The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 391

I sprinted straight toward the slumbering Dragon Lord.

I needed to wake the Dragon Lord fast.

Even though it was quite urgent when I heard I couldn’t get out, the bizarre occurrences happening at the Academy now meant I couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.

“You’re going to wake my father… Have you thought of a way?!”

“I don’t know about that. I just gotta try what I can.”

“What??”

Gemma, who had followed behind, looked extremely worried.

Although I was still searching for a way to wake him, I couldn’t just sit still.

“Agent, what brings you here?”

“Why the rush? Did something happen?”

Inside the Dragon Lord’s bedroom, the Saintess and Jade were exchanging opinions in front of the Dragon Lord.

“I mean, is there any clue on how to wake him?”

“We’re brainstorming various ideas… but we still don’t have a clear plan.”

Seeing the enormous Gold Dragon, Lux Aurum, right in front of me, I couldn’t help but sigh.

I came all this way, but now what was I supposed to do?

As for methods to wake a deeply sleeping Gold Dragon… all I knew were ridiculously simple ones.

“What if I just grab him and shake him?”

“Yeah, but… wait a second, Agent!!!”

Jade tried to say something, but I was already ahead in actions, having used my aura to grab the Dragon Lord’s body and lifted him high.

It was like seeing an ant lifting food dozens of times its size—a totally unbalanced sight.

The Dragon Lord’s body drooped.

“Ugh… Aaaah, hold on a second, Agent!!”

Gemma and the Saintess were left speechless, but Jade was reacting quite intensely.

But regardless, I started swinging the Dragon Lord around.

– Whoosh! Whoosh!!

Swinging the massive dragon body haphazardly, chaos erupted everywhere.

The droopy tail and wings crashed into things, smashing various ornaments that were said to be the strongest armor, the Dragon Scale.

“Stop, stop!!! This is pointless!!”

“Atlas, calm down!!”

Jade, alongside the Saintess, grabbed my arm in an attempt to stop me from swinging the Dragon Lord any further.

“If I shake him hard enough to rattle his brain, he’ll wake up!!”

“Please calm down…!!”

Determined to treat it like a centrifuge and fling him around, the Saintess not only held my arm but actually pulled me into her embrace.

From the Saintess, an intense scent wafted…

‘Uh oh, this feels dangerous.’

I could feel all my strength draining away.

.

.

.

“Ugh…”

With all the power the Saintess used to try and stop me, a disaster unfolded inside the Lord’s bedroom.

“Ugh… what is this…?”

While I could limit the effects by making direct contact, this time it seemed like it was a bit too urgent; the aura from the Saintess affected everyone present in the space.

Gemma seemed to withstand it since she was a Gold Dragon, but Jade, seemingly unprepared for it, collapsed beside me and was dazed.

It looked like being right next to me made it a problem for both of them.

“It’s no use… When Dragons fall deeply asleep, they can’t be woken by mere external stimuli.”

“I get it…”

The Saintess placed my head on her lap and stroked my hair as if to soothe me.

Being treated like a child made me really angry, but given the fact that I had no strength left, there was nothing I could do about it.

I felt the Saintess’s aura penetrating even deeper than before, perhaps because I had recently let my guard down. Is this the effect of being smitten?

“Yeah… At this rate, it’s just… venting frustration…”

Jade added a comment.

It seemed that with this deep of a slumber, outer stimuli were completely blocked out.

“… If he’s that deeply asleep, he’s totally vulnerable; what happens if he gets attacked like this?”

“Well, that’s simple. If Automatic Defense Magic is always deployed, the magic will assess any threats and counter them automatically. There’s even a record of a Dragon waking up to find that the automatic defense magic eradicated intruders and removed its nest.”

Even the strongest beings are still called the strongest, even while asleep, huh.

But something didn’t add up.

“Then why didn’t the magic activate when I was just swinging the Lord around?”

“… Huh, come to think of it…”

“That’s… really strange.”

The Automatic Defense Magic, which automatically casts attack magic on entities causing harm, should have certainly worked on the Lord, yet just moments ago I was lifting and swinging him around.

Could it be that that’s not considered a threat at all?

