Chapter 417: Deceit’s Truth Revealed.

Chapter 417: Deceit’s Truth Revealed.

Manethala sent me a message that my valto is coming. He suspects our collusion. Hes coming over this way, right now, but we havent finished the damn installment yet! Broggart exclaimed with a haggard voice, looking as exhausted as if he had stayed up the entire night, or however long our nap took, working.

Good, then we can deal with him now, King Fugnarus stated, swinging his axe over his shoulders.

However, Broggarts already reddened eyes glared at the man, looking like he was about to choke the king to death. Broggart stomped over, poking King Fugnarus' chest with his index finger. You bashthuda! Is that all you can think about?! Fighting to show off ya honor that way!? Didnt I already tell ya valtos employer has Goddess Chihiros workshop as a hostage in this situation? My old man isnt the only issue here.

King Fugnarus frowned, grabbing the offending arm and shoving the other dwarf back a bit. Despite the clear lack of respect, he didnt burst out in anger. You're the one that stated we had to kill your father and destroy the creation YOU built, but now youre telling us to hold back? The workshop being in danger is an issue, but do you even know the political consequences this will have? I can already imagine the Events aftermath being a headache considering what the dragon princesses experienced, and now youre telling me to hold back instead of striking down that traitor Maagneil?!

I am not telling ya to hold back, I am telling ya to keep that hand of yours in control until we can assure Goddess Chihiros legacy is safe. Do I need to spell it out for ya? Isnt ya aunts work important to ya, considering how much you wanted to know from me?

Fugnarus eyed him with disdain, speaking back sharply at his accusation, Think of me whatever you will, but I still have a role to play as the Ankoran King. Stopping this insurgence from happening within my land and getting the dragon princesses out of this mess alive are my only goals.

You dont need to treat us as if we are some damsels in distress, dwarf, Neill snapped at him. If you need help with the political side, then so be it, I can always speak with the kinkyuru about it. In fact, if we find Midirn, he can probably talk his father out of issuing a complaint to you. Ive had that bastard Galg and his party try to hunt me down once already, and I know how tenacious he is. Even if you tried to stop him, he would have found a way in the city regardless.

Midirn? I wondered, having heard that name before, but not even my parallel minds could remember who that was.

The son of the patriarch of the dragoenwt Clan Kargryxmor. I snapped my head around to see Ellaine coming out of the workshop, looking disheveled and ready to collapse. Tatsuya offered her an iced fulinoe tea to help wake her up, to which she accepted before continuing. Hes the representative of Loatryx sent with our expedition. Also reason number two why all the wyvern slayers hate us, but that is besides the point.

What did he do? Kyouya asked, piquing my own interest, but before anybody could answer, Grimnir clapped his hands.

We can have story time and whatever kinda fight later on, but we actually have a problem right now. How about we solve it? He then pointed at the workshop. Broggart is correcting the mana transfer efficiency from my elemental runes to make their burst shots less damaging to the core. I need more time, but we cant do it here. We need to figure out how to handle Maagneils presence.

And not have the workshop destroyed! Broggart interjected.

However, I could only raise a brow at how serious he was about it. Why? This is a fantastic time to get rid of that man once and for all, and so what if the employer activated the dragon killer? We can always destroy it afterwards. Its just a workshop.

Just a workshop?! the artificer glared at me as if I had just said the most profane statement in the world. That isnt just a workshop, it is the crown jewel of all the possible tech progress we Peolyncians could implement! I thought an otherworlder like you might understand, but it seemed that bashthuda Bleidla got into your damn brains, dragon!

Sheesh, talk about touchy.

Then how would you suggest we go about doing this? Saori came to my defense. I would rather not risk my friends life when something like a dragon killer is still operational. We will have to rely on the non-dragonkins for the fight if that is the case, and most of the heavy hitters are in the expedition force, no?

Kushlekzar and the saurians, Themrayn, Rudigan, and Azelfa are the non-dragonkin rank As on the expedition force. And, well, Neill turned to Saori and VifiYok. Those two.

