Chapter 232: You Die, I Die
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 232: You Die, I Die
“It’s nothing.”
Now was not the time to let his guard down.
Loik pushed aside the thoughts of Annette that kept surfacing and continued forward.
After days of searching, Loik and his knights had finally reached the deepest part of the Dragon’s Lair.
Gold was piled as high as mountains all around them. All sorts of brilliant jewels and raw gemstones glittered, but the knights didn’t spare them a single glance. Every one of them was contaminated with demonic energy; merely touching them would result in a fatal wound.
The lair was filled with all manner of traps and devices installed by the Dragon to ward off intruders. Loik and the knights had fought through ice daggers, lava valleys, and toxic mists, and had even crossed precipices hidden with rifts and snares.
The knights were quite exhausted. Had it not been for Loik and the Mage, they would have fallen into spatial distortion traps and died several times over by now.
But the end was finally in sight.
Sensing the Dragon’s presence nearby, Loik moved with caution. Finally, they reached the floor of a cavern with a soaring ceiling.
“Be careful! It seems a hallucination magic has been cast.”
The Mage’s urgent warning followed immediately.
The moment Loik tightened his grip on his sword, Annette appeared before his eyes.
“Loik, what are you doing?”
Annette, her hair cascading down to her waist, was wearing a pure white dress. She gave a gentle smile and beckoned to him.
“Don’t just stand there. Come here.”
It was the first time he had seen her in days. Even though he knew it was a hallucination, Loik instinctively took a step forward. She looked so lovely. A burning desire to rush over and take her in his arms surged within him.
Annette’s eyes drooped as if she were hurt.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you miss me?”
I missed you.
The answer almost slipped out of his mouth. Loik bit the inside of his cheek until it bled. If he immersed himself in the hallucination, he would forget that it wasn’t real.
He recalled the warning Hedrick had given him.
— “The Dragon will undoubtedly use hallucination magic.”
Over the past ten years, Loik and his knights had also been gathering information about the Dragon.
— “The only way to break the hallucination magic is to recognize that it is a hallucination. You must never follow where the hallucination leads.”
The Mage had advised that the moment he drew close, he would be attacked by the Dragon hiding behind the illusion.
— “Once you recognize the hallucination, you must plunge your sword into it. Only then can you escape that space.”
That isn’t real. Annette is in the capital right now. If I want to see her again, I have to stab this hallucination no matter what.
He had already expected the Dragon to use Annette for the illusion. Loik squeezed his eyes shut and raised his sword.
“Loik, come quickly and hold me. It’s so cold here.”
Annette’s voice was tinged with sorrow. At the sound, his body felt as if it had turned to stone, refusing to move. Even though he knew it was a hallucination, he couldn’t bring himself to strike.
He simply couldn’t do it. How could he thrust a sword into that delicate, pale skin?
Just as the hand gripping his sword began to tremble violently—
“If you don’t come quickly, I’m going to Duke Kyle.”
As if to provoke him further, Annette spoke in a huffy voice. When he looked up, Duke Kyle had appeared by her side.
Duke Kyle wrapped an arm around Annette’s waist.
“Now that I think about it, it’s a bit of a waste to give the Grand Duchess to a fellow like you. As it happens, the position of Duchess is still vacant.”
Annette leaned her head gently against Duke Kyle’s shoulder.
“That doesn’t sound too bad. To be honest, I’m tired of the North now. Loik is always leaving the castle empty to fight monsters, and even now, he leaves me all alone. I think I’ll just leave for the capital this time.”
Seeing this, the corners of Loik’s mouth curled upward. Annette frowned as if offended.
“Why are you laughing? Do you think I’m joking?”
Loik shook his head softly.
“It’s just so like you, Annette, to help me even at a time like this.”
He truly felt like laughing.
How does my wife manage to do such lovely things even in my head?
Loik adjusted his grip on his sword with ease. Then, while Annette wore a bewildered expression, he charged straight into the hallucination.
“Urgh…!”
Loik’s sword plunged accurately into the chest of Duke Kyle, who stood beside Annette.
From the beginning, the only person he couldn’t strike was Annette. The hallucination must have brought forth Duke Kyle because it realized that.
A guy like this, I could stab a hundred, a thousand times.
Duke Kyle coughed up blood. Simultaneously, the hallucination surrounding Loik slowly dissipated like smoke.
