Chapter 254
“Lord Hades, it seems I’ll have to be away for a while.”
Zeke spoke to Hades, who was floating in the air in the garden, basking in the sunlight.
Hades turned only his head and said to Zeke,
“Away? Then just state your wish now and get going. Let me get on with my business, too.”
Zeke asked in response to Hades’s answer,
“Are you going to look for the other dragons?”
When they were staying at the Ishtar main palace, Zeke had told Hades that he might be the only dragon left alive.
At Zeke’s words, Hades had scoffed.
He’d said that most of them had likely dug deep burrows to sleep in, or had moved to the Eastern Continent.
It was highly probable that they had chosen to either hibernate or flee to another continent to escape the demons seeking to possess their bodies.
Hades shook his head at Zeke’s question about whether he would go looking for the other dragons.
“Dragons are different from humans. Even if I were the only dragon left in this physical realm, so what? That, too, was a choice the other dragons made.”
“Then where do you plan on going?”
“I haven’t decided. Haven’t you ever heard of a dragon’s pastime? We wander around looking for something interesting, and if we find a place we like, we settle down and play for about a hundred years. When we get bored, we go somewhere else, and if we get bored of that, we sleep for a few hundred years. That’s the typical life of a dragon. I lost a lot by making a pact with humans.”
Despite their immense power, the lives of dragons were surprisingly dull.
Born with great power, they were heavily restricted by karma, so there wasn’t much they could do in the physical realm to begin with.
Looking at Hades, Zeke said,
“Since you have nothing to do anyway, why not spend some time here researching the drive system? I’ll provide you with everything you need.”
“This punk is trying to use a premium dragon-like me for free.”
“What if I offer you orichalcum as payment? Enough to build the guardians you like so much, Lord Hades.”
“What? You have that much orichalcum?”
“I don’t have it now, but I think I can make it.”
Hades gave Zeke a suspicious look.
In response, Zeke took out the Mask of Agamemnon and showed it to him.
“What is this?”
“It’s the sacred relic you mentioned, the one that holds the power of a sage.”
Hades was taken aback by Zeke’s words.
“Why do you have this?”
“It was passed down as a sacred treasure of the Agamemnon clan, and I received it. The relic’s power is currently sealed, but I should be able to restore it once I find the Fairy Lake.”
“Hmm.”
After listening to Zeke, Hades pondered for a moment before finally nodding.
“Alright, fine. You definitely said you’d give me enough orichalcum to build guardians.”
“Yes. But to do that, I’ll need a lot of your help, Lord Hades.”
“You’re impossibly cunning, just like a human. Hmph, just give me a room to set up a workshop.”
“I’ll have the best room in the castle prepared for you.”
Just having Hades stay at Agamemnon Castle was a great benefit to Zeke.
Having achieved a satisfactory result, he ordered Hades and Yellin’s party to stay at the castle, then summoned Bucephalus.
Hiiiing!
Bucephalus, summoned for the first time in a while, neighed happily upon seeing Zeke.
As the Dragon Horse King, Bucephalus felt an even greater sense of kinship with Zeke, whose draconic authority had grown stronger.
Seeing the Spirit Beast Bucephalus, Hades approached with curiosity.
“Hoh, the Dragon Horse King. You have quite a rare Spirit Beast.”
Zeke stroked Bucephalus’s mane and said,
“It would be nice to travel together, but as you said, he’s a rare Spirit Beast, and his appearance is different from an ordinary horse, so it’s a shame I can’t call him out often.”
“Is that so?”
Hades thought for a moment, looking Bucephalus over, then waved his hand with a swoosh.
Woooong!
Bucephalus’s body was enveloped in light, and his form as a dragon horse changed into that of a magnificent, dark-blue steed.
Zeke, surprised, asked Hades,
“Is this magic?”
“I just used the Spirit Beast’s own power to change its appearance. The dragon horse should be able to do it on its own now, so just ask it when you need to.”
Being a dragon, he certainly had many wondrous talents.