No, Im a dragonkin, sort of, Saori answered, reminding me how I had molting training with her when Mom was still around. I drank Hestias blood before I evolved into a rank B. Yorshka and Melloxtressa could pick it up from my scent, cant you?

Ooooooh, so thats why you smell so much like Hestia. I thought you just had one of her scales on you or something, since she mentioned you being her best friend. Well, glad to meet and know about that, Saori. Got a good amount of questions for you after this is done, concerning my new little sister.

And I would be happy to answer them.

Please, dont embarrass me, Saori. Dont tell her about the time I ate rocks

This small moment of bonding ceased immediately, though, when Neill returned to the subject at hand. Although, that doesnt explain it. Youre actually a dragonkin? Can you molt? How is that possible? Drinking the blood of dragons doesnt just turn you into a dragonkin or something like in some of those crazy stories, even if its the blood of Kramps.

As evident when nothing happened to Rajah when he tried drinking my blood. Saoris transformation was a huge outlier to everything. I had always wondered what was the cause of it, but then I remembered we had somebody who could answer it for us, right now.

[The explanation to that lies with my evolution choices when I ascended to a rank S. It is the same reason why the boy Tatsuya has the ability to transform into bestial forms through [Druidification]. Saori can explain everything to you later; the current situation demands your focus,] Belzac explained to me, also telling me this message only went to me as he wanted to keep his presence a secret to everybody who didnt have to hear him.

As such, Saori told Neill it was a secret for now, and that she would elaborate on everything later on. Instead, our focus returned to how we should handle Maagneil, especially since we had Broggart who was adamant about not wanting to attack him now.

Now, I was alright with some subterfuge to make things easier, but this felt and sounded like such a wasted moment, as King Fugnarus mentioned. Chihiros workshop might be filled with stuff I wanted to know, yes, but it felt like we might be risking our heads a bit just to preserve it. Then again, I did understand why someone would value something to the point they would not hold back to protect it.

This showed when we all tried to persuade Broggart, only for him to coldly wave it all aside. He urged us to follow his idea and just go back to the smithy at the moment. There was supposedly a hidden room he had dug out for himself there which we could use to hide in. As a sign of trust, he relied on Ellaine to finish the last step of the implementation process for the blasthammer.

Once he got the hammer and the component from the workshop, Broggart handed them to Grimnir and Ellaine respectively. Okay, dont forget to keep them safe, alright? If I cant come back cause valto took me away, then finish the thing while Im away and make ya way down the tunnel in the opposite direction. There should be the set of stairs Manethala made in secret. Oh, and if ya want those unique Jobs, any of ya entering the last floor will do it for ya entire party.

With that, he shoved us to the minecart trains and sent us off. In his hurry, he hadnt gotten the chance to inspect the [Room] runes Girmnir made, nor did I have the time to close them. As such, everything that happened was witnessed by Haruka, Daichi, and Asaka.

Was that man really Broggart? Daichi asked through the portal, to which Ellaine nodded.

He is the real deal, yes, she said with a slight gulp. Her mouth formed into a smile as her mind wandered a bit, before she realized what was going on and apologized. It is almost as if the very person who wrote the notes Ive read all this time was right in front of me! Although, he seemed quite eccentric.

Nonsense, lass, thats the ingenuity of my cousin speaking, Grimnir let out a boastful crackle, almost as if he was showing how proud he was of his relative. Its as if he hadn't changed once since I lost him. Well, he seemed less stressed compared to before, but maybe its cuz I got his earnest opinion of me through the video recorder. It felt like Nah, Im being too sentimental here. Haha! Im just glad hes not actually dead.

Hmm?

Haruka? Looking at our math wiz, I raised a brow as she sat there, having a pensive look. When I called her out, she fumbled with her hands a bit, looking nervous through the portals opening.

I-its nothing. Probably just my imagination. She tried to wave it off.

