Chapter 141

Chapter 141: Younger Sister

Meanwhile, the 1st Regiment moved to intercept the last scheduled colossal monster.
The figure of a colossal monster loomed over the dead land.
Thanks to the monsters having spread out like a plague, few remained guarding the mother.
‘This one will go smoothly as well.’
With no variables on the battlefield, condition and morale were at their peak.
Olivia intended to march straight ahead and tear the colossal monster to pieces.
— Chief of Staff! Please stop!
At that moment, the commander of the magic squad shouted urgently.
— Why?
— A powerful energy is gathering around the colossal monster!
— Energy… what kind of…?
She wondered what kind it was, but soon Olivia could feel it.
A malevolence that anyone who perceived the battlefield’s airflow could clearly sense.
That energy was moving centered on the colossal monster, just as he had said.
It gathered white clouds, which clustered and thickened.
The sky in that area turned gloomy in an instant.
— W-what…?
The army that had been advancing with irresistible force faltered.
Not even weather magic users can make clouds gather so quickly.
— Is… is it a demon using magic?
— Everyone into defensive formation! Prepare for the attack!
Everyone thought it was some kind of magic the monster was using, but Olivia was different.
She had already seen that cloud formation before.
The clouds gathered and gathered until they rose like a mountain that had made the sky its ground.
— Don’t tell me…?
A rumble…!
The sky’s roar shakes the earth.
A deafening rumble!!!
A single lightning bolt struck the colossal monster.
A pillar of light split the monster’s torso and blew it apart.
They lost their senses before that astonishing sight.
Some called it judgment upon the Ma, others called it divine punishment.
Olivia called it a calamity.
Where the colossal monster had stood, a creature of similar size now stood on four legs.
There was dirty flesh and rising white steam, but its silhouette was recognizable even to humans seeing it for the first time.
A pair of wings and a long tail.
A long snout with two pairs of horns extending toward the sky.
Deep blue scales easily mistaken for those of Iorga.
But unlike the Water Phase, its entire body was wrapped in lightning.
That alone was enough to know who it was.
— Kuhahahat!!!
The War Dragon, Storeus.
The most belligerent among dragons had descended upon this place.
— Godfrey, that damn thing! I heard it gave the Empire a hard time, so I thought it would entertain me, but they’re just insignificant!
He crushed the eggs the colossal monster had been carrying with his claws, laughing as if amused.
The advancing soldiers looked bewildered by this situation.
— Is… is he the one protecting us?
— It seems so…
In their minds, the red scales rising on the Solitary Mountain suddenly flashed.
Someone in their hearts took the initiative.
— Long live the Dragon!
— The Great Power protects us!
Those who did not know Storeus began to praise him.
— Stupid bastards! Can’t you all shut your mouths?!
The captain of the knight squad shouted, trying to stop that wave.
Those who knew his notoriety tried to restrain their actions, but it was already too late.
— Hmm?
That praise drew the dragon’s gaze.
When those eyes turned toward the provisional alliance, they felt a chill.
— No, there were still a few guys worth playing with.
He smiled, raised his upper body, and lifted his hand toward the sky.
Pajijik!!
Two lightning bolts grew larger and were wielded in his hands.
— W-what? That?
— The monsters are all dead, so why…?
Instead of those who could not comprehend the situation, Olivia shouted at the top of her lungs.
— All forces into defensive formation! All mages activate protection magic to the front!
Only then did they realize.
The fact that Storeus is an evil dragon who threatens humans.
An evil dragon shows no mercy even to the insignificant.
Everyone formed ranks and entered combat readiness.
The lightning in Storeus’s two hands turned into two spears.
Those are called the Judgment of Storeus.
Just one of those lightning bolts possesses terrifying power sufficient to turn a kingdom to ash.
He was about to throw two of them at a simple army.
Clear intent to annihilate.
— Let’s see if you can withstand this attack once, hmm?
Storeus discovers something among that crowd.
Blonde hair and blue eyes that stood out among the armored group.
That outstanding beauty is famous even among dragons.
— Hahat! Olivia! Cute little pup! You were there!
