Dragonslayer’s Class Regression Chapter 56

Chapter 56

‘To overthrow the Draker family.’

Zeke met Abel’s eyes, trying to understand his intentions.

Clear crimson eyes.

Zeke could feel the power of destruction and madness contained within them.

‘Did he come to persuade me after finding out that I went to Sister Kali’s side?’

Although Zeke’s power was modest now, after graduating from Valhalla and entering the family as an official knight, it would be possible to quickly approach the center of power as a pureblood awakened one.

Moreover, since Zeke was the official disciple of Duke, who was a black knight, if he received his support, he could even draw Duke into his faction.

Therefore, Zeke’s potential value was greater than expected.

When Zeke remained silent, Abel took another sip of wine and opened his mouth.

“Do you not believe what I’m saying?”

Zeke decided to match his words to better understand Abel’s intentions.

“I’m not sure how to take your words about overthrowing the family.”

At those words, Abel smiled at Zeke.

“I don’t know about the other siblings, but Zeke, I thought you would understand what I’m saying.”

He looked into Zeke’s eyes as he spoke.

“You have the same smell as me. Should I say the smell of blood and battle is deeply embedded in your body? Perhaps because you received the dragon slayer’s blood most strongly.”

‘That dragon slayer blood talk again.’

Zeke decided to shake Abel up a bit more.

“Overthrow the family… Is that why you’re forming close relationships with the Empire?”

Abel hesitated momentarily at Zeke’s probing question.

He soon nodded and answered.

“I can’t say that’s not true. Zeke, have you ever been to the Empire?”

Zeke shook his head.

In his previous life, he had infiltrated various cities for missions, but he hadn’t been there yet in this life.

At Zeke’s response, Abel slowly opened his mouth.

“Many say that Atlas here is the greatest city in the central continent, but I think differently.”

He continued slowly.

“Atlas is ultimately just a city with autonomy. Without Draker’s support, it’s like a sand castle that could collapse at any time. But the Empire is different.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everything in the Empire goes through Rom, the capital. The Empire is constantly building roads. They’re trying to create roads that connect through the central continent, up to the northern continent, down to the southern continent, and further to the eastern continent.”

“Is there a reason they need to keep building roads endlessly?”

“Zeke, that’s the Empire’s invisible strength. Unifying the continent as one. This continent has always suffered because languages are different, cultures are different, and resources are different. The Empire can connect all of this with roads to create one. And when that happens, it will surely become a better world than now.”

Looking at Abel expounding his lengthy imperial theory, Zeke said,

“That sounds like something the Emperor of the Empire would say.”

At Zeke’s words, Abel’s eyes changed for a moment.

Though it was very brief, Zeke instinctively caught this and realized there was something there.

‘Cain, who had the surname Constantinus. That guy’s middle name was Jiemens. Abel has Jiemens as his maternal family and receives their support. Surely there must be a connection between Abel, Jiemens, and the Empire.’

If that was the case, it somewhat made sense that Abel had handed over the entire Draker to the Empire.

Abel looked at Zeke and said,

“Zeke, I want to give talented individuals positions and rewards befitting them. You are more than qualified to have the brightest sword and jewel by my side.”

Second only to him, above all others.

It was a promise of a powerful second-in-command position if he joined his faction.

Zeke saw Abel’s eyes full of ambition.

They were eyes full of madness befitting one who had pushed the continent into the vortex of war.

Zeke remembered the era of chaos and war that Abel had created in his previous life.

Therefore, he slowly opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m suitable for that position.”

He wanted to become the strongest on the continent, not dream of becoming a massacrer.

Zeke stood up from his seat.

Then Abel said to Zeke,

“Are you confident you won’t regret it?”

Zeke turned his head to look at Abel and answered,

“I don’t think I’ll regret it much.”

Zeke immediately left the room, leaving Abel behind.

Abel, left alone at the table, turned his head to look at the night view outside and drank his wine.

And shortly after, William entered.

He was surprised to see Abel alone.

“Why are you alone? Where’s Zeke?”

Then Abel looked at William and said,

“He said he’ll take a different path from mine.”

At that moment, the wine glass Abel was holding suddenly became mushy and completely melted, flowing down onto the table.

The hotly melted glass burned the table as it fell to the floor.

Abel clenched his fist and said,

“William, I think it would be better to stamp out the sprout before it’s too late.”

Today was Abel’s last chance to give to Zeke.

Abel turned his head and looked at the noble night view of Atlas.

It was a night when the moonlight shone particularly sorrowfully.

* * *

Upon returning to Atlas, Zeke immediately prepared for Valhalla’s new semester.

Since Valhalla only had one semester per year, he was already in his second year.

Unlike other students who typically graduate in 5 years, Zeke was already preparing for early graduation at the age of seventeen.

Since he had already been promoted to Blue Knight and even held the position of official Knight of Draker, there was no reason he couldn’t graduate early if he focused on taking just the required credits.

When he applied for this unprecedented early graduation, a meeting with the Chancellor was immediately scheduled.

Zeke went to meet Chancellor Flaubert after a long time.

However, in front of the Chancellor’s office, there weren’t just Zeke, but two others as well.

“Yo! Bro!”

One was the familiar Diego.

But the other person was someone he’d never seen before.

‘Who could it be?’

It was a tall, thin young man with heavy dark circles under his eyes who looked rather weak.

Zeke, Diego, and the weak-looking young man sat side by side in front of Flaubert.

Flaubert greeted them warmly.

“It’s been a while. Zeke, Diego, and Aster too.”

At Flaubert’s words, Zeke was inwardly surprised.

‘Aster? Could it be Aster Aladov, the Knight of Illusion?’

There was a reason for Zeke’s surprise.

