TDBK 04

Chapter 4

Wow, seriously? I really wanted to kill Glock, so if you could kill him for me, that would be great!

But Baberi was far too suspicious to accept Kure’s proposal without thinking.

‘I guess this is what happens after living such a rough life stained by betrayal. Poor me.’

After a brief moment of self-pity, Baberi raised her chin toward the dragon.

“Why do you want to join forces with me?”

That was something Baberi had learned from receiving countless phishing calls in Korea: whenever someone led with an offer that sounded too good to be true, you should first ask yourself whether they were a scammer.

“If you’re going to kill Glock for me, what do you get out of it? Why would you want to form an alliance with me? Wait, what are you doing all of a sudden?”

Kure suddenly began undoing the buttons of his shirt.

No matter how startled Baberi became or how loudly she protested, he paid her no mind and pulled his shirt open.

When his chest was exposed, Baberi narrowed her eyes.

There was a black hole right in the center of his chest. Against his porcelain-white skin, the hole looked even darker.

“The wound you gave me two years ago prevents my magic power from regenerating on its own.”

Baberi quickly looked away from his wound.

There was no doubt about it. She was the one who had inflicted that injury.

‘So that’s why he was looking for me. I knew it. He wants revenge. Damn it. Am I going to get eaten before I can kill that bald bastard?’

Baberi thought he was showing her the wound because he was about to tell her that he wanted revenge.

“I’ve been making up for it by chewing and eating magic stones, but that alone isn’t enough.”

Kure looked down at his chest, saying that he was always empty and exhausted.

His expression looked so bitter that Baberi began to sweat a little.

“Um, I’m sorry about that, Lord Kure. But I honestly didn’t want to fight you. Glock threatened me and forced me to do it, you know?”

Baberi hurriedly made excuses, insisting that she hadn’t used the ballista out of any personal grudge.

Kure let out a small laugh.

“Didn’t you say you needed to cut off my head to get ahead in life?”

Why did dragons have such good memories?

Baberi clicked her tongue inwardly.

“Did I? I don’t remember. Are you sure you didn’t hear someone else say it, Lord Kure?”

“Don’t fool yourself.”

As Baberi rolled her eyes and continued with her pathetic excuses, Kure snorted.

He buttoned his shirt back up as he continued speaking.

“I have no interest in taking revenge on you for a wound this insignificant.”

He can’t even regenerate his magic because of it, and he calls it insignificant?

Baberi thought Kure was just bluffing.

Still, hearing that he had no plans for revenge was rather tempting.

“So you really don’t want to kill me even a little? Not even a tiny bit? Because it’s nothing to you?”

“There is a human I want to kill, but I’ll take care of that myself. The reason I want to form an alliance with you is for something else.”

What if he suddenly says, ‘Actually, you’re the human I wanted to kill,’ and attacks me?

Baberi kept her guard up as she studied Kure, determined to find some evidence that he was lying.

“To replenish enough magic power for self-regeneration, I need at least the Heart of the Desert. That is what I want from you.”

Only then did Baberi understand why Kure had proposed an alliance and offered to kill Glock for her.

On the continent of Almeria, there were only four S-rank magic stones.

Even among those, the whereabouts of three were unknown, leaving them as little more than legends that were said to exist.

The only one whose whereabouts were known was the Heart of the Desert.

It was a national treasure of Tiris, and its owner was none other than King Glock.

“If you need the Heart of the Desert, then just kill Glock and take the magic stone. Why do you need me?”

At Baberi’s question, Kure sighed.

“If killing one human were enough to solve the problem, I wouldn’t have brought up an alliance with you in the first place.”

Kure clicked his tongue as though the whole matter were a nuisance.

Unlike ordinary magic stones, S-rank magic stones recognized their owners and could only unleash their power in the hands of the person who possessed ownership.

Ownership could be transferred through death.

If Baberi killed Glock, she would become the owner of the S-rank magic stone from that moment onward.

But if Kure killed Glock, ownership of the magic stone would not pass to him.

Because he was not human.

“To gain ownership, I have to receive a ‘transfer’ from the owner while they’re still alive.”

There were three steps Kure needed to take in order to become the owner of the Heart of the Desert.

First, recruit a suitable person.

Second, kill Glock and forcibly transfer ownership.

Third, receive the stone from the new owner through a voluntary transfer.

Of course, if Glock simply handed it over to Kure himself, everything could be finished in one step.

But Glock wasn’t the sort of man who would willingly hand it over.

“There are other ways besides the Heart of the Desert, but they’re more complicated and practically impossible, so they’re out of the question.”

At Kure’s look asking whether she understood, Baberi nodded as if everything had finally clicked.

“I understand why you desperately need a human ally. I’ll think about it positively.”

Baberi tried her best to put on a kind smile.

It didn’t look kind at all. If anything, she looked like a scam artist.

But Baberi firmly believed she was smiling like a perfectly decent person.

“So how about getting me out of here first?”

Baberi pointed toward the rocks with her chin.

Her numb arm had now begun to burn as though it were being held against a fire.

Kure looked indifferently at Baberi’s pale face before slightly raising the corners of his mouth.

“I’ll save you once you accept the alliance.”

Because Kure refused to take the bait so easily, Baberi clicked her tongue.

Cold sweat ran down her back from the pain, and she realized that she was genuinely in trouble.

She had never thought dragons would be easy creatures to deceive, but she had hoped he might let this one slide.

Baberi smiled, trying not to show how much she was suffering.

“You really want to keep playing this little game of stubbornness with me—”

There’s nothing you’ll gain from it anyway.

For a moment, her head spun, and she couldn’t finish the sentence.

Her tongue wouldn’t move properly.

