Chapter 141 - Younger Sibling

Meanwhile, the 1st Regiment moved out to eliminate the last scheduled monster.

Towering over the dead land stood the colossal form of a gigantic monster.

Thanks to the plague-like spread of the monsters, there were very few left to protect the mother creature.

’This one should go smoothly as well.’

There were no variables left on the battlefield, and both the troops’ condition and morale were at their peak.

Olivia intended to advance as planned and crush the colossal monster.

"Chief of Staff! Stop!"

At that moment, the commander of the mage battalion shouted urgently.

"What is it?"

"A powerful aura is condensing around the colossal monster!"

"An aura...? What kind of—"

She was about to ask what kind it was, but Olivia felt it herself.

Anyone sensitive to the flow of energy across the battlefield could clearly sense the overwhelming malice.

Just as the commander had said, the aura was gathering around the colossal monster.

It pulled in the white clouds, compressing them into an increasingly dense mass.

Within moments, the sky over the area turned dark and gloomy.

"W-What is this...?"

The army, which had been advancing with unstoppable momentum, came to a halt.

Even mages capable of weather magic could never gather clouds at such an impossible speed.

"I-Is a member of the Demon Race casting magic?"

"Everyone, defensive formation! Prepare for an attack!"

Everyone assumed it was some kind of magic cast by the monster.

Olivia, however, thought differently.

She had seen clouds of this shape before.

The clouds continued gathering until they rose like a towering mountain, using the sky itself as its land.

"No way..."

Rumble...!

The heavens roared, shaking the earth.

BOOM!!

A single bolt of lightning crashed down upon the colossal monster.

A pillar of light tore through its massive body before exploding.

The breathtaking sight left everyone speechless.

Some called it judgment upon evil.

Others called it divine punishment.

Olivia called it a calamity.

Standing where the colossal monster had once been was another creature of nearly the same size, resting on four legs.

Its body was covered in filthy flesh, with white steam rising from it, yet even those seeing it for the first time could recognize its silhouette.

A pair of wings.

A long tail.

An elongated snout.

Two pairs of horns reaching toward the heavens.

At first glance, its deep blue scales could easily be mistaken for those of Iorga.

Unlike the Aspect of Water, however, this creature’s entire body was cloaked in lightning.

That alone was enough to reveal its identity.

—KRAHAHAHAHA!!

The War Dragon, Storeus.

The most battle-crazed among all dragons had descended upon the battlefield.

—That damned Godfrey! I heard he had caused trouble for the Empire, so I expected something entertaining. But it’s nothing more than small fry!

Laughing in amusement, he crushed the egg the colossal monster had been protecting beneath one of his claws.

The advancing soldiers stared at the scene in utter confusion.

"I-Is he protecting us?"

"I... I think so..."

The image of the crimson-scaled dragon standing atop the Lonely Mountain suddenly appeared in their minds.

Someone raised the first cheer.

"Long live the dragons!"

"Their great power protects us!"

Those who knew nothing about Storeus began praising him.

"You idiots! Shut your mouths!"

The captain of the knight battalion shouted, trying to stop the growing wave of cheers.

Those familiar with Storeus’s infamous reputation rushed to silence the others.

But they were already too late.

—Hmm?

The dragon’s attention shifted toward the voices praising him.

The moment his gaze turned toward the temporary alliance, a chill ran through everyone’s bodies.

—Well now... it seems there are still some creatures left who might amuse me.

Grinning, he straightened his upper body and raised a hand toward the sky.

Crackle!!

Two bolts of lightning rapidly grew larger before gathering into his hands.

"W-What is that?"

"But... all the monsters are already dead. Why...?"

Before anyone else could understand the situation, Olivia shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Entire army, defensive formation! All mages, deploy protective magic at the front immediately!"

Only then did everyone realize the truth.

Storeus was an Evil Dragon who threatened humanity.

An Evil Dragon showed no mercy, not even toward insignificant beings.

Everyone hurriedly formed battle formations.

The lightning in Storeus’s hands transformed into two enormous spears.

They were known as Storeus’s Judgment.

A single one of those lightning spears possessed enough power to reduce an entire kingdom to ashes.

And now he intended to throw two of them at a mere army.

His intention was unmistakable.

Complete annihilation.

—Let’s see whether you can survive this attack... hmm?

Among the crowd below, Storeus suddenly noticed someone.

Among the sea of armored soldiers stood a blonde woman with blue eyes.

Her extraordinary beauty was famous even among dragons.

—Ha! Olivia! You adorable little puppy! So that’s where you’ve been!

