Berserk Dragon Kravalt.
Within the empire, Kravalt’s ‘notoriety’ was beyond imagination.
That was only natural.
Until Father stepped in, Kravalt had literally burned everything within sight.
That was why he was called the Berserk Dragon.
A calamity consumed by madness.
From then on, every record of Kravalt in the empire depicted him as a being consumed by madness.
But when we reached the lowest level, everyone except Flora was left bewildered.
Because what we saw before us was completely different from what we had expected.
“Young Master, this is…….”
A vast cavern occupied the lowest level.
At its center, a ragged old man was wrapped from head to toe in shackles.
He was a truly miserable sight.
His beard and hair had grown wild and tangled, and his body was so emaciated that every rib stood out clearly.
He was practically naked, wearing nothing but a small scrap of cloth barely large enough to cover his privates.
But his eyes were anything but ordinary.
The crimson eyes flashing in the darkness carried a pressure that cowed any creature that met them.
I knew immediately.
“That’s Kravalt.”
That wretched old man was Kravalt, the calamity that had once swept across the empire.
“Kravalt? No, you’re saying that scrawny old man is Kravalt?!”
“Yes. That’s Kravalt.”
At those words, the old man, who had been sitting motionless with his head bowed, flinched.
He raised his head.
“……You finally came.”
The old man murmured in a weary voice as he looked at me.
“Child of the Sacred Flame.”
“Were you the one who sent Flora the message?”
“That is correct.”
Kravalt nodded with a calm expression.
“You look like you’re having trouble moving. How did you end up in that state?”
There could not be many circumstances in this world that would leave a dragon imprisoned in such a miserable condition.
“Are you truly Kravalt?”
Deckard asked as he placed a hand on his sword hilt. There was clear intent in the gesture. If anything seemed off, he would cut Kravalt down at once.
“That is correct. I am Kravalt. A dragon who ended up being called by the shameful epithet ‘Berserk Dragon.’”
“……Shameful?”
“I failed to fulfill the duty of my race and caused trouble for the entire world. How could it not be shameful?”
Kravalt let out a cold laugh as he spoke.
“There is no time, so I will get straight to the point. Kill me. That is what I ask of you.”
“……You want me to kill you?”
“That is correct. As you can see from my current state, I am being treated as a tool by black mages.”
“How did this happen to you?”
Dragons were a great race.
Though they were few in number, each individual reigned at the pinnacle of all living things. They were a ‘perfect race.’
Even the Ducal House of Ralke, one of the empire’s Four Great Houses and a house that had brought black magic to its pinnacle, could not simply use a dragon as experimental material like this.
If there was any way something like this could have happened.
‘They must’ve stumbled into it.’
Something like ‘coincidentally’ gaining the chance to seize control of Kravalt’s body.
“……We have a mission. A mission to annihilate the foes from beyond who invade this world.”
“Do you mean the Outer Gods?”
“Something similar. Of course, the Outer Gods were…… beings we could do nothing about with our strength.”
“In any case,” Kravalt continued.
“I, too, was pursuing a certain calamity in order to fulfill that duty. Do you know of the Demon Grand Duke?”
“Isn’t that a being from legend?”
“It is no legend. They truly exist.”
Demon Grand Duke.
There was a strict hierarchy among demons, and the being ranked second in that hierarchy bore the title of Grand Duke.
In other words, the second strongest existence among all demons.
“I noticed signs that a Demon Grand Duke was about to descend upon this world and tried to stop it. But in the process…… I suffered damage that could not easily be healed.”
“Was the damage to your soul?”
“That is correct. The problem was that I believed I could deal with it myself. That was an arrogant and foolish…… judgment.”
There had been no problem with preventing the Demon Grand Duke’s intervention itself.
But demonic energy originating from the Demon Grand Duke had filled Kravalt from within.
It was such a vicious kind of power that even Kravalt could not overcome it completely.
And in that situation, the Ducal House of Ralke intervened.
“……Wait.”
Deckard clutched his face and asked with difficulty.
“Are you saying…… your rampage that day was entirely the Ducal House of Ralke’s doing?”
“The Ducal House of Ralke realized that I was not in a normal state and immediately tried to enslave me. And in the process…… the demonic energy ran wild.”
“…….”
“If one were to call the Ducal House of Ralke the cause, then so be it. Those bastards meddled with me as they pleased, and that was what caused the disaster.”
Deckard fell silent for a moment. He seemed to set his emotions aside and sort through Kravalt’s words in his head, trying to determine whether they were true.
“Then your current form is…….”
“……My body was taken over by demonic energy. My soul, forced aside by it, naturally shattered into fragments.”
At those words, I understood.
In other words.
“You’re a fragment of Kravalt’s soul.”
“That is correct.”
In other words, the being before me was not the whole Kravalt.
He was only a fragment of Kravalt’s soul.
“The Ducal House of Ralke placed me into the body of a condemned prisoner, and this is what I became.”
Kravalt looked at me.
“So kill me.”
I silently stared back at him. His request was reasonable, but there was something that made it difficult to grant immediately.
“Did you decide that dying would be better than being used as experimental material by the Ducal House of Ralke?”
“That is correct.”
“You called this a ‘deal.’ What do I receive in exchange for killing you?”
“I will hand over the location of my lair and the right to enter it. And…….”
