I got into school for nothing - Chapter 256
I got into school for nothing (256)
Lesson 50. Dragon's Tomb - 2
[There's another barrier. I'll erase it.]
[Shishit.]
He received real-time information about the ruin from his vassals, who, having been granted access to Gwoeyeonggong, roamed freely within the ruin, hidden in the shadows that filled every corner.
He was thinking of a certain friend who likely had a significant connection to this ruin.
[Everything else is rotten, but the metals are surprisingly intact. Oh? This... doesn't it look similar to the Dragon-Slaying Sword?]
[Shishishit.]
[Ah, this has the same properties as that artifact? As expected of Sister Eve. Oh, there are books here too!]
The Dragon-Slaying Sword, which had chosen her as its master, was an item that granted her both power and poison. But under Ban Yuwon's guidance, it underwent a reversal and super-evolution, eventually being reborn as the True Dragon Sword, which boosted the power of dragons.
This dramatic growth, likely unforeseen even by the ancestor who sought to possess Asha Light's body, reborn her as a pre-eminent superhuman, transcending the limits of lower-ranked dimensions.
She could even contend on equal footing with Rucell, who had awakened the blood of both Divine Beasts, and Dokgo Yeon, the undisputed strongest member of Rebellion. Thus, there was no need to further elaborate on the achievements she had made.
[Wow, this is amazing too. Here too! Dragon-Slaying Sword replicas are scattered everywhere!]
―Bring more. No... bring them all!
[Shishishishit!]
It seemed as if everything was resolved, yet the mysteries surrounding it still piled up.
Why had the Dragon-Slaying Sword, which was said to have only a few copies across all dimensions, flowed all the way to the D-13 Dimension?
What was the necklace's connection to it?
And why were the ancestor's soul and the dragon's soul sealed together?
[Ah, is this it? As expected, this is all we can obtain without moving into the core area.]
―Translate the intact documents right away. This ruin... it might be related to dragons.
[Of course. I'll start right away.]
[Shwiruruk....]
Among these, the most perplexing question was this:
While it was clear the ancestor intended to possess the descendant's body, why did they specifically choose Asha Light, who was born a Dragonoid?
...And why did Asha Light, a descendant of dragon-slayers, inherit the blood of a Dragonoid in the first place?
‘It's clear that it was an intentional outcome. The ancestor didn't just happen to choose a Dragonoid as their sacrifice; they chose Asha Light because she was born a Dragonoid.’
This implied that the ancestor also knew that a Dragonoid would be born from their bloodline in the future.
Then, perhaps that bastard ancestor... a dragon...?
Ban Yuwon, who had been thinking up to that point, immediately shook his head, dispelling such grim thoughts.
―Ban Yuwon, what's wrong?
―Just thinking.
―That team-killer bitch?
―Watch your language.
Asha Light certainly had a knack for friendly fire, but!
Still, after regaining her true form, she listened well and worked very hard!
It was also incredibly cute how she would curl up like a small puppy, trembling and suffering whenever she encountered traces of her past from her "dark history" days.
Of course, Ban Yuwon wasn't the only one who found it cute; recently, the Rebellion channel was inundated with comments saying that Asha Light's cross-dressing felt like a "new door opening."
It was a good thing that it wasn't actually a new door, after all.
“What... is this?”
Roccius stopped in his tracks, as if he had discovered something.
He was staring at a power cable stuck to the inner wall of the ruin.
Presumably, there had once been a cover protecting it, but due to the passage of time, no trace of it remained. Fortunately, the cable itself was still intact.
“Like a monster's blood vessel... I feel mana flowing through here.”
“It must be part of the facility.”
“Isn't it dangerous?”
“If you smash everything that looks dangerous, then yes. You'll certainly find what you're looking for in this ruin, won't you?”
Anneri Dedota, who had retorted to Roccius instead of Ban Yuwon, added provocatively,
“If you're scared, you can just wait outside.”
“――No, I'll go with you.”
What had Roccius hoped for when he entered this ruin?
It was, of course, obvious.
The Holy Sword held by the prince of Camelot, the leader of the Guardian Alliance.
Its unprecedented ability, impossible to find in lower-ranked dimensions: endless, infinite mana.
