The Dragon Slayer Who Regressed After 1,000 Years - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Dragon Slayer’s Return After a Thousand Years — Episode 11
Walter Ragnar was deeply bewildered.
Who could have predicted that setting out on a subjugation would suddenly make him a Dragon Slayer?
‘More than that—how could they believe me?’
To slay a dragon, one needed to be at least a 7-Star Sword Master.
But he had only just reached 5-Star, an intermediate Sword Expert.
By any measure, he was not the sort to fell a dragon, yet the knights had believed his lie.
‘Well, I did what they told me to—I said it was weakened from illness.’
The explanation that he’d simply finished off an ailing beast had proven convincing.
‘People don’t know. It was Cain who killed the dragon, and he’s a Sword Master hiding his true strength.’
Days had passed since the dragon’s death.
Yet the scene kept returning to him unbidden.
The image of that madman—stabbing the defenseless dragon’s neck, killing it, then tearing out its heart and devouring it.
‘Insane bastard….’
The mere thought made his stomach turn, but he could breathe not a word of it to anyone.
One careless slip, and he might lose his head to a Sword Master’s blade.
‘I still don’t understand. Why did he tell me to claim I killed the dragon?’
The title of Dragon Slayer held immense value.
With it, one could live without want for the rest of one’s life.
‘Advancement is as good as guaranteed, so why hide his true power?’
It made no sense, but he found he didn’t care much either way.
After all, it wasn’t his concern, was it?
‘I just want to escape this godforsaken kingdom.’
Though branded a Royal Family Murderer, he had at least saved his own skin.
Now Walter stood cast out from the palace with nothing but the clothes on his back.
It rankled that they’d sent him away without so much as a single gold coin, yet he felt no real despair.
A swordsman of his caliber would find welcome anywhere.
‘If I apply to the Knights Order of Bellion Kingdom, they’ll surely take me. It’s at odds with Asel, and the Dragon Slayer title will count in my favor.’
Walter had a crippled younger brother, Serban, but what of it?
He had enough to worry about keeping himself alive—his brother’s fate was no business of his.
Besides, the boy had brought this ruin upon himself by running his mouth.
If Serban had kept silent before the royalty—
His arm wouldn’t have been shattered.
Father wouldn’t have sent an assassin.
‘All of this is Serban’s fault.’
Walter walked on without sparing his younger brother another thought, concerned only with his own survival.
Unaware that the shadow of death trailed close behind.

* * *
At the very moment Walter was cast out from the palace,
he was not alone in being observed.
Bernatus, transformed into a spirit, kept watch as well.
‘The Seer orders me to follow and protect this idiot? What exactly is his plan?’
Though he would obey Cain’s command and tail the man, it was beneath a dragon’s dignity.
Humans were nothing but prey to be eaten when boredom struck, yet here he was, trudging along in his wake….
‘But the Seer commanded it. I must do as he says.’
It was all part of a plan to avert the Dragon’s Apocalypse, after all.
He hadn’t known then that he himself would be the one to slay that Blue Dragon.
‘If it interferes with the plan, then so be it.’
If preventing the apocalypse meant other dragons’ lives, it was of no concern to him.
Truthfully, if every other dragon perished and only he survived, it made no difference.
Kinship among dragons?
Such sentiments had never existed among his kind.
As long as he lived well, that was all that mattered.
‘But why… does that wretch keep haunting my thoughts?’
Never mind.
He would simply do as ordered—follow and observe, nothing more.
‘He said there would be others lurking about….’
Bernatus glanced about uncertainly, but so far had detected nothing.
Yet after days of surveillance, he began to notice a man moving strangely around Walter’s perimeter.
‘That guy again? I saw him before, and here he is a third time.’
True to a dragon’s unforgetting nature, he had memorized the faces of everyone around Walter.
But the same man loitering near Walter more than three times now?
That meant there was surveillance beyond his own.
Exactly as Cain had said.
Bernatus returned and reported the discovery.
“Days of trailing and nothing else… they’re waiting for the right moment, it seems.”
[The right moment?]
“Yes. For a perfect assassination, they’d want to strike where people are fewest. And the timing will be obvious—when he’s asleep.”
Given Walter’s movements, the Outskirts would be exactly when the assassins saw their opening.
Cain, reasoning thus, told his mother he needed a few days of fresh air and left the palace.
He didn’t forget to leave instructions for Bernatus.
“Go cast a spell on Walter. A strong one.”

