Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Swordsman and the Lady
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While ripping through Godfather's lungs, Dominic pondered his own condition.
The current Dominic could not defeat a dragon.
Dominic had once reached an unfathomable realm, but he was now an old man trapped in the shell of the 3rd hierarchy.
His technique touched the heavens, but his body could not follow. That was the cinder left behind. That was Dominic.
'It's physically impossible to slay a 7th hierarchy dragon with Dominic's body.'
The one silver lining was that the complacent Black Dragon had polymorphed into human form.
Dragons played in the 6th and 7th hierarchies largely due to their innate racial superiority.
Thus, a polymorphed dragon could be considered roughly 1.5 hierarchies weaker.
Accordingly, Dominic had only one way to defeat Godfather.
Kill him before he could revert to his draconic form.
Dominic assigned himself this mission and thrust his sword into Godfather's 3rd and 4th ribs.
Even in human form, a dragon's bones were dragon bones—they wouldn't break easily—but no creature, dragon or otherwise, had organs as tough as their skeletons.
He felt the sensation of muscles tearing at the sword's tip.
Cough.
Godfather spat out a mouthful of blood.
Even with one heart torn apart, his eyes did not lose their fighting spirit.
Overworking his remaining heart, he coated his already regenerated right arm with scales and aimed for Dominic's head.
Dominic ducked to evade the attack and used the sturdy dragon ribs as leverage to twist his sword downward.
Clang.
The sword lodged between the ribs snapped.
He had left a piece in the heart.
Only then did Godfather realize Dominic's intent.
"Cowardly..."
"An old wreck like me has to be cowardly to survive in this harsh world."
The spot where Dominic had left the blade corresponded to the reverse scale when transforming back into a dragon.
A dragon in human form wouldn't die instantly since the reverse scale vanished.
But with a foreign object there, reverting to dragon form would shatter the reverse scale the moment it reformed.
That was why elder dragons always warned their young to be cautious during polymorphed escapades.
"No elders warned you to be careful during your fun?"
At Dominic's taunt, Godfather ground his teeth and began sprouting scales on both hands.
In that instant, Dominic gripped his swords in both hands and swung them in an X shape.
A delayed trail of sharp silver lingered, and a red line appeared on the elbows before scales could form.
Thud.
Both dragon forearms hit the ground.
"As a fledgling dragon, you lack combat experience. Reality isn't fair enough to wait for you to unleash your true power."
Despite Dominic's repeated provocations, Godfather couldn't retort.
As the old man said, among dragonkind, Godfather was young, and his clan had been wiped out before he could learn all their wisdom.
Meanwhile, the blood pouring from both arms stopped.
Dragon blood was dragon blood, after all—its regenerative power was extraordinary.
Taking in the sight of new flesh already budding on the arms, Dominic pressed his assault.
Clang!
Godfather didn't go down easily.
Just before the old butler's sword reached, he generated scales on the spot to block.
The old butler's blade sparked against the scales and bounced off.
With innate dynamic vision and the modest technique honed over centuries, he managed to hold his own.
But despite Godfather's efforts, the lethal wounds he conceded far outnumbered his defenses.
It was a bad matchup.
If it had been an overwhelming speed-based quicksword, his reflexes might have coped.
But no amount of reflexes could counter what he couldn't see.
The old man's right sword targeted his side.
As scales formed there just in time, sharp pain lanced through his thigh.
Distracted by the right sword, the left had sliced into his thigh meat.
The dragon bones prevented amputation, but the femoral artery was hit.
And with that, he completely lost mobility.
Without giving Godfather time to think of countermeasures, the next attack went for the throat.
Scales there meant his trapezius would be severed instead.
In desperation, Godfather sacrificed his legs entirely and fully coated his right arm in scales.
'Now he's deprived of offensive options...'
"Sacrificing your legs? You never trained in martial arts as a human, did you?"
Dominic saw through Godfather's thoughts and took his eyes.
Darkness enveloped his vision.
While regenerating his eyes, his Achilles tendons and calves were sliced.
His legs gave out, and he pitched forward.
Gritting his teeth, Godfather tore open his own chest with his scale-covered right arm.
Enduring the pain, he expelled the cold metal from the reverse scale position.
'Done!'
In that moment, a sword pierced his heart through the shoulder again.
"Good attempt."
Dominic snapped another sword using the dragon bones as leverage.
Godfather gritted his teeth, racking his brain for a way out.
'I need time.'
Not enough time to cover his skin entirely in scales or remove the blade shard from his heart.
To buy even a little time, Godfather shouted at Dominic.
"Why is a powerhouse like you helping that elf with her revenge?!"
Dominic's attack halted at the cry.