With a loud laugh, the terrifying lightning spears dispersed in the air.
All the scattered electricity made everyone’s hair float toward the sky.
— I can’t touch an army with Olivia in it, right! What a pity, but I’ll leave now!
Storeus spread his wings and entered the storm clouds.
As his figure disappeared, the clouds dispersed and the sky returned to its original color.
A dragon that came like a storm and left like a storm.
He was truly worthy of the title Storm Phase.
The soldiers’ faces looked as if they had aged 10 years, even though only 1 minute had passed.
A cold sweat also ran down Olivia’s face.
But it wasn’t because of Storeus.
It was because of the existence that could move the War Dragon, Storeus.
‘The Emperor…’
Godfrey Arken, called the incompetent emperor by the world.
Only he could move the War Dragon, only he could handle him.
Olivia gritted her teeth.
The subjugation war that she thought would be a smooth stepping stone would no longer go as she intended.
Right after the Spring Festival, the sudden monster commotion ended like that.
The siege formation the monsters had maintained collapsed completely, and news of victory arrived from everywhere.
Isabella compiled the battle results and reported to Ferda.
— Out of a total of 6,253 across all forces, casualties count at 220.
— A tremendous achievement.
— Indeed. Considering all aspects, this achievement cannot be ignored.
Pride seeped through Isabella’s voice.
She appropriately felt as though she were a member of this Valdrova Castle and the administrator of Hestia Village.
Among the dead, 170 were from the Far East Alliance led by Consillus, which corresponded to average numbers.
Most occurred in the first battle, when the monsters were grouped near the mothers.
‘This will raise the value of tactical infantry even further.’
Tactical infantry was definitely cost-effective.
They cost a little more than spearmen, but were far superior in training and operational difficulty, so they would be fine even as reserves later.
This news was good not only for Ferda’s territory, but also for surrounding areas.
— And contact arrived from the Pascal Company and Halim.
— Why from Halim?
— They say they will deliver supplies for the festival as comfort for the month of hardships. They will provide supplies for two days of festival and food for two months.
There is no more reliable ally.
The Pascal Company was to be expected since we are in the same boat, but I didn’t know Halim would care so much.
— Tell them thank you. You must be tired, you have worked hard, Administrator.
— The hardest moments are when doing pointless work. Right now it is pleasant, so I am fine. Please just return carefully until the end.
Pleasant, huh?
True, outside the tent as well, for the most part it was a festival atmosphere.
The reason for ‘for the most part’ is because the subordinates of Count Nazarov’s heir were not like that.
They must be dying trying to think of excuses for how he threw himself like a moth to the flame.
Aside from those related to him, it was a battle outcome that left only joy.
‘That is how it should be…’
There was someone without joy, not even someone related to Dmitri.
Ferda turned his gaze toward that person.
Ruri, standing in the corner of the spacious tent.
With her characteristically professional expression, those around her would not have noticed, but Ferda was different.
He felt worry in his heart.
— Ruri.
— …
— Ruri?
Ruri was startled, raising her head.
— Yes, did you call me?
— You’re distracted.
— …I apologize. I had something to think about. Do you need something?
— I would like a cup of tea. I’m going to sleep soon, so make it chamomile.
— Yes.
Ruri prepared the chamomile as instructed.
Her figure, looking at the tea, seemed even sadder.
‘She was like this when we met again as well.’
Ruri, who had gone ahead to the point.
She didn’t say much and only replied that she had failed.
Just as a demon had crawled into Helus’s mansion, a demon had also been where she was.
And it was Gokma.
It was a situation where failure was inevitable, and she wasn’t particularly disappointed by that failure.
There was definitely something more than just the stigma of failure holding her captive.
There was definitely another story Ferda didn’t know.
— Ferda-nim.
While waiting for the tea to steep,
She opened her mouth with difficulty.
— Why?
— …It’s nothing.
And she closed her mouth again.
Ferda didn’t let it pass.
— You can speak.
— …
Ferda waited patiently for her to speak again.
But Ruri only poured the tea in silence, without opening her mouth easily.
— All right.
