Volume 2 - CH 1.1

Act 2 – Horn of Holy Dragon King

Soaring under the dark sky, Runfeld was riding his beloved thunder wyvern, behind him followed his subordinates of the Dark Knight Order, also riding on their own wyverns.

「Don’t you think that it’s become so quiet lately, Runfeld-sama.」

A dark knight flying right behind Runfeld suddenly cut the quiet atmosphere with his carefree statement.

「Don’t let your guard down. The news about the Holy Knight Order’s destruction came directly from them. They might be spreading these fake rumors with the intention to catch us off guard while they’re still patrolling around.」

Runfeld responded to his subordinate as his wyvern passed by the mountainous boundary of Nargol. He then looked back to check on his subordinates only to find them falling behind. Such a scene made him grumble in heartache.

「As I thought, rebuilding our forces is a tough task, huh…」

Half of the dark knights had perished during their battle against the Hero, Reiji, and his comrades, and the ones who had survived this ordeal had still been severely injured in some way or another.

In the first place, it was quite rare to find people with a fitting aptitude to become a dark knight, even amongst the demon race, suitable candidates were scarce. It was also even rarer to find someone with the aptitude to ride the wyvern.

To make matters worse, almost all of the skilled dark knights perished during the battle against the Hero, making their forces dwindle to almost nothingness.

Currently, the number of dark knights who could be dispatched only amounted to 20 warriors. It was thus imperative to rebuild the Dark Knight Order, and the burden of restoring their previous glory had entirely fallen on Runfeld, the Order’s leader.

This was no easy feat, Runfeld had to recruit and train many new knights. Moreover, what exacerbated him even more was the fact that the Holy Knights of Lenaria were intruding on their airspace quite often these days; the pressure on him was immense. Runfeld felt that his head might someday split open from all the anger he was holding in, he really wanted to bash those arrogant Holy Knights. Despite being fully aware that they were violating the law by trespassing on their territory, they still were adamant on insisting that all skies in this world belonged to the Gods of Elios, which was of course complete nonsense in his opinion. Naturally, he had no intention to approve their claim.

Although in the past, before the Hero’s arrival, they had come close to Nargol’s airspace, they had still never gone as far as trespassing Nargol’s airspace boundary. However, with the Hero’s triumph against their Order, now there wasn’t a single day where their airspace wasn’t intruded upon.

It was clear they only did such a thing to trample on Nargol’s dignity.

Despite Runfeld remonstrating with them to leave Nargol’s airspace immediately, they never paid him any heed, and Runfeld himself couldn’t do anything about it. He could only watch them in frustration due to their lack of war potential.

However, fortunately enough, their airspace violations had finally come to a sudden halt 2 days ago. Runfeld was aware of the reason behind their inability to trespass anymore. He couldn’t count the amount of times he thought in glee “Serves you right!”. Yet, although he was happy with the current situation, he couldn’t help but fear the one who had caused their destruction. That individual is just too powerful, more powerful than the Hero, they should never cross him and make him their enemy. He should never be trifled with.

「Yosh, let’s go back to the fortress!!! 」

They were now flying over the summit of the Akeron mountain range, the boundary of Nargol. After some time and distance, the fortress situated on the mountain peak finally appeared. This fortress was built for the sake of protecting Nargol from any attack from Elios. It’s walls were almost sky high and impregnable, built with the sturdiest of materials. The fortress was manned by many soldiers and was armed with many deadly weapons, it could be said that this citadel was Elios’s enemy; it was far too difficult to invade it.

Arriving at the fortress, Runfeld and his subordinates slowly landed on the plaza. The fortress’s plaza was carefully built to handle any sort of flying monster, so the wyverns had ample space to stand.

「Welcome back, Runfeld-sama.」

Runfeld entrusted his wyvern to his subordinates who were coming out from the fortress. He left his new subordinates to deal with their own wyverns and went towards his own residence.

「DADDY! 」

「PAPA! 」

Not longer after he took a few steps, two children suddenly rushed out of the fortress and charged straight towards him. They jumped in his embrace affectionately.

""

「Reyfaldo, Reyli! What are you doing here? 」

Runfeld tilted his head in confusion while hugging his children. He had a boy, Reyfaldo, who was about to turn 120 years old this year, and a girl, Reyli, who would turn 90. He couldn’t understand why they were here, they were supposed to be home with their mother. Their demon race settlement, which was near the Demon King’s Castle, was far away from this fortress…

「Mama told us to come and help you, Papa.」

「Yes, Mama said that we have to help Papa if we want to become knights in the future.」

Reyli and Reyfaldo proudly replied to their father, raising their fists to show him their determination.

