The Hero Becomes the Duke’s Eldest Son

Chapter 166

A dragon.

Also known as a “dragon.”

They were beings endowed with immense power, their bones and scales tougher than any metal in the world.

A dragon’s breath could burn entire nations, and if they wished, they could even cause natural disasters.

‘They are truly the strongest race.’

The number of their kind, as well as their ecology, was unknown.

The only known fact was that they were the ‘Mediators’ who guarded the balance of the world.

According to stories passed down through the ages, dragons usually lived quietly as one of the many humans in this world.

Then, whenever a great calamity threatened the world, they would appear, offer their aid, and then disappear without a trace.

Sometimes as a sage, sometimes as a great wizard, and sometimes as an old man passing by…

And when it was a problem that couldn’t be resolved within the human realm, they would reveal themselves in their dragon form.

Dragons could transform into any form, any being.

Which meant…

“Let me ask you again, Hermit. Are you a dragon?”

“…”

The role of being the master who bestowed a fortuitous encounter upon the Sacred King was also possible.

Are you a dragon?

At that question, the Hermit looked at Aden and smiled mysteriously.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

She confirmed Aden’s question.

“Let me reintroduce myself.”

When she slowly closed and opened her eyes, Aden instinctively flinched, uncharacteristically for him.

Serpent’s eyes.

The Hermit had the cold, reptilian eyes only seen in cold-blooded creatures.

Aden shivered the moment he saw those eyes and frowned.

‘Those eyes…’

Those strange, fiery red eyes exuded an eerie aura. Aden had seen those eyes before.

“As I said before, I have many names. Hermit is just one of them.”

Though the eyes he had seen in the distant past were a hundred times larger than those of the Hermit, the gaze was exactly the same.

“I am the one who was once called the Dragon Lord among the ancient kings, and the one who has been washing away my sins while fulfilling my duties for eons.”

Thump-thump. His heart pounded faster. His blood flowed rapidly.

“However, Aden, it might be more familiar for you to call me this, child who defied time.”

The memories of the past overlapped with the present.

The breath hotter than magma…

The roar that erased even the will to resist seemed to echo again.

“Mad Dragon.”

The Hermit—no, the Mad Dragon—looked at Aden with a gaze as if greeting an old friend and smiled.

Her next words sealed the truth.

“How is it? Is the system you gained by killing me quite useful?”

She was the Mad Dragon that Aden had once killed.

And she recognized Aden.

* * *

What do you think is important for a mercenary or a swordsman during battle?

There are many important things, but the most essential is ‘calmness.’

Excitement makes choices blind, and boiling blood clouds the mind.

A swordsman who surrenders to excitement and bloodlust is the first to die.

That’s why Aden had trained himself to maintain calmness no matter what happened.

Thump-thump.

But when was the last time his heart beat this loudly?

He couldn’t quite remember.

– Calm down, Dragon Slayer.

Curse said to the shaken Aden.

– There’s no need to be so wary of that dragon.

Only then did Aden realize he was more agitated than necessary.

The woman before him was a dragon.

The strongest creature on the surface.

Moreover, she was the very Mad Dragon he had once killed, and she remembered it.

This fact made even Aden, who had the guts to strike down the God of Slaughter, tense up.

– In my opinion, what you did before was far more reckless and dangerous…

The Hermit chuckled.

“He’s right. I have no intention of causing harm, so don’t worry.”

“…You can hear this guy?”

“Of course. It’s a fragment of the Underlord’s soul, after all. You carry quite an impressive thing within you. It’s clear that many things happened in the world after my death.”

Snap!

When the Hermit snapped her fingers, a wine bottle and glass appeared out of thin air with a ‘pop!’

It was a subspace magic that no human could use without the help of an artifact, and she didn’t seem to intend to hold back now that she had revealed her identity.

“Is that magic?”

“Ha! This is nothing. If I seriously snapped my fingers, half of humanity would disappear.”

“…”

“Half of that was a joke, so don’t worry.”

‘So, what about the other half?’

Aden instinctively swallowed the question. The Hermit laughed again at his grim expression.

She was a dragon with a personality far from noble.

“Mad Dragon.”

“Please, call me Hermit. Do you call human women crazy bitches? What a rude character you have.”

– Hoh, as expected of a dragon. She sees right through your essence, Dragon Slayer.

“Oh, Dragon Slayer… Is that the title you earned by killing me? How splendid.”

For some reason, Aden felt a surge of annoyance.

The tension he had felt earlier now seemed utterly pointless in front of her leisurely demeanor.

At this rate, the conversation would continue to stray off-topic, so Aden asked her directly.

“Does Princess Liliana know your true identity?”

“Of course not. That child merely thinks of me as a mysterious master living in seclusion. Isn’t she adorable? Haha.”

“Was the rainstorm that doused the burning casino also your doing?”

“I didn’t want to burn down innocent people’s homes, so I decided to pour some water.”

“Ha…”

Aden let out a small, incredulous laugh.

To think he was having such a conversation with a dragon after meeting one in person—it was something he never would have imagined, even if he had died and come back to life.

‘Well, I did meet a god in a dream, so a dragon isn’t that surprising.’

The master who guided the princess to become a Saint Master despite not being a priest or a holy knight.

Aden couldn’t understand how that was possible, but it made sense if Hermit was a dragon.

To a being that had lived for hundreds or thousands of years, accumulating knowledge, instructing someone in swordsmanship would be a simple matter.

Aden asked Hermit a very important question, one that had to be addressed.

“Hermit, do you remember everything that happened in the previous life?”

“Of course. I remember everything up until the moment you split my scales and pierced my heart. The mana I possess carries a power that transcends time.”

The mana of a dragon.

The true power of the infinite mana that Aden had used endlessly, like a bottomless well, was ‘time.’

