Chapter 1205: 192. Possession

“I have a feeling this is getting more and more complicated.”

Muen sighed. He had originally thought they would be able to settle things here quickly, but now it seemed that this game of cat and mouse would continue for quite some time.

The only good news was that Miss Dragon remained dependable. No matter how much those survivors struggled, they probably would not be able to stir up any real trouble.

He also did not need to risk his life at every turn like in the incidents before, nor did he need to clash with those survivors head-on. With Miss Dragon standing in front of him and shielding him from the wind and rain, all he had to do was help out from the side.

Being an accessory hanging from someone’s thigh had its own advantages.

Winning while lying down felt wonderful.

“Then next...”

Muen used Illumination Spell to simulate a false scene, continuing to block the sight of the surrounding people who were recovering from their half-blinded state, and only then walked over to Kran and examined his injuries.

“How miserable.”

This “dragonblood-bathed warrior” was currently lying in a pool of blood in a wretched state, unconscious.

Half the bones in his body had largely shattered, the hollow in his abdomen was savage and terrifying, and almost all of his internal organs had been crushed.

From Muen’s perspective, having seen many special beings capable of pulling off their own heads and directly kicking them around like balls, this did not count as a particularly severe injury. But when judged from the perspective of an ordinary person, injuries like these would have been enough to kill someone eight or ten times over.

Yet Kran was still breathing.

Not only that, when Muen examined him carefully, he discovered that the wound in Kran’s abdomen was actually slowly writhing and growing fresh granulation tissue, while his internal organs also showed signs of healing themselves.

“It seems his so-called bathing in dragon blood was not completely useless.”

His own strength, together with the fact that he had once bathed in the blood of an earth dragon, had forcibly kept Kran alive.

However, it was obvious that this could not last. Without outside intervention, the life force he had left would not be enough to support the recovery of such devastating injuries. It would only exhaust him to death.

“Lord Morton.”

“Y-Yes. I am here.”

Morton vigorously rubbed his eyes and hurried over in small, quick steps.

When he saw Kran’s miserable condition on the ground, his body instantly stiffened. But he hid most of his emotions very well. Only his already reddened eyes became slightly more so.

“This child... is still just as stubborn.”

“Do you have healing scrolls? Bring me some.”

“Yes, yes, I do. To deal with the evil dragon... No, to deal with special circumstances, I have many healing... Huh?”

Morton hurriedly took out the healing scrolls, but when he handed them to Muen, he clearly froze again.

He looked at Muen in confusion.

“My lord... you intend to save him?”

“Yes.”

“But just now he...”

“So what?”

Muen moved efficiently, quickly using the healing scrolls to stop Kran’s bleeding and replenish his life force.

“He did attack Miss Dragon several times. He was so reckless that it was as though a string was missing from his head, but I do not dislike him.”

“W-Why?”

“Because he is not a bad person. And from your perspective, he truly is someone worthy of respect,” Muen said with emotion.

The reasoning was very simple.

If there truly were an evil dragon in this world that wanted to destroy New Tars, then Kran would undoubtedly be a brave man who genuinely possessed the qualifications to become a hero.

He was different from those ordinary people who chose obedience. He had truly disregarded his own life and death and chosen to charge forward without hesitation...

Although it was unclear how much of that final charge had been caused by bewitchment and how much had come from his own heart.

But no matter what, someone with hot blood in his heart should never be spat upon.

Unfortunately, there was no evil dragon in this story, nor was there any destruction.

The dragon portrayed as evil in the story was actually the righteous side.

On the contrary, the “Lord Heroes” who had built this place carried within themselves lingering poison capable of destroying the world.

That was why his fearless charge appeared somewhat foolish.

“His attacks just now were only because someone bewitched him. He is also a victim. I have no reason to watch him die without helping.”

Once Kran’s life force had been replenished sufficiently, Muen took out bandages and skillfully began wrapping his wounds.

“I see...”

Watching Muen carefully clean and bandage the wounds without even caring about the filthy bloodstains, Morton’s brows, which had been tightly furrowed for a long time, finally relaxed a little.

He revealed a faint smile.

“So Lord Muen is not as bad as I imagined.”

“...Am I very bad?”

Muen turned his head and stared at him with dead-fish eyes.

The reputation of the yellow-haired villain had happily dropped by another point.

“No, no, no.”

Morton hurriedly waved his hands.

“It is only that I originally thought someone who was an evil dragon’s lackey... No! Someone who could threaten people so skillfully and despicably... That is not right either! Someone who was clearly only borrowing the evil dragon’s authority, yet acted so naturally... That is even less right! I-I-I...”

“All right. You do not need to say any more.”

Muen sighed.

“I roughly understand what you mean.”

“I truly did not mean that... I truly did not!”

Morton wore a bitter expression on his old face, experiencing for the first time the feeling of wanting to say something nice yet being unable to find the words no matter what.

How strange.

As the Proxy of this city, he was clearly quite eloquent.

Why could he not find any good words at a time like this?

“Go manage the others first and prevent them from causing any trouble,” Muen instructed.

“Yes.”

Morton turned and left, still muttering to himself, completely unable to understand why...

Muen ignored him.

He truly had not taken it to heart either. As a yellow-haired villain, if he made a major issue out of every idle comment like this, he probably would have died of anger long ago.

After all, the reputation of a yellow-haired villain started at negative ninety-nine.

Now he had already evolved into a universally praised good man in Belrand.

All of this was the result of his hard work.

