The Dragon Slayer Who Regressed After 1,000 Years - Chapter 30

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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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Dragon Slayer Regression: 1000 Years Later — Episode 030
Aura Blade.
Known also as Geom-gang, it was the exclusive province of the Sword Master alone.
It differed from ordinary Aura in both density and hue, representing the pinnacle all knights dreamed of attaining—and the only means by which a dragon’s scales could be sundered.
That Cain, whom everyone believed to be merely 2-star, had just wielded it.
‘They’re certainly surprised.’
A natural reaction, nothing less.
In all of recorded history, no one had ever become a Sword Master at twenty.
This was precisely the card Cain had played for that response.
‘I cannot hide my strength forever.’
Besides, he could mask the achievement of his Aura with Mana, and with the Concealment Artifact now in his possession, concealment posed no problem at all.
And yet.
‘To catch the eye of the Drake Clan, I need to demonstrate my power.’
He’d learned as much through Commander Dimitri.
What manner of man Valenciusʼ truly was.
A tragic heir who had sired a Grand Sword Master father, yet had not awakened even Aura.
Before the Regression, Valenciusʼ had climbed to 9-star and claimed the title of Dragon Slayer, surpassing even his father—but now he was nothing more than a feeble youth who had not yet reached 1-star.
‘To capture the eye of such a Valenciusʼ, I must reveal myself as a Sword Master.’
The surest way to catch an enemy off guard was to make them believe you were an ally.
Win their affection, then strike from behind—there was no safer, cleaner method of vengeance than that.
‘If that man truly is Valenciusʼ, then I’ll repay him in kind for everything he did to me before the Regression.’
He had certainly succeeded in drawing attention.
Valenciusʼ’s pupils trembled like the rippling Geom-gang that flowed from Cain’s blade.
Dimitri, unaware he was 7-star, could not hide his bewilderment either.
“I—well, this is—how could—it’s…….”
He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally finding words.
“Young Master Cain…… I thought you were joking, but you truly have reached 7-star?”
“Yes.”
“I find it hard to believe. When exactly did this happen?”
“Recently.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself. It seems to have happened almost by accident.”
When an explanation is difficult, a vague deflection works best.
After all, nothing about this situation made any rational sense anyway.
Cain glanced covertly at Valenciusʼ.
The man himself said nothing.
For a moment, Cain wondered if perhaps Valenciusʼ didn’t recognize the Geom-gang—but the look on his face told a different story.
“I’m afraid I’m feeling unwell…… I should withdraw.”
As Valenciusʼ hastily excused himself, Cain watched him depart with a knowing gaze.

* * *
“Hah—ugh…….”
Valenciusʼ, gasping for breath, gripped his hammering heart.
‘It’s impossible. A Sword Master, and at that age?’
He hadn’t asked directly how old the man was, but from his face alone—he appeared to be Valenciusʼ’s peer, perhaps even younger.
The shock that struck Valenciusʼ in that moment was beyond description.
‘Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.’
Valenciusʼ’s face twisted like a malignant spirit.
He had believed that his pride had collapsed so utterly that jealousy no longer remained—but he was wrong.
Envy gave way to a jealousy and rage so fierce his heart felt ready to burst, shaking his entire frame.
Perhaps it cut deeper because they were peers.
‘One man reaches 7-star, while another cannot even achieve 1-star…….’
The more he contemplated it, the more crushing the despair became.
If this Cain truly was a Sword Master, then he was nothing short of an unprecedented prodigy.
“Huu…… hah…….”
Valenciusʼ, steadying himself with deep breaths and calming his mind, resolved not to think of Cain again.
Merely thinking of him caused his chest to tighten and his vision to blur with jealous rage.
‘I cannot show such shameful despair here.’
For now, he would regain his composure and report this intelligence to his father.
Until then, Valenciusʼ swore he would not allow himself to think of Cain at all.

* * *
‘Why would he do that?’
Cain had revealed himself as a Sword Master deliberately—to win Valenciusʼ favor, to gather intelligence on the enemy. Yet he couldn’t begin to fathom why Valenciusʼ had made such a thin excuse to slip away.
Dimitri’s question, however, cut straight to the heart of it.
“Prince Cain.”
Dimitri approached with an unusually grave expression.
“Have you been deceiving us all this time? Or have you truly advanced so rapidly in such a short span?”
Cain had been in the palace for less than half a year.
When they’d first met, he’d been a mere one-star—yet now he stood at seven stars?
There was only one explanation: he’d been hiding his true strength from the beginning.
‘It makes no other sense.’
Cain knew this as well as anyone, so he offered the only excuse that could hold water.
“My apologies. I’ve been concealing my abilities all this time.”
“Then from the very beginning…….”
“Yes. I had five stars in my chest from the start.”
“Ah, so it was that way…… Now that I think of it, something felt off about you from our first meeting. Your movements in our sparring were always distinctive.”
Dimitri accepted the explanation.
The truth—that Cain had climbed from one star to seven by consuming Dragon Hearts—would have strained credulity far beyond what even this story could bear. A five-star foundation made far more sense.
Though even that didn’t quite account for the leap from five to seven in half a year.
“That’s extraordinary. Already five stars at twenty…… Who tutored you?”
“No one. I trained alone in the yard.”
“Self-taught? Well…… ”
At twenty years old, reaching five stars alone was enough to make the Imperial Knights Order deploy every enticement they had to recruit you—a true prodigy.
But to surpass that and reach seven stars?
Even having witnessed Geom-gang firsthand, Dimitri’s face still bore the mark of disbelief.
Yet Cain’s sole focus remained Valenciusʼ trust—nothing else mattered.
‘Only then can I breach the enemy’s inner sanctum.’

