- 1198, after the Mithraic Festival, 100 years before Merlin Victor attempted heist; that day, the Knight of Vankel, Bane, was known as the Terror of Midgard.
Kronburg, the largest city in the western part of the Republic of Midgard.
Vai
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K
ightsba
e, his first name and the cataclysm of the age, woke up with a splitting headache amid ruins, fire and destruction.
The dragon felt uncomfortable, and his eyelids were so heavy that he could hardly open them. Moving was a struggle and he forced himself to stand. His eyes slowly adjusted to the smoke until he could see his surroundings clearly.
Winkel stood in the center of a huge crater that looked like the ruins of a large city. Flames, most likely his, devastated its area, turning much of it into ashes. A large castle still burned among the ruins, its towers turned into candles. The dragon was alone, and with the sound of burning wood, the entire area fell silent.
Where is he? He doesn't recognize this place. Did he destroy it? Why?
He feels sick to his stomach...
ah…
Winkle spit out the lump in his throat and examined it carefully.
What looked like a half-digested knight's armor, and a broken sword.
Huh? He doesn't remember eating Cavalier since last year.
Think about it carefully, what did he do last night? A fog blurred his memory, and his head hurt just trying to remember. What on earth did he eat to make him eat like this?
Unable to find food in the ruins to inspire him, Fankel spread his wings and struggled to fly. He was slowly getting better, especially after getting some fresh air, but he had rarely felt this bad.
As he flew over the city's walls, Winkle realized that he had not destroyed a city. He set fire to entire countryside that stretched for miles. Over time, he recognized that this was a coastal area, far west of his lair, where he rarely visited.
The scale of the chaos he left behind surprised the dragon. He usually only goes on rampages like this when he catches a thief stealing from his house
His treasure!
Winkle suddenly came to life and flew straight towards his nest, the violent movement of his wings carrying him under the tree. Within an hour, he was back home, hoping his baby was okay.
The evil dragon made his lair in a cave under a grassy hill in the middle of the valley, which he had commanded the Manlings to give him. His orc servants built a small village of their own out of wood and earth around it. When Winkle's cattle were finished, they feasted on vegetables that the dragon despised, multiplying almost as fast as he could eat them.
Winkle lands in front of his cave and finds three green, child-like goblins sleeping as they work. The sight of these slackers made him angry and he landed right in front of them, the aftershock knocking them against the cave wall. "Minions!" he roared, and the whole area trembled. "My treasure!"
"Y-You
Your Majesty?" One of the goblins peed on himself when he saw this scene. "What happened?"
"Where is my treasure? Is it safe?" Winkle moved his head around his cave, worried about the safety of his gold.
Thankfully, he found his treasure inside, as perfect and sparkling as before. The sight gave him a sigh of relief.
"Are you M-Majesty?" One of the orcs struggled to say something when Winkle looked up from the hole and looked down at him. "W-what is this?"
"Minion, have any thieves tried to steal my stuff recently?"
"Equal sign, but-"
That's it! "Minion, I don't remember what I did last night," Winkle said. "Tell me what happened."
"What's the last thing I remember?"
"Yeah, before the last thing you remember is my stomach."
"No - there is no need to go that far, Your Majesty... I remember..."
-The day before, Honglong Mountain…
Knight Baine is awakened by the sounds of orcs whispering in the darkness and the sound of coins falling from his hoard.
"I said we should run away... He finished the cow last month and ate half of us..."
"But if we run, he'll stalk and eat us all."
"Then we wait until the long winter, yes, when he hibernates, and then—"
"Minions, what are you babbling about?" Winkle said, shouting as he woke up, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. His orc servants were chattering at the door of his cave. Judging from the light, it was morning and he was hungry.
"Nothing, Your Majesty!" the goblin replied, and the others hid behind him. They all look the same, tiny green humanoids that are barely enough to snack on. "We caught a thief for you, that's all!"
Did they do it? He had such good, loyal guards. "Is he fat?"
"No, he's a rattlesnake, skinny and agile."
Pity. Fankle will be like a dwarf and enjoy a rich and meaty breakfast. The dragon awoke and walked toward his servants, the cave trembling with every step. "Where is my chief of staff?"
"I, I am Your Majesty." One of the orcs said.
Was he? Winkle squinted at the minion, who looked like any other goblin under the sun. The dragon needs a way to tell him apart, like a red cloak or a set of iron teeth. "Minions".
