Chapter 560

Whooooosh—!

A dry wind swept past.

Lysinas silently clenched her fists as she gazed at the ruins before her.

Arron squeezed his eyes shut and turned away from the horrific sight.

Dragonia.

Since time immemorial, this had been the dragons’ domain and sacred land.

Then the Age of Calamity began.

The invasion of Erebos and Tartarus drove the dragons from their home.

In time, they repelled Tartarus and finally set foot in Dragonia once more.

However, the home they had struggled so desperately to reclaim had been thoroughly destroyed by the demons.

Nothing but ashes remained in the land where thousands—perhaps even tens of thousands—of years of dragon history lay buried.

Even in the Age of Gods, dragons had been the mightiest race.

As agents of the gods, they had also served as the guardians of the earth.

Erebos hated the world.

Naturally, he stood in opposition to the gods who governed it.

The demons born from Erebos therefore despised the dragons, the gods’ agents, more than any other race on earth.

After occupying Dragonia, the demons of Tartarus had razed it to the ground, captured the dragons, and tortured them to death.

The brutally slaughtered bodies of dragons lay scattered throughout the entrance.

Blood trickled from Lysinas’s tightly bitten lip.

Her clenched fists trembled.

Dweno spoke to her.

“Lysinas, I understand how you feel... but for now, our priority should be tending to their remains.”

“You’re right.”

Lysinas forced herself to nod before gathering the bodies of her kin.

Luna knelt before the dragons’ bodies, which had been brought together, and clasped her hands.

“Great agents of the gods, may you return to nature and rest in peace.”

Fwoosh—!

A dragon funeral involved burning the body and returning it to nature.

Ordinarily, it would have been Lysinas’s duty, but gathering the countless bodies of her kin had already taken a severe toll on her, so Luna performed the funeral in her stead.

As a candidate for Elf King who had received the education of a High Elf, Luna was also well versed in the funeral rites of dragons, the agents of the gods.

Though Luna ordinarily cared little for decorum, she now mourned the dragons with solemn dignity.

Kyle, Dweno, and Arron stood behind her and silently paid their respects to the blazing flames.

Lysinas sat in a daze, watching them.

Later, after the sun had set and everyone had fallen asleep, Lysinas sat alone amid the ruins.

She held a small box in her hands.

“What’s that?”

“Ah...”

Startled by the voice behind her, Lysinas turned around.

“Kyle? Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing away from the camp?”

Kyle spoke indifferently, several flasks wedged between his fingers.

“What are those?”

“Liquor. I found them in the ruins.”

Kyle bit down on the cork stopper of one flask and pulled.

Pop—!

The scent of liquor spread through the air.

He raised the flask to his lips and drank straight from it, then wiped his mouth and held it out to Lysinas.

“....”

Lysinas never drank during an expedition, but tonight, she accepted the flask from Kyle.

Gulp, gulp—

“Huh.”

Kyle let out a disbelieving laugh at the sight.

“What?”

Lysinas wiped her mouth with her shoulder, and Kyle said,

“You drank just like Luna. I was wondering if that’s how you always drink.”

“I just wanted to drink without thinking. Though this liquor is far too expensive to waste on that.”

Lysinas handed the flask back to Kyle.

“I suppose liquor made by dragons really is something special.”

Kyle drained the rest and opened another flask.

“So why are you here?”

“This was my childhood home.”

“I see.”

Kyle picked up the charred remains of a leather cover lying on the ground.

The place was so thoroughly destroyed that one could barely tell a house had once stood there.

Even the objects that appeared to have been furniture were unrecognizable.

Yet their arrangement felt strangely familiar.

“Was this your study?”

“My room, to be exact.”

Though nothing of its original form remained, it reminded Kyle of Lysinas’s study.

He silently drank from the flask.

Lysinas was deeply attached to Dragonia, her homeland.

It was not unique to her.

All dragons shared that trait.

That was why Lysinas had modeled her study after the room in her childhood home.

It had been her way of easing her longing, if only a little.

Most of those born before the Age of Calamity had lost their homelands.

However, Kyle and Luna had been orphans and felt no particular attachment to the places of their birth.

Dweno had always longed to see the wider world.

The destruction of his homeland had been tragic and painful, but he felt nothing beyond that.

Even if they saved the world, he had no intention of returning.

Lysinas was different.

She had always spoken of returning one day and rebuilding her homeland.

Whenever she talked about Dragonia, she had looked genuinely happy.

That was why this devastation must have struck her so deeply.

Lysinas sat down and drew both knees to her chest.

“I knew. I knew it would be like this.”

She buried her face in her knees.

“But now that I’ve seen it for myself, I can’t control my emotions.”

Dragonia had been a beautiful place.

The sight of that beautiful homeland destroyed without a trace was enough to shake Lysinas, who had always maintained a brave front as the leader of the subjugation force.

“How much more do we have to lose before this ends?”

“....”

“Will it ever end at all?”

Lysinas’s voice trembled.

“What if... What if we fail?”

At the anxiety in her voice, Kyle spoke coldly.

“Don’t show weakness.”

Lysinas’s shoulders flinched.

“You’re the one who brought so many people this far by crying out about hope no one could even see.”

“....”

