“…….”
Klad didn’t believe Jake’s words.
It’s a lie. The Wests are skilled at deceiving others. They’re the kind of people who believe they can defeat gods and control dragons. He must not trust them.
‘But why does this damn West bastard keep getting on my nerves?’
Even though he knew he shouldn’t trust him, strangely his eyes kept going to the guy.
He felt a subtle sense of familiarity… and upon closer observation, he could sense Nordin’s magic from him. Was this the source of the familiarity?
“……You want to help, so you help, huh.”
Klad withdrew the menacing aura he had been pouring toward Jake.
Since dragons can fundamentally distinguish truth from lies, he could tell that the human before him genuinely wanted to help him. However, it wasn’t difficult to speak a ‘false truth.’ For instance, even if the previous words meant ‘I’ll help you become a slave to the House of Duke West without making a binding vow,’ he would still understand it as sincere.
He didn’t look cunning enough to use such tricks, but the opponent was a West. He couldn’t trust him. So for now, he planned to pretend to believe those words while finding out what the guy really wanted. Everything, so he wouldn’t even think of hiding lies within the truth.
“Why don’t you tell me. How do you plan to help me?”
“From what I’ve observed, the Duke has an impatient temperament and tends to act according to his mood. He said he’d give you time, but once his back is turned, there’s no telling how his mind might change. He could come looking for results as soon as tomorrow… no, even just a few hours from now.”
“So? Are you telling me to act tamed in front of the Duke?”
“I meant we should rescue Neria as quickly as possible since there’s no time.”
The speculation that the guy might be a helper sent by Nordin became half a certainty the moment he mentioned Neria’s name. It wouldn’t be strange for Nordin, who lived among humans in their world, to have human helpers. It was just unpleasant.
‘Did Nordin teach him my name too?’
Klad glared at Jake. Perhaps because there was no killing intent in that gaze, Jake reached out his hand to Klad as if it were no big deal.
“Give me your hands, Klad. I’ll remove the magic-restraining handcuffs first.”
Clatter—
Instead of receiving Jake’s help, Klad swung both arms in different directions, breaking the chains that bound his arms and removing the magic-restraining artifact.
Crunch.
As if that wasn’t enough to relieve his anger, he even crumpled the metal artifact with one hand and threw it into a corner of the room.
“If you want my cooperation, spill your identity first.”
“My name is Jake West. Call me Jake.”
“Ha.”
He didn’t sense any traces of magic changing his hair and eye color, so he had suspected, but to think that the guy who stepped forward saying he’d help him was actually a real West.
When the heir of the House of Duke West inherits the Duke’s position, they marry off their other children to take their spouse’s surname. In other words, only the Duke himself and his children can have the surname ‘West.’ Only the current Duke and his children can introduce themselves as West.
‘The Duke shouldn’t have had any children other than that guy called Ellen.’
Was he an illegitimate child the Duke had hidden away? He had doubts, but he wasn’t interested in what was happening within the House of Duke West. Even if the guy was helping Nordin to chase out Ellen and claim the heir’s position, it didn’t matter.
Rather, if the guy had a purpose, it would be easier to use him. He could extract everything that could be extracted and leave this place before getting stabbed in the back.
“What did you do with the real Ellen? Did you kill him?”
“I can’t be certain he’s dead, but there’s no record of him visiting the castle in the past few days.”
Then the possibility that the real Ellen West might suddenly appear and interfere couldn’t be ruled out either. To think he crawled into the Duke’s castle pretending to be the family’s heir without even properly dealing with the real heir. His work capability was quite poor, unlike a West.
“But how did you know I’m not Ellen West? Even his father and servants couldn’t tell I was someone different.”
“To think I’m being compared to humans. Did you think a dragon wouldn’t be able to recognize perception magic?”
“Perception magic?”
“That’s right. You used the fact that you look similar to make others ‘perceive’ you as that guy called Ellen.”
At Klad’s words, Jake’s eyes widened. Hearing that, something came to mind. Jake had experienced similar magic before.
When he first visited Baron Nolson’s city, Klad said he used magic to make people perceive Jake as ‘someone they had definitely met before but couldn’t remember exact personal information about’ to hide Jake’s identity.
‘So the same magic is cast on me.’
It was obviously magic that Klad had cast. He must have taken measures so he wouldn’t look suspicious and could freely roam the world of the past.
