Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Ritual of Dragon Slaying (2)
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“P-Princess originally sleeps anywhere.”
Enora said, fidgeting anxiously.
An ordinary girl with no special background, Enora was mentally and physically exhausted from the day’s events, on the verge of collapse. But anxiety and fear kept her from falling asleep.
Azel gave her a wry smile.
“Sleeping anywhere is a virtue. Especially on the battlefield…”
“…”
“Get some rest, little miss.”
Azel spoke gently and tapped her forehead with his finger. Suddenly, Enora felt overwhelming drowsiness.
‘Ah, why…?’
The question arose, but it didn’t last long. She fell asleep right then.
Rick asked,
“What did you do?”
“Made her sleep.”
“You can do that?”
“Easy. Want me to?”
“No side effects?”
“Nope.”
“Then please. I don’t think I can sleep…”
As Rick spoke, Azel touched him, and he fell asleep.
Azel looked up at the night sky visible through the trees and thought,
‘Stars are the same as ever, past or present.’
That alone remained exactly as in his memories.
3
Strangely, Azel hadn’t dreamed once since awakening. As if he’d dreamed a lifetime’s worth during his long slumber…
Of course, that wasn’t the case. It was proven when he slept while taking turns with Arieta.
‘Azel.’
In the dream, Azel heard a voice calling him.
‘Azel.’
It was a stranger’s voice, yet it carried a familiar ring.
‘Who is it?’
Azel thought and looked toward the voice.
Was it because it was a dream? No search was needed. The moment he thought of him, the man appeared before his eyes.
Azel asked,
‘This is a dream, right?’
‘Yes. Your dream.’
‘Who are you?’
‘The most heartbreaking thing to hear.’
The man smiled bitterly.
But his face wasn’t visible. As if Azel’s vision stopped at his mouth…
‘You need to know who I am. Only then can you see me.’
Azel pondered the absurd demand, then suddenly recalled someone and gasped.
‘…Kallos?’
His close friend, recorded in history as the great archmage.
Then his face appeared. A grumpy-looking old man stood before him.
‘You…’
Azel stared in shock for a moment. Seeing Kallos grin mischievously, Azel said,
‘…You’re bald?’
‘That’s the only thing you notice?!’
Kallos bristled.
Indeed, the man called the great archmage, Kallos, was bald. Azel chuckled as the bearded, hairless man fumed.
‘But it’s the most eye-catching thing. Anyway, you’ve gotten old.’
‘Unlike you. You probably haven’t aged a bit, right?’
‘Thanks to that. You’d know if you saw me.’
‘I can’t see you.’
‘What?’
‘What you’re seeing is the shadow I left in your spirit veins. It’ll act and speak like the Kallos you knew. But it’s not really me. And it doesn’t share time with you. We can only talk.’
‘The Kallos I knew wasn’t a bald old man…’
‘That’s all you have to say?!’
Kallos bristled again. Azel burst out laughing.
‘Pfft. Grown touchy with age, huh? Kallos was famous as the cool-headed, rational mage who always made the right call with ice-cold logic. How’d he turn into a grumpy bald geezer? Tsk tsk. Traded your archmage reputation for something precious, I see.’
‘What do you mean by “precious”? Huh? You’re not talking about my hair, are you? No?’
‘You know it yourself.’
Azel teased him gleefully.
The Kallos before him wasn’t real—just a thought remnant he’d left behind. Created to speak to his friend awakening in a distant future, an unknown era…
But chatting like this was fun. Even knowing it was an illusion, it felt like the old days with Kallos, memories blooming anew.
Azel said,
‘Seeing you like this, it must be a thought remnant from long after I fell asleep.’
‘Yes. I was seventy-eight.’
The voice differed from Azel’s memory because he’d aged. But it held a familiar resonance.
His appearance too. Bald head, bushy beard, wrinkled face… yet those eyes resembled the Kallos Azel knew.
Azel asked,
‘When did the hair go?’
‘Drop it.’
‘Come on, tell me. Or I’ll dig through history books.’
‘Do what you want. I’m exercising my right to silence on that. Youngsters these days have no manners.’
Kallos snorted in displeasure. The thought remnant expressed emotions so vividly, it felt like facing the real person.
