“W-what are you talking about?! I killed him?”
Bellacors shouted.
Like a guilty thief protesting too much.
“I’ve never even met your son! How could I have killed him?!”
It was a blatant lie, but Bellacors didn’t realize it.
He didn’t realize that his reaction had only fueled Ignition’s suspicions.
“What is with that reaction? Don’t tell me……?”
“No! I told you, I didn’t do it!”
He looked suspicious no matter how one saw it.
Ignition had no choice but to use it.
Dragon Speech, capable of imposing an absolute command.
“Tell me. Were you the one who killed Camiloas?”
The ancient language carried power merely by being spoken aloud.
That was Dragon Speech, a Word of Power.
It could interfere with another’s will and force them to perform a specific action.
Of course, it couldn’t force someone to harm themselves or obey an extreme command, but…….
“I asked if you killed my son.”
“Ghk…….”
When used simply to distinguish truth from lies, it was undeniably effective.
Bellacors’s determination to hide the truth was strong.
But it lasted only a moment.
“Y-yes.”
In the end, the truth escaped his mouth.
He couldn’t help it.
The coercive force contained within Dragon Speech was simply too powerful to resist.
Sparks seemed to fly from Ignition’s eyes when she heard the truth.
“Why? Why did you kill my son……?”
“Your son burned my territory first!”
Even without Dragon Speech, the truth poured freely from Bellacors’s mouth.
That was how wronged he felt.
“I only meant to take some treasure from him, ask why he did it, and teach him some manners! I never intended to kill him!”
He desperately tried to explain himself, but in the end, he was still admitting that he had killed Camiloas.
Bellacors believed that was what had happened.
Naturally, Ignition believed the same.
Neither of them knew that someone else had actually dealt the killing blow.
“I’ll kill you…….”
“What?”
“I’ll fucking kill you…….”
Ignition’s fury exploded.
And it wasn’t merely words.
WHIP—!
Her tail lashed across Bellacors’s face.
The instant he screamed and staggered, she climbed onto his back.
Then sank her teeth into the back of his neck.
Like a beast pouncing upon its prey.
CRUNCH—!
“GRAAAAGH!”
Terrible pain surged through him as her fangs dug in, but Bellacors had no intention of simply taking it.
“You crazy bitch!!”
He lashed her with his tail in return, clawed at her face, and tore at her neck with his teeth.
But Ignition didn’t let herself be caught easily.
She nimbly evaded him, beat her wings to create distance, and gathered Breath inside her mouth.
WHOOOOOSH—!
She intended to burn everything.
The filthy dragon before her who had killed her son.
And even the territory of Bellion itself.
“Damn it!”
Realizing he had neither the time to stop her nor the time to evade, Bellacors opened his own jaws.
A tremendous amount of mana gathered as he countered with Acid Breath.
ROOOOOAR—!
Flame and acid.
The two Breaths collided in midair.
The power to burn everything clashed against the power to melt everything.
The tremendous heat vaporized the acid.
Elementally, Bellacors was at a disadvantage.
And that wasn’t the only difference.
“Ghk……!”
Bellacors’s Breath was steadily being pushed back.
It was inevitable.
Breath gathered in haste could only be inferior in quality.
Ignition’s Flame Breath, which she had taken ample time to prepare, was far more intense.
“G-ghhk…….”
As Bellacors was pushed farther and farther back, his scales began to melt.
Death was approaching.
***
The history of the Eight Great Families that worshipped dragons stretched far into the past.
The families themselves might have changed over time, but their roots had never been severed.
That was why their eyes and ears existed in every kingdom.
Naturally, news of what was happening in the skies above the Bellion Kingdom reached them as well.
BANG!
“How can this be happening?! Dragons are fighting each other!”
The seven families, excluding Antonio, had gathered together.
The mood had already sunk to rock bottom.
All because of the clash between the dragons.
“There have been cases of dragons fighting one another throughout history, but never once have they fought this openly in the skies above a kingdom.”
