The Regressed Son of a Duke is an Assassin

Chapter 277: Devil Dragon (4)

A sacred race that directly inherited the blood of the gods.

Guardians overseeing the chaotic order of the demon world.

Even the unintelligent, base demonic beasts instinctively realize they cannot approach this being—the Devil Dragon.

For that Devil Dragon to flee in fear of a mere human?

If one were to exaggerate, it could be said this act defies the flow of the world itself.

It was an event that seemed impossible.

It was merely something fascinating, just a little out of the ordinary.

Would you believe that a tiny human child, newly exposed to the world perhaps just for a decade, single-handedly subdued a demonic beast?

What if it was said they ate at the scene and even neatly cleaned up afterward?

Such a tale couldn’t even be considered a joke.

Yet, I saw it clearly with my own two eyes.

This individual was human, yet not human-like at all.

Certainly, even in the human realm, a mutant treated with contempt, I got the feeling they would be capable of great deeds.

At the thought that this being might even taste quite delightful to consume, I was interrupted by a sudden realization.

“……?”

The human caught sight of me and our gazes locked.

I will likely never forget the feeling of that moment, even after an eternity passes.

The human’s eyes glimmered like a top predator who had discovered the ultimate prey, filled with rapture.

They dared to gaze upon me—a Devil Dragon, the supreme lifeform and predator—as mere prey.

It was my first time receiving such treatment since my birth as a dragon.

I wondered if their intelligence level was even lower than that of demonic beasts, but that wasn’t the case.

The human was sincere.

They genuinely identified me as prey, a dragon, and charged.

I thought it was an unexpected stroke of misfortune, but after all, a human is still a human.

With just a snort, I could make them vanish without a trace.

However, I couldn’t.

The strength of this human far surpassed the power of me, a Devil Dragon.

Could this be the true nature of humans?

No, that couldn’t be right.

This human was clearly a miscreation!

With a strong sense of denial, for the first time within me sprung a powerful desire for survival.

In the end, I turned my back on that human and fled, too embarrassed to speak of it to anyone, including my kin, even after 10 years.

The meeting with that human was like a nightmare I never wanted to experience again, but now, 10 years later, he appeared in the demon world.

Although he grew in appearance, his eyes remained the same.

Why would he show up in such a deep, unlikely place within the demon world?

I didn’t know the reason, but I tried my best to avoid him.

I just wanted to finish my business and leave quickly, but what do you know?

The leader of my kind had designated me as a guide and instructed me to escort that human to a specific location.

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The word of our leader is absolute, and I, still not fully mature, could not dare to refuse.

Despite the unpleasant feelings I held back, I managed to bring him to the appointed place.

But why is this damned human always making my life difficult?

“Seems you’ve grown a bit, huh?”

Sian floated in the air with ease, lacking wings.

He approached the Devil Dragon quickly and blocked the way, then flashed a smile.

“Come down. Don’t we have more to do?”

“What else is there to do? I’ve fully executed Lord Nagel’s command! My work ends here!”

“Did your leader really direct you to guide me to this place? Are you sure?”

“Are you insinuating that I, a dragon who received orders directly from our leader, would deceive a mere human? For what reason!”

Regardless of how lowly humans were, there was no reason for a dragon, who had received orders from the leader of their kind, to lie to a human.

Accordingly, he led Sian to the exact location specified by Nagel without deviation.

“Your leader said this, didn’t they? They hope we never have to meet again. If I find nothing here, I’ll go back to your leader. Will that be alright with you?”

“There’s a limit to shamelessness! Why involve Lord Nagel if you can’t find anything?”

“I’m not saying I’ll blame your leader. I mean that I would blame you.”

“…….”

“If I come back because you guided me wrong. If that’s fine with you, well, I’ll go.”

The Devil Dragon exhaled heavily, clearly bothered.

In his gaze at Sian, anger mixed with a sense of injustice.

“Why are you doing this to me, exactly?”

“Out of all the mature dragons, there must be a reason why you were the one sent.”

“What?”

“Stop wasting time, and come down. Unlike you guys, I don’t have wings, so I can’t stay up long.”

Sian was the first to retract his power and descended to the ground.

“Ah, seriously, how did I end up in such a situation!”

The Devil Dragon sighed heavily as he looked up at the sky, then folded his wings and followed Sian down.

Then, he transformed back into human form through polymorph.

“You seem pretty comfortable walking around as a human, huh? Your leader does, too.”

“Don’t be sarcastic. And stop with the ‘you, you’; I have a name! Mishuka Andersen Azui……”

“Just say the first part.”

Though he wanted to shout the full name into his ears to heavily imprint it in his mind,

“…Mishuka.”

He reluctantly provided just the first name.

“Why do you unnecessarily go for such long names when your leader simply calls me ‘Nagel’?”

“It’s none of your business. I don’t understand you humans who stick to short names.”

There was no point in trying to understand each other over mere names, so Sian shifted the conversation back to the original topic.

“So, why do you think your leader guided me here?”