‘Hey, I may look young, but I’m older than you. I slept for 220 years.’
‘Age isn’t how long you’ve existed. It’s how long you’ve lived.’
‘Sleep counts as living, right?’
‘Sure.’
‘Then acknowledge my age.’
‘Human sleep doesn’t count like animal hibernation.’
‘That’s nitpicking.’
Azel chuckled. Then he said,
‘You probably can’t react to facts you didn’t anticipate, or didn’t know.’
‘Right.’
For example, Azel mentioned 220 years, but the thought remnant didn’t react with surprise. Likely because it was from long ago, unable to fully grasp or respond.
Azel asked,
‘How much time do we have?’
‘Not much. I consume away while we talk.’
‘Can’t have a long chat, then.’
‘If I were a ghost, maybe. But I’m just a thought remnant in your spirit veins.’
Meaning, as Azel circulated mana through his spirit veins, the remnant would fade the more he strengthened his own will. It was probably diminishing even now.
Azel asked,
‘Then let me ask something important. Why do you exist? What do you need to tell me?’
Kallos wouldn’t have left a thought remnant just to reminisce. There must be vital information.
Kallos said,
‘I don’t know when you’ll awaken or what era it is.’
He regretted it wasn’t during his lifetime. The thought remnant said as much.
‘So I can only speak from my time. Azel, Atein lives.’
‘What?’
Azel was stunned.
Dragon Demon King Atein alive? Impossible. Azel had killed him himself. In the final battle, he’d ensured no survival!
Kallos said,
‘More precisely, he didn’t die completely. Before you killed him, he prepared a way to revive himself. And his followers have been working on it in secret for decades.’
‘Revival from death? Not like an undead?’
Undead were black magic reanimating corpses on earth. They weren’t truly alive—just corpses moved by magic.
Kallos replied,
‘Yes. True revival, not undead.’
‘Possible? Even for Atein…’
‘I concluded it is. Though I can’t replicate it.’
‘Hm. If you say so.’
Azel trusted Kallos’s judgment. On magic, at least, his predictions rarely missed.
Azel asked,
‘So he might already be revived by now?’
‘Don’t know. Could be successful, or failed.’
‘That’s irresponsible.’
‘Hey, it’s after I’m dead. Why should I know? You live the future, so I’m giving advice despite the hassle. Be grateful.’
‘That’s so you.’
Azel smiled wryly.
Kallos said,
‘I don’t know how much of my preparations remain when you wake. I hope as much as possible, to aid you.’
‘No guarantee they’re intact?’
‘Think of what you did while alive. Looting ancient ruins and labyrinths left and right. What makes you think my setups survived after my death? Treasures buried are meant to be dug up.’
‘Hm. Fair enough…’
Even the ruin where Azel slept was in an inaccessible spot. Yet it was found, excavated on a large scale, leading to his awakening.
Suddenly, Azel asked,
‘Why appear now? Not when I first woke?’
‘Probably because you didn’t exit the ruin properly.’
‘Huh?’
‘You didn’t claim everything I prepared.’
‘…True.’
‘I figured you might skip it. This thought remnant only appears without the ruin’s power.’
Maintaining it in another’s spirit veins for nearly 200 years wasn’t easy. Only an archmage like Kallos could.
‘I left a map in that ruin for what you need. But…’
‘But?’
‘Me appearing now means the ruin lost its protective power and entered emergency mode.’
‘What?’
‘Someone breached its defenses from outside, so I’m here to tell you the most crucial truth. And… when you’re truly in danger, a helping hand will appear once, exactly when needed.’
‘What kind of help?’
‘You’ll find out soon. Well… live well.’
Kallos vanished from Azel’s dream with a bitter smile.
4
“To think he went bald…”
Azel muttered, opening his eyes naturally.
Arieta asked at the random mumble,
“What was that?”
“Oh, just dream talk.”
Kallos’s dream appearance was shocking in many ways. Once a cold heartthrob stealing women’s hearts, now bald in old age.
His aging hit hard too. Even Azel had never imagined seeing his friend grow old.
It sank in that Kallos had died while he slept. Azel felt lonely, reminded of being cast alone into a distant era.