Dragonlord

Ep 51. Confessions of the Historian: The Price of Peace

Hero. It’s a pleasant title.

At times, a warrior of unquestioned valor. At times, an inventor of astounding genius. At times, a protector of unyielding resolution. Their accomplishments build their lives, and such lives are remembered as heroes.

However, a hero cannot be birthed by accomplishments alone – for a hero always requires an adversary. Whether it be an enemy on the battlefield, the hardships of their people, nature itself…

Or, at times, evil foretold by divine will.

✧ ✧ ✧

“Hm? A foreigner?”

“…”

A proud warrior came to a halt as his sabatons made a rugged metallic noise upon the rocky valley floors. He scowled at the sentry who’d referred to him as a mere ‘foreigner.’

When the warrior scanned the man that stood before him, he could plainly see their two horns jutting above their head. A black, scaled tail stretched behind them, as did their dark grey wings. Despite their human form, the individual was clearly a dragon.

And behind the dragon, countless people, humans and dragons alike, bustled about through their days – almost as if it were a regular human village.

“This is…”

“Ah, this must be a rather odd sight for a foreigner. There’s nothing to be wary of. The outskirts of our nest shouldn’t be any different from your own villages.”

“Nest…?”

The armored warrior glared at the dragon that stood guard of this supposed ‘nest.’

A demon was standing guard in front of an encampment containing humans. More often than not, such occurrences only indicated slavery taking place.

Everything was distasteful in the warrior’s eyes. The dragon’s crossed arms, their attitude as an equal, or the human woman at his side. Any of it.

“All demons stoop to the same level, I see. Reaping the fruits of our subjugation?”

“…What? No. We simply live together in these parts.”

A few villagers picked up the commotion at the entrance. A number of them even approached the armored man, correcting the warrior’s statement.

“That’s going too far. The dragons are fellow villagers to us. Be careful with your words, stranger.”

“Yeah! Uncle Betel’s super nice!”

The human villagers’ words seemed to fall on deaf ears. The warrior clenched his fists in anger, glaring at the black dragon before him.

“Even children…!”

The dragon rolled his eyes, letting out a tired sigh at the angry figure before him. The foreigner was clearly filtering everything he didn’t want to hear.

“Listen, it may be hard to believe if you came from other parts, but this is how we live here. We-“

“Silence! Damned demons. After subjugating our bodies as slaves, now you seek to subjugate our minds?!”

The warrior unsheathed his blade, pointing its gleaming edge towards the annoyed dragon.

The villagers hurriedly took a few steps back, pulling their children away from the armed man. The dragon himself frowned and gently shook off the woman clinging on his arm, motioning for her to stay away.

The armored man didn’t seem to care. The anger in his eyes only intensified.

“My name is George Goldcrown, a divine hero chosen to slay the world’s evil! I will slay every single one of you and free these villagers!”

The man didn’t hesitate for a moment before swinging his sword in an attempt to cleave the dragon before him. The dragon hurriedly retreated a few steps as the metal slashed past his face.

“…This bastard…!”

The warrior disallowed the dragon from retreating. He pulled back his free arm and dashed forward in split moments to smash his fist into his enemy.

A quick retaliation followed as the dragon kicked the armed figure back. The two struck at each simultaneously, sending each other flying across the distance. The warrior crashed into a boulder outside the village, the dragon into a nearby structure.

Several screams followed as villagers began to flee from the scene. The woman that had been standing beside the dragon earlier screamed in panic.

“A…are you alright?!”

When the dust settled, the warrior fixed his grip on his weapon as he pulled himself back.

“This is nothing. I’m-“

It didn’t take long for the man to realize that the woman’s question hadn’t been directed at him. The woman was busily tending to the fallen dragon.

“Betel! Your eye…!”

The black dragon slowly emerged from the broken remains of the structure he’d crashed into. One hand covered his slashed right eye that was soaked in blood.

“…Haha, it’s bearable. I’m glad there wasn’t anyone in the storage.”

“W, wait here! I’ll bring others in a moment!”

The warrior gritted his teeth as he watched the woman run off into the distance, deeper into the village. His sabatons furiously slammed into the ground as he approached the dragon again.

