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109th Chapter

Reverse Scale. The Underbelly of a Dragon.

In the past, people thought of dragons as tamed, gentle yet strong beasts one could ride on.

But even those dragons had their own vulnerabilities.

That vulnerability was the reverse scale, and any human who touched it would surely be killed by the dragon.

For me, the greatest reverse scale was undoubtedly Aria.

I had no intention of letting anyone touch Aria. I might even consider going to the extreme of murder; she was, in every sense, the embodiment of a reverse scale for me.

And if there was anything that followed as my next reverse scale…

Crack! Boom!

Karasho.

My mentor, Karasho, who guided me during those uncertain childhood days.

With my aura maxed out, turning the surroundings into chaos, my focus was solely on the figure in front of me.

It felt as if my mind had gone blank; all I could see was Zigmund.

Raising my mana to its peak, my body felt as if it were engulfed in lava, but I didn’t stop.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

I swung my sword at Zigmund with the intent to kill, maintaining a stoic expression.

I knew it well. I had no right to take anyone’s life. No human had the right to snatch away another’s life, no matter how wretched the target.

‘But this guy isn’t human.’

Zigmund must not be allowed to treat Karasho like this. All the other humans in the world could, but not Zigmund.

Even animals remember their caretakers and follow them; at the very least, Zigmund, wearing the guise of a human, couldn’t behave like this towards Karasho.

What had been said just moments ago was unworthy of even a beast.

‘What did Master Karasho ever do for you!?’

Rage surged throughout my body.

I half-lost my sanity and swung my sword like a madman, born solely with the purpose of killing him.

Zigmund’s sword and magic hurt me, but I didn’t care. I was out of my mind.

Zigmund had said it himself: that Karasho saved him from a near-fatal encounter buried in snow and had raised him. Karasho’s existence was my salvation.

‘But how could you!’

As one of Karasho’s other disciples, I couldn’t forgive Zigmund.

Boom!

“Ugh.”

Zigmund’s right shoulder, unable to keep up with the speed of my increasingly serious sword swings, was pierced by the tip of my sword, causing him to spit blood.

He let out a gasping moan through his crimson lips, twisting his body immediately.

There would be no time to check the wound. I wouldn’t allow him that.

‘This guy… to ignore me like this…’

I struggled to suppress the rising emotions. It was astonishing that I could feel even more anger here.

“Cough.”

My sword stabbed into Zigmund’s side shallowly. I struck without giving him a chance to feel pain.

“Are you messing around? Do you think you have nine lives? Or are you just being arrogant? With that level of skill of yours? You dared challenge me with such pitiful skill? If you don’t want to die…”

Boom!

I stomped the ground with my mana-infused foot, and a tremendous noise erupted, sending violent mana spreading in all directions.

I aimed my sword at Zigmund’s neck, momentarily destabilized by the pain in my side and the trembling ground.

Face to face with him, I glared at his violet eyes that shimmered with unreadable intentions.

“Unleash your aura, you bastard. Fight properly.”

Aura was the ultimate weapon for a swordsman. Until one could unleash their aura, they could only be considered a half-baked swordsman.

Zigmund was a Sword Expert. He could surely use aura. Yet, he hadn’t called forth his aura yet, which meant he was clearly deceiving me.

With my sword aimed at his throat, Zigmund tilted his head down, looking down at me. I knew it was due to our height difference, with him towering over me, but it still irked me.

“Ugh!”

With his unoccupied hand, I grabbed his sheath and struck his knee. It wasn’t aura, but it contained strong mana, causing Zigmund to collapse helplessly to one knee in front of me.

Finally gazing down at him, who was now below my line of sight, I maintained a cold demeanor.

“Draw your sword, unleash your aura.”

While still aimed at his neck, I muttered in a tone devoid of inflection.

Zigmund’s shoulder twitched slightly, and he held his breath for a moment. There was a vague but definite stirring of emotions.

‘Is there a reason you can’t unleash your aura?’

Usually, I too found it hard to unleash my aura. The sword’s aura was a symbol of Mir, and I had been hiding my identity as Mir for a time.

However, no one was around, and we both knew our true identities. Besides, if he didn’t unleash his aura, it was certain he would die by my hand.

I couldn’t comprehend why Zigmund wouldn’t unleash his aura even in such circumstances.

His expression showed some sort of unfathomable look up at me. Whatever unease he had, it had disappeared.

‘I hate it.’

I despised those eyes. Those lifeless eyes that were different from the past. They resembled…

‘A monster.’

Those strange violet eyes looked like a monster still moving even though it was already dead.

‘He wasn’t like that before.’

Even back when he was a boy, he wasn’t this vibrant. He was unnaturally cold and calm, an unsettling person.

‘…Fool. That’s not how you hold a sword. Do you think flailing it around achieves anything?’

Yet, he surely hadn’t died. Even if he carried the winter within him, he had a subtle liveliness.

