Vol 6 Chapter 3

[ For... whom... do... you... need... it? Can... you... not... even... answer... that? ]

The trembling lips beneath the bowed head opened as if gathering resolve.

"It's for my successor. I need it for my successor."

Kor's alien eyes, which had been unreadable, narrowed as if surprised.

[ Unexpected. Do... you... intend... to... create... a... demon... slayer... with... dragon's... blood? You... still... have... much... life... left... to... create... a... successor. ]

"..."

[ Usually... those... like... you... tell... their... successors... to... obtain... the... blood... themselves... just... before... death, don't... they? ]

The Dark Knight gripped his sword hilt and bowed his head even deeper. However, he couldn't hide his subtly urgent expression.

"...In the current situation where I don't know when I might die, there's no other way but to prepare in advance."

[ That... doesn't... matter. There... is... a... past... favor. But... I've... been... curious... why... only... you... came... today. ]

"He..."

The Dark Knight's shoulders stiffened. Although he soon relaxed them, as if conscious of the unnaturalness, Kapros didn't miss it.

"He couldn't come due to circumstances. He received an unacceptable suggestion from the enemy, but he's holed up saying he'll think about it for now... Probably next time... we'll be able to see him."

The voice speaking each word with difficulty, along with the tightly clenched teeth and flushed face, suggested that something had happened. Kapros strangely felt sadness in that expression. Sad eyes filled with unspeakable anguish stared only at the ground.

The dragon looked down at all of this with transparent eyes. It remained so until finally, as the view brightened, Kapros returned to himself standing in front of Kor...

"Did you see it well?"

As soon as Kapros returned to his original place after the long time had ended, the man who claimed to be the dragon's mental manifestation asked with sparkling eyes.

'Hmm... his expression suggests I should give a good answer. What should I say?'

"Yes... well. Thanks to you."

Would this be okay to say? Fortunately, the man didn't seem to notice anything strange in Kapros's voice.

"Actually, among the three memories you saw, the last one was additionally inserted by Kor."

'Additionally...?'

Ah, come to think of it, the last memory only showed the Dark Knight and Kor without Superior. Kapros was about to ask why, but the man beat him to it with another question.

"You said you've been chasing this mage's traces until now, right? May I ask to hear about your journey and the places you've been through?"

"You mean... the story of my journey?"

"Yes. I've been very curious. I'd really like to hear it."

The man, who had only spoken gently until now, put pressure in his voice for the first time. After pondering for a while, Kapros decided to tell the story, thinking it might be related to solving the quest.

By the way, it was strange that Superior was still keeping silent. From the recent memory, it seemed that this dragon called Kor and Superior had a good, or at least not bad, relationship.

'Well... if there's any part that bothers him while I'm talking, he'll probably stop me. It is a story related to him after all.'

Kapros began the story, mixing in appropriate embellishments.

Considering that this situation was like reality for NPCs, he changed all terms like quests and items. Starting from when he first tried to find the wizard tower in Torelit, met the wizard Berman, heard the legend related to Superior, and received the Superior brooch, to the dungeons he had been through until now, and ending with his recent meeting with the elf Ilumine, receiving her disciple title, and his journey to find the Flower of Rezul, the man listened attentively to Kapros's words. He made strange expressions at times but never interrupted.

"...And that's how I came to this place."

"Interesting. I'm not sure whether to be surprised that you came this far with just those clues... Moreover, we also know of El Karana Ilumine, the last of the elves. For a human to receive her disciple title, it's truly astonishing..."

The man looked quite impressed, but Kapros felt his mood plummet at hearing the "Ilumine's Disciple" title again after a long time. He had been forgetting about it well until now... Even looking back, he couldn't think of it as anything but humiliation disguised as a quest.

"...It's nothing special."

"But actually, there was something I found puzzling throughout your story. It's about the legend you first told me..."

Kapros almost asked, "What legend?" but then remembered it was the story of the Seven Heroes he had heard from the wizard Berman before receiving the quest.

"Is there something strange about it?"

Kapros asked, recalling the verses of the legend he had heard before.

"Assuming what you told me about the identities of the metaphorical heroes is true, the most important part seems to have been strangely distorted."

"A distorted story?"

Kapros had told him about the heroes of light and dark heroes mentioned in the legend as Berman the wizard had speculated, which had seemed not too far off until now. Surprised by this unexpected statement, Kapros carefully asked, and the man nodded firmly.

"I'm not sure if 500 years is long enough for humans for even the truth to fade, but for dragons like Kor, it's just the time of a short nap. In other words, what's a legend to you is as vivid as something that happened yesterday to us. Thinking about it now, it might have looked that way to the eyes of humans who knew nothing then... but I'm more surprised that you came all this way without knowing even the most important fact. Didn't the elf Ilumine tell you anything about the past?"

'What...?'