Evan D. Sherden, Looting the Dragon’s Nest (3)

The day after enjoying the hot spring break, the Astray team returned to Sherden. There was no particular dungeon on the way back, so they left early in the morning and arrived before sunset that evening. The performance of the Ghost Wagon, which continued to evolve day by day, was just astonishing.

“I’m back.”

“Oppa!”

“Evan!”

As soon as Evan stopped the wagon and entered the headquarters building with his party, two people immediately attacked Evan: his sister Elizabeth, who had stayed to train, and Princess Serena.

“Guys, I have to wash up.”

“It’s okay because you smell good.”

“Your skin is smooth, so it’s okay!”

Evan tried to push the two away, but it didn’t work. Elizabeth continued hanging onto his leg, and Serena was hanging on his arm, rubbing her head on him like a cat trying to imprint her smell on her master. What should he do with Serena, who was doing the same thing as someone who was ten years older than Elizabeth? He couldn’t raise his head.

“Stop it now. I know you’re welcoming me.”

“Ah.”

Evan sighed and dropped the two princesses. Serena gave him a few kisses on the cheek before she was satisfied.

“Liz, you should go home now.”

“Wrong, I was waiting for you because I heard you were coming.”

“Okay, then go home and get some rest now. I’ll send you something delicious tomorrow.”

“Wow!”

Evan entrusted Elizabeth to Ironwall Knights’ staff, who were still standing around behind the scenes. In doing so, he measured Elizabeth’s energy roughly, and the result slightly eradicated the smile from his mouth.

“It’s only been four days, so why did you become so strong…?”

“That’s because you left the monster slime in the basement to catch for training.”

Shine, who approached from behind, answered Evan, muttering to himself while sending Elizabeth away. Monster slime referred to slime summoned by Evan using Miraseul’s necklace. After growing steadily with Evan for less than a decade, the explorer party had the terrible ability to crush anything in a flash.

“…Was it that strong?”

“I’m sure you’re not aware of the fact that 20 heads pop in your hands in 0.1 seconds at this moment as well…”

“Not 0.1 second. That’s about 0.3 seconds.”

“Anyway, you’ve locked up those monster slimes, so they’re easy to catch. Eir has gotten stronger, too.”

Eir seemed to have gone to dinner with Bernard and Illoin. Given that all kinds of weapon arts grew faster when dealing with an elevated enemy, there was a possibility that the two would easily surpass the achievements of the general members.

“Should I control myself from now on…?”

“There are three things you say that I could never believe, the second of them is to hold yourself back.”

“Just in case, what’s the first?”

“Of course, it’s that you don’t want to seduce all the women you come across.”

It was an unfair remark. If Evan was actively trying to seduce a woman, it was only Belois! However, he wasn’t so absent minded to say it so blatantly in public, so he held it in.

“The Junior Team should take a break, and the Senior Team should gather in the conference room. Oh, Diona, go and call the owner of the Brotherhood Skewers. He must be in the main branch.”

“Okay.”

Diona set off with her rabbit ears waggling. Evan went to the conference room with a puzzled Shine, Serena, and Anastasia. After the door was closed and Belois performed the disconnection magic, the party’s curiosity grew as Mirole installed the wind barrier.

“What the hell is going on, master? Did you go on an expedition and catch the Demon King?”

“No, I don’t have to hide it if it were the Demon King.”

Shine was bound to nod at Evan’s right words. Evan winked at Mirole, and she flicked her finger toward him lightly. At that moment, a translucent red egg appeared on the conference room table, the curtain of wind hiding it dropping.

“Wow, it’s a huge and pretty jewel! Is this for me, Oppa?”

The response of Serena, who asked if it was a gift to her as soon as she saw an item that she thought was a jewel, was a surprise to Evan. However, he was afraid that was right.

“Not a jewel, Ray, but it is indeed a gift for you.”

“Wow! How can I repay you for this wonderful thing if I get it as a marriage gift? Kingdom! Do you want a kingdom, Oppa?”

“It’s not something you can give, and I don’t want it.”

He breathed a small sigh at the sight of Serena holding the dragon’s egg and circling in place and rejoicing.

“That’s a dragon egg.”

“…Huh?”

“Dragon?”

“Dragon.”

The air in the conference room hardened for a short time. Shine, who rolled his eyes for that short time and faced the gaze of four people who had gone on an expedition with Evan, opened his mouth wide when he realized that Evan wasn’t joking now.

“Did you catch a dragon, not the Demon King?”

“That’s it, Shine. You’re smart.”

“Oh, my…”

Shine fell into a chair with an exclamation that was entirely out of fashion on earth. Anastasia looked to be in a similar state.

“I thought dragons were legendary creatures.”

“I thought so before I met the dragon this time, but it wasn’t. The reason I brought in the senior group is to discuss it.”

Evan approached the blackboard installed in the conference room and picked up the chalk. Everyone sat down and watched him, and Serena was hugging the dragon egg in her arms.

“From now on, I will briefly explain the history of the Divine Generation. You don’t have to memorize it all, but you all have to understand the important parts.”

