Chapter 92
“Kahak! Kehek.”
The young Perdikion, his cheeks swollen red, tried to rise halfway before spitting out the blood pooled in his mouth with practiced ease.
The man who had struck his cheek twisted his expression savagely, as if beholding a criminal.
“The one who must become the ruler of fire cannot even handle a poker that even lowly dwarves use with ease.”
“Kyaauk……”
Clang!
The red-hot poker was hurled to the floor.
“Disgusting. You worthless brat.”
“……!”
“Never appear before my eyes again.”
The young fire hatchling lowered his ruby-red eyes, hiding his gloomy gaze.
The golden-eyed man who had spoken in that overbearing tone brushed his hands off as though he had touched something filthy, then left.
“……”
The eyes that had burned with crimson fury soon sank into darkness.
The child of fire slowly lifted his gaze and fixed it on the poker.
Where the painful sting lingered, a red mark from the poker remained like a brand on his cheek.
‘It hurts.’
The red hatchling raised one forepaw and touched his swollen cheek.
Then he rubbed the spot where his heart lay.
It was hard to tell which hurt more.
Both were far too painful for the young Perdikion.
‘This kind of pain is nothing.’
A true red dragon should have felt only a tickle, like a leaf brushing against scales protected by steel and the blessing of fire.
He recalled Pasiyas saying exactly that.
Under that gaze, he felt less like a son and more like a criminal.
Perdikion was neither able to resist nor to earn recognition.
And he was angry at the father who had reduced him to this wretched state.
‘I failed again today.’
Perdikion examined his own body.
He had tried to draw up the fire within him to meet expectations, but the shock of the blow had torn his scales away where the poker struck.
Immediately afterward came his father’s disappointed eyes.
His clenched fists turned toward the still-glowing poker.
‘……’
Having made up his mind, Perdikion reached out and gripped the poker’s handle tightly.
Hisss—
The tip of the poker, lifted from the floor, glowed a fierce red from the flames Pasiyas himself had kindled.
The young Perdikion stared at it, then looked back at his own arm, breathing hard.
His hand trembled.
Even after deciding, instinctive fear made the hand clutching the poker shake, cold sweat running down his scales.
‘If I act this weak, Father will never acknowledge me as his son.’
The moment the hatchling brought the glowing poker toward his arm, ready to sear his own scales without hesitation—
“Don’t.”
A mature, calm male voice stopped him.
“Kyau!?”
Perdikion looked around in surprise, and the voice spoke again.
“Over here.”
It was close.
Startled, Perdikion narrowed his eyes and looked at the back of the hand holding the poker.
A tiny human, no larger than a palm, sat upon it.
Black hair, black eyes, appearing to be in his twenties.
A stranger clad in darkness met the young Perdikion’s gaze.
With an indifferent expression, the small figure placed a petal-like hand on Perdikion’s and stopped him from pressing the poker to his forearm.
“You don’t need to go that far just to live up to expectations. Meeting your father’s hopes isn’t the whole of your life.”
“Kyaa……u.”
Normally, Perdikion would have immediately shaken the intruder off and struck him.
Yet when he met the small human’s dark eyes, he felt an odd sense of relief.
The young Perdikion sank into thought, puzzled.
“Kyaa……?”
‘Why? Why do I feel like I should listen to this black creature?’
As confused as Perdikion was, Lune also found his own appearance strange.
Everything around him looked enormous from his shrunken perspective.
It felt as though he had become a tiny person in a kingdom of giants.
‘Besides, this is my appearance from my previous life.’
Strangely enough, he had taken the form he possessed when he was still an Imugi.
After a brief moment of thought, he let out a light sigh.
‘There’s no risk of breaking Perdikion’s illusion, and I’ve manifested in a form familiar to me.’
The Imugi form was a third existence that existed neither in Perdikion’s reality nor in his past.
To Perdikion, who believed the unhappy past before his eyes was real, the form of Lune Eclipse—someone from the present and future—was apparently not permitted.
‘……Well, appearing as Lune would only add to the confusion anyway.’
Though Lune’s current body had only grown for ten years, his mental age and the scale of his original power were on the level of a dragon who had lived over a thousand years.
It was only natural that he would manifest in a form befitting that.
‘The reason I’ve become this small is probably because I entered through the Black Pearl’s power, which serves as the passage.’
Once Lune had grasped the situation, Perdikion sent a telepathic message.
[Just what are you? How did you get in here?]
At the wary question, Lune pondered briefly.
‘Is there any explanation that won’t make the current Perdikion find me suspicious?’
Calling himself a future sworn brother would require too much explanation.
If he tried too hard to convince him, he might only arouse unnecessary suspicion.
‘If his memories of reality and the past clash, I could end up being expelled as the cause. For now, I’ll start with the truth I can tell.’
Lune looked up at Perdikion and spoke.
“I came out of the Black Pearl you’re holding right now.”
“Kyaa?”
[This pearl?]
Perdikion, still doubtful, sent the question telepathically.
He lifted the Black Pearl that had somehow appeared in his hand and glanced back and forth between it and Lune.