However, Saori wasnt persuaded. As her former teacher, she knew her well. Haruka-chan, you do that sometimes due to your social anxiety. Why not speak your mind? We have nothing better to do while riding here, and we might as well get your opinion on things.

O-oh, well, if you want, Sensei. I was just thinking when did Broggart fake his death?

A year before we found Grimnir in Cedaraille, all depressed and indulging in his alcoholism, I answered, still remembering the day I met Grimnir and how he joined our party clearly.

Oi, lass! The man himself wasnt too thrilled about my description, but it was all true.

Haruka, too, ignored him and continued, I see that should make it two years by now, right? I have a question, Mister Grimnir, wasnt the whole reason why you told us your uncle went mad due to your cousins death? No, wait, it wasnt just you, it was also Mister Jadhund, too, no? Hesti-chan, we listened to him explain everything to us after you rescued me, remember?

I looked at the ceiling after being reminded by Haruka. Now that you say it, Jadhund was adamant about defending Maagneil, right? How the entire bad blood between Grimnir and Maagneil wasnt just because his favorite son was exiled, but also because Grimnir sent his body back. Maagneil supposedly went mad after Broggart got exiled. That fits what Broggart, said, no?

No, no, exactly! Youre thinking in the wrong way, Hestia-chan, Tatsuya blurted out. Didnt he and the hold king of Gazahan-Orn perform political suicide by trying to arrest all of you? Think about it, it doesnt make sense. Hey, Haruka-san, Daichi; thats what happened, right?

Daichi nodded. After I burned the younger sons beard off, the guards arrested me when Jadhund was around. However, after Nishio and the others went to complain to the Hold King, all the soldiers tried to arrest them since they loved the Luedbrumdar clan. You guys found out the King was in with Maagneils shady business, right? Something about improving his own situation?

Thanks! So, here is the issue weve been questioning all this time. Why did they do such a heavy-handed move? Just arrest Daichi, have the others complain, and continue the damn competition with Grimnir. Why try to sabotage Grimnir, when they knew he had you behind, supporting him. It made no sense, and then we had to deal with the guards when we entered the city to rescue Haruka-san!

So, youre saying the issue here is that we have logic failures? Kyouya tried to understand Tatsuyas rambling. I was also having trouble understanding his point.

No, thats not what he meant. Surprisingly, though, King Fugnarus seemed to have understood everything. If Maagneil only had bad blood with Grimnir, he would have just arrested his apprentice and had him be judged fairly. The boy almost ruined his masters chance to win the smithing competition, and an embarrassment like that would have been far more precious to the mans ego but he went radical. You might not trust me, but my wife told me Maagneil was known to be a cunning business man. He isnt foolish enough to invite the scorn and wrath of a foreign princess, especially not one related to a high ranking dragon clan.

The dragonewts could cause him more problems, Neill added. Any dragon offspring would be treated like a prince or princess by their respective dragonewt clan; its just that we are proper royalty. If they mess with you, even dwarves wont be too safe from those fanatics.

Wait, is that so? Hold on, Hestia-san, you really are a young mistress straight out of a cultivation novel, Tatsuya stated, prompting me to snap at him for comparing me to something like that!The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

Oi, am not! But this joke could rest until we unraveled it. Pondering on King Fugnaruss and Tatsuyas words, it was really starting to seem weird. Meaning, Maagneil was acting too irrational, despite him knowing Broggart was alive all this time? Wait, YOURE RIGHT! Why did he doom his clan to its current existence? Why did he throw away everything he had just to get back at Grimnir, when he didnt even care about his youngest son? I mean, the fact he pummeled him to the point of his face deforming was brutal. No loving or sane father would do that!

Bingo.

Haruka-chan, you really catch on to those small details, Kyouya praised her.

She was also the one who noted how to clean the room where the video recorder was. If it was old, it would have been dusty, but she guessed somebody must have cleaned it and that person was Broggart But at the same time, if Broggart was alive all this time, just put away to work on this dragon killer, then why did Maagneil even try such a stupid plan. He could have just gotten revenge on Grimnir in another way and just left sleeping dragons to sleep.

