Ah, King of the Rom Kingdom...

Sunghyun recalled the sensation of using Cloud Thunder.

Certain kill.

Strictly speaking, Cloud Thunder was not lightning.

It was something newly born by driving mana and killing intent to their absolute limits.

From the moment Sunghyun had understood lightning itself, he had instinctively grasped the concept of Cloud Thunder.

Killing intent.

He had poured the will to kill his opponent straight into the lightning.

Because he had forced open a technique that should only have been attempted once a trait reached S-rank, and he had done it through pure sensation alone, explaining the method was extremely difficult.

“Hmm… A collection of the mind that kills the opponent? The feeling that life and death coexist the moment that lightning strikes?”

Armin heard those words and decided Sunghyun was teasing her.

What on earth was the feeling of life and death coexisting? The mind that kills the opponent? Killing intent?

Revealing killing intent as lightning?

What was he even talking about?

“Um… Sunghyun-nim? I don’t understand a single bit of that.”

“Hmm… I suppose not.”

This was not something that could be learned.

Experience, talent, and luck.

Only when those three elements aligned would Sunghyun’s Cloud Thunder manifest.

Even Zeus, the original owner of the lightning, had found it impossible at first.

It was a technique completed with Hades’s help.

If she could simply copy it after hearing Sunghyun’s explanation, Armin should already have ascended to godhood.

“Uh… Then what am I supposed to do?”

“What do you mean what? Watch what I do and figure it out yourself. If you can’t, then you just can’t learn it.”

So.

“For now, follow me, Charizard.”

Charizard?

Armin was bewildered by a word she had never heard before.

“Nyeh?”

“Think later. We need to get out of here first.”

Grabbing the torso of Armin, who had turned into a single clinging octopus, Sunghyun prepared to run.

The forest’s residents who had felt Sunghyun’s lightning began gathering toward this place.

They too had sensed it.

A being that should never have entered the forest had arrived.

They had to catch him now. Fail, and they themselves would become the prey.

Rustle.

The mana was heavy.

The oppressive pressure made every hair on his body stand on end.

This was something he could not handle no matter how much stronger he had become.

Not yet. Not yet. Later he would handle even this with ease.

But for now he had not properly bloomed.

He was only a sprout just beginning to grow.

“Hey, kid. Can you grab onto lightning?”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean…!”

“If you can’t, then try hard enough that you can.”

Otherwise.

Crackle-crackle-crackle-.

“You’ll fall.”

Sunghyun’s body was turning into lightning.

Seeing that, Armin was astonished.

Naturalization!

A technique possible only for dragons classified as Agent-class among dragons.

And even then, only the most talented among them could manage it.

How could a human use that technique!

As far as Armin knew, the only ones who used it were the leaders of each dragon clan and the elders beneath them.

Just as her thoughts began to multiply, Sunghyun snatched Armin’s torso.

Grab-!

“Aaaah!”

Sunghyun’s hand, not yet fully transformed into lightning, still held Armin.

But soon even that hand would become perfect lightning.

Before that.

“Grab on quick. Or I’ll leave you behind.”

Armin, who had finally begun to sense the approaching mana, started turning pale.

Grab-!

In the end, faced with a survival crisis, Armin succeeded in latching onto Sunghyun.

At that sight, Sunghyun smiled like a father watching his child grow.

“Good job! Then we run…!”

“Huh? Ah… Not yet…! Aaaaah!”

Sunghyun began moving along the grain of the atmosphere.

Crackle-crackle-crackle-!

Like current racing along a power line, Sunghyun moved in an instant.

Armin, clinging to him, was simply dying.

It was a good thing she had practiced flight stunts whenever she was bored.

Without that familiarity she would already have fainted from the motion sickness.

If she fainted here, it was over.

Armin poured every last scrap of strength she had ever possessed into holding onto Sunghyun.

Get a grip! I have to engrave every single one of Sunghyun-nim’s movements into my eyes. Only then can I grow!

Armin simply hated fighting.

Given the chance, she was always ready to become stronger.

Crack-! Crack-!

Just a little, but Armin’s hands began to take on a form similar to lightning.

Going back a little to the past.

The moment Sunghyun used Cloud Thunder, every dragon existing in the Forest of Death felt death.

“Death! It’s the power of death. There’s no way a Black Dragon is here! It’s the Demon King! We must ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eradicate him at all costs!”

Their target was the place where Sunghyun stood.

Flap-.

Under their oppressive aura, every demonic beast and divine beast in the Forest of Death went berserk.

Because of that, Sunghyun was stuck running a race that had never been in his destiny.

“This fucking shit! How long are these bastards going to keep chasing us!”

In the endless running, Sunghyun kept running.

If it had been simple running it would have been fine.

Everything in the forest was targeting Sunghyun.

“Hey Armin! I’m going to run even faster. You okay with that?”

She shook her head hard.

Whether it was her limit, Armin’s face had turned porcelain-pale.

Fuck! This won’t do.

Emergency escape!

Sunghyun immediately purchased two Temporary Rest Spaces.

“Uwa! Hurry!”

Before Sunghyun’s eyes, dragons flew toward him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like a swarm of bats.

Just because Armin was 21,000C did not mean the dragons would be the same.

Here even an ordinary centipede was 42,000C.

Sunghyun doubted his eyes.

“Crazy!”

Even one of them would be a toss-up whether he could win. Dozens of similar ones.

He could not win.

The moment various magics poured down on Sunghyun, his form was moved somewhere.

