-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: A Dragon's Nightmare
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Ugh, what a musty smell.”
Kaizareu, who was sensitive to smells, pinched his nose and scrunched up his face in disgust.
If what Ria said was true, this place had been abandoned for a long time. There might be a vent connecting to the outside somewhere, but that alone wouldn't be enough to air out all the dampness inside.
The smell of mold was so strong he felt like it would start growing on him.
Thump-
Suddenly, his heart pounded. Was he nervous, even though he was trying not to be? For some reason, being here felt deeply unpleasant.
“Let’s get this over with.”
Kaizareu’s smile vanished, and with a cool expression, he held the lantern forward.
Scatter-
As he used the Dragon Tongue, the flame in the lantern split apart and dispersed in all directions. The once-dark basement was now fully visible.
Just as Lucian had said, three doors came into view.
He examined the left door first. It led to a tunnel that seemed to stretch on indefinitely.
He took a brief step inside to inspect it.
It appeared the tunnel had been dug a very long time ago. At least over a hundred years, it seemed.
Moreover, not far from here, there was a railway for minecarts. Seeing as there were no carts, they were likely stored somewhere else.
“Is this connected to a mine?”
He’d never heard of a mine being nearby. Besides, the tunnel was quite large.
Normally, when digging tunnels underground or through a vein of ore, they wouldn't be made this big unless it was a major project.
It was suspicious in many ways.
Even holding up the lantern, he couldn’t see the end of it.
Finally, Kaizareu raised his hand. A flame materialized above his palm. He then threw it deep into the tunnel, and the flame traveled endlessly onward before hitting something and extinguishing.
Based on the afterimage he saw just before the fire vanished, it seemed there was another path to the side rather than a dead end.
The distance to where the fire went out was probably about one or two kilometers.
“It’d be crazy to explore all of this now.”
He decided to come back later when he had more time and left the tunnel.
Next was the door in the very center.
A door with no handle and no window. He tried pushing it, but it didn’t budge.
In the middle of the door was the drawing Lucian had mentioned.
“It’s a magic circle.”
Covered in thick moss and worn by the passage of time, the magic circle’s form was far from perfect.
It seemed much easier to check the room that supposedly had the same magic circle than to examine this one.
Kaizareu entered the last room and illuminated it with his fire.
The pattern on the floor here was much clearer than the one on the middle door. The only problem was that about two-thirds of it, centered in the middle, was covered with what appeared to be dried blood, making it hard to see.
With a flick of his finger, Kaizareu examined the dark, brownish bloodstains on the pattern.
Just as Ria had said, it was indeed blood. For it to have turned to powder like this meant the place had been neglected for a very long time.
He also spotted some clotted blood that hadn't yet turned to dust. It could be an important clue, so he collected a small sample. Then, he used magic to eliminate all the filth.
The magic circle was now clearly visible.
The moment Kaizareu saw it, his eyes widened.
Thump- Thump-
His heart pounded harder, and his vision swam.
“Gah…!”
A headache began to set in, and unfamiliar memories he didn’t recognize surfaced.
‘…I just have to do that…?’
‘Yes, you’re the only one who can do it…’
Inexplicable memories flooded his mind with maddening intensity.
In that place, Kaizareu was not himself but someone else, and he was granting a human’s request.
“Nnghhh…!”
Another wave of pain hit him, and the scene changed. This time, his vision was tinged with red, and his hands were bound, making them impossible to use properly.
And he seemed to be in deep shock over what was unfolding before his eyes.
His head felt like it would split open, and his chest ached as if it were being torn apart.
‘You… how could you…!’
Upon a highly advanced magic circle, far different from the one drawn in the room, a woman was staring at him with tear-filled, bloodshot eyes.
‘…how could you betray me…!’
Her words struck his heart like a massive dagger. Kaizareu reflexively denied it.
“Nngh, I… It wasn’t me… I didn’t do it…!”
Crash-!
Stumbling, Kaizareu collapsed to the floor. He crawled out of the room, his hands scratching against the stone floor.
He’d scraped the floor so hard that his fingertips started to bleed.
He thought getting out of the room would solve everything, but the headache showed no signs of stopping.
Twisting his body in silence, Kaizareu finally let out a scream.
Aaaaaargh!
Tears streamed down his face as his eyes shot open. In his inverted vision, he saw someone smiling wryly at him.
“Why! Why did you do that to me!!”
This was not Kaizareu’s outcry, but that of the person in his memory. As if in response, the man in the vision whispered softly.
‘You should get your facts straight. It was your magic circle that made — that way.’
No, this was all the result of falling into a meticulous trap. He had never intended for it to happen…
‘…Karserin, you can never defy me.’
At those words, he saw the same crest engraved on his and the man’s left arm.
The absolute taboo of dragons. A soul contract.
An absolute pact that could never be broken unless one of them died, preventing them from ever attacking each other.
The moment he saw it, his reason snapped.
Grrrrrraaaaaaaawl-!
Kaizareu’s Polymorph broke, and the basement shook as if hit by an earthquake.
As his vision faded, Kaizareu saw it clearly.
The cold, golden eyes of the man in his vision.
* * *
“…Will he be okay? Shouldn’t I have gone with him?”
[He may seem like a child, but he gets things done when he has to. Don’t worry, nothing will happen.]
Although she tried to soothe the anxious Lucian, she couldn’t shake a foreboding feeling.
She knew Kaizareu wasn’t a dragon who could be easily defeated, so what was this sense of dread…?
