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Chapter 222: Ancient Dragon Ignisia (1)

The wandering merchant muttered to himself.

[I thought I felt an overwhelming power... What on earth are you guys doing...?]

"Ah. You’re here?"

The woman waved awkwardly, her expression like that of a child caught playing a prank. Ketal replied.

"We were completing the quest you gave us."

[How is this completing the quest...?]

"Because this woman wants the dragon\'s corpse."

Ketal needed the dragon heart for his own purposes.

If the woman took the corpse, it would all be for nothing.

Naturally, for the quest, he had to fight the woman.

[What...!?]

The wandering merchant looked at the woman as if Ketal\'s words didn’t make sense.

[What kind of prank are you pulling...?]

"Ah, sorry. I just wanted to have some fun before we talked, but things got a bit rough."

"Hmm?"

Ketal tilted his head at their conversation.

"What? Isn\'t this a competition? I assumed I had to compete with this woman for the dragon\'s corpse."

[There’s no way... A deal must always be kept...]

"...Then why did we fight?"

"Uh, well."

The woman hesitated for a moment before giving up and speaking.

"It was just a prank..."

\'No, this isn’t how it was supposed to go.\'

Originally, she had planned to subdue Ketal and calmly explain things, but now it seemed like she was haphazardly trying to explain, which hurt her pride, but there was no other choice.

The woman let out a groan.

"Ah, so that’s how it is. You\'re just a prankster."

Ketal backed down obediently.

He reattached his axe to his waist.

His body, which had tensed up in preparation for battle, gradually returned to its normal state.

"Uh, uh..."

The woman was flustered.

Ketal was truly releasing his combat stance.

"...Aren\'t we going to fight anymore?"

Regardless of the reason, she and Ketal had started to fight seriously.

She thought that even if the wandering merchant intervened, the battle wouldn\'t stop.

"It was a nasty prank, but since you\'re not an enemy, there\'s no need to continue."

‘Honestly, I’d like to keep fighting.’

Of course, Ketal wanted to keep fighting the woman.

He wanted to experience the overwhelming power outside further.

But the wandering merchant had personally come to stop them.

If he ignored that and continued to fight, the merchant might get annoyed and cancel the quest, so there was no choice.

No matter his true feelings, outwardly, he seemed calm and composed as he assessed the situation and withdrew his axe.

The wandering merchant murmured, as if surprised.

[I thought you’d ignore me and keep fighting...]

"There’s no reason to."

"U-um."

As a result, the woman, who had become even more perplexed, let out a groan.

Ignoring the woman, the wandering merchant continued.

[It seems like you’ve completed the quest... Then I’ll give you your reward... But first, I need to deal with these ones...]

As the merchant’s mechanism moved, three figures appeared along with the dragon’s corpse.

There was the sleeping Seraphina, the Mercenary King, and a dazed Spellweaver.

"What on earth...?"

The Spellweaver had a half-defeated look on his face.

The wandering merchant spoke lazily.

[You’ve completed the quest... I’ll send you back to where you came from...]

"W-wait a minute!"

The Spellweaver quickly snapped out of it.

His gaze was fixed on the woman and Ketal.

After being forcefully expelled by the woman, he had felt an immense wave of power.

The kind of power that made even someone like him, a top-tier superhuman, give up resistance and merely bow his head to beg for his life.

A power beyond comprehension, as if mountains were crumbling and the sky was splitting.

It wasn’t just the dragon\'s power he felt.

There was another presence, a pure force of might.

The Spellweaver\'s eyes were locked on Ketal.

He shouted quickly.

"Wait! We need to talk a bit more...!"

But the wandering merchant didn’t listen.

Before the Spellweaver could finish his sentence, his body vanished.

"Where did he go?"

[I sent him back to where he came from... I’ll give him his quest reward later...]

"I see."

‘It seemed like he had something to say at the end.’

Since he planned to visit the Magic Tower eventually, he could ask in person then.

The wandering merchant looked at the woman.

[And the same goes for you... The quest is complete... You don’t need a reward, right...?]

"My goal was that creature’s death to begin with. I don’t need a reward."

"So you achieved your goal. Then it’s about time you explained. Who are you?"

Who was this woman?

Why did she hide her identity and join their journey?

Why did she calmly watch as her own kind was killed?

And why did she fight Ketal?

It was time for some answers.

The woman scratched her cheek awkwardly.

"Well, I had planned to explain it in a cooler way, but I guess I have no choice."

The woman sighed briefly and looked at Ketal.

Her crimson eyes focused on him.

"You’ve probably guessed by now... I’m the same species as that corpse over there. Ah, but don’t get it wrong. This isn’t about revenge. My goal was to kill that guy."

"Why?"

"Because he betrayed the world."

