Answer Honestly
The moment the words left his mouth, the blue dragon’s eyes lost their focus, pupils dimming as its body collapsed to the floor.
Thud!
The fallen dragons trembled violently, gasping for breath.
Startled, Amelia rushed toward them with the dolphin at her side.
“Kyuu, kyuuu!”
[M-Mom, Dad!]
Amelia rubbed the blue dragon’s snout and desperately cast her purification spell.
With Christina’s lingering blessing still in their bodies, the blue dragons began to accept Amelia’s purification. Fresh flesh started to grow over the wounds where the curse had festered.
‘The Gold Dragon’s blessing restores and revitalizes its target.’
Rune knew the effect firsthand.
The poison inside the blue dragons was being completely drawn out, and their healing had begun.
However, because they had been exposed to the madness and curse for so long, full recovery would still take considerable time.
The rest depended on Amelia and their own abilities.
Rune felt the deep, dense darkness now settled within his body and smiled inwardly with satisfaction.
‘I finally have it.’
The power of the Darkness Tribe that should have come to him from the beginning.
Having swallowed its source, he looked at the blue dragons and felt a brief pang of regret.
‘It’s a shame I can’t test it at full strength right away.’
The time wasn’t right yet.
Revealing this power would have to wait.
‘Well, if I think of it as keeping a trump card hidden, it’s not entirely a loss.’
Rune gave a small nod and opened his mouth.
“Amelia.”
Amelia, who had been anxiously watching over her parents, turned to him.
[Y-Yes?]
“An Elder of the Gold Dragons, the Light Tribe, will arrive here soon. If you meet them, ask for their help.”
Rune explained in detail everything Amelia needed to do from now on.
“Kyuhuu!”
[Got it……!]
‘Once this matter is settled, I might even get the chance to visit the Water Dungeon.’
Rune gathered his companions, already looking forward to a satisfying outcome.
‘But……’
Simply returning with hope wasn’t enough. There was still one problem left.
Not in the Water Realm, but with Rune himself.
‘I hope Amelia explains it well.’
Imagining Christina’s fury once she learned the full story made cold sweat trickle down his back.
He could only pray he would make it through unscathed.
***
Rune and his group returned through the passage created by the mana key.
Time had been hard to gauge in the deep sea, but upon checking, it was already the afternoon of the next day.
“Hwaaam. Heungmi’s sleepy……”
“Go ahead and rest.”
Heungmi yawned repeatedly, scooped Baekya into her arms, and headed for her room.
Having faced an adult dragon head-on, it was only natural that both her physical and mental strength were heavily drained.
‘I’d expected it to take three days, but things went smoother than planned.’
Rune first checked the signal from his avatar.
There was no movement or emergency; it was in a sleeping state.
‘Christina’s return will be later than scheduled, so I’ll have time to recover and train comfortably until then.’
Rune moved toward his room to retrieve his avatar.
And there, an unexpected guest was waiting.
“Rune.”
“……Hyung?”
‘Why is Perdikion here?’
Seeing the bewilderment on Rune’s face, Perdikion spoke.
“Why is that pathetic doll pretending to be you?”
At the end of his gaze lay Rune’s avatar, lying on the bed in deep sleep.
‘Damn it.’
Rune continued as if nothing were wrong.
“That’s a doll I made. It’s my first time making one, and it works pretty well.”
Rune smiled harmlessly and asked,
“What brings you here, hyung?”
“Do I need a reason to visit?”
This was going badly.
Rune sensed it and shook his head.
“That’s not what I meant. If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve waited and greeted you properly. I was just surprised to run into you in my room like this.”
Perdikion stared at Rune for a long moment before answering the first question.
“Lady Christina said she’d be away for a few days. I came to check whether you were training properly without skipping.”
Rune, already familiar with Perdikion’s personality of pretending not to care while secretly looking out for him, understood the situation immediately.
In short, he had come to look after Rune, who had been left alone.
‘He’s already been coming and going often because of lessons and meal invitations, so there’s no need to report every visit to Christina.’
Rune read the suspicion in Perdikion’s eyes regarding the doll.
“Then it’s my turn. Where have you been while leaving only this doll behind? Answer honestly.”
‘Looks like I can’t just brush this off.’
Rune scratched his cheek at the question.
“Lady Christina’s spirit, Rai, thought you were asleep and stayed outside the room so its light wouldn’t disturb you. It seems it had no idea. You planned to take advantage of that.”
Perdikion, who had been quietly watching the avatar sleeping on the bed, crossed his arms and looked at Rune with cold eyes.
‘It doesn’t matter anyway. Christina will find out eventually.’
On the day Christina went out, Rune had prepared lunch boxes and asked her to bring back ingredients with high-purity water mana.
It was a measure to check on the blue dragons’ condition whether Rune succeeded or failed.
‘I’ve already obtained the darkness power I was aiming for.’
He had absorbed the source of darkness, but those who had long suffered the aftereffects of madness would still need Christina’s help.
“Actually…… I went to the place where the Water Tribe lives.”
