Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Dragon Shadow (2)
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The woman spoke.
“You’re full of surprises. You noticed our presence?”
“You did a fine job hiding your Dragon Demon power. Even the princess didn’t realize at first.”
“How did you know?”
“No reason to reveal my secrets.”
Azel grinned fiercely.
Chatting away about one’s own abilities during a fight was pure foolishness. Keeping even the most seemingly useless details of one’s strength hidden was key to survival.
The woman spoke.
“What an annoying man. A Spirit Order practitioner, yet he fights like a mage.”
She glanced at the sword embedded in the man’s abdomen. Neither the victim nor she herself could figure out just how that blade had pierced him.
Of course, Azel, the attacker, knew full well. It was a simple feint.
He exploded with power in an instant to draw the enemy’s attention, then accelerated suddenly with flashy movements to sow confusion. Meanwhile, the blade he’d hidden with concealment the moment he’d first lunged struck before the enemy could register it.
It had nothing to do with the strength of the blow. Deceiving the enemy’s senses and seamlessly blending the throwing motion into other actions to hide the use of concealment—it was a terrifyingly refined technique.
Azel assessed the situation inwardly.
‘Five opponents of this skill level. No way I can take them all.’
The old him would have laughed off a situation like this.
But the current him was pathetically weak. He’d caught the enemy off guard with a lucky strike just now, but in a proper fight, his chances were slim.
‘Makes me want to sigh. To wake up after 220 years and face this nonsense. Shouldn’t some peaceful days be waiting?’
Azel lamented his fate. Two hundred and twenty years ago, during the Dragon Emperor War that shook the world, he’d fought for his life since childhood. With the sole resolve to one day end the war and live in peace, he’d piled up mountains of corpses and forged rivers of blood as he pressed forward.
Yet what awaited him at the end wasn’t peace, but despair. In a desperate gamble to escape that despair, he’d ended up abandoned by the world he knew, exiled to a distant future.
That alone was enough to make him pity himself to tears, and now these trials came crashing down after so little time.
At that moment, the woman spoke.
“Let’s pull back for now.”
“We’ve got them cornered, and you want to retreat?”
“After taking a hit like that?”
“Urk...!”
The woman’s icy words silenced the man.
She continued.
“When hunting, you need patience. If the enemy’s strength is unknown, just torment them until you figure it out.”
As she turned to withdraw, Azel called out.
“Hey, miss.”
“...Miss?”
The woman muttered as if she’d heard something bizarre.
Azel asked.
“Better than ‘auntie’?”
“No, ‘miss’ suits me fine.”
“Then I’ll stick with ‘auntie.’”
“......”
“No reason to call the enemy what she likes, right?”
“You really are an infuriating man. It’s been a while since I met someone who tests my patience like this.”
Her hoarse voice remained calm, but the mana waves emanating from her grew fiercer. A normal person would’ve been crushed by the suffocating pressure, but Azel just smirked.
“If you hate ‘auntie’ that much, how about telling me your name?”
“......”
“Too famous to reveal? Makes sense, if you’re hiding your face out of fear of being recognized...”
“Regina.”
The woman spoke in her raspy voice.
“Regina of Dragon Shadow. It’s a name the world has forgotten, so digging won’t turn up anything.”
“Dragon Shadow must be your organization’s name.”
“That’s right. Your turn now.”
“Hm?”
“Tell us your name.”
“Unlike you lot, I’ve got nothing to hide, so I’ll gladly share. Azel Zestringer.”
“Azel...”
Regina showed interest.
“What an ominous name.”
“Ominous?”
“Yes. Ominous enough that just bearing it warrants death.”
“You’re talking nonsense.”
“I’ve no hobby of remembering the names of the dead... but yours, I won’t forget.”
With that, Regina vanished. The man, about to follow her into hiding, glared at Azel and growled.
“I’m Kirion of Dragon Shadow. Remember it—the name of the one who’ll make you die the most painful death in the world.”
“Don’t want to remember? Then come at me now. Scared of a swordless, bare-handed me?”
“......”
Kirion bristled with murderous intent, but in the end, he didn’t attack and withdrew.
Azel clicked his tongue.
“More level-headed than I thought. If he’d charged in a rage, I could’ve finished him...”
As he spoke, Azel raised his hand. Arietta, seeing it, started in surprise.
“That’s...”
“Hm?”
“Where did the sword come from?”
Azel was suddenly holding a perfectly fine blade. He shrugged.
“It was here from the start.”
“What?”
“Just kept it hidden.”
Azel had possessed two swords from the moment he burst in. In a chaotic melee, anything could happen, so he’d collected usable weapons from the fallen foes.