“If you show weakness, who are they supposed to rely on?”

“....”

Lysinas bit her lip.

He was right.

'Kyle’s right. I can’t let something like this break me.'

Many people had lost their homelands.

They had grown accustomed to despair.

If the person who had reassured them with promises of hope began to falter, nothing could be more irresponsible.

Lysinas raised her head and stood.

“Sorry. I let you see me at my weakest—”

“That’s why.”

“...?”

“I didn’t see anything tonight.”

Kyle raised the flask to his lips.

“I won’t tell Arron, Luna, or Dweno.”

Gulp, gulp—

The liquor flowed endlessly down Kyle’s throat.

“Luna and Arron rely on you more than they realize. If they saw you like this, they wouldn’t be able to entrust their own burdens to you anymore.”

Kyle wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Dweno, that old geezer, is different from those two, but he’d try to shoulder your burden himself.”

Lysinas stared blankly at Kyle.

“If that happened, this party would eventually begin to fall apart. For it to hold together, you have no choice but to carry the greatest burden.”

Kyle looked directly at Lysinas.

“So let yourself be weak for just one day. I’ll get drunk and forget all about it.”

“...Kyle.”

Lysinas gazed at him with trembling eyes.

Then she hugged the box tightly against her chest.

“Could you come sit here for a moment?”

Lysinas patted the ground beside her.

When Kyle sat down, she rested her head against his shoulder.

“Since I’m already leaning on you, can I ask you one thing?”

“If it’s something I can do.”

“It is. Do you remember what you said? That once everything was over, we would live together in Dragonia.”

“I learned dragon etiquette until it became second nature because of that. How could I forget?”

Kyle scowled and grumbled, making Lysinas laugh.

“When everything is over, will you help me rebuild Dragonia?”

“Rebuilding this entire city would take more than a lifetime.”

“Didn’t you just tell me I could lean on you today? Besides, you said you’d have nothing to do once the world was peaceful.”

“Fine. I get it.”

Lysinas laughed at Kyle’s resigned reply and opened the box she had been holding.

Click—!

Inside lay a palm-sized fragment resembling obsidian.

Kyle tilted his head as he examined it.

“What’s that?”

“A piece of the shell I hatched from.”

“Oh.”

Kyle looked intrigued.

Lysinas narrowed her eyes at him.

“You just thought something rude, didn’t you?”

“It just hit me all over again that you’re a lizard.”

Lysinas immediately drove her elbow into Kyle’s temple.

As Kyle grimaced and rubbed the spot, Lysinas handed him the fragment of her eggshell.

“Write your name on it.”

“Why my name?”

“It’s a dragon custom. A kind of contract used when making an important promise.”

Lysinas gave him a slightly wicked smile.

“You promised to help rebuild Dragonia, didn’t you?”

“You’re making me sign a contract over that?”

“Hmm? Isn’t it your fault for letting a swindler catch you off guard?”

“Tsk.”

Kyle clicked his tongue and carved his name into the fragment.

Lysinas took it back, placed it inside the box, and said,

“Now you’re mine.”

“So I’m nothing but free labor to you.”

“Who knows?”

Lysinas stuck out her tongue with a playful smile and looked over the landscape.

“With you here, Dragonia will surely be restored to what it once was, right?”

“It will.”

At Kyle’s answer, Lysinas smiled brightly.

(T/N: Is it Lysinas' turn now?)

===

“....”

Leo silently stared at the entrance to Dragonia.

Chelsea stood beside him, looking puzzled.

“What are you staring at?”

“I suddenly remembered something from a long time ago.”

Leo chuckled and shook his head.

This was not his first time visiting Dragonia in this life.

However, it was the first time he had properly seen its scenery.

During his first visit, he had met Melina through the Forbidden Library and never saw anything outside.

During his second, he had only seen an overview of Dragonia within Rodia’s world.

Other than that, he had only seen what was recorded in historical documents.

Returning to Dragonia like this stirred unfamiliar emotions within him.

Neither Lysinas nor Kyle had ever returned to Dragonia after that day.

'It seems the dragons of later generations faithfully carried on Lysinas’s wishes and rebuilt it.'

The entrance to Dragonia looked almost exactly as Lysinas had once described it.

'Come to think of it, I wonder if the box with my name inside is buried somewhere around here.'

As Leo recalled the fragment of the egg from which Lysinas had hatched—

“You arrived before me, Black Rabbit!”

Leo turned toward the familiar voice behind him.

Ar stood there with her arms crossed, her tail swaying.

Beside her stood a brawny Azonia student.

“It has been a while, Leo.”

“It has, Doberman Kalian.”

Doberman, Azonia’s Student Council President, extended his hand toward Leo.

Leo shook it.

“You sent us some interesting news. An inter-academy competition, was it?”

The corners of Doberman’s lips curled upward.

“What has Azonia decided?”

“Azonia’s students revere strength. We would never turn down an opportunity to prove our strength. Of course...”

Doberman’s eyes gleamed.

“That assumes it will be a suitable stage for announcing our presence.”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

Leo chuckled.

“I intend to prepare a stage worthy of heroes.”

Leo’s red eyes gleamed ominously.

Ar and Chelsea shuddered involuntarily at the sight.

'What is this man scheming now?!'