Chapter 298
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 298
Chapter Title: Lesson 58. Spartoi - 3
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King Yuder Light Camelot of Camelot was unable to escape his nightmare.
It was a nightmare where his own son, transformed into a grotesque monster, tore off his collar and swallowed him whole in one bite.
Behind him, laughing hysterically with mouths split wide open, were the vile dragon and the human who commanded it.
His ancestor had once said that dragons were ferocious beasts that blocked the natural unification of the universe and tore it to shreds. Indeed, there was no falsehood in those words.
The problem was that his son had already been completely deceived by the vile ones' magic, failing to recognize his own father and committing the ultimate filial impiety.
Amid the horrific agony of being chewed and torn apart inside his son's mouth, where jagged fangs protruded sharply, Yuder Light Camelot thought to himself.
I cannot just sit idly by and hand everything of the kingdom over to those wicked dragons—!
It was then that his ancestor's words resurfaced in his mind.
'This dynasty continues the bloodline of dragons to exterminate them and unify the dimensions once more. When the time comes, gather all the foot soldiers who inherit the filthy blood of warriors and inherit my final legacy. The legacy will awaken naturally when my arrangements are properly in place—it is an artificial dragon created by combining the wisdom of dragons and humans to surpass them.'
The next moment, Yuder snapped his eyes open and bolted upright.
The pain from the traitorous son's teeth that had just been ripping into his belly and dragging out his entrails was still vivid, but now was not the time to dwell on betrayal by his own flesh and blood.
"Yes, the final legacy...! The ancestor surely made other arrangements!"
The Camelot royal family had prospered by following the words passed down through generations from their ancestor.
When his son, As Light Camelot, whose dragon blood ran especially thick, was acknowledged as the wielder of the holy sword, had they not rejoiced that the time for all the ancestor's words to come true was near?
But now, with his son rejecting the ancestor, awakening to a woman's instincts, and corrupting even the holy sword into a demonic blade that amplified draconic energy...
Now, with the vile dragons' backing, his son was on the verge of suppressing his own father and stripping him of all kingly authority!
'If things continue like this, everything will truly crumble. But if it's the ancestor's final legacy. If it's the power of the artificial dragon, then reclaiming my authority isn't impossible!'
Yuder Light Camelot immediately washed up, left his bedchamber, and for the first time in ages, donned a full suit of plate armor that covered his entire body.
And he summoned the loyal Guardian Knight Order, who obeyed only the commands of himself and his son—the royal family. According to the ancestor, they were the foot soldiers inheriting the filthy blood of warriors.
"Why has His Majesty the King, who has stayed within the palace, suddenly summoned us?"
"We must train and build our strength in preparation for the day Princess Asha arrives."
The knights, who had spent nearly a decade on the battlefield alongside Asha and moved more out of loyalty to her than to the king, scowled at Yuder's abrupt summons.
Yuder, who was innately cowardly and had rarely seen battle, had never been close to them. They had long since come to serve Princess Asha—guardian of the kingdom with her innate valor and superior combat prowess—as their true liege, driven by teachings bordering on brainwashing that they must protect the royal family.
"Insolent curs! You exist only to obey orders—how dare you harbor complaints against your lord!"
The sight of Yuder, waddling awkwardly in armor ill-suited to his frame as he vented his rage, was almost comical.
However, their inability to defy the royal family was nearly instinctual, so they merely glared in discontent at his violent words and actions.
Meanwhile, though Yuder had lashed out at them, he knew full well that if they stripped their insignia and charged, he'd be squashed like a dead frog in seconds. Instead of provoking them further, he cleared his throat with a cough and explained why he had called them.
"Our great Camelot royal family's ancestor left words. When the kingdom is in peril, his true legacy will awaken, and as the rightful ruler, I, the King of Camelot, must claim it to stand against the vile external forces."
"Vile external forces, you say?"
"Yes, that lizard who insolently trampled the palace with muddy feet and forced humiliating words upon me!"
At the word "lizard," some of the knights' eyes flashed sharply.
A peculiar killing intent rose from the knights—a change they themselves didn't notice.
The king, whose strength was inferior even to a mere trainee knight, couldn't perceive it. Pointing at each knight in turn, he continued.
