The Dragon Slayer Who Regressed After 1,000 Years - Chapter 52

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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, Returned After a Thousand Years — Episode 52
Grokus watched Cain stand before him with composed confidence, wooden sword raised, and found the sight contemptible.
‘So the fool actually means to try.’
Had Cain lowered his guard and apologized even now, Grokus might have shown some mercy — but that stiff, obstinate posture erased the thought entirely.
The audacity of drawing a blade against one of the three commanders.
‘Green-behind-the-ears whelp. Does he think all 7-Stars are created equal?’
This wouldn’t do.
The naive boy crawling up from some backwater kingdom needed a sharp lesson in humility.
Grokus raised his wooden sword.
The opponent held a wooden sword himself — he couldn’t draw a real blade without looking pathetic by comparison.
But he had no intention of holding back.
He would seize victory through overwhelming dominance from the opening exchange.
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
“Then do your best to block this.”
In a heartbeat, Grokus channeled his aura into his legs.
His thighs swelled with condensed power, and the ground exploded beneath his feet.
Boom!
Launched like a catapult stone, Grokus saw Cain standing motionless, utterly unprepared to respond.
Not even a flicker of reaction.
‘Whelp.’
He swung the wooden sword with a contemptuous smirk.
The blade cut through the air with no sign of defense from his opponent — the bout would be decided faster than expected, embarrassingly so.
Until Cain’s body vanished without a trace.
“!!”
Grokus’s sword cleaved only empty air.
Cain had simply disappeared in an instant.
‘How did he… react to that?’
But that was far from the only impossibility.
‘Where is he?’
When someone deployed aura, Aura Sensing would naturally track their position to some degree.
Yet Grokus felt nothing at all.
Still turning in confusion, Grokus only learned where his opponent was when something struck his shoulder from behind.
Crack!
The moment impact landed, Grokus’s sword whipped across horizontally.
He pushed through the pain and launched an immediate counterattack, but his blade met nothing but air.
‘He dodged?’
And that was the least troubling part.
His opponent’s position still eluded him.
Somewhere in his field of vision the man had to be, yet without an aura trace, Grokus had no idea where to look.
It was like fighting an assassin.
‘What in the—’
The thought didn’t last long.
Thwack!
The wooden sword struck his shoulder again, and Grokus spun around with fury, driving his blade down in a crushing strike.
Whoosh!
‘Dodged again?’
Twice he’d evaded at full power.
The fact filled him with rage, even as it made no sense.
“Your attacks are rather predictable, aren’t they, Commander?”
Now the bastard was taunting him?
Veins bulged across Grokus’s brow in an instant.
“I told you to call me Alton!!”
His swollen muscles unleashed a explosive torrent of power.
Strikes too fast to follow bore down on Cain like a tempest.
And yet.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Cain slipped past every single one by the slimmest margin.
“Damn this!”
Frustrated by that infuriating gap between connection and near-miss, Grokus concentrated his aura into his legs.
Crack!
The Training Ground floor buckled inward as a sudden thrust drove through.
Had it connected cleanly, he would have been dead.
But Cain merely twisted his body aside, slipping past the blow.
“Now it’s my turn to attack.”
Cain’s wooden sword flashed.
At that same instant, Grokus felt pain lance through his thigh.
“Ugh!”
He swallowed the cry and counterattacked, but still found no purchase.
Instead, fresh pain bloomed across his shoulder.
“Argh!”
His waist, his forearms, his back, his buttocks—
Every inch of his body except his head was being hammered.
Grokus, who had worn such arrogance moments before, began to creak and groan.
Muscular flesh did not make one immune to pain.
“You bastard! Come at me! Fight properly!”
He swung wildly, but Cain didn’t take a single hit.
Meanwhile, Grokus, drowning in rage and having absorbed countless attacks, finally did something he should never have done.
A low hum.
Tremendous force poured through the wooden sword.
Sword Force—the exclusive art of the Sword Master.
That technique, which could cleave even a Dragon’s scales and dealt mortal wounds from a mere graze, was unleashed in a sparring match.
Before the surrounding knights could even gasp, it was over.
Crack!
Cain had struck Grokus across the head before he could finish.
Grokus lay flat on his back on the ground, unable to rise.
Who the victor was could not have been clearer.
Dozens of knights had witnessed it.