Curse, a fragment of the Underlord, had used Aden’s dragon mana to send him back in time.

‘It’s not surprising that a being with such tremendous mana remembers a future where she disappeared.’

However, there was one unexpected aspect.

“But you don’t seem to harbor any hostility towards me.”

“Why would I?”

The Hermit shook her head while pouring wine into her glass.

“In that timeline, I showed a disgraceful side unworthy of the name ‘dragon.’ I lost my sense of self and rampaged wildly. I have no grudge against you for killing me. Besides, I’m still alive and well now, aren’t I?”

She even said she was somewhat grateful for being stopped.

“You were born as a human, a being inherently incapable of surpassing a higher ‘rank,’ and yet you slaughtered a being with such power. You slashed through my scales, burrowed into my furnace-like blood, and tore through my heart.”

A miracle that should never have occurred.

And the Hermit liked such ‘miracles.’

She winked at Aden.

“I’ve lived too many lives, and they haven’t been short, to be petty enough to complain about why you killed me when you accomplished such an extraordinary feat.”

“…I never expected to hear something like that.”

Aden let out a dry laugh.

He couldn’t fully empathize, but her words carried a strange kind of thrill. It made him realize anew that she was indeed a dragon.

She chuckled and said,

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll answer what I can.”

“Then, I won’t hesitate to ask.”

Aden decided to ask something he had wondered about for a long time, something many had been curious about, something humanity itself had pondered.

A question whose truth had never been revealed, one that could only be answered by the dragon herself.

“Why did you go mad?”

“…”

A mad dragon, the Mad Dragon.

It had been a catastrophe that nearly destroyed the entire Western Continent.

Dragons were originally called the Mediators of the world, and though they surely existed somewhere in the world, they were beings that didn’t interfere with human affairs.

‘That was the case until the Mad Dragon incident.’

Dragons were wise beings.

It was said that the foundation of magic used by humans originated from dragons, and it was widely believed that no being in this world was more superior than a dragon.

But such a dragon lost its reason and rampaged like a wild beast.

It didn’t even use the magic it should have been able to wield and merely flew through the skies, breathing out destruction.

‘The only reason I was able to kill the Mad Dragon was because it had gone mad.’

Thousands upon thousands of strong warriors threw their lives away, attacking the Mad Dragon, and the dragon didn’t even try to defend itself, simply raging as it took the blows.

‘It was only after accumulating injury after injury that I finally managed to slash through its reverse scale and pierce

its heart.’

What had happened back then had been a life-or-death struggle for Aden as well.

Well, thanks to that, he had obtained the system and the dragon’s mana, turning misfortune into a blessing.

In any case, he had succeeded in killing the dragon, and everyone on the Western Continent rejoiced at the end of the disaster.

‘But no one ever figured out why.’

Why had such a sacred and transcendent being, known as the Mediator of the world, turned into a raging beast?

No one had been able to provide a definitive answer to that question.

‘But now, she seems perfectly normal. So, what will a dragon who knows that she will go mad in the future do?’

What will she do? What will she desire? What will she attempt?

‘Tell me your purpose.’

The Hermit gave him a slightly exasperated look and laughed softly.

“Why I went mad… Isn’t it a bit too straightforward to ask that to the very one, or should I say the very dragon, who experienced it? It’s like asking a madman, ‘Why did you lose your mind back then?'”

“You’re the one who said to ask anything, Hermit. And yes, I’m asking exactly that.”

“You impudent fellow. Haha, fine. I’ll be honest with you. No, rather than telling you, it’ll be quicker to show you.”

“Show me? What do you mean…?”

Before Aden could finish speaking, the Hermit snapped her fingers.

Snap! The sound echoed throughout the room.

Hwaaaah! The entire room was engulfed in a bright light.

Aden instinctively squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, they were no longer in the room.

A completely different, vast landscape spread out before them, and they were now hovering in the sky, looking down on the world below.

“What is this…?”

“It’s magic.”

The Hermit explained.

“I’ve used my memories from my past life to create this magical simulation, recreating a virtual landscape. I thought it would be easier for you to understand if you saw it yourself rather than just hearing about it. By the way, this is one of the caves where I used to stay during my dormant periods.”

To shape memories into such a realistic landscape…

It was something only a dragon or a legendary 9-star mage could accomplish.

– What brings humans to such a remote place?

Then, a different voice came from somewhere.

A voice that seemed to shake the heavens and earth.

Aden looked down and involuntarily let out a sigh.

There was a dragon.

A body as massive as a mountain, scales with ridges like an ancient mountain range, and breath that bubbled like magma.

The color of the dragon’s scales was a murky red, like a rusty sword that had slowly decayed over centuries, and its huge eyes resembled a burning sun.

A creature that embodied the very violence of nature itself.

‘The Mad Dragon…’

It was the Mad Dragon that Aden had once seen.

However, there was one difference—the eyes of this dragon, which resembled the sun, held both reason and wisdom.

– I’ll ask you once more. What brings you here? This is a place difficult for humans to find or enter.

The Mad Dragon, or rather the Red Dragon, looked down at the humans who appeared as tiny and insignificant as ants in comparison to its presence.

Aden could feel the dragon’s thoughts flowing into his mind.

She had merely been in a deep sleep for about 100 years until her next amusement.

But now, a group of unidentified humans had breached the barrier and intruded into her magically concealed lair.

Dozens of humans in black robes, and among them, one who seemed to be their leader, stepped forward before the dragon.

– We’ve come to meet you. The great being known as the Mediator, the origin of all magic.

The leader’s face was obscured by the robe, but her voice was that of a young woman.

– As for our introduction, well…

The woman said with a smile in her voice.

– ‘Chaos.’ That’s what we’re called.