The Eclipsed Order

Chapter 93: Chapter 93: A Detour to the Hot Spring

A few days later, the academy break finally began.

With no reason to remain in the capital for the time being, I decided to return home, and naturally, Draven and Cedric came along with me.

We had already left the capital behind, and the three of us were now walking along a quiet road surrounded by fields and distant forests. The journey itself was peaceful, although someone behind me seemed to have a serious objection to traveling on foot.

"Master, why are we walking?"

Draven’s voice carried a noticeable amount of dissatisfaction.

"Why don’t we simply fly there? It would take considerably less time."

"There is a reason we’re walking."

I continued down the road without slowing down.

"There is a village ahead called Sunday Village. Once we pass through it, there is a mountain range nearby, and somewhere within those mountains is a secluded hot spring."

Draven’s expression immediately changed.

"A hot spring?"

"Yes. I happened to discover it while flying through the area last month. It’s hidden deep enough that ordinary travelers probably wouldn’t even know it exists."

Draven considered this for a moment before nodding.

"I see. In that case, I suppose walking isn’t such a bad idea after all."

"That was a surprisingly quick change of heart."

"I’m merely adapting to the circumstances."

"You were complaining a moment ago."

"I was simply making an observation."

I ignored him.

Cedric, who had been quietly walking beside us, looked toward me.

"I’ll follow wherever you go, Master."

"That’s a little too straightforward."

Cedric tilted his head slightly, apparently not understanding what I meant.

"Is that a problem?"

"No. It’s fine. Let’s just keep going."

These two had certainly become closer during our time together.

At first, Draven had mostly treated Cedric as someone beneath his notice, while Cedric had been so expressionless that it was difficult to tell whether he even cared about anything. Somehow, after spending enough time together, they had developed an odd sort of companionship.

"Before we reach the village, though, let’s hunt a giant boar and bring it with us."

Draven looked at me.

"Is that really necessary?"

"It’ll be useful."

I glanced toward the forest.

"We’ll tell them that we happened to encounter it along the way and decided to give it to the village. In exchange, we’ll probably be able to get some properly cooked food and supplies."

Draven’s eyes brightened slightly.

"Oh. I understand now."

"Think of this as a vacation. We have a long academy break ahead of us, and we’ll be staying around the village for a while anyway. Since we’re going to be borrowing quite a bit of food from them, giving them a giant boar should make the arrangement considerably more reasonable."

"Impressive as always, Master."

Cedric said it with his usual completely expressionless face.

Draven pointed at him.

"You should put a little emotion into that."

"I understand."

"That’s not what I meant."

I couldn’t help sighing.

"These two..."

I looked between them for a moment.

"You’ve gotten pretty close, haven’t you?"

"We’ve been together every day and night after all," Draven replied. "Whenever you were attending classes, we had plenty of time to talk. Cedric has asked about the past quite often."

"Most of what he knows about me comes from stories concerning different eras."

Cedric nodded.

"There are many things I wanted to understand."

"I see."

I glanced at him.

"By the way, Cedric, have you actually seen Draven before?"

"Yes."

His answer came immediately.

"I encountered him twice when I was still a Holy Knight."

I looked toward Draven.

"Twice?"

"He’s one of the Primordial Dragons," Cedric explained. "During that era, it was not particularly unusual for important figures to know of him."

"So you must have been quite powerful back then."

"Very much so."

Cedric’s expression remained calm.

"Draven was one of the more respected dragons of that period. He possessed considerable strength, but unlike some of the other dragons, he was not openly hostile toward human civilizations."

Draven gave a small snort.

"I wouldn’t go that far. I didn’t particularly like humans."

"You were still friendly with the royal family."

"Because they fed me."

I looked at him.

"That’s your reason?"

"They provided food at the palace, and in exchange, I gave a minor blessing to their forces. It was a convenient arrangement."

Draven shrugged.

"Eventually, however, their greed became irritating, so I stopped visiting."

He paused for a moment before continuing.

