Chapter 829 - Themares
"Themares."
A Dragonkin is one who walks alone.
Therefore, they also name themselves.
Themares, just before leaving his parents' care after passing childhood, named himself with the language he had awakened to.
It meant 'the essence of life.'
In a way, it was a name that suited the racial characteristics of a Dragonkin.
'Wouldn't most of them name themselves similarly?'
Themares had that thought as he chose his name.
Special eyes, special lungs, a special stomach, special skin, a special talent.
They were a race born with everything.
Even so, it was a law that nothing could be achieved without learning.
After realizing this principle, Themares learned everything faithfully.
Of course, if Enkrid had seen his life, it was at a level where he would have said, 'Faithfully? Faaaithfullyyy?'.
For a race that lives a life close to eternal, he had put in considerable effort.
And Themares had lived a very long time.
So long that counting the years was meaningless.
'Why must I live?'
A Dragonkin always contemplates.
They are nomads who wander in search of their reason for living.
They do not easily feel desire, have no wants, and no wishes.
That is why they could become those who walk alone.
And because of this disposition, they had to wander in search of a reason for living.
Just as a ship needs an anchor to be moored, they too needed an anchor to live.
A superior intellect does not allow one to live a meaningless life.
Therefore, to others, the Dragonkin sometimes seem to live with nobility as their weapon, and conversely, they seem to live with an incomprehensible abstruseness.
"Dragonkin are all different from each other."
Because Dragonkin walk alone, they do not resemble one another.
While all other races come to resemble each other by watching one another, they only reveal their innate characteristics instead of such similarities.
They were not similar, but they were a race that was similar only in their expression of ennui.
This was the conclusion that the renowned scholars of the continent had cautiously put forth.
It was half right and half wrong.
They too had a commonality.
In a word, it could be called an anchor.
To be more precise, an anchor that allows them to live their lives.
If you have no wants and no wishes, what is the reason for living?
With what will you moor the ship that is life?
Beastkin are intoxicated by lust or appetite, and Frogs cannot resist their thirst for knowledge.
Elves wish for a stable society and situation, and dwarves are drawn to the desire to create.
Giants are a race with an innate instinct for slaughter.
It is not for nothing that they are called blood-drunk beasts.
Humans are intoxicated by all those desires and also overcome them.
And Dragonkin have no desire.
Therefore, they have lowered the anchor of duty to moor the ship of their lives.
They decide on a task to be done, make it their goal, and live by it, shaking off the ennui.
Because they are beings who live for an eternity, they needed a reason to stay in this world.
And because they live for an eternity, conversely, they could not be easily swayed by desires or wants.
Life is a stormy sea; the waves constantly crash.
Only by being impassive to all such things could they live an eternal life.
Should it be called the providence of the Creator?
Impassivity is one of the conditions for eternal life.
However, being impassive does not only have advantages.
If they become submerged in ennui, the Dragonkin fall into a sleep from which it is difficult to awaken.
What would you call a sleep from which one cannot awaken?
It would not be wrong to define it as death.
Beings who can die at any time—that is what a Dragonkin could be called.
'Duty.'
He lowers the anchor.
On a day in the past, Themares had seen the traces of the Salamander and knew that this being did not need to be called a monster.
'It was being controlled.'
By whom?
Finding that out is a distant task.
The Salamander is a Phantom Beast.
That he knew.
Themares had found his anchor to remain in reality.
'I shall protect it.'
To put it in human terms, it was a pastime.
Like playing cards after finishing a hard day's work.
It wasn't particularly important, and it didn't matter if he did it or not, but that alone became a reason to live.
Just as a game of cards with a few jokes and a glass of beer makes the hard work bearable, Themares had found his duty.
And to a Dragonkin, duty is something to be protected even at the cost of one's life.
He intended to not only protect the Phantom Beast called the Salamander, but also to look after its will.
The duty expanded, and Themares's goal became clear.
To not let anyone harm the Salamander, and not to let anyone be directly killed by the Salamander.
It has meaning because it is not easy.
He might not feel joy, but he could feel a small sense of satisfaction.
And his calculations were clear.
He drew a line.
'The fire-forms spread around the Phantom Beast are without will.'
Therefore, they were outside the domain of his duty.
Only the direct use of power by the Phantom Beast, the Salamander, was within the fence of his duty and responsibility.
That is how Themares had calculated.
He was in the midst of spending another unquantifiable amount of time like this.
A Dragonkin is not affected by any desire or want.
That is generally the case.
And for it to be generally the case meant that there were exceptions.
Besides the anchor of duty, there was just one thing that drew a Dragonkin's favor.
In words, it could be called a 'grand dream.'
If Themares were to put it his own way, it could also be called…
'A will that seems as if it will never break.'
He had met such intelligent beings a few times in his life.
Themares had shown favor to all of them.
They were beings worthy of respect, individuals who showed a pure will, beyond good and evil.
Beings who moved towards an ideal, not a desire.
A Dragonkin can neither hate nor dislike such beings.
A Dragonkin only takes sides for that one reason.
'Respect for the will.'
They shine.
They shine like stars and burn their lives.
What a Dragonkin can only feel by forcibly holding on with duty and squeezing it out, these beings who shine on their own naturally exude.
A Dragonkin possessed the senses to capture and recognize it.
This was the reason Themares had shown unprovoked favor, along with enjoyment and expectation, while crossing swords with Enkrid.
Just as a Frog likes a beautiful appearance and an elf likes a clear aura, a Dragonkin is simply pleased when they meet someone who has filled their being with a will that is not easily seen.
