“Did you think you would come out like that?”
I ask the Heretic Inquisitor, Zeronia, who is kneeling, but he just keeps his mouth shut and bows his head deep.
It seemed to mean he wouldn’t share any information with me, but honestly, I wasn’t even looking for an answer.
I was just trying to clear my head, giving my thoughts a little shake-up.
“Dragonkin have a strong sense of dignity, so they won’t respond to my demands; that’s only natural.”
He’s probably not even considering meeting my demands and is just thinking about how to rescue the Dragonkin.
After all, demands from terrorists are typically never met.
I sit down in the chair Zeronia was using.
I pop open the jar of chocolate cookies on his desk and shove one into my mouth.
It seems like he eats something when his concentration drops or his sugar levels get low, and these expensive cookies were crispy and delicious.
“Crunch.”
The sound of crunching cookies fills the room. Eventually, one of the attendants beside Zeronia starts to whimper and plead.
“P-please spare me.”
The moment he hears that, Zeronia raises his head with a snap and barks at the attendant.
“How dare you, a Dragonkin, beg for your life! If it’s death, accept it bravely! The dragons are watching over us!”
“Ahh, may the breath of dragons blow upon us…”
The Priest adds a line and closes his eyes to pray. Thinking it was unnecessary chatter, I popped another cookie into my mouth and replied.
“I don’t plan on killing you. There won’t be any more harm done. What I want is straightforward, as I mentioned earlier; humans are turning into Dragonkin, and I just want to find out why from you.”
“…”
Zeronia lifts his gaze slightly as if to assess my sincerity.
“Humans are turning into Dragonkin, you say?”
He finally seems a bit open to conversation, so I grab the cookie jar and sit down in front of them.
“Yeah, like my sister. Two from the National Border Guards are also said to be transforming. When I mentioned this, you guys laughed and taunted me.”
I point to the two Dragonkin I knocked out earlier, and they look away in embarrassment.
Zeronia glares at the two as if scolding them, then lets out a sigh filled with complex emotions.
“But we truly don’t know anything. I’ve never heard of such an illness where humans turn into Dragonkin.”
“Really?”
From the looks on their faces, they seem genuinely aggrieved, but I can’t just turn around and leave now.
Even if they don’t know, other Dragonkin might have some idea.
In that moment, the heavy wind outside blew through, and a faint yet distinct rustle brushed past my ears.
Not just me, but Zeronia seemed to notice, his mouth closed tight, though he was trying not to show it—it was all too obvious.
“They’ve arrived.”
Slowly standing, I toss the empty cookie jar to the ground, sit back in the chair, and pull out the book I snagged earlier, propping my legs up on the desk.
“Hmmm.”
Since it was written in the language of the Dragonkin, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it and just closed the book.
Although I was here under the guise of guarding the Dragon’s Boundary, I slowly began to understand Zeronia’s feelings of boredom from the same mundane day-to-day life.
Was he puzzled by my calm demeanor despite sensing the ambush? Zeronia couldn’t hold back and finally yelled, “Why aren’t you reacting? You should forget any ideas of negotiating after you get captured, human. You face immediate execution.”
“I know that much. However…”
I reclined in my chair, staring blankly at the light fixture.
“I’m just not sure if I can make it here.”
*
“What a madman.”
“What the hell is this…?”
“How the hell is this possible in such a short time?”
The Heretic Inquisitors and attendants guarding the various posts of the Dragon’s Boundary felt their hearts going from a thud to a steady rhythm again.
The moment they heard the voice of the hostage-taker from the Dragon’s Tower, each Inquisitor was only thinking about how to rescue the hostages safely and kill that guy.
They heard the demands for information, but they had no intention of listening to a human’s demands at all.
Of course, they were heading to subdue him.
But they couldn’t even get close without the Dragonkin being forced to retreat.
Like corn laid in a field, numerous traps were densely covering the area near the Dragon’s Tower.
It genuinely made me curious how someone could set up this many traps in such a short time.
Thanks to that, the Dragonkin couldn’t even approach the tower.
“We have to go, even if it means taking some damage! We don’t know what that guy might do to Inquisitor Zeronia.”
The largest Dragonkin shouted, slamming his halberd into the ground. Before, those who had been getting all hyped up seemed quiet now.