「I see… 」

Looking at their pleased expressions, Runfeld could only heave a sigh. He understood his wife’s intentions, they were currently experiencing a shortage of personnel in the fort, in fact even the people they had recruited in the previous battle were non-combatants. In their present situation, they would even go as far as asking a passing cat for help. However, Runfeld was still worried about his children, he couldn’t decide whether it was really okay to let them stay in this dangerous fortress or not.

「Please, Papa! Please let me[boku], no, I mean, please let me[watashi] stay in this fortress.」

「Please allow Reyli too.」

Runfeld was extremely troubled by his children’s request.

It was of course possible to let them stay as even if he was to exclude combat, there was practically heaps of work waiting to be completed in the fortress. He might be able to let them do some odd jobs even children could do. He also mused that it might be better for them to start their knight training right away, it would definitely come in handy if they were ever to be in danger.

As Runfeld was pondering about this matter, he was suddenly startled by the sudden noise. The wyverns in the dragon house had at some point started roaring. He immediately went over to his subordinates and started questioning them.

「What now?! What just happened?! 」

「We don’t know! The wyverns suddenly became restless!! 」

His subordinates could only tensely respond as they were trying their best to appease the wyverns.

「Runfeld-sama! IT’S AN EMERGENCY! ! 」

A shout echoed from the fortress’s watch tower, a knight on scouting duty confusingly bellowing to Runfeld as he pointed his finger to the sky in fear.

「What’s happening?! 」

「A DRAGON HAS APPEARED! IT’S HEADING TOWARDS OUR DIRECTION! 」

Runfeld then looked at the direction that his subordinate pointed to. A bird-like thing was slowly approaching them. Though that figure was still far away, he knew that it wasn’t a wyvern, it was a dragon.

「What shall we do, Runfeld-sama?! 」

While Runfeld was dazedly looking at the approaching figure, the knights of the fortress had started preparing their crossbows to fight the dragon. Waking up from his stupor, Runfeld roared at them, which made them all stop their actions.

「DO NOT HOLD YOUR WEAPONS! AND DO NOT POINT IT AT THE DRAGON! 」

「WHY, RUNFELD-SAMA?! 」

「JUST DO AS I SAY! EVERYONE, ASSEMBLE! 」

They shouldn’t fire their arrows at that dragon.

Runfeld was visibly flustered as cold sweat started trickling down his back. He couldn’t imagine the consequences if they had attacked the dragon.

（If my hunch is correct, that dragon shouldn’t be hostile towards us.）

Following Runfeld’s order, everyone in the fortress assembled together. The dragon that was still far away a moment ago has reached the fortress at breakneck speed. It raised a howl as soon as it came close to the fortress.

「UWAAAAAAAAAA!! 」

「PAPA!!!! 」

「DADDY!! 」

Several of his subordinates stumbled to their back, and Reyli and Reyfaldo clung on to his leg.

The howling of a True Dragon had a mix of sound and fear magic. The people who had no resistance against it would end up paralyzed and trembling in fear.

It was precisely because of this fact that everyone in the plaza had suddenly become paralyzed. The figure that approached the fortress was a “Greater Dragon”, a dragon who had transformed into a True Dragon. It was a far more superior type of dragon, more so than the wyverns the dark knights of the fortress mounted.

When it landed, the True Dragon, whose body was many times bigger than a wyvern’s, ended up occupying almost the entire central plaza.

This Greater Dragon who was once called “Demon Dragon”, was living in the Akeron mountain range. Due to it’s violent disposition, anyone who carelessly got close to it would fall victim to it’s dragon breath. The death toll on this monster far surpassed the ones belonging to other monsters. It was not surprising to hear of someone’s death everyday, at least that was until yesterday.

Runfeld looked at the back of the dragon, there he found the figure of a dark knight— it was the Dark Knight, Kuroki.

Runfeld held a sense of respect and awe towards him, the one who was summoned from the Spirit World by Demon King Modes, and also the one behind the destruction of the Holy Knight Order a few days ago. His position was higher than Runfeld’s, who was once the holder of the Dark Knight title. However, Runfeld could never object to his change of status, he knew that he didn’t deserve it anymore.

Kuroki jumped down from the back of his dragon.

「SALUTE! 」

Runfeld gave the order as he performed his salutation. Yet, even after his command, some people still couldn’t get up due to their fear from the dragon’s previous roar. They tried to school their expressions as much as possible to not offend the Dark Knight, but it was all for naught

Kuroki found this scene to be quite amusing, they acted as if they didn’t fear him, yet it was quite obvious from their unhindered shaking.

「Lord Runfeld. There’s no need to give a salute…」

Absolving them from such a heavy duty, Kuroki then proceeded to unfasten his helmet.

Fair skin, a slender face, and black colored hair was what appeared before them.

If one had to say, he looked more like a kind gentleman rather than an extremely powerful person. No matter how you looked at him, he was a hornless, frail human.