Ferda took his cup and said:
— If you don’t want to talk right now, don’t say anything.
— I… I’m sorry.
— There is no need to apologize. As long as you are safe, that is enough for me.
— …
— If the time comes when you want to speak, you can do so then, so for today take your time to reflect.
At those words, a slight emotion of resentment welled up in Ruri.
“He shouldn’t have added that last part.
It’s not just empty indifference, it makes one confuse it with ‘I’ll wait whenever’.”
She knew it was a misunderstanding, but Ruri opened her mouth anyway.
— Ferda-nim…
“If a moment of weakness comes, I want to lean on this man.”
— Did you ever have a younger sibling?
— A younger brother?
He was the third son among three sons and no daughters.
— I didn’t have a younger brother.
— I… had a younger brother. —she said with difficulty.
— When I was a mortal, like other dragon hatchlings.
Her past, which she had never told anyone.
Dragon hatchlings are commonly called dragon children.
Because they consider dragons as parents and obey them absolutely.
In reality, their bond is closer than family, their cohesion stronger than that of elves.
But in reality they are not born of dragons.
Some were humans, some were elves, some were orcs.
Any intelligent being could become a dragon hatchling through the Ascension Ceremony, so their appearances varied according to race.
Ruri was an ordinary child who had lived a miserable lower-class life.
Back then she didn’t have the name Ruri, nor silver hair.
When Ruri was born, she received a baptism of curse instead of the joy of the birth of life.
For lower-class people, a son was fine, but a daughter was a burden that would one day abandon them.
Ruri’s father was especially sensitive about it.
He lived saying why raise her if she would be a burden and not a worker.
Every time she brought a spoonful of rice to her mouth, she always received the click of the tongue and the scornful glare of her father.
Even so, she could live because her mother was there.
Her mother, who had become pregnant with difficulty and obtained a daughter, was devoted to young Ruri.
She followed that mother and proved her worth by begging in a way that stimulated compassion.
But the change came suddenly.
Ruri’s mother gave birth to a son.
With the birth of a boy to continue the lineage, her father laughed for the first time, and her mother’s attitude turned cold in an instant.
Neither father nor mother gave her affection anymore.
Enduring being treated like a parasite, before her brother turned one year old, she was sold to an orphanage.
She was abandoned by her family.
She was depressed for months from the grief of losing her family, but the situation was not bad.
No, it was rather good.
The director treated Ruri very well.
The shock of being abandoned by her parents was healed by his devotion.
Ruri followed that director like a father.
But that too was brief. As her mind sharpened, Ruri faced an uncomfortable truth.
That orphanage was actually a child auction house.
They graded the children’s potential and the treatment differed according to grade.
Ruri corresponded to the top even among Grade A.
It meant she had enough potential to be sold to a noble house later, with her decent intelligence and outstanding appearance.
The director had invested money in her not for her care, but to turn her into a product worthy of that grade.
Betrayal arose.
The words “I see you as a daughter, I see you as a human being” were all lies.
What father in the world looks at his child and judges them by money?
Her mind was made up.
“Instead of living as someone’s doll, I will live as a human being in the sewer.”
Ruri escaped from the orphanage.
The director organized a pursuit party in anger, but she barely managed to throw them off and managed to secretly infiltrate a kingdom.
Penniless, she made a home in a corner of the kingdom’s sewers.
Although it smelled foul and the ground was hard, it was more comfortable than anywhere else.
Living on that inhospitable ground, her personality naturally became rough and harsh.
When Ruri turned 12 years old,
An unwanted guest visited her comfortable home.
Thinking it was a crazy beggar, she gripped a weapon tightly to threaten.
But what appeared was different from expected.
There stood a child much younger than her, who was 12 years old.
Snot running, bruises all over the body.
Even Ruri, who considered herself miserable, felt she was complaining on a full stomach in front of that child with his pitiful appearance.
That child sobbed and asked:
— Big sister, do you have something to eat?
If another beggar had said that, she would have yelled at him to get lost immediately.
But the moment she saw those eyes, she felt overwhelmed.
A pure light that could not be seen in the sewer inhabited there.
