Chapter 35: “That Which Is Never Inherited (1)”

It was the day after that terrible dream.

Having prepared as best as we could, we were walking through a forest full of vibrant red autumn leaves on our way to the land of dragons.

By “we,” I mostly mean Natalia and myself.

The Hero and Laura were riding in a palanquin carried by hand.

Not a carriage, not on horseback, but a palanquin carried by actual people.

To be honest, the Hero could walk faster than this.

It seemed ridiculous, but apparently, it was tradition.

Until the formal marriage ceremony began, the couple wasn’t supposed to show their faces.

Personally, I was grateful I didn’t have to see that damned Hero’s face.

Who knows what would’ve happened if I had seen his face that morning… I don’t even want to imagine it.

Natalia and Laura once mentioned how looking at the Hero put them at ease.

Sometimes, I wish I felt the same way.

No, I can’t let myself think like that. Damn it.

“Are we really walking to our destination like this?”

To reiterate, the Hero’s party was walking through a forest filled with autumn leaves.

No horses, no teleportation magic—just walking on foot.

The land of dragons was a place I’d never seen, even in the game.

Could it really be reached just by walking?

My legs were already at their limit.

Maybe others could keep going, but I was never built for endurance.

I wasn’t as fragile as a glass fish, but these long marches didn’t suit me.

“We’re almost there. Just a little more patience.”

“You’ve said that four times already…”

I turned to see the porters carrying the palanquin and Natalia walking steadily.

Everyone seemed to have great stamina, which made my complaints feel embarrassing.

The Hero and Laura couldn’t leave the palanquin or speak, so the only ones who could listen to me were Natalia or the Dragonkin envoy, Louis.

Louis, who looked like an elderly man, just kept repeating with a kind smile that we were “almost there.”

What a smooth-talking old man…

“Are you struggling?”

“No… not too much…”

When Natalia showed genuine concern, my complaints vanished.

Recently, I’d felt like everyone in the Hero’s party was handling me delicately.

The truth was, I wasn’t so much physically exhausted as I was mentally unsettled.

If I didn’t distract myself with thoughts like this, I might actually lose my mind.

Demonic crystals, an unfamiliar region that wasn’t in the game, hypnosis, that damned dream, the Hero—everything was a chaotic mess.

What schemes were waiting for us in the land of dragons?

What new garbage would the Hero show me this time?

Would I be able to resist falling into corruption again?

I couldn’t find a definitive answer, no matter how much I thought about it.

All I could do was assume that the Hero was plotting something with the demons again.

“Everyone, look ahead. This time, we’re truly here.”

Even as Louis said that, I couldn’t bring myself to trust him.

It seemed we’d have to walk a bit more anyway.

Maybe it was just a racial trait of the Dragonkin to exaggerate things.

If this were really a place that could be reached just by walking, surely it would’ve appeared in the game.

I resolved not to be deceived this time, lifting my head without any expectations as Louis twirled his staff and stroked his beard.

“Huh?”

Before me stood wooden structures lit by numerous lanterns.

We had been walking through a forest, but now an entirely different scene unfolded before my eyes.

In the distance, I could see many Dragonkin.

What… is this place?

“Between dimensions. Welcome to the land of dragons, Edirne.”

Seeing my startled expression, Louis began explaining in detail.

According to him, Edirne was a place created between dimensions, accessible only through magic from specific locations.

Wooden houses with tiled roofs, people in traditional Eastern-style clothing—

Some held long pipes, puffing out smoke, while others used small wands to move objects around.

The one thing they all had in common was the presence of small horns.

There was no doubt they were Dragonkin.

“Wow…”

“Amazing…”

To be honest, I was surprised.

This world was entirely Western in style, both in architecture and clothing.

I never expected to see an Eastern aesthetic here.

I couldn’t even imagine it.

If I found it astonishing, Natalia must’ve found it downright mystical.

I began to wonder how this area would’ve been portrayed if it had been part of the game.

“The Dragonkin don’t interact much with other races.

Because of that, they’ve developed a unique culture unseen elsewhere.”

“But Laura served as a court mage, didn’t she?”

“Lady Laura is special.

Regardless, we have high hopes for you all.”

“High hopes…?”

“For instance, defeating the Demon King with the Hero.

Ah, we’ve arrived at the queen’s palace.”

I wondered if they meant divine blessings.

I had so many questions, but as Louis spoke, we arrived at the palace ahead.

