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Chapter 98
“…So what?”
Jade finally opened her mouth.
“Can’t I have another purpose?”
Her voice rang clear.
Like ripples spreading over a pond after a stone was thrown, Duke’s expression that had been disturbed slowly settled—until it became almost sulky.
‘What’s your problem?’
What startled Jade wasn’t that her ulterior motive had been discovered.
‘Wait—does that mean he’s been stalking me so closely that he even noticed that?’
The truth was, Jade wasn’t very sensitive to being watched.
As someone with a rare illness that could worsen anytime, she had never been out of sight of caregivers, nurses, doctors, or family.
She didn’t resent it. After all, when she once tried running away from the hospital just because she was sick of it, ate the wrong thing, and almost really died—
‘Back then my immune system was already wrecked.’
She had paid dearly for her childish craving for a hamburger.
And when she woke half-dead to find her mother and sister waiting pale-faced by her bed, her desire for “alone time” crumbled into nothing.
That’s why she was unfazed by the constant gazes in Godwin’s nature.
But—
“Excuse me.”
Even Jade found this level of surveillance unpleasant.
‘Ugh, what kind of perverted voyeur freak is this guy?!’
Overwhelmed by the sudden disgust, Jade lost her sense of caution for a moment and snapped back.
“You make it sound like I’m betraying Lord Harris, but he already knows everything! You literally just got my help, and I even shared food with you—so how can you say something like that? Should you? Or shouldn’t you?!”
“…”
Duke blinked blankly.
He had never met a Guide who, knowing exactly who he was, still dared to scold him like this.
“The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get. If you’re going to stalk someone, at least do it less, or don’t make it so obvious!”
And to top it off, she was openly throwing a tantrum.
“From now on, keep your stalking to a minimum, got it? Everyone deserves some personal privacy!”
“…”
He felt like he was staring at some extinct rare animal. Did this kid not have any survival instincts?
“I said, do you get it?!”
“…Yeah, fine.”
Surprised by himself, Duke answered automatically, pressured by her fiery momentum.
‘Wait—me? Overwhelmed by someone’s attitude?’
As Duke reeled in shock, Jade smiled brightly.
His ash-gray eyes widened.
“Then, let’s escape together!”
She pulled his hand with a radiant smile.
“…”
From the beginning, Duke was certain Jade had recognized him. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have looked so afraid when she first saw him.
‘Even after seeing my heart pierced, she only paled a little and still held a conversation—so she knows about my ability too.’
His suspicion since the Black Mermaid’s Tears incident had now become certainty. Jade knew who he was.
Better than anyone.
And yet, she offered her hand without hesitation—and pulled him along.
Even knowing that very hand could just as easily snap her neck like a chicken bone.
‘Why?’
Most people who knew Duke’s true identity feared him and kept their distance.
Not everyone, of course—some postured with false bravado, some arrogantly looked down on him.
None of them survived.
‘But…’
Duke knew instinctively. This half-fairy Guide was neither of those types.
“…”
Then what was she?
A Guide who could move the Tower Master, manipulate the Mercenary King with words, and tame Godwin’s monster—what was her true identity?
No matter how much he stared, he couldn’t tell. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t look away now either.
Duke’s gaze grew darker and darker, as if he would devour her whole.
Fortunately, Jade—walking ahead—was too focused to notice his oppressive stare.
‘Ugh, I should disable at least one of his hands.’
At last, her lost sense of fear returned.
‘Why the hell did I yell at him? Am I insane?’
But she knew—if she showed fear now, she’d be truly screwed. Trusting her instincts, Jade forced cheer into her voice.
“So~ which way do we go now?”
Her heart pounded ominously.
She had half a mind to try her “Absorption Technique” through their clasped hands, but since this was just a projection body—or maybe because her chest felt strangely hollow—it wasn’t working well.
‘Am I too weak? Should I push harder? No—what if he notices?’
Remembering how she’d almost been exposed back with Alukas, Jade prepared her other hand to summon a gun at any moment.
‘If it comes to it, I’ll shoot him in the head.’
That would mean crossing the point of no return with this psycho pleasure-killer. She had done everything to avoid that river, and yet here she was, standing on its bank.
“…Don’t know.”
“…You don’t know?”
At his unexpected answer, Jade stopped and turned. Duke quickly put on his usual expression.