'Yes!'
Godfather cheered inwardly.
He regenerated his eyes first and took in the old butler's expression.
In his blood-smeared blurry vision, the white-haired elder replied with visible anger.
"You lizards are always itching to touch my reverse scale."
- "Why are you lizards so desperate to touch my reverse scale?"
The old man's words dredged up memories of Godfather's past.
*
In the past, a Black Dragon roamed the empire seeking to reach the 8th hierarchy.
Even before shedding his fledgling status, he had been recognized as young master for his overflowing talent and the love he received.
With ambitions to elevate his clan, the young master pursued a mighty aura to a certain village.
An elf at the entry to the 7th hierarchy lived there.
The young master naturally demanded tribute from the village.
That was the beginning of the tragedy.
For his arrogance, the young master lost one wing in that village.
The clan elders and patriarch went to avenge their beloved young master.
To make an example, they held a draconic feast there.
At the banquet amid the burning village, the young master gazed at the elders avenging him with respect and admiration.
Then, the young master's father—the clan leader and mightiest dragon—spotted a moderately strong youth.
A young man standing with head bowed before a torso-less corpse in front of a burning house.
The still-hungry patriarch approached from behind and gaped his maw.
The entire clan anticipated blood bursting like a tomato from the patriarch's jaws.
But the scene that unfolded was the youth suddenly vanishing, only to impale the patriarch's right eye with a spear.
- "Patriarch!"
The spear pierced the eye precisely, skirted the bone, and churned the brain.
Thud.
The massive body collapsed.
Only then did they realize the patriarch had met an ignoble end.
Terror—an emotion proud dragons should never feel—spread like plague.
- "I am an honorable Black Dragon of— Gahk!"
- "Even fledglings, run... Nooooo!!!"
From that moment, prey and hunter reversed roles.
The youth methodically culled the dragons like it was a chore.
Hiding under the elders' corpses in that hellish scene, the young master clearly remembered the youth's final exchange with the last elder.
- "Why?! How can someone like you be in a place like this...!!!"
- "Why are you lizards so desperate to touch my reverse scale?"
*
Gasp!
The young master, yanked from past memories like a spinning lantern, sucked in a ragged breath back in reality.
His torn heart began pounding wildly.
Dizziness hit, and his hands trembled.
- "Caidra! Ludra! Elidra! Respond!"
- "My eyes... I can't see..."
- "Ancestors! Bless us— Blegh!!"
The city—no, the village—was burning.
His children—no, the elders—were screaming.
The nightmare resurfaced.
The wound he thought overcome began to tear open.
"No..."
Godfather knew this feeling.
"No...!"
But he could never admit it.
"No!!!"
He had vowed never to repeat that nightmare.
He had sworn to himself never to flee in fear again.
Gathering all his strength, Godfather covered his body in scales.
Like a child bundling up tight in blankets, believing nightmares wouldn't come tonight.
"I am! Of the Clan of Ebony Wings...!"
In that instant, a sword pierced through his open mouth into his innards.
No scales inside the mouth.
The blade churned his guts without resistance.
Godfather shuddered at the chilling sensation penetrating his innards.
His legs buckled again, forcing him to his knees.
Dominic fixed the sword in his throat and gazed down coldly.
"I've waited for this moment to reclaim my honor, sullied by the likes of you."
The kindly, polite old man was gone.
In his place stood only a swordsman seething with ghostly fury to restore his trampled honor.
"Imitating my face was one thing. I might have forgiven borrowing my name to build your syndicate."
Dominic released the sword in Godfather's mouth and drew a fresh one.
"But you chose insult over syndicate."
Godfather's pupils quivered.
He wanted to protest, but the sword in his mouth prevented it.
Seeing him try to speak, Dominic continued.
"What tenacious vitality. I've slain many black-scaled ones, but killing you in human form is a first. So, Godfather..."
How do you wish to die?
***
Crack.
Godfather's joints shattered.
Scales strengthened only the skin.
They couldn't prevent ligaments tearing as joints dislocated.
As the dizzying pain faded, consciousness drifted away.
The past flashed by like a spinning lantern again.
The clanless young master took human form to survive.
Ironically, that form resembled the man who annihilated his clan.
The young master tried changing that hated face.
But no matter the guise, the mirror always showed that man.
Eventually, he gave up and wandered the marquisate with that face.
In doing so, he discovered sword-wielding statues scattered throughout.
Statues symbolizing an anonymous swordsman from folklore who helped countless people.
Swords. Swordsmen. Hated existences that exterminated his clan.
Each time, the young master destroyed those loathsome statues.
No one claimed the clan-killer swordsman was the statue's subject.
