Chapter 76: Dragon God's Protection (Patreon)

Rudeus looked at Dragon God Orsted, who said nothing.

Still smiling to himself, he went on, "Whether you believe me or not, let me show you something."

As Rudeus's words trailed off, a screen of light appeared before them all, encircling the whole group.

Ruijerd, who had been unconscious only moments before, along with Eris, had already woken up.

Looking at the scene unfolding before them...

They started to ask something, but Rudeus cut them off with a sharp gesture for silence.

Then...

On the screen of light, image after image flickered past in rapid succession.

From the moment Rudeus had been born into this world, he had grown without pause.

He met Eris, then Sylphiette, then Roxy.

Then came the Teleport Incident, in the Fittoa Region of the Asura Kingdom.

After painstaking, unrelenting effort, he finally reconnected with his friends and family.

But then...

As Roxy's pregnancy progressed, misfortune began to close in.

A mouse that had long suffered from Magic Stone Disease arrived, and it left Roxy infected with the same disease.

Rudeus tried to find a cure, but he didn't make it in time.

After Roxy died, Rudeus flew into a rage.

It drove Sylphiette to leave home, and she was killed in the fighting within the Asura Kingdom.

Eris, who had returned home after completing her training under the Sword God, found that her ideals no longer matched Rudeus's.

They came to blows, and in the end, she died shielding him.

One by one, his family was murdered by wicked men.

And in the very end...

Rudeus was left completely alone.

That was where it ended!!!

In that white spiritual realm, Hitogami (Human God) began mocking Rudeus without end.

He laid out every one of those past events, one by one, in detail.

Every single one of them had been orchestrated by Hitogami.

The reason...

...was that, in the future, the child of Rudeus and Roxy would join Dragon God Orsted's ranks...

...and together they would succeed in sealing Hitogami away!!

From that point on...

Old Rudeus began an endless search for a way to defeat Hitogami.

He pored over every book, explored every ruin, and never stopped searching.

In the end, he finally completed a regression teleportation magic circle of his own design.

And there, the screen of light...

...came to an end!!!!

Rudeus looked at everyone, each of them sunk deep in thought.

He, too, stayed quiet for the moment.

He gave them all the time they needed to think it through.

Slowly. Slowly.

Time kept slipping by.

Rudeus looked seriously at Dragon God Orsted. "Do you understand now?"

Dragon God Orsted...

...lifted his head and looked at the Rudeus standing before him.

If everything he'd just seen was true,

then...

Rudeus really did have an experience much like his own.

But then again,

the one behind it all, Hitogami, might well have staged the whole vision deliberately, just to deceive him.

Just as Dragon God Orsted sank into endless inner conflict,

Eris, unable to believe her eyes, asked, "Are you... Old Rudeus?"

He shook his head...

Rudeus smiled. "I'm not Old Rudeus. This was given to me by him."

"Old Rudeus is me, from another timeline..."

"But sadly, by the time he learned the truth, he had almost no chances left."

"Still, he passed that last chance on..."

"...to the me of the past, and let me learn the truth of it all."

"That's why I've been taking you through one regression after another."

Eris nodded and said nothing more.

She only gripped Rudeus's hand tightly.

As for Ruijerd...

...after watching it all unfold, he understood everything too.

He held no resentment toward Rudeus for the deception.

Putting himself in Rudeus's place,

if he had stood where Rudeus stood,

or rather, if he'd had to move against his sworn enemy Laplace,

he too would surely have gone to any length necessary!!

All for the sake of finally killing his enemy Laplace!!!!

At that moment...

Rudeus swept his gaze over the group.

He turned back to face Dragon God Orsted. "Since you won't choose to join us,"

"then I won't waste any more effort on you..."

"A weakling like you doesn't even have the nerve to try."

"No wonder that Hitogami bastard has been pushing you around so badly all this time."

"Give me the Dragon God's Bracelet."

"Let me have the means to stand against Hitogami."

"I don't want to keep getting harassed by that thing every so often."

"From here on, whether you reincarnate or not, I couldn't care less..."

"Or you can hang back, trembling in fear,"

"and watch as I gather every last one of the Five Dragon Generals' treasures — and kill Hitogami myself!!"

Dragon God Orsted didn't want to speak.

But things weren't going to end just because he stayed silent.

Smack!!!

A loud slap landed square across Dragon God Orsted's face — Rudeus's doing.

The sight stunned everyone present.

What shocked them even more was that Dragon God Orsted didn't fight back at all???

Was this really the same proud Dragon God they all knew???

Smack!!!

Slap after slap rained down on Dragon God Orsted's face.

Each time, Rudeus asked the same question: "Will you give it to me or not??"

Smack. "Will you give it or not??"

Smack. "Will you give it or not?!"

Smack, smack, smack!!!

He kept striking until Dragon God Orsted truly couldn't bear the humiliation any longer.

He set a gleaming golden bracelet down before Rudeus.

Holding the Dragon God's Bracelet in hand...

Rudeus nodded, satisfied.

With one kick, he sent Dragon God Orsted flying off to the side.

He turned to Nanahoshi Shizuka. "All you really want is to go home, isn't it?"

"You and I are natural allies. Come with me."

"Don't stick with this washed-up, useless white-haired old man anymore."

"He's nothing but a spoiled brat."

"Fail once or twice, and he just gives up entirely."

"As far as I'm concerned, that kind of person is pure garbage!!!"

Hearing this...

Nanahoshi Shizuka glanced back at Dragon God Orsted.

Then, without a moment's hesitation, she nodded at Rudeus.

As Nanahoshi Shizuka saw it,

between Dragon God Orsted and Rudeus,

Rudeus was stronger, and far more meticulous in his thinking.

Even in how he handled people and matters, he came out ahead of Dragon God Orsted.

And most important of all —

the two of them came from the very same world!!!

And so,

under Dragon God Orsted's blank, dazed stare,

Rudeus, together with Ruijerd, Eris, and Nanahoshi Shizuka, set off down the road toward the Asura Kingdom.