And finally, the Dragon revealed itself.
The Dragon, with Loik’s sword embedded in its side, was bleeding dark red blood.
“You… you actually…!”
The Dragon’s strangled voice echoed hoarsely. At the same time, its massive tail lashed out like a whip, striking at Loik.
Quickly pulling out his sword, Loik rolled away. The ground where he had been standing just a moment ago cracked with a thunderous sound.
Hedrick shouted urgently. As if that cry were a signal, the Mage quickly began to deploy a magic circle. The knights also dispersed rapidly into formation.
If they dragged this out, the knights would be at a disadvantage. This was a battle where speed was absolutely paramount.
The knights executed the tactics they had practiced countless times to take down a dragon. While the Mage drew out his power to its limit to bind the Dragon’s movements, the knight captains, including Hedrick, simultaneously targeted different vital points to distract it.
At the same time, knights stationed throughout the area held up magic tools that reflected light, blinding the Dragon’s vision.
“You vermin…!”
Just as the enraged Dragon began to breathe fire indiscriminately, Loik kicked off the wall and leaped, tearing through the flames with his blue sword aura as he lunged at the beast.
Whoosh!
The moment the Dragon swung its wing to crush him, the honed blade pierced sharply toward the underside of its neck. It was known as the Dragon’s most fatal weak point.
Thwack.
The sword, having pierced through the thick scales, skewered the Dragon’s neck along with a burst of blue light.
“Graaaagh…! Urgh!”
Dark red blood surged and overflowed around the blade.
Did we succeed?
Loik pulled out his sword and jumped down to the floor. The Dragon’s body slowly staggered and collapsed. A faint sense of triumph appeared on the knights’ faces.
Finally, they were parting ways with the curse that had tormented Loik for so long. Just as everyone turned to look at Loik with expectant faces—
Cough.
Loik spat out blood. Norton, who was nearby, rushed to support the collapsing Loik.
“Damn it! Commander!”
The worried cries of the knights, who remained in formation to keep watch on the Dragon, echoed through the cave. Inside Loik’s body, his Magic Core was emitting a violent surge of energy.
What’s happening?
“Heh… heh…”
The gasping Dragon bared its sharp teeth and let out a raspy laugh.
“Foolish human. Do you think you can live long if I die?”
“If I die, you die too.”
The knights’ faces froze in shock.
* * *
“What about the Crown Princess’s side?”
The Empress, reclining on a sofa while receiving a massage from a maid, asked.
“It has been handled properly,” the maid replied, lowering her voice significantly. “She believes the Grand Duchess will enter the capital late in the afternoon, so she likely only sent the carriage just now.”
“How stupid.”
The Empress clicked her tongue in disdain.
“Rumors are already widespread that the Grand Duchess visited the Grand Temple. Just what is the quality of the people she employs that a Crown Princess could be so slow with information?”
The Empress was receiving a report on the Grand Duchess’s movements since entering the capital. Although she had ordered false information about the Grand Duchess’s arrival to be leaked to the Crown Princess’s side, the fact that she had actually fallen for it was pathetic.
“Why did the Grand Duchess go to the Grand Temple?”
The maid relayed the words of a priest they had bribed.
“It is said she expressed her intention to donate to the Grand Temple library.”
“A donation?”
A fake saintess donating to the Grand Temple. What a ridiculous notion. There was surely another reason.
“However, it seems there was quite a bit of friction at the library.”
“Friction?”
The maid reported the facts she had heard from the priest in detail.
“The Grand Duchess was wearing a ruby necklace… and she threatened that if she pressed the necklace, the Blenheim Knights would storm into the Grand Temple.”
The Empress closed her eyes slowly at the interesting information. The news of the Grand Duchess coming to the capital was welcome. In the current situation, the Grand Duchess was a necessary pawn in many ways.
I must tame her properly this time.
It would be best if the Grand Duchess was quick-witted and obedient, but if she acted arrogantly as if she had a choice, the Empress had no intention of being lenient.
The problem is that she’s still young and doesn’t know any better.
If she thought about it even a little, she would realize how much patience the Empress was exercising. The stage of merely showing favor had passed. If she was a child who feared nothing, the Empress would simply have to give her something to fear.
The Grand Duchess and the loyal knights of the North.
Somehow, a rather pleasant picture formed in her mind.