Chapter 274: After Sunset, the Night (4)

Cale had a particular reason for coming to this place.

“Ugh.”

He turned his head at the sound of a groan.

“Ah, ahh-”

A person groaning in pain was writhing on the ground, right at the entrance of the lair.

“Ah!”

Hong hurriedly walked in that direction.

“I haven’t done this in a while, I couldn’t control it!”

Hoo.

On sighed and stealthily approached Hong.

Saaaa-

A mist formed around On, and Hong released poison.

“Ah, ahh!”

The knight, who was writhing, soon became completely motionless.

“I put him to sleep!”

The knight tried to get up as best he could, but the sleep-inducing poison put him to sleep. And not just that. Everyone guarding the entrance to Ryan’s Lair on the upper level fell victim to the paralyzing and sleep-inducing poison mixed into the white mist.

“Why?”

Cale looked at Hong with a serious expression.

Hong continued to look at Cale with bright eyes.

That look made Cale involuntarily avert his gaze, meeting On’s eyes instead.

Cale nodded at On and then spoke.

“Such pretty colours.”

Hearing this, the corners of Hong’s lips lifted.

“The poison from the Tang Family of Sichuan is really good!”

The poison Cale had received as a favour from the Tang Family, and the poison Hong absorbed from some of the Nine Kings, became even more cruel and stealthy.

In fact, the poisons Hong had learned so far weren’t refined forms but rather poisons close to those found in the original form of plants or objects.

Or perhaps-

‘Looks like Ron got it.’

It seemed like the adults, including Butler Ron, had obtained quite a bit of poison and given it to Hong.

Unlike the other children, Hong had the weakest combat ability, so it seemed they gave him various things for self-defence.

However, there was no true poison expert in Cale’s group.

‘In the Tang Family of Sichuan-’

If they could obtain the poison from the White Snake Wisha to help Hong grow, it would be a good foundation for him.

‘That would be fine.’

Hong’s stability would increase.

Cale’s gaze turned towards On.

On was slightly smiling while looking at Hong.

If Hong became more confident-

‘Then she would naturally become stronger.’

On would become stronger on her own. Although she was only 13 years old, she tried to behave like an adult, but there was no need for that. She needed to understand that she didn’t have to do it.

She wouldn’t understand just with words.

‘She is very stubborn.’

Of the three, On, Hong, and Raon, On was the most stubborn.

‘Hmm.’

Almost at the level of Lock?

The beastman wolf Lock.

Although he seemed shy and repressed, he was actually extremely obstinate. That’s why he felt excessive pressure and responsibility.

But Lock would soon become an adult.

‘If he doesn’t take a completely wrong path, it wouldn’t be bad to observe him until he can.’

Cale planned to observe Lock.

BOOOM!

He turned his head at the loud noise. He saw the out-of-control square through the window.

“Human! Everyone is moving away from the stage!”

As Raon said, their companions were moving people away from the stage, where the ritual would take place.

“Oh, it’s Lock! As always, Lock is the biggest!”

As Raon said, among the Beast People, Lock was the largest. Except for Wisha in her snake form or the members of the Whale Tribe in their non-human forms, Lock was larger than Gashan, the shaman and leader of the Tiger Tribe.

BAM!

A knight went flying from a punch by Lock. The Beast People followed Lock from behind. They seemed to be members of the Wolf Tribe.

“He’s doing well.”

Cale averted his gaze from the window.

‘Freedom...’

He had many things to do from now on.

“Human, is it time?”

Raon’s excited voice was heard.

However, there was also worry in his voice.

“We have to hurry! We need to save the Dragon!”

That’s true.

Cale’s sudden and unexpected visit to Ryan’s Lair was not for a simple robbery.

‘That, that is-’

Cale recalled the terrified voice of the guard.

Before coming here, Cale had headed to the secret prison discovered by the Wind Elemental, Freedom.

The location was different from the entrance to the prison here.

A luxurious mansion located near the inner castle.

At first glance, it was connected to the entrance of the basement of a house where even a noble could live.

‘Freedom, I discovered something...! Mana, the smell of a Dragon!’

Based on the information the Wind Elementals had gathered during Cale’s absence; the Wind Elemental Freedom discovered this place from the memory of a single Elemental who had detected the unique mana of a Dragon here a few weeks ago.

‘Who is it?!’

‘Stop! You must never be discovered here!’

Just when the festival was about to start, and most people had gathered in the square.

And just before she, the White Snake, made her appearance.

Cale visited this place with Choi Han and others.

‘Ugh!’

‘Ah!’

And they easily subdued the enemies.

It was natural.

Of course, the elves and dwarves under Ryan’s command were quite strong.

Crunch~

‘My, my arm-, aaaaaah!’

Choi Han, wielding his sword with a gentle smile.

‘Let’s go quickly.’

There weren’t many strong ones who could stop the killing aura of Choi Jung Soo, who smiled even more.

The entrance discovered upon descending the stairs of the basement of the luxurious mansion.