Logically, it just wouldnt make any sense. If he destroyed his clan when his son was still alive all this time, then how was the latter supposed to inherit everything his father built up? Wasnt that one of the main reasons why Maagneil loved Broggart? That he was a genius who would inherit his legacy as the clan lead?

I dont want to hear any more. Despite the loud rocking of the minecarts riding along the tracks, Grimnirs gulp was still very audible to me. I turned around as he looked pale into the depths of this tunnel. This has to be a joke, right? D-didnt Saori and her mother not just tell us he cant be an onnikai. He-he has to be alive. He actedDemonkin!

Grimnir stopping his pleading and snapped his head over to VifiYok. You should be able to answer this, right? Amongst the princes, is there an Original Sin technique that allows you to brainwash somebody?

MASTER?! Ellaine flinched, looking at our smith with widened eyes as if he had gone crazy.

Brainwashing?

RIGHT! Lass, that has to be the answer! Grimnir shouted, grabbing Ellaines shoulder, acting far more energetic than usual. No, this was completely out of character for him! There has to be, right?! You got the damn envy bastard mimicking the persona of Aurenas pop. He has to be able to brainwash, right?!

Uh? The demonkin looked confused, before letting a sigh out and reaching a hand over to me. She gestured for me to come closer, but I already understood what she really wanted and gave her a donut. No.

She took a bite of the pastry, before turning her head away. She ignored the fact Grimnirs face paled again, agitating him as he nearly jumped from his minecart into hers.

EXPLAIN IT, EDJURALONG! There has to be! But his begging went into one ear and out oft the.

VifiYok turned back around, replying with a full mouth, Princes of Sins can only possess two Original Sin abilities. These abilities come from our demon heritage and are more a culmination of their main techniques. Here I thought your lust contractor would know better. Couldnt you have asked her?

Ellaine winced. King Fugnarus raised an eyebrow.

Whoever you contracted with really didnt explain anything to you. There are only two Original Sin abilities per demonic sinwrath, for example, possesses Satanael and Satan. Lust has Asmodeus and Lilith. Envy only has Demiurge and Yaldabaoth, she emphasized. Youve seen what Demiurge didtransform you into another person perfectly after touching them. Thats what the Prince of Envy did with the Pope of the Church of Aurena. Yaldabaoth was what was done on Hestia, and it was using the envy of your memories to corrupt you to either eat your soul and control you. Thats the brainwashing you probably wanted to know.

Then Grimnir saw a glimmer of hope, but VifiYok immediately stomped down on it.

As I told those three and the cat, the demonkins had no plans on doing anything to the dwarves. None at all. The moment we try to cause aggression, it would invite the elves, at the very least. In fact, trying to corrupt a dwarf is harder than just doing something with a human; the whole zuekluk culture makes it hard to find dwarves willing to fall into the deep end, VifiYok scoffed, shaking her a head a bit in amusement. No offense to your cousin and uncle, but they arent special. If we wanted a dragon killer, or whatever, we could have gotten any of the other master dwarves.

Or a human, King Fugnarus stated. I am not that prideful to disregard human ingenuity. With how many possess dwarven masters, our crafts have spread to the Empire. Many elves use dwarven techniques, too, after all.

VifiYok shrugged. Something like that. Look, I havent been a Warbringer for more than a year now. Ive been an apprentice of one, but I wasnt privy to the inner circle until I became one, so I cant assure you this information is fully correct. However, a prince of sin replacement like me can only use one of the Original Sin abilities, so if you have Demiurge, you cannot use Yaldabaoth. Only the Prince of Envy could have done anything but why risk getting caught and ruining our grandest scheme in centuries to destroy the Empire?

It makes sense, Neill agreed. I had to agree, and that meant Grimnir had to start facing the truth of the matter. So, who do you think is behind all this?

