The first impression Lucian had upon entering the hut was one of oppression.
A magical energy so heavy it almost took his breath away pressed down on his entire body.
‘It was already noticeable from outside, but it’s much worse in here.’
Lucian exhaled deeply, as if breathing underwater, and then raised his head.
The interior was narrow, so the object he was looking for appeared immediately—a red stone placed at the center and, beneath it, a strange connected device.
Without a doubt, they were the dragon’s heart and the artifact he had heard about.
‘Wow when they said heart, I thought it’d be beating, but it looks surprisingly normal.’
The dragon’s heart didn’t resemble that of a living being, but rather a smooth stone.
It was somewhat like a mineral, yet it brimmed with a vitality impossible to find in an ordinary rock.
If a stone could harbor life and breathe, it would probably feel like this.
‘I’d like to observe it a bit more, but there’s no time. I’ll save that for later.’
For now, the priority was to absorb the power residing in the dragon’s heart.
Recalling Marius’s words, Lucian lowered his gaze to the pedestal.
First, he had to adjust the artifact as instructed so the absorption would be possible.
As he leaned in to manipulate the device, Lucian was startled.
‘…Isn’t this exactly like the White Fortress’s defense mechanism?’
Although its shape was slightly different, the spherical structure with multiple engravings fitted like puzzle pieces was identical.
Even the symbols differed only in small details, to the point they could be matched with each other.
That meant this artifact was probably operated similarly to the White Fortress’s defensive system.
‘If I do this right… couldn’t I detach this dragon’s heart and use it somewhere else?’
Keeping the dragon’s heart connected but unused was nothing short of a waste.
They had left it like that because they didn’t know other methods of use nor how to separate it.
But if Lucian managed to extract it and adapt it to another device, what would happen then?
It might not be limited to being a powerful weapon but could be used in many other ways.
‘After subduing this tribe, I’ll have to call Colin and get him to research it.’
Suppressing his excitement, Lucian began to carefully manipulate the artifact’s controls.
When he moved the mechanism in the order Marius had explained, a faint light flickered in the artifact.
At the same time, the dragon’s heart began to slowly rotate atop it.
After taking a deep breath once more, Lucian gripped the dragon’s heart with both hands.
Whooosh
“…!”
A violent current, unlike anything he’d ever experienced, shook him, forcing his eyes wide open.
***
“Why the hell did they build that damn sanctuary in a place like this, making this old man suffer?”
Marius was heading toward the sanctuary with a slight delay, tapping his lower back.
From the start, he had decided to move a bit later to avoid raising suspicion with Chief Ivar.
After all, when Lucian emerged victorious, he would have to steer the atmosphere with prophecies and speeches.
“Huff… climbing a hill at this age leaves my bones in pieces.”
Although he kept complaining, a deep smile never left Marius’s face.
Once Lucian absorbed the dragon’s heart, everything would go according to plan.
‘For a moment I thought everything would fall apart, but what a relief it all worked out. From now on, whether he likes it or not, he’ll have no choice but to follow my lead.’
He knew the consequences wouldn’t be light. When Lucian realized he’d been deceived, he’d be furious and eager to kill him.
But for Marius, who was already nearing death, Lucian’s anger was a trivial detail.
What mattered was fulfilling his dream before dying and witnessing it with his own eyes.
‘I only need to raise it once. Even if it starts by force, once they understand its usefulness, they’ll never tear it down. And most importantly, if they want to survive, they’ll have no choice but to value the mages of future generations…’
“Looks like someone’s in a good mood, old man.”
Marius flinched at the sound of the voice. When he looked up, he saw Raymond, one of Lucian’s close companions, watching him from atop the hill.
With a mocking smirk, Raymond spoke to him.
“Daydreaming about something sweet? I’ve been staring at you blatantly and you didn’t even notice. Sure, mages aren’t knights even if they’re high-level—you guys are slow at sensing presences, huh?”
“Watch your tongue, brat. I’m not in a position where someone like you can call me an old man.”
Marius’s eyes gleamed coldly.
If he used serious magic, he could turn a knight like Raymond to ashes in an instant.
To be treated as an equal by someone like that was an affront to his pride.
However, Raymond merely let out a mocking laugh, ignoring the killing intent.
“Wow, the geezer who tried to mess with His Majesty’s life has a lot of demands. You’d better nod and shut your mouth while I still treat you with respect. Keep up that attitude, and I’ll start calling you an old mutt.”
“What are you saying? Why would I threaten his life?!”
“Oh, I misspoke. It’s not that you wanted to kill him, but that you intended to control whether he lived or died. Though, thinking about it, that’s even more mutt-like, so I’m not sure it’s worth correcting myself.”
Marius froze, as if he’d been struck in his weak spot.
A true schemer would’ve kept pretending to be outraged, but Marius wasn’t that skilled.
Convinced, Raymond continued with a cold smile.
“What did you plan to do after putting into His Majesty’s body a quantity of power barely bearable by a human—dragon power at that? Were you going to say only you could stabilize that energy and force him to obey while he suffered from the overload?”
“It’s a misunderstanding!”
“Well, whatever. Whatever your intention was, thanks to that, His Majesty will now be able to unleash the dragon’s power freely.”
“…?”
Marius stared at Raymond in shock.
He said he more or less understood what would happen if dragon power was inserted into his body, and he still planned to use it without hesitation?
The conversation had taken so many turns that he couldn’t gather his thoughts.
“What the hell are you saying? Do you believe me or not?”
