Dragonlord Ep 51. Confessions of the Historian: The Price of Peace

Ep 51. Confessions of the Historian: The Price of Peace

Confessions of the Historian are non-continuous pseudo chapters that feature a tifra far removed from the main story. They will not affect the main story’s update schedule, and will instead be uploaded at random intervals alongside them.

Ep 51. Confessions of the Historian: The Price of Peace

Hero. It’s a pleasant title.

At tis, a warrior of unquestioned valor. At tis, an inventor of astounding genius. At tis, a protector of unyielding resolution. Their accomplishnts build their lives, and such lives are rembered as heroes.

However, a hero cannot be birthed by accomplishnts alone – for a hero always requires an adversary. Whether it be an enemy on the battlefield, the hardships of their people, nature itself…

Or, at tis, evil foretold by divine will.

✧ ✧ ✧

“Hm? A foreigner?”

“…”

A proud warrior ca to a halt as his sabatons made a rugged tallic noise upon the rocky valley floors. He scowled at the sentry who’d referred to him as a re ‘foreigner.’

When the warrior scanned the man that stood before him, he could plainly see their two horns jutting above their head. A black, scaled tail stretched behind them, as did their dark grey wings. Despite their human form, the individual was clearly a dragon.

And behind the dragon, countless people, humans and dragons alike, bustled about through their days – almost as if it were a regular human village.

“This is…”

“Ah, this must be a rather odd sight for a foreigner. There’s nothing to be wary of. The outskirts of our nest shouldn’t be any different from your own villages.”

“Nest…?”

The armored warrior glared at the dragon that stood guard of this supposed ‘nest.’

A demon was standing guard in front of an encampnt containing humans. More often than not, such occurrences only indicated slavery taking place.

Everything was distasteful in the warrior’s eyes. The dragon’s crossed arms, their attitude as an equal, or the human woman at his side. Any of it.

“All demons stoop to the sa level, I see. Reaping the fruits of our subjugation?”

“…What? No. We simply live together in these parts.”

A few villagers picked up the commotion at the entrance. A number of them even approached the armored man, correcting the warrior’s statent.

“That’s going too far. The dragons are fellow villagers to us. Be careful with your words, stranger.”

“Yeah! Uncle Betel’s super nice!”

The human villagers’ words seed to fall on deaf ears. The warrior clenched his fists in anger, glaring at the black dragon before him.

“Even children…!”

The dragon rolled his eyes, letting out a tired sigh at the angry figure before him. The foreigner was clearly filtering everything he didn’t want to hear.

“Listen, it may be hard to believe if you ca from other parts, but this is how we live here. We-“

“Silence! Damned demons. After subjugating our bodies as slaves, now you seek to subjugate our minds?!”

The warrior unsheathed his blade, pointing its gleaming edge towards the annoyed dragon.

The villagers hurriedly took a few steps back, pulling their children away from the ard man. The dragon himself frowned and gently shook off the woman clinging on his arm, motioning for her to stay away.

The armored man didn’t seem to care. The anger in his eyes only intensified.

“My na is George Goldcrown, a divine hero chosen to slay the world’s evil! I will slay every single one of you and free these villagers!”

The man didn’t hesitate for a mont before swinging his sword in an attempt to cleave the dragon before him. The dragon hurriedly retreated a few steps as the tal slashed past his face.

“…This bastard…!”

The warrior disallowed the dragon from retreating. He pulled back his free arm and dashed forward in split monts to smash his fist into his enemy.

A quick retaliation followed as the dragon kicked the ard figure back. The two struck at each simultaneously, sending each other flying across the distance. The warrior crashed into a boulder outside the village, the dragon into a nearby structure.

Several screams followed as villagers began to flee from the scene. The woman that had been standing beside the dragon earlier scread in panic.

“A…are you alright?!”

When the dust settled, the warrior fixed his grip on his weapon as he pulled himself back.

“This is nothing. I’m-“

It didn’t take long for the man to realize that the woman’s question hadn’t been directed at him. The woman was busily tending to the fallen dragon.

“Betel! Your eye…!”

The black dragon slowly erged from the broken remains of the structure he’d crashed into. One hand covered his slashed right eye that was soaked in blood.

“…Haha, it’s bearable. I’m glad there wasn’t anyone in the storage.”

