The Dragon's King
The Dragon's King
I walked toward the village holding the parchment.
Anemone and the knights, having finished their search of the village, were gathered with looks of failure on their faces. The Lord's wife, crushed by anxiety, looked pale.
I handed the parchment to Anemone.
"Do you recognize this handwriting?"
Anemone's eyes scanned the handwriting on the parchment.
Anna didn't know how to write.
Even if she had learned over the past three years, this handwriting was the distinct, formal script of a noble.
Anemone's lips parted.
"Polica..."
She clutched the parchment with both hands and traced the letters with her fingertips.
A sigh of relief poured from her lips, as if she were exhaling breath she had been holding back.
"This is Polica's handwriting. There's no mistake."
Proof that her son, whom she thought was dead, had arrived safely in the village. The knights, who had been in despair, also relaxed their stiff faces and stroked their chests in relief.
Anemone's knees buckled first, and her body slowly sank to the ground.
It looked like she was about to cry, but she held it back.
"Could you return the letter?"
"Ah... yes."
Even if it had been ghostwritten, this was Anna's letter.
That was when it happened.
The Wolf Beast stuck to my side and nudged my shoulder with its snout.
The direction it turned and pointed with its tail was the [Slaughterhouse] located on the outskirts of the village.
It was the place where the village men would swarm to dismantle the prey I handed over.
I started walking.
The closer I got, the more the smell of blood vibrated in the air.
The moment I entered the [Slaughterhouse], a wide, black, rotting bloodstain was spread across the floor.
Something with a massive, house-sized body had been slaughtered here. It was a size incomparable to any prey I had ever caught.
I squatted on the floor and traced the edge of the bloodstain with my finger.
It was old blood.
Feathers were scattered nearby.
It wasn't just one or two.
Feathers the size of my body were scattered here and there, and some were blowing away in the distance.
"This is..."
The knight who witnessed the scene couldn't hide his shock and stepped back.
I, too, clicked my tongue in amazement.
'The Four Heavenly Kings' Jiz.'
It was his feather.
The size of the bloodstain was also exactly his size.
As far as I knew, there was only one person who could do this.
'Anna.'
She really killed one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
A key executive of the Demon Beast King was dead.
The Wolf Beast circled the scene, sniffing, as if remembering all the scents buried there.
"Someone is helping Polica. Since one of those terrible Four Heavenly Kings has fallen like this, Polica must have escaped safely."
Anemone clasped her hands together and prayed while looking at the traces of Jiz.
"Let's head back now."
"Yes..."
I turned back toward the Lord's castle with Anemone and the knights.
The walk back felt lighter than when we started, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
However, throughout the way back, my mind was incredibly complicated.
Dragon.
'How do I catch that guy?'
How on earth could I kill that distant, unfathomable Demon Beast King?
The faces and names of those who might have a chance popped into my head.
Among them was Anna.
If it were a fully grown Anna, there might be a chance.
I don't want to drag Anna into this, but she's one of the few talents available.
As my thoughts reached that point, my steps became heavy again.
The Dragon was on a different level.
The Four Heavenly Kings could somehow be dealt with if the knights gathered, but neither a knight's Sword Aura nor a mage's magic could pierce the Dragon's scales.
The Dragon's breath burned down entire cities.
Having witnessed the Dragon fighting, I gave up on fighting it.
There was no way I could defeat the Dragon, no matter what methods I employed. Only someone equal to or stronger than that power could kill the Dragon.
But the Dragon knew that well, too.
That's why it built up its forces and, to prevent strong individuals from gathering, led its subordinates to wipe out the strong ones one by one.
It used tactics and strategy, for a beast.
Then, is there nothing I can do?
'I am the King of Humans chosen by the Dragon.'
My specialty was always traps.
Let's prepare a trap.
I have no idea how long it will take, but it will become a massive trap that will one day engulf the Dragon.
"Whew..."
I looked at the spirit following by my side.
It had returned after a long time, but it looked noticeably disappointed because there was no one there.
"You, go back."
The spirit looked back.
"Go tell her I'm safe."
The spirit flew high into the sky, excited at the fact that it was leaving me.
Go and add your strength to Anna's.
Time flowed mercilessly.
Having returned to the Lord's castle, I received the crown the Dragon had promised.
In the audience chamber of the ruined castle, amidst the humans gathered by the monsters, the massive Dragon placed a golden crown on my head.
Hundreds and thousands of monsters howled in unison, celebrating my coronation.
People, terrified of the Dragon and filled with awe at its existence, assigned meaning to me, whom the Dragon had acknowledged.
Acknowledged by the Dragon.
Chosen by the Dragon.
The incarnation of the Dragon.
The Dragon's proxy.
Whatever they called it, the role given to me was to act on behalf of the Dragon and spread its will to the humans.
The Dragon spoke only to me, and I relayed those words.
To the people, I was the perfect minion of the Dragon.
After the coronation, the Demon Beast King's army began its advance to the next territory.
Flames soared in the villages and cities along the way, and much blood was shed.
All I could do for them was urge them to surrender. I sent envoys, but what returned were the corpses of the envoys.
If you resist, you die.
If you surrender, you live.
The choice is simple, but fierce resistance followed in most villages and cities.
I recruited the survivors among them and made them the people of my kingdom.
I am the traitor of humanity who stands at the vanguard of the Demon Beast King's army, delivering the Dragon's words.
