The waves roared and rolled, as if they were about to swallow the entire world.
A half-wrecked ship was hurled into the sky by a towering wave and then slammed back down onto the sea. The few men aboard were in tattered clothes, filthy from head to toe, cursing one another in terror and despair.
“The Death Waters! This must be the Death Waters! You son of a bitch brought me to the goddamn Death Waters—!” The bald, brutish man seized the collar of the old one-eyed man, spitting as he screamed in his face.
“O Sea God, we’re finished—we’re all finished—!”
The old one-eyed stammered incoherently, trembling. The bald captain slapped him hard across the face, knocking him to the deck.
The old bastard told him he had eavesdropped on a conversation among port mercenaries about a sea route that could “make a huge rich.” Allegedly, at the end of that route lay an ancient, long-abandoned dragon’s lair filled with unguarded gold and silver.
As second-rate pirates, they didn’t dare mess with those rich merchant fleets protected by high-grade magical arrays, nor did they have the guts to backstab fellow pirates. All they could do was rob poor fishermen or fool around with village women.
But recently, a formidable figure had arrived at Graybridge Port,the navy there was on high alert—patrolling what felt like eight hundred times a day—making it impossible for their nearby brothers to even make a living.
Watching his crew prepare to scatter and fend for themselves, the bald man gritted his teeth and took all he had to set sail in search of the “dragon’s lair” the mercenaries had mentioned.
Little did he know that the route the one-eyed old bastard had overheard was so unreliable that it led them—after twist upon twist—straight into the famous “Sea of Death” from local legend.
The pirates were flung out by the towering waves, and one of them died instantly after being shoved aside by the bald captain to block a falling, broken mast.
But the sea god Odras showed no intention of blessing his greedy and brutal believers. With a violent jolt, the long-overburdened vessel groaned one last time—then split completely in two.
The pirates desperately tried to grab onto anything within reach, but it was all in vain. Pitch-black seawater slithered in through the shattered hull like a nest of serpents. Just as they were about to plunge into the icy deep, an invisible force suddenly froze the two halves of the ship in their broken, tipping posture.
The ocean and heavens were swallowed by darkness—save for the moon, hanging like a bleached white eye. The figure hovered in the night sky, framed by mountainous waves. His golden hair whipped wildly in the wind, and his finely carved face—bathed in moonlight—was so beautiful it no longer seemed human, radiating an uncanny and chilling power.
The pirates were stunned, frozen in awe. It was the bald captain who first snapped out of it, shouting in desperation, “M-My lord! Mighty sorcerer! Please save me—I’m willing to offer you all my treasure!”
That jolted the rest of the pirates back to reality, and they immediately broke into frantic pleas, all talking over each other.
A sorcerer who could appear out of thin air above the Sea of Death—just thinking about it, they knew this one wasn’t low-ranked. Maybe he was an Apostle, or even a noble Praysayer. Maybe they really could be saved!
“Treasure? Your ship is already wrecked like this—how could you possibly have any treasure left?”
He chuckled softly, landing lightly on the shattered deck like a sleek feather. The bald pirate noticed that even the crashing waves couldn’t wet his robe, he swallowed hard. Forcing a fawning smile, he said carefully, “My lord, I don’t have any treasure right now—but I know a secret route to an abandoned dragon’s lair. It’s filled with gold and silver! If you spare me, I’ll offer you the route—and all the treasure inside.”
The sorcerer paused in thought, then looked up slightly. “Sounds tempting. But I can only take one of you. You both know this route?”
The bald pirate immediately blurted out, “No, no, no—only I know! Take me!”
“Bullshit! I’m the one who told you!” the old one-eyed pirate shrieked. “My lord, take me instead! I know more than he does—I led the whole way!”
The bald man flew into a rage. “You fucking bastard! You’ve got some nerve—if you hadn’t fed me that nonsense, I wouldn’t be in this damn mess!”
“You’re the one who said the mercenary guild’s intel was solid and dragged us all out to sea!”
“Silence.”
The sorcerer said softly.
The voice should have been drowned out by waves and wind, but instead it rang in each pirate’s ears with perfect clarity. Then they realized in horror—they couldn’t breathe. No matter how they struggled, they couldn’t draw a single gasp of air, as if some invisible force were strangling their throats.
As the suffocation worsened, the pirates began collapsing one by one, convulsing like dying frogs—yet no sound escaped any of them. And yet, the newcomer seemed utterly at ease in this absurd and dread-filled pantomime. With a slight nod, they turned their gaze upon the only two left breathing—the bald man and the one-eyed geezer, both trembling on the verge of pissing themselves.
“There. Much better now.”
