The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 243
The place I was guided to was the rugged terrain of the island. Suddenly, I was led into a cave. It was so dark that I couldn’t help but wonder if they were trying to have me quietly disposed of in this secluded spot.
I decided to probe the Dowager Queen’s true intentions.
“If I’m the one mentioned in the revelation, and you’re the guide, why didn’t you help me the last time I arrived on the island?”
The Dowager Queen replied with a faint smile.
“I only found out about it later. At the time, I was in a period of dormancy. I didn’t even know about Mirabel’s child from the Magic Continent. Beato and the elders deliberately didn’t inform me. If I had known the child was connected to Ars Elaine, I would have prevented the sealing of her memories.”
“Dormancy…?”
Finally, as we passed through the narrow cave, a vast open space appeared. Suddenly, the Dowager Queen’s body began to glow and grow in size.
“Ah…?”
I could only stare in awe at the sight before me.
The form of a towering figure had emerged – one I was familiar with.
“A dragon…!?”
The pristine body was more beautiful than any description could capture. The dragon Dowager Queen spoke in a deep, authoritative voice.
“I woke up when you destroyed my barrier. I was surprised – that a simple cannonade and spell could break my barrier. It’s proof that my power has greatly waned, and that my time to fade is upon me.”
“Was it you who caused the tsunami at that time?”
“Yes, I was irritated at being forcefully woken from my slumber. Whoever had invaded, I intended to drown them. Fortunately, it seems you managed to survive.”
“I was nearly killed, you know.”
The story was starting to make sense. A talking dragon – the truths spoken by such a being could not be trivial.
“After that, it happened as you know. I stirred up the island to try and retrieve Mirabel’s dear child. Then I disappeared with the help of Cailum. So I had no time to act, not knowing the situation.”
“Is that Cailum safe now?”
“Yes, he is. After that incident, he was the first to come find me. He thought he would surely be executed. So despite knowing it was impolite, he came begging, entrusting his will to this ‘Ars Elaine’. He thought of you as himself, and asked me not to obstruct your path. That’s when I realized the human from the revelation had arrived 30 years early.”
“So that’s why the tsunami didn’t occur on my way back…”
“That’s right. Afterward, I pressed Beato and the elders, and searched for a way to contact you. That’s how you ended up connecting with that elf information agent.”
So my trip to the island was just a coincidence, but everything after that was predetermined.
“Have all my questions been answered?”
“…Yes, they have. Now please, tell me the secrets of that world.”
“There’s no need to rush. As I said, the you in the revelation was aged. That means there’s no problem with learning it now. You don’t really need to know right away.”
“No, I must know now. The outside situation has become extremely urgent. You don’t know about it.”
Explaining the turbulence, the dragon fell silent. Then, it subtly expressed hostility.
“Foolish humans, always sowing the seeds of their own destruction, never changes.”
The dragon let out a yawning sigh, as if pitying me, and slowly began to speak.
In the beginning, there were two gods.
One of them created the land and the sea, and thus created the world. This motherly being, who became the foundation of all things, is known as the Mother Goddess.
The other god scattered the seeds of life. Elves, dwarves, gnomes, merfolk, and more – he rooted various races in that land. Afterwards, he divided his power and sent five dragons into the world as guides.
These five life-guiding dragons are:
Omeron, the Dragon of Order
Mepatra, the Dragon of Coexistence
Altron, the Dragon of Guidance
Vandalin, the Dragon of Balance
Olkin, the Dragon of Hope
The god who created these dragons is worshiped as the Father God.
At first, the relationship between the Mother Goddess and the Father God was not bad. However, when the creatures of the world only worshiped the Father God, the Mother Goddess became consumed by jealousy.
“The Mother Goddess did not like the order of life created by the Father God. So she sought to sow the seeds of destruction among the living beings. But the Mother Goddess had no power to create life. So she brought another race to this world – humans.”
“…Huh?”
“Yes, humans did not originally belong to this world. Their tendencies were different. Unlike the local races who lived grateful lives sharing with others, humans were progressive and selfish. Yet in some ways, they were more noble than any other living being. Humans were a very unique race.”
I found it hard to follow the flow of the story. ‘Humans are a race brought from another world?‘ If that’s the case, does that mean they were brought from Earth? But this is the world of a game, isn’t it? A world created by human stories?
I shook my confused head and decided to focus on the story.
The white dragon no longer hides its hostility as it continues its tale.
“As humans prospered, conflicts arose everywhere. Hierarchies and governing systems were created. Many races were killed by humans. As a result, the role of us, who inherited the Father God’s power, became more important.”
“The role of the dragons…”
“But it went awry from the very first step. The Dragon of Coexistence, who had the most important role, ended up hating humans. Unable to bear the contradiction of having the essence of coexistence while not wanting it, the dragon eventually fell into complete madness and became a chaotic being – that is the dragon you witnessed.”
“…”
“Next, it was the Dragon of Hope, Olkin, who took action. He thought there was still hope to change the world. So he used one of the powers he inherited from the Father God – the power to create life – to allow interbreeding between humans and other races. His hope was that humans would soon accept other races. It was truly the seed of hope. But the situation did not improve. Humans continued to persecute and dominate other races relentlessly.”
In the end, even the Dragon of Hope, Olkin, fell into corruption.
