Not A Regressor-Chapter 312: Faded Promise (4)

Song Ha-Eun looked flustered, clearly uncomfortable with the intense attention on her. “W-What is it? Why are you all looking at me like that?”

The dragonkin, full of reverence, stared at her left Draconic Eye.

“Whoa.”

“The d-dragon’s Virgin Maiden...”

The captured dragonkin began shedding tears as if witnessing the descent of Jesus and deeply bowed before her like devoted worshipers.

“I told you. I’m not a virgin. What are you all going on—?”

“Ha-Eun, just be quiet for a second.” Looking pained, Kwon Oh-Jin covered Song Ha-Eun’s mouth. “What’s this prophecy you’re all talking about?”

“That’s...” The dragonkin hesitated and glanced at each other, unsure of who should answer.

Just then, a voice suddenly came from a different direction. “I will explain.”

“Grrrr!” Boppy growled, baring its teeth and taking a defensive stance.

From on top of the collapsed canyon wall, hundreds of dragonkin surrounded Kwon Oh-Jin’s group with magic arrows aimed at them. At the center of the group, an elderly dragonkin leaning on a staff stepped forward.

“My name is Kellion. Though I am lacking in many ways, I lead the dragonkin.” The elder dragonkin with ash-gray hair introduced himself calmly and politely.

“My name is Kwon Oh-Jin.”

“I’ve heard of you. You’re the hero from beyond the rift.”

“You’ve heard of me?”

Who could’ve told them?

“I’m quite close with Baek Mu-Kang, you see.”

“Ah.”

To think that the dragonkin leader would be acquainted with Baek Mu-Kang...

“For now, let’s move to a safer place,” Kellion suggested. “All the noise might attract the demonkin.”

“Alright.”

Kwon Oh-Jin’s group followed Kellion deeper into the canyon.

As they passed a certain point, it felt like they had walked through a gate. The scenery before them suddenly changed.

Woong.

In the blink of an eye, they had gone from a narrow canyon to an open clearing. The wide space contained sparse vegetation and dozens of tents that seemed hastily put up.

Is this place being used as their temporary shelter?

Judging by the state of the area, it seemed they had only put up the tents two or three days ago at most.

“Make sure no pursuit parties from the demonkin follow us. Scout the canyon’s surroundings,” Kellion ordered.

“Yes, sir!”

“If you spot anyone, do not engage immediately. Report back first.”

“Understood, sir!”

The dragonkin unit that had been restrained by Isabella’s chains turned back toward the canyon.

“This way.” Kellion led them into the middle tent.

At the center sat a roughly built wooden table.

“I apologize for welcoming the prophesied guest in such a crude place and not providing proper hospitality.” Kellion bowed deeply toward Song Ha-Eun.

Compared to how he acted toward Kwon Oh-Jin, his attitude seemed far more respectful.

“Uh... I-It’s okay, but what’s all this talk about the dragon’s Virgin Maiden or whatever?” Song Ha-Eun subtly leaned toward Kwon Oh-Jin, looking overwhelmed by Kellion’s overwhelming reverence.

Kellion quietly sighed at Song Ha-Eun’s thoroughly confused expression. “This will take some time to explain. The dragonkin once had a guardian deity called the Dragon God.”

A hundred years ago, when the demonkin launched their major invasion, the Dragonian Kingdom had been attacked like the Khan Kingdom. However, the dragonkin had faced a far stronger and more calculated assault than the Khan Kingdom.

Their guardian deity, Kaleios the Dragon God, rose to fight against the demonkin. Unlike ordinary dragons who preferred solitary lives, Kaleios had built a lair within the Dragonian Kingdom itself and actively protected it.

“During the war a hundred years ago, the one who stood alongside Lord Kaleios against the demonkin was our hero, Lord Caelus Benedicto.”

Kwon Oh-Jin had never heard that name before.

“Was he a dragonkin?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked.

“No,” Kellion quietly said and shook his head. “Lord Caelus... was human.”

Kwon Oh-Jin furrowed his brow. “What?”

A human fought alongside the Dragon God Kaleios against the demonkin a hundred years ago?

That doesn’t make sense.

Even accounting for some time difference between Earth and the Demonic District, the first rift connecting the Demonic District to Earth hadn’t even opened yet back then. How could a human have been here, let alone fight against the demonkin?

“Lord Caelus said that he had drifted into this world.”

Drifted, huh.

If that were true, did a path between Earth and the Demonic District exist even before the first rift opened?

It’s possible.

A massive rift like the current one surely would’ve been discovered, but a smaller one like what Kwon Oh-Jin first fell into would’ve gone unnoticed.

