9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 86 - Treasure Chest (3)

“No matter how I think about it, this is insane…”

Fael sighed softly and frowned.

He had spent an entire day arguing with Namir. Of course, since they couldn’t be discovered by the dragon, they did it while crouched in the rocky crevices without using their bodies.

“The history of dragon breeding only goes back about 300 years. It was a mage from Rubellia who invented the control magic, and that person was a human who hadn’t received elven blood.

But the legend of ancient elves commanding dragons is famous even among humans, right? They say there was ancient magic lost when the Great Forest disappeared.

But in all the literature I’ve collected so far, there isn’t a single line about such ancient magic. It’s just in the realm of vague imagination.

Then how exactly did the elves control ferocious red dragons for hundreds of years? This story might have the answer. Maybe the magic-infused blood itself was the secret?”

“Even so, we’re not certain that Fa-Elhar received royal blood.”

When one of the workers objected, Namir wore a confident expression.

“Brother is definitely of royal lineage. Actually, I collected royal genealogies. According to the genealogies, after the kingdom fell, countless people died or fled, but some remained in the Great Desert.

What’s amazing is that all the chieftain families that have survived to this day branched off from the royal family.

In other words, even though the Great Forest disappeared and became the Great Desert, the people living on it are still under the rule of royalty.”

“But there’s been a thousand-year gap, wouldn’t the blood have gotten mixed or something?”

At the cautious question, Namir openly snorted.

“Ha! As if? Brother is one of the few pure-blood elves left in the Great Desert. Pure among the pure.”

“Namir.”

Fael tried to stop him with a trembling voice, but…

“Why, are you scared? You’re the one who said bloodlines and such things don’t matter. Listen well, everyone. Brother is from that great Golden Clan! It’s not just that human blood wasn’t mixed in. He’s from a bloodline that has continued through intermarriage only among the five most noble chieftain families in the Great Desert.”

“Th-that’s incest?”

Someone muttered in surprise and then quickly covered their mouth.

“You could call it that. To defend brother, even if they’re descendants of the same royal family, if you trace it properly they’d be quite distantly related. Anyway, what’s important is just the fact that the blood flowing in brother’s veins comes from Queen Rasha I, who founded the Elf Kingdom.”

When Namir’s long speech ended, everyone was looking at Fael with surprised expressions.

No matter how much one argued that blood relations weren’t important, no matter how much one dismissed such things as relics of the old era, blood still wielded powerful influence.

Especially among the continental elves who always longed for their homeland.

Fael squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, Namir was glaring at him as if in a staring contest.

“…How long have you known?”

“About five years after you left? At first I was curious about what made you and me so different. The sense of loss I felt from father and the tribespeople—it couldn’t be explained just by losing the eldest son. When I asked father, he avoided the topic. I collected books earnestly and eventually found out.”

He smiled uneasily.

“Don’t worry, you want to escape from things like bloodlines and heir duties, right? I know that well. You find it sickening. But right now all I want is to get rid of that dragon.”

***

“Are you readyyyy?!”

A worker shouted through cupped hands.

From the bottom of the cliff, out of the dragon’s line of sight, Fael waved his arms wide to signal affirmatively.

Namir’s suggestion to get eaten was naturally a joke. They put their heads together and found a more realistic method.

“Then let’s begin!”

Fael flew high against the backdrop of a star-filled sky.

They had deliberately waited for a windy night. Because he needed to conserve magical power. Riding the cold blowing wind, he flew toward the dragon that appeared to be sleeping deeply.

Finally approaching right in front of the dragon’s closed eyes, he took out magical fireworks from his chest. Something Namir had brought saying he’d use them for the ritual.

He lit the fireworks and threw them over the dragon’s head.

For a moment there was no reaction…

Bang! Pop-pop-bang!

When colorful sparks and noise burst forth, the dragon opened its eyes.

As Fael flew over the dragon’s head, the dragon lifted its head and waited obediently as if it knew what he was going to do.

“Hmm.”

