Free Web NovelActus wagged his tail excitedly.
“Mom loves me. It feels nice.”
‘That’s not what I meant.’
Before Ian could respond, Actus rubbed his face against him again hard enough to nearly peel the skin from his cheek.
“But you can’t come. ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) It’s a place only dragons can approach. To keep everyone safe, the eggs were hidden very, very far away. Even if you rode on my back, Mom would fall before we got there.”
“Humans can’t enter at all? If it’s just a matter of endurance, I can level up or train.”
“Ugh. I said only dragons are allowed!”
‘Then why didn’t anyone leave you any protection?’
Ian nearly shouted the words aloud.
Humans had to wake up and immediately fight the demon race the moment they opened their eyes too, didn’t they?
Honestly, Ian wasn’t even sure Actus’ real mother had cared all that much about him.
“I’m leaving... but I’ll still stay beside Mom.”
“You know clone magic too?”
“Mom. That’s a figure of speech.”
“......”
The young reptile answered with complete seriousness, and Ian quietly shut his mouth.
“Think of this as me, and keep it with you.”
As he spoke, the dragon tore off one of the scales along his side and placed it before Ian.
Ding!
[Dragon’s Scale (S)]
A scale from a young dragon.
Blocks one fatal injury.
If struck by a lethal attack, HP is fixed at 1.
‘What kind of absurdly broken item is this?’
Ian felt his heart nearly leap out of his chest.
Wasn’t this outright game-breaking?
A dragon could give items like this?
Then wouldn’t farming dragons basically mean farming extra lives?
But when he’d gone down Keith’s route and hunted dragons before, nothing like this had ever dropped.
‘What is this, a 0.01% drop rate? Damn it. I should’ve played the Keith route more seriously instead of quitting because it was boring.’
Now it was too late for regrets.
“I’ll return soon, Mom. Stay healthy.”
Actus spread his wings and launched into the sky.
“And seriously, I don’t need a dad! I’ve already seen Mom’s taste in men, and she only likes weak little humans! Sema said she only likes ‘pretty faces.’ But a truly precious partner should have a strong body, a kind heart, and be able to pluck stars from the sky for Mom toooooo—!”
His booming voice gradually faded into the distance.
Ian stared blankly after him.
Was that really the last thing he needed to say before leaving?
Slowly, Ian turned toward Sema.
“What exactly did you teach him?”
“Ah... well, Actus found the ‘Kingdom Beauty Rankings’ that you told us to throw away, Lord Ian! He only glanced at it a little, and then— Ow!”
“Why would you show something like that to a kid?!”
“It wasn’t just me who saw it!”
Sema protested indignantly.
“...Who else saw it?”
“Who hasn’t? I think everyone in the dungeon has read it at least once— Oww! Lord Ian! That hurts! Why are you hitting me?!”
‘Because this is all your fault, idiot.’
At last, Ian understood why his reputation as a degenerate refused to disappear.
And honestly, Sema was probably also responsible for the growing “Tyrant” reputation.
“Kingdom Beauty Rankings...?”
Keith murmured quietly.
Ian pretended not to hear him.
That cursed trash item still existed somewhere, apparently.
“Since Actus left, flying is no longer an option. We’ll continue on foot.”
“Yes, Lord Ian. We planned to return to the old village first and track the culprit from there. Elves excel at tracking thanks to our eyesight.”
“I’m not an elf, but I can track too.”
Louise added calmly.
“If we work together, we can cover ground twice as fast.”
Genea and Louise exchanged a glance.
Then both immediately turned their heads away.
‘...Why are they competing?’
“Perfect. Then we’ll track twice as fast.”
Ian led the group forward.
Rustle—
While following the two agile figures who moved through the forest canopy as though they were crossing level ground, Ian sorted through the mess in his head.
One issue still bothered him.
Genea’s route was supposed to begin later than Ian’s route.
But under normal circumstances, it should still begin before “Ian” acquired the World Tree.
Which meant—
If Ian had never taken the World Tree from the elf merchant, then in the original flow of events, Genea should have obtained a branch of the World Tree after escaping.
And if that had happened, Genea never would’ve earned the title of “Worst Prisoner” or been imprisoned a second time.
Judging by the elves’ current reactions, if she’d returned carrying the World Tree, they would’ve overlooked her escape entirely.
‘Wouldn’t that completely derail the opening?’
The timeline no longer lined up.
The World Tree Ian possessed was originally supposed to appear during Genea’s route.
But in-game, there was only one playable protagonist at a time.
If you selected Genea’s route, Ian didn’t exist at all.