* * *
The following day, Cain sought out the knights’ training grounds—a place he rarely visited.
At seven stars, the order’s drills held no value for him, yet he came anyway, all for the purpose of growing closer to Valenciusʼ.
“That person is……?”
“Isn’t that Prince Cain?”
“Could the rumors be true? Is he really a Sword Master?”
“Nonsense. You believe that?”
The trainees murmured as Cain arrived.
They thought their whispers quiet, but to ears that could detect the wingbeat of a gnat, every word came through crystal clear.
“Enough gossip—resume training, now!”
Dimitri gave Cain a subtle bow, then restarted the drills.
Valenciusʼ stood out among the sword novices.
Cain watched them silently.
More precisely, he watched Valenciusʼ.
‘So he hasn’t awakened his Aura yet. It’s true.’
No matter how closely Cain looked, he sensed not a shred of Aura emanating from the man.
A body no different from that of an ordinary person.
‘And yet……’
Cain’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
The moment Valenciusʼ gripped his blade and brought it down, he withdrew his left foot a half-step forward—a habit.
A habit unique to Valenciusʼ, one that persisted even a thousand years hence.
‘……It’s unmistakable. This is the one.’
Surprise bloomed before pity.
‘This man becomes a Dragon Slayer and a Sword Saint a thousand years from now?’
A thousand years was no trivial span of time.
Behind that renown lay countless hours of blood and sweat.
‘No natural talent whatsoever, and yet he reaches the rank of Sword Saint…… He must have labored beyond measure.’
Even if he were an enemy, one had to acknowledge merit where it existed.
The rank of Sword Saint was a realm no one could attain—not in a thousand years, nor ten thousand—without a genuine love for the blade.
‘But his character is rotten. To be called a Dragon Slayer while serving as the dragon’s lackey—what a fall.’
Still, Cain’s first impression of the man had not been entirely poor.
Apart from that final betrayal, he had been an exceptionally courteous and honorable knight.
Despite his imperial pride, he treated even servants with respect.
He’d seemed the same way when Cain met him in this life.
‘Where did it all go wrong, Valenciusʼ?’
Pity rose in him, but it wasn’t enough to overwrite the memory of betrayal.
Whatever the case, he was a traitor who had abandoned mankind and sided with the dragon, and Cain still vividly remembered the pain from that time.
‘But his form now…… is quite different from what I recall.’
The clumsy way Valenciusʼ mimicked the trainees’ movements seemed hard to believe for the son of a Grand Sword Master.
Even Jake, who had chopped wood and farmed in the village, could manage that much.
‘I need to watch him more closely.’
Cain observed Valenciusʼ’s training in quiet focus.

* * *
“Haa…… ha…….”
His breath came in ragged gasps.
Valenciusʼ had pushed himself to the point where he could barely rise again.
Yet nothing improved.
It was shameful for the son of a Grand Sword Master.
‘I must have taken after my mother…… even the hair color…….’
Unlike his father with his violet hair, Valenciusʼ had green hair.
Rather, his younger brother Cassius had inherited their father’s coloring.
And his talent with the blade as well.
‘Cassius has already reached 4-star rank.’
An older brother falling short of his younger sibling.
His pride had already hit rock bottom—so thoroughly that even a self-deprecating laugh wouldn’t come.
But when he saw Cain, a Sword Master at twenty, the inferiority he’d been suppressing exploded.
‘He really is enviable…….’
Yet he didn’t want to get close to him.
The more he saw Cain, the more it gnawed at him, so he made a point of avoiding him.
It was irritating that he kept showing up at the training grounds.
‘Last time, he seemed like he was trying to talk to me…….’
Noticing that, Valenciusʼ deliberately left the Dining Hall without finishing his meal.
He’d done it several times now, so his intention to avoid the man had surely been noticed by then.
“Haa…… this place too is wide open.”
Valenciusʼ lay stretched out, limbs extended, and exhaled heavily.
He’d thought training with the Asel Knights Order might improve things somehow, or perhaps bring some enlightenment, but nothing of the sort happened.
It was all meaningless hope.
‘I wish I could feel Aura like everyone else.’
There were things that perseverance alone could not achieve.
‘Maybe I should just give up on it all…….’
Lying there in despair, Valenciusʼ picked up his sword again with a sigh.
The longing to awaken Aura and earn his father’s recognition was what pulled him back to his feet.
Even if he’d come here as a spy, he couldn’t neglect his personal training.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
He slashed at empty air again, breathing roughly.
Having swung the blade hundreds of thousands of times, his form was stable, yet strangely he could not feel Aura.
‘If I do it like this…… Mana’s energy should accumulate through breath and Aura should naturally awaken, or so I’ve been told…….’
Despite learning from countless sword instructors and his father’s teachings, Aura still hadn’t awakened.
He couldn’t even discern what was wrong.
Not until someone appeared to offer guidance.
“Your breathing seems to lag half a beat when you draw your blade.”
At the sudden voice, Valenciusʼ turned his head.
It was Cain.
‘Why would he……?’
Wariness rose first.
This was the man he’d been avoiding all along, now seeking him out.
“……What was that?”
“Your breathing. You’re exhaling before the blade reaches its full extension. When that happens, the Mana disperses before it can circulate.”
Valenciusʼ’s eyes flickered slightly.
He’d trained under countless instructors, yet not one of them had ever pointed out the timing of his breath.
“…… It’s done. Now go.”
The words came out cold, but she couldn’t hide the tremor in her voice.
Cain said nothing more.
He simply rose and left in silence.
His pride stung from unsolicited advice, yet separate from that pain, Valenciusʼ mind churned with tangled thoughts.
‘Could it really…… be a matter of…… breath timing……?’
Pride wounded or not, he’d already lost everything—might as well see it through.
Valenciusʼ took up the sword again.

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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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