The moment this ruin was discovered on this planet, he had hoped that perhaps such a Holy Sword might also be dormant within it.
However, the deeper they delved into the ruin, the more the scenery diverged from what Roccius had imagined.
There were no treasures, no monsters, and no traps.
All that existed were the mana cables that occasionally poked out from the ground or hung from the ceiling, writhing unpleasantly each time mana passed through, and endlessly long, connecting passages.
Rooms that appeared occasionally, with doors long gone and interiors fully exposed, were no different.
Inside, there was only furniture and fixtures that had rotted away, unable to withstand the ravages of time; other than that, there was astonishingly nothing.
“...”
Roccius's expression twisted in real-time.
The other knights, and even the members of the mercenary group Rebel Force, wore similar expressions.
After all, wouldn't anyone be like that if the ruin they entered, having agreed to take a hefty 50% cut, turned out to be completely empty?
It was as if the word "contract breach" was flashing before his eyes.
“It's as if... someone already raided it.”
In the midst of it all, Ban Yuwon uttered the words everyone was thinking but dared not speak aloud.
Sharp gazes from the others immediately darted towards him, but he merely shrugged.
“I didn't raid it, so why are you glaring at me?”
“Hmph...!”
In truth, Ban Yuwon *had* raided it.
An inventory that could store items remotely by resonating with his vassals was truly the best!
“Someone entered before us... Is that even possible?”
“Well, the ruin was closed, but we can't guarantee no one entered before that. ...And it seems there are others who followed us in.”
At Ban Yuwon's words, Roccius's complexion changed.
The knights' complexions also shifted simultaneously, a shock born of an unexpected situation.
Of course, they would be.
They hadn't yet been able to contact the forces supporting them.
In other words―― those who had followed them into the ruin were the result of a leak of information from somewhere other than these knights!
―I knew it wouldn't end peacefully, but I didn't expect it to be such a mess.
―It's a good thing we cleared out the ruin's contents beforehand, Yuwon-nim?
―Huh, Ban Yuwon raided this?! How?!
―That's a trade secret.
It seemed that the members, apart from Ban Yumi, had noticed that Ban Yuwon had raided the ruin, but Anneri Dedota was the only one who had figured out how.
―It was your vassals, wasn't it? The position where the throwing knife was stuck shifted subtly. If the knights had been more perceptive, you might have been caught.
―Thanks for the tip. I'll make sure to train them to be more thorough next time.
Perhaps it was because neither of them intended to uphold the contract from the start, but this mercenary request had a significant number of loopholes.
One could pick apart its flaws endlessly, but if one were to discuss the most crucial point: Ban Yuwon, not being an official member of the mercenary group, was completely unaffected by this contract from the outset.
If Anneri Dedota had discovered something first, she would have had no choice but to share it with Roccius, but anything Ban Yuwon secured beforehand by freely employing his vassals would become his personal spoils, not the spoils of this mercenary request.
―That's fraud!
―Yumi, remember this: in this industry, the one who gets caught is at fault.
At Anneri Dedota's "kind" explanation, Ban Yumi's mouth fell open.
Fortunately, that dumbfounded expression could be passed off as surprise at the intruders.
Ban Yuwon stepped slightly forward, as if to shield his sister, and urged Roccius.
“So what will you do? Will you face the enemy here?”
“――No.”
Roccius, whose expression had been one of shock at the news of intruders, soon adopted a grim look and spoke.
“We will conquer the ruin. The clash will come after.”
“Indeed.”
Ban Yuwon, having read all the hidden intentions Roccius hadn't bothered to reveal, couldn't help but smile.
Lies, and murderous intent too.
He could roughly guess what lies Roccius was spinning, and that he intended to kill their party was already an assumed fact.
He hadn't expected loyalty from him from the start, but wasn't this a bit *too* predictable?
In any case, with this, there was no longer any need for them to hold back either.
Those who, unaware that the ruin already had a master, coveted things far beyond their station.
All of them would peacefully become a part of the ruin and fall into an eternal slumber.
―Beyond this lies a sealed area. It's probably the innermost section. You understand me, right?
―Everyone, prepare for battle.
It's a good thing I understand.