From that moment on, Evan calmly began to scribe on the blackboard the secret history of the unknown Yo-Ma Great War Zero, which even scholars who had a profound knowledge of history could barely remember. The origin of civilization, the origin of species, the birth of evil…when they saw Evan describing all the things calmly and briefly, Mirole slowly exclaimed. Even if she lived in that era herself, she didn’t have the talent to summarize it as clearly as Evan did.

“What doesn’t Evan know?”

“He knows everything.”

“I don’t know everything. I only know what I know.”

Evan replied curtly, refuting Belois’ words, and finally set the chalk down. The blackboard, which summarized the causal relationship between the world and its existence, even looked sacred at a glance.

“Dragon, Cyclops, Giant, Phoenix, Levitan, Behimos, Demon Spirit, Celestial…all of them, suppressed men and servants, are now missing or degenerated. Oh, but I can’t see the Demon King.”

“The Demon King was there too. The Demon King is now an absolute symbol of evil power, but he was treated as a Joker with a special power.”

“Joker…”

In the world of Yo-Ma Great War Zero, the Demon King was just a strong devil. In other words, it belonged to the classification of enemies who were a little lacking in force but suffered from strategic tactics and unconventional capabilities. However, in the background of the Yo-Ma Great War Zero, countless fearsome enemies ran wild. The Demon King was no match for the ancient Demon Master, who also faced the Devil himself.

The Ancient Demon Master drove all its enemies out of the world and connected the world to another…to prevent the intrusion of harmful beings by preventing all distorted cracks. It had enabled the world to develop independently. It was a monument hidden in the Divine Generation.

“You all understand why the ancient Demon Master was so praised? I’m not just praising him for being a strong man. If God created this world, the Demon Master made it into a perfect world. Of course, the Demon King continued to squirm in this world because he hadn’t completely cut off his connection with the demons.”

“From the perspective of the ancient Demon Master, the humans who are grumbling against the Demon King must look very pathetic…”

“Well, there you go. However, that’s not important right now. According to the ancient Demon Master’s record, he drove all the dragons out of the land and killed them.”

Of course, the ancient Demon Master hadn’t killed all the dragons alone. The dragon race walked the path of extinction, one which could be called self-destruction. The ancient Demon Master had a hand there, but it had been omitted because it would take longer to talk about it.

“So, the dragon shouldn’t be left in this world, but it was. This is the problem.”

“I think he was lucky to have survived against the ancient Demon Master.”

“Of course, that’s the most likely explanation. But the ancient Demon Master isn’t that easy-going…”

Of course, this was true only if the world’s history had been consistent with that of the Yo-Ma Great War Zero. But anyway, there was only one route to take, and the player ended up killing all the dragons in the world. At a glance at Mirole, she also nodded as if Evan was right. It was now her turn to step up.

“I experienced it personally. I’m sure no dragon ran away at that time.”

“How old were you when you experienced the Divine Generation first-hand…? No, I’m sorry. I didn’t say anything.”

Shine, who had tackled the question instinctively, now shrank under Mirole’s soft gaze. With Anastasia consoling Shine, Mirole continued in a cold, windy voice.

“But this time, we met a dragon. Then, there’s one possibility. Something caused the dragon to show up naturally in this world where there were no dragons left…or else the dragon came over because the cracks in the other world were opened.”

“Dragons can’t happen naturally. At least some external factors may have affected it. In other words, the conclusion that she just made is one way to interpret it.”

Evan picked up her words and arranged them. The Senior Team’s eyes were on the blackboard. Dragon, Cyclops, Behimos, Phoenix…Evan’s chalk was scratched on the blackboard with all the mighty mythic names written on it.

“It means the world is cracking again.”

“…”

“Yeah.”

The hall had now become quiet. Usually, Shine would have said, “It was because you were usually focused on self-discipline that you weren’t wary of the Demon King.” However, he was now drooling.

“Just the blockade of Merdin is a pain in the neck.”

The first thing that broke the silence was Arisha’s sigh. Evan was deeply sympathetic to her. She didn’t intend to complain about the change in development from the original, but it was now proving too much to do.

“So, what do we do? First of all, it’s better to report it to the Marquis…”

“No.”

Anastasia raised her hand carefully and asked, but Evan shook his head firmly.

“I told you before, didn’t I? Human beings are sweating because they can’t deal with the Demon King properly, but what can they do about the cracks they don’t understand? We have to deal with this among ourselves. We’re going to bring together the strong few and foster them as the ancient Demon Master did in the past. That’s why you’re here, Mirole.”

“…Yes.”

When asked by Evan, Mirole seemed to go silent for a moment, but then she looked at him with a calm expression and accepted his words. Yes, now Evan could understand her abnormal behavior. Given that, of course, she might be a little over-obsessed with Evan, but if she understood Evan’s strength and wanted to be there to protect him, Evan could understand her.

…No, he wasn’t wholly convinced either.

-Knock, knock.

“Master.”

Someone knocked on the door while the room was locked in a strange silence. It was Diona.

“I’ve brought the owner, master.”

“Even you call me that way; I told you my name is Bane!”

“Okay, the owner’s here.”

Evan stood up from his seat, relaxing his stiff face. Then he folded the blackboard and declared, “Let’s eat and rest first and then think! The snack tonight is Dragon Steak!”

Now, it was time to keep his old promise!