But now, instead of liveliness, Zigmund wore such a heavy mask that made me question if emotions really existed within him, causing instinctive repulsion.

“Unleash your aura…”

Zigmund murmured.

It wasn’t a question directed at me. He seemed to be contemplating something.

After briefly looking down, he lifted the corners of his mouth into a deep smile.

An enchanting smile that could freeze time.

“I don’t want to.”

Boom!

The tip of my sword embedded itself into the ground where Zigmund’s thigh had been. He quickly dodged, but a faint trickle of blood flowed from his thigh.

“Unleash your aura.”

“…No.”

I kicked his abdomen with all my might, and he collapsed to the floor, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

In that moment, it seemed he hadn’t ruptured his organs as his abdomen was covered with mana, yet the sight of him not even attempting to dodge only fueled my anger further.

“Do it.”

“No, cough!”

Half-losing my senses to fury, I endlessly kicked and punched Zigmund. His side bore bruises and my punches split his lips.

However, I didn’t use my sword.

It was my pride that wouldn’t allow me to swing my sword at a guy who wasn’t even using his aura.

I fought Zigmund as if I had forgotten how to use a sword, attacking him wildly even without coating my strikes with mana.

“Apologize.”

“What?”

“Apologize for calling my little sister weak!”

“What… cough!”

Suddenly recalling a similar memory from the past, I gritted my teeth.

It was a memory I should have avoided.

I mounted Zigmund and pounded him like a street brawl, like a child again.

Puh puh.

Before I knew it, Zigmund had given up even protecting himself with mana. I too, having discarded my mana and sword, was just an ordinary person.

Zigmund, even with his body in tatters, didn’t resist. He only stared at me with those unknown eyes.

That wasn’t him.

My feelings became so sullied they were indescribable.

‘Bastard.’

Taking a deep breath, I glared at Zigmund, pinned down on the ground, my arms trapping him, as if I wanted to burn him with my gaze.

Covered in dust and blood, despite looking miserable, Zigmund only gazed up at me.

“Look down, you bastard.”

Nothing about this situation, me, or Zigmund was satisfying. Everything was displeasing.

I decided the reason my view had blurred temporarily was that I had become so angry it had twisted my perspective.

“…I don’t want to.”

Zigmund spoke, his face bruised from the beatings, raising the corners of his mouth into an awkward smile.

For a brief moment, a hint of bitterness was visible in his smile, but I must have misread it.

Ding ding ding

“This is the last chance. Unleash your aura. Unleash your aura and fight fairly. If not, I’ll just kill you.”

After taking several deep breaths, I rose from him and stomped on his chest before raising the sword I had thrown aside to aim it at Zigmund’s neck. It was the third time I aimed my sword at him.

“I’ll kill you…”

Zigmund murmured quietly. His gaze shot toward my blade. Reflected in the blade, his eyes glimmered eerily.

Snap.

Without hesitation, Zigmund gripped the blade aimed at his throat tightly.

‘This crazy bastard…

In a moment of panic, I tried to pull the sword back, but his tighter grip prevented it.

If I pulled the sword out while he held it so tightly, his palm would surely be shattered.

The thin black gloves wrapping around Zigmund’s hand tore against the blade, and blood flowed from the gap. The feeling of his flesh being cut and crushed sent shivers down my spine.

I barely suppressed the urge to vomit upon seeing the blood flowing down the blade.

“…Let go.”

“Look at you. You’re still weak and foolish, Kashmir.”

Despite his biting words, his lips curled into an oddly sweet smile as if something delightful was dripping down. Even knowing it was a facade, it was a beautiful smile.

I held my breath, boiling with emotion.

Zigmund, unyielding to my murderous gaze, locked eyes with me, tilting his head. His dust-covered black hair fluttered with his movements.

“You only acted on that foolish sentiment. You had countless chances to kill me, yet in the end, you couldn’t.”

I gritted my teeth. It felt like magma was pouring from every hole in my body.

As my hand gripping the sword began to tremble, Zigmund chuckled softly, raising his upper body while still firmly holding my sword.

Thud.

The nightmarish sound of metal piercing flesh.

Zigmund, having pressed his neck against the sword’s tip, rolled his eyes as they shone with a dull mist.

“Kill me. Go ahead.”

“…Do you think I can’t?”

“Yeah. You can’t.”

His immediate affirmation without an ounce of hesitation twisted my insides into a shape I couldn’t even recognize.

I gritted my teeth until they nearly shattered. I wanted to do something, but all I could do was this.

“…Your non-existent mouth won’t stop talking even with a knife at your throat.”

“If you really hate my mouth that much, kill me. Quit talking big if you don’t have the guts to do it.”

Zigmund provocatively taunted me with the face of a devil luring me in. I let out a breath like a hollow laugh. I could no longer contain my fury.

“Fine. I’ll grant your wish.”

I kicked his hands off my sword, aimed the tip at his neck, and raised the hand gripping the sword high into the air.

 

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