* * *
In a secret chamber.
Alton Drake spoke toward the Crystal Orb.
“You’ve confirmed his location?”
―Confirmed, sir. My son found his position and has been trailing him since.
“What is your son’s current rank?”
―High-tier Sword Expert, sir.
Alton’s eyes flickered slightly.
“…His advancement is swift.”
―Hah-hah, much obliged. I’d wager Sword Master isn’t far off.
“You must kill him without fail.”
―No worries, sir. I’ve instructed him to finish it while the target sleeps! Even if he puts up a fight, a mere 5-Star won’t be a match!―
“Mere 5-Star, you say…”
Bitterness flashed across Alton’s face.
―Did you say something, sir?
“No. But before you kill him, tell him this one thing clearly—that it comes from Camiloas. He should know whose will he’s dying for.”
―I’ll relay that, sir.
The light of the Crystal Orb faded as the call ended.
As darkness reclaimed the space, Alton’s lips parted.
“An unjust god indeed…”

* * *
Dario Antonio came from the Knights Order.
A 6-Star knight who awakened his Aura young and reached high-tier Sword Expert in his thirties.
One step away from becoming a Sword Master.
‘Here I am, skulking like a thief…’
After killing a fellow knight in a fit of rage and being expelled from the Order, he’d trained alone for five years, yet couldn’t break through the 7-Star barrier.
No other order would take him.
It was his father, who’d sided with the dragon-worshipping faction, who opened a path out of that mire.
‘And that faction includes the prestigious Drake Family of the Empire, no less…’
Win their favor, and advancement was all but guaranteed.
‘So I need to handle this job flawlessly.’
He’d learned through the Crystal Orb moments ago.
Before killing the target, he was to tell him it was at Camiloas’s behest.
‘I fell to ruin by killing a knight, and five years later, I’m back to assassinating one…’
Feeling the bitter irony, he followed his mark in silence.
‘Work as quietly and cleanly as possible, they said.’
Too many eyes at the Inn.
‘Somewhere far from the kingdom’s heart would be better.’
To leave the kingdom, one had to pass through the Outskirts.
Fortunately, by the next day, his target had gathered his things and set out.
A kinship stirred in him at their similar circumstances, but only briefly.
In the end, the man was merely a stepping stone for his own rise.
And then, finally.
‘Now’s the chance.’
When he confirmed the target was staying at a shabby Inn on the Outskirts, he decided to strike that very night.
Of course, carelessness was out of the question.
Even if he was only five-star, this was the man who’d slain a dragon.
Lucky or not, a minimum of caution was warranted.
‘Still, stabbing him while he sleeps should do the trick.’
When night fell and the surroundings grew quiet, Dario Antonio made his move.
He slipped through the open window of the inn room.
He walked down the corridor with careful steps.
‘The room at the far end.’
He’d already confirmed the target’s location.
Standing before the door, Dario Antonio lifted the lock with the tip of his dagger.
Creak—
He’d worried the sound of the old hinge might wake him, but seeing the target sleeping soundly, he realized his concern had been needless.
Slide—
He approached cautiously, then raised the dagger.
He wrapped blade energy around the blade to finish it in one clean stroke.
‘The message… I can tell the corpse after I kill him.’
Waking him first to speak would be foolish—he might fight back.
‘Kill him first. Everything else after.’
Dario Antonio’s blade descended toward the target’s throat like lightning.
And then.
Ting!
The unexpected sound froze his body solid.
‘What? A barrier?’
Magic had been cast on him.
High-level magic—potent enough to deflect even a six-star’s aura.
‘Damn it!’
Desperate, he thrust again.
But.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The magical barrier refused entry to the blade.
An unforeseen complication.
That he couldn’t kill him in one stroke.
That the target was waking.
“Gasp! Who—who are you?”
The target bolted upright, staring at the midnight intruder with startled eyes.
Dario Antonio kept hammering at the barrier regardless.
Clang! Clang!
‘It’s weakening!’
He felt the magical wall beginning to give, but unfortunately, there was no time to continue.
The target had begun to fight back, channeling his own aura.
“What are you? What are you doing, you bastard!”
And worse, he’d taken too long—he could hear movement in the corridor now.
‘Damn it! I was trying to keep this quiet…’
He had to leave immediately.
Crash!
Dario Antonio shattered the window and leaped through it.
Fortunately, there was forest near the inn—perfect cover.
“You bastard! Don’t you dare run!”
The target shouted from the window, watching him flee, but that was all.
He didn’t give chase.
‘Damn. To fail like this…’
Once inside the forest, Dario Antonio chewed his lip bitterly.
Who could have known the target would be protected by magic?
‘Who in the world cast such a spell…’
The thought didn’t continue.
A man was blocking the path ahead.
Cain.
The true Dragon Slayer who had killed the dragon stood there waiting.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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