32. Infermur, the City Where the Dragon Sleeps (2)
Dragons, dragons, Atailatl. To every culture and every race, they are an ancient species now only found in legends.
One of the fallen races during the ancient Celestial War, it is said that even during the Celestial War, their numbers did not exceed a hundred.
A dominant species that ruled this world since the dawn of the Material World, and quasi-deities who possessed immortality from birth.
“Dragons? There are dragons?”
“Yes, yep! Yep!! I, I’ll guide you!”
“? Does the path split again inside here?”
“No! The, the path is one way…?”
Fernandez looked down at the panting vampire and tilted his head.
“Then what use do you have left?”
“The, the seal! This gate is sealed. I can undo it. If, if you spare me, I’ll do it…!”
Indeed, this massive gate radiated an extraordinary magical power. Fernandez gazed at the red iron chains enveloping the gate.
The chains, woven with magic, were intricately tangled. He chuckled.
“[Telain’s Blood Chains], huh? Long time no see.”
“?!!?! How?!”
-Sssss.
As Fernandez lightly touched the chain, it heated up and scorched his finger. He slowly withdrew his hand and stroked his chin.
“A very textbook seal. Must’ve followed the book to the letter.”
“Y, you… Were you a mage?!”
What kind of mage slaughters vampires with a sword!?! The vampire gaped in shock.
“I’ve almost memorized Telain’s grimoires.”
“Th, those are forbidden secrets never leaked…!”
-Crunch.
Fernandez’s sword slashed through the vampire’s neck. The vampire’s head rolled on the ground, frozen in terror and shock.
Fernandez flicked the blood off his sword and smiled.
“Not leaked yet. Not yet.”
-Click.
Fernandez sheathed his sword and stood before the sealed gate.
Telain’s Blood Chains were no easy magic, but it was still just a known spell. He remembered how he had painstakingly studied those secrets after the fall of Franzrit.
Faijashi, now materialized, frowned as he looked at the gate.
-A dragon…
‘Probably remains.’
-That’s likely. But surprising. Were there dragon remains in Infermur?
‘Never heard of such a thing.’
No matter how old the event, if dragon remains had been discovered, he would have remembered it in his past life.
The Infermur he remembered was merely a “forward port of the Franzrit bloodline.” If there were dragon remains or if they had been used for something, there would have been records.
‘If their plan was the same before our intervention, shouldn’t we assume the dragon remains were in conflict with the Guimerin royal family?’
-The Guimerin royal family abandoned the port because of a dragon?
‘That’s highly likely. The picture is becoming clearer now.’
-Sssss.
Fernandez tapped the sealed gate, lost in thought. Dragon remains.
-Sssss…
As Fernandez worked, the red chains binding the gate began to snap one by one.
[Vision of Secrets], a relic specialized in analyzing magic. No matter how intricate the seal, Fernandez, armed with the answers, couldn’t be stopped.
-Snap…
The last chain binding the seal broke. Fernandez smiled and pushed the gate open.
-Whoosh.
A gust of turbid magical energy surged from the deep underground. The seal had been preventing the leakage of magic.
Probably to deceive the elves’ sensitive senses. As the magic dispersed, a dark staircase appeared before him.
‘Dragon remains. Tempting.’
-The dragon’s bones… The hyoid and posterior suprahyoid are quite useful. Good.
Fernandez slowly descended the stairs.
*
Kirhas was hiding in an alley. The “strange guy” she had secretly been tailing was definitely alone at first, but before she knew it, the alleys were teeming with them.
‘Uh, uh… Should I contact Your Excellency? Is it too early?’
These “strange guys”—suspicious figures wrapped in rags, wielding glowing blue daggers—hadn’t done anything particularly heretical yet.
If she called Fernandez and caused a scene, only to find out they were just starving commoners, how could she face him?
Kirhas gripped the incense burner in her pocket and glared at them.
The alley was dark, but the Myoin tribe had superior night vision. This level of darkness was easier to see through than broad daylight.
“C’eaxi? Cohic, Oraion?”
They were conversing in a language she had never heard before. If it were Your Excellency, he would have known what it meant and explained it, but Kirhas drooped her ears in frustration.
No matter how much knowledge she accumulated in the Inquisition Office’s archives, she could never match Fernandez’s wisdom.
No matter how much swordsmanship she learned from the Heretica brothers, with Fernandez being “Diemonica,” it wasn’t easy to support him with just combat skills.
‘Am I useless?’
It was the same during the last mission, “Breaking the Chains.” How useless must she have been for him to send her away to safety while he single-handedly dealt with the enemies?
Later, when she read the report, she learned that in those few short days, Your Excellency had dealt with a lich, werewolves, and even the leader of a heretical sect.
“Oraion! Drako Un muck wit Vampirr!”
Then, the “strange guy” shouted loudly. Kirhas snapped back to attention and focused ahead. From deep within the alley, a large man emerged.
The man was only wearing pants, his muscular torso covered in intricate blue tattoos.
He dragged a thin, impoverished-looking man by the neck.
‘What’s he doing?’
“Vampirr? Huh! Crac un wit mact!”
-Crunch!
The man snapped the poor man’s neck. The man died without even a groan.
The man threw the corpse to the “strange guys,” who began hacking at it with their blue daggers.
Soon, the corpse began to emit a bright blue…
A flash of light, and soon black smoke billowed up. The smoke momentarily took the shape of a crow before dispersing into the air.
“Heretic!!! Your Excellency!!! I did it!!!!”
I need to report to Fernandez! Kirhas hurriedly grabbed the incense burner and thought of Fernandez’s face.
It was always the same thought. Black hair, a neat nose bridge, sharp eyes, a noble jawline, and eyes filled with wisdom and cynicism…
“…?”
“Chock?”