But no one else could have done it, and he needed to believe that.
Wandering and smashing statues, he chanced upon a grave.
Confirming the swordsman's now-skeletal remains, the young master despaired.
The one who erased his clan had fled into death, beyond vengeance.
In that despair, kneeling, he noticed his reflection in a puddle.
- "This face..."
From that day, the young master changed his goal.
To destroy everything the swordsman left behind.
The rest was as he told Jane.
Acting as a swordsman to build fame,
Betrayed and sold to the marquis,
Using that as pretext to form the mafia alliance and eradicate every trace of the swordsman in the marquisate.
Having completed his revenge, the young master awoke to find himself cherishing the alliance members as family.
- 'This is family.'
He discarded the name Young Master Pedro and became Godfather.
Revenge done, now to protect what was precious.
- "Foolish daughter, but I love her."
He took back the foolish Camilla, who wandered the resistance after failing to recognize her savior father.
He fed blood to his eldest son and daughter, building power with them at the fore.
Watching his children grow was truly happy times.
Truly... happy...
.
.
.
"Father!!"
His eldest daughter's cry pulled Godfather's fading consciousness back.
When he came to, he saw the old butler looking down and his daughter charging from behind to save him.
"Agga!!"
- No!
Godfather's plea didn't reach her.
Dominic, without glancing away, reverse-gripped his sword and thrust backward.
She saw it coming toward her gut but didn't defend.
Yet the blade pierced precisely between her scales, right through her navel.
"Like father, like daughter."
The impaled eldest daughter gritted her teeth and slashed with claws.
Only then did Dominic turn, hammering the blade deeper like driving a nail.
"Keurk!"
"Did you truly think this lizard loves you? You know nothing of their kind. This family game is just treasure collecting for dragonkin."
Camilla denied it, locking eyes with Godfather.
Her father, sword in mouth, squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.
As if to say it was all just a game.
But that lie, meant to make her flee, backfired spectacularly.
"I know best that your love isn't fake!"
Camilla gritted her teeth and rose.
"I saw it clearly! The one who saved me that day wasn't some legendary swordsman—it was you!"
A tiger spirit possessed Camilla's body.
The beastkin secret art: Spirit Possession.
Godfather wailed.
Activating Spirit Possession with dragon scales risked being consumed by savagery.
But soon he realized his worry was unfounded.
Like a movie scene, she retained her reason.
As if powered by love.
Hope gleamed in the father-daughter duo's eyes.
And Dominic hated those eyes.
"Tch."
Slash.
A silver arc passed before her uncoated eyes.
Soon, red lines traced from her eyes, blood spurting.
"Aaaah!!"
Godfather screamed.
Dominic tripped the blinded woman.
She collapsed, groping the ground and sobbing.
"Daddy, I can't see. Where are you..."
"Agg!"
Mouth sealed father and eyeless daughter pathetically sought each other.
Dominic stomped the crawling daughter's back and seized her jaw.
Godfather realized what was coming.
"Aaaah!"
- Don't!
Dominic gave Godfather a cold reply.
"The citizens she sawed up were someone's children too."
Crack.
Her neck twisted, and she went still.
She moved no more.
Blood pooled in Godfather's eyes.
'This... is karma...?'
Losing family cruelly to one man twice—is this karma?
Then why doesn't that man suffer it?
'I can't accept it... I mustn't!!!'
With sword in throat, Godfather roared, clenching his teeth.
They shattered the blade.
But throat pain was nothing compared to his heart's agony.
He abandoned reason and reverted to dragon form.
Reverse scale be damned.
Even if it broke, that man...!
But Dominic pressed the attack, denying even the transformation.
Slicing eyes, gutting navel, severing tongue, stabbing wing roots.
Finally, exhausted, Godfather shed scales and knelt.
"Why... why..."
"A proud dragon shedding tears?"
"Why go this far?!"
"That's my line. You dredged up a past I barely escaped, yet thought you'd walk free of responsibility?"
Only then did Godfather meet the old man's eyes.
The cinder-eyed elder glared down with bloodshot eyes too.
"Everyone has pasts they don't want seen. Satisfied now?"
Shedding his last politeness, the old butler bellowed throat-shreddingly.
Facing that rage, Godfather let out a hollow laugh.
"Pathetic..."
"What?"
"In the end, you couldn't become the victor either. Revenge feels so futile, doesn't it?"
Dominic veined his forehead, regripping his sword.
Like an executioner, he raised it high and declared to Godfather.
"I'd sooner burn to ash than forgive you."
Trusting in Jane, Dominic swung down at the throat.
Clang!
Repaying that trust, the protagonist blocked the Final Boss's sword.