Bursting into hearty laughter, the terrifying lightning spears dispersed into the air.

The scattered electricity caused everyone’s hair to stand on end.

—I can’t very well attack an army that has Olivia in it! Well then, unfortunately, I’ll be on my way!

Storeus spread his wings and flew directly into the thunderclouds.

As his massive figure disappeared, the clouds scattered, and the sky returned to its original color.

The dragon had arrived like a storm...and departed like one.

There could be no title more fitting than the Aspect of Storms.

Although only a single minute had passed, the soldiers all looked as though they had aged ten years.

Cold sweat streamed down Olivia’s face as well.

But it was not because of Storeus.

It was because of the existence capable of commanding the War Dragon, Storeus.

’The Emperor...’

Godfrey Arken—the man the world mocked as an incompetent emperor.

He alone could command the War Dragon.

He alone could control him.

Olivia clenched her teeth.

The extermination campaign she had believed would proceed smoothly would no longer unfold according to her plans.

***

Shortly after the Festival of the Beginning of Spring, the sudden monster crisis finally came to an end.

The encirclement formed by the monsters completely collapsed, and reports of victory arrived from every direction.

Isabella compiled the battle results and reported them to Ferda.

"Out of the total force of 6,253 soldiers, the number of fatalities has been confirmed at 220."

"That’s an incredible achievement."

"It is. Even considering every factor involved, these results cannot be overlooked."

Pride was evident in Isabella’s voice.

She truly felt like a member of Grand Duchess Valdrova’s castle and the Administrator of Hestia Village.

Of the dead, 170 belonged to the Far Eastern Alliance led by Consilus, which was considered an average casualty figure.

Most of them had fallen during the first battle, when the monsters were still concentrated around the mother creatures.

’This will further increase the value of tactical infantry.’

Tactical infantry truly offered exceptional cost-effectiveness.

They cost slightly more than spearmen, but they were vastly superior in both training difficulty and battlefield operation.

Even as reservists, they would remain valuable assets.

The news would benefit not only Ferda’s territory but also the surrounding regions.

"And we’ve also received messages from the Pascal Trading Company and Halim."

"Why Halim?"

"They said you’ve worked hard over the past month and wish to send festival supplies as encouragement. They’ll provide enough festival goods for two days, along with food supplies for the next two months."

What a dependable ally.

He had expected support from the Pascal Trading Company since they were already on the same side.

But he hadn’t expected Halim to be so considerate as well.

"Tell them they have my gratitude. You’ve been working hard yourself, Administrator."

"The hardest work is work without meaning. Right now I’m happy, so I’m perfectly fine. Please return safely until the very end."

Happy.

Indeed, outside the tent, most people were celebrating.

The reason he said most was because the followers of Count Nazarov’s son certainly were not.

Just imagining how they would have to explain Dmitri’s reckless charge into battle was enough to make anyone miserable.

For everyone unrelated to him, however, the battle had ended as nothing but good news.

’It should be...’

Yet there was someone who wasn’t connected to Dmitri and still couldn’t rejoice.

Ferda turned his gaze toward that one person.

Standing quietly in the corner of the spacious tent was Luri.

Her expression was always so businesslike that no one else would have noticed.

But Ferda was different.

He could sense the worry in her heart.

"Luri."

"..."

"Luri?"

Startled, Luri quickly raised her head.

"Y-Yes. Did you call for me?"

"You’ve been spacing out."

"...My apologies. I have something on my mind. Is there something you need?"

"A cup of tea, please. I’ll be going to bed soon, so chamomile."

"Yes."

As requested, Luri brewed chamomile tea.

Watching her stare silently into the cup made her seem even more sorrowful.

’She was like this when we met again as well.’

Luri had reached the rendezvous point ahead of everyone else.

Without saying much, she simply admitted that she had failed.

Just as a member of the Demon Race had infiltrated Hellus’s estate, there had also been one where she was.

And it had been a Curved Demon.

It had been an impossible situation from the start.

He hadn’t blamed her much for failing.

Simply being branded with the stain of failure wasn’t enough to explain what he sensed.

There had to be another story that Ferda didn’t know.

"Lord Ferda."

While waiting for the tea to finish brewing...

She spoke with great difficulty.

"What is it?"

"...It’s nothing."

Then she fell silent again.

Ferda refused to leave it at that.

"You can tell me."

"..."

He patiently waited for her to speak again.

But Luri merely poured the tea in silence, unable to bring herself to say anything.

"That’s enough."

Ferda lifted the teacup.

"If you don’t want to talk today, then don’t say anything."

"...I’m sorry."