The demonkin shook her head. Goes too far. I gave you the basic knowledge I possess, but I dont know who could be behind this. Just not Lord Envy, so make your guesses. I dont want to reveal any more for this donut.

There were six princes of sins, but we couldnt narrow it down any further. This entire discussion also sorta exposed Ellaine, making VifiYok question her disguise as a Lust contractor. We might not have told Grimnir to hide it, but he was smart and resourceful enough to know better. I knew his emotional outburst was warranted since this was his cousin we were speaking about, but this was really not like Grimnir!

[Dont confront it yet,] Saori told me, her eyes trained at Grimnir and how much he was gesturing. He looked emotionally unstable.

Still, I listened to my best friend, trusting her judgement. I should return to the subject on hand, first.

Alright, if Tatsuya was implying that Broggart was dead all this time and that was the reason why Maagneil went so crazy, then how was all of this possible? The wolves didnt smell the scent of death on him, nor did Belzac mention anything. However, unless Broggart was dead and resurrected in some way, how could we explain Maagneils behavior?

There is somebody we could ask, Saori stated, telling us to wait until that person came.

As our minecart stopped at the smithy, we quickly managed to find Broggart hidden space and pushed ourselves into it to hide. There werent any silence runes or something to hide our presence, so we had to just rely on our skills to do so. As we waited, Saori told me her shadow pack hadnt returned and that I should close the portal for now.

With my patience starting to wear out after however long weve been waiting here, Grimnir suddenly suggested adding the mechanism he got from Broggart to his blasthammer. The preliminary tests were done while I was asleep to make sure it would work, now it only needed Ellaine to add it on.

Broggart perfected the function of the mana blast my original blasthammer hadthat single massive shot, remember? The one that overloaded the mana battery, making its application hard since I had to replace the battery after every usage? Grimnir showed me the mana battery Broggart gave him. A far more powerful one; one he learned to make with the dragon kill core in mind.

Wait, didnt he tell us he never saw the core before? My suspicion radar went into overdrive.

He did, yes, but you heard him. He understood the theory behind it, predicting there was probably a more optimal combination of arcanuit and euorinium by using a fragment of the earth elemental emperor as an additional conduit for the flow of mana. A fragment! Of course, the original creator

Grimnir! I shook his shoulders, before looking over at Ellaine. And you agreed to put this battery into his blasthammer?

Saori was the last to come out, followed by the giant body of Uno, the black flame hellhound. Saori reached her arm out, patting her fenrir as a [Shadow Snake] suddenly slithered back on her arm.

You really are prepared for everything, huh?! I expressed with a wide smile, feeling nostalgic at the always prepared Saori.

Well, after we had that entire discussion on the minecarts, it would be weird if I hadnt at least put down a way for me to perform a long-range [Shadow Dash], right? Her smile beamed with pride at her own foresight. Since [Shadow Dash] required line-of-sight to activate, the best way to ensure you could do so was with [Shadow Snake], which allowed the user to look through its eyes to spy on things.

The cunningness and creative moves you could do with dark magic would never stop astounding me.

Allied Territory [Yomi] deactivated

I also smiled when I saw that System message. I see you also managed to perform a Territory release.

Thank my Mom and Belzac for teaching me. Fitting that our relatives would teach us how to perform them, right?

That was my number two!

But we could celebrate everything else later, as we now had to run from the collapsing tunnel. Grabbing a dazed Grimnir, Saori summoned her shadow pack to allow us to run away from the immediate threat on their backs. Midway through, I also noticed Broggarts workshop, meaning we were making our way to the arena, the place Broggart warned us to not enter as it would activate the floors event.

Sadly, we had no other choice.

Once we arrived there, I could hear the sounds of people cheering for some reason. At the same time, Neill and I caught the whiff of something we had not wanted to meet again this soon.

