You Have Been Deceived
Reading the turbulent mind of a young dragon hatchling was no great challenge for Rune.
‘He is a fellow driven by action. Planting seeds of suspicion will be enough. The truly dangerous one is the one who wakes up and realizes it. If he wants to wallow in illusion despite knowing, then I will have to drag him out forcefully.’
It was a method he did not wish to use.
Awakening him while he believed himself guilty of blasphemy toward his father would likely inflict lasting harm to the future Perdikion until he matured.
‘This power connecting to the mind is tiring.’
Rune turned his body toward Perdikion on the table and opened his mouth.
“You should prepare yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
The gaze toward the child was calm.
He held his words for a moment, then pushed them out in a single breath.
“All choices and responsibilities regarding your actions rest with your will alone. Your life’s outcome will not be borne by your father.”
‘While I absorb the power, it is Perdikion who must decide how to handle the memories that remain as scars.’
A life without Pasiyas.
That was a story Perdikion had never imagined.
Complex emotions toward his father, once a target of terror on his face, flashed across it and vanished.
Flutter
Rune felt a slight nausea in his stomach.
The world shook like a mirage in the heat haze.
A foreign pressure rose, and Rune’s body felt as if being pulled from the water.
‘As expected, disturbing Pasiyas’s presence has thrown me into conflict.’
Rune had decided to take out the cherished card.
He slowly opened his small hand and turned his gaze to the young boy’s face.
Hwa-ruk!
Living flames rose, forming a sentence that depicted the young heart.
The Fire Seal rising from Rune’s two hands was undeniably the Seal of Fire.
The young Fire Successor, shocked, murmured inside, “No way…”
“Perdikion. Trust me. Those who swore the Fire Oath will never abandon a clan in crisis.”
The Fire Seal, sensing Rune’s sincerity, blazed with scarlet flames.
The young Fire Successor, eyes filled with the burning Fire Seal, clenched his fist and stared at Rune with tense eyes.
“You will have the chance to prove your greatness as a member of the Fire Clan. I will help you. As one of the clan.”
Perdikion’s face grew complicated after hearing the Oath of the Fire Clan.
After gazing at Rune’s calm suggestion, he bit his lip hard.
“Who exactly… are you?”
Rune read the fleeting emotions crossing Perdikion’s face.
‘Panic, doubt, faint caution, anger, hatred…’
The emotions changed quickly. Yet Rune did not avert his gaze and calmly observed him.
“You won’t believe me anyway.”
“It does not matter. Tell me.”
The Fire Seal was one that imposed a severe penalty on a powerful betrayer who harmed the Fire Clan.
Facing the trembling young Red Dragon hatchling, Rune calmly revealed the truth.
“You have a younger brother.”
“…”
Perdikion looked as if he had seen a madman.
Despite the rare moment he had wanted to believe, betrayed feelings twisted him; his eyes already spat curses without words.
“Pretending not to want to say it is not a good thing.”
Perdikion, giving advice in a bitten tone, further undid his clothes.
After all, in the same situation Rune would have dismissed the words as nonsense.
He simply shrugged his shoulders.
It was the part he had never expected to be believed.
“Since I placed the Fire Seal on you and told you… you should at least verify it.”
Moreover, for some reason, Perdikion did not dislike this fairy-like fellow.
Rather, his heart that had steadfastly believed in his father until now wavered.
‘If it is true, did I live my entire life bowing my head to a father who had succumbed to a curse?’
Simultaneously with the thought, Perdikion felt shame, impulse, anger, and fear.
At the same time he was angry with himself.
He could not acknowledge even for a moment that he had felt fear; recalling his prostrate form before Pasiyas made his cheek muscles stiffen.
Rune called out to him, sensing something odd.
“You…”
From the young Red Dragon hatchling arose destructive, blood-red killing intent.
The years in which his father had crushed his pride with violence and fear.
The fact that he had endured it by any means possible was meaningless.
“Perdikion.”
The young Red Dragon hatchling’s eyes, crimson with anger, turned to Rune’s call.
And in Rune’s hand the Seal still burning pure flames caught his gaze.
Why?
The Fire Seal Rune had shown was extremely pure and tranquil.
In the quiet darkness it was like a campfire crackling.
“…”
The humiliating feelings slowly settled.
Staring at the quietly burning flames, the savage thoughts gradually disappeared.
His vision expanded, and he faced Rune’s eyes like a black night sky.
“It is all right.”
His red hair shook slightly, and he said toward Rune.
“I will go to my father’s room. If it is false, you will be bound in the Fire Lair and interrogated for the price of your sly tongue. Is that okay?”
“Yes.”
From Rune’s perspective, any condition was fine.
Everything he had said was the truth.
‘One day I must reorganize the relationship with my own father.’
This trauma was a problem Perdikion had to face sooner or later.
The illusion was intense, but at the same time it was a moment to vividly recall the past.