Kravalt tapped the area over his heart.
“Though it is incomplete, this body’s heart has also come to contain a considerable amount of mana. I will give you this heart as well.”
“Hmm…….”
I quietly studied him.
Kravalt’s lair had yet to be discovered. According to the rumors, an enormous amount of treasure and legendary armaments lay dormant inside it.
“That’s certainly not bad compensation. Leaving the lair aside, the heart may be incomplete, but it’s still a Dragon Heart, isn’t it?”
“That is correct.”
The compensation was certainly excellent.
If we could get out of here safely, this was an opportunity that could easily be called a fortuitous encounter.
There was no reason not to accept it, but……
“What do you think, Sir Deckard?”
“……Pardon?”
“Other than Flora over there, you’re the only one here who has a personal grudge against Kravalt.”
Deckard fell silent for a moment. He remained deep in thought and did not answer for quite some time.
Then, after a short while.
“……Kravalt. When your body was burning one land after another, were you already in the state you are in now?”
“That is correct.”
Kravalt answered weakly.
“I could do nothing but watch. Having lost my body, I had no power at all.”
“My wife was…….”
“No matter how much I thought about it, there was no way to restore exactly what you had lost. The only thing I could do was…….”
Kravalt grimaced.
“……protect that one small child.”
“…….”
So the reason Flora had been in relatively good condition was because of Kravalt.
“If you wish to keep me alive as part of your revenge, I will respect that as well. That, too, is a burden of sin I must bear.”
“Damn it.”
Deckard grimaced.
He raked a hand through his hair with a confused expression, then spoke.
“Do as you wish, Young Master.”
“Are you sure that’s enough?”
“We do not have time, do we? We do not know what may happen, so we cannot afford to hesitate for pointless reasons. Besides…….”
Deckard stated clearly.
“My revenge ended that day.”
“…….”
“It would be a lie to say I am not shaken, but I took my vengeance with my own hands. That is enough.”
There was no falsehood in Deckard’s words.
He truly believed the revenge he had taken that day was enough.
“Besides, if I were consumed by vengeance again…… I think I would lose sight of what matters most.”
His gaze turned toward Flora.
Flora was staring at Kravalt with an expression that made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.
Well, in any case.
“Very well. If you’re leaving the choice to me…… shall I do it?”
“Hey, client. Aren’t you going to ask for my opinion as a member of this party first?”
Raul slipped in the question. I widened my eyes and stared at him.
“Now, now. Is a mercenary supposed to talk back to his client?”
“No, I mean, can’t I ask if it’s a legitimate question? I’m just saying…….”
I stared at him without a word.
Raul quietly lowered his gaze.
“……Yes. I will follow your lead.”
“Good.”
In any case, that settled it.
“Then my answer is…….”
“Wait.”
At that moment, Kravalt cut me off with a sharp look.
“……Quite a few humans are coming down here.”
“……!”
At those words, Deckard hurriedly looked upward. A moment later, he nodded as well.
“Kravalt is right. I can sense their presence. There are quite a few of them. It seems…….”
“It’s the First Young Master.”
If a large group was coming down here in this situation, there was only one possibility that came to mind.
“There is no time. Kill me. If I die, it will at least put a dent in their plans…….”
“Ah, about that. I’m not going to kill you.”
“……What?”
Kravalt’s eyes widened as he stared at me.
“What are you saying?! I must die if you are to deal a blow to the Ducal House of Ralke…….”
“That’s far too predictable.”
With those words, I reached toward the shackles binding Kravalt.
Kravalt shouted.
“Do not touch them carelessly! If you lay your hands on those shackles without knowing what you are doing, you too will……!”
FWOOSH!
“……What?”
As if to make Kravalt’s concern look foolish, the shackles binding him burned in the Sacred Flame and turned to ash.
“Those shackles burned? No, even the Sacred Flame should not be capable of something like this…….”
“That did it.”
Kravalt looked down at his freely moving body with a baffled expression.
“We don’t have time. We’ll discuss the payment later. For now, let’s get out of here.”
“……There is only one exit. To reach it, we must inevitably break through those who are coming down now.”
“I know.”
I gave a faint grin and rose to my feet. The situation had certainly become a little tangled compared to the original plan.
“Do you have a plan?”
Raul asked me with a tense expression.
“I’m a fairly well-known mercenary, but I don’t think I can take on everything coming down here right now…….”
“Do we need to fight them at all?”
“……Hm?”
Leaving Raul behind as he stared at me in confusion, I changed my face with Disguise Art.
Schubert’s face.
My build changed as well, becoming identical to Schubert’s.
“S-sure, it’s completely convincing, but what exactly are you planning to do with that?”
“Among those coming down here now, the ‘real First Young Master’ should be with them. He must have realized someone was impersonating him and come down here. But here’s the thing…….”
Thinking of the group of Shadows that would soon rush in, I continued.
“Can the Shadows coming down here really be certain which one is the ‘real First Young Master’?”
“……!”
They could not.
Schubert had acted before he even had time to prove that he was the real one. He must have come down here in a fury without conducting a proper investigation beforehand.
If that was the case.
“Let’s cause some chaos.”
Just this once, all I had to do was become the ‘real Schubert.’
‘Right.’
It was time, for the first time in a while, to return to being Number One, that bastard’s Shadow warrior.