In his previous life, during the Third Continental War, among the Five-Star Knights who showed outstanding skills, the Knight of Illusion Aster Aladov had no personal information revealed except that he was from Valhalla.

His whereabouts after graduating from Valhalla remained unknown, and only the fact that he belonged to the Imperial Army was known.

He had always worn full plate armor with a helmet, so Zeke hadn’t expected such a weak impression at all.

It was natural to be surprised seeing Aster, whom he had only thought of as a strong knight, now slouching and holding his head in front of the Chancellor.

“Ugh, I’m sorry, Chancellor. I haven’t been able to sleep properly for a week.”

“My, my. That chronic condition persists, I see.”

That was right.

Aster Aladov was a severe insomniac.

Due to his particularly sensitive nerves and characteristic perfectionism, his neurosis had worsened to the point where his insomnia prevented him from keeping up with his studies.

Diego made exaggerated gestures while looking at Aster.

“Yo, bro! When you can’t sleep, just groove with the music and sleep comes right away!”

Aster pressed his temples and replied.

“Ugh, sorry, but my head is pounding, so could you please speak more quietly?”

The boisterous Diego and Aster seemed quite incompatible in terms of personality.

Zeke looked with sympathy at Aster who was suffering from insomnia.

‘Insomnia, huh. I suffered from that in my previous life too. Because of that damn Don Juan, I had endless nightmares.’

Having experienced the torment of insomnia, he could somewhat empathize with Aster’s situation.

Then a good idea crossed Zeke’s mind.

‘This might be a way to bring Aster in.’

Just then, Flaubert addressed the three.

“The reason I called you all together is because you all applied for special early graduation at the same time.”

Though Diego usually seemed like a delinquent and Aster looked weak, they were actually among Valhalla’s most talented students.

Diego wanted to focus more on his musical activities, while Aster, unable to properly attend classes due to insomnia anyway, applied for special early graduation with the mindset of just getting it over with.

Flaubert tapped his desk with his finger and said.

“Diego and Aster have completed all required courses through third year, and Zeke said he would make up credits through written exams.”

Zeke nodded.

“That’s correct, Chancellor. I want to graduate as quickly as possible to take on my family duties.”

Zeke was pretending to be a well-mannered student, saying only what Flaubert wanted to hear.

The Chancellor nodded and spoke to the three students opposite him.

“Good. I’ve spoken with the other professors, and there’s no objection to all three of you taking the special early graduation exam. The question is how to evaluate…”

He pulled out a letter from his desk.

“This is a cooperation document from Delpoa.”

Zeke guessed what the Chancellor was about to say.

‘So they’re going to conduct the graduation evaluation by deploying us on an actual mission.’

In reality, Valhalla’s graduating class would often participate in missions as trainee knights in other kingdoms’ knight orders.

Furthermore, students who showed high performance there were often directly recruited into those knight orders after graduation.

This was because most places that formed partnerships with Valhalla were prestigious Central Kingdom knight orders.

However, while Delpoa was one of the five great kingdoms of the central continent, what was unique about it was that due to its tradition as the sovereign state of magic, the magician corps held more power than the knight orders within the kingdom.

Thanks to this, while there was the advantage that life in the knight order was more relaxed, in terms of prestige, it wasn’t a place preferred by Valhalla students.

Flaubert slowly opened his mouth.

“Have you heard of the Black Demon (黑夜叉)?”

At those words, Zeke nodded.

“I know of him as a continental merit holder from an outlaw background.”

“Zeke, you’re well-informed about continental news. That Black Demon is currently absorbing mercenary groups in the central continent and has settled his group near Delpoa.”

The outlaws who came from the border regions were people who had mastered aura in different ways from the knights of the central continent.

While it wasn’t proper aura training Techniques, they were effective in actual combat because they mainly consisted of techniques specialized for killing.

It wasn’t for nothing that the cartels paid good money to bring in outlaws.

Zeke looked at Flaubert and said:

“Are we going to eliminate the Black Demon’s group in cooperation with the Delpoa knight order?”

Flaubert nodded.

“Most of it will be handled by Delpoa’s knight order and magician corps, but they’ve requested knights of purple rank or higher, you see.”

Given that a knight order of Delpoa’s scale had requested purple rank knights, he could tell the situation without even seeing it.

‘The combat magicians will probably handle most of it, and the knights will just clean up behind them.’

It seemed they thought it was awkward to send graduates, but since they couldn’t not send anyone at all, it would be better to make it a special graduation exam mission.

Flaubert said to the three people:

“If you participate in the mission and return safely, I’ll consider the first test passed.”

“How many tests are there in total?”

“There are three in total. After the first one is finished, the second and third will be conducted by carrying out missions together with the graduation candidates.”

It seemed to mean they should fill in the lacking class hours with practical experience.

Zeke nodded.

“I’ll participate, Chancellor.”

Diego and Aster also expressed their intention to participate.

“Good. The departure is in a week, so prepare well. Especially you, Zeke, since this will be your first official mission.”

“Understood.”

In reality, Zeke was the most seasoned among seasoned veterans who had been through countless battlefields, but there was no way Flaubert could know this.

After leaving the chancellor’s office, after sending Diego ahead first, who wanted to go to the club room to play music together, Zeke approached Aster.

“Aster Aladov.”

At Zeke’s call, Aster looked at him with dull eyes full of drowsiness.

“Oh my head… Huh? You mean me?”

With his dull eyes and haggard appearance, it was impossible to imagine him as one of the Five Star Knights, the Knight of Illusions.

Zeke approached Aster and said:

“Do you perhaps need sleeping pills?”

He grinned as he whispered.

“I have some good medicine, you see.”

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