Ban Yuwon, having finished securing the spoils, patted Eve and Lilyth, who had returned to his side, and reviewed his upcoming plans in his mind.
Three minutes later, the party arrived before a colossal metal door, similar to the ruin's entrance.
All the thick cables that had stretched deep into the ruin converged and terminated at the point where they met this door, further emphasizing its importance.
Without a doubt, the most important something within this ruin lay beyond that door.
“Hmph...!”
The moment he saw it, Roccius let out a sigh of relief.
It was only natural, as the ruin exploration, which had been on the verge of yielding nothing, was now finally bearing fruit.
“Let's enter quickly. Whatever dangers lie inside, we must retrieve the relic as soon as possible and secure our retreat path.”
“Good thinking.”
It was truly a foolish remark.
If he genuinely intended to uphold the contract with the mercenary group, he would simply use space magic to move to a safe place the moment he obtained the relic, without needing to secure a retreat path.
It was practically an open declaration that he had no intention of completing the contract, yet he himself, being too nervous, didn't seem to notice.
“Open it.”
Why do humans repeatedly make foolish choices?
Do they not consider the possibility of being attacked, even when facing a space magic user?
But perhaps it was precisely because they would cut open the goose that laid golden eggs that they were human... With such unnecessarily philosophical musings, Ban Yuwon stepped forward and placed his hand on the door.
In his hand, he held a perfectly restored cross.
―Master Key confirmed. Code [Holy Grail] activated.
Yes, he had expected that word to pop up eventually.
The contents within would probably be a completely different concept from the Holy Grail of legend, but――.
Before it could completely crumble, Ban Yuwon swiftly retrieved all the concepts from the core's metal door that had fulfilled its role, embedding them into the Seal Ring and Soul Liberation respectively, and then chuckled bitterly.
Seal Ring [Seal 1,000, Amplify 200, Enhance 100]
Soul Liberation [Soul Seal 1,000, Demon Bane 500, Ancient Knowledge 1,000]
What was revealed beyond the door was a wide―― an incredibly wide room.
The areas they had passed through until now were filled with rare metals, research texts, and Dragon-Slaying Sword replicas.
Here, however, the atmosphere was completely reversed: the floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of metal, and ancient words and drawings were etched into every surface.
“This is―― What is this.”
“It's a drawing of humans fighting dragons.”
Perhaps it had even accounted for the possibility of someone unable to read ancient languages entering this place?
It was drawn with remarkable clarity and detail, yet――.
“What is this―― why is there a drawing of dragons fighting among themselves?”
“A sword. A sword is drawn! It's the Holy Sword of the Star Prince!”
“A dragon is transforming into a human... What could it be implying?”
The content was utterly unsettling.
It was even more so for Ban Yuwon, who could read ancient languages, and the reason was....
[The supreme lifeform born from the Great Chaos stood in opposition to XXXX.]
[XXX erected a wall of Authority that split apart XXX, speaking of a god for a new world.]
[X, without XX, XXXX entered it.]
‘Censorship, even here?!’
[The fact that your language Authority can't read this means this censorship is either equal to or superior to your Authority, Master. So, wouldn't it be okay to suspect your ancestor?]
[Shwiruruk.]
[Sister Eve is suggesting that perhaps the dimension wall wasn't built by a dragon? That sounds plausible!]
―Indeed, it feels less like the content was hidden and more like only the forbidden words were carefully removed. That's why the meaning can be inferred. But... this is surprising even to me. To think that a True Dragon built the dimension wall... if it was artificially created, who else but them could have done it?
Lilyth, Eve, and even Cellon, who had been quiet until now, joined in, chattering noisily.
If their words were wrong, it wouldn't matter much, but if they were right, it would be a problem.
To think he would find a clue related to his ancestor here, in a place he came to solve Asha Light's problem.
No, he couldn't jump to conclusions.
Ban Yuwon decided to memorize everything mentioned and continued reading the rest. Fortunately, the latter part contained what he had expected... content related to Asha Light's ancestor.
[Under a shattered sky, mortals screamed, cursing dragons with tears of blood.]
[Among them, one chose humanity.]
[They transformed the curse that severed the souls of their own kind into venomous thorns, grasping them in their hand.]