* * *
Until the match began, Valensius had been anxious.
‘Because of me… my Master…’
Between Grokus and Cain hung a tension so thick it seemed ready to rupture at any moment.
When the match actually started, Valensius felt his stomach twist into knots.
The murmuring of other soldiers nearby only fanned the flames of his worry.
“The Third Commander is sparring with a recruit?”
“The Third Commander really seems furious…”
“I don’t think this ends with just a beating.”
“Tsk, why did he have to mouth off to the Commander in the first place?”
“His days in the knight order aren’t going to be easy…”
Making a terrible first impression on his first day of joining—Valensius’s anxiety was entirely justified.
But that anxiety didn’t last long.
The moment Valensius saw Cain dominating the match, his eyes widened in disbelief.
‘This is… insane…’
A match between two 7-Star Sword Masters.
While such a sight was extraordinary in itself, what shocked him even more was Cain’s overwhelming skill.
‘He’s toying with him completely.’
He had always known his Master was exceptional.
The youngest Sword Master, who had even corrected his own technique and hunted Dragons alone—
‘But I never thought it would be to this degree…’
Grokus never landed a single attack, flailing like a scarecrow in the wind.
The exchange of blows was almost too swift to follow, and then—
Crack!
Grokus, who had drawn upon Sword Force only to take a blow to the head instead, collapsed.
“The… the recruit just defeated the Third Commander!”
“Commander Alton actually lost…”
“I saw it with my own eyes and I still can’t believe it…”
“I’ve never seen him beaten down so completely one-sided like that before.”
The assembled knights could not hide their shock.
Moments later, Knight Commander Yandre emerged onto the Training Ground.
“G-Grokus…?”
Yandre approached and shook him awake.
But when he didn’t stir, Yandre’s gaze shifted to Cain.
“Did you do this, my lord?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Cain explained the whole affair from beginning to end.
There was no need to hear separate testimony.
Dozens had already witnessed the match’s opening and closing moments.
After hearing the full account, Yandre exhaled heavily.
“So… this was Grokus’s fault, then.”
His eyes had softened from moments before.
“This bastard… I always knew he’d cause trouble one day.”
Yandre’s gaze swept across Cain’s body.
“You haven’t suffered any injuries?”
“No. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Grokus is a Sword Master himself, so he shouldn’t have been an easy opponent…”
Not a scratch on him, facing such a wild beast of a man.
Yandre scrutinized Cain with disbelieving eyes before his expression shifted back to that of a commander.
“You there! Take Grokus to the Medical Chamber!”
The nearby members rushed to support Grokus and carry him away.
It was as if a whirlwind had swept through.

* * *
“What? The 3rd Commander?”
It didn’t take long for word to spread that Cain had beaten Grokus unconscious.
No one in the Imperial Knights remained ignorant of it.
Naturally, the news reached the ears of Cassius, the second son of the Drake House.
“Brother, is it really true?”
―That’s what I’m telling you.
“This teacher of yours must be quite remarkable. How did he manage the 3rd Commander so easily…”
―I was shocked too. I didn’t think the master was at this level…
Valensius spoke the word “master” with such ease.
It struck Cassius as somewhat unfamiliar.
“It’s odd hearing you talk about having a teacher.”
―Odd? Isn’t it strange enough that I’ve joined the Imperial Knights at all?
“Ha, that’s true. We promised to join the same order when we were kids, remember? We finally made that dream come true.”
―Yes, we did.
Even as Cassius spoke with his brother through the Crystal Orb, he felt it.
An urgent desire to see him again.
―When will you be joining the order, Cassius?
“In two days. I’m swamped with Dragon extermination preparations right now.”
Dragon extermination, in a house that revered Dragons.
Yet there was no cause for worry.
Successful exterminations were few and far between.
Though even Valensius didn’t know that Alton was secretly feeding information to help the Dragons escape.
“I have to go now. The 2nd Commander isn’t easy to deal with either.”
―Understood. I’ll see you at the order in two days.
Cassius set down the Crystal Orb and stood.
‘Cain Ascel, is it…’
He wanted to meet this man who had become Valensius’s teacher as soon as possible.

* * *
“Grokus Alton, 3rd Commander, has committed a grave Regulation Violation by invoking Sword Force during a match. He is hereby relieved of his command temporarily. Until further notice, I shall oversee your training personally.”
At Yandre’s announcement, the 3rd Division members wore expressions of relative ease.
It was like finally shedding a growth that had clung too long.
“Now then, with a new recruit among us, we shall begin the morning training.”
The Imperial Knights’ training was nothing particularly special.
Morning runs, sparring drills, Aura Manipulation practice, and the like.
It differed little from any other order.
Despite thinking that the continent’s greatest institution might possess some exceptional training method, the reality proved otherwise.
Cain himself had been disappointed when he first arrived.
It didn’t match his level.
Now the gap felt even more pronounced.
‘Most of them are Expert Class, and there’s not a single Sword Master like me.’
There was no one worth noting in the third generation.
Even Grokus wasn’t particularly strong.
‘Someone who reacts and grows agitated at every provocation will never reach a high realm. Unless they cause trouble first, of course.’
Before the Regression, the first time he’d heard that name might have been precisely because Grokus caused an incident and was expelled from the Knights.
‘Either way, I just need to gradually work through the training and climb the ranks. In the meantime, I can dig into the Drake House a bit.’
Without even seeking them out, there was a good chance they’d approach him first.
After all, they’d want to learn about the Dragon’s aura emanating from him.
Though in truth, it was Beratus’s aura.
Training had ended and Cain was resting when Valensius approached.
“Um, Master. Do you have time today?”
“I have plenty. Why?”
“Ah, well… my father asked me to bring you to the estate. He’s prepared a grand banquet to celebrate your joining the Imperial Knights…”
Cain’s eyes gleamed.
‘Just as I thought—Alton’s making his move.’
There was no reason to refuse.
“I told Father you didn’t enjoy such things, but he insisted on inviting you personally…”
“Understood.”
A smile played at the corner of Cain’s mouth.
“If Duke Drake summons me, I have to go.”
At last, it was time to set foot in the enemy’s stronghold.

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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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