Thud!

Sunghyun threw Armin onto the floor and gasped for breath.

“Uwa, what the hell is this!”

Armin also seemed to have finally come to her senses. She was wriggling on the floor and looking around.

“Where is this?”

“Hey kid! Spit out everything you know about dragons.”

Sunghyun sat in a chair and glared at Armin.

“Ah, yes!”

Armin naturally moved in front of Sunghyun and sat properly.

“First, I’ll tell you the reason I gave up fighting the moment I saw Sunghyun-nim’s lightning!”

“I told you to talk about dragons. What are you saying.”

When Sunghyun showed a lukewarm reaction, Armin puffed out her cheeks.

“Buuuu! It’s the most important thing! Without this information I can’t talk about dragons.”

At Armin’s firm response, Sunghyun raised both hands.

“Fine. Go ahead and say it.”

Armin extended one finger and created lightning.

“First. A dragon’s strength is its attribute, and its weakness is also its attribute.”

“What do you mean?”

“To explain simply. Since I’m a half of Gold and Red, I handle fire and lightning, right?”

“That’s right.”

“I can freely handle lightning and fire weaker than mine. But if it’s stronger than me, I can’t do anything.”

He roughly understood.

So because his lightning had been stronger than the lightning Armin handled, Armin had immediately surrendered to him.

Wait a minute.

“Then you. If I had been weaker, you would have attacked?”

Armin rolled her eyes around.

“Uh… If I had known you were from the Rom Kingdom, I wouldn’t have touched you? They always come to see me….”

“And if not?”

“Dehet?”

Armin bonked her own head with her fist and stuck out her tongue.

At that free-spirited appearance, Sunghyun once again sandwiched Armin’s head between his fists and spun it wildly.

“You crazy dragon, how many people have you harmed until now!”

“Aaaaah! I’ve never killed anyone even once! Really really! This really hurts so please stop! Stop it please!! Anyway the Forest of Demonic Beasts is managed by the kingdom so other people can’t even enter!”

When she spoke with tears welling up, only then did Sunghyun remove his fists from Armin’s head.

“I can trust that, right?”

At those words, Armin’s golden eyes shone.

“I swear on the blood of a Gold Dragon.”

Then a golden light flickered on Armin’s chest and disappeared.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a dragon’s oath. If I lie, my blood as a dragon disappears.”

“Are you crazy?”

“If it goes wrong, I’ll just become a Red Dragon or something.”

When Armin said it lightly, Sunghyun felt his head start aching again.

“Fine… If you say you’re okay, what can I say….”

He felt like he understood the heart of a father raising a daughter.

Ah. King of the Rom Kingdom, just what on earth are you….

At that time, the king of the Rom Kingdom was looking up at the sky with a bright face.

The duke who was drinking tea with him asked the king.

“Your Majesty, you seem to be in a good mood lately for some reason. Is there some good news?”

The king’s golden eyes shone.

“Hehehe. According to Hermes-nim’s message, just now my daughter and Sunghyun-nim met and entered the Forest of Death. Yes.”

The duke also had golden hair and golden eyes similar to the king.

Because the duke was also a Gold Dragon like the king.

“Oh! So the princess has finally entered the Forest of Death as well. It won’t be long until she becomes an Adult Dragon. And Sunghyun-nim… Heheh! Isn’t he Hermes-nim’s disciple. The princess has properly met her match as well.”

He was also one of the elders right under the leader.

Hermes’s saint was only the leader Euclid, but most of the information Hermes shared was shared with Duke Gauss as well.

Therefore Gauss knew many things.

The Rom Kingdom was a special place founded by the Gold Dragon clan.

Hermes, seeing the human-friendly disposition of the Gold Dragons, had deliberately ordered the Gold Dragon leader to establish a kingdom.

Right next to it so they could manage the Forest of Demonic Beasts.

Thus the Rom Kingdom was founded.

And in the present day it existed as a powerful nation on par with the Empire.

The citizens did not know, but the royal family and the ducal family were all composed of dragons.

The reason the Empire did not touch the kingdom, and the reason the Demon King still had not struck the Rom Kingdom, was for this reason.

“Hehe, many things about the princess come to mind.”

The duke looked up at the sky with distant eyes.

Armin.

He recalled the time when the princess first handled fire.

As soon as Armin could handle fire, she threw fire at his head as a prank.

He had thought a hatchling’s fire was nothing much.

But perhaps because she inherited the blood of the Red Dragon leader, the fire was so hot that Gauss’s head had been completely burned off, he remembered.

Because of that he had gone around wearing only a hat for a while.

Hehehe.

Was that all? The princess seemed to have some kind of obsession with his head.

Whenever he appeared she would climb onto his head and keep plucking his hair.

He could not throw away the leader’s daughter. Really.

Back then he had even thought, leader or not, should I just fight her once?

Thinking of that time, he felt his head going cold again.

“Hehehe. That is… truly joyful news. Truly joyful.”

“Is meeting Sunghyun-nim that good?”

“Hahahaha! Of course it is. How could it not be good. I hope the princess’s momentum is dampened a little….”

The corners of the duke’s mouth were twitching as they ascended to the heavens.

Because the duke had also heard stories about Sunghyun from the king and the team leader, his mouth corners rose on their own.

If he was truly the man as in the stories, the princess had truly met her match.

The two men who knew about Sunghyun bloomed flowers of laughter thinking of the princess.

Hehehe.

Please, may the princess become the owner of a normal personality.

We pray. We pray.