‘Cheer up. This is a good opportunity for you too.’
Rune calmly gazed at him and offered a slight smile of encouragement.
Perdikion twitched his brows and showed an uncomfortable expression.
Rune pretended not to notice and cleared his throat.
‘To a child, I must have looked strange.’
To shift the conversation, Rune asked.
“What is your father doing right now?”
“I am receiving reports from the dwarves.”
A different tension was visible on the answering face.
Perdikion flew calmly beside Rune as he left the room, and Rune lightly tossed out a remark.
“What is bothering you? Your expression is not good.”
“…”
“If you do not like it, the dwarf who came to report will die. A merciful man he is, for those of no use. I have seen him several times. Honestly, I was taught that it was right, but I do not feel good…”
“…”
How long had Pasiyas taught his children to kill?
Rune sighed inside.
‘He must have killed all emotions in order to receive the lesson of murder. Perdikion.’
Perdikion possessed innate talent and effort in handling fire, but Pasiyas was cruel.
He continuously belittled the indecisive Perdikion and did not tolerate even the slightest mistake.
If he treated his own child this way, he would certainly not respond properly to the dwarves he considered trash.
Rune gazed at Perdikion anew with a steady look.
‘When I met him, the dwarves should have been managed through fear politics and submission as subjects of Perdikion. How long did it take for this Perdikion to change so?’
The brows furrowed and voice harsh, yet the young Fire Successor showed a troubled gaze while telling of murdering dwarves.
The darkness selected this scene to reveal for a long time it would have tormented his conscience.
Rune opened his mouth half-impulsively.
“Some day the dwarves will become residents of your lair. Is it all right to do it this way?”
At the sudden question, Perdikion scrunched his face as if swallowing unpleasant food.
“At one time… I did want to show mercy. It was my late mother’s opinion now.”
“Lady Kuzna?”
Surprised, Rune asked, and Perdikion nodded his head as he turned the corner of the corridor.
And what was contained in the following words was a vicious hatred.
“But they insulted my mother who once showed mercy. They even dared to touch my mother’s tomb, which is called the Dragon of the Heavenly Void.”
“!”
It was truly a shocking statement.
Even with the knowledge gained from Christina’s Transmission Magic, there was no such story.
Of course, due to the nature of knowledge magic that increased understanding as one grew, there were certainly things Rune did not know yet.
Moreover, it might have been knowledge that Christina, the caster, had not intentionally transmitted.
‘Then, did Perdikion originally know that his mother had her tomb desecrated as a child? How did he come up with the idea of bestowing a benevolent reign on the dwarves?’
Perdikion was not very skilled in lying.
If he had desecrated his mother’s tomb, he would not have been able to take a respectful attitude toward the dwarves.
A strong intuition arose that this period’s Perdikion had something wrong.
“Who told you that story?”
“Father himself. Although they did not dig up the tomb, the items of my mother were in the hands of those blind with greed.”
“…”
“Do you mean the dwarves are that stupid?”
The dwarves Rune had seen were bold and foolish in temperament, with excessive violence, but they were people who thought of their tribe.
While it was true that their foolishness in entering unjust contracts and greed for materials prevented them from having good hearts, from trying to steal things from the dragon’s domain?
The dwarves Rune knew were not so foolish as to commit acts equivalent to the total annihilation of their clan.
“They may be a bit naive, but there is no way their intestines are that big.”
“Father always says it. Dwarves are originally greedy and lazy good-for-nothings who cannot even do their own work.”
Grit. Perdikion’s teeth clenched as he revealed anger and said he would spew fire at once.
“They are metal-mad lunatics with no minimal sense of decency, so he told me they must have coveted my mother Kuzna’s scales.”
“Wait a moment.”
Rune realized the source of the discomfort he had sensed from earlier.
The information about dwarves Perdikion was speaking was all negative stories passed from Pasiyas.
“Up to now, the things you said, did you learn them by seeing them yourself?”
“No. That was what father…”
Perdikion’s words trailed off as he felt something strange and fell silent.
It was only a story he had naturally heard since childhood, not one he had personally witnessed and concluded.
With a faint confusion he quickly added one more known fact.
“But it is true that they could not even protect their own kingdom and ended up clinging to the dragon’s domain as foolish people. If I do not become a proper elder, that fate will come to me.”
The tragedy for the dwarves was true.
Yet it was not sufficient to label them as foolish, as the cruel reality of war followed.
Rune exhaled and concluded.
“You have been deceived.”
“What?”
Pasiyas’s intention was clear.
He intended to make the next Fire Elder, Perdikion, unable to feel sympathy for the dwarves.
“It is a story cleverly mixed with truth. You have been educated to think that way. To give reason for hatred toward dwarves and the need to rule them.”
The scheme had succeeded successfully.
There was no way the dwarves would look at the son of an enemy with kind eyes.