episode_0194

“Professor Edric, it’s time to go to class.”

“Has it already happened?”

Edric got up from his chair at the sound of a voice calling him, shaking his hunched body.

While waiting for such an Edric, Johan, the new assistant professor of the Military Science Department, watched him with eyes of admiration.

‘I can’t believe I can be an assistant professor under this person!’

As time went by, Edric, who was a direct descendant of the royal family and was called the most handsome man in the empire, began to exude a mature charm.

If the old Edric was a handsome man with a statuesque face, his current appearance gave off the impression of a veteran who had fought in countless battles.

‘Dragon Slayer Edric!’

But the reason Johan admired him was not because of Edric’s family background or his good looks.

Of course, there was that part, but there was a much more important reason.

That was because he was the only real dragon slayer on the continent.

Thud thud.

Johan follows behind Edric as he walks down the halls of the academy and heads to the military science classroom.

In fact, there was no reason for Johan, who was an assistant professor, to attend Edric’s class together, but he simply wanted to attend Edric’s class together, since he admired him.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Edric, and my full name is Edric Bell.”

As soon as Edric entered the classroom, the noisy freshmen instantly became quiet as if a silence spell had been cast on them.

And the freshmen looking at Edric with bright eyes.

‘I’m so jealous! I’m jealous! I can attend Mr. Edric’s lecture.’

John was looking at those freshmen with jealousy in his eyes.

He had never taken Edric’s classes because he was from the neighboring kingdom of Sylvania and not from the Imperial Academy.

There was only one reason why he, a promising talent in Sylvania, gave up all his wealth and fame to become an assistant professor at the Imperial Academy.

I just wanted to meet Edric in person.

“Hmm… Since it’s the first class, if we start the class right away, I’m sure they’ll gossip about me?”

The students’ expressions brightened noticeably at the leisurely words of Edric, who had already been teaching at the academy for ten years.

“As you all know, if you get caught gossiping about me, you could be accused of insulting the royal family.”

-I can’t let my cute disciples be dragged off to prison, so let’s talk about something light today.

Soon, the students’ laughter and cheers echoed throughout the classroom, and everyone’s attention was focused on Edric’s mouth.

“This is the story of how I became a dragon slayer.”

The story of the warrior’s party, which all children of the empire, no, the continent, have heard and grown up with, has begun.

***

“That was a really great story!”

“I see? Thank you for listening with interest.”

“No! This is the first time I’ve heard of the story of Lord Garland and King Noel of the Dwarves fighting each other so much and eventually becoming true comrades!”

At Johan’s fuss, Edric smiled involuntarily as memories of that time came to mind.

His companions, the elven prince Garland and the dwarven warrior Noel, were known to be at odds with each other, and fighting was a daily occurrence.

The incident where the two of them separated from their group and came to trust each other while fighting a tribe of corrupted orcs, servants of the Black Dragon, was certainly an unforgettable moment.

“The part where Archmage Yustav blocked the Black Dragon’s breath and Light Alchemist Krun created an opportunity by piercing the dragon’s scales gave me goosebumps.”

“Those two were really great.”

“That’s all! You can hear the story of how Edric stopped the Miao warrior Mule from sacrificing himself to stop the last black dragon from going crazy.”

It was not unusual for Johan to follow behind Edric even after the lecture was over and tell him how impressed he was by the talk.

If you were to name the most popular man in the Empire, it wasn’t the Emperor, or even Rupert, the lord of Somerset.

The main character was none other than Edric, who had gone missing 10 years ago and then returned.

When it was revealed that the Third Prince, Edric, who had been reported missing, had returned after subduing the evil Black Dragon with the heroes of each race, the entire continent was turned upside down.

“I thought that warriors who hunted dragons only existed in legends.”

To the people of the continent, dragons were like goddesses.

The only difference with the goddess was that she could actually be seen, and she was considered to be a being that no living creature could fight against.

In reality, there were races that worshipped dragons as gods, so in a situation where no one could dare think of hunting them, Edric’s popularity could only reach the sky after returning from subduing the notoriously ferocious Black Dragon.

Because he was the very warrior that appears in legends.

“Edric!!!”

“Mule, you’re already here?”

“Yeah!”

As Johan was talking about Edric’s dragon hunt, he turned around with sharp eyes at the voice that interrupted his dreamlike time.

