I’m Really Not Trying to Be Chased by the Heroine as the Villainous Playboy! – Chapter 99

Chapter 96: For Her

In the chaos, countless screams echoed.

Time shattered, space collapsed, and Roy seemed to have passed through endless years in an instant, witnessing the rise and fall of several epochs of civilization.

The king and the eleven knights danced in blood with dragons, the Holy Light Church rose from the wasteland, and the wizards exhaustively researched the truth…

Though his mind struggled to think amidst the murk, Roy instinctively understood that these fragments of civilization replayed history in reverse.

He found himself caught in a powerful current of time and space, becoming a drifting object unable to even think.

The concept of time subtly linked those fragments, and at the tail end of this stream of splinters, the broken time finally struggled to shift from point to line, until then, Roy’s consciousness gradually cleared, regaining the sensation of his body.

In front of him was darkness, but faintly, he could see something moving in the distance.

Roy instinctively lifted his head to look, only to suddenly hear the roar of a dragon from above.

Time seemed to fast-forward, and the scenery accelerated.

Above, splendid red lotuses burst open, raining down the blood and flesh of scale-covered dragons. Following that came frigid frost, deadly acid, and bizarre poisons, as the flames consumed the sky before crashing down to the earth.

Swarms of giant dragon shadows swept across the sky, and one by one, they fell from it.

The continuous dragon roars were infused with sorrow, anger, despair, and madness.

Until the last massive black dragon fell, the world finally restored its silence.

Only piles of pure white bones remained, forming mountains, leaving behind the last sorrow and despair of the race that once ruled the skies in this devastated world.

Countless dragon corpses accumulated on both sides, resembling a terrifying canyon.

This was the dragon’s tomb.

Yet even so, there was a glimmer of light.

That light was small and fragile, yet it flickered stubbornly like a firefly in the long night, refusing to extinguish.

Roy couldn’t help but move his legs, pursuing this dark golden light, excessively weaving through these gigantic corpses, making his way down to the deepest part of the dragon’s tomb.

At the end of thousands of dragon bodies, he stopped.

At the deepest part of the dragon’s tomb, only the last giant dragon remained, barely clinging to life.

Its massive body was huge, with dark golden scales fading and damaged, one horn broken, and its body flowing with blood—whether its own or that of its kin was unclear—as it mournfully groaned, like a remnant of an era’s final, sorrowful dragon poetry.

Only its eyes were different.

The dark golden dragon cast a slight glance downward, and in that instant, Roy felt a shock to his soul.

Meeting its gaze felt like staring into the entirety of the world.

In the dark golden eyes of the old man was an unyielding storm, resembling a dark golden sky, boiling and surging, never extinguished.

Even at the end of its life, its eyes still sparkled with the pride and tenacity of a king, along with a sliver of precious hope.

In that moment, Roy suddenly understood.

It was a king.

It was the first epoch, witnessing the rise and fall of the dragon race, the king of dragons!

“Kid, what are you here for?”

Strangely, the dragon king’s gaze didn’t settle on him but passed straight through.

He turned his head and saw a slender black-haired youth with a shy demeanor.

The dragon king and the youth seemed unable to see Roy, engaged in their own conversation.

“The kingdom’s army has retreated, and the evil dragon is approaching the royal capital; I need power!”

“…As you can see, I’m like a candle in the wind, unable to help you. Moreover, if I, too, have fallen, then no creature on this continent can stop Cult of Fafna.”

“…Is that so.” The youth’s face revealed uncontrollable disappointment, yet he deeply bowed to the dragon king, sitting beside it for its final moments.

One was a frail mortal, and the other was the king of dragons, two entities that should have been eternally unrelated yet seemed to share a peculiar bond.

Roy felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, then suddenly awakened.

Mortal, dragon king, first epoch.

Could it be…

“What are your plans afterward, Zig?”

“I will fight until the last moment,” the youth spoke nonchalantly, his face filled with determination.

Even the king of dragons was moved by this resolve to face death: “For the kingdom?”

“For her.”

Roy finally remembered.

Legend has it that in the first epoch, there was a kind-hearted, brave young man named Zigfei.

He overcame trials, gained the recognition of the Dragon King Bahamut, wielded a magic sword, slayed the Evil Dragon Fafna, bathed in dragon blood, and perished alongside the evil dragon at sunset.

This story, more of a well-known legend than the historical truth, came to mind even without special study.

It was said to be the first time in human history that one raised a flag against an extraordinary being. The war led by Zigfei became known as the First Dragon War!

Compared to the mythological descriptions of “overcoming trials” and “brave and unyielding,” this scene seemed much more ordinary, yet Roy felt it was the truth.

There was no dragon-slaying hero.

He was merely an ordinary young man yearning to protect his loved one.

“She is indeed the one; how are you all now?” The dragon king showed interest.