Upon entering, a labyrinthine hallway appeared.

There were several prisons, and the space was filled with a strong smell of blood.

When Cale reached the end of this, he faced the guard that Choi Han had subdued.

Cale spoke to the elderly elf.

‘Open it.’

But the guard shook his head.

He opened his mouth with difficulty.

‘You need a key for this.’

‘A key?’

‘That, that is-’

The guard, speaking with a thick voice, finally opened his mouth when Choi Han stepped on his twisted arm.

‘Tch, in the bedroom-! In Ryan-nim’s bedroom-’

As a result, Cale left Choi Han and Choi Jung Soo in the prison and came here only with Raon and the other children.

Beep, beep, beep, beep-

And just as the strange sound of the magical device shook the entire castle, Cale said to Raon.

“Can you detect all the magical devices here?”

“Of course!”

At this point, it was all about checking and checking.

Whoooosh-

Raon’s black mana bloomed and quickly spread throughout the interior of the lair.

Wung!

Wung!

There were places where a particularly strong vibration was heard.

Moreover, through the Golden Top’s Whip that Cale held in his hand, voices could be heard in his ear.

‘Air enters here! It’s like a secret space!’

‘Oh, is there something in the ceiling here? The airflow is strange!’

The Wind Elementals found these things like ghosts.

- No smell.

And The Sound of the Wind, The Thief, reported that there was no trace of poison here.

Cale’s mouth opened.

“Check everything.”

Giving orders to the Wind Elementals, Cale approached Raon.

“Just trust me!”

Raon began to examine one by one the places where there was a magical reaction.

“Hmm, this isn’t it!”

He passed over the ordinary magical devices.

“Oh! This is a vault!”

Of course, the vault was opened.

“There might be a key!”

Woooom-

The black mana enveloped the vault.

Click.

The vault’s magical lock was opened.

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

Cale, Raon, On, and Hong didn’t say anything.

They just looked at each other.

“It’s not the key.”

The secret prison door only opened when the key and the magic circle engraved on the key worked together.

‘If you don’t open the door with the key, the door and the prison will explode together! This building will collapse!’

‘Human, the elf guard is right! It’s quite an elaborate magic circle!’

Raon added, agreeing with the elf guard’s words.

‘But this magic circle doesn’t seem to have been made by Ryan!’

Raon, who had already examined Ryan’s magic circle with Eruhaben, followed the magic circle drawn by the Wind Elemental.

‘It’s much better than Ryan! It would take me a lot of effort to undo it! Goldie Gramps has to come!’

Raon growled as if he was angry.

‘...I, I could also undo it quickly if I tried once. With my current skills, it would take me an hour!’

An enemy who created a magic circle that required Raon to solve it for an hour.

Cale was curious about who that enemy was.

He looked at the guard, and the elf said with difficulty.

‘Maybe, the 2-Star Dragon?’

The 2-Star Dragon.

He heard that he ruled the sea.

3-Star Dragon.

Certainly, among the Ten Dragon Gods, there were Dragons stronger or with unique Attributes.

Cale broke out of his thoughts for a moment.

The children were looking at him.

Cale opened his mouth as if it were natural.

“Next.”

This is not the key.

Then, let’s move on to the next thing.

Hurry up.

“Do you understand?”

Raon nodded at his additional words.

“I understand!”

Raon opened a subspace.

On quickly closed the vault door again.

The vault disappeared directly into the subspace, and Hong, seeing this, told Cale with a bright smile.

“If we convert the jewels into cash, they might be around 5 billion!”

Cale stopped.

‘‘Where did you learn that?’’

Puff.

Hong let out a deflated laugh.

Cale was surprised that Hong could laugh this way. With the same intensity of shock he felt when Raon laughed ‘Haha!’ last time, Hong told Cale with an arrogant expression.

“This is basic! I also learned from Grandpa Ron!”

Cale looked at On this time.

“The Molan Family will become a family that seeks information beyond the beyond, and information is money.”

Oh.

Cale clapped without realizing it.

“You learned well.”

He patted Hong and On’s heads.

Seeing this, Raon shrugged for no reason and strutted around as if he had been praised.

“We are all smart!”

“Yes, you are very smart.”

Cale couldn’t help it.

Because even as he spoke like that...

Click!

“This is not a key!”

“It’s like the cash of this world! I guess we could ask the Pope to change it!”

“We have to do it carefully and slowly.”

Raon, Hong, and On were checking all the magical devices and vaults inside this lair on their own.

They were doing it well on their own.

Eruhaben acknowledged that Raon's magical abilities had advanced to a level where there was little left for him to teach.

Besides, Hong and On had received early education from Ron.

These three were experts.

‘Is it comfortable?’

Cale followed the children with genuine admiration.

In fact, he struggled to keep up with the children.

- Cale, those kids are angels!

The words of admiration from the Fire of Destruction made the corners of Cale’s lips rise for no reason.

Whoosh, Bang!

Click!

Zzzzzz-

Boom!

Magic sparkled.