"What is it, Your Majesty?"
"First, become more remarkable. Otherwise I might be confused about your place in the food chain." By the time Vink pitched the idea to the Chief of Staff, he had already recruited many goblins. "Next, bring the thief and my shopping bag. I'm hungry."
"Grocery bag?"
"That big bag," Vankel explained, annoyed at the servant's incompetence. "You didn't forget to sew it back on, did you?" Because I'm hungry, and if I can't go shopping, I'll eat at home. "
The goblins understood this and rushed out of the cave. Fankel just moved his head out. The orc quickly climbed up the hillside and headed towards his cave, tying the thief with a rope and carrying a large cowhide bag the size of a dragon. The thief was a rat, a strange hybrid of rat and manlin, both ugly and unpalatable.
The animal did show Winkle the respect a dragon would expect when seeing him, groveling before him. "Great Knight Baine! How majestic you are!"
"This is knight's poison, not knight's poison!" Winkle shouted, and the orcs knelt down obediently when they heard his reaction. "I can tell!"
"Forgive my mistake, my king." His spine was so low by the voice that Winkel thought he would eat grass like a sheep. "I, I'm just a humble passerby..."
"Is that what you guys call thieves now?" Winkle accused him.
"I'm not here to steal your things, oh, the great Knight of Vankel, Bain... I'm here to see the size of your treasure, your magnificence... to see if you are-"
"It's as big as the legend says." After Winkel finished speaking, the thief blinked. I've heard this before. three times. Find a new one. "
Swallowed with a squeak. "Your Majesty's legend is so unfair to you, Your Majesty... Your claws are as sharp as spears, your breath is like a hurricane..."
Long narrowed his eyelids in disappointment.
"I've heard this five times," Winkle said. "Now you're going to see the inside of my intestines, which will probably be the first time for you."
"W-wait!"
Winkle bit the thief and swallowed him whole. Like every rattling, it tasted like shit and garbage to the point where the dragon almost vomited.
Sometimes Winkle wonders why a lower species thought it was a good idea to steal from him. The incident bothered him so much that he promised himself that unless the food went bad, he would ask the next person.
"That's all?" Winkle asked doubtfully. Although he would have been annoyed by the thieves, they caught him before he touched his treasure, making the incident nothing more than an afterthought. Nothing to run rampant about. "What happened next?"
"Then you went shopping, Your Majesty... with that big bag... and then you didn't come back."
By now Winkle was confused. He wasn't hungry, so he found the food he wanted at that moment. What made him so angry? Besides, he didn't have a shopping bag when he woke up.
Winkle grew more and more confused and flew away without saying a word, the wind from his wings throwing the goblin onto his back. He decided to check out his regular grocery store in case it jogged his memory.
Long soon reached his favorite farmland and found the remains of a barn and fence. Several grazing sheep ran away at the sight of him, and Winkle noticed his own footprints in the middle of the broken fence.
Apparently, he had already made his purchase before being interrupted. By what? Fankel hovered over the area, observing every detail, sniffing the air...
Suddenly, among the smell of Manlin's cows, he noticed a terrible fairy stench.
Yes, he remembered.
"Little Maggot has lost her sheep. She doesn't know where to find them. Leave them alone. They will come back..."
Winkle was singing to himself as he tore the roof off the barn, and the wolves screamed and rode away. He found cows, pigs and sheep inside, making noises as he arrived.
Let the shopping spree begin.
The dragon enthusiastically grabbed a cow with one hand and put it into the bag. Then he caught two pigs and wondered if he should take the sheep with him. He'll burn some fat on the way home, and he doesn't mind a snack on the way.
"Knight class..." His ears heard his name being spoken in Elder Dragon Language, and his nose smelled the scent of a fairy. Winkle immediately turned away, his eyes full of hatred and contempt.
A frog jumped out of the dirt behind him and stared back at him.
This hateful, sworn dragon foe is twice the size of Winkle; a misshapen centaur with a spider-like lower body and a humanoid upper body. The torso is disproportionately larger than the lower body, covered with a layer of insect-like armor; the left arm is a centipede, the lower jaw is a sharp blade, and the left arm is a crimson hand. Eight colorful eyes looked at Winkle from the creature's head, beneath which was a row of pointy teeth.