Zigfei spoke to the dragon king about his cherished moments with the one he loved, unable to hide the shyness and joy on his face.

It wasn’t a breathtakingly dramatic story full of legendary significance but rather an ordinary encounter between a common youth and a princess, striving to become a knight, gaining appreciation from the princess, the thrill of holding hands, the joy of dates, and even the most trivial, normal love.

The dragon king listened with great interest, never interrupting, as if it too had come alive from this love.

“I’ve made up my mind; after the war victory, I will…”

However, in the end, Zigfei’s expression darkened, falling into silence.

The evil dragon would destroy all he cherished; his love might never blossom.

But just then, the long-silent giant dragon sighed: “Perhaps there’s one last way.”

“What do you mean?” Zigfei became agitated.

The dragon king gazed at the youth, its tone grave and heavy: “This method can grant you a glimmer of power to resist the evil dragon, but you may never be able to embrace her again. Even so, would you be willing?”

If it were really the dragon-slaying hero from the myth, he’d undoubtedly agree without hesitation for the sake of all living things.

However, Zigfei hesitated, his face pale, lips trembling, unable to utter a word.

“Three days from now, my life will burn out. Until then, make a good decision.” The dragon king mused softly.

In the next moment, Roy felt an invisible tide surge in.

In a daze, Roy suddenly opened his eyes, feeling utterly exhausted, covered in cold sweat, the light painfully bright.

He looked out the window and found that it was already bright outside.

【Detected Completion of the Road to Kingship Projection】

【Bloodline Ability Awakening】

【Bloodline Resonance: Your bloodline will resonate with other extraordinary beings, erupting with greater power】

Was this the power that had erupted when he and Charlotte hunted together?

He thought it was just because he and Charlotte had good compatibility; now it seemed this was also one of the abilities of the ??? bloodline.

Perhaps he was a descendant of Zigfei, inheriting his bloodline ability, which allowed him to see this sealed memory from the past.

This meant that even before the establishment of the magic potion system in the first epoch, someone had already mastered extraordinary power.

Yet today’s history mostly holds that humans first grasped extraordinary powers in the third epoch when they transformed themselves into wizards.

Yet Roy couldn’t muster the excitement for this shocking historical revelation, wholly absorbed in Zigfei’s story.

According to the myth, Zigfei ultimately perished with the evil dragon, becoming the hero who slayed dragons, yet not a single word mentioned the fate of him and his beloved.

Put down the sword and he couldn’t protect her; pick up the sword and he couldn’t embrace her.

If it were him, what would he choose?

Gazing at the hazy dawn beyond the window, Roy felt a pang of melancholy.

Right now, he still didn’t know the answer.

————————————————

A little earlier.

Leon regretted it.

He shouldn’t have followed that suspicious old man.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have suddenly fainted, only to wake up tied hand and foot, stuffed into a sack, taken to who knows where!

Fortunately, someone soon stepped up to remove the hood from his head and the cloth shoved into his mouth.

“Let me go! You bastards! Do you know who I am?!”

With his mouth free again, Leon immediately began cursing, but when he took in his surroundings, he could no longer continue.

This was a small, enclosed space filled with the acrid smell of sulfur and burnt flesh. Around him hung grotesque subdragon skulls and layers upon layers of black cloth.

In the middle was an altar, or rather, a huge fire bowl, where bound men and women were forcefully pushed in by cloaked figures!

“Help! I don’t want to die! Please, I believe, I believe in my king! Please spare me!”

The blazing flames seemed to have consciousness, greedily opening their mouths to devour these men and women. They even chewed just a bit, as if savoring the blood, flesh, and bones of these people, alongside their heart-wrenching and terrifying wails.

“Sigh, our king is magnanimous and kind, never blamed you, and even wishes to bestow divine fire to cleanse your sins; why are you all so fearful?” Bruwen stood by the fire bowl, cradling his chin, seemingly unable to comprehend.

He merely watched as those men and women were turned to pitch-black bones by the flames, then reduced to ashes, a hint of… envy blooming on his face.

He turned around, slightly lifted his hands: “Praise our king, who grants sinners their baptism!”

The cultists knelt humbly, chanting in unison: “Praise our king!!!”

Witnessing this madness and bizarre scene, Leon’s fear reached its peak.

It’s a cult! These bastards are a cult!

Every person from Veszyra, regardless of nationality, feared cults to the core.

Assassins? Criminals? Perverts? Lunatics? No, no, no, those words couldn’t even begin to describe cultists!

Cults were polluted from body to soul by the power of the evil god; they weren’t even human anymore!

Even if Leon had been the most vicious of all, he was so frightened right now that he wet his pants, desperately wriggling backward like a worm with his bound legs, only seeking to put as much distance as possible between himself and these inhuman beings.