"Because of you incompetents, I suffered that humiliation. To ensure it never happens again, we must obtain the legacy that protects Camelot, mustn't we!"
"Humiliation...? Wasn't that merely the patronage contract to protect the rightful heir to the throne, Princess Asha?"
"The support from the Melodia dimension is immense. Goods from all dimensions are circulating, boosting the economy, and training resources for knights and soldiers are abundant, strengthening the national power day by day."
One literate knight calmly mentioned the changes brought by the Melodia family's support, but Yuder merely snorted dismissively.
Because that support fattened not his own belly, but the commoners and soldiers who needed no such care.
"See? Even you who claim to protect the royal family are being toyed with by that vile lizard's schemes! Whose kingdom is this—the lizard's?! No, it is the kingdom of I, Yuder Light Camelot!"
"It is the kingdom of Asha Light Camelot, Your Majesty."
"With real power already transferred, shouldn't we address you as 'Your Highness' rather than 'Your Majesty'?"
"Y-You... how dare you!"
At the knights' unabashed mockery of one they had once served as lord, Yuder seriously considered swinging his sword.
But after locking eyes with a few knights whose gazes burned with ominous killing intent, he realized it would give them the pretext for rebellion they craved. A chill ran down his spine, freezing him stiff.
'Th-These bastards... they truly don't see me as their master!'
In reality, it had been so since Asha took command of the military years ago, and after the Melodia family head's visit, they could openly show it without issue.
Of course, realizing that atmosphere was why Yuder kept having such nightmares repeatedly.
Biting his lip to suppress his fury, Yuder declared to the knights glaring at him with narrowed, lizard-like eyes.
"We march! The time has come for the ancestor's arranged legacy to appear, and with your strength, we must claim it!"
"If it benefits Princess Asha as well, we'll stake our lives on it."
"We'll obtain it for certain."
Daring to counter the king's words one by one, the knights nonetheless began to move at his command.
It was amusing that their transport was a combat vehicle recently gifted by the Melodia family.
"This is the place."
After driving for several hours, Yuder arrived at ruins deep in an untouched forest, his eyes gleaming as he stepped out of the vehicle.
Unable to climb down alone in his full plate armor, he needed the knights' help, but once his feet touched the ground, his conviction surged.
This was definitely the place.
The spot where the ancestor's final legacy slumbered!
He could recall it vividly, as if the ancestor had personally imprinted the location in his mind.
"Amazing. I never knew this terrain before, but now it's as clear as if I could touch it. It must be because the ancestor's blood flows in me too."
If only his own aptitude had been sufficient, he could have wielded the holy sword himself and received the ancestor's grace.
But Yuder, thoroughly broken by generations of royal brainwashing, felt no incongruity at suddenly recalling the legacy's existence or pinpointing its location.
Meanwhile, the knights—who had been contemplating whether to kill the king now for openly antagonizing the Melodia family supporting Asha—exchanged uneasy glances upon sensing something in the ruins that stirred their instincts.
"This... feels real."
"Look, something's off about this place. Is this truly the royal legacy passed down? Without His Highness—no, Her Highness—we might not win..."
"His Majesty the King is here. He's still our lord, even if he's no match when fighting alongside the princess..."
"This is it!"
As the knights conferred, the king, who had ventured into the ruins alone, stopped before a massive tree ancient for thousands of years. He thrust his longsword into a knothole.
A man who couldn't handle magic in life.
Centered on the stabbed spot, a bizarre golden magic circle glowed, and the knothole gradually widened—eventually forming a passage large enough for several people.
"Wh-What is this?!"
"A dungeon?"
"Enter. Protect me thoroughly!"
Satisfied, the king swung his longsword through the air a couple of times, his eyes emitting streaks of blue glow as he took the lead.
His innate magical power was less than 1 Irecto by Ban Yu-won's standards, but now it exceeded 4 Irecto—enough that even the Camelot Guardian Knights couldn't take him lightly.
Yet the loyal knights knew the king was in a bad state.
'This is weird.'
'Is he burning his life force due to insufficient magic? The king can't normally handle this much power. It's a temporary rampage. The aftermath will be horrific!'
'But what can we do? Unless he charges at us intending to kill, we can't lay a hand on him.'
'Dangerous. Really dangerous. At least contact the princess...'
