Chapter 181
Chapter 181
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: Dragon's Slave (2)
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It was a dream-like day.
I defeated the Demon King and quit being a hero.
I married my childhood friend from my hometown and had a child.
She was a daughter so precious I wouldn't have minded putting her in my eyes.
Peaceful days without the need to fight.
Days spent in happiness with my family.
As time passed that way, I aged, and my daughter gradually grew into an adult.
I even joked that if she brought a boyfriend home, I'd beat the guy half to death.
But had my daughter inherited my bravery?
One day.
Ignoring my words, she brought a man home.
"...Who is this guy?"
"Let me introduce you, Dad. This is my boyfriend!"
Black hair and black eyes.
A sculpted face that didn't suit the countryside.
He gave a gentle smile and bowed his head.
"Hello. I'm Elina's boyfriend. Kaisel."
At first, I didn't suspect much.
After all, it was the man my daughter had chosen, so there had to be a good reason.
"...I'll test if you can protect my daughter."
"Yes?"
"Dodge my fist."
You still have to give a simple test.
I swung my fist toward Kaisel's face.
But.
Thwack-!
"Dad! What are you doing to my boyfriend right now!"
"Ow, ow..."
Kaisel couldn't even react to the punch and rolled across the floor.
Elina yelled at me, fretting over the weak guy.
"Kaisel can't fight at all! He's so kind he can't even kill a single bug!"
"Can't kill a bug? How's a weakling like this supposed to protect the family, Elina?"
"I'll protect him! And in this peaceful world now, what is there even to protect? Dad, you're such an old fogey!"
"..."
The me of that time couldn't say a word in response to Elina's words.
Just as my daughter said, I was from a dying generation.
"...Still, I can't accept him."
Even so, I refused to accept that Kaisel guy.
Because I sensed a bad aura from him for some reason.
Time passed like that.
And despite the opposition, my daughter kept meeting Kaisel.
She said they'd first met in the forest near the village.
"Honey, the two of them seem to be getting along well. Wouldn't it be better for Elina if we just accepted it?"
"..."
But.
After several years of their relationship continuing.
I had no choice but to accept the two, just as my wife said.
"Please take good care of me, Father-in-law."
"..."
He took my hand and flashed a half-moon smile.
The me of that time didn't know what that smile meant.
That it was the smile that would lead my family to ruin.
"I'm pregnant, Dad."
When their marriage hit the three-year mark.
My daughter delivered the news of her pregnancy.
"...Really?"
Joy surged through me for a moment.
But when I saw the guy's face behind my daughter, an uneasy feeling arose instead.
"..."
"Why do you look like that, Father-in-law?"
Kaisel.
He was clearly sneering at me.
"...It's nothing."
After that day, the villagers began disappearing one by one.
All the eyewitness accounts from the neighbors were the same.
"Kaisel! Everyone was last seen talking to that man!"
"My husband would never do that! My husband is a man who can't even kill a bug!"
My daughter defended Kaisel to the very end, placing her faith in him.
Even when villagers dumped cow dung in front of our house or kids scribbled graffiti on the windows.
"It's definitely not Kaisel. My husband would never do that."
Elina clung to her belief in Kaisel until the end.
Until the day my wife vanished.
"You damned bastard!! Where did you take my wife!!"
"Please calm down, Father-in-law."
"Don't you dare call me Father-in-law!!"
Even as I grabbed him by the collar, Kaisel maintained his composure.
"If you keep acting like that, you won't find your beloved wife. Shouldn't you be prostrating yourself before me right now?"
"..."
The me of that time was angrier.
Angrier than when I'd watched comrades die before my eyes.
Angrier than when innocent citizens fell to monsters.
I was consumed by rage.
But my fear of losing my family outweighed even that fury.
"...Tell me. Where is my wife?"
I had no choice but to prostrate myself before Kaisel.
Kaisel looked down at the back of my head and sneered.
"You should have acted like this from the start, Father-in-law. Instead of hitting me the moment you laid eyes on me. Things would have been so much better if you'd been like this."
Kaisel grinned and told me to follow him.
Saying he'd tell me where my wife was.
"..."
I followed after him to find my wife.
The place he led me to was none other than the house where Elina lived.
"Your wife is here, Father-in-law."
"..."
"Go on in and check."
Dizziness made my head throb.
With every step I took, the worst possible scenarios flashed through my mind.
Even so, to confirm that my wife and Elina were safe, I had no choice but to press forward.
Creak—
"..."
"Huh, you're both still alive? I even told you I'm a Black Dragon. Would've been better if you'd died."
Kaisel reached out toward my daughter and wife, who were huddled and trembling in the corner.
I seized that hand and swung my fist at his face.
But.
Thwack—
"Ow."
Unlike before, he simply took the hit without budging.
He didn't look damaged at all.
"It hurts, Father-in-law."