Whether inside or outside, there is no one like me to serve as a scapegoat.
The human kingdom established by the Dragon grew as the Demon Beast King's army's invasion progressed.
Some humans, honoring the Dragon's presence and will, voluntarily became the hands and feet of the Demon Beast King's army.
The Dragon was satisfied as it watched the human kingdom grow day by day.
My resourcefulness was even better than I thought.
Thus, five years passed.
Humanity lost half of its total territory.
"Are you finally moving now?"
Having received the telegram, I heard the news that they were finally coalescing around the Empire.
Kingdoms that had been scattered and biting at each other gathered under the Empire's flag. For the first time in history, all human nations formed a single alliance.
The Empire's Knights.
The Kingdom's armies.
The [Magic Tower].
The [Mercenary Group].
All available forces gathered to confront the Demon Beast King's army.
Sitting on the throne, receiving reports on the war situation, one day I heard some news.
Anna, the Great Spirit Summoner of Earth. Deceased.
No, that's not right, is it?
Anna moved away from the light shimmering on the water's surface.
The bottom of the lake was endless.
As she sank into the cold, dark water, a red stream of blood trailed from Anna's body.
'I can't put any strength into it.'
Unlike others, Anna, a Spirit Summoner, had an ordinary physical body.
Most injuries were blocked and compensated for by spirits, but even a slight wound was fatal to her.
Pierced through the abdomen, Anna's consciousness began to fade.
It was the Four Heavenly Kings' trap.
Thousands of allies fighting against the Demon Beast King's army were isolated and almost wiped out.
I don't know how they knew.
Anna remained alone to face the Four Heavenly Kings.
But even spirits had their limits.
Pouring out her last bit of strength, she inflicted serious wounds on each of the Four Heavenly Kings and collapsed.
In that state, they wouldn't show their faces on the front lines for a while.
Due to the recoil of her power, she flew and fell into the lake.
She was unlucky.
If she had fallen on bare ground, it would have protected her as if she were wrapped in a soft blanket.
Sinking to the bottom of the lake, Anna drifted further and further away from the surface.
A huge shadow flickered in her blurring vision.
The ancient monster said to live in the lake.
The reason the Four Heavenly Kings didn't come to finish her off was all because of that great monster.
The legendary monster, said to have lived as long as the Dragon, opened its mouth.
'This is it.'
Just as Anna was about to close her eyes and accept death.
'I wanted to see him one more time.'
Dane.
She still remembered his name, his face, and his voice.
Around the time that thought crossed her mind, the water churned, and a gentle current wrapped around Anna.
The waves pushed her toward the grass on the lakeshore.
"Cough! Cough-ugh...!"
Anna coughed violently, spitting out the water that had filled her lungs.
Even as terrible pain erupted from her abdomen, she shifted her gaze to the entity of the power that had led her.
"...You."
A water droplet popped.
The Water Spirit.
The spirit she had sent away from her side long ago rubbed its body against Anna's cheek after five years.
How much it must have wandered all over the continent, unable to find its master.
Fragments of memories poured out by the spirit flowed into Anna's mind.
The voice of the Water Spirit, heard for the first time in five years.
"I missed you too."
Anna's fingertips traced the spirit.
The sensation of water droplets seeping between her fingers and gathering again.
It wasn't a dream.
There was something Anna had always wanted to say if the spirit returned.
"What about Dane?"
The spirit conveyed what it had seen and heard.
The spirit's memories permeated Anna's mind.
A burning castle.
Dane stood inside the ruined castle.
Dane met the Dragon.
He returned to the empty village.
The Hunter's house.
Dane returned home, opened the closet, looked at Anna's clothes, and muttered.
That she had grown.
She felt embarrassed for no reason.
Dane read the letter left on the table.
His face, lost in sentiment, was no different from the last time she saw him.
Just as when she first met him, he was big, reliable, and she wanted to be held by him.
Dane created a dramatic miracle by returning the Water Spirit to Anna.
"Dane is saving me again, even from far away."
Bitter, yet the corners of her mouth rose slightly.
The inside of Anna's chest grew hot.
He's alive.
I can meet him.
But there was one obstacle to meeting him.
"The Dragon."
That guy is holding onto Dane and not letting him go.
Anna didn't even bother to look at the fact that Dane was the Dragon's stooge and a traitor to humanity.
She raised her injured body.
Thanks to the Water Spirit treating her wounds, her life was not in danger.
"Haha."
A laugh leaked out.
Anna laughed for the first time in a while.
She was surprised herself and closed her mouth, but it seemed that the expectation of Dane's survival and their reunion was more joyful than she had ever imagined.
"Fool."
Anna knows what kind of person Dane is.
"No one will be happy if you do that."
Dane is a person who hunts.
He digs traps and catches prey.
For prey with unfamiliar habits, he would observe and study them to dig traps suited to the prey.
Entering under the Dragon must surely be to dig a trap to catch the Dragon.
If it's Dane, he would definitely have done that.
She asks herself, having experienced other people so far, how she can trust him so much.
"Because..."
Anna answered herself bitterly.
Even as a young child, there was something she felt when looking at Dane.
Just thinking about it made her heart feel heavy.
"...He always wanted to die."
He always had eyes that said he didn't want to live in this world anymore.
Anna hated those eyes.
She wanted to turn that gaze away from death.
"Dane... I will save you."
I will make you want to live.