The Dragon's Thrall
The hot blood pulsing through his veins bubbled just beneath his skin.
The true symptoms had begun that afternoon.
The head of the Green Merchant Guild had detonated the dragon blood that had been slowly simmering inside him for some time.
Because one fool who didn’t value his own life had charged in like a moth to a flame, the period his subordinates secretly called Eclipse had begun far earlier than scheduled.
Though the rampage had been triggered abruptly, the sensation of power and blood boiling throughout his body was, as always, deeply welcome.
So Killian Knox’s mood was decidedly not bad.
All the more so after spending the entire day in the underground prison savoring the Green Guild Leader’s blood to his heart’s content.
However.
“Hmm.”
Killian let out a low sigh to soothe the heat that kept surging upward and looked down at the small figure kneeling at his feet.
Annoying.
A bottom-tier member of the action squad.
A nobody was plucking at his nerves.
Like prey caught in a spiderweb tugging at the threads to summon its hunter, Lunelck Ains’s presence felt exactly like that.
“Did Your Excellency already… know about the assassin’s existence?”
The way he stared straight at him despite trembling was audacious.
It had been a long time since anyone had done either—asked him a direct question or thrown their body in front of him to protect him.
“If I did?”
“If that’s truly the case…”
Lunelck Ains pressed his lips tightly together.
Irritation flickered in his unusually large blue eyes that tilted upward at the ends.
That was all Killian could read.
“Tell me. How did you know the Green Guild Leader harbored murderous intent?”
After a brief hesitation, Lunelck Ains answered.
“A-as I said before, I simply have sharp instincts…”
Once again, nothing could be read.
Whether the bastard was lying or telling the truth, he couldn’t tell.
The ability he had possessed since birth in this world had no effect on this person.
An existence that was unpleasant beyond measure.
Killian gazed down at the small, round head with lazily lowered eyes and thought.
Ah, I should just kill him after all.
The impulse immediately became action.
“Kuhk…!”
Killian’s large hand seized Lunelck Ains by the throat.
The slender neck with no muscle fit his grip as if it had been made for it.
The hand touching the white skin traced with blue veins felt scorching, like a brand fresh from the fire.
“So it really was all coincidence.”
The first unreadable being who had entered the bathroom that was practically his private sanctuary, and who had even saved him from the assassination attempt.
“There’s no way.”
Killian let out a soft laugh.
Seeing the blue eyes glistening with tears from suffocation turn toward the corner of his mouth, he tightened the grip that had been loose around Lunelck Ains’s neck.
The frail body would crumple pathetically with the slightest pressure.
Then this irritating sensation gnawing at his nerves would disappear too.
Killian believed it without the slightest doubt.
But at that moment, a pain like a red-hot iron nail being driven into his skull stopped him cold.
“Kr… ugh.”
When a single teardrop shaken free by Lunelck Ains’s struggling fell onto the back of his hand, the headache grew even sharper.
It was a chilling sensation intense enough to freeze a body that, during Eclipse, treated even the pain of a sword cut as sweet entertainment.
And his hyper-senses, quiet until now, rang out a deafening alarm.
This one must not be killed.
The realization and the release of his grip happened simultaneously.
It occurred before he could even form a conscious decision.
Almost as if the dragon blood had seized control for a single instant.
Thud.
Lunelck Ains collapsed to the floor, clutching his throat and coughing wetly.
“Huk…! Cough, cough!”
Killian, standing tall before him, looked down at his right hand.
He clenched and unclenched the large fist in the air several times as if testing it, and a spark of interest flashed in his eyes.
“Interesting.”
It was fascinating.
Such an intense sensation.
And the intervention of the dragon blood, no less.
It was new.
Even the fever that could only be quelled by the warmth of blood during Eclipse had already receded considerably.
What exactly is this guy?
Lunelck Ains, shoulders thin as if still underdeveloped, trembled as he gasped for breath. In Killian’s eyes he still looked like nothing more than a pathetic colt.
Yet the dragon blood that had never once betrayed him had intervened.
Along with sharp curiosity, a fresh impulse surged up.
To have caught his eye right as he entered Eclipse—how pitiful.
Killian mocked his own paper-thin pity and asked Lunelck Ains.
“Do you want to live, Lunelck Ains?”
“…Cough!”
Tears still fell in fat drops, but the sharply raised blue eyes spoke louder than words.
Is that even a question?
Killian didn’t bother holding back the laughter that slipped out.
His hyper-senses had always acted solely for him.
Therefore, this person called Lunelck Ains must be someone he needed.
“Let’s test how useful that ‘instinct’ you mentioned really is.”
“What… cough, what do you mean?”
The hoarse voice asked, but Killian ignored it and simply stared at Lunelck Ains.
No matter how he looked, the body was far too frail to become part of the Knox.
If this small frame hid somewhere, he might never find it again.
“Right. There was that method.”
A way to track the bastard no matter where he fled.
Satisfied, Killian smiled and reached out toward Lunelck Ains once more.
This time the boy tried to jerk backward with surprising speed, clearly refusing to submit, but it wasn’t nearly enough to escape Killian’s hand.
“Ugh! Let… go!”
“Shh. Stay still.”
Grabbing the small chin just above the neck already blooming with purple bruises, Killian yanked Lunelck Ains forward.
“If you’re going to kill me… then just kill me!”
“Kill you? Weren’t you the one who said you didn’t want to die?”
With a rare smile that even his closest aides seldom witnessed, Killian brought his other hand to his mouth.
Crunch.
The sound of white teeth tearing into flesh was so vivid that Lunelck Ains, who had been thrashing to break free, froze mid-motion.
Drip. Drop.
Red blood mixed with dragon blood and wrapped in golden light fell with a heavy sound.
After confirming enough blood had flowed, Killian roughly pried open Lunelck Ains’s jaw.
“What are you—!”
“Swallow.”
When he squeezed the bitten hand, blood like golden threads poured down.
“N-no… kuhup, kek!”
“Good.”
No matter how he resisted, he had to swallow the liquid in his mouth if he wanted to breathe.
Humans were that weak.
Only after Lunelck Ains had gulped down several mouthfuls did Killian release his chin.
“Cough, ugh, kek!”
The boy tried to vomit what he had been forced to swallow, but it was useless.
The dragon blood that had entered his body had already been absorbed and vanished.
As proof, the burst capillaries around his reddened eyes and the handprints on his neck were slowly fading.
The sight of Lunelck Ains’s face smeared with his blood was also quite pleasing, so Killian spoke in a gentle voice.
“Do you know the term Dragon’s Thrall?”
“How would I know something like that, cough…!”
“It means exactly what it says—a dragon’s possession. You’ve just become mine.”
Killian bent his knees to meet Lunelck Ains’s eye level and smiled.
“Therefore, no matter where you are, I will be able to sense it. Even if it’s the Western Continent across the sea. As long as you draw breath, you cannot escape me.”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
His power coursing through Lunelck Ains’s body in time with the rapid heartbeat was vividly clear.
“Now that I’ve placed a collar around your neck, I’ll give you your first mission.”
The cool golden eyes, like a full moon, shone with cruel light.
“Five days remain until the Day of the Soil. Within that time, uncover the darkest secret of the Knox family.”
Issuing an absolutely impossible command, Killian smiled savagely.
“If you fail, you die.”