◈ Chapter 256. It Is Not a Request, It Is an Order (1)
When I acquired [Aesthetic] or [Tenacity].
Or like when the [Title] system was unlocked.
Knowledge regarding [Legend] burrowed into my head.
But this was a little hard to explain in words……?
Unlike the stats mentioned earlier, its effects weren’t clear.
Well, you could say it lived up to the name “Legend.”
Just as all the legends one commonly hears are vague and indistinct.
The effects of [Legend] couldn’t be easily expressed either.
‘Still, if I were to explain it simply.’
This was definitely a growth-type system.
‘The more widely known it becomes, the greater its effects become…….’
If I were an ordinary player, wouldn’t I have been delighted by now?
I’d gained a new ability.
And it wasn’t a one-time thing, but a growth-type ability.
Above all, its name was [Legend], as grandiose as could be.
But at this moment, I couldn’t feel even the slightest bit happy.
[You have acquired the Legend, “Black Dark Dragon Lee Hoyeol.”]
The name of the legend was Black Dark Dragon Lee Hoyeol……!
In order to improve the ability.
I had to spread that horrifying legend even farther and wider……!
If I followed my feelings, I wanted to just sit down right here and do nothing.
‘……I won’t be able to walk around with my head held high.’
The hardships I’d gone through in reality flashed through my mind.
I am the Black Dark Dragon.
How much anxiety had I endured to hide that fact?
And yet, as if all that suffering had been for nothing.
On the Arcana Continent.
To think the rumors had already spread enough to become a legend.
‘Who was it? Who the hell was it?!’
I called Haiel.
Haiel had been well-informed about the Arcana Continent since she was a lesser spirit.
If it was news about me that had become so widely discussed it turned into a legend, she should be able to find its origin without difficulty.
Soon, Haiel appeared in midair and bowed her head as always.
“Haiel greets my lord, the Black Dark Dragon.”
……
Haiel, even you?!
Just “my lord” is already mortifying enough.
Please don’t add that cumbersome epithet on top of it.
But there was a fitting reason for that title.
‘Yunaxus, the dwarves, and the emperor……?’
The legend of Black Dark Dragon Lee Hoyeol.
It was a collaborative legend created by dragons, spirits, dwarves, and humans! The moment Haiel finished speaking, I calmed myself first.
‘……It’s not like I can question anyone about it anyway.’
There were too many involved.
Meaning I couldn’t hold anyone responsible.
Besides, their intentions.
Their intentions satisfied Granfell’s standards to the utmost.
“A wise judgment.”
Suppressing the demons’ momentum with the legend of the Black Dark Dragon.
It seems none of you ate all those years for nothing.
By a method I hadn’t even imagined.
They had managed to reverse the momentum of the Arcana Continent.
‘In the end, this was goodwill too, huh.’
Hadn’t Granfell even generously accepted the Tower Master’s cat handling the situation?
Since this incident had originated from goodwill.
No matter how I, Lee Hoyeol, felt about it.
I couldn’t show my displeasure.
But I still couldn’t understand it.
Yunaxus, Chainwalker, and Haiel, fine.
The three of them were on my side.
Not only that, they were blinded by affection.
They evaluated me far too highly, so I could understand.
But Emperor, why on earth did you do that……?
‘Why did you participate in turning me into an idol?’
According to Haiel.
The emperor had officially proclaimed it before the people of Antonium.
That the adventurer Lee Hoyeol was none other than the Black Dark Dragon.
‘……Should I be glad I wasn’t there?’
Since he had declared it in the emperor’s name.
Considering the flow of time on the Arcana Continent…….
It wasn’t strange for my deeds to be reborn as a legend.
More importantly.
“Thanks to that, it seems they are all prostrating themselves quite nicely.”
The legend’s effectiveness was no joke.
I wasn’t talking about the effect of the newly unlocked system, [Legend].
The presence of demons I could sense because I was a demon hunter.
Compared to the moment just before, when I had set foot on the Arcana Continent.
The demons’ presence had definitely weakened.
‘At this rate, I can’t even say anything. Seriously…….’
What can I do? In the end, this too must be my fate.
But because of this.
