Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 34

퓨쳐나이트 34

* * *

Having concluded negotiations with the humans, Arteon looked utterly exhausted.

With the front lines now in a lull, the humans demanded the Elven race’s participation without an inch of compromise, asserting that victory would surely belong to the allied forces if the Elves and Dwarves joined as reinforcements.

Cornered by their unwavering demands, Arteon had no choice but to finalize an agreement to join their allied forces within a month.

‘So, it finally begins, the war…….’

Although it was always on the horizon, war had now become a reality, and the children of the forest would have to venture onto the brutal battlefield within a month, risking their lives to fight.

Arteon, who had fought countless wars to protect the forest from humans and orcs, knew the cruelty of war all too well.

Therefore, her heart ached as she thought about the trials the children of the forest would face on the battlefield.

Sitting at her desk, she let out a deep sigh.

‘Haa… Hmm?’

Suddenly, she felt an eerie sensation that someone was watching her. Looking up and scanning her surroundings, she saw a beautiful woman with long green hair standing silently to her left, having approached without her noticing.

‘Gasp!’

She was so startled that she almost screamed, but Arteon, instinctively recognizing the intruder, acted calmly instead.

Only a ghost or a dragon could possess the ability to deceive her senses with magic and approach her so closely.

“Greetings, G. Jikyon-nim.”

“Well, it’s been a while, Judrian Ode Arteon.”

An awkward atmosphere flowed between them for a moment.

This was because, 200 years ago, the Elf whom Jikyon had tried to befriend for genuine amusement was none other than Arteon before her.

“Has it been about 200 years? Jikyon-nim, have you been well?”

“That pretentious tone is as unchanging as ever.”

Jikyon, seemingly disliking her artificial tone, mocked her words with a nonchalant air.

However, Arteon, who had lived for nearly 1,000 years and experienced all sorts of hardships, remained unfazed and spoke in a gentle tone.

“What brings the great one to visit me? Is there anything I can assist you with?”

At her question, Jikyon put aside personal feelings and got straight to the point.

“It’s nothing much, I just met an interesting neighbor.”

Arteon’s face hardened at the mention of an interesting neighbor.

There was only one person Jikyon could be referring to.

“Could it be? Did you meet him?”

“Perhaps? Since he’s the only human living in this Elven forest. A very unique human, indeed.”

“Yes, very unique. He is not from this world.”

Jikyon was momentarily surprised by Arteon’s words that he was not from this world, but soon changed to an expression of agreement.

“I see, so that’s why. That would explain why he doesn’t know about dragons.”

Watching the dragon nod in agreement, Arteon asked with a worried tone.

“Did anything happen with that human from another world? Did he perhaps displease Jikyon-nim…….”

Unable to imagine what he might have done to Jikyon, who didn’t know about dragons, Arteon’s expression darkened with anxiety.

Even she could not handle the dragon’s whims.

The Jikyon before her was now a dormant ancient dragon, but stories of him from thousands of years ago when he was a Wyrm-class dragon [a powerful, ancient dragon] were still passed down in the Elven village as the three great disasters.

These stories were recorded in detail in books, and they depicted Jikyon as truly cruel and violent to the point of causing chills.

His temperament was also as fickle as a reed, and countless cities and villages had been destroyed by his whims.

Knowing his dark past, Arteon had always hidden in her room, trembling with fear, when Jikyon came to her in the past, asking to be friends.

Anxiety gripped Arteon.

‘Could it be……?’

Dragons were known to be very thorough when it came to settling grudges.

Perhaps he was using this human’s mistake as an excuse to exact revenge for past grievances.

If that were the case, this village would surely turn into a land of death due to the ancient dragon’s ultra-powerful acidic breath.

As Arteon worried anxiously, Jikyon began to speak.

“Yes, there were indeed many things that happened…….”

Arteon’s face stiffened with tension as she watched Jikyon, who seemed to be reminiscing about the past.

However, the words that came out of Jikyon’s mouth were unexpected.

“But we have become very good friends.”

Watching Jikyon smile contentedly, Arteon felt a sense of unease.

‘Fr, friends?’

She was worried about the crazy dragon proudly proclaiming that he had made friends with a human, but she was also concerned about what that human from another world might do, using the power of the dragon before her.

But on the other hand, a good idea also came to mind.

Since the human from another world had said that he would participate in the war with the Elves, perhaps the powerful dragon before her would follow him and help the allied forces.

If the dragon sided with the allied forces, victory would be theirs, even if that witch was stronger than most dragons.

This was because the dragon before her was already an ancient dragon, beyond the category of ordinary dragons.

To make that happen, Arteon needed to make a good impression on Jikyon.

Arteon’s expression quickly changed to a bright mode.

