The Hero Returns

Chapter 160: Chapter 160

<< Why is that bastard here….? >>

Grit-

Su-hyeun could no longer maintain his usual calm demeanor. The appearance of Fafnir did that to him—the monster that ruined his world. A massive mountain that he had to cross no matter what.

His goal.

Su-hyeun clenched his fists so hard that his nails dug into his skin. The pain from his hands helped him to quickly collect himself. There was no need to get agitated here. This was just an illusion, after all.

<< No, even if this wasn't an illusion, I mustn't get so agitated. >>

Thanks to this event, he now knew how he'd react to meeting Fafnir again in the future.

Agitation was pretty much poison in a fight. A suitable level of tension was always good, but agitation wasn't. Indeed, this was actually a good thing, as today's events would serve as a sort of immunization that should help him rein in his emotions when confronting Fafnir again in the future.

-You calmed your emotions quite quickly.

The blue dragon's voice entered his mind. It was at that moment that Su-hyeun grew conscious of the scene being just an illusion once more.

"Yes. I'm like that sometimes."

-Controlling your emotions is a tough job, especially for humans. Besides all that, why do you know that creature?

Su-hyeun hesitated slightly at the blue dragon's question before making his reply. "That monster destroyed my world."

-Your world….?

The blue dragon didn't ask any further, as if it understood him. Dragons blessed with dozens, hundreds of times longer lifespans than humans possessed an instinctive ability to see through lies. It had already confirmed that Su-hyeun wasn't lying just then.

<< The dragon that will fight Fafnir is…. >>

Su-hyeun's gaze drifted upwards towards the sky.

<< As I thought, the red dragon. >>

Riiiip-

As if announce their intentions to save the entire world, the red dragons tore apart the black clouds blocking the sun and made a grand entrance.

Fafnir's gaze shifted to the five red dragons.

The purple-colored giant with the head of a dragon—Fafnir was far, far smaller compared to the red dragons. But Su-hyeun didn't think for a moment that the damn monster would lose this fight.

<< They're about to fight. >>

Just as the red dragons cast aside the dark clouds and pounced on Fafnir…

Shu-wuwuwu-

The blue fog enveloping Su-hyeun dissipated, and the illusion came undone.

"Ah…."

-You sound disappointed.

Su-hyeun nodded as the wide-open skies and the lush fields spread out before his eyes again. He honestly wanted to see how the red dragons fought, and also thought that this might be a good opportunity to learn more about Fafnir's abilities as well.

-Apologies, but this is as far as I can show you. I was merely replaying the memories of my brother, after all.

"Does that mean…."

-The memories end there. My brother perished during the war.

Dragons enjoyed a lifespan dozens, hundreds of times longer than humans. Even if time wasn't the only measure of a relationship, it was rather obvious that the grief you felt would be indescribable after losing someone you spent a long time with.

But the blue dragon sounded as if the grief at losing one's family was nothing to fret over, even going as far as to show off his private memories, too.

<< Maybe doing it was really necessary? >>

Su-hyeun got to learn about the war of the dragons thanks to it. And crucially, he also learned that Fafnir and the monsters responsible for destroying his previous world were intimately involved in the war, too.

<< It wasn't just my world, then. >>

Su-hyeun looked at the blue dragon with a slightly changed look in his eyes.

<< If that's the case, then the worlds found inside the trials are also…. >>

Were those creatures just 'programs' created by the system, or were they real, living existences?

The question that had circled around his brain for the longest time without an answer reared its head again. Even now, Su-hyeun still didn't have an answer for it.

<< Let's not overthink this. >>

Su-hyeun shook his head.

<< This world is this world. I just have to do what I need to do. >>

He had already learned a long time ago that nothing good would come from getting too involved in the world found within each trial. It was fine to interfere to the limits of one's allowance, but going beyond that would only make him feel fatigued unnecessarily.

The important thing right now wasn't finding out the connection between this world and Fafnir. There was no way for him to find out no matter how hard he racked his brain, anyway.

Which meant that the important thing was passing the trial.

"Then, did all the red dragons die during this war?"

-That's right.

"How much do you know about the creature that killed the red dragons?"

-It's an existence that invaded this world at the command of a truly incredible number of demonic beasts. Itself a bizarre demonic beast that features the head of our kind but the body of a man, with the blood of a giant race mixed in, to boot.

"Giant race…?"

-I also don't know the full details. What I do know is that our world greatly suffered at the hands of that bastard, and, in the end, had to endure a truly long age of darkness.

A 'truly long age of darkness'. The moment he heard that, Su-hyeun realized something he had overlooked until now. For a world that had been devastated by Fafnir and other monsters, this place looked remarkably peaceful at the moment.

"Could it be that… you managed to repel them?"

-Should we say that indeed, we managed to do that?

The blue dragon's voice became darker at the thought.

-Our world was destroyed. But we weren't annihilated.

"What do you mean by that?"

-Back then, I was in my hibernation period. It's the same for all of us who survived the war. Those creatures couldn't find us hidden during our hibernation and ended up going back.

"In that case…"

-After we woke up, we began repairing the world. We breathed new life into the dead lands, and tried to return the color to the skies.

"Is the war over, then?"

-No.

The blue dragon spoke in a resolute tone of voice.

-It's still ongoing.

"It's still being fought?"

-The existence that commanded the demonic beasts left. But countless demonic beasts still remain in our world. We pooled our strength together to drive them away and won back a small piece of our lands.

A small piece of land. That meant this sky and these fields. The little bit of land that didn't belong to the demonic beasts, but to the dragons.

-We've arrived.

Swoooosh-

The rough winds pounded his face viciously. Su-hyeun frowned and narrowed his eyes while studying a massive city in the distance below him.