“That’s right.”
As if answering Lune’s affirmation, the pearl shone with a brilliant black luster.
Lune looked up at Perdikion and spoke with genuine seriousness.
“You’re in a difficult situation right now. If I don’t save you while you have that pearl, I won’t be able to leave this place either.”
It was no lie.
At the sincere tone, Perdikion’s brow twitched savagely.
Seeing the displeased reaction, Lune tried to guess what he was thinking.
‘It probably sounds absurd.’
Even to Lune, it sounded like a fairy-tale story about a toad from the Kongji household.
At that moment, without giving him time to dodge, Perdikion gathered his forepaws and tightly clenched Lune inside them.
Grab!
In the brief instant of bewilderment, Perdikion dashed out of the room.
Thud-thud-thud!
The vibration traveled through Lune’s body with the urgent grip and hurried footsteps unique to children.
Perdikion ran through several branching corridors, glancing around the castle.
“Slow down a bit!”
After running for some time, the red hatchling slammed the door shut behind him and entered a room with no signs of people.
“Kyuhuuuk.”
After huffing through his nose a few times, the little fire dragon nervously opened his clenched fist, worried that the creature inside might have disappeared.
Lune, frowning, raised his head from within.
“Phew! Why did you suddenly start running?”
“Kyaauk!”
[That room belongs to Father. If we stayed any longer, we might have been discovered. I had no choice.]
Then he glared at Lune and scolded him.
[In the first place, where do you think you are, barging in like that? This place doesn’t even allow entry into the Red Dragon clan’s lair. This is the castle of the Red Dragons!]
‘If it’s the fire lair, then this is the castle that was in Perdikion’s lair?’
Now that he looked, the familiar building style and colors, even the familiar aura of fire, matched the castle he had seen in Perdikion’s lair not long ago.
“Then where are the dwarves?”
The castle had once housed countless dwarves.
The royal blacksmiths, the dwarf deputy Verdin Mephers, the mining supervisor Hampert Fisher, the combat dwarf officers Wood Phelan and Gorban Bob, and others.
Even if this illusion was set in the distant past when they did not yet exist, it was strange that no dwarves in any positions were bustling about and that there were no guards on patrol either.
No wonder Lune had not immediately recognized it as Perdikion’s castle.
At Lune’s question, Perdikion looked at him, then took a golden bracelet set with a red mana stone from a drawer and put it on.
It was the artifact he had given Lune that allowed transformation into a human.
“You mean those slaves? They’re not in the castle. Being lowly creatures, they’re all in the forge making weapons.”
“Lowly……?”
The word, spat out so sharply, was disconcerting.
To hear such a thing from a child who did not even look ten years old.
‘This brat. Compared to before, he’s improved a lot now.’
Unaware of Lune’s thoughts, Perdikion focused his senses on the area outside the door, then let out a sigh of relief.
“No presence. We can speak freely now. What exactly are you?”
“……Something like a fairy, I suppose.”
The first thing that came to mind was the fairy who was probably unconscious inside the Black Pearl.
Perdikion stared at Lune with narrowed eyes.
“You certainly look small and insignificant.”
“You won’t regret saying that?”
“Regret? How dare someone like you even bring up regret. How exactly did you get in here?”
‘As sharp-tongued as ever.’
It had been a long time since he had heard that arrogant tone.
Even now, he wanted to smack the back of the brat’s head, but this was only the distant past’s Perdikion.
Right now, using him to escape this illusion took priority.
Lune recalled what he needed to do first.
‘First, I have to resolve the reason he’s trapped in this illusion.’
Perdikion’s suspicious gaze remained unchanged.
It was only natural. An unpermitted existence was inside the castle without Pasiyas’s approval.
Seeing the Black Pearl directly in his own hand, he could not completely disbelieve, yet Lune’s presence was still suspicious.
But Lune did not falter and asked in return.
“More importantly, do you remember how you came to hold my Black Pearl?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Perdikion furrowed his brow.
He had found the Black Pearl right after being beaten by his father.
If he had been holding it ever since, it was strange that Pasiyas had never once mentioned such a peculiar gem.
Taking advantage of the silence, Lune slipped in another remark.
“I won’t force you to believe me. But from what I saw earlier, you clearly need help. Things didn’t look good at all…… Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”
The young Perdikion had tried to harm himself with a burning poker.
Even if it was an illusion, it had once been real. The thought made Lune frown.
“What do you know about me to act like that? Now that I think about it, the fact that I had the pearl in the first place might be because of some strange trick you pulled!”
If it was a trick, then it was a trick.
After all, it was Lune who had arranged for him to keep the Black Pearl imbued with his power.
‘In a way, he’s not wrong.’
Suppressing a quiet laugh, Lune met his eyes and replied.
“I’ll show you proof that I’m on your side.”
Raising both hands horizontally before his chest, Lune looked up into the doubtful red eyes.
“Watch closely.”
Mana extended from Lune’s fingertips like threads.
The pattern he began to weave at the crossroads was none other than Mana Cat’s Cradle, the technique Perdikion himself had taught him.