Kaisel said that, then punched me in the face.
Crack—!
Struck by a fist too fast to see.
Blood poured from me everywhere as I collapsed to the floor.
"It was a pretty amusing diversion. And I even confirmed that humans can bear dragon children."
"N-No...!!"
"I didn't expect both of you to trust me so blindly. I deliberately brought humans here and killed them, yet you believed in me to the end. Humans really are entertaining."
"St-Stop...!!"
"But the game's over now."
Black Dragon.
Right before my eyes.
Kaisel snapped my daughter and my wife's necks.
Crack—!
"Ah, aaaaah—!!"
I could only watch it happen.
Because I was weaker than him.
Because the Black Dragon was far too strong.
I couldn't protect my family.
"Why... why would you do something like this..."
Kaisel spoke to me as I crawled on the floor, shedding bloody tears.
"Because you killed the Demon King and woke me from my sleep. And because it's fun?"
"What's... so fun about it...?"
"Humans' blind faith in others. It's amusing to watch that pathetic faith shatter. It always ends in ruin, after all."
Kaisel.
He tapped my forehead and laughed.
"I wonder what your end will be, left all alone?"
His eyes didn't see others as living beings.
He saw them merely as toys.
"Well then, goodbye. Ordinary hero."
"I'll kill you—!! I swear I'll—!! Kill you—!! I'll kill every last one of you dragon bastards—!!"
And so I survived alone, the sole remnant of my family.
Vowing to kill all dragons.
That day, I discarded my name.
I existed solely to kill dragons.
"I'll have my revenge—!! Dragons—!!"
Dragon Slayer.
A slave, bound by a vow of vengeance to dragons.
***
Boom—!!
A massive explosion rocked the area, collapsing everything around.
All because that mad Dragon Slayer had swung his greatsword.
"This crazy bastard! What if innocent people get caught in that!?"
He'd mistaken me for a dragon and lost his mind.
Half-human, half-dragon—not entirely wrong, but still.
The Dragon Slayer turned the city into a wasteland, then leveled his greatsword at me and spoke.
"Dragon. What do you think of my story?"
"Of what?"
"Your kin killed my family. And he went further, spreading plague through the imperial capital. Half the empire's citizens died."
Was the Dragon Slayer recalling those days?
His expression grew fiercely distorted.
'But why take it out on me?'
I couldn't quite wrap my head around it.
Still, I understood one thing: his pain was real.
"There's nothing in the world more painful than losing family. I've lost some before. And I know I'll lose more in the future."
"...Strange. Dragons don't even have family bonds or attachments."
He was right.
Dragons have no family.
Even if they have parents, they don't call it family.
Dragons are a race that grows up alone from the moment they're born.
I glared at the Dragon Slayer.
"Dragon Slayer, don't you have too many prejudices? The dragons I know aren't like that."
"The dragons I know were all deceivers who sowed discord among humans from within. How are you any different?"
"Have you ever actually talked to a dragon?"
"..."
The Dragon Slayer fell silent.
Even he seemed to realize he'd never had a proper conversation.
With that, I wrapped mana around my hand and began manipulating it, just as the kids had taught me.
"You need a weapon to face a greatsword."
"A mana sword, huh."
Recalling the times I'd played with toy swords alongside Hwaryeon.
I formed a sword using mana.
A sharp blade infused with a dragon's dense mana.
I charged at the Dragon Slayer with the sword in hand and yelled.
"I don't get why you're losing it at me just because a Black Dragon killed your family. But if you touch my family, I won't hold back either, you bastard!"
"..."
The Dragon Slayer swung his greatsword at me without a word.
A threatening strike that could claim my life in one blow.
I dodged it effortlessly and shouted.
"You have no idea how hard I've worked to protect my family."
And with that.
My sword cleaved straight through the Dragon Slayer's massive greatsword.
Effort never betrays.
The unbreakable bonds of family conquer even fate.
***
From afar, the dragon sisters watched their dad's fight.
Peeking their faces out from behind a sturdy building.
"That's not how you fight! You need to move more cleanly, Dad!"
Hwaryeon grumbled, offering her commentary.
"Well, it's not bad, though!"
She even flashed a slightly satisfied smile.
Suryeon captured every moment of her dad's figure on her smartphone screen, not missing a beat.
"He fights well. But that sword design is kinda lame. A katana would be way cooler."
Suryeon voiced her disappointment that it wasn't a stylish katana.
Meanwhile, Choryeon grinned dopily at the sight of her dad fighting.
"As expected of Father... I can't help but swoon... Hehehe..."
"...Gross."
"...Yeah."
Hwaryeon and Suryeon shot Choryeon weird looks.
Still, the kids kept peeking out, cheering hard for their dad.
"If you lose, you're dead!"
"No way Dad loses."
"Father, you got this! I'm watching!"
They were just like a flock of chattering baby birds.