Chapter 216 - The Best Guide (1)

He was one who had lived alone for nearly 500 years.

He had watched with his own two eyes the prosperity and fall of the dragons that once ruled the world, and was a being who had survived by tasting humiliation under the newly opened era of humans.

["Sarnus! Remember the vow you made to me!"]

To survive was to prove oneself.

In this eat-or-be-eaten world, it was proof that one's existence had not been consumed for another.

The oldest dragon, Sarnus, who had survived in such a way, was also a being who had built up his own status that no one in this world could dare covet.

"Vow?"

At Quijano's urgent shout, bizarre tattoos began to pop out from Sarnus's nape.

The jet-black thorns that jutted out were slowly tightening around Sarnus's nape according to the will of their master.

"... Quijano?"

Sarnus did not hide his flustered look as the old pact he had feared so much tightened around him once again.

However, the bewilderment written on his face was directed not at the collar tightening around him now, but at the blonde knight in front of him.

"Ah. My."

The pact of the old days, which could only be activated by flowing blood or an inherited will.

It was by that pact that Sarnus had been loyal to the Empire and protected the imperial family for hundreds of years.

"It's you. It was you."

CRUNCH!

But Sarnus no longer feared the vow with him.

He was merely quietly tearing off the collars that threatened him.

"If it were you, everything would be explained."

Recognizing Quijano inside Vlad, Sarnus began to laugh quietly as if he finally understood everything.

The trace of the most noble knight dwelling within the soul of a dragon.

Knowing what that meant, Sarnus began to burst into a maniacal laughter, not hiding the ecstasy rising from the depths of his chest.

"He has finally been born. The most perfect dragon!"

The city of Namarca was trembling.

The reverberation of the city, violently shaking like an earthquake, was like the groan of the earth unable to bear Sarnus's presence.

["... Damn."]

Relentlessly tearing and ripping off the thorns of the pact that spread from his neck and jutted out all over his body.

Quijano had no choice but to turn his back as he looked at Sarnus, who still smiled and walked toward him despite it all.

["Everyone, run away!"]

Because right now, he had someone he had to protect more dearly than anything else.

Setting aside even his own pride, Quijano ran and began shouting with all his might toward the party who had belatedly followed.

["Hurry and go back!"]

Saying that he, who was entirely torn to shreds, could no longer handle his status.

"Quijano! Quijano Frausen!"

The presence of the oldest dragon, which only grew larger the more they looked up, was looking down at them as they fled.

Though he had come to a dead stop for a moment due to the final thorn of the pact, Sarnus's shadow, which had grown immense in the blink of an eye, was currently chasing after Quijano.

"You are finally running away at the sight of me!"

The oldest dragon's maniacal laughter that resonated across the vast land.

His status, proven by surviving and elevated by swallowing one piece of perfection, had now become so high that not even the most noble knight could handle it.

* * *

The party who had joined up with Vlad, no, with Quijano, was running urgently somewhere.

Having reached near the city wall with the help of the Luga tribe warrior who had been waiting all this time, they were thrusting their bodies into a small hole, unable to hide their heavy pants.

"What is this? A dog hole?"

"Just hurry up and go! We're lucky to even have this!"

Nibelun shouted sharply as he looked at Radu, who was hesitating in front of the dog hole.

At a sight he wouldn't normally show, Radu had no choice but to shove his head in helplessly.

"What kind of mess is this, anyway. Damn it!"

Poking his head through, Radu spat out a small curse upon seeing Bishop Pierre waiting for him outside the wall.

An eccentric inquisitor trying to take him to the cold North where the Iron Duke was.

However, unlike before when he hesitated, Radu's movements as he headed toward him were utterly agile.

"He's coming!"

The half-baked dragon, the mage pursuing mystery, and even the devout priest of God were all terrified.

They were all people who possessed steadfast worlds, but they could not be free from the presence of the dragon chasing them now.

"... Why is there an army here?"

They had barely made it out of the city, but there was no time to breathe a sigh of relief.

Because the dirt dust of the soldiers running along the city wall could be seen right in front of them.

"Get on, quick!"

"What is this?"

"You punk! Don't ask and just hurry up and get on!"

The sight of the men standing quietly on a worn carpet laid out on the ground was ridiculous.

But Radu, who had been dragged in by the nape by Bishop Pierre, was soon startled out of his wits as he saw the carpet float up into the air.

"This, why is this floating?"

"We're on! Let's go quickly!"

Leaving Radu's unanswered question behind, Nibelun's carpet began to cut across the wasteland.

Along with a myriad of arrows falling perilously close.

Seeing the arrows that had densely pierced the spot where they had just been, Radu swallowed dry saliva.

"Why did an army storm into a place like this? To catch us?"

Driving while gathering the edges of the carpet, Nibelun looked back at the soldiers visible in the distance and couldn't hide his bewilderment.

"It wouldn't be just because of us."

Just as Nibelun had said, there was the sight of the city visible in the gradually fading scenery.