“There’s no longer any reason to hide it. His Majesty was born with a special constitution. From the moment he came into the world, the paths of magic were completely open to him. He has never suffered side effects, no matter what elixir he ingested, and amounts that would have torn a normal person apart long ago, he absorbed without any problem.”
The real issue was that those pathways were too wide.
He couldn’t retain magic; as soon as the vessel filled up, the excess would spill out endlessly.
Of course, if magic leaked out of the body, it meant that an excessive amount had built up for his level.
In the end, only the appropriate amount for his condition remained, expelling the rest.
Seen from a certain perspective, that was also a kind of beneficial side effect.
“But from the perspective of a knight like me, that was a waste. If you can store magic without adverse effects, there’s nothing wrong with having more. I wanted to trap inside His Majesty the magic that kept slipping away.”
Of course, there was no method to do so. Or, to be precise, no one had researched it.
Harboring an amount of magic that exceeds one’s own limits is, in itself, a form of self-harm.
Who would bother seriously researching how to harm themselves?
“So both His Majesty and I had half-given up on it until the old man taught us a truly absurd method.”
“…”
“To use an artifact to condense the dragon’s magic inside the body. You have no idea how surprised I was when I heard it. If that were possible, His Majesty could draw on an overwhelming power whenever he wanted.”
Marius felt as if an icicle had been stabbed into his spine.
A special constitution? Magical paths open from birth? Even past experiences of absorbing excessive magic and expelling it without side effects?
“Do you really think we’re idiots blinded by greed, who rush in without thinking of the consequences?”
“W-wait…”
“Did you think His Majesty would suffer, devoured by the dragon’s magic? That he’d come begging for help, saying he needed you?”
“Wait, wait…”
“There’s no problem. None at all. Even if the dragon’s magic bursts all at once, he’ll be perfectly fine. I’ve already seen something very similar myself, so you can trust my words.”
Marius’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees.
He had never intended to kill Lucian, nor had he lied about how to manipulate the artifact.
However, even the best-sealed magic eventually leaks little by little, and that burden on the magical paths could only be eased with sorcery.
That was the point he intended to exploit.
“I… I…”
Boom!
Just as Marius tried to say something with dry lips, an explosion rumbled from the top of the hill.
At the same time, a massive surge of blue flames rose toward the sky. Seeing those rippling flames, Marius couldn’t utter a word.
“Was it… real…?”
Even if it weren’t dragon magic, that much unrestrained power would tear a human body to pieces.
Normally, one would die shattered, and the remaining magic would explode in all directions.
However, those blue flames flowed with a clear sense of direction.
It was proof that the owner of that magic still maintained his body intact while releasing it.
“Ah…”
Despair reflected in Marius’s eyes.
Not only had his intentions been completely seen through, but they had also been used against him.
Even the last trace of usefulness he had evaporated.
No matter how powerful he was as a mage, in Lucian’s eyes he was nothing more than a sour grape full of obsessions.
He could make use of Colin or Helen, but Marius would never be kept close.
“If you’ve finished confirming it, then leave. As His Majesty said, you’re no longer of any use.”
With those cold words, Raymond turned to leave. At that moment, Marius dropped to his knees with a dull thud.
“This commoner named Marius wishes to address the noble lord. If he would pity this old man, I beg him to stop for a moment and listen to me.”
“…!?”
Surprised to see him acting like an old peasant, Raymond stopped.
Marius pressed his forehead into the snow and spoke.
“I beg you to grant me one more audience with His Majesty. I implore you, my lord.”
***
“…”
“…”
The members of the tribe stared in shock at the blue flames bursting from Lucian’s body.
If the previous two were heroes chosen by the dragon, Lucian looked more like the reincarnation of the dragon itself.
Faced with that overwhelming difference, no one could speak. Then Lucian raised a hand.
“Look. This is the heart of the dragon.”
“…!”
The tribe members flinched and stared at the dragon’s heart Lucian held high.
It looked like a mineral, but it emanated such intense vitality that even from a distance, it felt extraordinary.
Upon confirming that it really was the dragon’s heart, Ivar shouted, almost in a scream.
“What?!”
It was incomprehensible not only how he had separated the artifact from the heart, but the fact that Lucian held it with his bare hands was even more shocking.
Without the power of the artifact, anyone would explode upon touching it. How was this possible?
While Ivar remained frozen in shock, Lucian’s voice reached his ears.
“As you can see, the dragon chose me. It said it had remained in this tundra for so long just to find me, and now, at last, it had fulfilled its duty. As the rightful owner of the heart, I will take it.”
“Ohhh…”
‘Nonsense! All of it is nonsense!’
Ivar barely managed to swallow the curse rising in his throat.
No one knew better than him that the dragon’s heart had no will of its own.
What infuriated him the most was seeing the tribe members’ eyes sparkling, as if they were moved.
He wanted to shout at them not to believe such nonsense, but there was no way to do it.
After all, it had been he himself who declared that the heart had a will.
Just as he clenched his teeth, thinking he’d lose the artifact without being able to do anything, Lucian spoke again.
“But even though all this is my rightful claim, the one who has protected the heart until now is the chief of the tribe. Therefore, he too must receive the same opportunity. Even more so, since he was once chosen by the dragon.”
“…?”
Lucian’s words stirred an inexplicable unease in Ivar.
What was he trying to say?
Then Lucian smiled brazenly and turned toward him.
“Come, Chief of the Tribe! Take this dragon’s heart! If the dragon chooses you again, I’ll yield the throne without the slightest hesitation.”
“…!?”
At that unexpected declaration, Ivar’s face turned completely pale.
____
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