Humanity often assumed it knew everything about Earth. In truth, regions untouched by humans vastly outnumbered those they knew.

“Lord Caelus was the dragonkin’s leader and savior,” Kelion said, full of respect.

Kwon Oh-Jin frowned, unable to understand. “How could that be?”

How could a human who drifted in from another world become the savior of the dragonkin? Savior aside, how could a mere human who wasn’t even an Awakener survive in the Demonic District?

“Lord Caelus had a Stigma.”

“A Stigma?” Kwon Oh-Jin dryly laughed in disbelief.

A human who wasn’t even an Awakener had survived in the Demon Realm? That made no sense, but the simple answer to that obvious question made him laugh.

Awakeners existed a hundred years ago?

It felt like all the common knowledge he knew was being distorted.

“Yes, he was an Awakener with the Stigma of Draco.”

The same stigma that Song Ha-Eun possessed.

“Lord Caelus shared the Stigma of Draco, bestowed upon him by the Celestial, to the dragonkin.”

“He what?”

Among Awakeners, none could share their Stigma with others.

No, wait... The Black Star Celestials.

Awakeners under the Black Star Society could transfer their Stigma to others.

But the Stigma of Draco isn’t part of the Black Stars.

Just as Kwon Oh-Jin’s thoughts began to tangle, Kellion gently lifted his robe and revealed the left side of his chest. “He blessed us with the power of the stars.”

The same vivid Stigma of Draco that Song Ha-Eun bore could be seen.

“At the time, we dragonkin were gradually losing the ability to control the powerful mana running through our blood. This was because the magic passed down from the dragons before us had been lost to time.”

Long ago, the dragonkin and dragons shared the same roots. The analogy wasn’t perfect, but the relationship between dragonkin and dragons resembled that of worker ants to a queen ant. In other words, the dragonkin were created to serve the dragons.

However, the dragons did not need the dragonkin. Each dragon possessed immense power and was highly individualistic, disliking living as a group. Eventually, the dragons abandoned the dragonkin and scattered to the far corners of the world.

Until then, the dragonkin had gradually learned magic by serving the dragons. Magic gradually disappeared after all the dragons, except for the Dragon God Kaleios, left the kingdom. Kaleios alone could not preserve the vast diversity of magical traits among the dragonkin.

“Then, Lord Caelus appeared in our kingdom.”

Using the Stigma of the Draco, he taught the dragonkin how to control the mana within their bodies.

“To those of us dying from fevers and unable to control the mana within ourselves, he was our literal savior,” Kellion explained, and tightly clenched his fist.

His eyes, burning with reverence, told Kwon Oh-Jin all he needed to know about what Caelus meant to them.

So, that’s why they weren’t hostile toward us.

A human had once saved their dying race, so they reacted quite differently from the beastkin.

“What does all this have to do with the prophecy you mentioned earlier?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked.

He now understood how Caelus became the dragonkin’s savior, but how was Song Ha-Eun involved in all this?

“After the war with the demonkin, Lord Kaleios fell into a deep slumber, and Lord Caelus...” Kellion trailed off as his expression darkened. “Was badly wounded and passed away.”

As he recalled Caelus in his memories, Kelion’s clenched hand slightly trembled at his side.

“Caelus Benedicto, the dragonkin’s savior and the Dragon God’s closest friend, left one final prophecy before he died.”

At the end of this long story, Kellion finally mentioned the prophecy.

“‘When darkness falls over the kingdom, a woman with the Draconic Eye shall appear.’”

All eyes turned to Song Ha-Eun.

“‘The eye of the dragon shall draw forth the soul of the Dragon God into her body, awakening the slumbering Dragon God...’ That was Lord Caelus’s final prophecy.”

The Dragon God Kaleios was the last dragon who could protect the dragonkin, who were nothing more than slaves to dragons. The key to awakening that wounded, sleeping dragon was Song Ha-Eun’s Draconic Eye.

Song Ha-Eun cocked her head with a dazed expression. “W-Wait, m-my eyeball is that special?”

Suddenly, Kwon Oh-Jin recalled the face of an old man who once bared his ugly greed in an attempt to seize her Draconic Eye.

I thought the Draconic Eye just made it easier to handle dragon mana...

The power in her eye far surpassed anything he had imagined.

“When the demonkin’s assault reduced the kingdom to ashes and countless dragonkin lost their lives, I knew that the time of the prophecy had come.” Kellion stood up and walked toward Song Ha-Eun.

He kneeled in front of her like a priest before a god and deeply bowed.

“Oh, Virgin Maiden of the dragon... I beg you, guide the soul of the Dragon God into your flesh and awaken our god from his long slumber.” Kellion’s shoulders trembled.