Originally, when others looked at Jake, they should have felt familiarity but not been able to clearly distinguish who he was. However, the plan got twisted and instead of coming to a time when young Jake existed, he arrived at the Duke’s castle in a time period when Ellen West existed, and by chance, because Jake and his face looked quite similar, everyone who knew Ellen came to ‘perceive’ Jake as Ellen.
‘Thanks to that, it was a great help.’
If it hadn’t been for the perception magic, he couldn’t imagine how things would have gotten twisted.
“Now. We can delay no longer, Klad. From now on, let’s devise a plan to rescue the dragon and his family. Can you track Neria’s location with your magic?”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“That West bastard has an artifact. If you have it, all magic except attack magic becomes ineffective within a certain radius.”
“Even dragon magic?”
“That’s right.”
“I heard dragons have an innate ability called ‘Fear’ that imbues their voice with magic to instill terror in living beings within a certain area. Although it uses magic, it doesn’t activate a spell, so how about making the Duke frightened and stealing the artifact?”
“The artifact also doesn’t work on mental-based magic including Fear on the artifact holder himself.”
“Hmm.”
Jake recalled the time right after arriving here, when he went with the Duke to meet the Green Dragon Nordin. While Jake was retching in terror, the Duke clicked his tongue as if he were pathetic and left.
He didn’t know it then, but he could see that the Duke’s composure even in front of a dragon was thanks to the artifact, not his own ability. And yet he looked down on someone suffering in terror as pathetic. That itself was the most pathetic behavior, wasn’t it?
“What if I steal the Duke’s artifact?”
“You won’t be able to. Within this castle, the Duke is protected by dragon magic. Unless you lure him outside the castle, it’s impossible to forcibly take anything from him.”
The Duke hadn’t taken a single step outside the Duke’s castle since imprisoning Nordin underground. He must have anticipated that the moment he left the castle, he’d be torn to shreds by Klad. No matter how much Jake pretended to be his son and tried to lure the Duke outside, it obviously wouldn’t work.
“Mm. So we have no choice but to search the entire Duke’s castle to find the hostage’s location.”
“Don’t think about doing anything foolish.”
At Klad’s irritated voice, Jake, who had been lost in thought, raised his head to meet his gaze.
“Foolish actions?”
“Nordin is a dragon. If he puts his mind to it, he can destroy the Duke’s castle too.”
Jake nodded as if he understood. The Imperial Castle, although not comparable to dragon magic, was protected by powerful magic circles. However, Klad easily broke through them. It meant that Nordin, being the same dragon, also had the power to destroy the magic circle and rescue his daughter.
And yet he didn’t do so….
“You think the Duke will harm Neria if we make a move.”
“That’s right. Just because you’re pretending to be the West heir, do you think it’ll be okay to go around doing suspicious things freely? It’s the opposite. Because you’re the heir, the Duke will immediately suspect you if you do anything suspicious. If your purpose is revealed, Neria’s life will be in danger at that very moment.”
Klad approached close as if threatening him and looked down at Jake with a sharp gaze. However, Jake immediately noticed that this gaze, which held no killing intent at all, wasn’t meant to intimidate him.
“You don’t know how dangerous it is to touch someone precious to a dragon, so you can act so carelessly. Have you ever heard what happens when a dragon falls into grief? A dragon that falls into lethargy and depression becomes an evil dragon within a few hundred years.”
“Evil dragon…?”
“It’s a monster consumed by all sorts of unpleasant emotions, losing reason and left with only the instinct to destroy everything. Once you become an evil dragon, there’s no way to return to the original state. Becoming an evil dragon is humiliating even for dragons, but it would be a nightmare for humans.”
Because the first thing a dragon tainted by evil would destroy would be the Empire.
Klad swallowed his last words and stepped back. It was consideration for Jake who should have been frightened, but Jake, who wasn’t scared at all, instead approached by the one step that had grown distant and asked.
“What must be done to prevent a dragon from becoming an evil dragon?”
“…They say you can shut yourself away in a place where no one is, empty your thoughts and organize your feelings, but I’ve never seen such a dragon, so I don’t know if it’s really possible.”
“…….”
Instead of continuing the conversation, Jake stared intently at Klad.
‘So that was it.’
The reason Klad had been hiding in the underground of the Duke’s castle.
He thought it might have been to honor his friend at the place where he died…. Could it be that he had been enduring to avoid becoming an evil dragon from the lethargy of losing someone precious?
In that dark place. Alone for hundreds of years.
Throb.
His chest ached.