“Why are you asking me that……?”

Provoked by the deadly gaze that stirred past memories, Mishuka stumbled over his words a moment.

“Before asking me, maybe try sensing what’s around first.”

I have already sensed the surrounding energy multiple times.

The dry air parching my throat, the dull vegetation scent numbing my head, the occasional smell of demonic beast blood from those I’ve dealt with.

And the divine energy (神氣) unique to dragons.

Most of it seemed to emanate from Mishuka, who was beside me, but whether it was him or not, it subtly spread through the air, invisible like mist.

“You might not sense it, but within this pervasive divine energy, another type of energy is lying in wait.”

“Energy lying in wait?”

“Yeah. Concealing energy to this fine degree is impossible unless you’re someone like Lord Nagel. I’d like to see the face of the culprit.”

With those words, Sian closed his eyes and cast a spell.

“Stealth Technique Four: Detecting Intent to Kill.”

As if searching for something that didn’t exist, I excluded all immediately perceptible energies and focused on detecting hidden ones.

‘Found it.’

Just like something hidden within a small gap in a thick wall, I detected a familiar energy.

It was an aura I had encountered numerous times in the human world,

‘The aura of a holy sword.’

It was the aura of the holy sword Durandal.

“A pocket dimension.”

Using the power of a god’s artifact to create a separate space within the boundaries of dimensions, separate from reality.

The owner of the holy sword wasn’t in the human world, but rather hiding within a pocket dimension in the demon world.

Somewhere in the vicinity.

“From your expression, you’ve finally realized, but it doesn’t matter. Just knowing about the existence of a pocket dimension doesn’t mean you can…”

-Wooong!

“What, what’s that?”

Mishuka was in disbelief.

He was about to explain how complex and difficult it would be to locate the entrance to a pocket dimension now that its existence was known when, directly in front of him, Sian openly created one.

“Can you also create pocket dimensions?”

That a mere human, not a dragon, could create pocket dimensions was unthinkable.

Just what was the identity of this being?

“What are you waiting for?”

“……?”

“Come in.”

Sian entered first and gestured for Mishuka to quickly follow, tilting his head.

* * *

There’s nothing to find in the middle of nowhere.

Just as roads are found on roads, and people are sought among people, pocket dimensions must also be sought within pocket dimensions.

But honestly, this is not my area of expertise.

That talented junior of mine would be ideal in this field, but it’s currently impossible to bring him along.

Instead,

“This. What ever am I doing…….”

If we were to utilize this Devil Dragon, who is much more adept than us, the story would be different.

Humans need a god’s artifact to even create a pocket dimension, whereas these dragons are inherently divine and, once they reach a certain level of maturity, creating personal pocket dimensions is no big deal, as I’ve heard.

In other words, dragons handle pocket dimensions far better than humans.

“As I’ve said before, even using my powers doesn’t guarantee that I will find it, right?”

“Then I guess I will have to ask your leader to search for it.”

“I really don’t know what to say to you!”

As if finally losing his temper, Mishuka grabbed my collar and lifted me.

I thought he might throw a punch, but instead,

“Ha…”

He sighed deeply and turned back to resume searching for the pocket dimension.

He might be quick to anger, but he seems to be a good listener.

I crossed my arms and watched his disgruntled back for a moment.

“Hey.”

“Isn’t it Mishuka, you learned my name.”

“Why did you come to the human world?”

He stopped tracing the energy and turned to gaze at me.

“Do I have to tell you?”

“If you don’t want to, don’t.”

“Then why ask?”

I raised an eyebrow as if to say there was no particular reason.

Mishuka’s face scrunched up as if debating whether to speak.

“I was just a little curious. Humans are said to be lowly creatures, and I wanted to see for myself just how barbaric they really are. So, I thought I’d just take a quick look…”

“Did you go to the Lemea Valley?”

“Yes! After encountering you there, I was so infuriated I couldn’t sleep for a long time!”

Would he react if I said I also regretted not being able to eat him and scowled occasionally?

I was curious but did not express it.

“Lord Nagel has always viewed humans very negatively. But at some point, Lord Nagel’s perspective seemed to moderate. They considered us not so different after all…”

Not so different.

For a species as arrogant as dragons to regard humans like that was hard for me to believe.

“Did your leader also visit the human world?”

“Yes, about nine years ago? I’m not sure of the reason, but they did visit once. They seemed quite distressed afterwards, though…”

-Crack

Suddenly, sparks arose from Mishuka’s hands as he manipulated divine energy.

“I found it!”

With a shout, Mishuka stood up quickly.

Waving his hand through the air, creating a large circle, light sprang from the circle and a gate formed.

After a brief moment of staring blankly into it,

-Fizzz

The light of the gate dimmed, unstable.

“The owner of that space doesn’t want you there. Desperately trying to close it, see?”

It looked like it would vanish any moment.

If I don’t enter it now, finding it again would likely be even tougher.

-Hwaak!

With no hint of hesitation, I threw myself into the gate.

(To be continued)