“Oh my! Congratulations on gaining a good friend. From now on, we must treat him not as a human from another world, but as a friend of the great one.”

“Well, there’s no need for that. The real reason I came to see you is this.”

When Jikyon said that he would tell her the real reason he had come to see her, Arteon, once again tense, perked up her already large ears and listened intently to his words.

“First of all, as I said just now, the biggest reason is to tell you that I have become friends with that human, and the second reason is to ask you to ensure that the distorted past that has been wrongly attributed to me is not conveyed to him. I absolutely do not want him to be afraid of me because of a wrongly portrayed past.”

“…….”

Arteon was speechless at Jikyon’s attitude of dismissing his misguided past as merely distorted history, infusing a murderous intent into his last intonation.

Arteon was now keenly aware of the world’s principle that truth can become false and falsehood can become truth in the face of power.

“Ye, yes! The wrong past must be corrected! You don’t have to worry about that. I will take responsibility and make sure that only Jikyon-nim’s correct past is conveyed to him, and I will urge everyone to do so.”

Jikyon seemed pleased with Arteon’s ingratiating attitude and handed over a very thick book with a very satisfied expression.

Thump!

Startled by the thick book, Arteon asked.

“Wh, what is this?”

“These are my true past events. Well, I’ll be on my way now, so I hope you will convey them to everyone. Ahem!”

As Jikyon quietly took a step forward and walked out, Arteon did not feel any mana fluctuations around him, just as when he had arrived, but Jikyon’s body gradually turned transparent and disappeared leisurely before Arteon’s eyes as if it were a lie.

Even though it was dragon language magic, it was a space-time magic that even she, a 9th circle user [a high-level magic user], could not feel the flow of mana at all… Arteon felt as if she was being hit by a cold frost.

His magic level was impossible for her to measure.

After staring blankly at the place where Jikyon had disappeared for a long time, as if she had experienced astral projection, Arteon returned to reality and reaffirmed that she must not provoke Jikyon’s displeasure, and examined the book that Jikyon had given her.

However, Arteon had to experience astral projection once again.

The contents of the book were completely absurd and unacceptable.

There had to be a limit to how absurd things could be. This was a content that made her strongly want to open the head of the senile dragon and examine his brain structure in detail.

According to the book, he had been constantly threatened with his life, chased by evil people who dreamed of becoming dragon slayers during his young hatchling days.

Overcoming such a difficult childhood, he became a proud adult and worked hard to become the best wealthy person in the continent.

The fact that this work was extorting the kingdom was a fact that even a child could easily recognize.

Well, that’s beside the point……

After that, countless looters who were after his wealth raided his lair almost every day, and they forced him, a pacifist, to shed blood, which made him sad.

The humans, who had been constantly committing evil deeds, finally brought even the continent’s most renowned sword masters and swarmed in, engaging him in a cowardly 16-on-1 battle of the century, which was neatly concluded.

Of course, it goes without saying that Jikyon emerged victorious after a hard-fought battle.

“…….”

Shaking her head.

Arteon, who was so amused that she couldn’t even speak, held Jikyon’s novel in her trembling hands and had to agonize all night over how to convey this to Kang Chan as the truth.

Thanks to this, she was able to escape from the oppressive feeling of war for a while.

* * *

Kang Chan, carrying Jeina, arrived in front of the barrier of the battleship that Jikyon had created.

“What? There’s nothing here? Where’s the battleship?”

“Wait a moment.”

Kang Chan held out his hand and closed his eyes, chanting a spell.

“I, Kang Chan, the master of the barrier, command you. Allow me and this dazzlingly beautiful girl to pass through.”

In fact, such a childish spell was absolutely unnecessary, but Kang Chan deliberately struck a pose to look cool to Jeina.

“Ahjussi [a Korean term for an older man, often used affectionately], you’re so cool…….”

It seemed that Jeina had completely fallen for him.

Even Kang Chan’s appearance looked endlessly cool to her.

As expected, romance had the power to make people so childish.

The barrier that Jikyon had created emitted light, and a door made of magic circles appeared in the air. The two of them boarded the air bike and entered the magic circle.

Then, finally, the huge battleship that she had wanted to see so much revealed its majestic appearance before Jeina’s eyes.

Jeina couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement at the massive steel structure.

“No, way! How could something so big fall from the sky?”

Jeina couldn’t believe that this massive metal lump, almost 300 meters long, had fallen from the sky.

Kang Chan opened the hangar door with remote control and carefully parked the air bike where it was.

Zaid, which was stored in the hangar, was kept secret even from Arteon, but Kang Chan didn’t want to hide it from Jeina, so he naturally showed Jeina the inside of the hangar.

But as expected, Jeina wasn’t interested in Zaid at all.