No one had seen a dragon in real life. It was the same for other species who lived much longer than humans, and it wasn’t because dragons lived in the backcountry or were in hiding. Dragons simply no longer existed in this world. Yet, everyone knew about their existence. Although most only had an abstract idea of a dragon’s appearance, they could clearly imagine one.
A dragon was generally shaped like a lizard, but it had bat-like wings and large horns on top of its head. However, its most noticeable characteristic was its size. It was simply enormous, comparable to most small mountains, and it was as strong as it was large. It overflowed with mana, had an overbearing physique, and could burn down a village with one breath. Surprisingly, dragons could even use magic. In short, dragons were beings that could erase an entire country by themselves.
With just descriptions alone, one could fathom the power of a dragon as a strong monster. No, it was questionable whether or not people could even call these beings monsters. According to the way many families engraved dragons onto their symbols, one could easily tell what people thought of these creatures. However, because of how long ago dragons lived, plenty of people doubted whether dragons had even existed in the first place.
‘I mean, even the elf who compared my mana supply to a dragon’s was just projecting.’ However, the elf wasn’t making completely baseless claims, since she was a scholar who had looked through the elves' many ancient records.
If one asked Zich what he thought about these dragons that were now legends, he would say he didn’t think much about them. Whether or not dragons really existed or were strong or weak beings, they were completely unrelated to him. However, this all changed if one appeared right in front of him.
“Is it really a dragon?” Lyla asked as she stood on the farthest edge of the ring to have the closest look at the crystal.
“It’s definitely possible.” If this had been another ruin, they would have simply thought that the creators of this crystal must have placed something that only mimicked the form of a dragon. Yet, they were currently in Clowon’s ruin.
‘With the enormous power that the empire had, they could have used dragons as experiments.’ It really was an astonishing empire. How could they use dragons that were so unbelievably strong even if only half the stories that circulated around them were true? While Zich was reflecting on these thoughts, Lyla looked like she couldn’t bear to watch from afar any longer and flew toward the crystal. Zich pulled out Windur and steadied his body since a dangerous situation could arise when she approached the crystal. After all, defensive devices could exist to protect the crystal, causing a strong burst of mana to blast out of it, or a completely unexpected event could arise. Thus, Zich warned Lyla, and she waved her hand like she was telling him not to worry. Fortunately, the situation they worried about didn’t happen, and Lyla studied the crystal while flying all around it. Seeing that there didn’t seem to be many findings after Lyla looked around, Zich sat down, putting his sword next to him. Then, he stared at Lyla and gripped Windur again.
‘In the end, I guess there’s nothing that could awaken all the mana here.’ Usually, Windur vibrated if they were near a clone of the World Tree and it would awaken all of Zich’s dormant mana. But now, it was quiet.
‘It’s fine. I will just go back a bit uncomfortably.’ Zich calmly stored away his expectations.
“There’s no way this thing is alive, right?” Lyla asked while tapping the crystal.
Zich responded simply, “I don’t know.”
There was no way he would know about a creature that disappeared a long, long time ago. Of course, logically, it was impossible for a living creature to live for so long, even if they were talking about a dragon. If Zich had to make a bet, he would be on the side that the dragon was dead.
“Even if it’s a dragon, would they be alive inside a crystal? Like we saw before, they would have been struck by the World Tree’s mana for an incredibly long period of time too.”
“Yeah, that’s true.” Lyla nodded. It appeared that this dragon was a part of the system, but Lyla also doubted that Clowon had used a living dragon. If the dragon had been that strong to still be alive, it must have been a near-impossible task to lock it inside a crystal.
However, Zich added, “We can’t be certain, though. We are talking about Clowon and a dragon, after all.”
Common sense didn’t work on these two things, and Lyla nodded in agreement. Then, after studying the crystal a bit more, Lyla sat beside Zich.
“I will study the ruin here a bit more.” The large-scale magical device had ignited Lyla’s curiosity as a mage.
“Are you planning to stay here alone?”
“Well, you still have things to take care of up there,” Lyla said. She was talking about how Zich still needed to dig behind the Bellids’ tracks and prepare for the likely war that Glen would initiate. It was definitely better for them to split here. Yet, there was one big problem.
“You know you can’t enter without me, right?” The key to the ruins’ only tunnel was Windur. Lyla’s teleportation magic didn’t work here.
“Don’t worry. I have plenty of food here with me.” Lyla shook her magic box and said, “Just visit me from time to time. I will get out once my research is done here.”
“A dangerous situation could arise.”
“I need to take at least that much risk.” Lyla shrugged and added, “I thought about the reason why Windur guided us to this place. There’s no way it led us here simply because there’s an amazing structure to see.”
Zich looked at Windur and nodded. Although Windur was a tricky companion who dragged Zich to places whenever it saw fit, it never led them to do useless things.
“But we already earned something from this trip. We learned the direction of the World Tree’s original body,” Zich said while pointing at a wall where white mana had disappeared.
Lyla shook her head and said, “That’s true, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing more to find. Moreover, didn’t Zich Brave tell you to follow where Windur led you?”
“Yeah, that damn bastard told me that.” Zich gritted his teeth. Zich Brave was the only one that the usually laid-back Zich responded to with so much rage.
Zich showed only cold fury even towards Glen Zenard. Lyla bit back a bitter laugh. “I think that there might be a way to meet him again here.”
