Chapter 110
Chapter 110
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 110
Chapter Title: Mercy and the Dragon's Shadow
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After finishing the battle with Quintus, Iron Mask returned to the Mountains of Heaven with Nurbarug and the few surviving members of the Blue Lightning Tribe.
"Whew, you've all been through a lot. The chief might summon you later... until then, get some good rest."
Thud, thud!
After guiding them to their quarters for treatment and rest, Iron Mask patted Nurbarug's shoulder lightly and turned to leave.
But right at that moment.
"...Iron Mask, sir."
"Hm?"
Nurbarug quietly called out to Iron Mask as he tried to depart.
"Does the young warrior of the Blue Lightning Tribe have some business with me?"
At Iron Mask's question, Nurbarug hesitated for a long while but finally seemed to steel himself and spoke.
"...You're not going to blame us?"
Nurbarug's question carried a wealth of meaning.
"We disobeyed the Golden Eye chief's orders, and the tribe chief and our tribesmen decided to sortie on our own whim. That's no different from outright mutiny for warriors of Golden Heaven. Even if you'd left us to die right then, no one would have blamed the Golden Eye chief, right?"
"Hahaha! Young warrior of the Blue Lightning Tribe, what kind of harsh words are those?"
Iron Mask laughed as he replied.
"Aren't we all warriors fighting together under Golden Heaven's banner? Besides, how frustrated must Elder Jorg have been to do that? I'm a warrior first, before I'm the chief's subordinate. I can understand. Of course I can."
Thud, thud!
Iron Mask patted Nurbarug's shoulder once more and spoke gently.
"Besides... the Blue Lightning Tribe has already paid a terribly heavy price."
"......"
"Elder Jorg's funeral will be grand. His name will be etched in Golden Heaven's hall of warriors, and his valor will be passed down eternally. So... don't worry about a thing and rest."
"...Chwiik! Th-thank you."
The tribe's promising young warrior finally reddened around the eyes.
He'd thought all that remained were his broken beloved spear and his lost arm.
No.
Their chieftain, and the feats their tribe had accomplished.
They would be engraved beneath Golden Heaven's hall of warriors, to be remembered for ages.
"I'm the one who should be grateful. Thanks to Elder Jorg's valuable sacrifice, we've gained a huge advantage in the war against those sneaky lizards."
Iron Mask comforted the choking Nurbarug and slowly withdrew.
How long had he walked?
Swoosh!
As Iron Mask moved away from the quarters toward the Golden Eye's residence, a short orc with gleaming coppery fangs approached his side.
"How'd it go?"
Whoosh!
At Donga's out-of-the-blue question, Iron Mask tossed the item in his left hand to her without a word.
Donga let out a whistle as she caught and examined what Iron Mask had thrown.
"Whiiist... Elder Jorg went out in style, huh? How much did that old man rampage?"
"Asked one of the Blue Lightning Tribe warriors—he even set the fields ablaze. That old timer... must've been seriously pissed."
"Crazy. He set fires?"
Well, after hearing that his close comrade Turka had been torn to shreds... it wasn't so surprising that he'd lost it.
"Still, who would've thought he'd take down Quintus... that mad dog."
Donga grinned, baring her teeth with a chuckle.
In truth, Golden Eye had expected Jorg, who charged fearlessly into the fields, to die by Quintus's hand.
The best outcome would've been inflicting serious wounds on Quintus.
The Blue Lightning Tribe naturally wasn't factored into those calculations.
It was obvious they'd be annihilated.
But... if things turned out this well, it changed everything.
"That's not all."
Swoosh!
Iron Mask glanced toward the quarters where Nurbarug and the Blue Lightning Tribe warriors were resting and continued.
"With Jorg dead, and me forgiving those mutineers... it paints a picture where even the chief isn't just the boss anymore. We've truly united those who follow the old warriors. It proves we respect the elders of the previous generation."
Jorg's death, and the outstanding achievements that followed.
And even warriors who could serve as fine examples.
