Youngest 250

Episode 250

What I saw was a pitch-black cavern.

A deep shadow cast by the faint light of the moon.

The shadow resembled the Mage Kingdom’s sigil.

It was, in other words,

The shadow of a great dragon.

He had been waiting for something for a very long time.

“Vistal.”

The very woman who had betrayed him and fled—whom he loathed beyond measure.

“Humans possess a beautiful strength.”

The goddess loved humans. He could not understand.

A life that didn’t even last a hundred years, a death that was inevitable.

Time far too brief to speak of beauty—leaving behind nothing but emptiness.

‘I don’t know.’

I really don’t know.

But he willingly yielded to the goddess.

‘Because for me, the only beautiful world is you.’

If the world you, whose beauty I adore, admire is beautiful, then there must be some beauty there I do not yet know.

Before he realized it, he had come to love the goddess deeply.

“Vistal, I yield. As you say, I will share my power with humans so they may oppose the magical beasts.”

“Do you mean it?”

“I will build Arcadia with you. So, in the human world, you and I…”

“Alright.”

“…”

“Let us live together, forever, in the paradise we create.”

But why—

Why did the goddess betray him?

The voice in the memory faded, and another sharp voice overlapped.

“How foolish. Vistal loves a human man!”

“…What?”

“She used your power to aid a human man she adored, to achieve peace, and to be with him on the continent!”

A lie.

But there was no proof it wasn’t true.

‘Come to think of it, there was a human man she frequently watched…’

I was prepared to give up everything for you.

He was furious. His rage became a curse, and to escape that curse, the goddess hid herself on the continent.

Consumed by burning, blood-red possessiveness, he searched all of the human world to find her.

‘To think you’d disguise yourself in human flesh and run till you could not be found!’

Yet a human’s life was only but a fleeting moment.

It didn’t take long for him to find her. But what he found—

Was the trace of her extinction, unearthed in the continent’s north.

“Such emptiness.”

All determination vanished from his face as he gazed at the goddess’s empty shell.

So you fled by dying.

So I could never hope to catch up to you.

He wanted to vanish, then and there. But he could not.

It was the human man, whom the goddess had loved, who still embraced Vistal’s empty remains…

That cursed wretch spoke to him:

“…We’ll meet again someday. We promised.”

A promise to return again.

It was not a promise he had made with him, yet he was bound by those words.

As if possessed, the man returned to Arcadia and completed its founding.

“Thank you, our king!”

He divided his magic and bestowed it upon humanity, spreading the Mage Kingdom’s sigil that he and the goddess had created.

In truth, he had wished to destroy the human world—driven by vengeance for the goddess.

But if Vistal were ever to return, she would be saddened to see a ruined world, so he could not.

He held both hatred and love in his heart.

He lived his life constantly walking that tightrope between the two.

But how long could he endure?

He always suppressed the urge to destroy that flared up without warning. The humans, knowing nothing, praised him as some founding god.

Humankind grew strong.

They drove out the magical beasts and founded nations across the continent.

The last story he heard was that, in the northern Babylon Empire, some man had destroyed a magical beast den and planted the human banner.

Then, one day—

“There’s something I couldn’t bring myself to tell you before. Vistal actually asked me to give you this in secret.”

The one who had told him of the goddess’s betrayal returned and handed him a box.

Inside lay a pair of cold shackles.

Enchanted with ensnaring magic meant to seal him.

‘So you truly believed I would become a scourge on this world.’

You never trusted me, not even for a moment.

He was seized by an endless despair.

Yet even so, he found some comfort in the thought that the goddess had left something for him.

So, willingly—

He put himself in those shackles.

‘I hate you.’

If we ever meet again, I will hurt you as deeply as the wounds you left me.

‘I will make you taste the despair I suffered…’

For however long it takes,

I will wait for you here, forever.

Ssss.

Within the pitch darkness of the cave, those eyes that had glimmered in the night slowly closed again.

A brief memory that the Dragon God had shown me.

---

“But as time passed, my power steadily waned. Why? Well, perhaps because humans no longer needed gods.”

Someone gently stroked my back.

“I had to find a solution.”

In the darkness, I clenched my teeth and listened to his voice. I needed time to accept the memory he’d shown me.

“So… you used Khalid’s body as a vessel. You stayed here, waiting for the goddess who might never return?”

My voice came out cracked and rough.

A low chuckle answered me.

“Did you ever wonder why this boy had such abundant magic?”

“That’s…”

Because Khalid is the protagonist of this novel world.

But I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

“He’s the last descendant of the human to whom I first shared my magic.”

“…”

“In other words, he was born with a fragment of my power. He was more than enough of a vessel to fulfill my long-cherished desire.”

I could feel his hot breath close by. Even without looking up, I knew he was gazing down at me intently.

“Evil… ancestor lizard… so you kidnapped your descendant… and trapped him in the cave in your stead?”

Again, that laughter.

“He wished for it.”

“What?”

“He was the one who begged me to save him. I poured all my remaining strength into saving him from death, and in return, he was shackled in my place.”

“He was dying… Kal…”

You… what…

“You seem to have no idea about this boy’s past.”

“Khalid… he used to run errands for the mercenary corps…”

When I pulled Khalid out of the cave.

He didn’t remember anything.

As children, we gathered our heads together and speculated.

“Well, if the mercenary insignia looks familiar, he probably wandered with them. Maybe he fell into a bad trap.”

“Then… maybe your mother fled here while pregnant and gave birth to you?”

“Could be. Or maybe the father was a mage.”

I thought for a moment, then added,

“Hmm. Maybe in the past, but now there aren’t many mages who can cross in and out of Babylon freely, so I doubt it…”

“Either way, troublesome blood gets thrown away, I guess.”

“…”

“Why does that make you look like that, boss?”

“Because… you talk about being hurt as if it’s nothing!”

Kal added in his usual, half-indifferent tone.

“Because it really is nothing.”

“…”

“The day you pulled me out was, for me, my best day.”

“…”

“So, if I hadn’t been abandoned, that day wouldn’t have come, right?”

What kind of nonsense is that?

Thinking that, I gripped Khalid’s empty hand tightly.

“Ah, I see.”

Hearing my explanation, he replied with a voice laced with laughter.

“You’re pretty close. It must have been imprinted in your subconscious.”

A large hand softly stroked my cheek. Though the warmth was familiar, the sensation felt strangely alien, so I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Well, you couldn’t have remembered it clearly—it’s the price for all the ‘hidden time,’ after all.”

Hidden… time?

I couldn’t make sense of anything he was saying.

As if aware of my confusion, his low voice seemed to test me as he asked,

“Why did you come to the palace?”

“…To kill the Mage King.”

“And?”

“To find out how I, who died in a carriage accident, managed to come back to life…”

But that was something the Mage King—the root and principal culprit of all this—should answer, not my ancestor.

“What are you to him?”

He traced my chin with his long fingers.

“What was it about you that made this boy give everything?”

“What does that…”

“All to save you. Just you, and no one else.”

Now, what did he just say?

“Well, thanks to that, you came back, and he got to spend a pretty happy childhood with you. I suppose his wish was granted.”