Sir Hero, It’s Time to Train!

“Whuff, huuh… Huek!”

Every breath he took made his lungs ache. Both his stamina and mana were completely depleted. But it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t need them any longer.

“We won…”

Christian brushed his blood-stained hair aside and looked around.

“… Is there really no one left?”

Massacre.

Facing the reality hidden behind the sweet word of victory, Christian’s expression twisted.

Countless corpses lay around.

But those were just a fraction of the total loss.

Many others had vanished without even leaving behind a trace of their remains.

To Christian, winning and losing held no meaning.

In the end, it was just a matter of being left alone or dying together.

Perhaps it would have been a happier ending if they had all lost and died together.

“Damn it, damn it… Damn it… cough, cough! Guh…”

He coughed harshly and sank heavily to the ground.

A handful of blood spewed out of his mouth.

Was there still blood left in his body?

However, the blood that stained the ground was not purely red.

Mixed with the red blood were blue liquids. It was just like the blood of the Fierce Demon Dragon he was drenched in.

“I drank so much…”

The Fierce Demon Dragon.

Magnus Noah Khmerian.

Even as he looked at the massive lifeless corpse of the dragon, Christian’s eyes were filled with hatred and rage.

This mad dragon was the perpetrator who started a war that wiped out half of the intelligent beings on the continent.

Christian let out a bitter laugh at his reflection.

Realizing he was turning into a dragonkin, who believed his own body deserved death, a wave of self-loathing surged within him.

“If I knew this would happen, I should have drunk it a bit sooner…”

Dragon’s blood is both a repository of mana and an elixir.

An almost immortal body, unparalleled mana power, a transcendent physique, and an existence beyond human boundaries.

Many coveted the dragon’s blood, and nine out of ten—or rather, ninety-nine out of a hundred—died because of their greed.

That’s why Christian despised it.

No, he cursed it.

Because it was the greed of those who sought the dragon’s blood to fulfill their desires that brought about this calamity.

Yet Christian drank the dragon’s blood.

Not refined or diluted, but the pure blood of the Fierce Demon Dragon, continuously.

To replenish his mana.

To heal his dying body.

His action was driven solely by the goal of slaying the Fierce Demon Dragon.

And… it was a decision made too late.

“Master…”

I won.

Yes. Just as you wished, master, I have won.

But there is nothing left.

“Huu, huuup.”

With great effort, Christian rose to his feet once more.

And after glancing at Magnus’s corpse for a moment, he cautiously moved.

Although he exuded a fearsome aura as if he would incinerate the dead dragon’s body, he was heading somewhere else.

Not far from there.

A person who lay slightly detached from the other corpses.

“Master…”

Like Christian, her black hair was soaked with blood, but her body was largely intact… In fact, she had an almost relieved expression.

How many could accept death so serenely?

Was sacrificing herself to save her disciple such a satisfying act for her?

***

The stern gaze of his master, Aira Worden, drilled holes into his face as Christian gritted his teeth.

The words of his master, spoken just before her last breath, resurfaced in his mind.

“A parent’s feeling of sending their child off first? I do not know.”

But now, he thought he understood the sentiment of a child who had to send their parent off first.

She was both his master and like a mother to him.

She had personally taken in the little orphan wandering the streets and taught him how to live as a proper human being.

“Master might have been content, but I’m still angry.”

So…

Christian, collapsing in a heap before his master, managed a small, powerless smile.

“When we meet in the afterlife, just once… Let me hit you just once. Nothing more, nothing less.”

He had no strength left even to lift his eyelids.

Even as he quietly exhaled a thin breath with his eyes closed, Christian didn’t lose his smile.

“I’ll feed you and give you a place to sleep. Won’t you come with me?”

“Huh? You don’t have a name? Hmm, then… Christian. How about Christian? Is that okay?”

“Christian, wouldn’t you like to learn swordsmanship?”

“You won’t die, you won’t die. Idiot. Just because a bone breaks doesn’t mean you’ll die. Stop crying!”

Ah, now that he thought about it, maybe just one hit wouldn’t be enough.

But he believed his master would understand.

***

His body felt languid.

He felt as if he was floating in the air, almost as though he was flying in the sky.

So this was what death felt like.

“So, Christian. What about you? Are you feeling regret? Do you have any lingering attachments? Are you full of remorse?”

