Pillar of Yita

”Although later on, I never saw that knight and the noble lady again, it was only Linxius, who was still a young man at the time, who took me and the little girl I rescued to escape that place. I was in the prime of my life, with a smooth-sailing career, but I suddenly lost my lord whom I had loyally served and understood there might never be a day to emerge again.”

”Out of grief and indignation, Linxius and I made a vow to uncover the mastermind behind the Dolifen incident, be it a cultist or the Dragon’s Witch. It was at that time, I saw the appearance of that ring from Linxius for the first time—and over the decades that followed, I have been constantly on the go for this matter.”

The old man finally put the ring down, ”These thirty years of investigation have not been without fruit, and have revealed to me some interesting things...”

At the same time, he patted the cover of the book on his knees again, ”The story of Yoshude and the evil dragon is thrilling, but some things in it are not true, just like the Dragon’s Golden Eyes you hold in your hands.”

”The Dragon’s Golden Eyes?”

The old man nodded, ”Everyone knows that the hero Yoshude defeated the evil dragon with the dragon-slaying sword Galapea, cut off one of its claws and horns, and blinded one of its eyes, and made a ring out of the eye.”

”The ring does not have a name in the legend, but as you know, it is the Ring of Golden Flame.”

”But the reality is different—”

The old man spoke calmly, yet the listeners felt as if they were in a dream, because every sentence that followed overturned their common knowledge; the old man said, ”I have some definitive evidence that the Ring of Golden Flame was not made by the hero Yoshude.”

”Nikopolas had already lost an eye long before his battle with him.”

”While Yoshude indeed obtained the ring, it was not from the Dragon’s Witch. And soon enough, due to reasons that are widely known, the ring was stolen.”

”When it appeared again, it was in Dolifen—”

In a silence so profound only the crackling of charcoals in the fireplace could be heard, the old man’s voice was just as serene.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, and after a while, Fang Hong finally asked, ”Then from whom did Yoshude actually obtain the Ring of Golden Flame? Was this ring truly forged from the Dragon’s Golden Eyes?”

The old man shook his head, fixing him with a gray stare.

”In the early years, in pursuit of this answer,” he slowly replied, ”Linxius and I both went to those four places with this Ring of Golden Flame, but our efforts were in vain.”

”Now my health no longer allows me to travel far, and though Linxius was younger than me back then, he too is now over fifty, and likely does not have much time left either, otherwise he wouldn’t have handed the ring over to you—”

Fang Hong frowned, half-comprehending: ”I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand, Mr. Duke. What do you mean by those four places? Wasn’t the ring given to us simply because we were there at the time?”

The old man shook his head, ”Not quite so, it only shows that he saw a certain trait in you.”

”Trait?”

”A trait connected to the Dark Giant Dragon. Exactly what, I don’t understand. But I choose to trust Linxius, not to mention the ring itself has given me this answer.”

Fang Hong couldn’t help but recall his experience at Traveler’s Rest. If there was any connection to the Dark Giant Dragon before that, he couldn’t think of any clues. The only thing that came to mind was the series of illusions he experienced upon seeing the Broken Horn of Nikopolas.

And at that time, Mazak’s old butler happened to be by his side.

Could it have been that moment?

Or perhaps the Pale Glory?

He looked subconsciously at the back of his gloved right hand, although Toragotos had once explained what the Hailin Crown was, the evil Giant Dragon had also been vague about the Pale Glory.

After a moment, he came back to his senses and asked, ”The ring?”

”Only you have ended the Phantom Realm of Dolifen,” the old man replied with a question, ”haven’t you?”

He continued, ”The four places I mentioned, one of them is indeed Dolifen.”

Fang Hong was stunned, and asked somewhat surprisingly, ”And what about the other three places?”

The old man fell silent, his withered hand gently caressing the cover of the book, and after a good while, he eventually said:

”Within the Istania Desert is Dragon’s Land, which used to be the homeland of the Dragon Slayer, now nothing but rubble remains.”

”Then there’s the city of Idus, which turned into ruins in the flames of the Dragon’s Witch.”

”Finally, the Ashes Mountains to the north of Dulun, where Yoshude defeated the Dragon’s Witch.”

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