Chapter 357
Chapter 357
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 357
>Chapter Title: Something? Feels Different?
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Rustle.
The wyvern tossed in its sleep as a breeze brushed against it.
‘Cold.’
Instinctively burrowing into a warm spot, it curled up its body. Soon, a warm energy enveloped it.
It smiled faintly at the warmth.
[...]
The wyvern blinked.
Dazed eyes.
A familiar scent tickled its nose. But something was covering its eyes, so it couldn’t see ahead.
The wyvern blinked a few more times.
And thought.
‘Where?’
It was in its friend’s arms. But...
When did I fall asleep?
Only then did the memories from just before flood its mind.
The frigid mountain peak, the massive dragon, and the mysterious knowledge pouring into its head. Fragments of unknown power, and... and...
As its thoughts reached that point, the wyvern suddenly felt an emptiness.
[...?]
Something had changed.
For starters... the power inside it felt incomparably vast compared to before. It had grown through a single molt, but not to this extent.
But the surge in power wasn’t the reason for the emptiness.
‘...What?’
The wyvern blinked, pondering deeply.
Before falling asleep and now.
What exactly had changed?
The answer wasn’t hard to find.
In other words...
‘...It’s severed?’
The thread that had connected it since the moment it became a dragon was gone.
Realizing this, the wyvern bolted upright like it was having a fit and raised its head.
“G-Get up... Ack!”
[Kak!]
A clash of jaw and head.
As Aster groaned in pain, the wyvern’s eyes welled with tears. But that lasted only a moment—its eyes sparkled innocently as if nothing had happened, and it spoke.
[It’s severed.]
“What is?”
[The thread.]
“Oh, that. It said it could sever it, so I did.”
“It can be severed? Who said?”
It was asking, but in truth, the wyvern already knew the answer.
The red dragon.
Its thoughts reached that point, and the wyvern looked around.
[It’s gone?]
The mountain peak.
The space was silent.
The black wyvern had vanished somewhere, nowhere to be seen, and the red dragon had also disappeared without a trace.
All that remained where the red dragon had been was a gem that had lost its luster, turned gray.
[It ran away?]
Aster let out a chuckle.
“Run away? Please.”
The red dragon exuded pressure just by existing. Why would a monster like that flee from anything in the world?
The reason it vanished... was that it never had much time left to begin with.
The red dragon had died long ago, in an era so ancient that humans couldn’t even fathom it.
Anyway.
“How’s your body feel?”
[Body? Good.]
Emerging from Aster’s arms, the wyvern hopped around energetically, showing off its vitality.
It wasn’t just for show—it was genuinely overflowing with power it could barely contain.
“...”
Aster quietly took in the sight.
The wyvern, mid-hop, tilted its head.
[Something? Feels different?]
“What does.”
[Something?]
“What’re you on about. Aren’t you hungry?”
Aster brushed it off like nonsense and pulled a moonstone from his bag, offering it to the wyvern.
The wyvern flapped over, snatched the moonstone, and eyed Aster closely all the while.
Crunch.
The moonstone crunched sweetly in its mouth. But for now, the sweetness took a backseat to its doubts.
‘...Weird.’
Something was definitely different from before it fell asleep.
It wondered if it was because the connection was severed, but no, that wasn’t it no matter how it thought about it.
How to put it.
‘...Faint?’
Something had grown faint.
The magnitude of the power inside it hadn’t changed. It felt like some other part had dimmed...
Yes, like looking at a painting whose colors had faded.
[Something’s off.]
“What’s off is your head.”
[How dare you?]
The wyvern glared daggers at Aster, eyes blazing. Then it let out a ‘Gyaack!’ roar. But Aster wasn’t the black wyvern and naturally wasn’t intimidated.
“Shut it and eat.”
Aster tossed it another moonstone and quietly watched the wyvern eat.
No, it wasn’t watching the wyvern.
Its gaze blurred somehow.
Those eyes held the wyvern, but what Aster saw was not the wyvern.
...Before the red dragon vanished.
In the end, severing the chain had been a success.
A resounding success, in fact—they’d even managed to preserve some of the power within the Dragon Heart.
Naturally, that power had transferred to the wyvern.
However...
- You’ve paid no small price for this.
- ....
- I cannot say if it will be sufficient recompense... but I shall tell you of Yeokcheon.
Honestly, Aster didn’t remember exactly what the red dragon had said.
- Screeeee―!
The tinnitus ringing in his ears. Yeokcheon’s interference. Even amid that, Aster caught a few words.
- ...There are two choices...
Two choices.
One.
‘...Gather the fragments of Yeokcheon and complete it.’
Two.
‘...Do not gather the fragments.’
The red dragon had pushed through Yeokcheon’s interference, insisting this much had to be heard, and explained what would happen in each case.
If he gathered the fragments, and if he didn’t.
What he would gain and what he would lose.
When the tale ended, the red dragon left final words.
- Your fate has veered off course. You will bear a greater fate than the one you were meant to endure. But it is not too late to turn back.
He could still turn back.
- A moment of choice will come. When it does, remember my words.
That was the end of the conversation with the red dragon.
A cryptic exchange.
His words were filled with abstractions and metaphors, leaving unclear what would be gained or lost.
Even when that moment of choice would arrive.
But...
