-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: The Wraith Within
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, Kaizareu couldn't see Lucian clearly.
He might become an Adult Dragon in five years, but a Hatchling was still a Hatchling.
A young dragon who needed the care of his parents and elders.
But the Kaizareu of now had awakened the power of an Adult Dragon far too early.
His immature psyche was incapable of controlling the power, leaving him on the verge of becoming a rampaging dragon.
In Kaizareu's vision, everything appeared doubled and stained red, making it impossible to distinguish friend from foe.
Adding to that was an unknown illusion that constantly flooded his mind.
The golden eyes of the figure who had terribly betrayed him in the illusion overlapped with the trembling little Lucian's golden eyes.
Kill him-!
For the first time, the illusion and reality aligned. Kaizareu immediately lunged at Lucian.
And as he gripped his neck and raised his claws to take his heart—
“Hic, hic… B-Brother…”
A faint voice reached him.
The voice pierced his mind, and his body froze on its own.
Kaizareu's eyes widened as he glared at Lucian. His vision, which had been filled with nothing but golden eyes, gradually expanded.
“Brother… please don't do this. I-It's me, Lucian…”
Terrified of the fearsome change in Kaizareu, Lucian whimpered, large tears rolling down his cheeks.
The strength in Kaizareu's hand, which was pressing on his neck, slowly loosened.
“Kaizareu, Brother!”
Waaah! Waaaaah!
Finally, Lucian burst into tears, calling Kaizareu's name over and over. Kaizareu reacted even more strongly than before, his body jolting.
The madness slowly subsided. The illusion that had filled his head to the bursting point scattered like mist, and reality began to come into focus.
“…Lucian?”
“Hic! B-Brother!”
Kaizareu was stunned. Then, realizing the position he was in, he grew pale.
“Wh-What have I done…?”
At some point, his polymorph had been released, and a storm of fire was raging around him and Lucian.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the basement collapsed.
Kaizareu hurriedly withdrew his power, his face pale as he felt his heart pounding.
A clear handprint remained on Lucian's neck, where he had been gripping it just moments before.
The pulse he had felt through his palm was still vivid.
A shiver ran down his entire body.
‘I tried to kill Lucian…’
If he had died at my hands just now…
A sharp pain—!
“Kugh!”
His head began to ache again. The illusion he thought he had finally driven away was starting once more.
It seemed the cause was… this basement.
As Kaizareu looked around the basement, he felt an unknown chill and turned his head forward.
“…We have to get out of here.”
Lucian was still crying. Knowing he couldn't leave him here, Kaizareu approached him.
“Luci…”
“Eek!”
When he reached out to Lucian, the boy looked at him with eyes full of terror.
That gaze tore at his heart. A throbbing, unfamiliar pain washed over his chest, but this was no time to dwell on such feelings.
Throb—throb—throb—!
His head continued to ache, and he had an ominous feeling that the same thing might happen again if he wasn't careful.
Even though Lucian was afraid, Kaizareu pulled him into his arms. When Lucian trembled and pushed him away with weak hands, he gritted his teeth.
“Just hold on for a moment.”
Kaizareu spread his wings and shot up the stairs in an instant.
Halfway up the stairs, Ria stood, looking anxious.
[…You! What in the world happened in there!]
His throat tightened. He had no idea what to say to her.
“…I'll tell you later. For now, please look after Lucian.”
Having cleared the stairs, Kaizareu placed Lucian in Ria's arms.
Ria, bewildered, was startled to see Lucian, a complete mess and trembling uncontrollably.
[What is this? What's wrong with Lucian? Gasp! His neck…!]
Seeing the clear handprint on his neck, Ria turned her head toward Kaizareu, who bit his lip hard.
Throb! Throb! Throb!
“Kugh…”
[What did you do to Lucian.]
Even with Ria's cold voice, Kaizareu had to fight against the illusion that was constantly asserting its presence in his mind.
Ria, who was about to scold him, paused when she realized something was wrong with Kaizareu.
[Kaizareu, you….]
“I-I'm not in my right mind right now…? I'm going to cool my head, so Lucian…”
Though terrified, Lucian was looking at him with the same warm eyes as always. His breath hitched, and Kaizareu clamped his mouth shut.
Finally, he scowled and fled the mansion as if escaping.
Ria, holding Lucian, hurried after him, but Kaizareu had already disappeared into the forest.
* * *
Gasp, hack, pant—!
Having fled far enough from the mansion to be out of breath, Kaizareu clutched his chest and slammed a fist against his head, trying to quell the relentless headache.
Traitor
You killed him with your own hands
Kill him, kill the one before you
Why do you hesitate?
He was the one who betrayed you first
You must kill him
“No, that's not me…”
Even after leaving the basement, the afterimage of the illusion lingered. This time, it felt as if someone else's stray thoughts from the illusion were overwhelming his mind.
It kept whispering for him to kill.
Who? Who is it telling me to kill?
His mind, once broken, showed no signs of returning to normal.
Moreover, the shock was greater because he had already come close to killing Lucian with his own hands.
Kaizareu finally stopped flying and plummeted, tumbling across the ground.
Thud! Tumble—crash!
Mere bruises couldn't erase the illusion seared into his mind.
He felt like he was going insane.
His own consciousness repeatedly clashed with that of someone from the illusion. At this rate, he would truly end up killing every living thing in sight.
Pressing on his pupils, which were dilating and contracting like a lizard's, Kaizareu used his last shred of reason to cast a large barrier around himself.
A barrier that wouldn't easily break no matter how much he rampaged, and one that no one could enter.