Not only in reality, but also on the Arcana Continent, I have to be desperate.
Because I have to prevent this damned legend spreading across the Arcana Continent.
From overflowing into reality as much as possible!
‘To do that, first of all.’
The best course would be to make Kichi keep her mouth shut.
Needless to say, I didn’t know where on the Arcana Continent Kichi had fallen.
‘She’ll handle herself just fine.’
Still, Kichi wasn’t weak enough for me to worry about her.
We’d set a meeting place and a deadline.
Rather than spend time worrying about Kichi, worry about your own future, Hoyeol.
I asked Haiel.
“Have you heard any news regarding the elves, Haiel?”
“I am ashamed to say I have received no answer.”
“There is no need to apologize. That too must be their ability.”
Haiel gathered information through nature.
Reading the memories of leaves fluttering on the wind.
Or listening to the voices of scattering pollen.
But the problem was that elves also possessed similar abilities.
‘They’ve thoroughly gagged them, I see.’
Just how many shady things are they doing.
That they would even gag nature itself?
I suppose I’ll have to check that as well.
In that sense, specifying the location of Azentress and the elves he led came first. So if you asked how I could pinpoint their location…….
I would proudly show my inventory.
It was the [Telescope of the Demon Eye] as seen on the Arcana Continent.
After all, wouldn’t it look even clearer than when viewed from reality?
*
Crunch—!
Azentress trampled over a pile of stones.
They weren’t ordinary stones one might find rolling around.
They were remnants of a castle wall that even most siege weapons could not bring down.
“Please, spare only my life!”
Crack—
The one violently slamming his head into the ground was a demon.
Not an ordinary demon divided by grade, nor a demon with a true name.
He was a king of demons called kings, a Demon King.
Rank 30.
Demon King Shalkirawi’s mind was in chaos.
Drip!
He had slammed his head into the ground so hard.
That blood flowing from his forehead drenched his vision.
And yet, even through his murky sight, he could see it clearly.
‘Annihilation.’
Corpses strewn everywhere.
Roughly ten thousand elite soldiers of the Demon King’s army and thirty demon corps commanders.
The time it took for the entire army, excluding himself, to be annihilated was only half a day.
‘By a mere hundred people……!’
Just as a wall existed between a Demon King and an ordinary demon.
A wall also existed between the elves and himself.
And the thickness of that wall was…….
‘Thicker than the difference between me and a low-ranking demon.’
There was a separate term for such a wall.
Yes, this was a difference in “caliber.”
Shalkirawi could feel it.
‘As I am now, I cannot overcome it.’
That was why he threw away the dignity of a Demon King and prostrated himself.
He begged for his life from beings of a different caliber.
Azentress looked down at Shalkirawi with indifference.
“King of demons.”
“A king? Such words are far too generous, Elder!”
“I never thought I would be called Elder by a Demon King.”
Azentress let out a sneer.
“Unlike the other kings, you seem to have the attitude required for conversation.”
Demons.
A lowly race no better than humans.
The reason Azentress was speaking with him was simple.
Azentress continued coldly.
“Tell me the movements of the great evil, Gluttony.”
As time passed, the energy of life was fading away.
The Demon King’s castle that had collapsed in half a day was proof of that.
If Mother’s blessing had been intact, then quite literally.
He would have captured it in an instant.
‘My aging is accelerating rapidly.’
Both his own and his kin’s.
However, what was most urgent was himself.
As a primordial elf, he had lived far longer than his kin.
That was why Azentress had made a decision.
He would be the first to accept Gluttony’s proposal.
But regrettably, things had gone awry.
“Where have you hidden that great evil?”
Ever since that day, Gluttony’s trail had become unclear.
Azentress pursued the whereabouts of the blessing while also pursuing Gluttony.
And in the midst of that, he had encountered him.
Demon King Shalkirawi, who might perhaps know Gluttony’s whereabouts.
“I know nothing about that, Elder……!!”
But the answer fell below expectations.
No, since he had never expected anything from a lowly race to begin with.
Perhaps it was exactly as expected.
Step.
He was about to turn away without saying another word.
Shalkirawi sensed it.