[The traitor, whose body was soaked in the blood of the Last Dragon, was then burdened with its soul and curse.]
[And so, they prepared a sanctuary to fully liberate the descendant who would eventually come, from the dragon's blood.]
That dragons and humans clashed seemed to be a fact, evident even from the drawings.
However, it was unexpected that a traitor among the dragons emerged and allied with humans.
If his power created the blade to pierce dragons, then the replicas found in this ruin―― and the Dragon-Slaying Sword, rarely found across dimensions―― must all be traces of it.
However, the existence known as the Last Dragon, presumably the dragon's soul trapped in the necklace, apparently clung to him along with its curse.
‘So that’s it...! The two souls contained in the necklace weren't deliberately placed together. They were clinging to each other from the very beginning!’
What exactly the curse left by the Last Dragon was, he couldn't tell.
However, considering that the traitor dragon who sided with humanity... that is, Asha Light's ancestor, tried to completely erase all traces of dragons from the world, perhaps the curse was indeed draconic transformation (龍化).
Therefore, the ancestor sealed the Last Dragon's soul along with their own, ensuring it would be passed down through generations of descendants, and made sure Asha Light, awakened as a Dragonoid, would wield the Dragon-Slaying Sword.
And ultimately, their plan was to possess her body, come to this place, and completely eradicate the Dragon Factor etched into her flesh and soul....
‘He's a son of a bitch, isn't he?’
[He is, indeed.]
[Shishit.]
―Three strikes, and he's out. A complete bastard.
Not only betraying his own kind, but also trying to completely destroy Asha Light's life as his descendant, all to eliminate the Dragon Factor flowing in their bloodline.
He should have beaten him more. It was almost a pity that he had already been utterly obliterated without a trace.
‘Ah, now that I think about it, that's probably why the synthesis effect was so good. I wondered why the two souls blended so perfectly.’
[That's right. In the end, they were both dragons, so it was only natural that a sword forged and strengthened from them would become the True Dragon Sword.]
Although the mystery was solved and he felt a sense of relief, there was also a strange feeling of emptiness.
He had intended to instigate conflicts among the various nations scattered across the D-13 Dimension, scout them, and uncover the hidden secrets of the dimension, but to think everything would be resolved in one fell swoop!
...No, in the end, the reality surrounding Asha Light hadn't changed, so not everything was resolved.
“So... where's the sword?”
At that moment, Roccius muttered.
As everyone's gazes fixated on him, he revealed a hint of fury and continued.
“Isn't this a treasury prepared for humans battling against gigantic monsters? If so, it must have been prepared for a warrior... Ah!”
He spotted something and raised his voice.
In the center of the vast room, there was a clear indentation, precisely the size for a sword to be embedded.
“It must have been here! Definitely, but who... who came in first and took the sword?!”
Roccius, having quickly jumped to a conclusion, turned around in a fit of rage.
His furious gaze fell upon the knights who had been following him until now.
“Was it you bastards?! Did you collude with the alliance?!”
“N-no, my lord! We haven't even been able to enter until now, how could we?!”
“Absolutely not!”
“Lies――! I know everything――!”
After all that hardship, it was understandable he'd be furious at having gained nothing, but Roccius's outburst felt excessively premature.
With a single, swift horizontal slash of his drawn sword, the head of one knight, unable to dodge in time, flew into the air.
The other two knights cursed vehemently as they retreated and drew their swords.
“What are you doing?!”
“You madman! We told you it wasn't us!”
“If you're not traitors, then prove it.”
Swoosh, Roccius swung his sword, shaking off the blood, then raised it again, pointing it at Ban Yuwon's party as he spoke.
“Join me in executing these outsiders. In return... if you survive, I promise I will never question your crimes.”
“Hah.”
Ban Yuwon inadvertently let out an exclamation at his words.
Yes, for merely rampaging like a madman, he seemed to retain a surprising amount of his sanity.
That strike had been calculated madness.
Madness meant to sever the hearts of the knights who might betray him and flip the tables.
At any rate, it was the moment the contract, which no one had intended to keep from the start, was finally and completely broken.
Those who, unaware that the ruin already had a master, coveted things far beyond their station.
All of them would peacefully become a part of the ruin and fall into an eternal slumber.
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