‘It went according to plan.’
Kain intended to obediently follow the village chief.
He had been completely serious when he offered to become the sacrifice instead.
‘I’ll go straight to Bernatus’s lair and find the relic.’
A relic belonging to Dragon Lord Arkadion lay hidden inside the Green Dragon Bernatus’s lair.
It was a treasure the Lord had entrusted to him before entering his slumber period.
‘I’ll be taking that treasure now, Arkadion.’
Meanwhile, Kain’s words were more than enough to leave the village chief aghast.
He had never expected Kain to utter the taboo word sacrifice.
The flustered village chief rolled his eyes sideways.
Fortunately, Jake merely looked as though he had no idea what Kain was talking about.
“Kain. What did you just say? A sacrifice?”
“The village chief’s claim that he’s finding you a job is a lie. This village is under a dragon’s rule. You were about to become that dragon’s sacrifice.”
The village chief smiled faintly.
“Hoho, Kain. Perhaps staying cooped up at home instead of working the fields lately has filled your head with strange delusions. A dragon, you say? What an amusing thing to hear.”
“You find this amusing, Chief? Offering someone from your own village as a sacrifice?”
At Kain’s sharp retort, the village chief could no longer keep smiling.
A forced smile appeared on his now-stern face.
“I see. So you wish to go to Jake's place?”
“......”
“If you were jealous, you should have simply said so instead of spouting nonsense about dragons and whatnot. Very well. You shall go instead of Jake.”
“What? Chief, you clearly promised that job to me....”
“Kain is throwing such a fit over it that there is nothing I can do, Jake. We will postpone your turn until next time. Go home.”
Within the village, the village chief’s word was practically law.
Jake already trusted the man, so there was no way he could disobey.
All he could do was glare at his friend with a sense of betrayal.
“Kain. Did you seriously want my position that badly...?”
“Jake.”
Unlike usual, Kain’s gaze was utterly serious.
“I just saved your life. Don’t forget it.”
“Enough nonsense. Hurry up and follow me, Kain.”
Jake watched his friend disappear into the distance behind the village chief with a complicated expression.
***
‘What the hell is going on?’
Jake was trudging back home when he soon encountered a blonde woman and had no choice but to stop.
“Jake! Have you seen my Kain?”
“Um... well....”
Had she sensed something from his hesitation?
Serena’s expression immediately hardened.
“Jake. Tell me the truth. What happened?”
Jake was inwardly startled by Serena’s expression, which had turned cold enough to make his teeth ache.
This wasn’t the gentle woman he normally knew.
“Tell me.”
“Ah... I was following the village chief... and then Kain came....”
Overwhelmed by the pressure she gave off, Jake babbled out everything he had witnessed.
Serena’s expression grew darker and darker.
“What are you talking about? A sacrifice?”
“Kain said the job offer was just an excuse, and that the village chief has actually been offering people one by one to a dragon as sacrifices....”
“And Kain?”
“He followed the village chief. In my place.”
“......”
Silence descended between them.
***
As Kain steeled himself, the village chief eventually came to a stop.
They had reached the Green Dragon’s territory.
“Kain. Go on ahead.”
“Is the job you were supposedly introducing me to located in the middle of a forest like this?”
“Enough chatter. Walk.”
At some point, a small knife had appeared in the village chief’s hand.
SNATCH!
Kain abruptly seized the knife from him.
The village chief’s face filled with shock at having his weapon taken without warning.
“Did you really think you could threaten me with a pathetic dagger like this?”
“You....”
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of harming you.”
Kain paused.
“Not yet.”
The village chief swallowed dryly and took a step backward.
Kain obediently continued deeper into the dragon’s territory.
He had volunteered to become the sacrifice in the first place.
There was no reason for him to turn back now.
The village chief watched Kain’s retreating figure until the very end.
Then, moments later.
CREEEAK—!
The trees began to shake, and their trunks stretched outward before wrapping around Kain.
The Ancient Tree, the dragon’s Guardian, had ensnared him.
At the sight, the village chief immediately prostrated himself flat against the ground.
“Master of the Forest. As promised, I have delivered the sacrifice, so please, our village....”
[I accept it, old man. Your village will remain safe for the next two years.]
Only after hearing the voice resonate inside his head did the village chief rise and turn back.
Kain, bound by the tree, quietly watched the village chief retreating back.
He didn’t struggle.
‘Just as planned.’
A smile spread across the sacrifice’s lips.
***
Bernatus was a Green Dragon who had lived for 1,200 years.
Considering that dragons could live as long as 10,000 years, he was still only an adolescent.
Anyway.
‘I’m bored.’
His usual routine consisted of spending all day holed up inside his gloomy lair, yawning and killing time.
If he had any hobbies at all, they were collecting treasure.
And eating humans from a small village called Sordin.
‘I’ve got to save tasty things for later. Mother said I shouldn’t eat them all at once.’
Bernatus snickered, already beginning to salivate.
According to his memory, today marked exactly two years since his last meal.
‘Ah! It’s here.’
Through the eyes of the Guardian connected to him, Bernatus watched an old human and a young human enter his territory.
―Master of the Forest. As promised, I have delivered the sacrifice, so please, our village....
[I accept it, old man. Your village will remain safe for the next two years.]
After ordering his Guardian to bring the sacrifice to him, he leisurely smacked his lips.
Human flesh after two whole years.
His mouth watered just thinking about it.
But then.
‘Why isn’t it bringing me the meat?’
Even after enough time had passed, the Guardian still hadn’t delivered his food.
Bernatus poked his head out of the lair.