The locking mechanisms were broken.

The money and jewels were swept into the subspace.

Or they were moved whole into the subspace.

- They really are angels...!

Cheapskate exclaimed.

- You raised them well.

Super Rock was also touched.

It was then...

“Human! There doesn’t seem to be a secret vault here!”

At the moment Raon reported it...

‘Freedom, Chaos, the order within it!’

The Wind Elemental Freedom suddenly shouted with a fierce voice.

‘Under the chair! A strange air wave is detected!’

Chair?

Cale turned his head.

“Ah.”

A mocking smile escaped his lips as if he were full of energy.

“It really looks like an Emperor’s chair.”

As Raon said, a luxurious chair worthy of an Emperor came into his view.

“Anyway, I was going to take it because it’s all made of gold and jewels!”

Cale approached the chair while listening to Raon’s wild words.

And he looked directly at the chair. The terrace window caught his attention. The chaotic scene outside was completely captured. If he sat in this chair, Ryan would have been able to see the entire castle he ruled.

“I guess being King wasn’t enough for him.”

Wasn’t even this kind of Emperor’s work enough, so he finally tried to become a God?

Cale pushed the chair.

Because there was supposed to be something underneath.

“…”

But the chair didn’t move.

“Ugh.”

Raon sighed and Cale whispered softly.

Raon used magic to push the chair with a whoosh.

And On and Hong patted Cale’s leg.

One way or another, Cale noticed the small gap in the tiles where the chair was.

“Don’t you feel something?”

“It’s coming!”

“It’s here!”

“There seems to be something.”

Raon’s mana moved to the gap in the tiles.

Crack!

The tiles simply broke.

Raon laughed with a smile in his eyes and told Cale.

“We have to hurry.”

Raon, even more energized by Cale’s praise, lifted the broken tiles with mana.

And his eyes sparkled...

“Whoa!”

Hong exclaimed enthusiastically.

“We finally found it! It’s the key!”

It was a key engraved with all sorts of magic circles.

The corners of Cale’s lips lifted.

“That’s not all.”

The small safe next to the key.

“Human, this one can’t be opened so easily.”

Cale took the small safe that seemed unusual even to Raon in his hands.

‘What will be inside?’

Then, he simply took it.

“Let’s go.”

At Cale’s words, the children and the Wind Elementals left the lair without any remorse.

And in the place where they disappeared...

Ryan’s Lair was almost completely empty.

Only the things that weren’t particularly necessary were left behind.

***

Cale walked directly through the hallway of the underground prison.

The sharp, nauseating smell of blood reached his nose.

When he reached the end of the hallway, Choi Han was standing in front of the door, having knocked out the guard.

“Are they here?”

“Yes.”

Cale signalled to Raon.

To enter the secret prison, it was necessary to open this huge iron door with a magic circle engraved on it.

The huge iron door located in the center of the wall didn’t show at all what was inside.

“Leave it to me!”

Raon wrapped the key in mana.

The mana moving following Raon’s hand soon touched the magic circle on the key.

Wooooooooo--

Light began to emanate from the magic key.

Raon kicked his front paw. The key floated in the air and entered the keyhole of the iron door.

Click.

The key turned.

Wooooooooo...

The iron door vibrated, and the magic circle on it began to emit light.

The bright light soon turned black, the colour of Raon.

Push-

With a whooshing sound, the light from the iron door disappeared.

Kuung.

And the lock of the iron door opened.

“I will open it.”

Choi Han pulled the iron door that had lost its light.

Kiiiieeee--

The heavy iron door opened slowly.

And the scenery inside came into Cale’s view.

<He said he was protecting my daughter well, but I am worried.>

He remembered the content of Dragon Letao’s note.

He wrote all kinds of information with his own blood. His actions made him frown, but the last words written made him feel Letao’s desperation.

<They say they give her three meals a day and treat her as a guest of honor. But in this situation, I can’t believe those words. Please, please save my daughter.>

There was no light inside the prison.

The huge rectangular black space was made of iron and all sorts of magic circles.

This was also possible to discern because the bright light from the hallway was infiltrating the prison.

“…”

Cale took a torch and looked closely inside the prison.

“Ha-”

Cale let out a sigh.

“Ah, shit.”

Once again, harsh words came out by themselves.

He entered.

Step-step~

The sound of his shoes scraping against the cold metal echoed in the space.

His gaze stopped in the direction where the torchlight shone.

<My daughter has not yet completed her first growth. I raised her too carefully, so her growth was slow.>

The first stage of growth meant she was in a state similar to Raon’s.

In terms of age, she would be about two hundred years old.

As much as Raon said his first growth was fast, the growth of Letao’s daughter was slow.

“…”

Cale saw a Dragon the size of Raon.

She did not have shackles on her neck or her four paws.

However, ...

‘Damn it!’

Instead of the wings that the small green Dragon should have had, there were only scars.

A Dragon who couldn’t fly was completely curled up, covering her eyes with her front paws, and trembling on the ground.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]