The moment Azentress turned his head completely.
He would become a target for arrows and have his breath cut off.
Shalkirawi hurriedly opened his mouth.
“However, I dare to speak, Elder!”
Azentress stopped with his body half-turned.
His life depended on the words he uttered.
Shalkirawi continued.
“Even if you make inquiries among the Demon Kings, myself included, you will never find the great evil’s whereabouts. I am absolutely not trying to protect them. You know it as well, Elder, do you not? That demons are a lowly race that thinks only of themselves!!”
Azentress asked.
“The reason?”
“Because the great evils and we are fundamentally different.”
“Fundamentally different?”
“That is correct.”
The great evils.
They were evils that had existed on the Arcana Continent.
From before the Arcana Continent and the Demon Realm were connected.
Shalkirawi continued speaking, his head still flattened to the ground.
“We lowly Demon Kings and the great evils do not share anything like a cooperative relationship. We are rivals who desire to tear at one another’s throats and forces at any time!”
Gulp—
Was it because he was extremely tense?
After speaking that far, his throat burned.
Shalkirawi wet his throat with the blood flowing down.
Then he racked his brain.
‘……If I sell out the great evil, I can live.’
It didn’t matter even if the elf saw through his thoughts.
Because he had not spoken a lie.
Shalkirawi spoke with the utmost sincerity.
“I feel wronged, Elder! I feel wronged that I must die by your hand because of that great evil. But please understand. This resentment is not directed toward you, Elder, but toward that great evil, Gluttony!!”
Shalkirawi knew himself well.
He was one of the few demons capable of understanding his own standing.
That was the power that had allowed the unremarkable Shalkirawi.
To rise to the position of the Demon King ranked 30th.
However.
Whoosh—
The problem was that he had underestimated his opponent.
Azentress turned away just like that.
He had wondered what the demon was saying.
“I have no interest in the stories of lowly things.”
In the end, there had been no answer to what he had asked, had there?
The moment Azentress fully turned around.
Twang!
The bowstring was released.
Ssshaak!
The arrow that shot forward.
Thud!
Pierced straight through Shalkirawi.
It was an instant death.
For the end of a Demon King ranked 30th, it was unbelievably insignificant.
“That was truly a conversation that lowered one’s caliber.”
Azentress gestured.
The time given to them was not long, so they had to hurry.
At that, the elves lined up and prepared to move.
However, their steps did not fall.
“……!”
Five senses superior to every race except dragons.
The intuition based on them was warning them.
A cluster of magical light rippling in the distance.
The being slowly revealing itself.
Was incomparably dangerous.
Even so, not a single one of them raised a bow.
To be precise, not a single one of them could move.
……
Their bodies would not obey?
Their entire bodies had hardened like stone, so their feet would not move.
They could not move their fingers.
They could not even shift their gaze.
They could barely open their mouths.
“Lord Azentress……?”
If it was Lord Azentress, then surely.
He would discover the cause and resolve it.
The elves placed infinite trust in Azentress.
That was why, even toward the man who soon fully revealed himself.
They could direct hostile gazes.
And so they did not know.
At this moment.
‘……I cannot believe it.’
What expression Azentress, whom they trusted so deeply, was wearing. It was shock beyond surprise. It was distortion beyond a frown.
But no matter how hard he glared, nothing changed.
Radiant silver.
It was surely Claudi’s.
And the presence he felt.
Was surely Mother’s blessing.
Azentress muttered without realizing it.
“……This cannot be!”
...
I have no intention of praising you for bringing down a Demon King’s castle.
Your impure intentions.
I have already confirmed them all through the [Telescope of the Demon Eye].
So don’t even think about leaving the scene.
All of you are caught in the act.
As long as the [Blessing of the First World Tree] exists.
The relationship between me and the elves.
Is one of natural enemies, surpassing even that of a demon hunter and a demon.
That means I don’t need to worry about taking responsibility for the words I am about to say. It means I don’t care how arrogant Granfell’s words may be called.
“Do not dare speak of caliber before me.”
Because I am of a different “caliber” than all of you.
[The elf Azentress and the elves are subject to the “Hierarchy of Blessing.”]