Aaaaaargh!
Just then, a scream echoed from the basement. Ria’s eyes widened as she gripped the doorknob, and Lucian looked up at her, terrified.
“R-Ria… Something’s happened to my brother.”
[…]
She couldn’t bring herself to say he would be fine, not even as a hollow reassurance. The scream just now was filled with such raw agony that it couldn’t have been from simple surprise.
“I-I’ll go down and check…!”
[Wait… We don’t know for sure yet. We don’t know what’s going on, so let’s just watch the situation for a moment…]
Rumble-
Before she could finish, the basement—no, the entire mansion—began to shake. Kaizareu’s killing intent erupted from below. It was an aura comparable to Dragon Fear.
“He’s in danger!”
She knew. She knew something major had happened to Kaizareu. Otherwise, a dragon with his level of self-control would never unleash his power so indiscriminately.
But what if Lucian went down there and got seriously hurt?
‘If only I could go down there myself, Lucian wouldn’t be in danger, and I could rescue Kaizareu safely…!’
All sorts of scenarios played out in her mind. Since she didn’t know what was happening in the basement, ominous outcomes made up half of them.
“…Ria!”
Lucian struggled, insisting he had to rescue him quickly.
Ria bit her lower lip hard and quickly cast a barrier spell on him.
[Don’t do anything reckless. I’ve put up a barrier just in case, so it should block most attacks.]
“Okay, I will!”
[If there’s someone in the basement who attacked Kaizareu, don’t engage them. Come straight back up the stairs. Got it?]
“I’ll definitely rescue him!”
Just a minute ago, he had been trembling in fear of the basement, but now, driven by the mission to save Kaizareu, Lucian’s eyes were filled with determination.
Ria nodded, praying that he would bring Kaizareu back safely.
* * *
After making his promise to Ria, Lucian immediately descended the stairs without a moment’s hesitation.
He didn’t even realize that his fear of the basement had vanished. All his senses were focused solely on Kaizareu.
“Brother…!”
Reaching the basement, Lucian stopped short. A storm of flames was raging inside.
It wasn’t an attack from someone else. Kaizareu was having a seizure.
He had reverted to his dragon form, but thankfully, it was a miniaturized version, not his true form.
But his convulsions were so violent that he thrashed about, his claws scraping the stone floor, and the storm around him grew even more intense.
Fwoosh!
“…Hot!”
He couldn’t get close to Kaizareu because of the fiery tempest.
But if he left him like this, it felt like Kaizareu might stop breathing.
The moment he mustered his courage and took a step forward-
Whoosh!
Flames swept past, inches from his face. Lucian instinctively raised his arm.
But strangely, though it was intensely hot, he felt no pain.
“Ah…! The barrier!”
He could see a transparent barrier forming in front of him. Ria’s precautionary measure was working perfectly.
Realizing he could reach Kaizareu with this, Lucian swallowed hard and charged into the fiery storm.
The heat was so intense it was hard to breathe, but once inside the storm, it was eerily calm.
In that silence, Kaizareu was writhing in agony.
“Brother! Brother Kaizareu!”
Lucian rushed to his side.
“Brother, are you okay? What’s wrong? What happened…!”
“Aaaargh, nngggh…!”
His voice didn’t seem to reach him. Lucian tried to lift Kaizareu and pull him into his arms.
Kaizareu’s eyes had rolled back into his head.
Lucian’s heart sank. Trembling, he looked around.
Right, Ria can’t come down here.
That meant he had to get out of here and back to where Ria was.
Lucian clenched his jaw, lifted Kaizareu in his arms, and stood up.
But for the still-young Lucian, Kaizareu was too heavy, and his back quickly buckled. Still, Lucian didn’t give up.
“Nngh…! B-Brother! Just hold on! We’re going to Ria!”
Lucian hooked his arms under Kaizareu’s and tried to move him. Kaizareu was still thrashing about, not yet conscious. That made him feel even heavier.
“Brother! Wake up! You can’t collapse here!”
Deciding it was better to wake Kaizareu up first, Lucian gently tapped his face.
His rolled-back eyelids fluttered, and his pupils began to show.
“Brother! Can you hear me? Brother!”
Lucian shook him again, trying to meet his eyes.
Kaizareu’s vision wavered. The line between the vision and reality was blurred.
His own identity and the unknown memories of someone in the vision were mixing together, twisting his ego and making him feel their emotions as his own.
The feeling was unpleasant, yet a desperation, as if he must never forget, rattled his mind even more.
But that very sensation grated on Kaizareu’s arrogant pride.
He was the most promising of the Red Dragons. And he was being swayed by a mere false vision?
“Hah! Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Ugh!”
Kaizareu spread his wings wide, and at the same time, his Dragon Fear was unleashed.
Dragon Fear, something that required honing even after becoming an adult dragon to be used to its full potential.
It was a sense of terror that couldn’t be compared to the killing intent of ordinary beasts or monsters.
Lucian’s teeth chattered, and he began to doubt if the dragon before him was truly Kaizareu.
‘S-Scary…!’
He felt that if he didn’t run away right now, this dragon would take his life. But even though he wanted to flee, he couldn’t move, nor could he bring himself to leave Kaizareu, who had changed so frighteningly.
Just then, Kaizareu, who had been exhaling flames, turned his gaze to Lucian.
It was the look of a predator with its prey cornered. There was no mercy, no affection, no kindness in those eyes.