The moment the barrier was complete, Kaizareu lost his sanity.
FWOOOSH! KABOOM!
Kaizareu reverted to his original form and began to spew his breath indiscriminately.
Red Dragons were a clan specialized in fire among the dragon races. Though he was still just a Hatchling, the tremendous heat melted all the surrounding flora and fauna.
KRAAAAAAW!
Kaizareu was in a constant battle with himself.
He had to suppress the illusion that was trying to devour his consciousness.
After struggling like that for about an hour,
the barrier Kaizareu had cast was on the verge of shattering. And inside it, everything had been turned into black ash that scattered like a scene from hell.
Kaizareu himself was not unscathed. He was burned by his own breath, his scales peeling off in places, and claw marks from self-inflicted wounds were clearly visible all over his body.
He had finally succeeded in separating the illusion from his own consciousness.
Freed from the shared vision of the one in the illusion, he could now see the form of the entity that had driven him to this state.
But even as a form, it was indistinct, like something mixed with black paint.
It only flashed green eyes—the same as his own, unique to dragons.
Kaizareu instinctively realized. This someone was a wraith's consciousness.
“Fuck, if you're a wraith, you should have just passed on peacefully. How dare you try to take over someone's body…”
He was so drained that his eyes were about to glaze over, but the gaze from beneath his heavy eyelids was nothing short of ferocious.
Kaizareu staggered and polymorphed into his human form.
Doing so brought him roughly to eye level with the black silhouette.
“Try to take my body again, and I'll tear your soul to shreds. You think I can't do it?”
—…I am you.
“Bullshit.”
Kaizareu showed off a long middle finger, but the black silhouette spoke again.
—I am you.
“This thing is still spouting nonsense.”
As Kaizareu bared his teeth, about to unleash his breath again, the black silhouette moved. It pointed at Kaizareu.
—This is a fragment of a memory you must not forget.
Kaizareu, who had been about to curse again, paused, sensing something was off.
—All the conditions have been met.
—You must not repeat the same events.
—We still haven't dealt with him.
—He will never give up on ─.
“What? Give up on what?”
He couldn't hear the important part. But the silhouette said no more. No, it would be more accurate to say it couldn't.
—In this lifetime… sever this ill-fated connection. My other self….
The black silhouette's form slowly began to crumble. Its voice also became muffled and indistinct.
—…del… not… until the end… responsib….
Only after it had completely vanished did the headache subside. The tension left him all at once, relieved that he had successfully defended his consciousness without losing it.
His legs trembling, Kaizareu collapsed right where he stood.
As he fell with a soft thud, ash scattered into the air. The sky had, at some point, been blanketed by darkness.
“…I'm exhausted.”
Closing his eyes, Kaizareu pressed his temples, feeling the lingering throb in his head.
Brother….
Then, he suddenly heard an auditory hallucination of Lucian's sorrowful voice. Kaizareu remembered everything he had done to Lucian.
A mere human. A fragile human who could die at any moment, but who had, at some point, entered his heart and become a precious bond.
He could pretend otherwise, but he couldn't deny that he cared for and was fond of Lucian. Kaizareu's face crumpled, and he pressed his eyes shut.
“Mom… what do I do…?”
His voice, thick with unshed tears, trembled.
Kaizareu didn't know how he could ever face Lucian again.
* * *
Despite the commotion, Ria focused on treating Lucian.
Thanks to the barrier Ria had placed on him beforehand, he didn't seem to have any burns, but the clear handprint on his slender neck was slowly turning purple.
Ria felt upset seeing it, yet her mind was filled with the conflicting thought that Kaizareu wasn't the type to do such a thing.
“Ria… Kaizareu… my brother…?”
Lucian asked with a downcast expression.
[…He went into the forest.]
“Is he never coming back?”
Lucian's voice cracked as he lowered his head, clearly trying to hold back tears.
Ria hugged him and patted his back.
[I don't know about that. I'm sorry.]
“M-My brother was in pain. He was possessed by something when he attacked me. It's not his fault.”
[I know, I know.]
“Ria, you can't hate my brother Kaizareu. Promise me.”
[…You don't hate Kaizareu?]
“I-It was scary, but… he's still my brother….”
Lucian urgently insisted that she not hate Kaizareu, that she had to make a pinky promise with him.
It seemed he was afraid that she would come to hate Kaizareu.
She had known Kaizareu longer than Lucian; why would she hate him for no reason?
He wasn't the type to act like that without cause, and it was obvious to anyone that something was wrong.
Still, she would need to hear the full story.
Clatter—
A presence was felt on the first floor. Ria's eyes widened as she stared at the door.
“Ria?”
[…I think Kaizareu's back.]
At Ria's words, Lucian quickly scrambled out of her arms and off the bed. He ran to the doorway and reached for the door, but then hesitated.
His body was trembling. Even though his head knew it wasn't Kaizareu's fault, his body seemed to be reacting instinctively to the fear that had been imprinted on him.
Ria placed a hand on Lucian's shoulder.
Lucian bit his lip, trying to shake off his fear.
‘If Lucian is trying this hard, I can't just stand by.’
Ria matched Lucian's pace and went down to the first floor.
At the main entrance on the first floor stood Kaizareu, polymorphed into an adult man.
Ria flinched at the sight of him, and Lucian's eyes widened.
“B-Brother…”
[What could have happened in the forest….]
Neither Ria nor Lucian could finish their sentences.
Kaizareu was in the worst state they had ever seen him.
Ugly claw marks marred his neck, arms, and legs, dripping with blood. His clothes were singed in places, and through the holes, his red, burned skin was visible.
