The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War

「Eeehhh?!! What is that?! A huge, fat tail?!」

「Th-, that’s so freaking huge! Wh-, what’s down there?!」

It was so enormous that, even with just its tail sticking out, they had to lift their head to look at it. Its appearance, riddled with sharp spines, was vicious in itself, while the blue scales on its skin were so clear and beautiful like a mirror. Although they couldn’t see the whole creature, just the tail alone gave off a dreadful sense of presence. It was no wonder Rafinha and Lahti were so overwhelmed by it.

「Wh-, what?! What is that?!」

Halim seemed like he didn’t anticipate this either, evident with how surprised he looked. However, the one person who was shocked the most was Inglis.

「Wha?! Im-, impossible?! Wh-, why is it here?!」

She recognized it. And not from her life as Inglis Eux either. It was a figure from a memory of a long past, a past that even she wasn’t sure certainly how many years ago! It was the memory of King Inglis, the monarch who built the kingdom of Sylvair in a mere single generation.

「Dragon God Vufailbane!」

Although it wasn’t entirely clear how much time had passed in the interval between King Inglis’ last breath and Inglis Eux’s first. Personally, she remembered this creature from at least 30 years ago, which meant it was from in his later years as King Inglis. There was no mistaking this unique and intense surge of power that it continues to exude! It was one of the dragons that King Inglis defeated in his later years, a dragon that boasted power so great it was called a Dragon God.

Dragons are not Gods, neither are they messengers or underlings of Gods, but people called some dragons as Dragon God, especially the mightiest ones, due to their fear of the creatures’ power that is said to rival the Gods.

There’s no sighting of any dragon at all at the present age, not even the smaller ones, and they only exist in legends and fairy tales. Inglis had assumed they were all brought to extinction by Prism Flow and the Magic Stone Beasts that came with it.

Dragons and humans cannot coexist with each other. If their habitats overlapped, they would have to destroy one another. That was the prevailing theory back in the day, but when a Dragon God appeared in the outskirts of the Kingdom of Sylvair, King Inglis attempted to have a discussion with it through a shrine maiden who could communicate with a dragon. However, the Dragon God’s attitude was just as theorized.

As a result, conflict was inevitable, and Sylvair Kingdom suffered heavy casualties. King Inglis, at the time, was already well in his later years. In addition to the lack of training because he had to fulfill his duties as a king, there was no way to hide the health decline that came with his aging. Ergo, he couldn’t defeat the Dragon God by himself, and was forced to sacrifice many of his younger, more promising knights to fight in his stead.

With the huge number of promising knights killed in said battle, King Inglis, at the time, resented himself. There were regrets, regret as a king for sacrificing many of his good men, and regret as a warrior for not being able to show his strength in the face of such a powerful enemy, all because he lacked training and his health declined.

It was such a bitter memory that it left just as strong an impression on Inglis. It would be one of the many events that would shape Inglis Eux the way she was.

Nevertheless, despite the huge casualties, King Inglis sealed the Dragon God deep underground in a huge volcano named Clavoid Volcano. This particular Dragon God possessed the power of an intense freezing air, thus King Inglis used the natural mana of a huge volcano to offset the Dragon God’s power and make its seal more reliable.

That's right, a volcano. King Inglis sealed the Dragon God within a volcano, and yet, why is it here? Even if country names and place names changed over a long period of time, can a massive volcano just disappear like that? This place was the town of Lekrea just a moment ago.

Did the Dragon God break free of its seal and then get sealed again in another place? Or did the Dragon God stay in his place this whole time, while the volcano vanished for some unknown reason?

Either way, while it's true that Inglis had dug out quite deep, the Dragon God was relatively shallow compared to its original seal. Perhaps the intense cold air that it exuded seeped into the land, turning its resting place into a snowscape. Precisely because of such properties it possessed, King Inglis had no choice but to confront it.

It is very possible that the power of the Dragon God influenced not only Lekrea, but Alucard Kingdom as a whole. While indeed Alucard is north of Charalia, there are kingdoms and landmass even further north that aren't a snow country like Alucard is.

The high mountain ranges may indeed be the cause of why the temperature is so low, but perhaps, the influence of the Dragon God that was buried deep under the land of Alucard played a bigger role.

Also, is it a mere coincidence that Lekrea, the town they chose to be brought to the sky, had the tail of the Dragon God buried underneath? Tiffany said that her schemes were built by Abel when he was in charge, she herself didn't seem to be aware of the dragon's presence, however, and was out cold at the moment. Her underling, Hallim, on the other hand, seemed to be very shocked by its appearance.

It's hard to think that Abel was oblivious of its existence, perhaps he had a plan that he kept to himself but with the person in question having passed, there was no way to know for sure.

Be that as it may, at least there is one thing that Inglis can say for sure. The world where King Inglis lived, and this world where Inglis Eux is currently living. They are unquestionably the same world. The existence of the Dragon God convinced Inglis of such a fact.

Throughout her new life until now, there were so little hints that Inglis started to suspect if she had been brought to a different world. And, if the Dragon God is waking up anyway, it might be a golden opportunity for Inglis to find out what had happened to the world after King Inglis passed.

This is the first ever clue that connected her to her previous life ever since she was reborn as Inglis Eux. It was also an opportunity to face a powerful enemy that King Inglis was no match for. And then, there is that one other important reason, she must never let this chance slip by, absolutely never let it pass. She can’t have it be stolen by anyone else.

The situation had flipped on its head, and Rafinha told her to stop too, so Inglis had to change her course of action here.

「Glis? Do you know what that is?」

「Nn? No, let’s talk about it later.」

After briefly replying to Rafinha, Inglis turned to Hallim.

「……Actually, let’s go with a negotiation. Please return Pullum and all the remaining survivors of Lekrea. If you do that, we will let Tiffany go. We will not pursue the town of Lekrea to the sky as long as you give us its people. If we go by that, Miss Tiffany would retain her good name amongst the Highlands, wouldn’t she?」

According to what Tiffany had said, the main objective of her operation should have been to raise the town of Lekrea and offer it to the Highland. Whether Archlord Abel was aware of the existence of the Dragon God Vufailbane and had a plan to use it for something or not remained a mystery, but if Tiffany’s group took the negotiation under the terms Inglis just said, Tiffany should achieve her goal and take at least some credits for it.

「Wh-, what makes you change your mind?!」

Hallim looked bewildered. The terms that Inglis offered were acceptable, which instead made him suspicious that Inglis might be up to something.

「Nothing, really, I just thought that it might be a good idea to not always rely on brute force.」

「「「「Haah?」」」」

「…………」

Inglis could understand if Hallim, her opponent, was perplexed by what she said. After all, he was dealing with a hostile force. But, Rafinha, Lahti, even Pullum shouldn’t have been so puzzled unanimously like that. Inglis once again began to concentrate Ether on the palm of her right hand. A preparation for Ether Strike.

「Give me your reply ASAP. Otherwise, Miss Tiffany will…!」

「……! Lady Tiffany?!」

Color drained from Hallim’s face.

「……You’re still threatening him with violence after all. That’s what they call relying on brute force, you know?」

Rafinha muttered under her breath, but Inglis ignored her and proceeded with the negotiation.

「Well, what will you do? Three——two……one!」

「F-, fine! I’ll take it! We’ll hand over all the remaining survivors immediately!」

Hallim hurriedly agreed.

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