Chapter 284

We have no words . ”

The deputy leader of the Amaranth Taemusas, Nathan slightly lowered his head .

“We should’ve been a little faster…”

His face was filled with regret .

“This is not your fault . ”

With a faint smile, Roan shook his head and at the same time, his deeply sunk eyes glanced around the area .

“I can smell something disgusting… sir . ”

Beryn who had been standing next to Roan gave a frown due to the disgusting odour touching her nose . Nathan’s report continued .

“We had succeeded in following the mysterious group into the Grain Mountain Range . However, the roads were unmaintained and strange, and for some reason, their appearances and presences had suddenly disappeared . After all the combined efforts of the Taemusas, we had succeeded in finding this altar but as you can see, it was after everything had been destroyed . ”

He once again lowered his head and Roan gave a slow nod . As Nathan had mentioned, pieces of rocks and branches were randomly placed with all of them shining greasily in a reddish black colour . That was the cause of the disgusting and horrible smell .

‘Blood . An extremely large amount at that . ’

Roan closed his two eyes shut . Something hot filled him up to his throat – that was rage .

‘That dark elf called Arikan talked about altars and rituals . ’

Although he didn’t know the exact details, an uncomfortable horrid thought filled his head .

‘Miss Beryn said that she had seen the slave merchants taking out the hearts of the kids…’

All the circumstances connected like cogs . Roan opened his closed eyes from which a deep red light shone .

‘A ritual with humans as sacrifices was held . ’

He still couldn’t be completely certain as to what this ritual was for . Pouring mana into his eyes, Roan’s vision was coloured gold .

‘As expected… the flow of mana was manipulated . ’

Focusing on Kalian’s tears, he stared deeply at the empty ground and the places where the altars had been . After the altar had been broken the flow of mana in the surroundings were returning to normal so there was a need to hurry a little .

‘They had installed something around this empty plot of land and its entrance . ’

Roan moved his feet to a place where the mana didn’t dare to stay and tried to avoid . And then,

“Hmm…”

A low mutter escaped his lips .

‘Why is there…’

It was an unexpected situation and his face turned slightly stiff .

‘This is definitely a sign of sorcery . ’

The reason why the mana in this area had flowed unnaturally was due to the powers of sorcery .

‘I was too lax . ’

Roan clenched his teeth .

With the death of Sorcery Master Hestle, he had thought that all the sorcerers around the kingdom had been killed . Even if they were alive, he thought they would’ve been hiding themselves thoroughly or that they would have escaped the country .

‘To think they were committing atrocities deep inside the kingdom . ’

He was angered by both the sorcerers and himself . The thing that was more annoying was that even from within his memories of the sorcerers, there were no information on the locations or whereabouts of other sorcerers .

‘I must actively use the Argens and the Evishun . ’

Turning his head back over, Roan stared at the altar . It was to look for any other traces that could be there but he couldn’t find any signs of sorcery from around the altar . Instead, there were signs of the magic that was presumably used during the explosion of the altar .

‘The explosion might have erased the signs of sorcery . ’

Roan kept several possibilities open .

“There’s not much remaining . ”

After a short mutter, he heaved out a deep sigh .

“Nathan . ”

Hearing the low voice, Nathan approached and lowered his head .

“Yes, Your Majesty . ”

Staring at the remains of the altar, Roan ordered in a low voice .

“Organise the altar well and make a grave . I’ll console the spirits of the sacrificed ones . ”

“Yes sir . I’ll follow your command . ”

Together with his reply, Nathan quickly made gestures and the Amaranth Taemusas quickly neared the altar . During that, Roan walked towards Beryn who was blankly standing alone .

“Miss Beryn . Are you okay?”

To the soft question, Beryn made an extremely surprised expression . Awkwardly she followed what Nathan and the other Taemusas had done by lowering her head .

“Y, your majesty . Please forgive the discourtesy from the past . ”

Roan shook his head in response .

“I was the one being discourteous as I had approached hiding my identity . ”

He glanced towards the altar .

“It wouldn’t be a pleasant memory, but I hear about the story about that girl called Grace?”

