Kobirio received the order.
With a sense of tragic resolve and melancholy, he began commanding the direct troops to form the “Dragon Formation” in preparation to suppress the Hero.
Jon, however, bowed respectfully to him with a disciple’s salute.
“Teacher, I have offended you. Please show mercy.”
Kobirio’s face was frosted over, and his words carried a hint of reproach he couldn’t suppress.
“Jon, Her Highness the Princess is a noble lady. Why can’t you just lower your head and yield to her? Did you really have to make her angry? You two will, sooner or later, sooner or later…”
Halfway through, he choked, swallowed, and sighed deeply.
“Teacher.”
Jon remained polite and respectful, but did not retreat.
“I can yield, but the law cannot. The common people cannot yield. You understand this too. If you had tried harder to persuade the Princess, would things have come to this?”
“Sigh… stubborn as ever.”
Kobirio felt increasingly troubled.
He was born of royal blood, yet his mother was a common actress.
His father disliked him from childhood, and only his mother, a famous actress in the imperial capital, cared about his future and happiness.
His mother paid a high price to send him into the Imperial Guard.
He trained diligently, always choosing the most dangerous missions, countless times teetering on the edge of death, awakening his dragon blood, striving to earn rank in the Imperial Guard’s martial contests.
Because he knew—only this way could he protect his mother.
But he never expected… all his skills would be wasted on the “marital quarrel” of these two stubborn mules.
He didn’t dare imagine how heartbroken his mother would be if she knew—how much pain would hide behind her always bright, carefully made-up smile.
No time to think further.
“Scarlet Goose Squadron, form up!”
With Kobirio’s sharp command, a deafening dragon roar erupted through the outer wall.
In the next instant, black claws tore open the ceiling, revealing a giant “dragon’s head” that blocked half the sky inside the room.
Kobirio leapt onto the world-shrouding black dragon.
The rest of the Imperial Guard followed, hundreds of winged “wyverns” swirling over Rossi City.
Jon looked up, awe in his heart.
No matter how many times he saw it, the sight of the Imperial Guard riding dragons into battle was always so magnificent.
As the core force protecting imperial power, the Imperial Guard was composed entirely of royal descendants, led by successive emperors.
The dragonblood lineage granted them a fraction of a dragon’s power, allowing them to subdue Dragonblood Kin and ride them into battle.
Though they were Dragonblood Kin, those titanic creatures, dozens of meters long and capable of tearing apart seventh-rank monsters, seemed little different from “True Dragons” in the eyes of common people.
“Hero Jon, I will give you one last chance. Are you sure… you would rather die than bow to the Princess?”
Kobirio stood high in the sky, spear in hand, his booming voice covering the ruin torn by dragon claws.
Jon glanced around and spoke up immediately.
“Teacher, it’s too loud here. The buildings will get destroyed. Let’s fight outside the city.”
“…Fine.”
Kobirio was momentarily speechless.
Even now, you’re still worried about the buildings?
The Princess whistled.
A beautiful young dragon, pure white as jade, landed before her.
She turned to Jon, her gaze ambiguous between mockery and offering a way out.
“Need me to give you a lift?”
“No need.”
At that moment, Jon broke off a pillar and took a “javelin throw” stance.
Then—
Almost no one saw how he threw it.
The pillar shot out like an arrow loosed from a bow, and in the next instant, Jon leapt onto it, riding the flying pillar out of the city.
…The kid is poor, but he sure is strong.
Kobirio hurried to give chase on his dragon, only to realize that in half a second, Jon had already vanished.
He felt dizzy.
God! What kind of monster am I fighting?
Sorry, Mom.
I regret joining the army.
By the time Kobirio and the Princess arrived outside the city, Jon had been waiting for a while.
“Teacher, you’re here? Let’s keep it friendly—just to the point.”
Jon gave a disciple’s salute, then rushed forward to shake Kobirio’s hand.
Kobirio’s heart tightened as he looked at the load-bearing pillar almost entirely embedded in the ground.
He thought to himself.
