Chapter 67
Chapter 67
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Chapter 14: Dragon Armament Crafters (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1
Azel opened his eyes and realized he was crying. His eyes were moist, and tears had streamed down his cheeks onto the pillow.
"You're awake?"
Kairen's voice came from nearby. Azel flinched as he raised a hand to wipe away his tears.
"Urk."
"Don't move recklessly. They said your ribs and arm bones are fractured clean through."
"Ah, to end up like this from just one hit... It really makes me resent how fragile my body is."
"The healer's opinion was different. They were surprised that your organs didn't rupture, saying you're surprisingly tough."
Kairen spoke in a disinterested tone. Azel turned his head to look at him and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Duke, your eyes..."
"Urgh."
The area around Kairen's eyes was badly bruised. Kairen covered it with his hand as he spoke.
"That corpse wasn't a pushover. First time I've seen a Dragon Demon Undying."
"Was it a Dragon Demon?"
"I smashed the helmet and checked. I split its skull in two and got careless for a moment..."
Even an Undying should have had a gap after having its skull crushed and its torso run through with a sword, but Delta had punched him in that state, swelling Kairen's eye black and blue. It was the first humiliation Kairen had ever suffered.
Azel twisted in pain from the laughter that burst out.
"Ugh, can't even laugh freely."
"Look at you, after daring to laugh at me."
"How long was I out?"
"Just a bit longer than normal sleep time. The healer said it's miraculous how intact your condition looks despite your body being a total wreck."
"Maintaining the body in an injured state is something I've drilled into my bones."
Azel gave a wry smile.
During the Dragon Demon War, he had crossed the brink of death as often as eating rice. The technique to minimize the effects of injuries had reached the ultimate realm through harsh experience. Maintaining his body while unconscious was nothing.
Kairen said,
"You're more intact than I thought."
"You're calling someone in this state intact...?"
"Your mental state. You were crying in your sleep, so I wondered how furious you must have been..."
"...It's polite to pretend not to see a man's tears."
"Was there such etiquette? I feel like telling Arietta the next time I see her..."
"......"
"Well, fine. Anyway."
"I'm not really intact. It's bubbling up inside."
"I thought you were that thunderbolt kid who doesn't know defeat or fear. Turns out you're not, so I was a bit surprised."
Azel had survived mortal danger from the sudden defeat but wasn't swallowed by the shock. The more talented, the stronger the confidence in one's skills, the greater the impact of defeat.
Azel said,
"I've never had such a pampered time. In battle, you can lose, get hurt, or die. What's important is that I'm alive to sharpen the blade of revenge, right?"
"You really say things that hit right home too often. That's the problem."
Kairen sat up. Azel asked,
"What happened to them?"
"We ended the fight and withdrew the moment you went down. That annoying brat too."
"I see."
"They said they'd come again. Not sure when..."
As he said that, Kairen left the room, adding,
"I told them to bring meals here. Rest here for three or four days before moving."
"My condition is delaying the schedule. Sorry."
"Cut it out. It wasn't my decision, but my organization wrecked you, so if you apologize, it puts me in an awkward spot. I came out because the palace was annoying anyway; no need to rush, so rest up."
Left alone after Kairen left, Azel stared blankly into space for a moment before thinking.
'Can I trust those guys?'
The Guardian Shadows had too many suspicious aspects to trust blindly. Not just the unclear ghosts or whatever the Guardian Shadows were, but now even Undying born only from evil black magic...
'First, I need to smash whatever test they're putting me through to learn anything.'
Unfortunately, he was currently the weak one. He couldn't capture them and pry the truth; he had to be dragged along by their intentions...
It was a long-felt sense of powerlessness. Azel ground his teeth with a twisted expression he hadn't shown Kairen.
2
Three days later, Azel was still unsteady. No matter how much money was spared on healers, a human body had limits to its recovery.
Still, it wasn't to the point he couldn't move, so the two decided to hit the road again.
Kairen asked,
"You sure you're okay?"
"Well, the bones are mostly set, so it'll be fine. As long as I don't overdo it."
"Thirty kilometers a day max."
"You're really trying to kill me, huh?"
"Then twenty?"
"Let's see once we start."
Grumbling, Azel managed a straight thirty kilometers a day, crossing mountains, fording rivers, and traversing fields.
A week later, despite the constant strain, he was nearly fully recovered and finally entered the Tarantos Dukedom. But the dukedom was so vast that it took another two days to reach Tarantos Castle.
Despite ruling such a vast territory, Kairen didn't reveal his identity to the people upon entering the domain. Since everyone knew him as a Dragon Demon, they couldn't recognize him in human disguise.
But the incognito travel ended before Tarantos Castle. With the castle in sight, Kairen asked,
"What do you think?"
"Impressive."
Azel gave his honest impression.
The heart of the Tarantos Dukedom, Tarantos Castle, was a magnificent city. Centered around a grand fortress incomparable to the lords' castles they'd passed, a well-landscaped city sprawled, surrounded by massive walls.