"There’s nothing to apologize for. As long as you’re safe, that’s enough for me."

"..."

"When the time comes that you want to tell me, you can tell me then. For today, just take your time and think."

Hearing those words, resentment welled up inside Luri, if only a little.

He shouldn’t have added that last part.

Instead of thinking he was simply indifferent, it made her mistake his words for a promise that he would always wait for her.

Even though she knew it was only her own misunderstanding...she still opened her mouth.

"Lord Ferda..."

Because if the day ever came when she finally broke...she wanted to lean on this man.

"Have you... ever had a younger sibling?"

"A younger sibling?"

He was the third son among three sons and one daughter.

"I never had one."

"I... had a younger sibling."

She spoke with great difficulty.

"Back when I was still a Mortal, just like the other Dragon Spawn."

For the first time...she began speaking of the past she had never told anyone.

***

Dragon Spawn are commonly referred to as the children of dragons.

That is because they regard dragons as their fathers and obey them with absolute loyalty.

In truth, their bond is even stronger than that of a real family, surpassing even the unity of the elves.

Yet they are not actually born from dragons.

Some had once been humans.

Some had been elves.

Others had been orcs.

As long as one possessed intelligence, anyone could become a Dragon Spawn through the Ascension Ceremony, which was why their appearances varied greatly from race to race.

Luri had once been nothing more than an ordinary child living a miserable life among the lowest class.

Back then, she wasn’t even called Luri, nor did she have silver hair.

When Luri was born, she was greeted not with joy over a new life, but with curses.

To the lower class, unless the child was a son, a daughter was merely a burden who would one day leave them.

Her father was especially sensitive about that.

He constantly complained that there was no point raising someone who would become baggage instead of labor.

Whenever she took a spoonful of food, she was met with the sound of his tongue clicking in disdain and his contemptuous gaze.

Even so, she was able to survive because of her mother.

Having struggled greatly to conceive, her mother cherished her precious daughter with all her heart.

Luri followed her mother everywhere and proved her own worth by begging in ways that stirred people’s sympathy.

But everything changed at once.

Luri’s mother gave birth to a son.

With the birth of a boy who could carry on the family line, her father smiled for the first time.

At the same time, her mother’s attitude turned cold almost overnight.

Neither of her parents showed her any affection anymore.

In the end, after being treated as nothing more than a useless mouth to feed, she was sold to an orphanage before her younger brother had even turned one year old.

Her own family had abandoned her.

She spent several months grieving the loss of her family.

Yet despite everything, her situation wasn’t bad.

In fact...

It was better.

The orphanage director treated Luri exceptionally well.

The shock of being abandoned by her parents gradually healed under his kindness.

Luri came to look up to him as though he were her own father.

But that only lasted for a while.

As she grew older, Luri eventually discovered an uncomfortable truth.

The orphanage was actually a children’s auction house.

The children’s potential was graded, and the treatment they received depended entirely on that grade.

Luri ranked at the very top of Grade A.

It meant she was intelligent, exceptionally beautiful, and possessed enough potential to one day be sold into a noble household.

The orphanage director hadn’t been raising her out of parental love.

He had been investing money into turning her into merchandise worthy of a high price.

The sense of betrayal overwhelmed her.

Every word about seeing her as a daughter...

Every word about seeing her as a human being...

They had all been lies.

What kind of father looked at his own child as nothing more than money to be sold?

She made a vow.

Rather than live as someone else’s doll...she would rather live as a human in the filth of the gutters.

Luri escaped from the orphanage.

Enraged, the orphanage director organized a pursuit team.

But after a desperate escape, she managed to shake them off and secretly slip into a certain kingdom.

Without a single coin to her name, she made a home in a forgotten corner of the kingdom’s sewer system.

It smelled terrible, and the floor was hard.

Yet it felt more comfortable than anywhere else.

Living on such an unforgiving ground naturally made her personality rougher and tougher.

When Luri turned twelve...

An unexpected visitor arrived at her little sanctuary.

Thinking it was a mad beggar, she tightly gripped a sharp blade to threaten whoever had come.

But the person who appeared was nothing like she had expected.

Standing there was a boy much younger than she was.

His nose was running, and bruises covered his entire body.

Even Luri, who considered her own life miserable, thought that compared to him, she had been fortunate.

Sniffling, the boy asked,

"Big Sis... do you happen to have anything to eat?"

Had it been any other beggar, she would have screamed at him to get lost.

But the moment she looked into his eyes...

She was overwhelmed.

There was a pure light within them that could never exist in a place like the gutters.

That light was so out of place amid such misery that only one thought crossed her mind.

