“I’m not going. I don’t need it.”
That was why he responded to the dragon’s offer with a slow shake of his head. If this upset the dragon and drove it to eat him alive, Mahr wouldn’t even run.
The boy no longer needed to be special. There was nothing that he wanted at all. He didn’t even desire to keep living.
He was “■?#.”
“Very well...”
Upon hearing Mahr’s answer, the dragon nodded...
“You pass.”
...and as he proclaimed this, a veil of light began enveloping Mahr’s body.
“Hm...?” Mahr said. To some, this would seem like an attack. Mahr seemed to be obviously in danger, yet he wasn’t shocked or surprised or anything like that.
However, he did have a question: what did the dragon mean by “You pass?”
“You lose your right to it the moment you seek it,” the dragon said. “That is why it is lost, that is why it presents such a challenge...and that is why you are deserving. And although you shall not seek it yourself, it does not mean that I will turn a blind eye to you.” The dragon cracked an obviously joyful smile. “A piece this peculiar is not one I would idly remove from the board. As I wish to continue spectating the game, I shall take you with me and have you grow.”
Mahr said nothing, but he realized that the answer he’d thought would make the dragon mad had actually made it more interested in him than before.
He would now be enveloped in this orb of light, stored away, and probably taken somewhere far off.
However, the boy didn’t intend to struggle against what was happening to him. While he might’ve not been seeking life or power, he also didn’t exactly desire death.
He wasn’t attached to anything. He was nothing but a stray child who’d lost sight of anything that could tie him to the world.
When Mahr was fully embraced by light, the door to his room burst into pieces.
Stepping over the remains of the door, a man—Arcal in his human form—entered the room.
“Father...!”
“Kyeh heh heh...Arcal? I see you’ve kept yourself well all this time.”
The reflection of the dragon—one of the three dragon kings, Skydragon King, Drac-Heaven—chuckled as he welcomed his son.
“Mahr...!” Seeing the boy, enveloped in an orb of light, Arcal grew pale.
The boy had been entrusted to him by a late friend. If Mahr didn’t wish to go into an orphanage in Altar, Arcal had planned to invite the boy to travel the world with him. He hoped that the journey could help cure the boy’s hollow heart.
But now that he actually came to present this offer, he found Mahr with someone else—his own father.
“What do you intend to do with him...?!” Arcal cried. It was very likely that his father had been watching—spectating—the entire King of Plagues incident. And through the chaos, for some reason his attention had fixed on Mahr.
Arcal asked his father about his plans for the boy, and the Skydragon King replied, not hiding a thing.
“I will take him to the Border Mountain Belt—no, to the Timedragon’s Mausoleum.”
“Ah...! Mother’s...?!”
“Kyeh heh heh. The custodians ordered me to never let in any Masters, never use it to enhance monsters, and destroy it rather than allow them to set foot in it... But they have not told me anything about letting tians in. This is most appropriate.”
The Timedragon’s Mausoleum was a profoundly special place.
For Arcal, it was his mother’s grave. And for the rest of the world, it was the most unique natural dungeon that existed.
“Listen, Arcal.” As Arcal grew more and more confused, unable to read his father’s intentions, the Skydragon King spoke to him in a voice only he could hear. “No matter where you are, all that lives will eventually die. Lunnings and Mahem are no different in this regard.”
Arcal’s eyes widened. Both of those were places where he’d lost close friends. At Lunnings, Arcal had even died himself; at Mahem he’d come close to dying again.
“Even your power may not be enough to protect him,” Arcal’s father continued. “Surely you are aware of this?”
“Yes.” Recalling these heavy defeats, Arcal nodded with a bitter face.
“The turmoil in this world will only continue to grow, and the only way those living here can ensure their survival is to become as powerful as they can possibly be. And the optimal means of achieving this goal lies under my wing.”
Arcal was silent. As one who had already experienced death, he knew well that his father spoke the truth.
“Have faith in me. I would have Mahr gain the power to survive by himself—make him powerful enough to at the very least, win against King of Plagues as he is now.”
As he grinned, the Skydragon King and the light orb containing Mahr both began to vanish.
“Father...”
“If you are still concerned, feel free to visit now and again. Although...considering the environment, this might not even take a month to achieve.”
With that, the Skydragon King and Mahr vanished from the room. They were likely already in the Border Mountain Belt.
All that was left was silence. Arcal’s face was bitter and full of anguish, yet he was unable to deny the truth of his father’s words.
He also knew that his father kept his promises. There was no doubt that Mahr would be granted special powers, even if he himself didn’t desire them.
“If I too...” Perhaps Arcal could have contradicted his father if he’d been stronger than he was—and perhaps if he’d been stronger long ago, he might not have lost so many friends in the first place, and Mahr’s heart might not have ended up as hollow as it was.
Following that thought, he reached the conclusion that he had to address his own powerlessness before he could deny his father.
And thus, he also left the room.
✦ ✦ ✦
When the people working in the office arrived, all they found was a broken door. They tried searching for Mahr, but even with the use of skills, they couldn’t find any trace of him.
And with that, this little incident that followed King of Plagues’s defeat became a cold case.
After all, no one would ever come to the absurd conclusion that the Skydragon King had taken the boy to the Border Mountain Belt—even though that was exactly the truth.