dragon’s lair and cares for the dragon to whom they’re bound by a master–servant pact. The term appears sometimes in old oral literature.”
“A very amusing friend. Talks well. Still asleep right now.”
The dragon added lightly.
Though they hadn’t walked long, the opposite end of the corridor seemed much closer. The dragon opened one of the many doors with ease and led them inside.
It was a large sitting room. But unlike noble parlors decorated with jewels and silk to impress guests, every piece of furniture and every fixture here was made of a single silver-colored metal. A soft moonlike glow filled the room, bright yet gentle on the eyes.
The dragon seated them at a round table. A moment later, something clattered, and a steaming teapot and shell-shaped cups floated over and settled on the table. The teapot rose gently and poured a shimmering silver-white liquid into each cup.
“Drink. It is good for the mortal.”
It was their first time hearing the word “mortal” addressed directly to them. Cledwyn muttered dryly.
“Good as in… the mortal becomes immortal?”
“If you mean ‘good’ as in ‘you will die if you drink it,’ then no. And if you mean ‘good’ as in ‘you will become a god if you drink it,’ that is also no. Ah, how long it has been since I last had such a conversation. I am in a generous mood, having learned you still live. So I forgive the discourtesy this time.”
The dragon raised her own cup first and drank.
“It seems the child of Elandria recently woke from a curse, still frail of body, and the child of Pheros once fell into a mana tempest, leaving his mana unstable. This is refined from a magical herb grown in the Silver Dragon’s lair beneath full moonlight and the light of the morning star. For weak beings like you, it brings stability and health.”
Her relaxed tone made it feel as if she had been watching everything they had endured. Cledwyn drank first.
The liquid went down more smoothly than expected, leaving him internally calm afterward. After waiting to ensure it wasn’t poisoned, he signaled for Nerys to drink as well.
Once they had fulfilled the manners expected of guests, he asked sharply:
“How long have you been living here?”
“What do you mean ‘how long,’ child? Since before humans first set foot on the earth. When Helgarum, God of Dragons, created me and my kin, I was the firstborn. And when my kin left this land to dwell in their own realm, I was the youngest who could not depart.”
“So you’ve been hiding here. The story that the heroes slew you was a lie? And the only god is Timaios. I’ve never heard of Helgarum.”
“Is that so.”
He had phrased his question rudely on purpose to provoke her into giving more information, yet she did not become angry. Just as a human would not care about a rude ant.
Instead, she spoke with a hint of bitterness.
“You forget quickly. Well… what is truth to those who live a life as brief as a blink?”
“Truth?”
Nerys finally spoke.
“We have our truth as well, great Dragon. It simply differs from yours.”
A test—hinting at the “truth” that she had been slain by the heroes. But the dragon only smiled gently.
“There is only one truth in the world, child of Elandria. How it is understood differs. Now tell me—how long has passed?”
“Six hundred years since you disappeared before us.”
“How have you lived?”
“Sometimes with hardship, sometimes with joy.”
“Let me ask differently. How did you two survive?”
“By any means we could.”
“You must have faced many trials. Is the child of Bistor still well?”
“He is. For defeating you, he became emperor and now rules humanity.”
“Ha! That child always was good with words. Like a cunning gnoll, rousing humans. To grant humans freedom, he said. But even I and Elandria knew of the greed in his eyes. She lamented it deeply…”
She. Nerys bit her lip.
“…Do you mean the honest Elandria? The hero from six hundred years ago. The ‘real’ honest Elandria.”
The dukedom known as her direct descendants had only deduced the Jeweled Eyes’ abilities through old records. The man in the portrait bore only the imperial emblem behind him and possessed Jeweled Eyes, not the Jeweled Eyes of legend.
If that man wasn’t the true Elandria—
“Perhaps so. I slept through most of it, waking only on occasion, so I did not know six centuries had passed outside.”
If that man wasn’t Elandria, then where did the real records go?
Nerys’s mind raced. Cledwyn spoke as well.
“You called me a child of Pheros earlier, but I’m not related to the Pheros dukedom.”
“Ah, ordinary humans do not have eyes like yours. I do not know what your ‘Pheros dukedom’ is, but your eyes are clearer proof than any.”
‘Eye color.’
Cledwyn recalled the words spoken by the diamond pillar in the palace.
If that diamond had referred to Hero Pheros—the ‘Beautiful Pheros’…
The dragon mourned softly.
“No wonder. I sensed too little magic in the world. Even with such vivid gray, your eyes are not Jeweled Eyes—meaning Pheros was also sealed. Six hundred years. A short moment for me, but long enough for humans to forget. Long enough for him and her to fade.”
“You said you were asleep.”
Nerys couldn’t hold her question.
“But the heroes weren’t forgotten. After fighting you, Bistor the Brave became emperor, and Honest Elandria and Beautiful Pheros became his vassals. Yet you say the records about Elandria and Pheros are wrong.”
“Vassals?”
The dragon burst into loud laughter.
“Would an eagle serve a sparrow? Would the ocean serve a pond? Ah, how thoroughly that deceitful Bistor fooled you all. I can agree he was extraordinary, but seeing my friend’s name defiled even in death brings me strange displeasure.”
Deceitful Bistor!
No one would call the first emperor and savior of humanity such a thing. Nerys had never heard such words, yet she felt an odd sense of liberation.
Everything Nerys had learned. Everything the dragon said… together they formed a faint possibility.
The hero Elandria presented by the imperial family was false—another true hero existed. Likely the same for Pheros. And if Bistor deceived them all, perhaps…
Perhaps that was why Camille had to kill Nerys.
No, she needed more evidence. She forced herself to think logically.
Her lips felt numb as she spoke.
“You were not an evil dragon. Or rather, you are the one we call an evil dragon… but you were not actually evil.”
“How could I know human good and evil? To you, I may well have been evil.”
“The wildcat symbol… it referred to Bistor.”
“Yes. His tribe used the wildcat as their emblem. Eventually even that seemed insufficient and they added the sun.”
“The three heroes didn’t defeat you together. Bistor tricked the other two heroes and you. Then you were sealed. Pheros’s Jeweled Eyes were sealed too. Elandria’s power was not, which is why I awakened my Jeweled Eyes as an adult, but my husband could not, because his power was sealed.”
“That is how it seems to me.”
“The gray diamond in the palace… that must be the power meant for Pheros’s descendants. And the empty spot beside it—maybe that was meant for Elandria’s Jeweled Eyes. The imperial family…”
The violet Jeweled Eyes had not appeared for a very, very long time. The gray Jeweled Eyes were sealed and could not awaken. But the imperial navy-blue Jeweled Eyes appeared at least once per generation—sometimes twice.
Was it simply a trait unique to the navy-blue Jeweled Eyes?
Or—
Nerys spoke, face drained of color.
“They stole the power of the gray Jeweled Eyes. They intend to claim the power of the violet Jeweled Eyes too. In the end, inside the perfect world they created, they will keep all happiness for themselves forever.”
The dragon looked at Cledwyn with sad eyes. Had she been hiding her true feelings all this time? Nerys wondered.
The last golden-haired dragon in the world spoke with a rhythm like a song.
“Her descendant, his descendant. To see you here—surely some god’s guidance. In the end, only the one who tied the knot may untie it. I have something to show you. Follow me.”