Dragon Maken War Chapter 168 - The Wise Dragon (5)

Chapter 168 - The Wise Dragon (5)
“The creator of the Dragon Soul?”
Saibein’s expression turned peculiar. Azell was puzzled, so he asked a question.
“Is it someone I know?”
“I believe so. If Albatan-nim hasn’t informed you of it…. He probably wants you to meet the person yourself. He probably wouldn’t want me to tell you the identity of this person.”
“From my perspective, it is annoying, but since I’m in Albatan’s care, I’ll have to be patient. I’ll overlook it.”
Azell clicked his tongue.
Saibein had burst out laughing at the sight. He asked Azell a question.
“So could you tell me about my daughter?”
At his words, Azell became silent for a moment. Instead of answering the question, he asked a question of his own.
“Why didn’t you meet your daughter when you gave her the Dragon weapon?”
“I was keeping a promise.”
“Promise?”
Saibein let out a bitter laugh.
“When I came here, I was at death’s door from the wounds I received from the Guardian Shadows. As a condition for taking me in, Albatan-nim required me to sever all connection with the outside world.”
The reason was simple.
The relationship between the Albatan forest and the Plain of Darkness was poor. When Atein was alive, there had been a mutual respect between the two sides. After the Dragon Demon war, the Plain of Darkness had invaded the Albatan forest several times. This was why their relationship was frayed now.
If one considered the context of the situation, Albatan had shown great generosity when he accepted one of the key figures in the Plain of Darkness into the forest.
“Even the act of delivering the Book of Darkness was controversial within the forest. However, Albatan-nim allowed me to do it…..”
Suddenly, he remembered a story he heard from the Count Beorein Michael. He asked the question.
“Around 20 years ago…. It was said that a powerful Dragon Demon fought against the Guardian Shadows within the Rulain Kingdom. Was that you?”
“Did you hear it from the Guardian Shadows? If so, you are correct.”
“I see.”
“It all started from there. The Guardian Shadows relentlessly tracked me down, and in the end, I arrived here.”
“Why did you do it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why didn’t you escape using the help of the Dragon Demon King worshippers? Why did you come here?”
“…….”
Saibein shut his mouth. The pursuit of the Guardian Shadows was so dogged that he wasn’t able to escape. However, he didn’t say this, because he did have another reason for coming here.
Soon, he let out a sigh as he spoke.
“Before I tell you that story, I would like to hear about my daughter.”
“Niberis is alive and well. She is making good use of the Book of Darkness you gave her. Currently, she is one of the vanguards put forth by the Plain of Darkness. She is in the forefront amongst the younger generation. She used to be in a rivalrous relationship with my comrade, Laura.”
“I see…….”
“Aside from that…. You won’t be happy hearing the rest of my story.”
“I would like you to tell me. There is no reason why you should try to spare my feelings.”
Since he spoke those words, Azell didn’t really need to spare his feelings. Azell felt trepidation as he told the truth.
“All right. I almost died at the hands of your daughter. She almost killed my comrade….. Moreover, I almost killed her too. You should thank Laura next time you see her.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Your daughter’s life was in my hands. However, Laura betrayed them, and as a price for your daughter’s life…. To be precise, everyone present with her was spared, but Laura had to betray them and give up the Vitan’s Chalice to me as a price. If I didn’t accept her offer, your daughter would already be dead.”
If he hadn’t, he would have never become comrades with Laura. Azell was sure now that he had made the right decision at the time.
Saibein had a complex expression on his face.
“I see…….”
“Moreover, I killed the man assisting your daughter. His name was Duran.”
Saibein looked at Azell with a surprised expression on his face. Azell spoke.
“He lamented the fact that he couldn't protect Niberis. He died as he apologized to you. It seemed he was indebted to you.”
“Duran…… So that is how he died…….”
Saibein raised his hands to cover his face. His voice held a deep sadness.
One could clearly see that there was a deep connection between Saibein and Duran. From Duran’s perspective, Saibein had been his savior, who had led him down the correct path in life. Saibein also didn’t treat their relationship lightly.
Azell just watched as Saibein silently grieved.
Azell asked him a question.
“Do you resent me?”
“…I would be lying if I said I didn’t.”
Saibein looked at Azell with sad eyes.
“There are people, who had given themselves up to despair, yet they decided to put their trust in me. I don’t have the right to blame you for anything that happened since I left them.”
“Why did you do it?”
Azell asked once again. Saibein let out a bitter laugh.
“As I’ve said, everyone had given themselves up to despair. For me, my wife’s death was the final straw….. Even before I reached that point, I shuddered when I saw my surrounding, which was slowly descending into madness.”
His eyes headed towards the lake. However, he wasn’t looking at the calm surface of the lake. He was looking further into the distance.
