NOVPUB
Chapter 202: The Black Dragon (1)
My legion and I were heading toward the center of the Phantom Realm.
“Hahaha! Hurry up and serve me, empress!”
Behind me, the concubus who copied Goldencup’s appearance was still lashing at the people pulling the chariot. Still, I did my best to ignore her and pass right by. No one in my group wanted to be involved in something like that.
After walking for a while, a strange scenery welcomed us. The first thing we noticed was something in the unusual sky.
“The moon has eyes, Master.”
“You’re right.”
The moon blinked, revealing red eyes. It looked down at us.
“It’s a little creepy, but its eyes are very pretty. I want to keep looking at it,” I commented. My heart was pounding for some reason too.
Preta looked at me weirdly and said, “Uh, I think your subconsciousness is influencing it. The moon is mimicking your wife’s eyes...”
“Huh? You think so?”
Upon closer inspection, the eyes did look like Raviel’s. She could steal my heart with just her eyes. Yeah, that was my duke right there. From head to toe, there wasn’t a single thing I didn’t find fascinating about her.
“Hmm.”
The next place we arrived at was affected by Preta’s subconsciousness. Under the red eye moon, a golden wheat field spread. Between the grains of wheat, farmers were bent down, focused on their work. Preta’s face quickly hardened, so I could immediately tell what the field was mimicking.
“This is Estelle’s village,” I guessed.
“Yes, it is.”
It was the village that the Aegim Empire and the allied forces had devastated. The children I had seen in Preta’s trauma used to play in this wheat field.
“Master Spirit! Master Spirit!”
A giant wolf with blue fur was lying on a pile of ripened golden wheat. It opened its eyes to look at the children approaching it.
“We have a gift for you!”
“We picked the prettiest flowers to make this!”
The village children gave the wolf a flower wreath. Too bad that the wolf’s head was too big for it to fit. The children were briefly at a loss on what to do next, but they just decided to hang the wreath on one of the wolf’s ears. It looked as if the wolf was wearing a flower earring.
The wolf purred with satisfaction, allowing the children to climb on its back. The wind blew and gently caressed the wheat field, spreading the children’s laughter and happiness.
“That wolf is...”
“It’s my pipe dream,” Preta muttered, her voice calm. “I once thought what would have happened if I hadn’t eaten Estelle and remained an animal. Then I wouldn’t have been revered as Estelle the Saintess or condemned as a witch. The village wouldn’t have burned down either.”
She reached for her sword. “It’s a foolish thought. If I hadn’t eaten her, I wouldn’t have been able to understand humans. I can only understand the prey I digest. If I hadn’t done what I did, I would have never wanted to spend time with humans like you just witnessed. This dream contradicts itself in many ways.”
Preta approached the wheat field. The wolf carrying the children stopped in its tracks as they faced each other. Preta looked up at her dream with cold eyes, then pulled out her sword and cut the wolf in two.
As soon as Preta’s sword cut the wolf, it melted into pink paint. The children on the wolf’s back, the farmers working in the wheat fields, and the village all melted in the blink of an eye.
Preta remained alone under the red eye moon. She slowly turned in my direction. “Phew. Let’s get going, Master.”
“That was very quick and decisive. Regardless of everything, the dream showed you something that would have made you happy.”
“With all due respect, I haven’t lived a life so light that I would throw myself into a contradictory delusion. I still clearly remember the moment I drank Estelle’s blood and ate her flesh. How could I pretend it never happened, even inside a dream?”
I nodded. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”
We resumed our journey. On the way, we encountered the dreams of the Heavenly Demon Cult members and Uburka.
Uburka from the Phantom Realm was sitting on me and yelling “Ugor!” It seemed his subconsciousness was also reflected since he had also been in contact with the concubi.
“Are we still far from this world’s core?”
“No, we’re almost there.” Preta kicked Uburka the Concubus and pointed in the distance. “I can feel a presence there that is comparable to a Constellation.”
An old barbed wire fence surrounded the area guarded by a concubus. As we approached, they tilted their head and said, “Whoa. You’re still sane? Interesting.”
The concubus looked familiar. Although it was much smaller and more delicate than I remembered, I realized who they were mimicking.
“Black Dragon Master?” I asked with a frown.
The younger version of the Black Witch stood up. “Yes, that’s what you call her. This is how she used to look when she was about seven or eight years old. We aren’t born with a face of our own, so we have to borrow the forms of animals in some way to communicate. This one is the only person you cherish and can talk to rationally.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“It simply means that you won’t get caught up in your emotions easily.”
The concubus glanced over my shoulder. Yoo Soo-Ha, Preta, Goldencup, the Four Demon Kings, and the cultists were right behind me.
The concubus shrugged. “There are so many guests, but I don’t even have a tea table to serve you. I’m sorry, but please understand. This is a shabby place where you have nothing to loot, so why would you bring so many soldiers here?”
“Right back at you. You’re crossing the ocean to invade my children’s continent.”
“The smell of blood naturally attracts wild animals.”
“In that sense, it’s natural for the strong to kick the weak in the ass, so I hope you’ll listen to me.”
“How scary.”
“Do you want me to become even scarier?” I asked, approaching the concubus. “I’m thinking you regard us lightly because physical force isn’t really effective here.”
“Hmm. What if we are?”
“If we can’t talk this out, I have no choice but to use an extreme measure of my own.”