It was a messy city no one usually paid attention to, but right now it was filled with a swarm of central soldiers, and their numbers were easily in the tens of thousands even at a rough guess.

"They're finally ready. Ready to head North."

Guarding against the cavalry charging from the side, Radu drew his sword and continued speaking.

CLANG!

The cavalry began to rush at the carpet as if they had finally seized the opportunity.

Roughly pushing them away, Radu hardened his expression as he looked at the cavalry still swarming after them.

"The North?"

"It means they intend to crush the Northern Alliance. Originally, the plan was to dissolve them before they could even raise their flags."

The soldiers that had swarmed into Namarca along with Dragonblood Duke Sarnus were the central forces directly dispatched by the imperial family.

Not just the imperial family, but the forces advancing north, gathered from all the noble factions loyal to the Empire, were even now flocking to the capital Brigantes moment by moment, swelling their numbers.

"... If I did well there, I could have secured a position for myself too."

Pouring out his final regrets toward the violently passing wind, Radu was snapped back from past glories to reality by a sharp sword blade approaching right in front of him.

"Can't this thing fly any faster?!"

"There are too many people on it!"

When they were in the city of Moshiam, it was a carpet that flew through the sky.

However, the number of passengers right now exceeded the limit by two, including Radu and the man from the Luga tribe, so far from soaring into the sky, even running on the ground was proving to be a struggle.

"Just make it to that mountain somehow! The horses won't be able to follow us into the mountains!"

As if finding a direction to head in, Radu raised his finger and pointed toward the mountain visible up ahead.

The mountain, emitting faint smoke as if waiting for the party, was part of a mountain range that started from the rugged North, making its treacherous terrain truly exceptional.

"Quickly!"

As if they had eavesdropped on the party's words, the momentum of the pursuing cavalry began to turn ferocious.

Their resolve to somehow bring the carpet to a halt before reaching the mountain ahead seemed palpable.

RUMBLE-!

A tense situation of chasing and being chased.

In a situation where they would be helplessly captured if they stopped, a resonant sound like thunder suddenly began to echo from the city.

"Gah!"

"Aaaagh!"

Along with that sound, the carpet the party was riding began to flap powerlessly.

And the central army cavalry following behind them did the same.

At the rough roar of Sarnus, who had only just broken free from the shackles of the pact, not only the living horses but even the mystery carved into the carpet lost their power and began to stagger.

CRASH-! THUMP!

Amidst the cavalrymen tangling and collapsing everywhere, Nibelun's carpet also eventually sank toward the ground.

Tumbling to the ground with the momentum they had while riding the carpet, the party, without exception, rolled across the rough wasteland and fell miserably.

"Urrggh..."

"Haaah."

The groans let out by the party filled the thick, cloudy dust that had kicked up.

"Keok! Cough!"

However, the one in even more pain than the old Bishop Pierre was Radu, for the massive roar emanating from the dragon's world was more fatal to him than to anyone else present here.

"Father... Father, I was wrong."

The presence of Sarnus, unseen but palpable.

Looking at Radu, who didn't even dare think of standing up and was begging for forgiveness, Quijano drew his sword as if he had no other choice.

["Lend me your mystery and divine power. It is the only way left now."]

Perhaps startled by the dragon's roar like the party, the pursuing cavalry lay collapsed up ahead, but the flags seen in the distance were still advancing toward them.

["..."]

The oldest dragon, walking toward me alongside an army of tens of thousands.

As countless thoughts flashed through Quijano's mind at the despairing picture slowly drawing near, a small furrow began to trail out from the mountain behind them.

"Even when I walk alone through the valley of the abyss..."

"W-what should I take out at a time like this."

Sarnus's pressure on the party was growing even fiercer.

To the point where even Nibelun and Bishop Pierre, who were not dragons, could feel it.

His presence, which had started as a formless momentum, was now taking shape and crushing them, so the surrounding dirt being squashed was likely not just Quijano's imagination.

TAP!

Following the scriptures recited by the inquisitor and bypassing the panicking mage, the furrow that had started from the mountain finally reached the tips of Quijano's feet.

Quijano, who hadn't noticed its presence because his thoughts were complicated, was only able to look down when he felt the small presence that tapped the tip of his foot.

["... Hm?"]

It was a tiny little fellow.

However, even in the face of the fierce dragon's momentum approaching from right in front of them, it instead only raised its finger even higher.

SQUEAK-!

CRUMBLE-!

The ground was collapsing with a loud noise.

As if the finger the mole had raised had become a signal.

"Aaaaagh!"

"What is this now?!"

A deep pit like an endless cave.

Seeing the ground begin to collapse without warning, even Quijano widened his eyes.

SQUEAK SQUEAK-!

The mole was smiling as if things had finally worked out while watching the party falling down along with it.

The earth spirit that had ridden the vein of the long mountain range extending from the North and finally descended all the way here.

Still holding its finger up, the mole was shining yellow with its own color, just like it had in Dobrechiti.