Zeke felt that all the trouble he went through to break Hades’s binding had been worthwhile.
He mounted the back of Bucephalus, who now looked like a fine steed.
“Bucephalus, now we can travel together more often.”
Hiiiing!
Bucephalus also seemed pleased, raising his front legs and neighing loudly.
Zeke gave Hades a short farewell and left Mycenae for the Senior Knight examination.
***
Zeke rode Bucephalus toward ‘Canus,’ the city where the Vardec clan’s main clan was located.
Canus was located in the north of Atlas. While it wasn’t one of the five major cities of Midland, it played a strategically important role within clan Draker.
This was because Canus was the largest weapons production site in the entire Central Continent.
clan Draker’s three great blood-allied clans were known as Turunn of Strength, Siemens of Wisdom, and Vardec of Metal.
The ‘Metal’ of Vardec referred to the metals used to create weapons.
Iron brought from the mines of the Northern Continent was taken to Canus, forged into weapons, and then supplied to clan Draker.
As a clan with influence over the entire Central Continent, clan Draker’s military presence stationed across the continent was formidable.
It could be said that half of the weapons used by those forces were made by the Vardec clan.
Vardec was originally a Clan of blacksmiths who crafted arms, but they had become a knightly clan after rendering meritorious service and receiving a title during the era of the Holy Empire.
Despite being a knightly clan, they had not forgotten their Clan's traditions and still regarded the craft of weapon-making as important.
Furthermore, the Vardec clan owned mines in the north, and the quality of the iron from those mines was so excellent that Vardec-made weapons had a reputation for being sturdy since the time of the Holy Empire.
Moreover, the present-day Vardec clan was working with Siemens, as well as alchemists and the Mage Tower, to develop new, advanced weaponry.
While not on the level of the Transcendent clan Nirvana, they manufactured and exported cost-effective magic-engineered weapons, earning great profits and accumulating wealth.
It wasn’t for nothing that people said the place with the most cash on hand on the continent wasn't Graham Bank, but the Vardec clan.
It was quite a distance to Canus, where the Vardec clan resided, but Bucephalus was so fast that Zeke reached the city’s walls in just two days.
Since Vardec was also an allied clan of Siemens, Zeke had figured that traveling by land with Bucephalus would be better for catching them off guard than exposing his movements through a portal.
Beyond the walls of Canus, he could see hazy smoke rising from various places.
The dozens of weapon workshops set up inside Canus were operating ceaselessly and intensely.
Zeke rode Bucephalus toward the gate of Canus.
As a city with a highly developed weapon industry, numerous arms merchants who had flocked from all over the continent to buy weaponry were lined up in a long queue to pass through the gate.
Since the goods being handled were weapons, security was also tight.
Heavily armed soldiers stood guard grimly everywhere, and he could feel that knights and mages belonging to the Vardec clan were also stationed in every corner, even in unseen places.
As Zeke headed toward the gate on his horse, a soldier approached him.
“You cannot proceed on horseback from here. Dismount.”
At the soldier’s words, Zeke obediently got off his horse.
Then he spoke to the soldier.
“I have a message for the head of the clan, so please guide me to the main residence.”
At those words, the soldier scoffed and said,
“The clan Lord is not someone you can meet so carelessly. It would be better for you to stop talking nonsense and quietly line up to receive a pass.”
Zeke, who had just turned nineteen, looked on the outside like a rookie knight-aspirant who had just graduated from a knight academy.
On top of that, since he wasn’t wearing a Draker uniform, it was impossible to recognize his identity.
He pondered for a moment, then showed the soldier his Dragon Slayer’s Sigil.
Seeing the sigil that proved he was an official knight of Draker, the soldier was so startled he started hiccuping.
“S-Surely you’re not Sir Zeke Draker?”
There was only one Draker knight who had not yet reached the age of twenty.
The Knight of Resolution, Zeke Draker.
The youngest to be promoted to Blue Knight, and the knight who broke the curse of the Mansion of Specters that no one had been able to resolve for a thousand years.