“What?”
As Perdikion stared in disbelief, Rune calmly explained everything from the beginning.
From how he had copied the black market key using Mana Cat’s Cradle from Jed, to how he learned about the blue dragons’ condition.
Perdikion couldn’t hold back and kept interrupting with exclamations of shock.
“Why are you always so reckless! Does it make any sense for a hatchling not even a hundred years old to face an adult fallen into madness!?”
“It was power I was going to claim anyway. Amelia, the blue dragon hatchling, was a pretty good kid too.”
“Good? That brat let someone much younger than her go to such a dangerous place without any plan. She’s a disgrace to the dragon race.”
‘Why is he getting this worked up?’
Rune was indeed young, but Amelia had also been a desperate young hatchling in need of help.
However, saying that honestly seemed risky; red energy was beginning to swirl in Perdikion’s eyes.
‘First, I need to calm his anger.’
Rune cleared his throat lightly and took out a red Mokoji Stone from his spatial pouch.
“Don’t get too angry, hyung. I really didn’t get hurt anywhere and came back safely. Oh, I almost forgot. Here, take this. I prepared it especially for you.”
“……What is this?”
Though his anger hadn’t completely subsided, Perdikion, having confirmed with his own eyes that Rune was unharmed, looked down at the item.
“It’s called a Mokoji Stone. An artifact for communication that Jed made.”
“Did you need a communication orb or something? If you wanted one, I could’ve gotten it for you earlier.”
“Unlike orbs, this one only exchanges text.”
Since dragons were a race overflowing with mana, Perdikion didn’t see much merit in being able to communicate with those who had almost no mana.
However, he found it quite interesting that he could leave a message when the recipient was away and receive a reply later.
“So…… with this, I can contact you directly, and you can check it later even if you’re not around?”
A strange pressure emanated from Perdikion.
‘Why does he look like a constable holding a rope?’
“Well, yeah.”
Rune looked at him with an innocent smile, contrary to his inner thoughts.
“Understood. From now on, reply to my messages immediately. Got it?”
“……I’m a bit slow at checking……”
“Got it?”
“……I’ll try.”
Avoiding the fiery gaze, Rune threw out another lure.
“Since Christina’s away too, want to come hang out in my room?”
“Your territory?”
“Yeah. It’s called the Black Room. A place left behind by my tribe.”
As expected, Perdikion showed interest.
‘As I thought, he has some curiosity about the extinct Black Dragons. As someone who’ll become an Elder of the Fire Tribe, he can’t help but be interested.’
Rune assessed the value of his ‘Black Room.’
Though Christina managed it as a proxy, strictly speaking, everything in the Black Room belonged to the Black Dragons.
It was the only place where one could directly see and touch the traces of the ‘Darkness Tribe’ that Perdikion had never actually met, and it was impossible to visit without permission from Christina and Rune.
“It’s not an official lair, but since it’s my territory, I wanted to invite you at least once.”
“……Besides me, who else has been invited?”
“Right now, you’re the first. My vassals living in Christina’s lair come and go often, though.”
“Ahem, is that so.”
Though his expression remained stiff, Rune could sense that Perdikion’s mood had softened.
He accepted with a clean face, as if he had never been angry.
“Being formally invited to the territory of the Darkness Tribe as the successor of my own tribe is a rare opportunity. Let’s go.”
“Good.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to overlook you going to dangerous places as you please. Remember that.”
Rune nodded obediently at the subtle glare.
‘I knew this would work. But I didn’t expect him to want to go right away. He must’ve been quite curious.’
It was typical of the straightforward Fire Tribe.
Turning his back on Perdikion, who was urging him with an impatient look, having forgotten his anger, Rune moved his mana.
‘Well, he’s probably only heard stories about the Darkness Tribe, so it makes sense he’d be curious.’
Satisfied that things were going as he expected, Rune cast the teleportation magic to the Black Room.
***
Rune and Perdikion arrived in the Black Room, filled with the scent of roses.
“How is it?”
“More comfortable than I expected.”
Even though it was a place imbued with the power of darkness and curses, Perdikion replied calmly without any awkwardness.
In fact, he was examining the Black Dragon’s legacy and cursed items.
“So this is your territory.”
“That’s right. There are quite a few things scattered around. Hope you don’t mind.”
“This much is fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Rune took the opportunity to provide nutrients to the Demon Realm Rose’s roots.
Seeing Dullahan rise from one side, Perdikion showed interest.
“That one?”
“Ah. First time seeing him, hyung? He’s my knight who became my vassal recently. A Dullahan.”
“Dullahan? You mean the Demon King’s knight that Lady Christina personally sealed?”
“Yeah. But now he’s my knight. Christina gave her permission too.”
Perdikion looked at Dullahan with suspicious eyes.
“Indeed…… I don’t feel as unpleasant as I expected. Maybe because I can faintly sense the fire energy as well.”
Rune inwardly admired Perdikion’s words.
‘He’s pretty good. Not as much as Christina, but he seems to sense fire attributes similar to his own quite well.’