“This is no ordinary matter. We must take some kind of action.”
“Action? What exactly do you suggest? Are you planning to go there and stop them? Do you even possess the ability?”
“Why are you suddenly picking a fight with me? Honestly.”
The atmosphere was grim.
There was no precedent for something like this.
They were bewildered and had no idea what to do.
Then Alton, who had remained silent, finally spoke.
“This is not something for us to fight over among ourselves. It is their affair. They should resolve it themselves.”
“Indeed. This is not something for us to interfere with.”
“They must each have their reasons.”
“Well said.”
“As expected of Duke Drake.”
Unlike the family heads who watched one another and quickly agreed, Alton’s expression barely changed.
Instead, he slowly looked over each of the family heads gathered around the table.
“However, have any of you considered what truly matters right now?”
“What truly matters……?”
“Think about why the dragons are fighting. It is because of Lord Camiloas’s death. That is also why Lord Ignition is rampaging like this.”
“Y-yes. That is true.”
“My guess is that Lord Bellacors was probably the one who killed Lord Camiloas.”
“L-Lord Bellacors?”
“Otherwise, there would be no reason for Lord Ignition to display such murderous intent toward him.”
Everyone nodded in agreement with Alton’s deduction.
Comments began pouring from the family heads.
“Why would Lord Bellacors……?”
“Perhaps it was retaliation for the burning of the duchy.”
“That does make sense.”
“Considering Lord Bellacors’s cruel temperament…….”
Everyone assumed Bellacors was the culprit.
But Alton thought differently.
“No. There is another party besides Lord Bellacors.”
“Another party?”
“My subordinate found this on Lord Camiloas’s corpse.”
At Alton’s gesture, a subordinate brought something over.
It was a bloodstained sword.
“T-this is!”
“Isn’t that a sword of the Antonio Family?”
“You mean this was at the scene?”
“Why in the world would it be there……?”
Alton placed the sword on the table.
“This is why Lord Ignition flew to Bellion. She also recognizes the crests of the families.”
“Then are you saying the Antonio Family was responsible?”
“Wait. Isn’t Antonio himself locked in the underground prison here?”
“That is precisely the problem.”
Alton continued in a grave voice.
“His family has been utterly ruined. Why would Antonio kill Lord Camiloas? Even putting motive aside, he does not possess the ability.”
“Th-then the culprit is…….”
“We do not know. But one thing is certain. Someone killed Lord Camiloas and framed the Antonio Family for it. And the result was a battle between dragons.”
The expressions of every family head except Alton hardened at once.
Of course, Alton himself had been the one who passed the information to Bellacors.
But the other family heads didn’t need to know that.
“Someone powerful enough to kill a dragon…….”
“They must be at least a Sword Master.”
“There may have been more than one.”
“I suspect it may be an organization specializing in hunting dragons…….”
“Whatever the case, they clearly hold a grudge against dragons.”
Opinions flew back and forth.
Alton raised one hand, and the room fell silent.
“We may not know their identity, but they are interfering with us. We cannot simply stand by and allow this to continue.”
“Indeed!”
“We must capture the true culprit immediately!”
“How about bringing Antonio in? We could interrogate him once more.”
“That sounds wise. Perhaps we may uncover another clue.”
Their enthusiasm rose.
But not for long.
“Family Head, this is terrible.”
At the sudden entrance of a subordinate, Alton frowned.
“What happened?”
“The battle has been decided.”
The eyes of Alton and every family head widened.
“Who won?”
***
Kain quietly observed the situation.
Even for someone who had lived a thousand years, a clash between two dragons was a rare sight.
Dragons were simply that indifferent toward one another and rarely came into conflict.
But the battle didn’t last long.
THUD—!
Bellacors plummeted from the sky after taking the Flame Breath head-on.
He was barely clinging to life, gasping desperately for air.
But Ignition showed no mercy.
CRUNCH—!
She bit through his neck and ended his life in a single stroke.