“When you killed my father, we suffered an irreparable damage.”
From the perspective of humanity, the Dragon Demon king’s army was the biggest calamity to happen in their history.
However, if one looked carefully through the world’s history, one could find organizations, who had similar aspirations as the Dragon Demon king’s army. If one only focused on their actions, the Demon King’s army were like any other army under a king. They just had very high aspirations.
A conquering force would usually place the conquered people into a lower class. So why was their actions considered to be out of the ordinary?
It wasn’t. Whether it was in small scale or large scale, these incidents were common throughout human history.
The only difference was the fact that the conqueror wasn’t human. The center figure of the Dragon Demon king’s army was a Dragon Demon. This particular conquering force had shown overwhelming force and power compared to any other conquering forces from the past. This was why the humans had pushed backed fiercely. Their resistance was unprecedented.
Basically, if the fact that a Dragon Demon was leading the army was taken out of the equation, the Dragon Demon king’s army was like any other armies from human nations.
However, the Plain of Darkness thought differently.
“The poison of madness started to seep into the irreparable wound…. At some point, we reached a point where we couldn’t turn back..”
After losing in the Dragon Demon war, they deified Atein, and they clung to the belief that Atein would revive from death. The members of their organization started to turn into religious zealots.
“The remnant of our defeated army were elite warriors of our kingdom. However…. They degenerated into being a dark religious group.”
They started conducting all kinds of evil acts in the name of Atein. They did it to get ready for the revival of their savior, Atein. Their original creed had been to unite the continent to create a utopian world. Atein’s original intent was shattered into pieces. It was nowhere to be seen.
If the upper levels of the organization controlled themselves, it might have been a different story. However, the madness affected the upper levels of the organization the most. As Aincera’s sense of self was sucked into the Great Darkness, the atmosphere worsened.
Azell asked the question.
“Didn’t you think about stopping that?”
“I tried. However, I didn’t have the ability to bring about that change.”
He was the last remaining child of the Dragon Demon king.
However, he had only been a symbol. In reality, he didn’t have any true power.
“I was just put up as a front, so that the others could make use of me. I became painfully aware of my shortcomings. I didn’t have any political influence.”
He was a figurehead and proof that the Dragon Demon king’s line continued.
He had tried to reach a position where he would be able to correct the wrong he saw. He went around the world, and he willingly did dangerous and vile acts. He gathered comrades in the process as he built up the organization.
However, the popularity he gained only earned him a spot on the bottom of the power structure. It was twisted. As he worked harder, he was getting farther and farther away from power. The casualties of the Dragon Demon war….no, these beings that were a husk of their prior selves refused to go out into the front line. They sent out the youngbloods to fight for them, and the weight of the madness over the organization deepened.
If Aincera was behind him, the situation might have been different. However, Aincera kept losing her sense of self, so she slowly became disinterested in the culture within the organization. She didn’t care about the discord between the various factions.
“I was tired. I’ve been tired for over a 100 years. It didn’t take that long for us to lose our minds. The truth was that we became crazier as each day passed. Our past couldn’t highlight the fact that we’ve gone mad.”
Even if he fought to save someone, it was useless. The elders were gripped by the ghost of past glories, and anyone he saved would have been sacrificed by them.
He had been in a dilemma where the fundamental problem worsened as he solved the problems in front of him.
There was no end to the dilemma, and it wounded Saibein. There were two incident that drove him to give up on everything.
“That is…….”
He was about to tell Azell the reasons when he shut his mouth. He had seen Minerel approaching them. She put on a charming smile as she spoke.
“Instructor Saibein. I’m sorry for intruding in on your conversation…. A message was sent to our guest here.”
“A message?”
“The creator of the Dragon Soul is waiting for him in his abode. He wants our guest to visit him there. He likes to wander around, so if we don’t hurry, he might leave on a whim.”
“He seems to be an unpredictable person. All right.”
After he spoke those words, Azell turned to look at Saibein.
“I’ll hear the rest from you later.”
“Let’s do that. I still have some stories I would like to hear from you….”
“All right.”
Azell left behind Saibein. He followed Minerel towards the creator of the Dragon Soul.
Saibein mumbled to himself as he watched Azell’s back move away into the distance.
“The thing that makes me despair the most….. When my father realized that we failed to bring about our ideal world and everyone was falling into despair, he might have put his trust in you.”
8
They were deep within the forest. The territory ruled by Albatan was vast.
There weren’t too many living within the forest, so there were gaps where no faction ruled over the land. Still, the residents of the forest didn’t dare to cause too much trouble. Albatan was like holy king to them, and the land he ruled was like their holy land.
The creator of the Dragon Soul lived at the edge. He lived at the the peak overlooking the eastern shore.
