Max started running, his speed far inferior to Sazaki’s sword or Stein at his full strength—but it was more than enough. From the gaps of his armor leaked a small amount of blue mana, far inferior to Lara’s—but it was enough. His weapons contained the power of light, far inferior to Ferd’s and Elrica’s—but enough. He was inferior in all of the areas of expertise of the people who’d broken through the limits of humanity—but it was enough to kill a dragon.
“Gyaaagh!”
The dragon, its eyes still pierced by the arrows, screamed in fear. Perhaps because it had been robbed of its vision, its other senses could clearly recognize that a blue dragon, incomparably larger and more powerful than itself, was attacking with eyes overflowing with murderous intent. It was a misinterpretation, but also the truth.
“Graaaaah!”
The panicked dragon opened its mouth wide to spew its scorching breath. In response, Max flapped the wings growing out of his armor’s back and took to the air to get above the dragon. He only let out a short sigh of determination, but the spear he threw pierced through the top of the dragon’s head with tremendous force.
“Graaaow!”
Even though the spear hadn’t even penetrated its skull, the dragon screamed in agony, forgetting all the power it was putting into its breath. It was fairly well known in this world that dragons had an organ at the top of their heads known as a third eye or a mana receptor. Lizards had a similar photoreceptor, but dragons used their organ to perceive the flow of mana. However, a dragon’s third eye was closely connected to its brain, and the scales around it were thin. Therefore, if an attack hit perfectly and blocked that eye, the dragon would experience intense pain and lose access to most external information.
“Gyaaagh!”
And so, as the dragon fell further into panic, it was unable to see Max jump at its throat, where it had been gathering power to spew its fire breath.
Max let out another short sigh. His long hair flowed out from behind his helmet, not a dyed blond but its natural blue color. The eyes peeking through the gaps in his helm were slit like a dragon’s. The skin underneath his armor was covered in blue dragon-like scales. The man who was borrowing—and yet surpassed—the power of the blue dragon, guardian of the Rin Kingdom, plunged his sword into the fake’s throat.
“Grah?! Grogh?!”
By the time the fake dragon noticed the sword stuck in its throat, it was far too late. This kin-slaying power flowing into it reacted with the power that had been meant for it to emit its fire breath, detonating it. The power that then jumped out of its mouth didn’t cause the dragon any harm, but the flames pouring inwardly ran about its body and spread like wildfire.
“Gaah...”
Fake dragons already couldn’t regulate their temperature, so there was no way this one could withstand the heat and the kin-slaying poison. Its life functions instantly went past its tolerance level, and it collapsed with a loud thud.
“Woof... I’m sooo glad I haven’t grown dull,” Max whined like a baby as he drooped his shoulders.
The man known as Max had been shrouded in mystery ever since the great war. The first time he’d become known to the world was when his commander at the time recorded him in his diary as a fool who claimed to have slain a dragon single-handedly. Therefore, no one had paid him any attention at the time, not bothered by the fact that he was someone with absolutely no records of his name at all.
The origin of his equipment was also a mystery. His equipment had been transformed thanks to a special power, but it still had a true form. His armor wasn’t designed after a white hawk but a blue dragon, along with its wings and a blue cloak. The sword in his left hand had a crest of a roaring blue dragon. The spear in his left hand had a design of a dancing blue dragon. The bowstring of the bow on his back imitated the body of a slender blue dragon. The dagger at his waist was a dragon’s fang. If anyone could see these items’ true forms, they would realize that everything Max was equipped with were national treasures of the Rin Kingdom that hadn’t been returned after the war. But it wasn’t like Max had tried to keep them for himself—quite the opposite, in fact. He’d tried to return everything, but the equipment stuck to him like it was cursed.
“I’m only doing this ’cause Gale’s the one asking; I’m already sick of dragons. Get it, cursed equipment? Ugh! Shaddup! I don’t care how much you protest, you’re all cursed!” It was like the national treasures created by the power of the blue dragon had become attached to the man who was most capable of handling them.
Max casually dropped the name of Gale Rin, the former king who’d contacted him about this issue. Not because they were close friends, but because they were blood relatives—brothers, in fact. There was a reason Max, the man of many names, had been surprised when the knights under the royal family’s direct control had come to his store. His real identity was Gavin Rin, younger twin brother of Gale, the king of two generations ago. He was a man who didn’t officially exist, so it was only natural that there were no records about him.
In this era, the royal family believed that having twins would complicate the succession to the throne, so the younger brother was destined to disappear in the darkness of history, unknown to all. However, for better or worse, the twins’ father—the king at the time—had taken pity on Gavin and allowed him to live in the castle. Perhaps his father had been too kind. This was why he’d been unable to bear the Great Demon King’s invasion, which had drastically reduced the population of the mortal races and gnawed at the Rin Kingdom, and fell ill and lethargic, abandoning his government duties. Gavin leaving home and rejecting their father, and Gale effectively imprisoning their father and wresting authority from him hadn’t been separate events, but the result of the twins working together.
These twins had completely different talents. Gale had the talent to unite the nation and was truly fit for the role of king. Although Gavin didn’t officially exist, he was a talented warrior who could use the power of the blue dragon better than any member of the Rin royal family in history. That was why they’d split their roles: The older brother would save the kingdom as its king, and the younger brother as a warrior. He’d kept this secret even from the members of the Hero’s party that he’d later joined, but they eventually realized the truth during the war.
“All right, let’s go all the way to the end,” casually said the man who wielded a dragon’s power yet slew dragons with it.
This man held the unofficial record for slaying the most evil dragons during the great war. Max, known as the Dragonsbane Knight, or Dragon Knight for short, had completely burned out after saving his country, and had disappeared to avoid complicating the succession to the throne.
But the party wasn’t done yet. The real problem lay at the bottom of the depths.
“I’ve more or less figured it out, so I’ll tell you now. That messy idiot must be behind this.” Lara had figured out the cause of everything.
“Are they all fake?” Stein said, now aware of the cause as he rushed into the depths and defeated all of the fake monk slayers that occasionally showed up.
“If any monk slayers had survived the great war and were still in hiding, how powerful would they be?” This thought seemed to have suddenly come to Ferd.
“Don’t speak such terrifying words. If they had been training to kill monks for seventy whole years after the war, it’s very likely that they’d be unimaginably powerful.” Stein was very visibly frowning.
Although there had been very few of them, some of the monk slayers during the final stages of the war had been absolute monsters capable of going toe-to-toe with Stein. It would be downright terrifying if they were still alive today.
“If that time comes, we’ll just have Ferd do his best, right, Sazaki?” Max suggested, as if to say that only the Hero could deal with such troublesome foes.
“No, you see, my back...” Yet the Hero was pitifully tapping his back.
“Bwa ha ha! Yeah, right!” Sazaki laughed at Ferd.
“They really haven’t changed one bit.” Lara was feeling a mix of nostalgia and dismay, something common for her these recent days, as she looked at the men who were making a racket but still remained fully on their guards.