Golden Dragon: Six Thousand Years of Empire

"I knew it, it really is you!"

Paladin Rand looked at the young man not far away, whom he had spent nearly ten years growing deeply familiar with, only to feel utterly strange and unfamiliar in the sudden advent of the Holy Dragon's revelation. As the young man transformed, someone he only heard tales of—the Holy Dragon's Son—Rand was shaken but soon gave a relieved smile, his face revealing relaxed joy.

As a Paladin, his perception and wisdom were not so dull. From the time he first entered the Black Mine Pit under a hidden identity and inadvertently met this young man, he sensed the young man's extraordinary origin.

The subsequent nine years only strengthened his belief that the young man must have an exceptional background, as the knowledge possessed by Illia seemed remarkably vast.

However, the knowledge did not align with the youth's apparent frailty and powerlessness. How could someone who mastered so much knowledge be merely mortal?

It's not that mortals are necessarily foolish and the Transcendents are definitively wiser; rather, the realms they dwell in are different, with certain knowledge unattainable by mortals.

Rand's doubts accumulated until a year ago when he witnessed a group of warriors belonging to the Holy Dragon, who shouldn't have appeared, descend and effortlessly resolve an Abyss calamity that threatened the lives of all including himself and other paladins.

At that moment, he witnessed something capable of shattering worldly understanding and crushing all transcendents' worldviews—a group of warriors at an average power level of the Golden Realm besieging and defeating a Legend.

In that instant, Paladin Rand began to suspect the identity of his student, as only he and his student were present during the battle. Rand was sure of his own clean background.

Since the problem was not with him, the issue must be with his student. Especially seeing his student fearlessly searching a Legend's corpse, Rand became more certain that Illia's identity had significant issues.

However, Rand was not one driven by overwhelming curiosity since he understood well that many secrets in the world should not be lightly touched when one lacks the necessary strength.

Thus, Rand chose not to question his student, merely pretending not to know, just as before. Yet the perplexity did not vanish, instead continuously accumulating until today, when all doubts were unveiled a year later.

Unexpected yet unsurprising.

Though aware that his student had an extraordinary background, learning suddenly that he was the Holy Dragon's heir shocked Rand, a wandering paladin, more than it delighted him.

This exceeded the limits of the paladin's imagination, even though Rand had mentally prepared himself, he still needed to calm his mind.

"To rebuild order on this land? A very ambitious ideal and aspiration, but it's a highly challenging matter. Can you tell me why?"

Noah looked down at his descendant, who had restored his true body, a magnificent twelve-meter figure. The ten-year seal had not hindered Iliad's natural growth.

As a father, Noah wasn't foolish enough to stifle the growth of his descendant. Therefore, Iliad now experienced a body entirely unfamiliar yet overwhelmingly powerful.

"Goltai Duchy fell because of my arrival. If not for me, father, you wouldn't have sent your warriors.

If the Grand Duke of Goltai hadn't fallen, this land wouldn't be in chaos now, and its people wouldn't suffer such misfortune. This is my responsibility."

With a face displaying both compassion and self-blame, Iliad expressed his thoughts.

He witnessed the downfall of a nation from an ordinary person's perspective, even though the country's noble upper class used the people as mere sacrifices to cultivate and summon demons for fulfilling their own ugly desires.

Yet even such dreadful order was still order, and after its collapse, more terrible consequences emerged; in the chaos, citizens lacking the power to protect themselves faced equally tragic fates.

Seeing those common people struggling for survival, Iliad wanted to make a change, but with only the strength of a mortal, he couldn't do much.

He could only stay with his teacher in the town initially intended as a sacrifice to the Abyss, almost reduced to ruins, and within his capacity, shelter as many refugees as possible and protect more people.

However, when his father returned all his power to him, including the strength accumulated over the past ten years, Iliad's thoughts changed.

He could sweep away all the suffering and injustice he saw, reconstructing the order he desired amidst chaos, just as his father did.

"So you believe it's your duty to save this land?"

Noah watched his descendant with interest, understanding Iliad's logic and intentions.

"Yes, I should save them, and now I have the ability to rescue more people."

Iliad declared forcefully, and even under the Golden Sun, his presence remained powerful, with energy gradually surging from within him.

Though still youthful and not yet out of the adolescent stage of the Dragon Clan, his lineage was extraordinary, recovering not only strength but also identity, now making it possible for his mother to sense his presence.