When the time comes, I must activate magic suppression at the very first moment.
Otherwise… a split second’s delay, and I’m done for.
No—not even the first moment.
I should… launch a sneak attack!
Suddenly, Kobirio grabbed the Hero’s hand.
His eyes turned red, dragon blood surging within him.
His pupils split into two, then three segments.
Heat steamed from his head.
In a flash—
“Smack.”
The Hero, quick as lightning, chopped his hand down.
Kobirio’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed, knocked out.
“Teacher, are you okay? I felt like your magic flow just now was about to self-destruct.”
Jon hugged the unconscious Kobirio, shaking him hard with worry.
But Kobirio was already counting stars in dreamland.
Beneath his feet, the giant dragon began to stir restlessly.
Sensing its master’s distress, it let out an angry roar, dragonfire gathering in its mouth.
“Raaa…”
The second half of the roar never came out.
Jon swung the limp Kobirio, bashing the dragon on the back of the head.
The dragon’s head drooped, its dragonfire sputtered out with a “wah,” and a few embers of black flame escaped its mouth before it too fell into a baby-like sleep.
“Scared me! What’s with this dragon? No sense of martial virtue, the fight hasn’t even started!”
Jon quickly jumped off the dragon’s head with Kobirio in his arms and shouted to the rest of the Imperial Guard.
“Hey? Anyone there? Any doctors? Any priests? Teacher got knocked out by accident, can someone help?”
The other Imperial Guards looked at each other.
They glanced at the pillar embedded in the ground, the black dragon knocked out with a single swipe, and Kobirio sent to dreamland with a hand chop.
…Then wisely decided to treat their superior’s injuries.
“Hero, may I ask—how many sword strikes did you use to kill Demon King Lia?”
A young member of the Imperial Guard couldn’t help but ask.
“Ah.”
Jon thought back.
“A lot. It was a thrilling battle—I exchanged hundreds of blows with Demon King Lia, struck him over a hundred times. The most exhilarating fight of my life.”
Those tending the wounded gulped, and their respect for Kobirio grew even deeper.
—Commander, thank you!
Kobirio woke groggily from treatment.
His eyes barely opened a slit, saw Jon, and quickly snapped shut again in fright.
He wisely chose to play dead.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
Before, he only knew that Demon King Lia had been defeated in an instant by the Hero.
Now, having experienced it himself, he finally understood—
It wasn’t that Demon King Lia was killed in a single strike.
It was that the Hero’s attacks were so fast, every fight felt like a one-hit defeat!
Kobirio, burdened with high hopes, collapsed in a single blow.
Margaret stood stunned for a long time.
She blinked, then blinked again, wishing this was just a nap-time hallucination.
It wasn’t until Jon set down Kobirio and began walking toward her, step by step, that—for the first time in her life—she felt a genuine chill run from the soles of her feet up her spine.
“You… What are you doing? You commoner! I’m a Princess! Do you know the consequences of hitting me?”
Margaret backed away nervously.
The Hero said nothing, only continued to approach.
“Hey! You already hit him! You can’t hit me too!”
Margaret’s voice trembled with a hint of tears.
The Hero said nothing, only drew a long tree branch he’d picked up.
“I was wrong! Is it not enough if I admit it? I’ll have the grain merchants deliver supplies, I’ll give it all to you for free, okay?”
The Hero finally stopped.
He gazed at Margaret’s fearful, anxious face.
It was the first time he’d seen such a girlish expression on the Princess.
“So… you get scared too?”
He suddenly laughed.
Margaret breathed a faint sigh of relief.
But the next instant, the branch lashed across her thigh.
Layers of her skirt were torn away, revealing a crimson welt against her snowy leg.
A pain she’d never known exploded in her leg.
Margaret clutched her leg, squatting in agony, fighting to keep from crying.
But even more painful was the Hero’s next, slightly awkward remark.
“Ah… sorry. I didn’t control my strength. You’re much weaker than I thought.”
Margaret could endure no longer.
Tears burst from her eyes.