The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

Black Dragon Kruikeker was one of the stronger dragons out there.

It didn’t seem like it was entirely his own power, but who cares?

Just a few days ago, facing monsters like Dragon Undead made Kruikeker’s attacks feel like mere child’s play.

Gemma, who had been threatened, also transformed back into her dragon form to challenge Kruikeker, and he retaliated against Gemma.

I moderately hopped onto Gemma’s shoulder, asking Kruikeker all sorts of questions, but whether it was due to his heavy mouth or just ignorance, I didn’t get a single decent answer.

He definitely didn’t do this alone.

It had that kind of smell.

While I dragged out time to help Gemma, I toyed with Kruikeker, giving him shallow wounds to provoke him, but then I suddenly fell down the mountain.

I thought I just fell, but of all places, I ended up crashing into Titan’s Mansion grounds. Now, stalling was no longer an option.

It had to be a quick kill.

“It’s over.”

With Aura Blade in hand, I stared at Kruikeker’s corpse, sprawled beneath my feet.

Just a moment ago, the Black Dragon Kruikeker had been spewing Poison Cloud all around, threatening everyone, and now he was just a cold chunk of meat.

I had scratched him gently to extract information, but when he tried to unleash his breath, I had no choice but to finish him off.

The storm from my strike obliterated Kruikeker’s breath and shredded his body.

I didn’t break the Dragon Heart.

That was the easiest way to defeat him, but if I accidentally set it off, it would contaminate the surroundings, which was troublesome.

With the connection between Kruikeker’s head and Dragon Heart severed, he died almost instantly.

“He’s… dead.”

“Yeah.”

Gemma stood before the now cold corpse of Kruikeker, still in her human form.

His death was neither heroic nor did it leave anything behind.

Kruikeker, mouth agape and tongue out, just looked pitiful.

“Not all dragons follow the Lord’s words…”

“Does it bother you?”

“I thought it was natural for all dragons to follow Father’s words…”

“Really?”

Though he had tried to kill her, it seemed Gemma felt sorrow over the loss of her kin, and her voice was tinged with sadness.

I obnoxiously reached up and pulled on Gemma’s ear, which was a head taller than mine.

“Ow! What are you doing??”

“What’s with the outcry when you tried to rebel too?”

“Ugh?!”

So she believed all dragons listened to the Lord’s orders?

She had just run away herself, resisting, and here she was, making such a fuss.

“If you stray too far, you become an Evil Dragon. There are plenty besides him. You should consider yourself lucky; it could have been you if I weren’t as generous.”

“Ugh…”

Looking up at Gemma, who was on the verge of tears, I had many thoughts.

I wanted to drop her off to the Lord quickly, but since Gold Dragons proved useful just by existing, I found our time together increasing.

She had never left the nest for so long and was totally naive about the world, but I wanted to see her change.

At least for now, it didn’t feel like she was doing this out of fear of my fists.

“Still, you did well this time. Keep it up. Even you can see how ridiculous that was, right?”

“Um… yeah… Thank you…”

She blushed, and since she had done well, I decided to give her an honest compliment.

As she fidgeted with her flushed ears, Gemma looked down, feeling shy.

Now it was time to get to work.

Standing over Kruikeker’s corpse, I struck the scales with my aura-imbued fist.

The aura I contained stirred through Kruikeker’s body, still brimming with Tremendous Power even in death.

‘Next to the heart, huh.’

I figured there had to be something inside Kruikeker’s body, which had exhaled a powerful curse and poison beyond its capability, so I set out to check.

As my aura pierced through his corpse, I confirmed an unusual sensation near the heart and drew my sword to slice open Kruikeker’s chest.

Thick black blood, laden with poison, oozed out of the Black Dragon.

Slicing open Kruikeker’s chest wasn’t just because I craved blood.

Messing with the corpse of a poison-packed Black Dragon required a hefty amount of resolve on my part.

If I overused the Holy Artifact, everything I was trying to find would turn to ash, so I needed to control this delicately, but I had little experience controlling Holy Power, making things difficult.

