The Dragon Slayer Who Regressed After 1,000 Years - Chapter 62

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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 Who Returned After a Thousand Years – Episode 62
After consuming the heart of the Silver Dragon Anactras, Cain immediately settled into a cross-legged meditation.
He intended to strengthen his Mana again.
Without the Mana Amplification Necklace, using the Sword Mage Secret Technique required that his Aura and Circle be perfectly matched.
“Exhale.”
It was when Beratus arrived that Cain had fully absorbed the Dragon Heart’s Mana.
[The Knight Order has arrived as you instructed.]
“I see. Gather the treasures quickly. Plant the false heart in the illusion as well.”
[Understood.]
As he rose to his feet, he felt the ring of Mana emanating from one of his hearts.
‘Still at the Sixth Circle.’
His Circle hadn’t advanced, but he felt roughly half his Mana capacity replenished.
Yet that wasn’t all Cain sensed.
His left eye, his wrist, his index finger.
The Engravings inscribed there pulsed with light, resonating with a sharp hum.
‘What’s happening? Could it be……?’
Cain withdrew a Relic he had been carrying in his breast.
It was an Earring he had obtained from the Lair of the White Dragon Glacious.
The Earring trembled ever so faintly.
‘……It’s reacting.’
Truth be told, it had shown no reaction until now.
Whether he held it to his ear or gripped it tight, it remained inert as any ordinary piece of jewelry.
But now it showed a response…….
‘Has the Relic’s restriction been lifted?’
He currently had three Relics Engraved.
Beyond that number, there were constraints that made Awakening difficult—that had been his conclusion until now.
Yet only now was it responding?
Perhaps the restriction had finally broken.
‘Let me try it.’
There were two Relics he had not yet absorbed.
The Earring taken from Glacious’s Lair and the Belt hidden away in a jewelry box.
Had he been able to use only one, Cain would have chosen the Belt without hesitation.
He needed it to cure his mother’s illness.
But.
‘I already know what the Belt does, and I don’t need it right now. I can Engrave it later.’
His mother’s illness wouldn’t deteriorate in earnest for another eight years.
Until then, brewing medicine with Mana Stone would be enough to manage her symptoms.
‘So I should Engrave the Earring first.’
He placed the Earring on his ear—the same one he had never obtained in his previous life.
Unlike before, when it had shown no reaction, it vanished in a flash of light.
Without anyone teaching him, Cain understood naturally.
The Relic’s power.
‘It can discern whether someone’s words are truth or falsehood?’
Was such a thing truly possible?
With that very suspicion, Cain had tested it just moments ago with Valenticius.
And this was the result.
‘Every word appeared as truth.’
Valenticius had spoken not a single lie before Cain.
If asked by what principle he knew this, he had no clear explanation.
He simply could know, through the Relic’s power.
Yet this alone wasn’t enough to be certain.
‘Then let me test it further and ask something I’d been curious about.’
Cain fixed Valenticius with a deliberately grave stare.
“What do you truly think of dragons?”
“Pardon? What I think of them?”
“When I first asked you this question, you said it—that you had no thoughts about them. That dragons were simply dragons.”
“…….”
“Yet now, when you failed to slay a dragon, you lament it. When another hunted them instead, you rail at the injustice. You, who claimed to feel nothing for dragons.”
“…….”
“So speak plainly. What do you truly think of dragons? Do you see them as beings that must die? As mankind’s enemy?”
“I…”
Valenticius paused to gather his thoughts, then continued.
“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. Before this, I had no prejudice against dragons… but seeing what they’ve done to humans, some has formed, I suppose. Yet on the other hand, I wonder if it’s the thoughtlessness of only a few dragons. After all, we humans make mistakes too, don’t we?”
……
Cain said nothing.
He could discern whether Valenticius’s words were lies or truth.
‘An honest one. Not a trace of falsehood.’
To lay bare feelings he couldn’t voice to anyone else with such sincerity.
Cain was somewhat taken aback.
It was hard to imagine from the man who’d stabbed him in the back.
For a moment, he even doubted whether this was truly the one who’d killed him.
‘What in the world is going on.’
One thing was certain: the Valenticius before him now was pure of heart.
‘At least I’ve confirmed his ability.’
The power to see through deception would prove useful in many ways.
Especially for identifying dragon sympathizers lurking among humans—there was no better tool.
‘I could learn more about Alton as well.’
He would extract from Valenticius the secret to how he’d lived for a thousand years.
For that, he needed to hunt more dragons.
Gather more Relics and grow stronger.
‘There’s another reason to raise my Mana.’
He hadn’t known that raising Mana would lift the constraints on Relics.
Until now, he’d never obtained more than four Relics at once.
Just then, Beratus approached Cain.
[Seer. I have something to report.]
Cain gave a small nod.
With Valenticius at his side, he couldn’t speak aloud.
[Didn’t you recently embed a Mana Fragment in someone called Walter? That fragment has suddenly disappeared.]
‘The Mana Fragment?’
The Mana Fragment he’d planted for tracking purposes—gone.
It was unlikely Walter had done it himself.
As someone ignorant of magic, he wouldn’t even know there was a Mana Fragment in his body.
‘Then who did it?’
Four candidates came to mind: one human, the rest dragons.
‘Could it be him?’
Cain smiled faintly, suspecting it was one of the scent-sensitive dragons.
He’d found Walter sooner than expected.
Which was precisely why he’d let Walter go.
[Seer? Why are you smiling…?]
Cain didn’t answer. He rose quietly from his seat.
“Master, where are you going?”
“I need some air.”
“At this hour?”
“Get some rest.”
After leaving the lodging, he used the Prophet’s Bracelet to conceal his presence.
Once Cain reached a secluded spot, he finally spoke.
“Beratus, do you remember where the signal was cut?”
[Of course.]
“Guide me there.”
Cain moved silently in Beratus’s wake.
Toward the place where Walter had vanished.