Minerel spoke.
“This isn’t really a great place to live, so he only resides here when he had a student.”
“There is a fine town over there, yet he chooses to live in such a place. He must be unsociable.”
“He isn’t like that.”
Minerel shook her head from side to side.
“He is friendly and informal. Like the other 1st generation Dragon Demons, there was a time he was unapproachable, because of the tumultuous atmosphere around him. But now…...”
“Are 1st generation Dragon Demons normally have a violent personality?”
Azell was curious, so he asked the question.
He didn’t hold 1st generation Dragon Demons in high regards, but the ones he met had disparate personalities. Reygus was an idiot. His idiocy knew know bounds. Atein was unreadable. Then tehre was Reshoo. He had be qualities of an innocent beast.
Minerel answered him.
“I haven’t met too many 1st generation Dragon Demons. However, from what I’ve heard from my elders, they receive the nature of Dragons quite strongly in the beginning. That is why they are like wild beasts, and many die early from fighting everyone.”
“Hmmm…….”
Azell hadn’t known this.
Minerel continued to speak.
“At the very least, he doesn’t have that disposition, so you don’t have to be worried. He is quite popular with kids. Of course, he is monstrously strict as a teacher….”
“Did you learn from him?”
“I did. Many have tried to learn the Dragon Soul, yet very few have been able to manifest it.”
“Was it the same for your husband?”
“No, he was my first pupil.”
“…….”
“It’s a love developed between a teacher and a pupil. Isn’t it a bit romantic? When I first met him…..”
As if she had been waiting for this opportunity, she enthusiastically told Azell about her love life with Havan. She was talking about her own love life. Of course, it gave goosebumps to anyone who heard it. It was an unsightly story for others.
However, as he listened to her story, he realized something. Outsiders called this place the demonic lands, but it was still a place where people lived. He made himself somewhat agreeable as he heard her story, and he asked her a question.
“Is marriage here the same as the humans?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Ah. The only difference is that the divorce rate is higher here. Sir Saibein also remarked on this fact.”
In the Albatan forest, Dragon Demons and Dragon Majins married humans. It wasn’t seen as something out of the ordinary. Since each races had different life spans, it was common to see couples that had an age difference of hundred years.
In dating and marriage, people unhesitatingly broke off relations without regret. Of course, outsiders would consider such a culture to be strange.
What would have if a being that could live for over 300 years married someone that can only live for less than 100 years? The probability of them staying together was very low.
Maybe that was the cause? They became married, but the ritual didn’t require them to stay together until death.
Also, the start to their marriage differed from outside.
“There are cases where this isn’t true, but we get married when a child is conceived.”
“So you have a child?”
“My son was in the crowd of children you saw earlier..”
Minerel let out a playful laugh. Azell had a thought as he looked at her face.
‘There is no way she looks like a mother…...’
It might be, because she was a Dragon Demon. Or maybe it was the unique atmosphere of this place. She wasn’t giving off the energy of a mother with a child.
Anyways, it seemed marriage here was a promise that they would take care of the child as parents. When the child safely comes of age, they had the choice of keeping the marriage or they could divorce. The choice was up to the individuals.
As outsiders, their culture seemed very foreign. However, Azell’s party accepted their way of life quite easily.
Azell had lived through everything life could throw at him during the Dragon Demon war. Leticia lived at the fringes of society, so regular societal bonds didn’t hold much water with her. Kairen also traveled throughout the continent, so he had experienced numerous cultures.
The party shared their stories, and they were able to reach their destination before the sun set.
“I can hear the sound of ocean.”
The metallic flavor of the ocean was being carried by the wind. One could also hear the faint sound of waves.
Their destination was a large cliff that had been carved by the ocean. When they ascended to the top, they caught sight of a hut made out of wood. Then….
“Thank you for coming all this way.”
A Dragon Demon male greeted them.
“It has been awhile, master.”
Minerel gave a respectful greeting, but Azell couldn’t follow suit.
The Dragon Demon looked like he was in his mid-20s. His eyes and Dragon Demon Stone was green. On top of his ears, there was a grayish-white horn that looked similar to the horns of a mountain goat. His face was kind, and there was no tension on his face. He also wore loose clothing with no weapon in sight.
Then there was the most eye catching characteristic.
He had bluish-white hair color. It was a color that could never develop within humans.
Azell knew of only one being that possessed this hair color.
“When I observed Albatan’s attitude, I thought this might be a possibility….. It really is you, Reshoo.”
He was Azell’s fourth teacher. He was the 1st generation Dragon Demon Reshoo.
The disheveled blue haired Dragon Demon named Reshoo let out a gentle laugh. He was markedly different from what Azell remembered.
“It has been a while, Azell.”