Kairen said,
"My parents had excellent aesthetic sense. I didn't inherit it."
"You're frank."
"I've lived long, but I'm no expert in art. It's fortunate for me and the domain folk that I wasn't burdened with building this city."
"I wouldn't know about your artistic sense, Duke, but I acknowledge your predecessors were truly exceptional."
"You always add one impertinent line."
Before entering Tarantos Castle, Kairen dropped the disguise and revealed his true form.
"The Duke has returned!"
The guards who saw him shouted in surprise, causing a commotion everywhere. Kairen ordered two horses from the guard post and mounted one. Azel asked,
"You're not saying running would be faster?"
"Have to keep some dignity in front of the domain folk, or the nagging gets bad. Listening to underlings bossing me around, you forget who's superior."
Azel rode alongside, sightseeing the streets. People on the roadside cheered fervently upon seeing Kairen.
"It's the Duke!"
"Look! The Duke's out!"
Kairen waved to them, and the women seemed ready to faint from joy alone. Azel said,
"Your popularity here doesn't fall short of the princess's."
"It's because I've done well as a lord. Starting to look respectable?"
"More surprising how approachable you are to the domain folk."
The stronger the lord's authority, the more it showed in the people's attitude. When the lord passed, they should all hold their breath and bow, right?
But there wasn't a speck of that. They just rejoiced at seeing Kairen.
"I hate stiff formality. As a Dragon Demon, that'd make me really unpopular."
"Ah."
Integrated into human society or not, the scars of the Dragon Demon War lingered. Dragon Demons still approached humans cautiously. The continued existence of the Dragon Princess and Dragon Demon Prince showed that.
A living legend and hero, Kairen was still a Dragon Demon ruling humans. He rarely appeared publicly not just from dislike of hassle but awareness of his position as a Dragon Demon lord.
Suddenly, Azel asked,
"Do you like humans, Duke?"
"A question with an obvious answer."
"Well, just a bit of sincerity here."
"If you answer my question sincerely first."
"Pulling out a deal even now? Sneaky."
"Don't like it?"
"No. Deal."
"Good. I like humans, Sir Azel. Born into a ducal house under a human nation, I've never once hated being a lord. Satisfied?"
"Plenty."
Azel recalled old comrades from Kairen's answer. Those who opposed the Dragon Demon King's will to rule humans during the war. Pitiful beings who loved and protected humans, staking their lives despite suspicion and hatred.
Suddenly, Azel asked,
"Duke. One thing I'm curious about."
"What? It's my turn to ask, but you keep doing this?"
"Among this country's Dragon Demons, by any chance..."
Azel stopped mid-sentence. He was so shocked he didn't even notice Kairen's puzzled gaze.
'Lugen?'
Servants stood at the Tarantos Castle entrance. At the center was a man who appeared to be a Dragon Demon Hybrid, dressed as a butler. One might be surprised a Dragon Demon Hybrid was a butler, but that thought didn't cross Azel's mind.
'He's been alive all this time?'
Because that face matched someone from Azel's memory.
Kairen asked,
"What's wrong?"
"That man..."
"Hm? Who?"
"That Lu... Ah, nothing."
Azel snapped to his senses.
Up close, past and present overlapped and mismatched. The butler Dragon Demon Hybrid strikingly resembled the Lugen he knew, but wasn't him.
'A Dragon Demon Hybrid.'
Above all, Lugen was a Dragon Demon, not a Hybrid.
But the resemblance was astonishingly real. Even the age matched Azel's memory—late thirties or early forties by human standards.
His skin was slightly dark. His eyes were bright blue like an autumn sky, his hair faded blond. Small gray horns curved back like a goat's above slightly pointed ears, and the Dragon Demon Stone on his hand was a dull blue.
Kairen, eyeing Azel curiously, said,
"Hm. Surprised by Hasban? Well, a Dragon Demon Hybrid as butler is surprising."
"Such things happen."
Azel replied without taking his eyes off Hasban. He knew it wasn't the same person. But the more he looked, the more identical they seemed.
Lugen.
He was one of the Dragon Demons who fought alongside Azel in the Dragon Demon War. He loved a human woman, and they had a young son. Showing shyly his wife and child's portraits had made Azel see Dragon Demons more humanely.
Azel said with distant eyes,
"Now I remember."
"What?"
"I thought he resembled someone. At first, I thought it was someone I knew, but no. Do you know a Dragon Demon named Lugen? Active in the Dragon Demon War..."
"Lord Lugen is Hasban's grandfather."
"I see. He looks just like the portrait I saw."
"Ah. That's why you were so shocked?"
"It popped into my memory suddenly."
Azel tried to keep a nonchalant expression.
Hasban's existence, evoking the past, struck him intensely. He had accepted living alone in this era, but couldn't erase the loneliness.