* * *
Alton’s Crystal Orb glowed.
From the Mana Pattern, it was his second son.
“Casius. I was about to contact you myself.”
―You were? I had something to report as well.
“Go ahead, then.”
The Empire’s Knight Order had many eyes and ears serving Alton, but among them, Casius wielded them most efficiently.
Using his position as scout captain, he’d monopolized intelligence, and it was no small number of dragons he’d spirited away with it.
He would have gotten away with it this time too.
But.
―Unfortunately, the dragon… we were unable to protect it.
“What do you mean? Are you saying the hunt was successful?”
―Yes… for some reason, the dragon never relocated from the Lair. I’m at a loss myself.
How many times had the extermination attempts failed over the years?
Countless futile expeditions, day after day.
And yet.
‘This time we succeeded?’
Alton was flabbergasted.
He had been explicit with Anactras about it.
He’d told him the Knight Order would arrive today—he must relocate from the Lair.
Hadn’t he even provided treasures as cover for the evacuation?
‘Stupid dragon…’
The creature had clearly delayed and missed the window.
Or else it had underestimated human power.
You could hear about Aura Blade being a threat, but you never truly understood until you faced it yourself.
“Give me the details of what happened.”
At Alton’s command, Casius explained the situation methodically, his voice subdued.
―By the time we reached the Lair, it was already dead. We suspect it met its end while the Knight Order was preoccupied with the Rage Ogre.
“Wait—the Knight Order didn’t kill it?”
―No, sir. When we arrived, we found only a corpse—the dragon with its chest torn open, and the three commanders lying dead beside it.
“Three commanders? Are you referring to Grocious Almon?”
―Yes. It appears he hunted the dragon alone and fell alongside it.
Alton knew that Grocious was a Sword Master.
But if asked whether he had the skill to hunt a dragon single-handedly, the answer was an unequivocal no.
The man simply didn’t have that caliber.
“You’re certain it was him who killed it?”
―Yes. The blade marks match, and there were no traces of anyone else.
Alton fell into thought.
A suspicion had taken shape in his mind.
“You said the chest was torn open. Then the heart must be missing.”
―No, sir. The heart was intact.
“…?”
For a moment, confusion gripped him.
If the heart remained, then the person he suspected was not the one responsible.
‘The hearts of dragons have been disappearing lately. I was certain it was the work of the one who killed Lord Velacors…’
Could it truly be Grocious’s doing?
That lumbering drunkard—killing a dragon?
“This is infuriating. The dragon falls not to the Knight Order, but to some unexpected hand.”
―Indeed… if we’d arrived just one moment sooner, we might have prevented it.
“I didn’t think he had it in him either. In fact, this shouldn’t have happened at all—the dragon should have fled before any of this.”
It was a regrettable turn of events.
He had made considerable effort to protect the dragon—spreading false information and arranging its evacuation in advance.
Yet loss had come regardless.
―That commander was troublesome from the start. Seems he was bent on killing the dragon and making his Regression.
Listening to the tone, Alton was not alone in his regret.
―The Knight Order dismantled the innocent dragon entirely—its scales, claws, bones, hide, even its blood—and carried it all away. It’s sickening to behold, is it not?
“Indeed. A tragedy.”
―Then might I suggest… wouldn’t it be wise to tell the Knight Order now?
Alton’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“Tell them what?”
―That dragons pose no harm to us. Everyone is obsessed with hunting them, but if we were to proclaim that dragons are not dangerous at all…
“No.”
Alton’s voice was firm.
“People will not believe it.”
―But…
“Human nature is such that people believe what they wish to believe. However much you preach that dragons should not be hunted, that they are the hope of mankind and the chosen of the gods—do you think anyone will truly listen? They’d burn you at the stake before the day was done.”
―…
“For now, we must lie low and work in the shadows to aid the dragons, slowly shifting people’s perception. We must never reveal that our family venerates dragons. Do you understand?”
―I understand…….
His own son burned at the stake as a follower of a rebel faction?
For Alton, it was unimaginable.
“It’s a shame, really. If we’d caught that Ogre sooner, we might have saved the Dragon too.”
―You speak truly. And Prince Cain’s absence only delayed matters further. He was assigned to the reserve unit and should have been following us.
“Wait—Prince Cain wasn’t there? What are you saying?”
―He was certainly with the reserves when we departed, but when we hunted the Ogre, he vanished without a trace. It seems the Raging Ogre frightened him off.
‘That can’t be right.’
The Cain he’d faced directly was no ordinary man.
He’d felt it keenly in their last conversation.
The reputation of a Dragon Slayer and master to Valenticius was no mere rumor.
‘A man who walks unflinching into a Dragon’s lair, cowering from an Ogre? Nonsense.’
It made no sense.
Something smelled wrong.
Distinctly wrong.
“Casius. Keep a closer watch on Prince Cain.”
―Sir?
“Don’t let him out of your sight for a moment.”

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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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