How To Tame an Academy Dragon

90. Love Like a Flame

Horcos invited us to his house.

Horkos’ wrinkled hand opened the wooden door, and the hinges creaked.

The door opened and Horkos, who guided us inside, came in last, and that few seconds was enough to see the inside of Horkos’s house.

There is only one room.

Is it a common one-room type? In a room that was neither large nor small, the kitchen, living room, and bedroom were all together.

A stove to start a fire, some pots, and some tableware. A table and two chairs.

Since the space is not large, it is clear that all the furniture arranged in the room was custom-made for one person.

The only thing that bothered me was the bed by the window, but unlike other beds made for one person, only the bed was a double size.

“It’s really shabby to show off to future generations, but what can I do? Look at it with taste.”

“No! That’s great! Awesome!”

Doha flattered with a thumbs up at Horcos’ words.

Jammin talking to the elderly.

“Sit down. Let’s watch. The tea will come out.”

The old dragon went to the kitchen to make tea himself for us, who are the grandchildren of grandchildren.

Just like he said, sitting down… And looking at other people’s houses carelessly…

I wondered if I should hurry up and help out in the kitchen, but there are no thorn cushions.

I think the same goes for the Dragon Princess, who always flinches nervously.

“Whoops.”

Do-ha calms herself down with a strange breathing technique.

Is it because you can’t keep your hips still even for a moment, and you want to go to the bathroom?

“Tuesday.”

“It’s done.”

Horcos brought tea in an instant without even having time to ask Doha.

“Thank you!”

After I stopped talking, Doha looked at me for a moment, but when Horcos put the teacup down in front of her, she was startled and bowed 90 degrees.

Again, the doha with her waist raised showed the same nervous look, but the corners of her mouth lifted slightly and she flinched.

Like a child meeting his idol.

“So what did you come to this island for?”

Horcos gave me a cup of tea and smiled, then stood still.

“Uh…”

As I was answering his question, feeling like I was missing something, I was shaking my head and then I remembered the fact that there are only two chairs in this house.

“Drill, chair. No, sit down!”

“Mine! No, I’ll give it to you!”

As I hurriedly got up, Doha also hurriedly got up from her seat and held out her chair to Horcos.

“hahahaha! It’s okay, it’s okay. Standing is what you always do.”

For a moment, Horcos’ eyes showed sadness and nostalgia.

“Isn’t it also the owner’s duty to entertain guests? Sit down.”

Other emotions buried in the old man’s eyes were quickly erased, and he looked at us again as a benevolent grandfather.

When he said that, I couldn’t even force myself. In the end, we calmly sat back down and told Horkos the purpose of our visit to Kagera Island.

“…Then the innkeeper, Ivar, said that if we go here, we will find clues…”

For some reason, Doha, who voluntarily explained the story, ended the story narrowly by inserting an honorific at the end.

“I see.”

After hearing our story, Horkos smiled lightly and raised his teacup to his lips.

“Do you know anything?”

When you see the old man’s attitude, you naturally start to think of something.

I had a hunch that Horcos might indeed have a clue to a solution.

“I know it’s shameless to come suddenly, but… After seeing the situation, isn’t it right to just turn around? We’ll just take the local specialties.”

I stayed on the island for a while, but I must have met a lot of people and fell in love with them.

Sister at the flower shop, Ivar at the inn, and the boss at the butcher shop whom Horcos harassed every day, although we never talked to each other.

“More than anything else, I feel like I want to come back.”

As he finishes talking, he gazes at Doha.

When I looked at him, Doha, who had blinked his eyes, avoided my gaze with his cheeks blushing as if he had barely understood my meaning after a brief time lag.

“A nice looking pair.”

“Thank you.”

“Hmm.”

I feel ashamed and my ears heat up at Horcos’ praise. Doha, who was sitting next to him, also cleared his throat and quickly moved his lost gaze.

“Anyway, please help.”

“Please.”

Horcos, who received our request, put his hands behind his back and looked up at the ceiling for a while.

“You must know the origins of this island.”

Have you finished organizing? Horkos lowered his head and floated his rhyme, with his eyes closed.

“Yes. The Great Demon King was sealed…”

“Yes. Arculpuris. It was a terrifying soul that deserved to die, but it was best for me to lock it up under the abyss. If I made a mistake, the torn demon king’s soul could encroach on the world.”

Horkos reached out to us. No matter who was first, he held Horcos’ outstretched hand at the same time, and at that moment, unfamiliar sights he had never seen before unfolded.

A world on fire.

As the monster, huge enough to block out the sun, swung its arm outstretched beyond the mountains, the earth split in half.

I felt my soul shrivel terribly just by looking at the bright red eyes, and the corpses lined up everywhere were so charred that I couldn’t even recognize them.

The flames of Archulpuris, the Great Demon King, burned all the sky, land, and sea.

And then, the sky that had been burning dark red split open and a clear white streak appeared.

What appeared was a red dragon. The two magnificent wings that were spread out were huge enough to bring darkness to the ground for a moment, and the ferocious swaying eyes were clearly glaring at Arculpuris.

Although countless tentacles stretched out from the red dragon, which was less than half the size of the Great Demon King, the dragon rushed without hesitation.

The tentacles, which were thought to pierce the dragon like skewers in an instant, were swallowed up by golden flames without even reaching the red dragon, and scattered from the tip to ashes.

As the red dragon moves forward, a brighter light enters the world and begins to erase the black darkness.