The soldier finally recognized Zeke’s face and saluted.
“Sir! I-It’s an honor to meet you! Please come this way.”
The soldier guided Zeke with a completely different attitude than before.
After revealing his identity, passing through the gate was a swift process.
As soon as he passed the gate, a private carriage arrived, picked Zeke up, and went straight to the main residence of the Vardec clan.
Zeke, whose fame had risen as the Knight of Resolution, was no longer the scorned outcast of the past.
With the influential clans of Agamemnon and Graham in the central region as his sponsors, and having received a fief in Troy before even turning twenty, he was a figure who had set a truly legendary record.
Although his fame had been slightly overshadowed by Abel, who had recently been recognized for his promotion to Black Knight, the things Zeke had accomplished in his own name were still tremendous.
The carriage crossed the city and stopped at the main clan building, located on the highest ground in the north.
The members of the Vardec clanhold, having already been informed of Zeke’s visit, were out waiting for him.
And when Zeke stepped out of the carriage, there was, surprisingly, a familiar face.
“Jakenn .”
His cousin and Cradle comrade, Jakenn Vardec, was standing at attention in his uniform.
Jakenn bowed his head to Zeke and greeted him politely.
“Greetings to you, Sir Zeke.”
Jakenn had previously tried to trap Zeke and Liam during an exam at the academy.
Zeke looked at Jakenn , who was showing a completely different attitude from their academy days, with a calm gaze.
Then, he instantly assessed Jakenn ’s skill.
‘He still hasn’t broken through the wall of a Purple Knight.’
In truth, for someone of Zeke’s age, this level of achievement was enough to be called a prodigy.
Reina and Liam, who had already surpassed the Purple Knight level, were in the realm of genius, rare talents even within clan Draker.
Zeke approached Jakenn and patted his shoulder.
“It’s been a while.”
“Oh, it has been a while, Sir Zeke!”
Jakenn was extremely nervous, worried that Zeke might still hold a grudge over what happened before.
However, Zeke already didn't give Jakenn a second thought.
“I’ve come to see the clan Lord. Could I ask you to guide me?”
Breaking out in a cold sweat, Jakenn answered Zeke’s words.
“The clan Lord is currently out hunting.”
“Is he? Then you can just guide me there.”
Jakenn , who had been trying to get away from Zeke any way he could, was caught with no way out and had no choice but to guide him to the hunting grounds where the clan Lord was.
“I will guide you. Please come this way.”
To head up to the hunting grounds, Jakenn brought a horse, and Zeke mounted Bucephalus.
The vast forest located within the domain of the Vardec main clan was essentially the clan Lord's private hunting ground.
As Canus was a territory close to the north, winter had already arrived here, and the forest was softly blanketed in snow.
As Zeke rode alongside Jakenn , he asked him,
“Are you still attending the academy?”
At Zeke's words, Jakenn 's face turned red as he barely managed to answer.
“...I graduate this year.”
Zeke had already graduated from Valhalla, become an official Draker knight, and even received the title of Knight of Resolution, so Jakenn felt ashamed of his own situation, still not having even graduated from the academy.
Zeke's question, asked without much thought, struck Jakenn like a dagger.
‘I will one day repay the humiliation of today.’
Without a thought for what he himself had done to Zeke during their time in the Cradle and the academy, Jakenn was now burning with a pointless desire for revenge.
It was then.
Bang!
A gunshot echoed from deep within the forest.
Jakenn looked at Zeke and said,
“Hearing the gunshot, it seems the clan Lord is over there.”
Jakenn took the lead and spurred his horse toward the sound of the shot.
Zeke’s expression, as he followed behind him, was now hardened, unlike before.
‘Why would the head of Vardec have a magic gun?’
In his past life, magic guns had only appeared in the world during the Continental War with the emergence of the Knight Killers.
But in this life, the appearance of magic guns had come much sooner.
Because of Zeke’s regression, events of the future were changing, little by little.
He followed Jakenn , filled with questions.