Nurbarug might not realize it, but for Golden Eye, there could be no better outcome.
'...Plus, that guy earlier. He looks pretty useful.'
He'd lost an arm, but his fighting spirit was top-notch, and since I'd saved him, his favor toward me seemed sky-high.
'With Urk croaking like that, I was wondering what to do... might have to think this over.'
"Is the chief awake right now?"
Iron Mask stroked his chest pocket briefly and suddenly asked Donga.
"Obviously. You think he'd sleep through all this chaos? He's probably wide-eyed, waiting for you. Dying of curiosity."
Pfft!
Iron Mask let out a chuckle at Donga's words and nodded as he moved.
"Then let's go. It's like a feast is laid out and they've handed us the fork—we can't just stand around."
"Heh, while we're at it... showing the whole world who's the real lord of the Great Cataclysm doesn't sound half bad."
Upon arriving at Western Heaven, Ian's group exchanged brief greetings with Glacia and Bardek before racing along the highways out of the Great Cataclysm without pause.
Glacia and Bardek were plenty busy rebuilding Western Heaven, ravaged by Regulus's hands.
But Ian's group truly had not a single moment to waste.
"Whoa, whoa!"
Reaching Titan Territory, Ian headed straight for the martial clan's entrance, reined in his horse, and made for the patriarch's quarters.
The clan's warriors buzzed at the sight of Ian and the Latent Dragon Squad.
"What? Wasn't that Young Lord Ian just now?"
"Heard he went to Western Heaven with Lady Glacia and Bardek. Back already?"
"No way he ditched the mission and came home, right?"
Amid the curious murmurs, someone eyed Ian's group suspiciously, questioning their early return.
"Nonsense! After all the Latent Dragon Squad's accomplished, they wouldn't make such a reckless choice!"
Far more believed in the Latent Dragon Squad, proven by their string of tough mission successes.
It was a striking change from before... but sadly, Ian's group had no time to savor it.
Bang!
Ian flung open the doors to the patriarch's quarters and strode into the audience chamber without even a greeting.
There sat Paon, mid-meeting with the captains of various strike teams.
"Who dares burst into the audience chamber like—oh, Captain Ian?"
"What? Isn't he supposed to be at Western Heaven...? No, it really is him."
The captains, frowning at the rude intruder, revealed curiosity upon recognizing Ian.
But only for a moment.
They began sternly rebuking his insolence.
Ian might be direct lineage, but this was a clan meeting in progress.
Not a single person present held a lower official rank than Ian.
"Captain Ian! You handled the Fang Kingdom matter on your own last time, and now this—you're utterly lawless! Just because you racked up some merits, do you think the Lichtenauer Clan is so laughable you can act as you please?!"
"We praise you a bit, and you rampage like a thunderbolt rascal!"
Thud, thud!
Ignoring the captains' sharp criticisms, Ian walked to the center of the audience chamber, knelt on one knee, and paid his respects.
"My apologies, Patriarch. The matter was too urgent to waste time on formalities."
"Captain Ian, you...!"
As the higher strike team captains started gathering their auras to reprimand Ian's recklessness.
Swoosh!
"......!"
Paon raised a hand to halt them, forcing everyone to settle their energies.
It was a spectacle: the higher strike team captains, all masters, cowed by a single gesture from Paon.
"The matter was too urgent..."
Paon paused the meeting with the captains, interest flickering in his eyes.
"I'm curious. I only ordered you to uncover the cause of the Amatres River's pollution and clear Western Heaven's wrongful occupation due to the Mudflow's misunderstanding. Yet you moved through it all, ignoring every protocol... there must be some dire circumstance hidden there."
'...What a sly fox.'
After Regulus withdrew from Western Heaven, he'd surely received full reports from Glacia and Bardek.
Yet Paon was making Ian say it himself... the reason was plain as day.
In front of all these higher captains, he wanted Ian to reveal everything.
To demonstrate his qualities as heir right here.