“W, wait here! I’ll bring others in a mont!”

The warrior gritted his teeth as he watched the woman run off into the distance, deeper into the village. His sabatons furiously slamd into the ground as he approached the dragon again.

“Calling on your brethren through your slaves? You’re a disgrace as a warrior, demon.”

Betel shook his head. He didn’t even know what to say at this point to the delusional figure.

When he was only a few steps away, the warrior proudly raised his weapon into the air, gripping the hilt with both hands. Its blade shone in a brilliant golden light, crackling in heated energy.

“Holy light, give strength!”

Betel narrowed his eyes as he braced for the oncoming attack. This human’s might was far beyond anything he’d seen in mankind, but he couldn’t risk avoiding the conflict – behind the dragon was their ho and children, and he’d been tasked with protecting it from intruders.

Although, no one had expected the intruder to be a human.

“…Tch.”

After kicking his tongue, black scales rapidly began to replace the dragon’s skin. His pupils sharpened into a beastlike shape. The dragon’s body rapidly expanded in size as he stretched one arm forward in an attempt to stop the swing altogether.

With a trendous roar, the warrior swung down his sword at the demon before him.

“DIE!!”

✧ ✧ ✧

Following a series of hurried footsteps, a woman burst into an elder dragon’s shelter.

“E…Elder Arkrana!!”

The steel dragon’s gaze drifted over. She dropped the to she was reading, turning to her panting guest.

“…Burnet? Is sothing the matter?”

“Th, there’s soone attacking Betel! He’s already hurt badly…!”

Arkrana imdiately rose to her feet. Her expression hardened as she approached the woman.

“An attack?! Is it the griffins again?”

“No! It was a….it was a human person!”

“…A human? Why would-”

“Please, hurry! I’ll call on Pallas!”

The steel dragon noted the hurry in the woman’s eyes, realizing she wouldn’t have ti to hear an answer. Nodding back, Arkrana briskly exited her small shelter as gleaming wings stretched out of her back with a crunching noise. Soon after, the dragon kicked against the ground, launching herself into the air as she blitzed across the sky.

Far up ahead, she could see a patch of black scales at the village entrance: for so reason, Betel was in his dragon form.

‘What happened? That’s going too far to deal with a re human-‘

As their distance rapidly closed, Arkrana could see the black dragon’s stretched, severed arm. His head and chest were covered in blood, and a grinning human triumphantly stood over Betel, one foot planted in the dragon’s head.

“Haha! Just as I thought, even a dragon pales in comparison to the might of the divin-“

The warrior felt sothing cold and heavy clasping his head from the side. An ominous, tallic voice screeched into his ears.

“Die.”

Arkrana’s montum carried her hand forward as her feet crashed into the ground like a teorite beside their assailant. Before the warrior’s body could even decide on a reaction, the iron grip around his head tightened and twisted, ripping it off of his body.

The elder dragon smashed the headless warrior’s body out of the way. She rapidly ran her hand over the black dragon, trying to wake him up.

“Betel! Betel, are you alive?!”

A low rumbling followed as the black dragon’s remaining eye slowly opened.

“...Elder…Arkrana.”

“Hold on. Burnet’s gone to call on Pallas! Bear it just a while longer.”

“Ahaha…you’re far too concerned, elder. I’m no longer a hatchling. A scratch or two won’t…”

Crunch!

The black dragon never managed to finish his sentence as a gigantic pillar of ice smashed into his scaled neck. A second one soon followed, skewering through his upper body.

Arkrana stared at the glimring pillars in a daze.

‘…Ice?’

Finally, the steel dragon’s ears picked up a series of small footsteps from behind. When she turned her head, three more figures were in the distance, standing above a low, rocky cliff.

“Got one!”

“Damn it, did they get George? Told him to not run ahead like that…”

“Let’s go! It was always do or die anyways. Our enemies are dragons, put your lives on it!”

The three humans were glaring at the tal dragon with evident hatred. Arkrana herself returned a blank stare, unable to understand what was going on.

‘Humans are attacking us?...Why?’

As the three descended the cliff to approach Arkrana with their weapons raised, one of the villagers that had been watching from a distance finally threw himself towards the oncoming party, trying to stop their advances.