“Yeah. I was just following you.”
“…”
So all this time, I’ve just been dragging you around, huh… you bastard.
Believing in him as an S-rank Esper had been her mistake. The moment Jade stopped walking—
Bzzz—
“!”
A vibration came from the pocket in her skirt. As she pulled the object out, Duke’s eyes narrowed.
“…That’s—”
“Mm, this is a dragon egg. For now, anyway.”
“Dragon? The ancient race that went extinct during the old kingdom era?”
“Yes.”
Duke didn’t bother asking why she said for now.
‘Because it’s completely cracked.’
I looked at the large egg in my hands. Back in the Unknown Dungeon, after nearly dying, I had gained many things:
My first kiss with Harris.
The shitty rewards of that garbage system.
Muscle aches.
New material for Nate’s sedative experiments.
The moss that served as those sedatives’ main ingredient.
And Anella and the others’ compensation.
‘And somehow, a dragon’s egg.’
It had been the reward for completing the secret quest to free a dragon’s lingering resentment.
But there was no time to rejoice over having my own fantasy protagonist’s baby dragon companion.
The egg—maybe the very one that crazed king had tried to destroy after his kingdom fell—was barely holding shape, riddled with cracks.
‘It’s ruined.’
I gave up right away. Who knew how old this egg was? With so much damage, the dragon embryo inside had surely died long ago.
‘That’s why the mother dragon wept so bitterly.’
So after receiving it, I had tossed it into storage, only grabbing it again when leaving.
It wasn’t like it would ever hatch. I just treated it like a “healing stone” to fidget with. Honestly, it felt as satisfying to hold as Adrian (my pet rock).
“Then what’s with this vine?”
“That’s, uh…”
How should I explain?
I had received a branch with tender leaves from Danuren Cusette, the talking tree in the Misantrophic Forest. The moment it touched the egg, the branch spread like a vine, wrapping around the cracked shell.
‘Yeah, no way he’ll believe that.’
Even I had been stunned when I saw it.
“Wow, amazing!” I had thought, waiting for it to hatch any second. But no—nothing changed.
“I don’t know. It was already like this.”
“It was floating in midair like this too?”
“…Well, not exactly.”
The egg, which had only lain quiet in my arms until now, had suddenly begun vibrating after we entered the dungeon—then floated into the air, drifting along as if it had somewhere to go.
At that point, I decided not to question it.
“Shall we follow it?”
“Sure.”
So we trudged after the drifting dragon egg.
Shaken as I was by Duke’s dramatic entrance, I hadn’t noticed the surroundings. The colossal temple we were walking through was utterly demolished.
And it wasn’t the slow ruin of time, but the deliberate destruction of someone’s deep-seated fury and hatred.
‘Creepy…’
And the creepiness peaked when we reached the great statue at the heart of the temple.
“…It has no head.”
“Nor limbs.”
The massive statue looked as though slashed repeatedly with blades. Its head and limbs lay shattered on the floor.
‘Terrifying.’
The raw malice and hatred infused in it still bled through the centuries.
‘Who could have done this?’
What kind of life must someone have lived, to hate a god this much?
I stared at the broken pieces of the statue.
The ruined temple. The slaughtered humans beneath. The maliciously destroyed idol—
“…Huh?”
Only then did I realize.
The shattered head and limbs weren’t ordinary human shapes at all.
‘An inhuman statue…?’
I bent closer, and sure enough—among the fragments were ominous forms.
‘Claws? Wings??’
Normally, statues of gods were based on the human form.
But these—sharp talons like an eagle’s.
And wings—but not the feathered, angelic kind usually carved into idols.
No, these were sleek, leathery, razor-edged—
“…!”
I dropped the fragment in shock.
Bat wings. Eagle talons. The floating broken dragon egg. The inhuman statue.
‘This isn’t a human temple.’
The fragments of information finally fit together. This was the temple of the ancient, supposedly extinct race—dragons.
Which meant the culprit behind all this ruin and massacre was—
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Duke tilted his head at me. His smirking expression slowly stiffened.
“What’s with that face—”
But he never finished the sentence. Not by choice.
Splat!
A massive silhouette loomed from behind.
“…Duke?”
I blinked in disbelief.
Had I really just seen it?
The head of the strongest being in the entire world—an S-rank Esper—smashed to pieces under a dragon’s forepaw…?