The sunlight, which he hadn’t seen in ages, dazzled his eyes.
When his vision returned, the first thing he saw was the Ancient Tree collapsed on the ground.
Its body had been hacked apart in several places and charred black.
[What happened? And where did the human go?]
“Kii... Kiiik....”
The creature didn’t even have enough strength left to answer.
[You fool! You let meat that was already caught escape!]
His anger surged for a moment, but it was soon replaced by confusion.
‘How could a human from that worthless village defeat an Ancient Tree?’
Unless the human was at least a Fourth-Circle mage, there should have been no way to even injure his servant.
***
While Bernatus was outside his lair, looking around.
‘Fortunately, he didn’t notice me.’
Kain had already succeeded in infiltrating it.
He was inside the lair.
‘Good thing I waited for the moment he first stuck his head outside.’
Because dragons like Bernatus spent all their time inside lairs untouched by sunlight, they had no choice but to shut their eyes when first emerging outside.
Kain had slipped inside at that exact moment.
Of course, before that, he had needed to deal with the Ancient Tree binding him.
‘That wasn’t difficult. I’ve already reached the Fourth Circle.’
Kain burned away the tree’s trunks with the Fourth-Circle spell Flame Hands, then hacked at the Ancient Tree with the dagger he had stolen from the village chief.
By combining an Aura-infused dagger with magic, he could produce power comparable to an Aura Knight.
That was the power of the Magic Swordsman he had wielded before his regression.
Cutting down a single lousy tree was nothing.
‘There’s no way he’d imagine that a human offered as a sacrifice would be after a relic. This is my chance.’
As he moved deeper into the lair, mountains of treasure came into view.
Finding the Lord’s relic among them wasn’t difficult.
‘There it is. The Prophet’s Eye.’
A purple eyeball fragment floated in midair.
Bernatus had cast preservation magic on it to protect the precious object.
‘It’s the relic the Lord entrusted to him before entering his slumber period.’
A dragon was at its most vulnerable during its slumber period.
They would sleep anywhere from thirty years to as long as a hundred, and during that time, they were completely defenseless.
Therefore, if a dragon possessed a cherished treasure, it was customary to entrust it to a reliable member of its own race before entering its slumber.
That was why Bernatus possessed the Prophet’s Eye.
‘Because that bastard is one of Arkadion’s loyal lackeys.’
Kain slowly approached and reached toward the eyeball floating in midair.
The moment he touched it, an enormous amount of mana flowed through his hand.
A violet hue swirled through his left pupil before disappearing.
The Prophet’s Eye had imprinted itself onto him the instant he touched it.
Even Kain didn’t know why that was possible.
But whenever he touched relics, he could feel it.
It felt like putting on clothes tailored perfectly to his body.
‘It was the same before my regression. But in my previous life, I only managed to obtain three relics.’
This time, however, things would be different.
Before Arkadion awakened from his slumber, Kain would kill the dragons and monopolize all fifteen relics.
Unable to stop the corners of his mouth from rising, Kain decided to test his newly acquired ability.
If he focused a small amount of mana on the place where the Prophet’s Eye had imprinted itself....
HMMMM—
‘I can see it.’
His pupil turned violet and showed him the future.
‘Five seconds from now, Bernatus will burst in.’
Sure enough.
A massive shadow approached the treasure chamber.
Exactly five seconds later, Bernatus shoved his head inside and revealed himself.
‘Ten seconds ahead… I can’t see it. Is five seconds my current limit with this amount of mana?’
It didn’t matter.
The length of time he could see into the future would increase as his mana grew.
Nor did it matter that the dragon was glaring at him and roaring.
Dragon Fear had no effect on him.
***
‘How dare he! How dare a human worm enter my treasure vault?’
And the moment Bernatus realized that the Prophet’s Eye had disappeared, he completely lost his temper.
A human dared steal the relic entrusted to him by Dragon Lord Arkadion?
[I’ll kill you! Human!!]
But something was strange.
Even though Bernatus roared while unleashing Dragon Fear, the human showed no sign of fear whatsoever.
Instead, he raised a hand as though telling Bernatus to wait.
“ajacnjfk. qpfmskxntm.”
Unable to understand what the human was saying, Bernatus cast translation magic.
“Stop. Bernatus.”
Bernatus’s pupils widened.
‘He knows my name?’
And that wasn’t the only shocking thing.
“I am the Prophet.”
[What?]
“If you attack me, Arkadion won’t be pleased.”
He even knew the Lord’s name.
Suddenly, Bernatus remembered what the Lord had told him before entering his slumber period.
―The Prophet’s Eye, as its name suggests, can only be used by the Prophet. The Prophet is the one who can prevent the destruction of dragonkind. If that person appears, you may hand over the Eye.
―How will I know who that person is?
―You will know. The Prophet’s Eye can only be used by the Prophet.
As befitting a race that never forgot, Bernatus recalled the conversation from twenty years ago and opened his mouth.
[Could you be... the Prophet the Lord spoke of?]
Kain nodded without hesitation.
“That’s right. I’m the Prophet. And the proof is right here.”
Kain tapped the area beside his eye.
Bernatus stared at him in shock.
The pattern embedded in the human’s pupil was identical to the pattern that had been engraved on the Prophet’s Eye.
[Th-the Prophet’s Eye... imprinted itself into a human eye?]
“That’s because I’m the Prophet.”
Bernatus’s pupils trembled.
Then he remembered his final conversation with Arkadion.
―If you ever meet the Prophet, treat him with the utmost respect. The future of dragonkind depends on him.
Bernatus lowered his head before the human.
[I-I pay my respects to the Prophet!]