It was similar to seeing a beautiful work of art, and it was similar to listening to music that moves the heart.
To put it more bluntly, it was something addictive.
Though it did not come before his duty.
There is no great cause, no justice, and no morality.
But neither do they put forth malice and killing intent.
To a Dragonkin, the most important thing is duty.
It was only natural, as it was their reason for living.
Themares grasped the current situation while processing several thoughts at once.
In the past, when the Phantom Beast was active, magical lifeforms made of fire were born in abundance around it, and those who came close to the Salamander would be intoxicated by illusions and lose their minds.
It was its unique ability.
Themares had no intention of killing anyone behind him.
'The Phantom Beast's mind has been contaminated.'
Why?
He couldn't know.
A Dragonkin cannot divide his body into hundreds of clones.
He cannot use magic freely.
He can only wield his powers.
That is why he had missed the parasitic thought-form that had infiltrated this place.
'Trickery.'
However, he could tell by feeling.
Someone must have done it.
Finding the reason would come later.
For now, he had to solve the problem at hand.
Themares particularly felt it was a waste for the man he had crossed swords with to die.
He had taken quite a liking to that man.
'A waste?'
Had he ever felt this way before?
It was unfamiliar.
Of course, this emotion was also something to be looked back on later.
For now, he had to make sure that those intoxicated by the illusion did not become food for the flames.
The moment he made up his mind, one of the party standing behind him opened her mouth.
"Enki."
It was the black-haired magician.
She had overcome the illusion spread by the Salamander with ease and opened her eyes.
It was truly in the blink of an eye.
Themares then had to witness a sight he had never seen before in his life.
"What kind of bullshit is this now?"
It was the gray-haired human.
He too had overcome the illusion.
And he was not the only one, so the Dragonkin experienced a surprise he had rarely encountered in his life.
Esther had recently experienced her world of spells and the real world overlapping through Fantasia.
It was difficult to forget that moment when a thrill that went beyond excitement had surged up.
But would it be good to be intoxicated by that feeling?
No.
The boundary between reality and illusion must be clear.
A magician must know how to draw that line.
'To be intoxicated by illusion is like being trapped in a maze from which you can never escape.'
If one is satisfied with living in the illusions and phantoms they have created, they will no longer find a reason to live in reality.
She had overcome Fantasia.
Therefore, it was easy to crush, smash, and awaken from the illusion shown by the Salamander.
Her dead master had appeared and spat out resentful words.
'He is not one to say such things even if a necromancer were to awaken him.'
The illusion was clumsy.
It wasn't something that delved into the human psyche, but merely a vibration that shook the emotions.
Of course, the human mind could be mercilessly broken by that alone, but no one who had come this far was ordinary.
"What kind of bullshit is this now?"
Rem's voice was heard.
At Esther's call, Enkrid turns his head and asks back, "What?"
His tone was unconcerned.
He had cleanly overcome the illusion and phantom.
"I know that the Lord's time to call me is not yet," Audin said, a white divine light flowing from his entire body along with a prayer.
"I am the greatest pathfinder on the continent," Ragna spouted nonsense.
"How many times have I met and fought demons? Do you think I would fall to something of this level?" Shinar sneered at the illusion.
Of course, being an elf, one had to listen closely to catch the sliver of emotion.
A demon gnaws at the opponent's mind from the moment you face it.
Take Beelrog, for instance; if you can't overcome its presence and intimidation, your lungs shrivel and you die.
It is a death that simply comes.
The one who had tried to take her as his bride?
The sword strike that killed with a mere graze was dangerous, but in the end, hadn't he tried to swallow the entire elven city?
Imagining the worst is not a specialty unique to Krais.
The elves, instead of showing their emotions, had sung of despair and frustration in the depths of their hearts.
The entire city had been like that.
So, an illusion of this level was cute compared to the time when the city was being eaten away and dying.
And there was no need to even mention Enkrid's will.
He is not shaken by something of this level.
He moves forward even after facing the child he could not protect.
If he couldn't even do this much, he would have been trapped in some 'today' long ago.
There was no difficulty in distinguishing reality from illusion.
Enkrid had never been intoxicated by a sense of omnipotence.
'Would Dunbakel have been a little shaken?'
He had the leisure for such stray thoughts.
Giants and beastkin are inherently vulnerable to this kind of trickery.
In terms of simple combat power, Dunbakel could probably hold her own against Teresa, and she wouldn't be pushed back in a match against Ropord and Fel.
Of course, if it became a fight to the death, it would be meaningless to guess who would win, but…
'Still.'
Dunbakel would have overcome it.
In the east, she had learned how to handle fear. It was clear that she had grown mentally.
Even if she were shaken by illusions and auditory hallucinations, she would not collapse.
The others would overcome it on their own.
"The beastkin might have stumbled a bit, but it's no match for me," Rem said.
The savage is crude on the outside, but meticulous on the inside.
You could tell by the fact that he was thinking of Dunbakel now.
He had mentioned the person he was most worried about.
However, his expression of affection was very rough, so it was painful for Dunbakel.
"Clumsy," Enkrid heard the Ferryman's phantom voice.
Right, it is clumsy.
The flames that covered the sky looked like a red cloud.
A crimson burning flame covered the sky.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that the flames were spread wide, not a cloud.
"It's falling from above. The fire."
Themares, the Dragonkin, said.
He didn't stop there.
"My name is Themares."
"I am a Dragonkin."
"You are human."
Now that the Salamander had awakened, his task was clear.
***
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