‘...’
Aster placed a hand on his chest, feeling the Fire Mark.
It had been causing pain until just recently, but now it lay dormant as if nothing had happened.
Even without the red dragon’s advice, this incident had made it crystal clear.
In a way, this might be the greatest gain.
‘...Yeokcheon.’
This thing was never a convenient tool.
It had some ulterior motive.
The problem was figuring out what that motive was.
“A massive fate in itself...”
Borrowing the red dragon’s phrasing, Yeokcheon was an unstoppable current on its own—escaping it wouldn’t be easy.
The fact that there was even a moment of choice was because its power was incomplete.
“Tch.”
Aster shook his head to clear the complicating thoughts.
“...Whatever.”
Nothing was set in stone yet.
So, he’d put off the thinking for now.
‘The fragments... I’ll keep gathering them.’
Whether gathered or not.
Both paths hinted at misfortune, but if his interpretation was right, gathering them was the way.
As his thoughts reached that point.
Kieeeek!
Far off, the black wyvern burst through the clouds.
“All eaten?”
[Eaten, all.]
“Good. Then let’s go.”
Time to return to the development site.
Having descended from a world far removed from reality, it was time to live in the real one again.
* * *
The long day passed.
With the wyvern issue resolved, the development site buzzed with life once more.
The Demusi Viscount family’s supply route problem had been settled too, making procurement of food and materials smoother than ever.
Thanks to that, construction gained even more momentum.
Aster had little to do in the process.
Just...
“Yawn.”
Yawning hugely and basking in the sun, then grabbing a meal when mealtime came.
Hardly befitting behavior for the head honcho, but no one at the site called Aster out on it.
Not only did he possess unmatched power, but he was the top hero who’d resolved the wyvern crisis.
Evelyn benefited the most from the lighter workload. She drove the supervisors like limbs day and night to push construction forward.
Meanwhile, ‘Wyvern’ grew by leaps and bounds each day.
[I, fly. No wings.]
“Nice, good for you.”
It had clumsily learned to use Dragon Tongue, though its proficiency was still low.
In terms of raw spell power, it even lagged behind the black wyvern.
But while power might fall short, its ‘willpower’ far surpassed the black wyvern’s.
When casting magic in the same space, ‘Wyvern’s’ will took precedence over the black wyvern’s.
[Draggy, primitive.]
[I am humbled.]
For reference, Draggy was the name Wyvern had given the black wyvern.
Anyway, it was a relatively peaceful time.
Wyvern shuttled back and forth between Draggy and the Arapurugin Mountains daily to train its magic, while the site’s laborers steadily erected buildings, slow but sure.
Of course, Aster wasn’t just lounging around.
Days spent agonizing over forming another circle.
‘Looks like I’m slacking, but I’m definitely not.’
They’d set base camp establishment for when spring neared, so he focused on training he could do now.
Like that, one day, two days.
About a month passed.
As usual, lounging on the roof for some sun, Aster slyly lifted his head at an approaching presence.
“Huff, huff... Sir Aster.”
“...Viscount?”
He didn’t remember the name. All he recalled was that he was Bellrose’s proxy.
Since that day, the viscount had abandoned idle thoughts and thrown himself into the development project, still one of those who feared Aster.
But.
“Why here?”
Aster voiced his doubt at the viscount huffing and puffing his way up to the roof. The viscount wiped sweat from his brow and caught his breath.
“It’s... huff... that...”
Panting breaths.
He tried to speak, but his breathing couldn’t keep up.
His face paled as a result, but Aster reassured him.
“Take it slow.”
“Yes, whew... Understood.”
The viscount glanced at Aster’s expression and regulated his breathing as quickly as possible.
How much time passed like that?
“I came on urgent business. A while back, you asked me to... look into the other development sites, right?”
“Yeah.”
It was preliminary research to secure ‘voluntary contributions’ from other sites before dealing with disruptive locals like the Demusi Viscount.
“But wouldn’t that be something to tell Evelyn?”
“Ah, she entrusted this to me specifically.”
“Hmm, really?”
Unexpected.
But that wasn’t the point right now.
“So, what’s the message?”
“Over the past few days, traveling between the other sites, this came up.”
“What?”
“Well... how about the development sites gather to build camaraderie?”
“Then why not just go yourself, Viscount?”
If Evelyn had delegated this to him, she’d have granted that much authority.
And having the viscount go painted a better picture than Aster or Evelyn doing it.
If she’d entrusted it, it meant he had the chops—so he could gauge how much he could squeeze from each site under the guise of camaraderie.
Not that Aster was dodging out of laziness.
He just trusted Evelyn’s judgment.
But what was the issue?
“Well... it’s a bit tricky.”
“Tricky?”
“This ‘camaraderie’ talk... it seems the Second Development Site folks are luring us all together to intimidate us.”
“...Intimidate?”
The viscount nodded.
Then cautiously gauged Aster’s mood.
Was the mad mage’s temper twisting? Would he rage about incompetence?
A truly capable person would handle such discord with ease.
But for some reason.
Aster’s reaction was utterly unlike what the viscount expected.
The viscount doubted his own eyes for a moment.
A beaming smile.
“Is that so?”
The mad mage looked thrilled right now.
...Extremely thrilled.
‘What in the world...?’