I have to protect this child.

The first emotion the twelve-year-old girl felt toward the boy she had just met.......was responsibility.

Luri brought the boy into her little shelter.

She shared her food with him.

She changed his clothes.

She covered him with a blanket.

Her tiny home became even more cramped.

But somehow...

It also became much warmer.

That was how Luri became the older sister of a boy she had only just met.

For the first time in her life...

She truly understood the meaning of the word family.

Luri did everything together with her younger brother.

They begged together.

They searched through garbage bins together.

With another mouth to feed, there were more days when they went hungry.

But on the rare occasions when they ate until they were full, the happiness of those moments became the driving force that kept them going.

One day, while wandering outside the sewers in search of food, Luri and the boy saw another child around their own age.

Unlike the two of them, who could never escape the back alleys, that child was walking proudly down the main street.

One hand held his mother’s.

The other held delicious food.

The sight filled Luri’s heart with jealousy and misery.

"I wish we could eat things like that too."

The innocent boy tightly squeezed Luri’s hand as he said those words.

At that moment...

Luri found a dream.

Someday...

She would make sure this little brother could live like that child.

Luri wanted to become an adult as quickly as possible.

Adults had more opportunities to earn money.

If she could save enough...

They could live in a real house instead of this filthy sewer.

Once she had a dream...

Tomorrow no longer seemed so painful.

Because someday...

These difficult days would become nothing more than distant memories.

But even that dream was shattered.

War broke out.

No...

It was closer to a one-sided extermination than a war.

That day, neither Luri nor most of the kingdom’s citizens knew the truth.

The king of the kingdom where they lived had insulted a dragon...and touched its reverse scale.

Without warning, hundreds of Dragon Spawn descended from the sky like a meteor shower upon the kingdom.

The sturdy city walls collapsed.

Homes burst into flames.

The entire kingdom was reduced to ruins...in barely an hour.

After desperately fleeing amid the deafening explosions, Luri eventually opened her eyes again.

Before her stretched nothing but ruins.

The smell of ash filled her nose.

An unbearable emptiness settled in her chest.

Luri looked down into her arms.

That was where her younger brother should have been.

But there was nothing there.

It didn’t make sense.

In her last memory...

She had been holding him tightly.

Luri called out his name.

The name she could no longer remember.

She cried out desperately.

Receiving no answer, she stood and searched through the wreckage.

They had been together.

He had to be nearby.

But all she found were shattered pieces of stone walls...and gray ash.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of her younger brother.

Until her breathing nearly stopped from exhaustion, Luri searched.

Questions swirled endlessly through her mind.

Her brother had disappeared...

So why had she survived completely unharmed?

If they had been holding hands...

They should have lived together...

Or died together.

Which meant...

She had let go of his hand.

But when?

When the meteor shower and lightning rained from the sky?

When the screams and scorching heat clouded her mind?

Or afterward...

When the rain of falling rocks threw everything into chaos?

Eventually...

She erased every possibility from her mind.

It no longer mattered when.

Luri had survived alone.

Her younger brother had vanished without leaving even a trace.

She had believed she cherished him.

Yet when faced with death...

She had become nothing more than another stranger who abandoned him.

I’m no different.

My parents.

The orphanage director.

Me.

We’re all the same...

All selfish human beings.

"...I’m sorry."

She spoke to her younger brother.....whose body no longer even existed.

"I’m sorry... for being the only one who survived..."

Having failed in the responsibility she had accepted...

She became completely empty.

After losing a part of her life...

She simply waited for death.

But death never came.

Ironically...

The one who took her in was a dragon.

A middle-aged man with silver hair.

With a warm smile, he shared his blood with her.

On that very spot, the silver-haired man performed an impromptu Ascension Ceremony.

"From this day forward, I shall call you Luri. Forget the painful past you’ve endured. From now on, think only about how you will live."

The emotions that had become hollow...

Were filled once more by the middle-aged man’s smile.

The Ascension Ceremony was a ritual of forgetting the past and moving toward the future.

One forgot their original hair color.

Their original eye color.

Even the memories of their former life gradually lost their meaning, as though they had all been nothing more than a dream.

Yet even through a ritual that discarded everything...

Luri held onto one thing.

Responsibility.

The same responsibility she had felt when she took in that young boy from the gutters became the pillar supporting her life.

Now...

That sense of responsibility was directed toward Silverwind.

Luri made a vow.

She would use the mistakes of her past as a stepping stone...and dedicate her life to serving this great being.

Luri decided to become a warrior.

And from that moment onward...

Another trial began.