– Whoooosh

At that moment, a light flickered above my forehead.

Ah, right.

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

The Three Strands of Light that appeared on my forehead told me exactly what I needed to do.

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

.

.

.

“Right… since the position of Dragon Lord is now mine, Lux is merely an ordinary Dragon.”

The crown of the three strands of light, indicating my status as the Dragon Lord’s Agent, naturally informed me of what steps to take as I needed them, like a power.

Since the position of the Dragon Lord is vacant, it means that the sleeping Dragon Lord is not recognized as the Lord.

The reason I could effortlessly lift the Dragon Lord, ignoring its defensive magic, is because I have been registered as a superior entity, the Dragon Lord, over all Dragons.

“To call the Lord just an ordinary Dragon…!! Even if you are the Agent, that’s blasphemy!!”

“It’s not me saying that; it’s him who’s saying it.”

Jade protested angrily at my word of referring to the current Dragon Lord as just a Dragon, but I silenced him by pointing to the symbol of the Dragon Lord above my forehead.

If this symbol, which signifies the authority of the ‘Dragon Lord’, says so, how could Jade, a mere Dragon, argue?

If he’s dissatisfied, he should try becoming the Agent.

“Does this mean that the Dragon Lord is not being recognized as such… Could it be that Atlas can directly give ‘orders’ to Lux?”

“I haven’t tried it yet, but it should be possible.”

The method shown by the Agent’s powers is to give direct commands to the Dragon Lord’s physical body using word-based magic.

A versatile power that allows anything for Dragons should easily disregard even the most powerful mental barriers.

It could even forcefully awaken him, but they did caution that making him rise from his deep slumber could incur severe aftereffects.

“Using that, I’ll penetrate into your father’s mind from now on.”

“If it’s like that, I’d like to join in. Since it’s about waking my father, I’m sure I can help.”

I was going to ask her to join me anyway, so this worked out perfectly.

Since we’re entering the mind, I needed someone to guide me as I knew almost nothing about the Dragon Lord.

“Please make sure to find the Lord inside if you can really bypass the barriers. He may not look like the Lord you know, so you need to keep a sharp eye!”

“Are you saying he might not look like I know?”

“He could be in a Polymorphed state.”

Having lived for a long time, I had no idea what appearance the Dragon Lord might have taken on while enjoying recreation in his youth.

Still, dreams ultimately revolve around the dreamer, so I’ll probably be able to find him quickly.

I held Gemma’s hand and placed my hand on the scales of the Lord.

“Alright, here we go.”

The Three Strands of Light above my forehead shone brightly, and I felt my consciousness being sucked into the body of the Dragon Lord.

.

.

It felt like I was falling endlessly for a long time, but I didn’t crash into anything.

At some point, I felt like I was standing on solid ground and, when I opened my eyes, I indeed found myself in a completely different world from the Dragon Lord’s bedroom.

The first thing I checked was whether Gemma, who I had been holding hands with when entering, was okay.

I confirmed the grip of the hand I had tightly held and turned around to see Gemma sitting on the ground with her legs turned to jelly.

“Gemma, snap out of it, we’re just getting started.”

“Ugh… Ah! Atlas, what’s going on…?”

This was Gemma’s first experience, and even with her feet on the ground, she was dazed enough to not realize it.

“Well, we have no choice…”

Leaving her like this wouldn’t be a good idea.

Dreams are, after all, for the protagonist dreaming.

The further we drift from the protagonist, which in this case is the Dragon Lord, the more blurry and immobile the world becomes.

Just like in a computer game where NPCs outside the player’s line of sight don’t get processed by the computer.

So if we just sit here forever, we might get ensnared by that phenomenon.

When I touched my forehead, even though I couldn’t see it, I still felt the emblem of being the Lord’s Agent.

While I could theoretically break the dream itself to escape, attempting that might lead to the real Lord never waking, potentially turning me from the Agent into the true Lord, so I’ll save that as the last resort.

“Hop on.”

“Uh, uh-huh… Thanks.”

I picked up the significantly larger Gemma and started walking.

While I couldn’t logically explain if this was the right direction, my instincts were definitely telling me it was.