The woman introduced herself calmly.

"I am the Red Dragon, Ignisia. Perhaps you know me better as the architect of the Magic Tower?"

"Oh?"

A dragon.

And the architect of the Magic Tower.

Ketal\'s eyes gleamed with interest.

The woman gave a slight bow.

"It’s very late to introduce myself, but... nice to meet you, Barbarian from the ‘Inside.’"

* * *

"Ho."

Ketal’s face was full of deep curiosity.

A dragon.

It was said that the older a dragon got, the stronger it became.

A dragon old enough to be called an ancient dragon must be especially powerful.

And Ignisia claimed to be the architect of the Magic Tower.

This meant she was connected to the tower created by the tower lord hundreds of years ago.

His interest was rapidly growing.

Ignisia spoke.

"Now that I’ve told you this much, you’ve probably figured out why I came to kill that guy."

"It’s because he was interested in demons, right?"

The wandering merchant had mentioned when giving the quest that this dragon was committing a grave sin from the world\'s perspective.

Specifically, the dragon had taken an interest in Hell and was opening a passage to it.

Ignisia nodded.

"This guy got interested in demons. He was trying to bring them into the world. You can’t just let a kid\'s curiosity run wild... but they have to take responsibility when a Sacred Dragon does it."

Demons were the enemies of the earth.

They sought to destroy the continent and claim it as their own.

Moreover, demons were currently in a dangerous state of actively pursuing their ambitions.

For a dragon, a being of the earth, to cooperate with demons was nothing short of betrayal.

Therefore, dragons decided to deal with the traitorous member of their kind themselves.

Ignisia had come here for that reason.

"Dragons are incredibly stubborn. They don\'t listen to reason, so there\'s no choice."

"That raises a question. You came here through the wandering merchant. Why is that?"

"We\'re independent beings. Even before becoming Sacred Dragons, we leave our parents and establish our own lairs. No one knows where those lairs are. While you can track a dragon\'s activities through magic, you can’t pinpoint their exact location."

A dragon’s concealment was perfect.

Despite countless attempts over centuries, no one had ever found a dragon’s lair.

This held true even for other dragons.

Tracking the lair of a dragon that was deliberately hiding its identity was no easy task.

"It would be possible if we had more time, but I needed to deal with him before he caused more trouble."

"So you used the wandering merchant to gather information."

"Something like that."

Ketal nodded as if he understood.

It seemed that the wandering merchant’s information was more reliable than that of the dragons.

He had a rough idea, but one crucial question still hadn’t been answered.

"Then why did you hide your identity and pretend to be a powerless boy?"

Ignisia was powerful.

She could have dealt with the traitorous dragon on her own without any problem.

Yet, Ignisia joined their party, pretending to be a powerless boy.

She accompanied them on their journey, acting like an innocent child until they encountered the dragon.

"My guess is that you used magic to interfere with our perception. Is that correct?"

"...Yes."

"As I thought."

A powerless, ordinary boy joining a quest to hunt a dragon was highly unusual.

The party should have been suspicious, wary, and hesitant to bring him along.

Yet, none of them were wary of the boy.

They only questioned why the wandering merchant had brought along such a seemingly ordinary and weak child.

It was clearly an odd situation.

The reason was that Ignisia had interfered with their perception.

The wandering merchant chimed in.

[At the beginning, this one came to me and asked if I knew the traitor’s location... I said yes... After making a deal, I revealed the location, but then this one added one more condition...]

The condition was that if any humans came to hunt the dragon, Ignisia wanted to join them.

That was the fundamental reason their party had formed.

"So that’s why we ended up in the same party. But why did you do that?"

"...Well. Honestly, it wasn’t that urgent. I had already located him, so I could have stepped in when he did anything suspicious. But I wanted to have a little fun..."

"Ah."

Ketal realized the truth.

It was a dragon’s play.

"That’s what it was. I see."

"Sorry. I just wanted to have some fun."

"No, it’s fine."

Ignisia was momentarily flustered by Ketal’s immediate acceptance.

She had expected him to be angry, considering she had been toying with them.

But Ketal had no reason to be angry.

Because he was similar.

If it was just for fun, there was no helping it!

Ketal understood Ignisia.

And Ignisia soon realized his true feelings as well.

\'...He\'s twisted.\'

This barbarian was broken.

But as she suspected, if he was from the ‘Inside,’ this was actually normal.

"Then, there’s no problem now."

[That’s right... Everything’s finished...]

There had been issues, but the quest was successfully completed.

Now it was time to receive the reward.

It was time for Ketal to obtain what he had longed for.

His eyes gleamed.

The wandering merchant spoke.

[I gave you the quest, and you succeeded... So now I will give you your reward...]

That reward was to grant Ketal the ability to wield mysteries.