Chapter 89 - Birth of the Dragon Sword (4)
“I heard an interesting story about you in regards to what my brother went through. Could you confirm the veracity of this story?”
“Which story are you referring to?”
“Teacher said that the Dragon Demon king worshippers had brought a Thunder Dragon to facilitate Segiar"s kidnapping. He said you bested a Thunder Dragon in an one-on-one battle.”
“It is true.”
“As I had suspected…….”
She had expected it to be true, but she was still surprised when Azell confirmed it. A single human had fought and won against a Dragon. How was such a thing possible?
Of course, this wasn"t just anyone. If it was Azell, she thought it was possible. When she had travelled with him, Azell had been an existence that was full of surprise.
Arrieta asked a question.
“I know I"m reaching back far for this question, but did you kill the Earth Dragon we met in the Balan Forest?”
“Yes. It was possible, because something anomalous occurred to my benefit.”
Azell didn"t hesitate to answer the question. He readily admitted to his deed. He had determined that it would be ok to tell her what had happen now.
“Is that the "friend" you referred to before?”
“Correct. He was an incredible magician. He had left something behind in my body, and thanks to it I was able to win.”
“I see.”
She had just heard something incredible, yet Arrieta didn’t question him. She lauded his deed. She didn"t doubt Azell. He had done too much for her to doubt him.
Still, she couldn"t stop her curiosity. Arrieta asked him a question.
“What is your ident.i.ty, sir Azell?”
“It seems I"ll have to give you the same speech as the duke. What if....”
Azell had expected this question. He had show Arrieta too much to gloss over it by saying he had lost his memories. As he did with Kairen, he was going to tell her the truth first.
"After defeating the Dragon Demon king Atein in the Dragon Demon war, Azell went missing two years after the war. The record doesn"t specify if he died or not. Isn"t that true?”
“Yes.”
“What if he hadn"t died?”
“Mmmm?”
“His best friend, Archmage Carlos, devoted himself to completing an incredible magic. What if this magic was used to put Azell in a deep sleep where his aging process was suspended? What if he was placed in a location far away from prying eyes? What if he slept like a Dragon through the long years in a place where humans didn"t dare travel?”
“That"s…….”
Arrieta furrowed her eyebrows.
“Are you saying that you are the actual hero Azell Karzark? An incredible magic allowed you to sleep for 200 years, and now you are awake?”
“Will you believe me if I told you that is true?”
“Mmmm…….”
Kairen had immediately rejected this question. However, Arietta was having a hard time answering the question, and her face hardened. It was most definitely an absurd story, but Azell had shown her too much marvelous deeds to outright deny his claim. Even if he was the actual Azell Karzark, his powers of persuasion was a bit....!
‘No. If it is true, most of the questions I have becomes resolved.’
She had seen and experienced many secrets by watching Azell. It was as if he was from a different world. This sense of dissonance could be cleanly resolved by this single answer. She had seen Azell from an earlier date than Kairen, so she was having a hard time rejecting Azell"s words.
Arrieta asked Giles.
“What do you think, sir Giles?”
“You want my opinion?”
“Yes. From my knowledge, you were the first one to find sir Azell. You"ve seen seen things about him that I haven"t. I am curious as to what you think about this matter.”
Hadn"t Giles seen Azell when he first awoke in his corpse-like state? After he thought for a brief moment, Giles shook his head from side to side.
“I"m sorry, but I don"t know. In truth, the story is too incredible for me to say it is true or not. But…….”
“But?”
“If it was proven that sir Azell"s story was true, I feel as if I would accept it. At the same time, I would feel silly for not accepting it beforehand.”
At his words, Arrieta smiled as she looked at Giles briefly.
“I see. I feel the same way.”
“Do you really believe in my words?”
“In truth, it is unbelievable.”
When Arrieta shook her head from side to side, Azell put on a bitter smile as if he had expected this. Arrieta spoke.
“It is such an outlandish story. However, I can"t help myself from entertaining the possibility of it being true. I"ve thought this from the first time I saw you. You are a really amazing man.”
“Thank you. In truth, I am a secret descendant of Azell Karzark. This is why the knowledge and techniques I have were pa.s.sed down from my forefathers.”
“That story is a bit more easier to digest.”
Arrieta spoke.
“Let"s leave it at that for now.”
“For now?”
“Yes. I think I"m satisfied with that explanation for now.”
After she spoke, she raised her tea cup.
6
Azell shared a conversation with Arrieta, Enora and Giles as they caught up on what they’ve been doing for the past 7 month. When he exited the room, Azell was immediately confronted by Seigar. It was as if he had been waiting for Azell. Seigar had on an expression as if he was dubious.
“You should immediately make time for me, sir Azell.”
“May I ask what this is about, prince?”
Azell queried when he heard the domineering order.
Seigar replied.
“I want you to be my sparring partner.”
At those words, Azell let out a bitter laugh.
“This is just a guess, but did the duke instigate this?”
“My teacher said, "you"ll know once you fight him." I don"t think I can pa.s.s this by without confirming it for myself.”
“I see. Then I"ll be your opponent. Shall we go to the back mountain where it"ll be more discreet?”
“Those words…….”