“Ah…”

Along with a short cry, Beryn collapsed onto the ground . As she was a hunter herself, she had clearly known what the red marks left on the remains of the altar were . With her head lowered, Beryn slowly opened her mouth .

“There’s nothing much . It’s just I heard that Grace had been sold away to the slave merchants…”

Her story wasn’t very complex or rather, what she had said back in the bar was pretty much everything . After the bastards that pretended to be slave merchants killed Grace and took out her heart, they had disappeared into the deep mountains . Beryn who was familiar with the surrounding areas had quickly started her pursuit but the guys then vanished .

‘It must be due to the sorcery . ’

Roan stared silently at Beryn .

“Miss Beryn . ”

“Yes your majesty . ”

Beryn lowered her head unknowingly . It was because of the tender dignity that warmly embraced her entire body not some kind of pressure . She was lowering her head on her own accord .

“I was amazed by your talents . Will you please use those talents for the Amaranth Kingdom and the citizens within?”

“T, talents? Me?”

She asked back with slight puzzlement . Of course, it was true that she was one of the top hunters of the village but she, who had never left onto a larger stage, did not realise how great of a talent she had .

Roan wordlessly nodded his head as Beryn repeatedly opened and closed her mouth . And soon,

“The bastards that had made that horrible and evil altar are still alive right?”

Roan once again nodded while Beryn formed a tight fist .

“If I go together with your majesty, can I destroy those garbage-like bastards with my two hands?”

“Of course . ”

Roan replied shortly . Beryn’s face turned brighter devoid of worries and she nodded her head without hesitation .

“Then you can use my shallow talents however you want . I wish there were no more victims like Grace appearing . ”

“Wonderful thinking . ”

Roan made a faint smile and stared at Beryn’s two eyes directly .

“Then let’s go with me to Castle Longfort around Inpec . ”

“Longfort near Inpec…”

It was more south from the current location and was also the area where Simon and sorcerers had based themselves in, during the war for the throne .

‘And is also the place where the Commander of the Western Armies, Harrison is the lord of . ’

Roan was planning to introduce Beryn to Harrison .

‘If it’s Harrison, then he should be able to bring Beryn to another level . ’

Harrison didn’t sit back relaxed, while only relying on his talents . He not only practised the methods for training mana, but also did not cease his efforts in attempting reformations and developments of bows and arrows . In addition, adding the several archery skills of different countries into one, he had created his own archery method .

‘I heard he was cooperating with the Magic Tower of Leno in making a magic bow these days . ’

Harrison wasn’t just a genius . He was a genius who put in lots of effort, and if it was him, then he would be a great teacher for Beryn .

And,

‘If it’s Miss Beryn, then she would definitely become an archer as skilled as Harrison himself . ’

From Roan and the Amaranth Kingdom’s perspectives, they were gaining a skilled general . Several plans were formed in his head .

Then,

“Your majesty . All the preparations are ready . ”

Nathan approached and lowered his head . They had taken care of the remains of the altar and cutting off the trees nearby, they had formed a simple yet solid grave . Taking out a few simple foods from his luggage, Roan placed them down and lowered his head . Beryn and the other Taemusas saw that and copied as silence surrounded the area .

‘I was lacking and couldn’t protect you all . ’

He said that he would make a good country where everyone could live happily but the reality was different .

Grit .

His hands formed fists and his teeth were clenched .

‘I’ll try harder . No in fact…’

Words and vows like ‘try harder’ were now insufficient .

‘I’ll do it well . ’

He realised that it was important to not just try but to perform a lot better than right now . Even right now, the citizens were probably living through dangerous days with their lives on the line and telling them, ‘I’ll try hard so please wait’ was no different from a cruel order that asked them to wait with the resolve to lose their lives .

“Fu . ”

Roan let out a deep breath . Looking at Nathan and the several Amaranth Taemusas, he ordered in a low voice .

“We’ll go to Castle Longfort . ”

“Yes, sir . ”

Their replies were short, and actions were faster than anything . Roan, Beryn, and the Amaranth Taemusas left the Grain Mountain Range and headed south towards the Inpec area . And two days after their departure,

“It seems that he had definitely been in this place . ”

Together with a familiar voice, a red-haired beautiful young man showed himself . He, Kalian, made a strange smile when he saw the graves made by the Amaranth Taemusas .