The last floor gambit Good work everybody for making it here. There is no real task here, instead, it is a free-for-all. A last try for everybody to reach the goal. After all, the task is to reach me and perform my task to gain your unique Jobs. Now, one last time, fight and win your gambit! Find the stairs behind this arena and reach me!

The message appeared as I saw the arena before me, unable to compare its size to any stadiums Ive seen in my two lives. It felt large enough to be comparable to Central Park in New York. As in, it was huge enough to fit multiple blocks of apartments, sky scrapers, and football stadiums. The last time I checked, Central park was even longer than some cities!

And this humongous area stood before us as we notice a few dots coincidentally waiting in front of our entrance. All of them smelled like trouble literally.

The dragons! Multiple parties of people shouted in unison at us, waving their weapons in the air as they rallied around three people leading themthe dragonslayers.

Galg

The lance fighter was killed by Neill and the leonid berserker was nearly killed by Neill, but she wasnt around right now. Still, three of them were still here and that was enough to send a chill down my spine. The archer, the mage, and the rank S dragonslayer.

He did not speak this time. His eyes were aimed at me as he downed a green, red, and purple potion, before pointing his dual blades at me.

Galg! Galg! Galg! Around 19 people shouted.

For the loot! For the loot! For the loot! Far too many for me to quickly count shouted out, but it looked like there were over 100 adventurers.

Kill them! KILL THEM! And another group far too numerous to count cheered out as well.

Suffice to say, we were outnumbered.

Barooooooooooooooom!

But not for long, for in the distance behind this army of dragonkin slayers and adventurers, another one marched towards us. With the bellowing sound of a horn announcing their arrival, it also signaled the large-scale battle to come. Once it stopped, the slithering movement of a train-length serpent made from ice drew my attention to the person standing on top of its headthe one leading this secondary army.

There she stood with flying ice swords covering her flanks, looking imposing as I noticed her wearing a new set of dazzling gear I had never seen on her before. While not as cute as her usual maid outfit, this crystalline wardress with ice armor covering her created this image of a general leading her soldiers into battle.

She held her catalyst up, causing it turn into a sword for her to wield. She pointed it at our enemy. At Auroras enemies!

Event Expedition alliance has successfully rendezvoused with our missing allies! New allies detected! Princess Hestia, Princess Fargryneill, and King Fugnarus! she shouted under the silence of everybody below her. Wyvern slayers and dragonslayers detected! They threaten our allies!

Uraaaaaawwwwwgh!

And her speech invoked the combined roars of the many dragonewts and dragonkins under her command.

This was our number three.

A note from AbyssRaven

Uuuuh, this sure escalated in a moment's notice!

If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr!

For two dollars, for the cost of a coffee, you can read up to four chapters! You will have my eternal gratitude for any support you can give me! Please.

Thank you for reading this chapter.

PayPal

Patreon

Previous

Chapter Fiction

Index Next

Chapter

RSS

About the author

1 Fictions 7 Posts 1 Threads

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 7:55:51 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

Achievements

Comments(0)

Set Compact

Log in to comment

Log In

Load Comments

Theme (Entire Website) Dark Light Dim background 0% 20% 40% 50% 60% 80% 100%

Font Size 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 28 32 Reader Width Max 90% 80% 70% 60% 50%

Font Family

Default Open Dyslexic Atkinson Hyperlegible Arial Roboto Open Sans OS Default Comic Sans Lucida Verdana Ubuntu Ubuntu Condensed Franklin Gothic Garamond Caslon Minion

Font Color

Indent

Color Scheme

Theme Default OLED Black Royal Road Dark Dark Gray Gray Light Gray Sepia White

Paragraph Spacing

Close

Points You can specify how many points you want to give (minimum: 0, maximum: 0).

Comment (optional) Why are you giving this user reputation?

Give Reputation Close

Royal Road is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

Royal Road is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Dark Light Create a support ticket

Contact Us by Email

Ads for Authors

Programmatic Advertising

Royal Road 2013-2023

Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Blog | Status

Tap again to scroll to the top!