“S, stop! Why are you doing this?!”

One of the three shook their heads as they forcibly moved the man out of the way. A determined look spoke of their spirit as they answered.

“Fear not! We’ll free you of the demon’s clutches ere long!”

anwhile, the mage in the party raised her staff up high, chanting sothing under her breath. Several spikes of ice once again ford above her, launching themselves straight towards the two dragons in the distance.

Arkrana raised one arm to eye level. Layers of tal grew out of her limb to form a web-like barrier, shielding her and Betel from the spell.

In the gaps of the expanded tal, the elder dragon’s furious eyes glared into the figures attacking her kin.

“Humans…do you realize what you’re doing?”

A hulking man stepped forth in response, threateningly pointing his halberd at the steel dragon.

“Ours is but to slay all evil that plagues the star! That, is the holy mission entrusted to us heroes!””

The steel dragon let out a sarcastic snort. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

‘Evil? Us? You would call the dragonkin evil?’

But before she could answer, a volley of arrows rained down upon the tal dragon, each emitting a fiery glow. One by one they began to burst upon impact, covering the elder in a series of small explosions.

Arkrana walked forth, ignoring the smoke and fire. re arrows coated in flas weren’t of any threat to the steel dragon. The web-like tal that had grown out of her limb retreated back, reforming into a blade-like shape with a deathly screech.

An ominous gaze swept the field as Arkrana approached the party of heroes. Each step was accompanied by an echoing thud as the steel dragon’s weight beared down on the earth beneath.

“…You damned insects.”

✧ ✧ ✧

The woman’s desperate cries echoed throughout the valley.

“Betel…Betel!”

Arkrana turned away from the motionless black dragon. Her eyes fell on another elder dragon on his knees, busily running their hand over Betel’s breathless body.

“Pallas…couldn’t you do sothing?”

The elder dragon frowned as his eyes t Arkrana’s. He slowly rose back to his feet, shaking his head in dismay.

“I’m sorry, Arkrana. The ice has pierced both his neck and heart. There’s nothing I can do.”

Arkrana bit her lips. If their eldest healer deed one beyond saving, that was the end of it.

anwhile, the woman’s tiny hands desperately clawed against the black dragon’s face. She couldn’t even hear the elder dragons conversing behind her.

Before, Betel would easily awake when she rubbed him between his eyes and snout. He’d complain about being ticklish, and drench her from head to toe with one lick.

Now, the dragon remained motionless. His eyes refused to open as they would before.

“Betel, please…you promised you’d be here forever. How could you leave like this? How could you leave before …”

Pallas, too, turned his eyes away from the grieving woman. Tis like these, he cursed his own hearing.

“…Arkrana, was it the griffins again? We’ve quarreled from ti to ti, but this is…”

“They were humans.”

“…Humans?”

“Yes. All four of them.”

“Humans attacked us? What reason could they possibly have to attack us?”

“I do not know. They scread of a holy mission of so sort.”

“…”

A heavy shadow crept up Pallas’ face. One hand clasped his lips as he began to recall a few recent events.

“A holy mission…? If this is the war Eden warned us of…”

“Silence, Pallas.”

Arkrana’s gaze sharpened into a glare as she cut off Pallas’ words.

“Do not make unfound assumptions. The war between humans and demons have naught to do with us; the lord has spoken to us of this on multiple occasions. Humans have no reason to attack us.”

“But…if the war is expanding into our nest, then perhaps we should also…”

“There is no ‘but.’”

The steel dragon completely turned her back as she began to walk away from the scene. She spat her next few words reluctantly, repressing the urge to rush to their lord’s side.

“We will remain neutral. Lord Serenis herself has ordered thus.”

We will maintain our peace.

Just as we always have.

✧ ✧ ✧

Countless heroes challenged your kin, dragonlord. Countless heroes fell to your kin.

However, the sa could be said for your children. Heroes continued to erge, and in their unexpected might, countless dragonkin fell to their blades.

To you, we were doubtlessly the evil that plagued your ho. We were the antagonists that destroyed the peace you struggled to build.

But these records will forever mourn the fallen heroes. These records will forever celebrate the heroes chosen by the divine. They will be rembered as the brave and the honorable who risked their lives to slay the evil dragons.

For history, is always written by the victors.