Chapter 36 : Spicy Pork Bone Soup

The inside of the lair was hazy.

Fog hung in the air, and the sky was dark with storm clouds.

Is it because it’s a reptile?

It seems to like humidity.

[It’s a swamp.]

Unlike the outside disguised as a flower garden, this place was a dark and cool swamp.

Water moss grew on every rock, and bubbling foam rose from puddles too small to be called ponds.

Honestly, it was an unpleasant place.

“It looks like it’s over there.”

In the direction Amiter pointed, there was a giant ancient tree.

The greenish-brown tree was so large and crooked it was hard to imagine how many years old it was, growing to an unknowable height.

That seemed to be the center of this barrier.

“Let’s go.”

The sticky mud clinging with each step was deeply annoying, but it became much better once I set aside notions of cleanliness and tidiness.

That damp unpleasantness when you step in a puddle by mistake after entering the bathroom wearing socks.

The feeling of walking in the rain wearing a raincoat.

The unpleasant sounds were a bonus.

“Are all lairs usually like this?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been to one.”

Storytellers and fairy tales often said dragons hoard all sorts of valuables like gold and jewels in their lairs, keeping them hidden away.

This place, however, seemed like the perfect spot for mold to grow.

Even if lairs are decorated to one’s taste…!

‘At this rate, a wyvern’s nest would be richer.’

Around the middle of the original story, there was a scene where the protagonist’s party, having left the academy, encountered a wyvern.

Unlike that creature, which had a practical, albeit small, lair, there was nothing noteworthy here at first glance.

[Maybe someone already raided it?]

“They probably couldn’t even get in easily?”

[You never know.]

It wasn’t an entirely absurd idea.

Outwardly, the barrier showed no obvious signs of intrusion, but someone capable of raiding Aram’s lair, which rivaled a dragon’s, would

likely have no trouble erasing their tracks.

I focused a bit more, peering through the barrier.

Worn by the winds of time, the barrier was slowly rusting despite its technical sophistication.

Still, it seemed intact, so I decided to momentarily dismiss the possibility of intrusion and headed towards the center of the barrier.

The old ancient tree grew increasingly massive the closer we got.

Though I had never seen one, its size was comparable enough to be called a World Tree without reservation.

“There’s an empty space beneath this.”

Amiter said, tapping the ground with her foot.

As she said, beneath the tree’s roots, there was a magically treated space instead of soil.

A barrier within a barrier, perhaps?

[It won’t be dangerous, right?]

“Nobody sets traps in their own living room.”

We soon found an entrance in the knothole of the tree.

Going down here felt like meeting the rabbit that leads to Wonderland.

How large was the space?

The passage inside was pitch black, its end unseen.

Like a gentleman, I offered my hand and yielded the turn.

“…Ladies first.”

Amiter let out a deep sigh and lightly hopped down into the knothole.

Her figure vanished instantly, and soon the sound of her landing echoed up.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem too high. I’m going too.”

I sat on the edge of the knothole and took a deep breath.

It felt like dropping from the highest point of a roller coaster.

It was a serpent-friendly den, completely inconsiderate of guests, so I had no choice but to slide down, leaning against the steep slope.

“…Be careful.”

The entrance was slippery due to the serpent’s bodily fluids.

If Amiter hadn’t caught my hand, I surely would have rolled and slipped several times.

Teperi also tumbled down, half-sliding like me.

Fortunately, she wasn’t hurt, but she held her forehead as if slightly dizzy.

“I never imagined there’d be such a huge place beneath the tree.”

This structure could never have been formed naturally in a cave.

If it had, the ground would have collapsed immediately.

He seemed like an upright serpent, but Aram was actually a tycoon who had built such a magnificent house underground.

Amiter kicked a stone rolling on the floor with all her might.

The stone flew quite far with force, echoing much later as it hit the ground.

[Nothing’s going to pop out, right? Like bats, or ghosts.]

“Don’t say unnecessary things.”

Unless kept as pets, the probability was extremely low.

And ghosts!

Thanks to you, I almost remembered something I’d finally forgotten!

I glared slightly at Teperi and stuck close beside her.

Holding her arm made it a bit better.