At that moment, the eyes of the crow dispersing in the air turned toward where Kirhas was hiding. Kirhas stared blankly at the crow. Somehow, it seemed like the crow was smiling…
-Piiiiik!!!
“Deck!!!!”
“Deck hum Eld?!”
With a deafening roar, the cultists all turned to where Kirhas was hiding and shouted.
As the muscular giant gestured toward Kirhas, a burst of light exploded, revealing Kirhas from the shadows.
“Uh, ah, hello…? Go, good evening!”
Kirhas forced a trembling smile, sweating profusely. As the cultists fell silent for a moment, Kirhas slowly backed away and said,
“W-well, have a good day! I’ll be going now!”
“Xich!”
“CrrrA!!!”
“Kyaaaah!!!”
With the giant’s shout, the cultists all charged at once! Kirhas quickly dashed through the alley, shouting,
“Your Excellency!!! The perverts are chasing me!!!”
*
‘Hmm.’
Fernandez suddenly flinched and stopped. The stairs seemed endless.
With his vision severely limited, he couldn’t tell how deep this passage was. There were no signs of traps, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious.
-Why? There are no traps.
‘No, I just have a strange feeling.’
Fernandez rubbed the back of his neck and continued downward. Just how deep is this? If it’s the remains of a dragon that died at the end of the Celestial War, it must be at least two thousand years old…
‘Oh?’
In the distance, a light appeared. Through a half-collapsed door, the passage came to an end. Fernandez cautiously crouched and slipped through the door. The carvings on the wall looked familiar.
‘This is an ancient ruin.’
-It’s a tomb. They managed to excavate this. Those Franzrit bastards.
If it’s the remains of a dragon that died during the war, not even a part of it would have survived intact. But if they went to the trouble of building a tomb like this to preserve it, they must have recovered a significant portion of the remains.
‘Ancient cuneiform script. This is an incredibly valuable ruin.’
-No time to discuss academic value.
‘Foolish. A mage is a scholar. Seeing something like this should make your heart race.’
-If I had a heart to race, maybe.
Fernandez chuckled at Faijashi’s remark.
As he passed the entrance of the ruins, a cliff leading downward appeared. The scale of the ruins was far larger than he had imagined.
Fernandez stood at the edge of the cliff, looking at the makeshift stairs leading down. The stairs, made of intertwined wood, looked more like a ladder.
‘If that breaks, I’m in trouble.’
Small streams of water flowed down the cliff in places. Climbing the cliff seemed difficult. In other words, if those stairs broke, he would be stranded in this remote underground ruin.
-Whooosh.
A powerful gust of wind infused with strong magic rose from below the cliff. The stench of dark magic was overwhelming.
Far below, mages were up to something. It seemed the dragon’s remains were at the bottom of the cliff.
‘This is…’
In case of an emergency, he had no way to call for help since Kirhas had the incense burner. Fernandez pondered for a moment.
Entering an unknown ancient ruin known only to cultists and vampires, with no means of contacting the outside world, alone…
-Report to Guimerin and be done with it. It’s wiser to get reinforcements.
‘If I do that, the Elven King will monopolize the remains.’
-The dragon’s remains are not our goal, Fernandez. It’s not worth the risk.
‘Then what is our goal? To uncover Franzrit’s plans and thwart them. We have a duty to find out what Franzrit did to seize Infermur and drive out the Guimerin Dynasty.’
It wasn’t loyalty to King Guimerin, but rather a question of how Franzrit had managed to defeat Guimerin in his previous life and seize control of the northeastern sea.
At this point, Franzrit’s naval power is insignificant. Of course, as a great noble of Serpent’s Isle, he has a navy, but that alone wouldn’t be enough to face the Elven Fleet.
Heretics must be eradicated. And vampires are also enemies of civilized society. But that doesn’t mean the elves are allies of humanity.
For the ultimate victory of human civilization and the Temple of the Gods, vampires, heretics, and elves must all be excluded, and the northeastern coastline must be brought under the domain of the civilized world.
‘And the most precious resource we have is time, Faijashi. If we use the dragon’s remains, we can save time.’
-…That’s true.
The deliberation ended there. Every plan has variables. And Fernandez had to use every variable to his advantage.
The clock ticking toward the end never stops, and what one can do alone is extremely limited.
-Creeeak.
As Fernandez’s weight settled on it, the wooden stairs let out a scream. One wrong step and they’d break. Fernandez chuckled as he descended the stairs.
*
“Are they still inside? Are you sure?”
“Yes, those humans haven’t even eaten dinner.”
“Humans are a species that eats more than two meals a day. Strange…”
Leia stared at the firmly closed door, tilting her head in confusion. When Fernandez had an audience with the king, he acted arrogantly, as if he would slaughter the vampires on the spot. Yet, he’s still in his room?
-Knock knock.
“May I come in?”
There was no response from inside the room. Leia knew that some individuals, like Inquisition Officers, had special skills that could deceive elven senses. But it was unnaturally quiet.
“I’m opening it. If you don’t like it, say something now.”
-Creeeak.
As soon as Leia saw the empty room through the crack in the door, she rushed inside. The curtains fluttered in the wind coming through the window.
“These, these insolent humans!”
She fumed and quickly scanned the room. His belongings were still there, so he hadn’t left entirely. He wasn’t armed, so he must have gone outside…
‘The bed is still warm.’
Though faint, there was still warmth on the bed. Leia quickly stepped onto the windowsill and shouted,
“Don’t report today’s incident!”
“Yes, yes!”
-Thud!
She leaped out the window and looked toward the port. Where should I start looking? What a pathetic situation. Losing the target less than half a day after the king ordered me to keep watch!
‘He’s a sharp one, that human.’
So, let’s think. Where would a human start tracking? Was there something he needed to do outside of my surveillance?
*
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