“Calling on your brethren through your slaves? You’re a disgrace as a warrior, demon.”

Betel shook his head. He didn’t even know what to say at this point to the delusional figure.

When he was only a few steps away, the warrior proudly raised his weapon into the air, gripping the hilt with both hands. Its blade shone in a brilliant golden light, crackling in heated energy.

“Holy light, give me strength!”

Betel narrowed his eyes as he braced for the oncoming attack. This human’s might was far beyond anything he’d seen in mankind, but he couldn’t risk avoiding the conflict – behind the dragon was their home and children, and he’d been tasked with protecting it from intruders.

Although, no one had expected the intruder to be a human.

“…Tch.”

After kicking his tongue, black scales rapidly began to replace the dragon’s skin. His pupils sharpened into a beastlike shape. The dragon’s body rapidly expanded in size as he stretched one arm forward in an attempt to stop the swing altogether.

With a tremendous roar, the warrior swung down his sword at the demon before him.

“DIE!!”

✧ ✧ ✧

Following a series of hurried footsteps, a woman burst into an elder dragon’s shelter.

“E…Elder Arkrana!!”

The steel dragon’s gaze drifted over. She dropped the tome she was reading, turning to her panting guest.

“…Burnet? Is something the matter?”

“Th, there’s someone attacking Betel! He’s already hurt badly…!”

Arkrana immediately rose to her feet. Her expression hardened as she approached the woman.

“An attack?! Is it the griffins again?”

“No! It was a….it was a human person!”

“…A human? Why would-”

“Please, hurry! I’ll call on Pallas!”

The steel dragon noted the hurry in the woman’s eyes, realizing she wouldn’t have time to hear an answer. Nodding back, Arkrana briskly exited her small shelter as gleaming wings stretched out of her back with a crunching noise. Soon after, the dragon kicked against the ground, launching herself into the air as she blitzed across the sky.

Far up ahead, she could see a patch of black scales at the village entrance: for some reason, Betel was in his dragon form.

‘What happened? That’s going too far to deal with a mere human-‘

As their distance rapidly closed, Arkrana could see the black dragon’s stretched, severed arm. His head and chest were covered in blood, and a grinning human triumphantly stood over Betel, one foot planted in the dragon’s head.

“Haha! Just as I thought, even a dragon pales in comparison to the might of the divin-“

The warrior felt something cold and heavy clasping his head from the side. An ominous, metallic voice screeched into his ears.

“Die.”

Arkrana’s momentum carried her hand forward as her feet crashed into the ground like a meteorite beside their assailant. Before the warrior’s body could even decide on a reaction, the iron grip around his head tightened and twisted, ripping it off of his body.

The elder dragon smashed the headless warrior’s body out of the way. She rapidly ran her hand over the black dragon, trying to wake him up.

“Betel! Betel, are you alive?!”

A low rumbling followed as the black dragon’s remaining eye slowly opened.

“...Elder…Arkrana.”

“Hold on. Burnet’s gone to call on Pallas! Bear it just a while longer.”

“Ahaha…you’re far too concerned, elder. I’m no longer a hatchling. A scratch or two won’t…”

Crunch!

The black dragon never managed to finish his sentence as a gigantic pillar of ice smashed into his scaled neck. A second one soon followed, skewering through his upper body.

Arkrana stared at the glimmering pillars in a daze.

‘…Ice?’

Finally, the steel dragon’s ears picked up a series of small footsteps from behind. When she turned her head, three more figures were in the distance, standing above a low, rocky cliff.

“Got one!”

“Damn it, did they get George? Told him to not run ahead like that…”

“Let’s go! It was always do or die anyways. Our enemies are dragons, put your lives on it!”

The three humans were glaring at the metal dragon with evident hatred. Arkrana herself returned a blank stare, unable to understand what was going on.

‘Humans are attacking us?...Why?’

As the three descended the cliff to approach Arkrana with their weapons raised, one of the villagers that had been watching from a distance finally threw himself towards the oncoming party, trying to stop their advances.

“S, stop! Why are you doing this?!”

One of the three shook their heads as they forcibly moved the man out of the way. A determined look spoke of their spirit as they answered.