Zich also had this same thought Zich Brave told him to follow Windur before. “If that happens, it’ll be good for me. I got it. I’ll stop by periodically.”
He planned to stay at the Steelwall Estate for a while anyway. There was no reason for him to refute Lyla’s suggestion. However, he asked one more question before he left. “If a war really starts and I die and lose Windur, you’ll be trapped here forever. Then what will you do?”
Lyla let out a chuckle as if she just heard a hilarious story. “Is there any possibility of you dying?”
Zich had no choice but to stand still and laugh at the amount of trust in Lyla’s brief words.
* * *
After leaving up the investigation of the ruin to Lyla, Zich searched Violsa. Since people were finding numerous Bellid temples in the Steelwall Estate, the plausibility of the other two rumors had significantly gone up. Among the three rumors, there was a rumor that there was a Bellid temple of a gigantic size right in the Steelwall Estate’s capital, Violsa.
‘There’s a high possibility that this rumor is true.’ Obviously, someone caused this commotion to maliciously rip apart the Steelwall Estate. If there was a large Bellid temple in the capital city, people’s trust in the Steelwall Estate would significantly plummet. However, Zich couldn’t easily find the temple, so he made plans to look for it again the next day and returned to the Count’s mansion.
“Hmm?” A carriage stood in front of the Count’s mansion’s entrance. From a glance, it looked extremely expensive, so it was clear that a person of high status was riding it. This was not a surprising matter. The Count was a high-ranking noble, and it wasn’t rare that someone of high status would come to visit. However, there was something that caught Zich’s eyes. It was the symbol inscribed on the carriage.
‘It’s the Karuwiman symbol.’ It seems as if the Karuwimans had officially started making their move. Zich wondered who came as a representative and asked a servant near him.
The servant answered, “The Saintess has arrived.”
“Saintess?”
There was only one Karuwiman Saintess.
‘It…must not be a coincidence?’ She already knew that he was part of Count Steelwall’s family. Moreover, this was a situation that even required the Saintess to possibly step forward. Lubella might be suspicious of Steelwall; no, she had a very clear reason to do so. However, it was also clear that she was someone who would be of great help in this situation. ‘If Lubella is here, there is a high chance that Belri Weig came with her too.’
Zich immediately moved inside the mansion. ‘Seriously, I can’t believe that there would come a day I would be glad to see the Karuwiman Saintess and Tasnia’s Killing Machine.’
Zich was amazed at himself and headed towards the room where they were waiting.
* * *
A subtle sweet smell wafted around the sitting room. As expected of expensive tea leaves in a high-ranking noble’s mansion, the smell of the tea was very deep and pleasing. A teacup was also placed in front of Zich. However, Zich took only a few sips and put it down. He was more interested in the person elegantly drinking from her cup right now. “I thought that someone from the Karuwimans would come here as a representative, but I had no idea that it would be you, Lady Lubella.”
Lubella cracked a smile and put her cup down. “Another person was supposed to be sent here, but after hearing that you were here, I pestered them a bit.” Then, she jokingly stuck out her tongue.
Trell took a sharp breath as Lubella looked different from the usual graceful appearance she showed to the followers who respected and admired her. Even though he had noticed that the Saintess had a close relationship with Zich ever since she took his side at the Cronon capital, they seemed to be even closer than he thought.
Moreover, the Karuwiman’s strongest holy knight, Belri Weig, was joyously chuckling in front of Zich. “I also lent a helping hand. I couldn’t stand still knowing that I was passing up an opportunity to see you again and crush those Bellid bastards.”
Trell couldn’t believe that he was the same person who had looked at him with suspicious eyes and a cold, indifferent expression before Zich arrived. It was also the same for the Saintess. Even though she hadn’t directly gazed at him suspiciously like Belri Weig, and her voice was soft, Trell and the Count knew that she was scanning them with a mask on her face. However, Lubella looked as if she didn’t put on any mask while conversing and laughing with Zich now. It was clear that she was really laughing in joy at meeting Zich.
Was this good news? If Zich had still been using the Steelwall name, there would have been nothing more fortunate than this. However, Zich had thrown away the Steelwall name. Trell couldn’t lie that Zich’s relationship with Steelwall was good with a clear conscience. Thus, the Count and Trell had no choice but to be on guard as the Saintess, Belri, and Zich conversed. Even though their conversation was happening inside the Count’s mansion, the Count and Trell could only sit back and watch the conversation unfold.
“I would like to talk for longer, since it’s been a while since we've met, but unfortunately, we came to the Steelwall Estate for a specific reason. So, I think I’ll have to finish our business here first.” Lubella spoke with a friendly gaze like before, but she drew a clear line between her and Zich. “Sir Zich, you must be well aware of the events causing a commotion around here.”
“Of course, Lady Lubella. I found several of the Bellid temples myself.”
“Count Steelwall told us that all the rumors are definitely not true, and he’s not related to the Bellids at all. I wanted to ask your opinion about this matter.” Lubella’s pupils directly stared at Zich. “What do you think, Sir Zich?”
The Count, Trell, Lubella, and Belri Weig all anxiously waited for Zich’s next words. Compared to them, Zich laughed lightly and replied as if there was no need for him to even hesitate. “There’s no way that old boomer teamed up with the Bellids.”