episode_0080

A weakling who will be weeded out on his own.

The shame and disgrace of the Dragon Clan.

Immature piece of trash.

Those were the words I heard the moment I was born. As a child, I was small and weak, and was looked down upon by the other dragons.

Originally, they were premature babies that would not even be allowed to live. However, the old dragon who was the king of dragons at the time said that even such dragons were worth living, and gave up the flesh he would eat to the weaker babies.

However, the elders who valued the prestige of the Dragon Clan tried to kill me by all means possible, because I was the Dragon Clan’s enemy.

While hunting, he was once thrown into a volcano with boiling lava.

I once fell into a sea with strong waves.

I was once trapped on an island where lightning struck like a shower.

There was even a time when I was thrown in front of a group of humans hunting dragons.

Every time that happened, the old king sensed my danger and saved me.

“That’s definitely not something you should do to an immature child.”

“……”

“Are you still unable to speak? Or do you not feel it is worth speaking?”

If I had to say, it would have been the latter.

I was a body that felt nothing. Not the taste of flesh and blood being devoured, not the smell of death that resonated through the hunting grounds, not the pain I was inflicting on them. I could not feel any of it.

I couldn’t feel any emotion because my body couldn’t even sense the slightest foreign body sensation. That was all.

“…… If you can’t even make a small people smile, you don’t deserve to be called a king.”

As the old king spoke, he took out his heart from inside his body and showed it to him.

…was beautiful. Even if all the beautiful jewels in the world were collected, they would not dare to compare its brilliance. His heart was a rainbow-colored jewel that seemed to contain all sorts of colors.

“I will give you some of the strength I have built up.”

The Demon King took the pure white part of the heart and fed it to me.

“I’m not telling you to become strong and trample on others. That would just be a repetition, and my heart wouldn’t be left behind.”

“….”

“It means that you should use that strength to find a partner who will make you happy.”

“….?”

I tilted my head, not understanding what the old king was saying, and the old king patted my head and laughed heartily.

“Kekekekeke! There will come a time when you live like that! I don’t want to be with anyone but this person! I don’t want to lose this lovely person! That moment when you feel like you want to be with this person!”

The old king was strong. The old king was wise. The old king valued courtesy and law. But at the same time, he was extremely frivolous in front of me.

“…”

I began to ponder the power that had been given to me and what that companion could possibly be.

Someone stronger than me? The old king was stronger than me, but I didn’t really think of it that way.

Beautiful opposite sex? There were plenty of such people among the dragon tribe, but I didn’t really think about it. Rather, I wanted to kill them because they looked down on me.

So what kind of dragon would be suitable as a companion? I couldn’t understand it at all.

“Someday, there will come a day when you will understand. A day when you will laugh because of love, cry because of love, and suffer because of love.”

“……”

“Child, don’t live in fear. It’s also the power that gives you to live freely. Eat, sleep, and fight as you want. Love comes when you live freely.”

I couldn’t quite understand what the king was saying.

However, I clearly understood the one word that said to fight, so I did as I was told. Those who looked down on me, whether strong or weak, big or small, male or female, I would rush at them without any distinction and bite their necks.

“What the hell is this kid doing? Why are you attacking me like this just because I casually hit you?”

“Hey, I was just teasing you! You’re treating kids younger than you like this…!”

“Are you trying to poke my eye because I just glared at you? You crazy bitch…”

At first, I was beaten and lynched until I was left in a miserable state. Even though I had inherited some of the old king’s power, I was still an imperfect half-penny.

Still, I didn’t give up and continued to bite other guys. Those who tried to attack me while I was hunting, those who picked a fight, those who talked behind my back, and those who even glared at me.

Then, the guys who had been looking down on me slowly started to find me annoying.

They gave up picking on me because a small taunt could have led to a life-or-death situation.

“Even if it wasn’t the power given to me to fight… Tsk.”

The old king, who had come to punish me because of the other dragons’ advice, clicked his tongue and kicked my head.

“…”

“Your mouth is still tightly shut, you annoying thing. I pray that the man you like in the future will be more frustrating than you.”

“……?”

“Disloyalty, tsk tsk…”

The old king clicked his tongue, but did not punish me or take back my power.

He just watched as if he was frustrated, hitting his head or shouting incomprehensible curses.

Of course, I took that as an offense and would attack the old king, but I would often be defeated without even touching a single scale.

“With that level of skill, it’s impossible to beat me.”

Yet I continued to rush at the king whenever he hit me on the head or called me an idiot.

I couldn’t feel anything, but I rushed in. It wasn’t because I felt dirty like the others.

I just wanted to see his reaction when I took down the king, so I rushed in.

But the king overpowered me every time and taught me how to fight.

“You really don’t get tired.”

“…”

“But I like you more and more. What’s your name? You said you’d learn how to hit if you got hit. It seems like you have the skills to sit at the bottom of the guards.”

Of course, I couldn’t have a name.

Unlike other dragons who were born with proper mothers and fathers, I was a remnant of dragons who hatched from an abandoned egg.

“… I see. It doesn’t exist. That’s a harsh treatment. ”

The king patted my head as I knelt in defeat and gave me a name.

“■■■. What do you think? Isn’t it a good name?”

I don’t care about names at all, but it was the old king who gave me that name.

“…”

“I gave you a name, but I wish you would let go of my hand. My fingers are about to fall off.”

The old king’s body was solid.

Even if I tried to bite my hands or ankles, I couldn’t.