"I am Mag Mel," the fairy appeared with a cackle, although Winkle already knew the creature. That fairy created half of the beasts that the fairy lords used against dragons in war, from trolls to werewolves. "Father of Monsters."
"I am Vankel Knightbane," he answered. "I can do everything you do, and better."
The dragon's rebuke made the former hiss and a chill filled the air.
"Are you here to glare at me?" Winkle said to the guy contemptuously. "Or die?"
"The others will die," the priest answered, his voice low and heavy. "All new people who pollute our land will die. These are the words of our champion, the great King Bara'ur."
"Bala Ur Dragon?" That unstoppable dullaha
?Vai
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He snorted. "I could eat him whole in one bite."
"That was a long time ago and this is now. He has grown and so has his hatred. He is the strongest of all the ancestors."
"Not as strong as me," Winkle replied proudly. "Even the most powerful dragon clan is no match for the weakest dragon clan!"
"Yet, in the dark days, we killed many of you."
"They suffer from birth defects!" Winkel defended the honor of his race. "That doesn't count."
"Only us seniors are eternal," Magmel replied, unable to answer Winkel's ruthless logic. "You are the greatest of the dragons. This is the great catastrophe of this age, or so you say."
"I'm not pretending to be anything. Me."
"Well, my king has a proposition for you. Fight alongside him and paint this green land red."
"Why would a man ask a dragon for help?"
"Soon, we will wage a great war. We have gathered a great wild hunt, a band of millions. We will bleed mortals until the last one is killed. Then, we will bring our war to Their lair, the world they call Earth. Offred will be ours again, just like it was in the past. A peaceful land, ruled by old men."
"I have always been the ruler, and I am now," Winkle replied, looking down at the fairy. "It's people like you who have become so weak that you were defeated by Manlin."
"To them, the other dragons are dead too."
"Disabled Dragon!"
"Mortals are pests, and the magic they use is disease. Diseases are cured, and the pests that carry them are destroyed. We will capture them in their houses and lull their children to sleep in cradles until Ofremont Virtue is restored to purity. Joining this slaughter will be richly rewarded, Wacker. A tribute of fairy gold and mortal flesh."
"Why would I eliminate my favorite food? If I kill all the weak races, where will I find coins and princesses? Have you ever thought about the logistics, fairy? What do you think?"
"We can refine gold from the air and shape slaves from the clay. With one hand, we create life; with the other, we take."
"I would rather eat coins than believe in gold coins!" The dragon spread its wings. "Get away, fairy, before I eat you. Knight Baine is no one's pet."
"Then, on this day of the winter solstice, remember the words of Mag Mel. In time, the new people will come to capture you and your kind."
The abominable fairy cursed in an ancient language, became one with the earth, and disappeared from Wacker's sight. The dragon was very happy and went shopping again
Wait, winter solstice?
"Today is the winter solstice?" Vai
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Panicked. "I forgot!"
Quick, he needs a princess! Any princess!
Winkle tried to recall the significance of the winter solstice, but his memory remained hazy.
Has an ex put a spell on him? Why does he need a princess? Not that he wouldn't mind getting one, but his own bragging days and princess hunting season are still far away.
Winkle left his shopping warehouse and attempted to walk back, discovering the ruins of some isolated elven castles nearby. The dragon recognizes molten stone wherever he leaves it, and the more he looks at it, the more slowly his memory returns...
When he arrived at a half-ruined castle with three towers, Winkle had new memories.
finally!
He had to destroy three castles, but he found a blonde elf princess. She will love it.
Winkle breaks into their throne room by destroying the castle wall, grabs the screaming princess, and prepares to put her in a grocery bag with the cow. The guards and maids all ran away when he arrived...except one.
An elf in crimson armor and cloak pointed a rusty toothpick at him. "Vai
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!" What surprised Winkel was that the elf spoke in a dragon's voice with a pretty good accent. "Finally, we meet again!"
"I'm glad, elves, that you are beginning to learn the only true language." Vacker replied in his own language. "I'm too busy today to help you commit suicide. Fall on your own sword."
"You can't ignore me, villain. I'm 57!" At that age, Vai
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It was already bigger than their small house. Not impressed. "I am Oster, from Cologne!"
Colowhat? "Who?"
"oersted."
"Yes, who?" Winkle said again to the stupid animal.
"Oster!" insisted the elf, evidently too slow to understand Vacker even in his own language. Here one wonders why dragons need minion translators. "Fifteen years ago you burned my city!"