Seigar"s eyes narrowed.
“Are you saying it, because you are sure I"ll be humiliated in front of my subordinates?”
“You are so inexperienced that you can"t even gauge how much internal energy your opponent has right now.”
At that moment, Seigar turned around in surprise as if he had been burned by fire. He was sure Azell was in front of him, but Azell"s voice was suddenly heard from his back.
‘How can this be? I didn"t even see him move?’
Azell was looking at him from where the direction where the voice had emanated from. The man that was in front of his was behind Seigar, and he hadn’t realized Azell had moved.
Azell smiled as he spoke.
“In truth, I"m disappointed in you.”
“What did you just say?”
“Your previous reaction was understandable, but now you won"t accept reality even when you saw it with your own two eyes. Will you not be able to accept reality until your reality shatters from being struck? If that is true... I don’t think you will have much luck in facing your future opponents. The enemy has plenty of ‘humans’ that can dominate you. You will suffer a miserable defeat by underestimating opponents that are better than you.”
His words were arrogant beyond measure. However. Seigar wasn"t able to get mad at his words.
No, he was looking at Azell with cold sweat running down his body. He felt an overwhelming and frightening feeling coming from Azell as Seigar looked at him. Was this feeling similar to what one felt when facing a Dragon?
Azell spoke.
“You believe there is no way a human can be stronger than a Dragon Majin. If you aren"t able to throw away such arrogance.... I will do as you wish. In truth, we don"t have to go far. I can show it to you right now.”
“Kook…….”
Seigar gritted his teeth as he extended his hand towards his back. His sword was too large to equip at his waist, so he had it strapped to his back.
“Stop.”
At that moment, Kairen"s voice was heard from behind Azell. At the same time, the pressure that was pressing down on Seigar disappeared as if it had been a lie.
“Duke.”
“Both of you are overflowing with power. If you fight here, the damage to my property would be ma.s.sive. Do you really want to destroy my storied castle?”
“Somehow, I feel like destroying it. However, I"ll restrain myself. It"ll be troublesome for Mr. Havanz.”
“What about me?”
“I kind of want to put the duke in a difficult situation.”
“Ughh. You hate to lose even a single exchange of words.”
Kairen shook his head as if he had lost.
“I didn"t realize you were so against fighting Seigar.”
“I don"t want to unnecessarily catch the prince"s interest.”
Seigar had been quite blunt with his interest in Azell. This was why Seigar tried to bait Azell into a fight in their last meeting. However, Azell disliked Seigar’s actions.
Kairen spoke.
“All right. I apologize for ignoring your wishes. I want you to forgive me. I did it for the sake of my student.”
“Teacher!”
Seigar jumped up when Kairen showed deference to Azell. From a common-sense standpoint, this shouldn’t have happened. Even the king shows deference to Kairen, yet he was apologizing to a young human over such a trivial manner.
Seigar was taught by Kairen at an early age, so he was just and even-handed in treating others compared to the others in the royal family. Still, the fact that Seigar was of royal blood hadn’t changed, and he was very self-aware about ranks. If he applied his common sense to this situation, Seigar couldn’t understand what had just gone on.
Kairen ignored Seigar as he asked Azell for a favor.
“Let me formally ask you this. Could you break apart my lacking student’s ego? Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to.”
“Since you are asking me in such a manner, I can’t refuse. Anyways, this was something I always thought had to happen one day.”
Azell accepted his request.
7
Seigar received favorable a.s.sessment as a commander of an organization.
He didn"t care about the background of his men. He valued competence above all else, and he knew how to take advice from his subordinates. Even if he was outstanding, he knew there was a limit on what he could do by himself. This was why he didn"t hesitate to borrow help for him subordinates.
On the other hand, there was a part of Seigar that didn"t trust them at all.
‘Humans are weak.’
He believed in the the competence of his human subordinates. However, no matter how competent they were, he believed there was a hard cap in terms of martial ability for humans.
This idea had solidified in his mind as he lived his life. This was where he differed with Arrieta in how he viewed the men he found.
He searched all over for competent people, but the people he found were always within his preconceived notion. Every man he found just reaffirmed his way of belief.
Azell was an anomaly that went against Seigar’s way of thinking.
“Koo-oohk……!”
Seigar let out a moan as he rolled across the ground. He immediately tried to right his balance as he stood up. Right before he got up the exquisite sword strike came in to disrupt his Energy Pulse.
Kah-ahng!
He was barely able to block the blow with the blade of his enormous sword. He once again rolled across the floor. At that moment, the sword was coming in at an angle right at the location where he would land.
‘This doesn"t make any sense!’
He dropped to the floor in fright. The balance he had almost recovered was broken once again. He had to roll across the ground again.
This process kept repeating itself in an endless loop. Azell adjusted his sublime power on the first clash to put Seigar on the ground. It had been 3 minutes, yet Seigar was unable to get up even once. He continued to roll across the ground.
“My G.o.d…….”
Arrieta was at a loss for words when she saw the sight. She already knew Azell was outstanding in terms of the techniques. However, the techniques he was showing right now was beyond her imagination.
Giles also stood there looking with rapt admiration.
“I never knew it was possible to control an opponent to this degree.....”