He smiled gently and warmly. “So it seems only the two of you know how to find this ‘dragon liar’… now, which one of you should I take?”
The bald pirate’s lips trembled. Only now did he realize—the man before them was no savior, but a mad, bloodthirsty devil.
Just as he opened his mouth to beg for mercy, a sudden chill stabbed through his chest. Looking down, he saw the jagged end of a broken wooden spike. The old one-eyed pirate’s bloodshot, murky gaze overlapped with those he had killed—and through excruciating pain, he heard the old man cry out in distorted excitement, “M-My lord! He’s dead now! I’m your only choice left!”
Azukar stared coldly at the one-eyed pirate, watching closely as his grotesque, filthy face shifted from utter elation to confusion, then to sheer terror and despair. The man panted raggedly, knelt down in pathetic desperation to beg, and when that failed, clawed wildly at his own throat—until his bowels let go and, after minutes of agonizing struggle, he lay dead among the other corpses.
Just fragile, filthy, despicable things.
A pack of greedy, foolish pirates, chasing an unrealistic rumor, dreaming of some so-called ‘dragon lair treasure.’
They should have died to the merciless sea, but thanks to the collapse of the Wall of Sighs, a frenzied dragon swarm, and the damn blessing of the god of luck, they ended up in Asachi Valley—a place cut off from the outside world for three hundred years.
The pirates lied, claiming they were shipwrecked merchants. The deceived Natalin did not kill them, even offered food and shelter to the outsiders. Yet these scum stole a boat during a battle between the Natalin and invading dragons, fled, and sold news of the so-called “dragon lair” to the port’s mercenary guild—thus sowing the seeds of the ensuing tragedy.
Collapsed houses, scorched earth, human screams and torn flesh, flames, bodies—endless bodies… The tears in the golden-haired boy’s eyes were scorched dry by the fire. He wanted to rush out—die, let it all die. Let the enemy, the tribe, everything he loved and everything he hated perish together—
The moon vanished behind clouds. In the darkness, a silver-white shadow streaked across like a meteor, and around the shattered ship, time seemed to resume. It collapsed silently into the sea, leaving no trace behind.
……
The anti-dragon net and repositioned catapults worked far better than anyone had expected.
Several dragon riders, whose dragons hadn’t gone off to find mates, cheerfully flew up to help remove scales and remains from the nets. The small dragon swarms invading the valley got their wings or feet entangled like blind fools. Lightning mages in the tribe enhanced the net’s effect, and for the first time, everyone got a taste of what the professor called “assembly line productivity”—no one knew what that meant, but it felt good.
But the professor himself seemed less than pleased. He kept muttering unintelligible terms like “tensile ratio degradation” and quickly began scribbling notes.
Ramina gave him a silent tug. The black-haired youth, pulled from his thoughts, frowned, ready to scold her—when a small feather dragon carcass landed squarely at his feet.
He swallowed the cutting remark on his lips. “…Thank you.”
The woman warrior shot a glare at the careless dragon rider, then gave a short snort. “Don’t thank me. The Divine Chosen told me to keep an eye on you—make sure you don’t ‘die somewhere stupid because of your curiosity.’ Don’t look at me like that. His exact words.”
“…I don’t do stupid things like that. Please don’t define me with strange adjectives. And you can’t ‘keep an eye’ on me.”
“Whatever you say. You can’t beat me anyway, poor limping thing.” The redhead curled her lip. Baza had woken up. She was in rare good spirits today, plus the guy’s concern and effort for the tribe had won some points, so she let it slide.
Then those grey eyes suddenly turned to her, scanning her rapidly in a way that made her uncomfortable.
“This morning, you visited Baza again, bringing a bunch of wildflowers, probably picked behind your house. You had breakfast with him—your brother Rambda made it. Mam fruit stew with silverback fish. You don’t really like it, but you finished it anyway and spilled some soup on your sleeve. Before leaving, he kissed your cheek, and you didn’t refuse—oh, you like him. Then you were heading home to change clothes, but stopped by the barter post to buy more mam fruits and silverback fish. Honestly, why buy what you don’t like? Need me to go on?”
Ramina stared at him, stunned. A flush of embarrassed fury crept from her ears to her face, then slowly hardened into a clenched fist.
“Just a little trick. Detectives in my homeland love doing that,” the black-haired bastard said with an arrogant tilt of his chin. “That’s called ‘keeping an eye on you,’ ma’am. You’re right, I should avoid falling debris—so don’t worry, no dragon’s going to crush me. Now please do your job and stop interrupting my thinking. Much appreciated.”
Just as Ramina was about to smash her fist into that insufferable face, a great dragon swooped down from the sky, triggering a cheer of joy.