'Fine, I'll play along. To achieve my plans anyway... I need you and the clan's power.'
Seize the clan, build strength, and one day judge Siegfried Dupel, who dared claim emperorship on Crohoca Continent with his ass planted there.
For that grand scheme... Paon's goal of eliminating Karaktus had to come first, preserving the clan's forces as much as possible and stabilizing the southern continent.
In other words, this stage Paon had set was essential to Ian's plans too.
"After arriving at Western Heaven, my Latent Dragon Squad headed for the Mudflow's twenty-seventh waterway..."
From Ian's lips flowed the long chain of events since departing for Western Heaven.
Rescuing the Sea King's daughter from peril, unearthing the Great Veil's plot.
Thanks to that, they cleared up the Mudflow's misunderstanding at Western Heaven... but the Mudflow and Golden Heaven had already clashed first, rendering even the dark elf evidence useless. He laid it all out, up to the current situation.
And thus, argued they must prevent the Great Veil from fishing in troubled waters.
But at that point.
"Hmm... Captain Ian. You've brought back a tremendous amount of intel in such a short time. Yes, even meeting the Sea King in Hasfel. Impressive feats. But..."
Bihar Hawk, captain of the higher strike team Azure Dragon Squad, scratched his cheek after listening quietly and spoke up.
"Is there really a reason we have to step in? Golden Heaven and Mudflow... both headaches. If they beat each other bloody and weaken themselves, isn't that good for us?"
Starting with Bihar Hawk, the higher captains all reacted lukewarm to Ian's call for mobilization.
"If the Great Veil swallows the whole Great Cataclysm as Captain Ian says, that'd be dangerous for sure. Unifying it all."
"But now that we've caught wind of their clash from your report... no reason to let the Great Veil gobble them up."
"Right? After they mutually destroy each other, we expand slowly—better that way, no?"
"The monsters displaced by their fight? We can prepare and handle them. Any losses... well, not sure if they'd exceed jumping into their war."
'...Yeah, I knew it'd be like this.'
The captains' words were utterly reasonable.
Ian himself would've reached the same conclusion without knowing the full context.
But unlike the higher captains, Ian knew one more truth.
'Soon, the Earth Dragon Karaktus will awaken.'
The monster that nearly annihilated South Continent Bestrika... a being on another level of power.
Even for Paon and the clan, facing it as a single force would deal irreparable damage.
The ever-watchful Khan Empire and Duper Empire would never miss that gaping wound.
For Paon, aware of those empires' ambitions... the choice weighed heavy.
So Ian stared straight into Paon's eyes, not the captains'.
'Choose, then.'
By now, Paon surely grasped why Ian was so desperate to halt the Golden Heaven-Mudflow clash.
Crush them with force to stop the fight, then use those mighty Great Cataclysm powers as long-term pieces against the Earth Dragon's revival—with less than a decade left.
Or watch them slaughter each other for short-term gains, and pay dearly later.
"Hmmm..."
Whether reading the intent in Ian's gaze, Paon stared back and murmured to himself.
"...Well. It's about time the captains all prepared together."
His resolve firm, Paon addressed the captains.
"Listen well, all you captains."
Snap!
At Paon's words, the captains opposing Ian straightened up instantly.
"Forgive me. There's something I haven't told you until now."
"Pardon?"
"What do you...?"
As the captains flustered at Paon's sudden confession.
"You've all felt the northern frontlines of the Great Cataclysm stirring, the monsters growing ever more ferocious."
"......"
"This isn't mere chance. There's a clear reason."
"......"
"I've vaguely sensed that reason for a long time."
The captains simply closed their mouths and listened intently to Paon's enigmatic words.
Paon Lichtenauer was their master, who had reached an unprecedented realm.
If he sensed something... it was never wrong.
"Earth Dragon."
Paon uttered the weighty word.
"Long ago, the monster that pushed our clan and kingdom to the brink of destruction. The Earth Dragon, Karaktus... is poised to return to this world."