I Abandoned the Male Lead Who Cheated with the Villainess - Chapter 188

Meanwhile, it was shortly after Herix killed Aiden that he was appointed as Crown Prince.

— Kill the last dragon.

It was another imperial decree from Arnold that could hardly be believed to come from a father to his own child. In truth, it was like telling Herix to go and be devoured by a dragon.

Contrary to the rumors of the dragon being an evil beast, the dragons of the Grand Old Mountains were pure and noble beings. As long as humans left them alone, they wouldn’t cause harm.

It was like not stepping on an ant hill, letting the ants live without interference. The original plan of the Pope and Arnold was as follows:

— After becoming the Crown Prince, the cursed prince, who couldn’t tell right from wrong and rampaged like a thunderous wild beast, eventually provoked the wrath of the dragon. …What do you think of this story?

— Hmm, it’s not bad, but how about utilizing the dragon more, Your Majesty?

— Utilize the dragon? What do you mean by that?

— What I mean is something like this: “The wise and noble dragon, seeing a seed so vile and destined to become the source of all evil, has struck down the wickedness.” If it’s a judgment made by a dragon, one of the greatest beings second only to the God Novnie, people will believe it without question.

Coincidentally, the dragon in the Grand Old Mountains was the last dragon known to the Sortenic Empire.

— The last dragon shall strike down evil with its final breath. …Isn’t that a suitable prophecy of the foul omen?

The Pope’s argument seemed plausible, to the point that most people would naturally believe it. However, defying all expectations, Herix returned alive.

— A tragic and unfortunate fate, indeed.

The dragon, known for its wisdom, was like a sage who knew everything. The moment it saw the boy in shabby winter clothes crawling up the snowy mountains to kill it, the dragon immediately understood the situation.

The dragon, whose time was running out, didn’t say anything to Herix. It could sense Novnie’s energy radiating from him.

— Yes, you’ve come here as part of the will of the Creator of all things.

The dragon healed Herix who had frostbite all over his body and offered its own body to the sword Herix barely held in his hand. The dragon opened itself and accepted the sword, and then it exhaled its final breath above Herix’s head.

— The god of spring is kind to you, so you will never be defeated. You will not be consumed by winter.

That was the dragon’s final words. As the dragon’s blood poured down like a torrential rain, creating a pool in which he could see his own reflection, Herix pondered.

‘…Spring?’

Could such a thing exist for him as well?

Herix was walking through an endless winter.

When he climbed up the Grand Old Mountains to kill the dragon, Herix realized that his heart was stuck in the depths of a long, unrelenting winter inside and out.

A fierce blizzard always raged in his mind. Even the smallest flame, no matter how briefly lit, was snuffed out instantly by the biting snow, just like the presence of the “brother” who once sought him out in the basement.

To this Herix, the dragon, who had chosen death for itself, spoke.

— The god of spring is kind to you, so you will never be defeated. You will not be consumed by winter.

The god of spring is kind to him. He would never be defeated by winter.

Young Herix couldn’t understand those words. How could he escape this long winter when he didn’t even know what spring or love was, when he couldn’t even feel it?

He dismissed it as nonsense. But strangely, the voice, raspy yet filled with a sense of dignity, didn’t leave his mind.

Every night, he fell asleep to that voice as though it were a lullaby. He didn’t even know what a lullaby was.

Even on the hard stone floors of the barracks, sleeping with a blood-soaked blanket as his pillow, he thought of the dragon’s final words. And strangely, it made him feel cozy inside.

Perhaps that was the single thread of hope that had kept Herix alive all this time.

As time passed, Herix Glacian Questiago became the Demon King. And what’s more, the many titles that accompanied his name were terrifying and grotesque, to the point that even he felt his ears might rot from hearing them.

He had never wanted any of those names, not once. He simply wanted to survive, never wanting to become a beast again. After understanding sunlight, he couldn’t live in a basement anymore, and that’s why he had become what he was. He had become the Lord of Terror.

Once, he received a fruit from Johann. It was an apple, and Johan proudly said he had stolen it.

— Is that okay?

— If we die we die.

Oddly enough, that was when Herix learned about luck. In other words, he learned how to rebel. Until then, Herix had always been like a puppet, acting on the words of others, no matter how absurd or meaningless they seemed, just as he had followed the dragon’s feeble voice.

But in the end, Herix remained himself, and without understanding what guilt was, he couldn’t devour the apple like Johann did. Perhaps it reflected a child’s heart, wanting to keep the proof of his first lesson in luck, the evidence of defying others’ will, as long as he could.

Because of this, Herix kept the apple, but it was eventually left to rot. Later, when he smelled the sweet yet bitter scent from somewhere, he realized it was the smell of the apple decaying. Seeing this, Herix thought:

‘If you just hold on to it, it will rot.’