<< Is that a city of humans? >>

Outwardly, at least, it looked pretty much the same as a regular human city. Even though this was supposed to be a world of dragons, it seemed that some humans did live here.

Flap-

The blue dragon landed in front of the city, folded its wings, and lowered its tail. Su-hyeun and Miru climbed down from the dragon's back.

-Wait a moment.

The blue dragon said that then suddenly raised its body up high. The scales covering its huge body began wiggling and coagulating little by little.

Crack, creak-

The appearance of the blue dragon rapidly transformed. Soon, its figure became as small as a person's. Of course, it was still several hand spans taller than an average human, and its shoulders were much broader, too.

It now resembled a human with dragon scales covering its body.

<< A half-human half-dragon? No, wait. Is this just a transformation-type magic? >>

Su-hyeun had seen dragons use polymorph magic to change their appearances to that of human beings several times before. But this was his first time seeing an appearance that was a mixture between a dragon and a man like this.

While Su-hyeun continued to stare at this sight, thoroughly mystified, the blue dragon in his new half-man, half-dragon form opened his mouth. "Now, this is a little more comfortable to move around in."

The blue dragon clenched and unfurled his fists a couple of times before smiling, satisfied.

Su-hyeun grew puzzled by this and had to ask, "Is this form more comfortable to be in than your original appearance?"

"A dragon's huge physique means it naturally weighs a lot. Unless we're in hibernation, this form is more comfortable, even at the cost of some magical energy."

The physique. Su-hyeun recalled the blue dragon's massive physique and nodded his head. For sure, trying to move such a large frame could be cumbersome and get annoying pretty fast.

"Are the other dragons also….?"

"They all live in here. This is the last remaining city."

The last city. Those words made Su-hyeun remember that the war was still ongoing, even now. That fact was easy to forget because the world seemed so peaceful to his eyes.

"I don't think you'll be welcomed here, though," said the blue dragon.

Su-hyeun agreed with that and nodded his head. "I'm sure it's not easy for a human to step inside the city of dragons."

"No, I wasn't talking about that."

The blue dragon shook his head, instead. Then he began walking towards the ramparts where the city's entrance was located.

Su-hyeun following after him asked. "In that case?"

"It's because of the red dragon."

"Because of Miru?"

Gya-oh-?

Su-hyeun asked while looking at Miru, prompting the latter to form a "What about me?" expression, and began tilting its head this way and that.

Sure, Miru was quite big now, but, from the standards of the dragon race, it was still a little child. Even more so when its rate of growth seemed far slower than other dragons.

"You'll see when you get there. Personally, I…" The blue dragon studied Miru before shifting his gaze away and finishing his sentence. "…I would like to see him change our world, at least just a little bit."

Step, step-

The blue dragon reached the city's walls and loudly shouted out. "Visitors!! Open the gate!"

Creaaaaak-

The massive wall began to slowly part at the blue dragon's shouting—not because someone opened it from the inside but due to it reacting to the dragon's voice on its own.

"Let's go."

Step, step-

The blue dragon led Su-hyeun and Miru into the city.

The view inside the walls was similar to a human town in the middle ages, something Su-hyeun was quite familiar with. Indeed, this place didn't seem any different from the cities he came across during many of the trials he had experienced so far.

<< Dragons taught humanity the ways of magic. Did the dragons then import human culture as well? >>

While Su-hyeun was thinking about such things, the blue dragon suddenly began talking to him.

"You have the wrong opinion of us, the dragons."

"Pardon me?"

"Not every dragon looks down on humans and disparages them. It's just that those types of dragons somehow became more widely known among humans, that's all. But many dragons aren't like that. We learned about culture from many other races besides humans and adopted it as our own, as you can see."

"In that case, this city is…."

"An imitation of a human city. And some of our kin who went on a sightseeing tour in human guise realized that their new forms were easier to live with and spread the idea to the rest of us."

The blue dragon continued with the explanation of dragon-kind afterward, including the culture of dragons and how they lived, distinctive characteristics, plus even the caste system denoted by the color and the number of each group, too.

Miru continued to cock its head, unable to understand what they were talking about, but Su-hyeun carefully listened to everything with a deeply interested look in his eyes.

"Elder! Elder Blanc!"

It was then that a dragon with green-colored scales walking on the street hurriedly ran towards them. Seeing how this guy was using the honorific 'elder', the blue dragon's age must've been quite considerable.

One's caste was considered crucial to the dragons, but Su-hyeun was told that those who had lived for a very long time were greatly respected regardless of their original caste. That must've been true.

"Did you rest well, sir? It's been only a few years since you left, after all."

The green dragon approached the blue dragon, whose name seemed to be Blanc, and asked in a puzzled voice. Considering the normal length of a dragon's hibernation period, Blanc's was just too short.

"No, I didn't end it."

"Which means?"

"I woke up in the middle because of this guy over here," Blanc replied and pointed at Su-hyeun.

It was only then that the green dragon's gaze shifted to Su-hyeun. And then, its expression hardened immediately at seeing Miru right behind him.

"A… red dragon?"

"This child is with the human. And it's only three years old…."

"Why is the descendant of a red dragon entering this city?"

When the green dragon spat out those words, Su-hyeun's eyes narrowed to slits.

Su-hyeun had no idea what they were talking, about since the conversation took place in the dragon tongue. It's just that he could still figure out that the green dragon's tone of voice and its expression contained naked hostility.

"Is that a problem? Anyone is welcome in this city as long as they are one of our kind. And as for this human, I can vouch for him."

"Don't you know this, elder? The descendants of the dragon king have abandoned us. Of course, Sir Blanc, you still doubt this fact, but…" The green dragon's glare shot in Miru's direction was filled with pure contempt. "This red dragon is nothing more than the descendant of betrayers."