But, one shouldn’t be deceived by his seemingly harmless appearance because wrapped inside this harmless looking appearance was a terrifyingly powerful monster.

Runfeld knew first hand as he had experienced that power once before. Moreover, he had defeated that terrifyingly powerful Hero and decimated the Holy Knight Order effortlessly.

Runfeld then looked at Kuroki’s armor.

The armor he wore was the Black Devil Armor, an armor more powerful than all the ones worn by the dark knights combined. Theirs was a much weaker version than Kuroki’s one. No one had ever dared to wear the Black Devil Armor as its power could overwhelm anyone who had even dared to touch it. Yet, Kuroki could easily wear it while donning a composed face. This was yet another testament of the terrifying amount of magical power he possessed.

A harmless looking person did something that none of the demon race could achieve. Runfeld was extremely frustrated about that matter.

This Kuroki was someone whose position was second only to the Demon King.

「That’s not true, Your Excellency is our hero!! 」

Kuroki was troubled by Runfeld’s words, he wasn’t used to being treated as a superior. But, for Runfeld and the others, they couldn’t just carelessly be rude to a monster who could decimate the Holy Knight Order with just a flick of a finger.

「May I ask the reason for your visit today, Your Excellency? 」

Since, if he had to be honest, Kuroki’s arrival was unwelcomed, Runfeld’s tone was slightly stronger when he asked that question.

「My apologies for coming without notice during such a busy day, Lord Runfeld. I just happened to see you from afar when I was training for a new air maneuver with Glorious…Thus, I came to give you my gratitude for introducing me to Glorious, and while I’m at it, I decided to take a look since I’m interested in the fortress protecting Nargol’s boundary.」

Kuroki thanked Runfeld after slightly hesitating, he could feel the slight irritation in his tone. He then looked at the dragon.

Glorious meant glory in his original world’s language.

（Truly an appropriate name for a dragon mount of Your Excellency.）

Runfeld thought.

The dragon called Glorious was exactly the same Demon Dragon who was feared by many, that is until yesterday. And the man before him was exactly the man who made that terrifying dragon into his mount through his own power.

Runfeld then recalled yesterday’s events.

Runfeld was the one who introduced the Demon Dragon, who lived in Akeron mountain range, to Kuroki, who had mentioned his desire to find a dragon to become his personal mount.

However, he didn’t do so out of good will.

It was highly difficult, even for a demon, to ride a flying dragon, much less to say about one that became a True Dragon—the degree of difficulty rose to another level altogether.

Naturally, he had expected that not even Kuroki would be able to tame it. He had sarcastically said to him:「Your Excellency should be able to ride on the back of the Demon Dragon of Akeron, right?」

In the end, Kuroki easily got his dragon.

Runfeld felt ashamed for saying those cynical words. As if to rub salt on his wound, the man before him even came to give him his gratitude. Runfeld almost cried due to how ashamed he felt right now.

「No problem…」

Having said that, Runfeld looked at Kuroki’s face. For some reason, he was looking down.

""

Kuroki’s line of sight was focusing on Reyfaldo, who was clinging to Runfeld’s leg.

「Children? 」

Asked Kuroki.

「Yes, these children were in this fortress to help us…」

But, before he could even finish his sentence, he felt an overwhelming pressure come from Kuroki.

「Did you make those children go to the battlefield? 」

This opressing voice was far different from his previous timid voice. His tone was extremely cold. Runfeld could feel chills run through his spine.

「My apologies, your Excellency! We were extremely short handed after the battle against the Hero and his comrades… My deepest apologies!! 」

Runfeld bowed his head while explaining the situation.

（Crap, I’m gonna die.）

Runfeld always had pride in his ability to fight and his position as the leader of the Dark Knight Order—he was unafraid of death. However, contrary to his normal disposition, when facing Kuroki’s overwhelming pressure, all he could feel was fear; he was afraid to die at this very second.

But, contrary to his expectation, Kuroki calmed down instead.

「No, I am the one who should be apologizing since I’m still too clueless about your side’s situation.」

Kuroki expressed his apologies instead.

Runfeld felt relieved when he saw Kuroki calm down.

（This man is far more terrifying than the Demon Dragon behind him.）

Runfeld felt deep in his heart.

「By the way, Lord Runfeld, the children behind you are? 」

「They’re my children. Reyfaldo, Reyli, come and greet His Excellency.」

「R-Reyfaldo greets Your Excellency!! 」

「R-Reyli greets Your Excellency!! 」

Reyfaldo and Reyli fumbled with their words as they gave him their greeting.

「…They’re such fine kids.」

Kuroki smiled as he saw them fumbling with their words.

It was a really kind smile.

But, in Runfeld’s eyes, it was nothing more than a predator’s smile in front of its prey, which is why he was relieved when Kuroki’s sight left the children’s figures.