He’d discarded one into the ground upon entry and attacked Kirion with the other sword and a dagger. When that sword snapped, he’d unhesitatingly retrieved the hidden one from the ground and applied concealment.
Even while talking to Regina, he hadn’t let on that he held a sword, so no one noticed. For the deception, he’d even used a technique to adhere the weapon to his skin.
Azel said.
“Now to clean up the situation...”
But something he hadn’t anticipated occurred. Orbs of flash and lightning arced from all directions, plummeting into the battlefield.
“Damn it!”
Boom! Kraa-boom-boom-boom!
Blinding light erupted in a massive explosion.
3
One hour after Dragon Shadow, the secret society, ambushed the ruins excavation site where Dragon Demon Princess Arietta was present.
The members gathered amid the ruins excavation site, now a total wreck.
The area lay in ruins. While the beasts rampaged in the chaos, Dragon Shadow members had planted explosive spells everywhere, then bombarded from outside with powerful magic to detonate them, reducing everything to ash.
Most of the beasts had been wiped out in the process, but they didn’t care about such sacrifices. They’d subjugated the beasts as expendable tools from the start.
Human and beast corpses littered the ground in gruesome states, but no one paid them any mind. Regina, the hoarse-voiced leader directing the five similarly suspicious figures, asked.
“The Dragon Demon Princess’s position?”
“Four kilometers northeast. Zikel’s on her trail, so no chance of losing her.”
“Capture her before she reaches the fortress. You know that, right?”
The Western Border Fortress’s forces were formidable. Each Dragon Shadow member wielded considerable power, but the fortress was prepared for massive beast uprisings—even dragon raids. Attacking it with their numbers was impossible.
Thus, they’d planned from the outset to seize Arietta before she could reach the Western Border Fortress.
“How many are with the Dragon Demon Princess now?”
“Four, including her. Non-combatants mixed in.”
“And the man called Azel Zestringer?”
“He’s moving with the princess too.”
“So he didn’t die that easily.”
Regina said this as she pushed back her hood. The dark veil covering her face vanished, revealing her bare features.
She was a sharp-featured woman with long black hair and cold blue eyes. Early thirties, perhaps? As a Dragon Demon Hybrid, her ears were slightly pointed, and a black horn like a feather ornament protruded above her right ear.
“Be careful when dealing with him. Eliminate him from a distance if possible.”
“Does he really warrant that much caution? He didn’t look that strong.”
“While facing off against the princess, he accurately grasped our numbers.”
“Hm?”
The others stirred uneasily.
They were confident in their concealment. With special tools masking their Dragon Demon power and magic hiding their forms and presence, no one could detect them.
Indeed, the hundreds of troops stationed here, and even Dragon Demon Princess Arietta, hadn’t noticed them. Yet Azel had?
Regina spoke.
“Don’t judge by appearances alone. Underestimate a master-level Spirit Order practitioner, and you’ll regret it.”
“Mmm.”
“Hunt carefully. Start with the forest orcs—wear them down with rotations. Claw and bite until they’re exhausted, then subdue the princess and take her. Don’t disappoint him...”
With that, Regina headed toward the ruins entrance.
The entrance, in the midst of excavation, had been reburied by Dragon Shadow’s attack. After inspecting it briefly, Regina said.
“This seems to be Kallos’s ruins after all.”
“What? Really?”
The Dragon Shadow members buzzed.
The great mage Kallos, whose name echoed in history, was a hated foe to Dragon Shadow. They were a secret society that rejected the human-dominated world and followed the Dragon Demon tribe.
Regina nodded.
“Likely. But I’m no expert on this, so we’ll need to confirm. I’ll request reinforcements... It’ll be a race against time until they regroup and come back out.”
“Understood.”
“Then let’s resume the hunt.”
The Dragon Shadow members departed, pursuing the fleeing Arietta.
4
Azel was accustomed to being chased.
Humans had always fought at a numerical disadvantage against the Dragon Demon tribe. Their numbers were few, but they subjugated beasts and monsters into armies. Beasts and monsters, helpless against human forces when scattered, became terrifying powers under Dragon Demon control.
‘Who’d have thought I’d face the same situation again now.’
The foes who’d named themselves Dragon Shadow reminded Azel of the Dragon Demon tribe from 220 years ago.
‘Alone, I could escape easily, but...’
Surveying from a treetop, Azel glanced below.
His three companions were there: Dragon Demon Princess Arietta, her young maid Enora, and Rick, whom Azel had rescued amid the chaos.
‘No idea what happened to Knight Zail.’
He’d gotten separated from Zail. No time to check if he lived or died.
Azel looked at Arietta.
‘I’ve taken on too heavy a burden.’