‘It’s over.’
Ignition’s victory.
Kain couldn’t have guaranteed which one would win.
But the outcome was exactly what he had wanted.
‘I was hoping Bellacors would die rather than Ignition. This worked out well.’
Revenge only had meaning if he carried it out himself.
Ignition stared down at the corpse for a moment before taking to the sky.
FLAP—!
Kain watched the Red Dragon disappear into the distance.
‘Farewell, Ignition. Stay alive until I come to take my revenge.’
After giving her a farewell she couldn’t hear, Kain looked at Bernatus.
“Any witnesses?”
[None, Prophet.]
There had been someone watching until a short while ago.
Apparently, they had left to report what they had seen.
‘Time to move.’
He needed to act quickly while no one was around.
Kain hurried toward Bellacors’s corpse.
He couldn’t waste an opportunity to obtain the heart of an Ancient Dragon.
When he approached the body, the scales struck by the Flame Breath were melting and dripping like black ooze.
SQUELCH—!
With the armored hide melted away, his sword sank in easily.
SLICE, SLICE—
He opened the chest with the practiced motions of someone butchering an animal.
A Dragon Heart larger than a human head glowed faintly within.
‘I don’t have time to eat it here.’
Kain removed only the heart and immediately left.
Not long after he disappeared into the mountains—
People began gathering around Bellacors’s corpse one after another.
***
Once he found a safe place, Kain bit into the heart.
CRUNCH!
It still tasted awful.
But he endured it with the single-minded determination to grow stronger.
Opportunities to eat an Ancient Dragon’s heart were exceedingly rare.
With every bite, the mana contained within the Dragon Heart seeped out like juice and flowed into Kain’s body.
It was mana fundamentally different from ordinary mana.
Pure mana without impurities.
There was no need to refine it.
He could absorb it exactly as it was.
‘Ghk.’
A flood of mana surged through his pathways.
Toward the heart where his Aura had accumulated.
‘I need to reach the level of a Sword Master as quickly as possible. The Circles can wait.’
It would be preferable to raise his Circle level alongside his Aura, but this wasn’t the time.
Unlike Aura, the level of his Circles could be increased to some extent through equipment.
It took a full three or four hours just to absorb the tremendous quantity of mana.
That might have sounded like a long time, but compared to the rate of growth, it was actually incredibly short.
He had accumulated in only three or four hours the amount of Aura that would normally require ten years of training.
‘My Aura has become much more solid.’
Although he hadn’t reached 7-Star, his 6-Star vessel was now half full.
Normally, eating an Ancient Dragon’s heart and advancing this much would have been impossible.
‘Though eating one at this point in time should’ve been impossible in the first place.’
He had gained the heart like a fisherman profiting while the snipe and clam fought.
And it hadn’t even been a few months since his regression, yet he was already approaching 7-Star.
‘My growth…… is much faster than I expected.’
Kain stood.
He cleaned away the blood covering him with Clean magic.
He still hadn’t accomplished everything he came for.
As he began moving again, Bernatus stared at him with an expression of utter disgust.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
[N-no reason.]
“Because I ate the heart?”
[Urk…….]
Despite having a spirit body with nothing to vomit, Bernatus still seemed nauseated.
Then again, no matter how independent dragons were, watching someone eat one of their own kind had to be difficult.
“You should get used to it. This will happen again.”
[Why in the world…….]
“I have no choice if I wish to grow stronger.”
Kain gave Bernatus a brief glance and continued walking.
[Where…… are we going?]
“To Bellacors’s lair.”
[Why are we going there……?]
“We can’t just leave behind treasure that no longer has an owner, can we?”
[Ah…….]
“There’s probably a ridiculous amount too, considering Camiloas’s treasure is there as well.”
And he was right.
When they reached the lair, mountains of treasure filled their vision.
“Move all of this. Take it to your lair.”
[R-really?]
As though he had never been nauseated at all, Bernatus’s eyes instantly lit up.