To locate the artifact inside Kruikeker, I needed to delve into the body.

[…No need for that. I’ll help you. What are you looking for?]

As I was struggling with slicing open my kin, Gemma transformed back into a dragon and plunged her hand into Kruikeker’s corpse.

“There should be an artificially made item near the heart, aside from the bones.”

[He… Heart?]

I could see her grimacing even in her dragon form.

After rummaging for a bit, it seemed like Gemma found something and pulled her hand from Kruikeker’s chest.

[Got it!]

“Yeah, that’s it!”

In her hand, covered in thick black blood, was an artifact resembling a small black ring.

It was definitely not human-sized.

For dragons, it looked like it could fit on a finger.

Just pulling it out released visible black poison.

Just the joy of Gemma having found the artifact was fleeting as I suddenly felt a stinging gaze and turned around.

“…”

“…”

“…”

A group of people had gathered, watching us rummaging through Kruikeker’s corpse with their mouths covered.

“What’s the matter? Is there a problem?”

—————————

Titan’s Mansion was filled with heavy silence.

There were several reasons for this silence, but it could largely be divided into two types.

Responses differed between those who knew Atlas and those who were seeing him for the first time today.

Those who knew Atlas were mostly aware he was quite strong, but they never imagined he would so effortlessly butcher a dragon of that caliber.

He sliced through Kruikeker’s barrier like it was paper while exuding powerful Holy Power that erased the Poison Cloud, and then swiftly decapitated him.

They said there’s no end to the realm of Expert Level, but this was an aura of lethality akin to that of a Master.

On the other hand, those who were unfamiliar with Atlas or had just seen him today were curious about the Gold Dragon that had suddenly appeared alongside him, slaughtering Kruikeker.

“I… can’t believe this…”

Among them, one person, recalling memories from a decade ago, was doubting their own eyes.

“Milord…?? How are you here… you still retain that exact appearance from back then…”

Oneiroi staggered towards Atlas, unable to believe his eyes, and fell to his knees.

“Me? Oh right, you were Oneiroi. It’s been a while, how have you been?”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, Milord…!!!”

Atlas couldn’t remember Oneiroi’s face clearly and found himself in a bit of a dilemma.

He often saw the Knight Commander, but Oneiroi had been managing elsewhere, so he hadn’t had many chances to see him.

After a light formal greeting, Oneiroi unexpectedly smashed his head against the ground.

Atlas was taken aback by the overwhelming emotion spilling out and took a step back.

“I believed… Milord would surely return!! And the moment you arrive, you deal with the disaster that struck the mountain range… Truly… only you are the master of the mountains!”

Crying as soon as he saw Atlas, Oneiroi was shouting for joy.

Atlas could only wear an expression of confusion, wondering what was with this guy acting like this.

“U-um, it’s good to see you too.”

Having lost interest in conversing, Atlas quickly moved towards the people hiding behind.

There stood Metios.

“Brother, just like we promised, I’ve dealt with the curses overflowing in the mountain range. The remaining undead will disappear over time.”

“Thank you, Brother.”

Metios bowed his head in gratitude to Atlas’s words.

As the master of the mountain range, he shouldn’t have lowered his head so lightly in front of people, but he had certainly achieved something worth it.

“First, let’s see a doctor. That dragon emitted poison everywhere; I’m worried it might have harmed you, Brother.”

“Don’t worry, I prepared for all of that.”

Kruikeker’s poison and curse couldn’t even touch Atlas’s body.

Everything had been wiped away by the strong Holy Power emanating from the Holy Artifact he possessed.

The doctor would probably say there was no issue.

However, Metios thought differently.

“No, we can’t!!”

When Atlas said there was no need, Metios shouted loudly.

“Brother?”

“Please, just go.”

Metios’s hand gripping my arm was trembling.

“Please… I beg you.”

“If you say so… okay, I’ll check it out.”

Atlas, who really thought it was unnecessary, could no longer refuse as Metios spoke those words.

He felt like Metios would genuinely start shedding tears if he didn’t go.