The young concubus giggled. “Interesting. I would appreciate it if you could tell me what kind of extreme measure that is.”
I summoned the Skill Card of Monster Legion Reincarnation. The golden card sparkled in my hand. “I have a Skill that allows me to resurrect the dead. I’ll kill you all and bring you back to life. Those I kill have to submit to my commands after I revive them. It’s no problem for me to take you concubi under my command.”
The concubus listened quietly.
“Do you think I’m bluffing?” I asked, staring right into the concubus’ eyes.
I had already wiped out the Immortal Happiness Preacher. There was no reason I couldn’t do the same thing twice. The smile melted from the concubus’ mouth and they shook their head.
“No, I don’t doubt your sincerity, Death King, because you are very scary. I just feel sad for you.”
“Sad? Why?”
“To be exact, this sadness isn’t ours. It belongs to the animal whose body I’m mimicking. In the end, the way you persuade us is also based on the logic of power.”
I heard a gunshot from the other side of the barbed fence.
“Master!”
“Lord Young Heaven!”
Preta and the Four Demon Kings instantly surrounded me, but I was fine. It seemed like they weren’t hurt either.
After seeing our reactions, the concubus laughed a little louder. “Don’t worry. To use your term, this is also a pipe dream. The more we learn about how a single moment of experience leaves an imprint in you, the more surprising we find you people.”
Gunshots still rang out beyond the barbed wire fence. When I looked in the direction of the noise, a man with a bushy beard held a small child in his arms as he ran toward me, panting. It looked like someone was chasing them. The man kept looking back, yet he held the child really tightly in his arms, not intending to ever let her go.
The man whispered, “Never look back. Do you understand?”
“Okay.”
After hearing the child’s voice, I realized this was a memory from the Black Witch’s childhood. Both the man and the child had stains on their clothes, probably because they hadn’t washed them for a long time. Mud had gotten on the hem of the man’s pants and was there to stay. With heavy steps, the man and child were running away from whatever was chasing them.
I recalled a story the Black Witch had told me long ago.
“Yes, for me, it’s a memory from when I was seven years old. When I still lived in the outside world, my father died during the civil war.”
There was a very narrow gap in the barbed fence. The man forced the child into the gap as gunshots were drawing closer and closer.
“I was running away with my parents at the time. I think soldiers were chasing after us. Father stayed behind.”
“Dad! Dad!” the child screamed.
“Never look back! Go! I’ll be right behind you!”
The man forcibly pushed the child to the other side of the barbed fence. The child continued to scream, but slowly started to run like her father had told her to.
“I ran without looking back.”
After that, I could no longer see the man, probably because the Black Witch couldn’t either. However, I heard a thud as something fell to the ground right before the memories of the barbed fence came to an end.
I could guess where the thud came from. After sending the child away, the man probably tried to climb over the fence as if it were a tree, but a bullet shot him dead. That was probably the story behind the last gunshot the Black Witch remembered.
“No matter how strong someone is, they can’t turn back time,” the concubus said calmly. “Therefore, prevention is the best solution. You have to prepare for every possible scenario. That is why the Black Dragon Master thinks the way she does. Whenever she meets someone, she has the habit of thinking about their death. How pitiful.”
“I already know this.”
“Is that so? Then are you also aware that the Black Dragon Master has prevented eight kidnappings and assassination attempts against you so far?”
I looked at the concubus with surprise.“What?”
“You became a star overnight. It’s not surprising there are factions out there that have malicious intentions toward you. Although the Black Witch has destroyed as many as she could, spies from various countries from the outside world still remain in the Tower.”
I remained silent.
“Without power, you can’t even protect the people around you.”
Rumble.
The red eye moon in the Phantom Realm’s sky split apart, breaking into pieces and falling somewhere over the horizon.
“Death King, you have power, so we’ll yield for now. We’ll ask our kin who have set sail across the sea to return, but you won’t be able to stay on the continent forever and take care of the seven species, will you?”
The ground became soft until it turned into a pink sea. Moon pieces fell into the sea with heavy splashes.
“You only subdued us temporarily, but you will never be able to truly prevail upon us. After all, that’s how coercion of physical force works.”
A tsunami rose from the sea in the spot the fragments of the moon had fallen. The moment the water soared to the sky and was about to hit us, the concubus melted and the Phantom Realm collapsed.
“See you next time, Death King.”
***
“—Death King? Are you okay, Junior?”
I came to my senses. The Black Witch was looking at me with a worried expression.
“Senior?”
“Thank god. Your eyes have regained focus.”
I looked around. I wasn't in the jungle of Uburka’s dream, but lying down in the square of the pioneer village.
I murmured, “The concubi...”
“Right after you started talking to the horned deer, I was suddenly kicked out of the dream. What happened? Were you able to persuade them or not?”
“For now, yeah.”
As proof, the villagers lying in the square began to wake up one by one. They were a bit slow, perhaps because they had been sleeping for a long time, but fortunately, their lives didn’t seem to be in danger.
The Black Witch finally heaved a deep sigh in relief. “Good job. You can tell me what happened later—”
I grabbed her wrist. “Senior, I have something I need to tell you.”
She looked back at me, tilting her head. “Why do you look so serious?”
“Because this is serious.”
A strange silence hung between us.
I took several deep breaths before I looked straight into her eyes and said, “Senior, I’m a regressor.”