“Fear not! We’ll free you of the demon’s clutches ere long!”

Meanwhile, the mage in the party raised her staff up high, chanting something under her breath. Several spikes of ice once again formed above her, launching themselves straight towards the two dragons in the distance.

Arkrana raised one arm to eye level. Layers of metal grew out of her limb to form a web-like barrier, shielding her and Betel from the spell.

In the gaps of the expanded metal, the elder dragon’s furious eyes glared into the figures attacking her kin.

“Humans…do you realize what you’re doing?”

A hulking man stepped forth in response, threateningly pointing his halberd at the steel dragon.

“Ours is but to slay all evil that plagues the star! That, is the holy mission entrusted to us heroes!””

The steel dragon let out a sarcastic snort. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

‘Evil? Us? You would call the dragonkin evil?’

But before she could answer, a volley of arrows rained down upon the metal dragon, each emitting a fiery glow. One by one they began to burst upon impact, covering the elder in a series of small explosions.

Arkrana walked forth, ignoring the smoke and fire. Mere arrows coated in flames weren’t of any threat to the steel dragon. The web-like metal that had grown out of her limb retreated back, reforming into a blade-like shape with a deathly screech.

An ominous gaze swept the field as Arkrana approached the party of heroes. Each step was accompanied by an echoing thud as the steel dragon’s weight beared down on the earth beneath.

“…You damned insects.”

✧ ✧ ✧

The woman’s desperate cries echoed throughout the valley.

“Betel…Betel!”

Arkrana turned away from the motionless black dragon. Her eyes fell on another elder dragon on his knees, busily running their hand over Betel’s breathless body.

“Pallas…couldn’t you do something?”

The elder dragon frowned as his eyes met Arkrana’s. He slowly rose back to his feet, shaking his head in dismay.

“I’m sorry, Arkrana. The ice has pierced both his neck and heart. There’s nothing I can do.”

Arkrana bit her lips. If their eldest healer deemed one beyond saving, that was the end of it.

Meanwhile, the woman’s tiny hands desperately clawed against the black dragon’s face. She couldn’t even hear the elder dragons conversing behind her.

Before, Betel would easily awake when she rubbed him between his eyes and snout. He’d complain about being ticklish, and drench her from head to toe with one lick.

Now, the dragon remained motionless. His eyes refused to open as they would before.

“Betel, please…you promised you’d be here forever. How could you leave like this? How could you leave before me…”

Pallas, too, turned his eyes away from the grieving woman. Times like these, he cursed his own hearing.

“…Arkrana, was it the griffins again? We’ve quarreled from time to time, but this is…”

“They were humans.”

“…Humans?”

“Yes. All four of them.”

“Humans attacked us? What reason could they possibly have to attack us?”

“I do not know. They screamed of a holy mission of some sort.”

“…”

A heavy shadow crept up Pallas’ face. One hand clasped his lips as he began to recall a few recent events.

“A holy mission…? If this is the war Eden warned us of…”

“Silence, Pallas.”

Arkrana’s gaze sharpened into a glare as she cut off Pallas’ words.

“Do not make unfound assumptions. The war between humans and demons have naught to do with us; the lord has spoken to us of this on multiple occasions. Humans have no reason to attack us.”

“But…if the war is expanding into our nest, then perhaps we should also…”

“There is no ‘but.’”

The steel dragon completely turned her back as she began to walk away from the scene. She spat her next few words reluctantly, repressing the urge to rush to their lord’s side.

“We will remain neutral. Lord Serenis herself has ordered thus.”

We will maintain our peace.

Just as we always have.

✧ ✧ ✧

Countless heroes challenged your kin, dragonlord. Countless heroes fell to your kin.

However, the same could be said for your children. Heroes continued to emerge, and in their unexpected might, countless dragonkin fell to their blades.

To you, we were doubtlessly the evil that plagued your home. We were the antagonists that destroyed the peace you struggled to build.

But these records will forever mourn the fallen heroes. These records will forever celebrate the heroes chosen by the divine. They will be remembered as the brave and the honorable who risked their lives to slay the evil dragons.

For history, is always written by the victors.