“Olkin was despairing. He was disappointed not only in humans, but in all living things. It was then that the Mother Goddess tempted him. Olkin, having fallen for her persuasion, created the Upheaval, a great calamity, together with the Mother Goddess.”
“Ah…!”
“Yes, that is the origin of the dungeons.”
“What are these dungeons exactly?”
“The dungeons are manifestations of the resistance that other races carried out in the past to fend off human invasions. In other words, the events in those dungeons actually happened in the past. And the traces of that history can never be erased. That’s why the dungeons always appear in the same place, and will keep appearing if the magical stones sealing them are not closed. Because that is the indelible history of this world.”
I had also found the Upheaval phenomenon strange, as it was far too massive to be just a magical phenomenon.
Now that it said it was the doing of the Mother Goddess, it made sense.
“Due to the scheme of Olkin and the Mother Goddess, the races of this land were on the brink of total annihilation. It was only a matter of time.”
That’s right. The Upheaval phenomenon is endless, and the dungeons are growing more violent and numerous as time passes.
“That’s when Omeron, the Dragon of Order, betrayed us.”
“Betrayed? You mean the dragons?”
“Yes, he was somehow swayed by humans. He fell in love with humans and became captivated by their potential. So he deceived us, and even the Mother Goddess, gathering a large number of humans to the central continent. Then he sacrificed himself to create a massive barrier that could not be interfered with from the outside. To avoid the Upheaval, he said. And afterwards, he cast magic spells to ensure no one inside the Magic Continent would try to break the barrier.”
“Wow…!”
That’s why our continent only had divine magic and nothing else. Any development of magic would risk someone trying to break the barrier.
At that point, I had a question.
“What were the elves of the Kuravel Kingdom? And what about the beastfolk who were in the Magic continent?”
“The beastfolk were those who resided in the Magic Continent. The Magic Continent was originally theirs, you could say. The elves are a bit more complicated… But simply put, they were a group that thought coexistence with humans was possible. They, along with a group of humans who also believed in interspecies coexistence, followed Omeron and established an insular kingdom in the Magic Continent – that was the Kuravel Kingdom. Well, that ultimately failed and they returned to this island.”
“So when were they enemies?”
“That was about 2,000 years ago.”
After that much time has passed, any story becomes a legend steeped in fiction.
There was indeed a myth about magic being lost in the Magic Continent due to the conflict between the two gods. It also mentioned the dragons.
Nowadays, most people dismiss it as mere mythology, believing such things could not have actually happened.
I observed the white dragon closely, and then asked, “The dragons not mentioned in the story are two. Is one of them the dragon Altron that you guide? Or is it…”
“That’s right, Altron is the one. I came to this island with the elves who follow me, to avoid the Upheaval disaster. During that time, I received a revelation from the Father God, whom we thought had disappeared after dividing his power. He said that centuries later, a human who would pacify the world and bring peace would arrive, and that I should guide that person.”
“So that person is me.”
“Exactly. I have been waiting for you all this time. Nothing else mattered. I didn’t care about what was happening outside this island. Even if the living beings outside were being annihilated by the Upheaval, I thought it was unrelated to me. That’s when he finally moved – that eccentric among our dragons.”
“Vandalin, the Dragon of Balance…”
The name Vandalin was famous even in the outside world. He was the great sage who taught Teleportation Skill, saving humanity from the brink of destruction.
“So he was a dragon!”
“Yes. That Teleportation Skill was a wondrous spell even in my eyes as a dragon. It was likely a masterpiece Vandalin had crafted over thousands of years.”
Thanks to him, the humans in the outside world were able to escape the crisis of annihilation. And now, humans have gone and released all the sealed magical stones, inviting their own destruction.
“This is the truth of this world. Ars Elaine, what do you think?”
“I feel like my head is spinning.”
“What do you mean?”
“Up until now, my goal was a bit vague.”
The vague goal of unifying the continent. That was my aim.
But after hearing the truth of the world, I was able to specify my goal concretely.
“To integrate all the worlds and achieve peace between the races, and make the Upheaval phenomenon disappear – isn’t that what I should do?”
“Yes, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Even the you in the revelation couldn’t accomplish it all.”
“What do you mean by that?”
The following content was perhaps even more shocking than the truth of the world.
“As I said, you were already aged. You could have united the continent and brought peace between the races, but you couldn’t have made the Upheaval disappear or prevented the Mother Goddess’s interference in the world. So I told you in the revelation that one of your children would accomplish that great task.”
“My children?”
“Yes.”
“What did the me in the revelation say in response?”
“He said this: ‘Which of my children are you referring to? I have 83 children, so I don’t know which one you mean.'”
“Eighty… What?”
“I was surprised too. I didn’t expect a single human to have that many children.”
“So then? Which of my children was the one to accomplish that great task?”
“I don’t know that. The revelation ended there. So you can interpret it as meaning any of your children who meet the conditions, not a specific one. …It must have been an important revelation to have happened at all. Even now, with the revelation having gone awry, your children may still play crucial roles in the world. So it would be best for you to have as many children as possible, like the you in the revelation, haha!”
Altron laughed heartily.
I was stunned and couldn’t continue the conversation.
Hi guys, please check out the new novel I picked “I killed the Demon King. It was a mistake.”
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