I didn’t care about other dragons. At that time, I wanted to beat the old king. That’s why I challenged him every day. I challenged him every day, lost, and learned from him.

I was the type of person who couldn’t even feel pain, let alone taste or smell. But when I fought the king, I could feel something boiling inside my chest.

He was bored so he needed someone to vent to and the king was more than qualified to do so.

So I attacked the king every day for over 500 years. There were countless defeats and lessons, and the more I did, the more my desire to defeat the king grew.

It was my daily routine to develop that spirit through daily defeat, and it was the king’s small pleasure to beat me and laugh heartily.

And then the change came suddenly.

Demon King. He was a man I had never been conscious of. He was the leader of all demon forces, but I only got the impression that he was a petty man who hated fighting.

But the old king greeted the demon king with a stern face he had never seen before.

“Is that really the Demon King…?”

“If I remember correctly, he was the author who would follow women around and pick flowers…”

“Isn’t that just a demon?”

Even the aged elders cowered at the sight of the Demon King.

I couldn’t understand it, but the other dragons also seemed to feel deep, deep fear.

He was dressed in rags that had no trace of dignity, his bloodshot eyes were streaming with bloodshot tears, and he was spewing curses and murderous intent at everything in the world.

“Ha… I heard that you lost your companion, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

The old king approached the demon king with a pitiful expression and bowed his head.

It was surprising. No one, including me, expected that the old king would bow his head to someone.

“Demon King. Why did you seek out this worthless dragon?”

“…… War.”

The Demon King answered, clutching his roughly disheveled hair.

“Prepare for war.”

The king’s anger was fierce.

The Demon King wanted to destroy not only the empire, but all humans and other races that interacted with them.

Not only I, who felt nothing, but everyone there thought the same thing.

Will eliminating them really make that burning anger go away?

“I regret my foolishness… I will stand in the vanguard and slay those hateful humans with this sword…!”

“A good king who rules but does not reign.”

The old king could not hide his pity as he looked at the demon king.

“Oh, my good king. The love that made you who you are has blinded your eyes. That feeling is no longer love.”

“What did you just say?”

“That is not love, but delusion and anger, my good king. If it was a fight to destroy only the empire, I would have whipped this insignificant old body to destroy the empire.”

The old king criticized the demon king harshly.

“But the fact that he will destroy all those connected to them, and that the king himself will stand in the vanguard, isn’t that just proof that he has become a beast blinded by rage?”

“Even if you are an advisor, if you move your mouth more than that…”

“Oh, good king. Even if you break the arrows embedded in your body, the wounds will not heal. Even if you wash the blood with blood, your hands will only get dirtier. How is your current self, who tries to trample on others by putting your emotions first, any different from the emperor of humans?”

The old dragon did not stop admonishing even when a knife was put to his neck.

Both metaphorically and physically.

Eventually, the Demon King could not control his anger and drew his sword.

Many dragons rushed to protect the old king, and the old king fought to protect them.

Two snakes were fighting each other for a reason, like biting each other’s tails. The warriors fought to protect the king, and the king fought to protect the warriors. Who was protecting whom?

I watched the fight because I thought it would be pointless to try to define it.

The minister was a minister. The Demon King killed the strong warriors and elders with only one sword, and fought the old king with his bloody body more than equal to him.

“Oh good king. Oh wise king who loved all living things. Please realize that the madness you are experiencing now is not love.”

“Shut up. Anyone can say something like that.”

“Oh my good king… Please…!”

The fight between the two continued for several days.

The Demon King, who was also a living being, seemed to have reached the limit of his physical strength. He looked at the old king while panting heavily, and the old king also glared at the king while shaking his tired body.

“If only the head of this old dragon could appease my anger, I would gladly offer it. O good king. Please look to the future, not the present.”

“A future without rain. It’s no different from the painful present.”

“This is a sad thing, my virtuous king. Then, as a subject, I should do it here and now…”

The old king was willing to sacrifice his life to become like the king.

If that happens, war will disappear, and an uneasy peace will continue, with only minor disputes and conflicts.

You will be guaranteed a life where you can just let the clock pass as if nothing happened, wait for the day you die safely, and enjoy only your peaceful daily life.

I knew that was the old king’s wish, so I stopped watching and rushed back, stabbing the self-righteous, foolish, and mad king in the back.

The back of an old king, not a demon king.

“… Cough.”

He was a king who enforced the dogmatism of prohibiting unnecessary killing.

He was a foolish king who possessed such tremendous power but did not know how to wield it.

He was a king who was crazy about boring and unstimulating peace.

“Long live the old king.”

“… Indeed.”

Yet the old king did not die.

If I hadn’t died, it would have been me who would have died.

I don’t really have any regrets.

Since I failed, all I could think about was that I would die soon.

But the old king smiled and said:

“That was the voice.”

It’s not that I particularly hated or loathed him.

Rather, I also felt gratitude for the strength it gave me.

However, I found the peace this old king was trying to create boring.

It seemed like there was something I desperately wanted in the war the Demon King wanted.

I just wanted some new stimulation because I was getting tired of fighting him.

“Take the spoils, my queen.”‘

So I ate the old dragon’s heart and flesh,

With the power she gained in this way, she was able to become the queen of the dragon tribe.

“……”

Even though I became king, I didn’t feel like there was anything particularly special about it.

As always, I couldn’t feel anything.

I was just waiting for a war that would bring me joy.