But retreat was no longer an option.
Watching the king's shadow vanish into the knothole, the terrified knights gritted their teeth and followed.
The interior facilities were astonishing as expected.
The king dismantled various traps—ones even Asha might doubt facing—with mere sword prods.
Occasionally appearing monsters—inherited lizard traits, truly the dragon's legacy?—were handled by the knights combining forces. Meanwhile, the king leisurely pressed deeper alone, ignoring their battles.
"He's mad, that guy's finally lost it completely!"
"The monsters are getting stronger, and the metal mixed in their bodies... This. This is really dangerous."
After advancing for hours, as even the knights' combat stamina waned and they panted— the king finally reached the ruins' depths and found his goal.
—Grrr rumble...
A mechanical dragon, its seal half-broken, eyes open and glaring at them.
"This is it."
Yuder murmured in satisfaction.
A bit more, and it would snap all the magic shackles binding it and burst out. But arriving just in time, a few measures would let him control it!
—If Yuder were the rightful dragon successor, awakening its blood and then suppressing it with the ancestor and holy sword's power for the intended evolution.
—Kwaaaaaah!
The instant Yuder's magic touched the shackles, the mechanical dragon bellowed destructively, wrecking the ruins interior.
The magic of Yuder, inheritor of the ancestor's blood, merely shattered the already crumbling shackles—it failed to rebind or subjugate it.
In other words, he had merely unleashed a dangerous monster.
—Groooowl rumble!
Regaining freedom mere seconds after Yuder's magic touched it, the mechanical dragon rose, causing the ruins to collapse under its weight.
The knights, horrified, hurriedly grabbed their lord and fled the ruins.
"Damn it all, I knew it would end like this!"
"But His Majesty wouldn't listen to me...!"
"No way to stop it? Since His Majesty's magic awakened it, maybe his magic can..."
"No, he's already fainted. No magic left in his body—he might never wake again..."
"Uwaaaaaah! We can't stop it!"
As they sprinted out amid the clamor of crashing ruins, the structure fully collapsed with metallic shrieks and thuds.
By the time they barely escaped with their lives, the mechanical dragon had burst through the ruins, roaring in celebration of its freedom—.
"We're all dead now."
"When the kingdom wouldn't bend to his will, he decided to bury it entirely."
The knight supporting the king clicked his tongue in disgust and dropped him to the ground.
The others stared in shock.
"You, how could you to His Majesty...?!"
"No, how is this possible?"
The Guardian Knights could not harm the king, even indirectly.
Absolute obedience to the great Camelot bloodline—especially the crowned king—was their indoctrination and ingrained constraint. No matter how they tried, it was an inescapable contract.
Yet he had flung the king aside...
"Ah, I see."
As the mechanical dragon finished roaring and turned its gaze on the knights, one clenched his fists with a smile.
"She is coming."
"Ah...!"
"Our true master!"
"Of course, that's why discarding the fake is no issue!"
—Kuaaaaaah!
Apparently displeased by their chatter right in front of it, the mechanical dragon swung its massive tail at them.
But the knights, now twice—no, at least three times stronger than when escaping the ruins—easily dodged. Only Yuder, left behind, became a flattened mouse pancake under the tail.
—Grraaaaaah!
Incredibly, even in that magic-drained body, something remained. The moment its blood and flesh smeared the dragon's tail, geometric patterns raced across its body, amplifying its magic!
"Damn, the king was a sacrifice from the start?"
"No choice now. Besides, we have—."
"Eekyaaaaah! What the hell is going on?!"
With a feminine scream unbefitting a knight, a woman landed before the Guardian Knights—it was, of course, Camelot's rightful owner, Asha Light Camelot.
"What is that monster?! Why are you all here?!"
"You've arrived, Princess."
"No, listen."
As the magic core-absorbing mechanical dragon roared again, spreading wings of machinery and circuits.
While drawing swords in unison and aligning behind Asha, one knight declared.
"Lady Asha is the new king."
"Huh? King? ...No way, that flattened thing."
—Kyaaaaaoooo!
Tears welled in Asha's eyes at the unbelievable reality, and the mechanical dragon wailed as if mocking her.
"Quiet down!"
—Crack!
Immediately, a massive robot fist plummeting from the sky smashed into its head!