“Seo… Could it be the Miao warrior Mule?!”

However, after confirming the identity, John opened his mouth wide and was unable to continue speaking.

The cat’s ears are pointed and the tail wags behind it.

This was because a beautiful woman who was clearly of the Miao tribe at a glance was seen waving her hand vigorously at Edric.

Among the Miao women, there was only one person on the continent who could speak to Edric so friendly, and that was Mul, a member of the Dragon Slayer Party.

“Are you going back to the lab right now? But why is this guy doing this?”

“I’m saying this because I saw you. I was talking about you anyway.”

“Really?”

Mule, who was intrigued by the fact that he was telling his story, approached Yohan, who was mumbling with his mouth open, and pricked up his ears to ask what he was talking about.

“Cough!”

When his idol, whom he had only heard about through stories, approached him and spoke to him, Johan was unable to scream and froze like a stone. Leaving him behind, the two of them moved to Edric’s office.

“Welcome, Mr. Edric.”

“Siri, it’s been a while!”

“Mul-nim is here too. I will prepare the tea.”

As I opened the door to the office and entered, a woman’s voice welcomed me.

Ciri, a new golem created by Xenia, came out of the laboratory inside the office to greet Edric and Mul.

Edric’s office was unusually large among the offices of the Academy professors.

The visible part was similar in size to other offices, but inside there was a separate laboratory that Edric had set up.

“Did the experimental results change?”

“No, but this is the closest we’ve gotten so far. It’ll probably happen soon.”

“Really?”

Edric and Siri briefly discuss the results of an ongoing experiment.

Mule just watched the two of them without saying anything.

Of the group that had defeated the dragon and joined Edric on his journey to the Empire, his hometown, only Mule remained by Edric’s side.

As such, he knew better than anyone how much Edric was serious about what he was doing.

‘What? Why are you doing that?’

When Mule first learned of what Edric was planning, he was beyond dumbfounded; he was furious.

It was hard to believe that they had risked their lives to subdue the Black Dragon just to make a character from a comic book into a real one, and it felt like their adventure was losing its luster.

‘It’s okay if you don’t understand. I didn’t start this to be understood.’

Edric had a bitter expression on his face as if he had expected such a reaction from Mule, who had asked him the reason in a puzzling manner.

From then on, Mule could no longer question Edric’s plans.

‘I can’t even fight back, it’s really cowardly.’

Mule, who loved Edric for choosing her and saving her tribe from the Black Dragon, hated the woman named Elsa, who only existed in comics and could not compete with her.

***

“If it weren’t for you, Siri, it would have taken a really long time.”

“No. Rather, thanks to this opportunity, I was able to get one step closer to the meaning of existence.”

It was Edric who covered Mule, who was sleeping on the sofa in the office, with a blanket and thanked Siri.

-Master, can I do what I want?

It’s been several years since Siri, who used to help Rupert with his work, helped Edric with his plans.

Thanks to Rupert, who told her that she could leave whenever she wanted to, Siri participated in Edric’s plan of her own volition.

“I wonder what Elsa’s expression will be like when she’s finished.”

“Expression?”

“She might notice something that took me a long time to realize.”

Edric’s expression became more questionable at Siri’s words.

What on earth did he realize that made Elsa’s expression so curious?

Siri noticed Edric’s question and continued speaking.

“What did Edric look like 10 years ago?”

“Hmm… At that time, this right arm probably wasn’t a machine.”

Edric shows off his new golem prosthetic arm that acts as his right arm.

“Then what was it like 20 years ago?”

“You were still young then. I think you had just entered the academy. You didn’t have any wrinkles and you seemed much more energetic than you are now.”

“I am the same now as I was 10 years ago when I was created.”

Siri raised her hand.

Although it looked like normal human skin, her skin was actually a composite of several substances.

So it doesn’t change as time passes.

That wasn’t all.

Everything that made up her body could be replaced and always remain in the same state as when she first started.

“I realized a few years ago that what doesn’t change is alive.”

It was then that Siri first understood, even a little, the emotion of fear.

Even elves who live for hundreds of years cannot overcome the flow of time.

This is true even for dragons, the highest race.

But Siri, who had avoided that flow of time, was afraid to imagine what it would feel like to be left alone at some point.

“Edric, I want to die.”

Siri’s words echoed through the quiet office.