Among them, the bespectacled Judge crossed his arms and offered an opinion.
“Anyway, the emergency contact is linked to the Havelock Forward Base. The High Inquisitor is probably on his way, so let’s just wait…”
“That’s nonsense! We can’t let the High Inquisitor see us panicking over a mere human!”
“Ugh…”
The bulky Dragonkin kept raising his voice.
“We need to organize the situation and report before they arrive, not leave it to the High Inquisitor!”
“That’s right.”
As other Inquisitors stepped forward, the shouting grew louder.
“We might face injuries due to the traps, but it’s not life-threatening. Even if we take risks, we must push forward.”
They believed that if they did that, they wouldn’t get blame, and only Zeronia would be marked as the incompetent one.
Though no one said it out loud, everyone shared that thought; they had faith in it.
Secretly, the one who had shouted the loudest had their own hidden agenda.
Keyalmirec.
Endowed with exceptional strength among the Inquisitors, he tried hard to ignore the cold sweat trickling down his back.
It was working.
Somehow, he had managed to make these fools push into the Dragon’s Tower. Feeling elated with his leadership skills, Keyalmirec felt a thrilling rush throughout his whole body.
‘That human must die.’
Before the High Inquisitor arrives, he has to die.
Otherwise, there’s a risk of his tail being stepped on.
‘These foolish humans can’t handle anything properly.’
Keyalmirec scornfully cursed his underlings as he tried to suppress his anger.
If it became known that he was involved in this incident, he would surely be handed over to the Heretic Judges to stand trial.
Then revealing that he had kidnapped the Dragonkin and handed them over to the Tudogs, or that they attempted to trespass, could get him caught.
Whatever the case, it was manageable.
‘As long as I kill that human, it’s over.’
Executing him on the spot wouldn’t look strange at all. It would be even stranger if he didn’t execute him.
His grip on the halberd tightened, and Keyalmirec led the way to the Dragon’s Tower.
*
‘How did this party come to be?’
Eris, entering the Land of Dragons, awkwardly smiled as she looked back at her companions behind her.
A Dwarf warrior, Hatsim, barely reaching Eris’s waist but with a beard that could touch the ground.
A Beastman, Regua, with smooth black skin and cat-like eyes that seemed to glow like crescents.
Even the humans guarding the Dragon’s Boundary found the combination of Elf, Dwarf, and Beastman refreshing, drawing their gazes despite the pressing situation.
“In this forest, we’re bound to find what we need, thanks to the Elves. We’ve hit the jackpot.”
Hatsim chuckled, causing Regua beside him to frown in irritation.
“Shut up already.”
“Hey, a crazy guy can’t even say that something good is good?”
“Ugh.”
Both the Dwarf Hatsim and the Beastman Regua met in a strange yet meaningful way, but they knew they had the same goal—solving the mystery of why their precious people were turning into Dragonkin.
Eris felt a slight headache from their bickering, but she couldn’t help but keep moving forward.
‘Daniel.’
The Captain of the Guards protecting the Dragon’s Boundary had informed her that a male student with the last name McClain had broken down fences in pursuit of his sister and entered the Land of Dragons.
Once they crossed over, there was nothing the National Border Guards could do, merely pacing and praying.
‘Could it be that Daniel came here with the same goal as mine?’
This felt like more than just coincidence, and Eris chuckled at her own self-deprecation, increasing her pace.
“…”
Sensitive to the scents of the forest, Eris suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.
“What? What’s going on?”
“Is it a Dragonkin?”
Hatsim and Regua looked at her, but she slowly closed her eyes and opened them again.
In her eyes, marks appeared.
The powers granted to her by Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon, Hunting, and Chastity.
“There are traps, so many…”
Eris couldn’t help but panic as she saw countless traps laid out. With this many, it had to be the Dragonkin who set them up; it was astonishing how serious they were about defense.
‘Is Daniel going to be okay?’
Though there didn’t seem to be life-threatening traps, the sheer number alone was alarming; if he were to trip one, it would be all over for him, and worry started to consume Eris.
“Everyone, follow me closely and let’s avoid the traps.”
Avoiding the traps, all Eris could do was hope for Daniel’s safety.
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