If the palace of the Kingdom of Roza was grand and towering, Edirne’s palace felt expansive and serene.

I could hear the sound of water, suggesting there was a pond nearby, but from outside, all I could see were neatly trimmed pine trees.

“The formal ceremony will begin tomorrow. Please rest well and change into the designated attire.”

“A-A ceremony in the royal palace?”

I barely had time to admire the breathtaking scenery before Louis’s words snapped me back.

No matter how much I thought about it, this sounded strange.

This was the queen’s palace.

A wedding being held in such a place?

Even though Laura was a member of the Hero’s party and carried divine blessings, it didn’t seem plausible.

The only explanation would be either that Laura’s status was much higher than I imagined, or that the Dragonkin had a tradition of holding weddings in the palace.

The latter seemed nearly impossible, though.

“Could it be… Is Laura…?”

“Yes, Lady Laura is a princess of the Dragonkin.”

I turned my head, wondering if I was the only one unaware of this fact, but Natalia looked just as startled as I was.

Laura, that lustful little brat… She turned out to have a far nobler lineage than I’d ever imagined.

“… You will never spread your wings again. Such sad words, don’t you think?”

“That’s all in the past, isn’t it? We’re no different from humans now.”

“If only that were true…”

In a room bathed in the glow of the evening sun, a woman with long, flowing white hair, Selene, examined a black crystal.

“You will never spread your wings again.”

Those words were a curse etched into the hearts of every Dragonkin—a hateful reminder of their plight.

Selene had spared no effort in trying to break that curse.

She joined forces with the Hero summoned from another world and worked tirelessly to defeat the Demon King who had descended upon this one.

Though she was praised by many as one of the Five Champions, Selene never acted out of a sense of duty or a desire to save the world.

Her sole motivation was selfish.

She thought that by saving the world alongside the Hero chosen by the gods, the curse on her people might be lifted.

As a hero, she wore a mask of virtue, but in the end, even after sealing the Demon King, nothing changed.

“How cruel the gods are. Elves, humans, and dragons—three races crafted by the gods themselves, yet only humans are allowed happiness.”

“Lady Selene…”

Three hundred years ago, Selene joined the Hero to lift the curse placed upon the dragons.

But when it was all over, all she had left was a body tainted by demonic energy.

Even with her unparalleled knowledge of the world’s mysteries, she could not completely rid herself of the corruption.

Her body had been utterly ruined in the process of transferring all the demonic energy into the black crystal embedded in her staff.

She barely survived, but now she could not even walk properly without help.

The dignity of Selene, queen of the Dragonkin and one of the Five Champions, was nowhere to be found.

“Is it truly right to pair that child with the Hero?

Can we ever be forgiven for this?

I find myself wondering sometimes…”

“You must remain steadfast.

Three hundred years ago, we only managed to seal the Demon King, but this time, if we can destroy him…

We will surely find redemption.”

“To wash away the sin of pride…”

“Yes, to wash away our pride and return to being the great dragons we once were.”

Long ago, when the gods created this world, the dragons were the second beings they crafted.

The elves, their first creation, were overly dependent on the gods.

Using that failure as a lesson, the gods gifted the dragons with numerous abilities so they could solve their own problems.

The dragons, hailed as the gods’ greatest masterpiece, soon became arrogant.

They grew so prideful that they dared to challenge the gods themselves, soaring ever higher into the sky.

“Ever higher, ever higher…”

Among the dragons, it became a goal to rival the gods.

Disappointed once again in their creation, the gods delivered a decree:

“You will never spread your wings again.”

The dragons began to lose their reason and forgot how to fly.

The once-greatest race was reduced to mere beasts, a consequence of their hubris.

To escape the curse, the dragons had to assume the human forms they once scorned.

This marked the beginning of the Dragonkin.

They were willing to do anything to earn the gods’ forgiveness, even if it meant sacrificing themselves.

“My body, tainted by demonic energy…

There is nothing I can pass on to that child.”

“I will ensure everything is prepared perfectly.”

The Dragonkin placed great expectations on Laura.

Born with the purest bloodline and the greatest magical talent, she was also the most at risk when Ancestral Regression occurred.

Yet, she also held the greatest potential to help the Hero defeat the Demon King.

On top of that, she had suddenly received the blessing of the gods.

Though Selene doubted herself due to her past failures, she had no other choice.

Her days were numbered.

She had to suppress Laura’s Ancestral Regression and use what little life she had left to separate the Demon King’s power from the Saint’s body.