Perhaps a desolate chill emanated from the lair, unmanaged for over a hundred years.

The only fortunate thing was that despite being underground, it was quite bright all around?

Thanks to the luminous pearls embedded here and there on the walls, it was actually brighter here than outside in the hazy weather.

Not long after we started walking, the underground passage reached the lair.

“…Someone’s here.”

This feeling was the mana of a living being.

A presence that was tiny and faint outside became intense as we drew closer.

Presence.

The sensory organ called the sixth sense reacted fiercely, detecting it.

“Definitely not an ally.”

Amiter muttered softly.

Indeed, the aura emanating from it felt closer to hostility than welcome and greeting.

A predator’s hunger, craving, battle.

In any case, it was far from a welcome.

The first thing that caught our eye in the center of the lair wasn’t the underground waterfall or the numerous bookshelves.

It was the corpse of a giant dragon.

From teeth as large as my torso to the head, body, tail, and wings—it was a complete Dragon Bone.

And atop the dead dragon’s skull sat a man.

The man with hair shining like gold was fiddling with the end of the sword hanging at his waist.

‘We. Are. F*cked. I think.’

He was an immensely powerful individual, visible at a glance.

I gestured wildly, signaling to retreat, but Amiter shook her head.

“It’s already too late.”

The man still paid us little attention, continuing to handle his sword.

But I knew he had already noticed us.

The armor he wore, who knows how old and equally sturdy, showed no signs of breaking despite countless battle scars.

‘What kind of wavelength…!’

Each person has a unique mana wavelength.

Among those called strong, each possesses distinct characteristics.

Some have colored mana, others have immense size, or it depicts some form.

What emanated from that man was a mountain and a river.

A mountain made of steel and a river of blood.

The man stopped touching his sword.

“Who goes there?”

A stern voice echoed through the cave.

Though just a voice, it carried killing intent, sending shivers down my spine.

It’s said that words carry power, but that’s usually a metaphor; this man’s voice truly held power imbued with mana.

Some call it a Word of Power, others call it the Dragon Language.

Since we were caught anyway, staying quiet would be foolish.

Scratching the back of my head, I stepped forward.

My figure emerged from the end of the passage.

“Ugh, I never learned the proper greeting for times like this. ‘Nice to meet you,’ should suffice?”

The man’s expression didn’t change one bit at my joke.

“A human wench. How did you get in? Well, it doesn’t matter.”

The man’s yellow eyes glinted as he lowered his voice.

He wasn’t wrong, but it still felt unpleasant.

“And you are?”

“Who knows.”

Asking only what he’s curious about and ignoring my question—the typical mindset of a condescending old geezer.

Amiter and Teperi had also quietly moved beside me.

More accurately, behind me.

Instead of answering my question, the man chose to ask another.

“Do you know what lies beneath my feet?”

“The corpse of a dragon, dead and reduced to bones.”

“My father.”

This bastard was a degenerate trampling his father’s remains with muddy feet.

Calling him father meant this guy was also a dragon.

Things just got complicated.

“So, should I bow or something?”

“No, what I want is something slightly different.”

“You need souls, I presume.”

“A wise wench for someone with such a cheeky mouth.”

In other words, this guy needs sacrifices to resurrect his father from the Bone Dragon.

I had heard that ancient dragons could sometimes be resurrected using bones and sacrifices.

The better the quality of the sacrifice, the greater the effect.

At the hostile exchange, the others also prepared for battle.

“With Aramande gone, once Father awakens, the Black Forest will belong to the Gold Clan. You will become part of that grand plan.”

The man had already drawn his sword from its sheath.

Sharrring, the sound of the blade slicing through the air was delicate.

Now I understood why there were no monsters around here.

“Wait, I have something to ask before we fight.”

“What is it?”

“Why is your father lying in a back room reduced to bone broth?”

A vein pulsed visibly on his forehead, loud enough to be heard from afar.

Since fighting was inevitable anyway, it was better to provoke him and fray his nerves.

“Don’t tell me he got his ass kicked in a fight?”

“You hasten your demise.”

I covered my mouth with my hand in an exaggerated gesture.

The Gold Dragon roared and charged at me.