Which meant Ian stealing the World Tree should have been impossible.
So shouldn’t Genea have started her route with the World Tree already in her possession?
‘And if the elf merchant is also a playable character, then him being the NPC who delivers the World Tree during Genea’s route doesn’t make sense either.’
Too many character routes were overlapping now.
At this point, Ian couldn’t even tell where the contradiction had started.
He raked a hand roughly through his hair.
‘Is this some butterfly effect nonsense?’
Did his interference somehow cause Genea—who originally should never have reached the temple—to end up there instead? freeweɓnovel.cøm
How did that even make sense?
“Lord Ian. The trail splits here.”
Louise’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
“There are paths to the left and right. We’ll need to choose.”
“Then we take both.”
“Should we split up?”
Genea asked.
She currently had two elves accompanying her: Moiken and Hiikan.
Hiikan, the ranger vice-captain, had accepted Ian’s explanation and was helping restore order in the village.
The real problem was Moiken.
“What?! You’re seriously saying we should leave the benefactors alone to chase the bastard who ruined our village?! Have the elf rangers completely lost their pride?!”
He’d shouted loudly enough to sway the other rangers.
‘I should’ve untied him later.’
Ian regretted it now, but it was too late.
In the end, after Ian argued that too many trackers would make detection easier—and that someone still needed to protect the villagers—the elves reluctantly agreed to send only the ranger captain and vice-captain.
“Fine.”
“We’ll take the right path.”
Moiken stepped forward immediately.
“Then we’ll take the left.”
“If anything happens, signal us. We’ll come running.”
“Same to you.”
Ian gave up the right path without hesitation.
He’d intended to take the left route from the beginning anyway, so this arrangement worked perfectly.
“Moiken, why did you choose the right side?”
“Because it looks more dangerous! A ranger doesn’t dump danger onto the benefactors!”
“Indeed, Moiken. You truly are my brother.”
“And you understood my intentions immediately. Indeed, Genea. You truly are my sister.”
The siblings’ voices gradually faded into the underbrush.
‘What a ridiculous family.’
Ian repeatedly checked the map as they moved.
According to it, the demon worshippers’ cult was located somewhere to the left.
The problem was that this region also overlapped with another playable character’s route.
The dwarf route.
Scholar Nameita’s territory lay nearby.
More specifically—
In the direction the elves had just taken to the right.
‘They’ll figure it out.’
Ian decided not to worry about it for now.
Surely those three weren’t going to accidentally start a war with an entire dwarf village.
The group continued tracking the trail.
At one point, Louise suddenly pressed a finger to his lips and silently motioned for everyone to stop.
Then he gestured low with one hand.
Without hesitation, the entire party crouched inside the dense bushes.
“Lord Ian. You should see this.”
Louise whispered quietly.
Ian carefully peered through the leaves.
Ahead of them stretched a clearing.
Inside it stood a long corridor-like structure lined with enormous iron bars.
People were imprisoned behind them—gagged, bound, and completely unable to resist.
The scene felt disturbingly familiar to Ian.
The lighting was dim. Only a narrow slit overhead allowed any light inside, making the place even darker and more oppressive than the coliseum dungeons had been.
Wasn’t this almost identical to what he’d seen beneath the arena?
“A slave trader prison.”
Sema whispered sharply as he grabbed Ian’s sleeve.
“The dwarves walking around—they’re slave traders! Look at the whip. And the overseer’s hat. I’ve seen those before. This is definitely one of their camps!”
“I think so too. Sema would know, considering he used to be imprisoned by them.”
“Right?”
Sema looked pleased for half a second—
Then froze.
‘...Wait. Was that praise?’
“What should we do?”
Keith asked quietly.
There were three guards in total.
One patrolled the corridor, striking the bars with a whip to intimidate the prisoners, while the remaining two guarded the entrance.
With the party’s current strength, they could eliminate all three instantly.
Keith’s question was simple:
Should they?
‘No.’
These people weren’t the ones responsible for drying out the World Tree.
The existence of a dwarf slave-trading settlement here meant that Nameita’s dwarf route had already begun.
‘What a complete mess.’
Ian needed information first.
They had to figure out the situation before acting recklessly.
“Keith. Take the one patrolling.”
“Yes, Lord Ian.”
“Louise and I will handle the two at the entrance.”
No one objected.
Rustle.
The bushes stirred softly, like wind brushing through leaves.
One of the dwarves yawned and lazily turned toward the sound—
And Ian’s kick slammed straight into his solar plexus.
“Hrk—!”