"Unfortunately, the other dragons had already begun taking an interest in that royal family. The king had a daughter who was said to possess the power inherited from the previous Saint, and that power attracted the attention of the Black Dragon of Calamity."

"That dragon attacked the kingdom specifically to kill the Saint and absorb her power."

Draven’s voice lowered.

"I couldn’t stop it."

"You couldn’t?"

"That dragon was on par with me in terms of raw power, but its ability was particularly troublesome. The Black Dragon of Calamity possessed a power that continuously grew through destruction. The more destruction it caused and the more magic it absorbed from the surrounding area, the stronger it became."

He looked ahead as he spoke.

"Fighting it directly within a populated kingdom would only have given it more strength. Every destroyed structure, every fallen soldier, and every spell released against it would have provided it with more energy. Even if I could match it initially, prolonging the battle would eventually turn the situation against me."

"So you couldn’t defeat it without making the situation worse."

"Precisely."

I nodded.

"Then how did that dragon eventually die?"

"The other dragons intervened."

Draven’s expression became slightly bitter.

"They attacked it together and eventually brought it down. Its power was divided among them afterward, and the dragons who received portions of that power entered a long period of slumber so they could evolve further."

I looked at him.

"So there are other dragons still sleeping somewhere?"

"Yes."

"And some of them are still active?"

"Of course."

"That’s interesting."

I thought about it for a moment.

"No wonder that dragon I encountered back then was so weak."

Draven immediately looked at me.

"What do you mean by that, Master?"

"When I was ten, I wandered into the deeper parts of the western mountains and came across a Fire Dragon."

Cedric finally looked over.

"A Fire Dragon?"

"Yes. When I killed it, I absorbed its power."

Draven stopped walking.

"...What?"

I glanced back at him.

"Is something wrong?"

"N-No. Not really."

He forced himself to continue walking, though his expression had become noticeably strange.

"But seriously, why would you kill a dragon like that? Did it have some kind of grudge against you?"

"Not really. I was experimenting at the time."

I shrugged.

"I used Eclipse to enhance its strength, but apparently it didn’t appreciate the experiment. It attacked me and started breathing fire in my direction, so I killed it before it could cause serious damage to the surrounding mountains."

Draven stared at me.

"You enhanced it... and then killed it?"

"Yes."

"And you absorbed its power afterward?"

"That’s why I can use fire magic and produce flames similar to its breath."

There was a long silence.

Draven eventually released a slow breath.

"It’s a good thing you didn’t exist during my era."

"Why is that?"

"Because if you had, even I might have ended up becoming one of your experimental subjects."

I smiled.

"Now that you mention it, do you want to try?"

"EEEEEK?!"

Draven’s voice echoed across the road.

Cedric turned toward him.

I couldn’t help laughing.

"I’m joking. Why would I do that?"

I continued walking.

"You two are my precious subordinates now. I have no reason to experiment on either of you."

Draven released a long sigh of relief.

"That scared the hell out of me..."

I looked toward Cedric.

He had a faint smile on his face.

It was subtle, almost easy to miss, but it was definitely there.

"It’s nice to see you smiling, Cedric."

His expression immediately became a little awkward.

"I-Is that so? I’m not really accustomed to smiling, so it feels somewhat embarrassing."

"You don’t have to force yourself. Just do it whenever you feel like it."

Draven suddenly spoke from beside him.

"Don’t worry. If you’re embarrassed, I can simply erase your memory and replace it with something more pleasant."

Cedric’s smile disappeared.

"Thank you, but I refuse."

"Hmm. Boring."

I looked at Draven.

"Why exactly do you want to erase his memory?"

Draven froze.

"I-I was only joking, Master."

He laughed awkwardly.

"Ahahaha..."

I stared at him for a moment before shaking my head.

This guy, seriously.

The road ahead continued toward Sunday Village, with the mountains visible beyond it. The journey was supposed to be nothing more than a short vacation before returning home, but considering the people accompanying me, I had a feeling it was going to be considerably more troublesome than that.

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