“I’ll make the king m-my… wa-wha…”

Feeling her pronunciation become increasingly garbled, Baberi lost consciousness.

When Baberi suddenly opened her eyes, drenched in cold sweat, she was lying on a bed.

She rolled her eyes around, trying to figure out where she was, and Kure soon entered her field of vision.

He was sitting silently on a wooden chair without armrests in front of the fireplace, staring at Baberi.

His sharp gaze made her hold her breath.

“Your hair is shorter.”

After a long silence, Kure finally spoke.

Baberi’s brows furrowed.

Just as he said, her golden hair, which had once reached her waist, now barely went past her shoulders.

It hadn’t been her choice. She had been in this state ever since returning to Tiris.

“I don’t know who did it, but they gave me a nice, refreshing haircut. I’m so grateful that I think I’ll cut theirs later.”

Glock. The mage. Whoever had cut her hair.

The list of people she wanted revenge on just kept getting longer.

Keeping a wary eye on Kure, Baberi slowly moved her right hand beneath the blanket covering her body.

The trembling had decreased.

But her arm still hadn’t recovered enough to use the ballista.

‘What if that lizard attacks me right now? Can I fight without the ballista? With a body like this?’

Baberi’s anxiety was written plainly across her face.

“If I intended to kill you, you’d already be dead. I could have killed you while you were sleeping and drooling. As long as our alliance remains intact, I won’t kill you.”

“…I haven’t actually agreed to your alliance proposal yet.”

“Then agree to it now.”

Kure was being quite forceful about it.

The ends of Baberi’s eyebrows rose in displeasure.

“It would be good for you, too. I don’t know what you’ve been doing for the past two years, but your condition is a mess.”

Baberi’s shoulders twitched at the painfully accurate observation.

“Especially your right arm. It’s been poisoned with a severe paralytic toxin. Can you even use a ballista in that condition?”

Baberi cursed Glock inwardly.

He had ordered her to defeat a dragon, yet somehow he had allowed the right arm she needed to operate the ballista to become paralyzed by poison.

What kind of idiot did that?

She wanted to curse Glock out loud if possible, but forced herself to hold it in.

There was nothing to gain from letting Kure know that she couldn’t use the ballista.

“Want to test it? I think it would feel rather refreshing to have another hole put through your chest.”

Baberi deliberately sneered to hide her anxiety.

Kure snorted.

“With that body, you couldn’t even get past the guards of Tatara Castle, let alone fight me.”

Baberi considered bluffing a little more, but eventually gave up.

He had apparently figured out her condition already, so there was no point.

“So this kind dragon is personally offering to help this poor, sickly me?”

“If you transfer the Heart of the Desert to me.”

Baberi fell into thought.

Glock would be hiding deep inside Tatara Castle, surrounded by those tacky knights in blue uniforms.

Storming into the royal palace alone and killing him would certainly be difficult.

But what if a dragon joined her side?

Her revenge would undoubtedly become easier.

The moment he appeared in the skies above Tatara, everyone would flee in sheer panic.

If she took advantage of the ensuing chaos, killing Glock might actually be surprisingly easy.

But will this dragon really not betray me?

She couldn’t guarantee it.

If Baberi were in Kure’s position, there was no way she could calmly leave alone the woman who had put a hole through her chest and prevented her magic from properly regenerating.

She wouldn’t be able to rest comfortably until she had returned the favor and left Baberi equally full of holes.

That was why Baberi couldn’t understand Kure’s claim that he had no intention of taking revenge.

After pondering for a long time, Baberi finally reached a conclusion.

‘If the dragon tries to betray me, I’ll just put another hole in him. No—two more. I absolutely refuse to go down without a fight.’

“I have a condition. I have no intention of letting Glock die easily. I’m going to make him suffer slowly and painfully. I’ll make him miserable and pathetic before I kill him.”

Glock had done far too much to her to deserve an easy death.

A strange light appeared in the eyes of the now revenge-obsessed Baberi.

Revenge, by its very nature, should be about doing something that would hurt the other person the most.

Fortunately, she knew exactly one thing Glock hated.

“I’m going to become queen.”

He absolutely hated having his authority as king challenged.

So what would happen if she took away both his land and his people?

Imagining Glock biting his lower lip in frustration until it split open, Baberi felt a surge of satisfaction.

She felt like a genius for coming up with such a brilliant method of revenge.

“I don’t understand why humans are so obsessed with power, but if you intend to take the Heart of the Desert away from Glock, I don’t mind.”

Kure muttered as though he were thoroughly sick of it all, then nodded.

“Then let’s shake hands to commemorate our rock-solid alliance.”

Baberi stretched out her hand toward Kure while sitting on the bed.

Then she gave him a little nod when he merely stared blankly at her.

“What are you waiting for? A king is holding out her hand. Come here already.”

“Are you already pretending to be a king?”

I’m not pretending.

I’m serious.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

If she wanted to become queen, she had to start today.

“If you don’t want to play along, then break off the alliance and find another human.”

Go ahead. See if you can find another one.

Baberi put on a strong front, as though Kure were the one who stood to lose from this arrangement.

Kure clicked his tongue and approached Baberi, taking her hand.

He opened and closed his mouth several times as if he had a lot to say, but in the end, he merely sighed.

“As your first subject as king, I hereby give you an order.”

The newly crowned king raised a finger at the man—or rather, dragon—who had just become her first subject and citizen.

“Give me money.”

Unable to hold back any longer, Kure twisted his lips.

“Are you a thug?”

And thus, the alliance between the Dragon Slayer and the dragon was formed—

an alliance that would lead the continent of Almeria into a maelstrom of chaos.