Breathing out a light sigh, Fael paused his movements for a moment, then mercilessly slashed his left arm with the silver dagger in his hand. Along with intense pain, warm blood flowed down in streams.

The dragon opened its mouth wide.

Red blood beading on the giant beast’s tongue, drop by drop. The precious blood of the Golden Clan.

“My god, Namir’s words were…”

Really true.

Fael muttered in bewilderment.

The red dragon’s yellow eyes flashed like a cat’s.

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, a sticky sensation wrapped around his left arm. The dragon’s tongue, as big as a human torso, was coiled around his arm, sucking his blood.

Though goosebumps rose all over his body, the dragon quickly released his arm, closed its mouth, and tilted its head.

An expression that seemed to ask, ‘Sorry. Did that hurt?’

That is, if dragons could have expressions.

‘No, they must. A beast that has lived with people for so long.’

But Fael couldn’t understand the dragon’s smile.

Could it really become so docile just from drinking a little blood?

It looked exactly like meeting an old friend again after a very long time.

‘Really strange. Does my blood have some magical effect?’

While floating in the air, lost in deep thought…

“Kuuuuuu!”

The dragon roared.

No, perhaps it purred.

Opening its mouth wide, it sank its fangs into its own thick arm. Then it slowly extended it toward Fael.

“This? You want me to eat it?”

Fael muttered, not even certain if the dragon understood language.

As he hesitated with a frowning face, the dragon’s hand approached.

Thud!

With a tremendous sound, a huge blood drop fell onto his face.

“Hhk!”

The sweet salty smell rushing into his nostrils. A scent different from human blood. When he tried to scream because he couldn’t breathe, only a deflated sound leaked out.

The moment he swallowed the lump of blood that filled his mouth, Fael’s consciousness fell into the darkness beyond.

***

Where is this?

It feels warm. But I can’t breathe. Unknown voices, heard faintly from far away.

“A divine beast to protect the kingdom…”

“The more noble blood it drinks, the stronger the binding…”

It’s stuffy, I want to get out of here!

Thunk, thunk, I hit my head against the hard membrane that confined me. The membrane gradually cracked, and as I felt the cool air, I cried.

“Kiiiii!”

Soon warm hands lifted me up, and strange water flowed into my mouth.

Too salty, my tongue feels like it’s burning, but it’s delicious!

I lapped it up greedily. The hands that held me kept stroking my small body.

“Ela, shail o baruka!”

In a bright white room where sunlight streamed in, the beings surrounding me sang a strange song.

Full and comfortable, I fell asleep. Someone whispered in my ear.

“Tan.”

My name is Tan.

I grew up among those who called themselves elves. They gave me dead beast meat every day.

But I wanted to eat more of that salty, strange red liquid.

“Tan, good job.”

Only one male elf could pet me. His name was ‘Your Majesty.’

When he said I did well, the red liquid came as food.

When I first breathed fire, when I flapped my wings and floated up, when I tore apart with my claws some male elf that Your Majesty disliked.

Your Majesty’s touch felt so good that I did whatever he told me to do.

I caught and ate the large black bears of the forest. I carried Your Majesty on my back and flew through the sky. I roared and breathed fire at the place Your Majesty pointed to, where thousands of elves had gathered.

“Tan, good job.”

I liked those words.

When I grew a little bigger, Your Majesty died. I was so sad I cried for days. And I tried to leave the forest.

I too wanted to meet a good female and lay eggs. But Your Majesty’s daughter approached me.

“Tan.”

That female elf said she was the new Your Majesty.

I didn’t understand. But she also gave me red liquid.

I continued to serve Your Majesty.

Until the son of the daughter of the son of the son of the daughter of the nephew of the brother of the granddaughter of the son of the daughter of the younger sibling of the son became Your Majesty.

The forest dried up.

I wanted to run away. The forest was no longer beautiful, nor did it speak to me.

But the fourteenth Your Majesty wouldn’t release me.

“Tan, you have work to do.”