Did he do it? Fankle watched the elf closely, trying to recognize him, but...no. "which one?"
The elf trembled. "do not you remember."
"Elf, if you're here to bore me to death, stop here. I'm immortal, but my patience is not. Either get to the heart of the matter, or get lost."
"On the west side, near the sea!" There is a white chalk cliff nearby. "
Chalk cliffs? Ah! "Yes, I remember!" said Winkle, and the elf looked up. "Is that the city with the big clock?"
"We don't have a clock tower. Our water clock was destroyed fifty years ago trying to put out a fire caused by a mop—" The elf froze and glared at Winkle. "You burned our city twice?!"
"Your villages all look the same," Winkle replied. "How can you expect me to remember every place I've been?" After a while, they all started to blur together. "
"Gg
oce
ies?”
"Do you think I'm overthrowing your village because I feel like it?" Frankly, it would be a lot easier if you just let me out with your cows and princesses. I have more important things to do than tear off your flimsy roofs or destroy your towers; I deeply regret every time I do so. "The tower is beautiful, like a mountain.
"You...you monster!" Why? Why can't you just let us be quiet?"
"Isn't it enough that I allow you to live in my world?" I am kind and generous, but don't ask for too much. "
"You...you..." The elf knight trembled and placed his hands on the rusty hilt of his sword. "This is the Millennium Sword of Leone!" I spent years searching for it, pouring all my swordsmanship into it, until I found and mastered this sword! Through it, you will meet your destiny. "
Hmm? That toothpick looks old and fragile. "What's that for?"
"Kill you!"
The knight rushed at him with incredible speed and struck him in the chest with his small sword, which Winkle had to admit surprised him.
The sword broke against Winkle's scales.
The elf knight looked at his broken sword, almost as disappointed as the dragon.
"But...but, this is Leone's thousand-year-old sword! It shouldn't have broken!" Fankel rolled his eyes at the sight of the crying creature. Sometimes, he wondered about humanoid creatures. What's going on, what's going on with their obsession with old, outdated swords.
After all, if they were so valuable and powerful, why would anyone leave them in a deserted cave?
However, the dragon knew that unless he helped the suicidal elf, he would not be free, so while he still cried over his broken weapon, the dragon ate him whole in one bite.
He put the screaming princess into a grocery bag and flew to the big river area.
Big river basin?
Ah, he went to visit relatives. Why bring the princess here? Bragging?
Winkle flew toward the great river that cut across the vast continent and saw river snakes and turtle monsters swimming in the current below. As he approached his cousins' territory, he eventually found a dangerous spot near a river.
His favorite cousin Ge
Ialissime is a wind dragon, a beautiful beast with silvery feathers on his scales; like most dragons, he is much smaller than Winkle, but still large enough to eat Manlin whole.
The black demon Blight Swamp lay beside him, and Genialim placed a paw on her belly. Although Winkle's cousin appeared to be awake, she was in a deep, peaceful sleep. Still, outsiders would not mistake the sight for anything.
Have they reproduced?
"Vai
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?”ge
Ali looked up at him, sounding tired. "Are you awake?"
Sober? "You grew up with Blight Swamp," Winkle said with disgust. He knew that Geniarisme liked to reproduce, but the old demon knew where she had been. She lives in the swamp! "Blightswamp."
"Things... are not as bad as you think. Besides, this is also your fault."
Fankle glared at him. "You can't leave eggs at home, how can you blame me?"
"You hurt her self-esteem, and I had to give her wings to rely on."
What's the matter? "Look, sir, I don't remember what happened yesterday," he admitted. "But you seem to know."
"That doesn't surprise me. You were in a bad mood yesterday." His cousin shuddered, which made Winkle worry about what he had done. "Do you remember what day it is today?"
"The second day of the winter solstice?"
ge
Alissime sighed and made Vai
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feel depressed. “Who celebrates her bragging day on the winter solstice?”
Brag Day…Solstice Day…
"Ah, yes, I remember," said Winkle, his memory returning. "This is Julie's first bragging day!"
"Uncle Winkel, Uncle Winkel!" screamed his sweet little niece when she saw him land in front of her cave near the river bank. Much to Winkle's chagrin, he noticed that six dragons had arrived before him. "You come!"
"How could I miss my sweet niece's first show-off day!" Fankle nuzzled his adorable relative. She is a red dragon about the size of a large horse who has recently learned to fly. "I brought you a gift!"