Before that incongruous color, inappropriate for a miserable situation, Ruri thought:
“I must protect this child.”
A simple 12-year-old girl felt responsibility toward a child she had just met.
Ruri took that child to her home.
She shared food, changed his clothes, covered him with a blanket.
The comfortable home became narrower, but warmer than before.
Ruri became that child’s big sister for the first time.
She was able to fully feel the meaning of the word family for the first time.
Ruri did everything with her younger brother.
They went out to beg together, rummaged through trash cans.
With one more mouth, the days of hunger increased, but on the rare days when they ate their fill, she used that happiness as driving force.
One day, wandering outside the sewer to look for food, Ruri and the boy saw someone their age.
Unlike them, who could not escape the back alley, that child was walking along the boulevard.
And one hand held his mother’s hand, the other held something delicious.
Seeing that, inferiority and misery welled up in Ruri’s chest for no apparent reason.
— I wish we could eat like that too.
The childish boy squeezed Ruri’s hand tightly and said that.
At those words, a dream was born in Ruri.
She swore that one day she would let this younger brother live like that.
Ruri wanted to become an adult quickly.
If she became an adult, she could do more work and save money.
If she saved money, she could live in a house with a roof, not in this sewer.
Once a dream was born, strangely, tomorrow was not painful.
“Someday, as I keep living, a day will come when I look back on this moment as a simple memory.”
But such dreams were torn to pieces.
War broke out.
No, it was rather a unilateral extinction ceremony than a war.
That day, Ruri and most of the citizens did not know it.
That the king of the castle where they were staying had insulted a dragon and properly touched its reverse scale.
Hundreds of dragon hatchlings flew without warning and covered the kingdom like a meteor shower.
Sturdy castle walls crumbled, houses burned.
It only took 1 hour to turn into ruins.
Fleeing aimlessly from the roar, she opened her eyes again to see ruined land.
The smell of ash stung her nose, and emptiness filled her chest.
Ruri looked at her lap.
That is where her younger brother should have been.
But there was nothing.
It was strange.
In her memory, she was holding her younger brother at the end.
Ruri called that name.
She desperately shouted that name she now cannot remember.
No answer came for a long time, so she got up and searched through the rubble.
Since they were together, they had to be close.
But all she found were fragments of collapsed walls and gray ash.
Her younger brother’s presence was nowhere to be found.
Ruri’s mind, moving until she ran out of breath, swirled with questions.
Her brother disappeared, so how did she survive so intact?
If they had been holding hands, they would have lived together and died together.
That means Ruri let go of her brother’s hand.
Then, when?
When that shower of meteors and lightning fell?
When her mind blurred from the screams and scorching heat?
Right after, when the shower of rocks fell and everything was chaotic?
Then her mind erases everything.
The when doesn’t matter.
Ruri survived alone, and her brother disappeared without a trace.
She thought she gave affection and treasured him, but upon facing death, she coldly became a stranger.
The same person.
Like her parents.
Like the orphanage director.
Like me.
All the same selfish humans.
— I… I’m sorry.
She spoke to her brother who no longer had a form.
— I’m sorry for surviving alone…
She, who could not fulfill her responsibility, emptied herself completely.
She, who lost part of her life, waited for death just like that.
But death did not come.
Ironically, what took Ruri in was a dragon.
A middle-aged man with silver hair.
He shared his blood with a bright smile.
The silver-haired middle-aged man performed the Ascension Ceremony impromptu right there.
— I will call you Ruri from now on. Forget your painful past. Just think about how you will live from now on.
Her empty emotions were filled again by the middle-aged man’s smile.
The Ascension Ceremony is a ritual to forget the past and move forward.
It makes you forget your original hair and eye color, and discard all past memories as if they were just a dream.
But even in that ritual of discarding everything, Ruri kept one thing in her heart.
Responsibility.
The responsibility she felt upon taking in a child in the sewer became her pillar.
That responsibility now pointed toward Silverwind.
Ruri thought:
“I will live for this great person, using my mistake as a stepping stone.”
Ruri decided to become a warrior.
And another trial began from then on.