“He seems to have buried the remains of the altar . Quite a good bloke that Roan or whatever . ”

In response, Pierce lowered his head from nearby .

“That is right . O great being . ”

Ever since he found out that Kalian was a red dragon, he had been using extremely formal words but Kalian did not find that to his liking .

“I told you to get rid of that ‘great being’ thing . ”

“But how can I possibly do that to sir dragon…”

Kalian had an expression that he could take it no more and whispered softly .

“Do you want me to run amok a little?”

“Ah…”

Seeing Pierce unable to find any words, Kalian made a little grin .

“Just call me Sir Kalian . ”

“Yes I understand . Gre… Sir Kalian . ”

Pierce made an awkward smile while Kalian stared back at the empty plot of land with a content expression .

“Hmm . ”

A low mutter escaped .

‘It’s a lot worse than we thought . ’

The situation was a lot worse than they had presumed .

‘This is why the seal is getting weaker even with all our efforts . ’

His mouth felt bitter . Then, Kalian’s two eyes were painted deep scarlet as the scene before him changed . Within the red waves, blurry shadows moved around busily .

‘Due to a lot of time having passed, the memories of the location have blurred out a lot . ’

The only things that could be seen clearly were the shadows of Roan, Beryn and the Amaranth Taemusas who had been recently there .

It was then,

‘Hmm?’

Kalian gave a frown . It was because he had seen a trace of something he did not want to see from amongst the blurry shadows .

“Hu . ”

Heaving out a short sigh, he stared at Pierce .

“Pierce . ”

“Yes, Sir Kalian . ”

Pierce who had been looking around at his surroundings came closer and with a little smile, Kalian continued his words .

“There’s a place to visit before we go find Roan Lancephil . ”

“Where could that be?”

Carefully, Pierce asked but only a smile came back from Kalian as he reached out his right hand silently . Pierce grabbed onto that hand with an awkward smile and,

Paat!

A pillar of light reached into the skies – once again, the teleport magic had been used .

“Uu . ”

With his eyes shut tight, Pierce let out a short moan . He had experienced teleport magic once already but it was still hard to get used to that feeling; his head turned and vomit threatened to escape .

“You can open your eyes now . ”

He heard Kalian’s voice coming from the side and pressing hard on his aching temples, Pierce slowly opened his closed eyes .

“Ah…”

In that instant, a short mutter escaped . There were no more signs of the humid, frustrating scenery of the mountain and instead, an extremely large and wide space was before him . However, the reason for his bewilderment was not just the size of the place .

‘J, jewels? Gold? Treasures?’

It wasn’t easy to put anything into words . Only his two eyes moved around busily and wherever they pointed to, there were all sorts of treasures .

“Surprised?”

In response to Kalian’s question, Pierce could only nod his head . And when he was about to move his foot without any thought,

Chwaruruk!

Along with a pleasant sound, the treasures all fell and the mountain of treasures collapsed . Pierce stared at Kalian .

“C, could it be that this place is…?”

He couldn’t end his words but Kalian still gave a nod .

“Right . This is a dragon’s lair . ”

Kalian opened his arms wide .

“It is probably the first time after centuries that a human had entered a dragon’s lair . ”

Gulp .

Pierce swallowed deep and glancing around the lair, he carefully asked .

“Then is this Sir Kalian’s lair?”

In response, Kalian smiled bitterly and shook his head . Staring at the place where the owner should have been in, he whispered softly .

“No . The owner of this place is a different being . I thought he was hibernating but that wasn’t it . ”

It was the instant that his bad premonitions had been on the mark .

Pierce asked once again carefully .

“Then who’s lair could this be?”

Kalian replied nonchalantly .

“Black Dragon Lunark . ”

As soon as he finished, Pierce opened his eyes wide and screamed . His astonished voice filled the entire place .

“The Mad Dragon!”

End .

Translator: Lunargrasp

Proofreader: Deathwing