Saying that while stroking my scales, I didn’t run away.

From then on, Your Majesty gave me neither dead beasts nor red liquid.

Instead, they said if I waited just a little, I could eat much more meat and red liquid.

I endured.

I endured and endured again.

While I was curled up lying down because I was hungry, someone entered my room.

There were two of them. They were whispering quietly but I could feel they were very angry.

“Princess, please…! Reconsider!”

“Step aside, Kamar. You said it yourself. A country that can only survive by sacrificing countless people and drinking blood is better off destroyed.”

“Th-that was a slip of the tongue!”

“No, I know you were sincere. This country has accumulated too much karma. Even if we win the war against humans, terrible curses will surely come. It’s better to perish early and disappear than that.”

“Princess…!”

“Be quiet. The guards will wake up. You know what happens when someone who isn’t the king intrudes into the dragon’s room, right?”

The male shut his mouth. Then the female approached me and embraced my neck, whispering.

“Tan, you’ll become a bit braver. When the obedience carved into your blood disappears, you’ll be able to slaughter the demons of this mad kingdom. Then fly away freely afterward. When you disappear, humans will burn the forest. That would be good. So no more evil deeds repeat. Everyone will be left with only bones.”

With weak eyes open, I quietly purred to the female elf born from Your Majesty. She wasn’t going to be the next Your Majesty, but I liked her.

She placed her hand that shimmered with light on my body and muttered strange words. The elves used to call that a ‘spell.’

When the spell ended, I suddenly felt very strange.

My teeth tingled, I wanted to bite and tear everything. The warmth that had been nestled inside me since I hatched from my egg could no longer be felt.

A hollow emptiness as if my heart had been emptied, an unfillable longing dominated me.

I wanted red liquid. Very much. And I wanted to fly away to a place where there was no Your Majesty or elves.

Unknown anger surged and I rolled around the entire room.

Stuffy! Stuffy!

When I was about to rampage, the elves entered my room. They put heavy metal chains on me and dragged me to the forest where there were no trees.

“Elashir! Give us strength! Help the divine beast you sent slaughter humans!”

There were many elves.

Your Majesty, who had climbed to the highest place, spread his arms wide and was shouting something.

Ah, the smell of red liquid.

It was too stimulating a scent for me who had starved for months.

I opened my mouth and cried out.

Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry!

My front and back legs swelled up firmly. The metal chains broke. I spread my wings and flew toward Your Majesty.

Crunch!

The red liquid that burst from Your Majesty’s head sweetly moistened the inside of my mouth.

The elves either screamed and ran away, fell to the ground, or drew swords and staffs and charged at me.

Crunch! Crunch!

I chewed and swallowed all the elves that gave off delicious smells.

And the last remaining one, the female elf who had cast a spell on me, was praying with her eyes closed.

I approached her last.

“Tan, thank you.”

She stroked my snout while shedding tears. I opened my mouth.

Crunch!!!

I flew.

Full and feeling good, I flew freely through the sky.

But when winter came to the forest, the anger that had been boiling inside me disappeared. And I realized.

That I would never meet Your Majesty again, nor drink red liquid. That made me sad, so I cried sniffling.

I lived alone hunting the animals of the forest. I often encountered females wanting to mate, but I felt no interest.

One day, I arrived at a place full of blue water.

When I licked it with my tongue, it tasted similar to red liquid but different.

That place Your Majesty called the ‘sea.’ I had seen elves who weren’t elves chase the elves toward the sea.

The forest disappeared. The forest that had been gradually shrinking for as long as I could remember finally turned into a sandy plain.

From where the forest had been to the sea, everything was covered with sand. So even the non-elves disappeared. The sandy land became empty.

But I still lived on.

A very, very long time passed.

I no longer had anything I wanted to do.

After flying in circles through the sky, I returned to the desolate sea again. Where the blue water was visible, I dug a burrow in the sand.

The elves went out to sea, so they would come back to the sea again. Then Your Majesty would come too.

I fell asleep waiting for Your Majesty.