Soon after arriving at Arculpuris, the red dragon soared high into the sky right in front of the great king, and it itself fell from the sky as a burning meteor.

“Heo Eok!”

I thought it flashed and flashed, but just like that, the fragment of memory that Horcos showed me disappeared.

“Huh…Huh…”

My throat was sore that I must have been unable to breathe. At some point, her body was damp with sweat, and I could see my hand holding Horcos’s hand so tightly that it turned white.

“Gee, it was real.”

Doha seemed to be in better condition than I was, but he seemed very surprised in a different way.

“After that, I swore to keep an eye on him forever so he wouldn’t reappear. That’s how I became the first inhabitant to set foot on this small island.”

Horcos let go of our hand and continued with a calm tone.

“How long has it been. Um…Yes, back when the cliffs here called Dragon Bluff were a bit grander. A shipwreck came into the island.”

It is still a huge and majestic cliff. It is high enough to overlook the island and the sea at a glance.

If such a dragon bluff was bigger, how far back in the world would it be?

“Empire. No. It was a kingdom back then. People who could not withstand the oppression of the kingdom and fled to the sea. About 50 or so people joined this island.”

A kingdom? Whenever an empire was a kingdom. I’ve never studied the history of the empire in depth.

I looked at her to see if her doha knew, and her doha leaned over and put her face close to my ear.

“2892 Years ago. But there is a kingdom even before that, and that was 4244 years ago.”

Whatever it is, it’s f*cking old.

So you’re saying that at least 3,000 years have been spent on this island just monitoring the resurrection of the Great Demon King?

“I imparted knowledge to them. So they could live on the island. They struggled to adapt, but eventually overcame it, although they were reduced to less than half. And before they knew it, they were called by that name.”

Horkos looked out the window.

“Kagera means. It means fragment in ancient language. Remnants left after being broken. Once adapted, the humans began to multiply again, and when they came to their senses, a fairly large village was created.”

Horcos continues to speak calmly, but confusion arises as it is not possible to gauge the extent to which the flow of time he casually refers to is.

I also wondered if hundreds or thousands of years had passed in that short time.

“As time went on, I felt my flame go out. I was nervous. If I died, who the hell would be able to keep that demon lord locked up? Has made it impoverished.”

Remember the image of the Great Demon King that Horcos showed you. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, but the shape is hazy, as if it’s covered in fog.

Even so, the feeling of fear far exceeded the realm of perception.

“My soul began to crumble. Anxiety and nervousness eventually gave way to fear and obsession, and I became morbidly obsessed with the seal. That was…”

Horkos points to the now clear horizon.

“The Tempest was one of those seals.”

I don’t know if I can stop the Great Demon King with just a storm.

“I was getting less and less time to go through the day with my sanity. Every time I came back to my senses, I stayed up all night with a feeling of guilt, remorse, and shame. Then it appeared.”

“Dae, the Great Demon King?”

Doha mentioned Arpulcus with a slightly frightened expression, probably because Horcos cut off at a very dramatic point.

“Well. In terms of scariness, it must be similar. It was a girl from the village.”

“Ah…”

Doha slumped in a chair as if his pulse was relaxed.

“I was looking for materials to make guardians that guard the sealed camp that day. But a child was climbing up the cliff to pick a flower hanging from it.”

Horkos stretched his hands upward. It’s like thinking there’s really a child there.

“That flower was what I was looking for. A blue flower with strong magical powers. It is the core of the Guardian. I was curious because the child was looking for it. When I asked why, he got angry that he needed the blue flower to cure his mother’s illness. .”

“You finally gave it to me.”

“I gave it to you. I just need to find it again. Soon after, my mother came to visit me, saying that she was cured. How she found the house standing alone on this cliff is anyone’s guess.”

Hagi Knight Since he had the guts to climb up cliffs, it would have been no task to wade through dangerous mountain roads.

“The way I came was very dangerous, so I chased her away several times. The child came to visit me every day, even when she became a girl, an adult, and a full-fledged woman.”

Horkos’s voice begins to grow darker.

“When she came to her senses, she didn’t go down to the village anymore. The woman who visited me every day became my wife who waited for me every day…”

His breathing becomes rough.

“Horkos?”

“Senior? Are you okay?”

When we saw Horkos starting to deteriorate, we quickly approached him.

“Ellie… Eli… Ohh… Elisha…”

Horcos staggered while repeating the woman’s name.

Doha and I grabbed Horcos, who was about to fall at the right time, and I supported him from both sides and sat him down in a chair.

“Nice timing.”

“What? At times like this, can’t you please stop using those weird words?”

Doha glares at me. What do you do These are habits that are embedded in our DNA.

“Are you okay, Horkos?”

Doha glanced at me once and then turned to Horcos.

Horkos breathes heavily with his head down. I can even feel a slight trembling in his arm, which I was holding for his support.

The maddening dragon that was confident and charismatic until just now is nowhere to be found, and the sick and weak old man is pathetically controlling his breathing.

“Elisha… Elisha…”

Horkos is slowly starting to calm down.

“Elisha?”

Horcos looked at Doha and smiled like a child.

“I-I am not Elisha.”

No way.

Horcos frowned at Doha’s words, then looked at me this time.

“Hey. Did you see Elisha? I said I’d definitely be back at this time… I’m worried that you went to the mountain to gather strange herbs again…”

“Hey. This, this…”

“You’re back.”

Having shaken off our support, Horkos began walking around the house muttering.

The face of Horkos, who occasionally repeated the name Elisha, looked very sad, yet happy.