His master’s voice echoed in his head.

Regret? Even though he could no longer be with those who continue to live, had he not paved the future for them?

A gentle smile emerged on his face.

That was the moment.

Smack—!

“Urk?!”

A burning pain in his side jolted him awake.

What was this? What on earth…

“Laughing, are you? You seem to be pretty laid-back!”

Although he immediately regained his composure at the sharp voice, he was confused.

Who on earth…?!

Something flickered before his eyes, but his vision wasn’t clear enough to make out a distinct shape.

‘Am I… not dead? Moreover…’

It wasn’t just his vision that was off.

His body felt as if it wasn’t his own, heavy and disjointed, as if his body and mind were operating separately.

He tried to raise his arm, but the gap between thinking and acting was immense.

‘Damn it. My body definitely isn’t normal.’

His blurry vision gradually became clearer.

The pain in his body remained, but it wasn’t to the extent that he couldn’t move. It was definitely a living body.

“… Huh?”

Once his vision was completely clear, a person standing a few steps ahead came into view.

The moment he confirmed the existence before him, Christian’s eyes widened.

The young woman glaring at him wasn’t what mattered.

It was the black hair tied back, the rare red eyes, and the mole beneath her left eye.

Those fragmented features were enough to bring someone to mind.

“Master?”

The girl named Aira Worden.

Christian couldn’t help but think of it for a moment.

She seemed barely in her mid-teens.

Considering the age difference with his master, it shouldn’t have matched at all, but too many aspects of Aira resembled her.

What was most puzzling was the faint mana pattern emanating from the girl.

“Talking about your master master. Why would your master be here?!”

“……”

Christian’s confused mind gradually began to clear at the sharp voice and cold tone.

Yeah. That makes sense.

His master was already dead.

Realizing that, his anger surged even more.

The end of the girl’s sword was clearly pointed at him.

And those who behaved that way were usually narrowed down to only one group.

Those who sought to kill him.

Before the Fierce Demon Dragon Magnus tried to destroy everything in the world, there were many who acted as his minions.

The most active ones were disgustingly humans.

The dragon possessed everything that could fulfill human desires, and humans, being literal slaves to their desires, followed the dragon.

Therefore, the top ones Christian could never forgive were the traitors of humanity.

A traitor of humanity, being related to his master?

Christian clenched his teeth and shouted.

“You wicked fiend!”

Among those who learned the sword and magic, there was such a thing as a mana pattern that was passed down from their predecessors.

If the roots were the same, then the mana pattern would also be the same. That root would never change.

That meant that the woman was related to his master and could be family or a close relative.

But wasn’t “family” supposed to be beings who cared for each other? How could they trample on the noble sacrifice shown by his master till the end in such a manner!

“What, what?! What the heck is this guy talking about!”

The girl, who had been about to charge again, hesitated for a moment at Christian’s furious cry.

“As family, how could you commit such shameless acts! Aren’t you ashamed!”

“Sh, shameless?!”

“Not only did you betray humanity, but you even betrayed human ethics! You really are a monster in human skin!”

“This bastard?!”

“Today, I will protect my master’s honor by punishing you!”

“No, listen, your master is!”

No more words.

Christian’s body was a wreck, and he couldn’t even feel if there was any mana left in him.

The enemy girl might be a sent assassin from the traitors, given that she was related to his master.

“I shall end your worthless life here!”

“Nonsense!”

Christian and the enemy girl shouted in unison as they moved.

“Dieeee!”

“You dieee!”

The enemy girl moved swiftly, almost as if flying, thrusting her sword.

No matter how much in a wreck his body was, to Christian’s eyes, she was far too immature. She was merely a naive girl with hardly any detectable mana.

Sending such a girl as an assassin meant one thing.

They predicted that Christian would hesitate, and that hesitation would lead to his death.

“Damn it!”

Christian ground his teeth, slightly twisting his body to dodge the incoming sword.

If he just aimed his sword at her neck, it could end in an instant.

Even if not, hitting a vital point could make her slowly repent for her crimes and end her life.

In the slow-motion visage of the girl, as if time had stopped, he suddenly saw his master’s face overlapping with hers.

Too much resemblance.

“Master, your family is doing just great!”

Whack—!

He struck her head directly with the flat of his sword.