"A gift?" She looked up at him with her cute big eyes. "Is it a Minion?" Uncle Grognion also gave me the first Minion, a catkin kitten! Is it another one?"
"No, better!" Winkle dug around in his shopping bag, ignoring the pig, and brought out his Pokemon, which was whimpering and shaking. "Princess!"
"Princess!" Julie began to cry with joy as he looked at her gift. "My first princess?!"
Vai
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Tell his niece how to use the princess doll: "When you squeeze her, she makes a purring sound." "Be careful of the knights who want to steal her away."
"Oh, can I dress her up? "Can I dress her up?"
"As you wish, my dear turkey."
Vai
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Place the princess doll in Julie's box, in the cave. It was a small amount of copper and treasure she had managed to amass as a young dragon, but each dragon brought a positive boost to her first show-off day. When she grows up, she will have all the time to work hard for her fame.
"I'm going to feed her fish!" Julie said, grabbing the princess's robe with her mouth and picking her up. "Tothe
ive
!”
Ah, it reminds Vankel of his first bragging day, when his parents brought him into the world after he paid off his debt of gold to his parents. He looked at his niece fondly, wishing that she would grow to be as big as him in a few centuries.
"Hey Vai
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!" The red dragon turned its huge head to the newly arrived Genialysim. "Long time no see!"
"Ge
ialissime!" Fankel saluted his cousin. "How are you?"
"Great! I think in ten years or so, after the new princess hunting season, I will organize a brag day." He glanced at Julie's treasure. "I'm really proud of her. She can still collect so much at such an old age..."
"Yes, especially since her father was born with a disability." Winkle's brother was killed by the elf, and the red dragon later helped the elf commit suicide. "I wish she hadn't inherited it."
"Yeah, it's a bad disease that can kill. I can't believe so many of us have developed in the past ten centuries. It's like a plague on a weak race." ge
Alissime looked at the various invitations, especially a black female bug. "Hey, Fankle, there's a new dwarf city nearby. I've discussed it with Blightmarsh and we want to loot it after Julie finishes bragging about her treasure."
"The bragging day hasn't even started yet, and you're already preparing for the afternoon banquet?"
"That's a good question. A better question is, will you come with us?"
I always get drunk when I eat dwarves, even though they are fat and delicious. I could never find my way back to the lair after that. "
"Come on, just eat a few. I will serve as your conservator and prevent you from over-consumption."
Why not? He hadn't eaten a dwarf in a long time.
How bad can it be?
"I'm drunk from eating dwarves?"
"You ate three dwarves and then you couldn't stop! You became insanely violent and you burned everything down!" Ge
ialissime frowned. "And when Blightmarsh and I tried to stop you, you called her a 'w'."
The dragon looked at his cousin in horror. "Shall I call her Pterodactyl?"
"Yes, yes, you did. She was angry, but thank God I was fertile."ge
Al shook his head. "You have severe dwarf intolerance, Vaquier."
"Oh, in the name of the old demon dragon, I'm sorry." Winkle said, shocked that he called a real dragon, even one that lived in the swamp, a "dragon." With Julie? Did she have a good time bragging?"
"Ah? Ah, yes, she had a lot of fun on the first bragging day and told us her adventure stories about finding copper coins in the wild. I think she really liked the princess you brought her. She kept taking Wearing a robe to show off to everyone. But this was a very shy princess and she was crying all the time."
Winkle wanted to find a better princess, but he ran out of time. Still, he was happy that his niece liked his gift. "Do you know where I put my shopping bag?" asked the red dragon. That's the last unsolved mystery.
"I think you burned it on your rampage."
Oh, he'll have to order his goblin minions to sew him another one! Winkle doesn't like eating food piled high with the excrement of Manling's peasants.
Come to think of it, after his rampage, Wankel might have scared the food away for miles by the sight of this deserted area. Now he has to fly for several hours to find Manling's shopping warehouse, and maybe several days to catch the princess.
Vai
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The decision was made to move south, to a place where the population was denser and food was closer. He had heard that the Alban Mountains were beautiful. Chilling, but high enough for him; the climb will also deter a thief, as there are no rattles trying to take his treasure from him.
Knight's Bench, Knight's Bench I, the catastrophe of this era, the king of Mount Alban. sounds good.
But he promised himself that he would never eat dwarves again.