“I only need to properly warn Pink Bear. Otherwise, that bastard may really sell my scandalous gossip to a place like this someday. When that happens, even if I had several mouths, I would never be able to explain myself clearly.”

Muen thought about preventing trouble before it happened, then returned his attention to what was in front of him.

However, his gaze did not remain on Kran for long.

He shifted it toward the sword still held in Kran’s hand.

He still remembered clearly the scene where Miss Dragon had taken the initiative to dodge.

Judging from the series of signs, what Miss Dragon had avoided at the time was this sword.

Something that Miss Dragon detested was attached to this sword.

He was very curious.

So Muen directly reached out, intending to pick up the sword...

“Evil dragon... die!”

The longsword was suddenly gripped tightly.

Without any warning, it stabbed straight toward Muen.

The sharp blade tore through the air with a piercing hum.

This seemingly casual strike carried extraordinary power. Anyone else would already have been in danger.

Fortunately, Muen reacted quickly enough.

The instant the muscles in that hand contracted, he had already sensed that something was wrong.

His body moved almost simultaneously with the sword, twisting aside and dodging it.

“Hey, is this how you treat the person who saved your life?”

Muen brushed the slightly dirty corner of his clothes and speechlessly looked at the fellow on the ground who only had half a life left yet was still thinking of eliminating the evil dragon.

“Huh... Me?”

Kran looked somewhat confused.

Only after Muen reminded him did he seem to react.

He tremblingly touched his own body.

“I... I did not die? That evil dragon... did not kill me?”

“First, Miss Dragon is not an evil dragon. She is a good dragon. Second, as long as you do not court death, naturally you will not need to die either.”

Muen extended two fingers and waved them in front of Kran’s face, helping him recover his senses.

“Do you understand?”

“...”

Only then did Kran’s gaze fall on Muen.

His pupils sometimes lost focus and sometimes dimmed.

His mind was clearly still in complete chaos.

“You saved me?”

Only after a long while did he truly come back to his senses.

“I already said that once.”

“You are that evil dragon’s lackey?”

“Third, I am not a lackey either. At most, I am an accessory hanging from her thigh.”

Muen rolled his eyes.

“It seems those people only taught you how to become stronger and did not teach you the most basic manners.”

“What do you want to do?”

Kran gritted his teeth and struggled to stand up.

But his injuries were far too severe.

He could not even complete such a simple movement and sat back down on the ground in a wretched state.

Even so, he still adopted an extremely guarded posture, like a stray dog driven to the end of the road yet still baring its teeth.

“Do you also intend to control New Tars through me? Just like you control Lord Morton? I am telling you, I will absolutely never submit! Although my body is already shattered beyond repair, my heart remains resolute!”

“...”

Why did this make it sound as though an evil yellow-haired villain was currently coercing some pitiful person?

“I am sorry, but although your status is fairly high and your one-track personality would also be easy to exploit, one steward is enough.”

Muen spread his hands like a little bear.

“So I do not intend to use you, much less obtain anything from you. To me, you have no value at all.”

“Then why...”

“Can I not simply show kindness? Everyone here is so innocent and naive. Why are you the only one this stubborn?”

“Show kindness?”

Kran’s expression froze slightly.

“You mean that?”

“Why would I lie to you?” Muen said irritably.

“Ah...”

Kran suddenly understood.

“Then did I misunderstand you? I am sorry.”

“...”

He took back what he had said.

This fellow was not only stubborn.

He was still extremely innocent and naive.

The corner of Muen’s mouth twitched.

He reached up and rubbed his face forcefully several times, only then rescuing his expression from the verge of collapse.

How could someone combine two completely opposite traits so perfectly?

Though now that he thought about it, from this perspective alone, Kran was actually rather cute.

“Do you remember what just happened?” Muen brought the conversation back to the main subject.

“Just now... I remember that I was going to launch one final attack...”

Kran looked at his own hands.

“Yes... It was Lord Hero. I heard Lord Hero’s voice. He let me see everyone’s unwillingness, so I followed everyone’s will and took the lead in resisting.”

“But in reality, you were the only one resisting. There was no one else,” Muen said.

The situation at that time had already completely stabilized.

Miss Dragon had not done anything excessive to this group of people either.

Under circumstances like that, choosing to resist the “evil dragon” who had almost completely destroyed their psychological defenses earlier was illogical no matter how one thought about it.

Not to mention secretly “plotting” rebellion right under Miss Dragon’s eyes.

Even saying such a thing aloud was filled with unreality.

“In that case... Lord Hero deceived me?”

Kran was only stubborn, not stupid.

He quickly realized the implications.

“Lord Hero deceived me? Then those things he said to me earlier...”

“I can roughly guess what he told you. It was nothing more than nonsense. We will not destroy this city, nor will we oppress anyone. We came here only to do certain things of our own, help this world eliminate a few malignant tumors, and once we are finished, we will leave,” Muen said sincerely.

“Is... that so? Then if that is true, what exactly was I doing? My resistance... truly had no meaning at all?”

Kran held his head.

He seemed to have understood something and finally began doubting the Lord Hero who occupied the highest place in his heart.

But the common sense he had developed over many years was also rejecting this understanding.

As a result, not only could he understand nothing, he instead suffered intensely.

“If thinking about it hurts, then stop thinking.”

Muen extended a hand toward him.

“For now, do not think about anything. Just obediently recover from your injuries. No one will do anything to you, and no one will do anything to the residents here. As long as you cooperate for the time being, everything will remain peaceful. I promise you.”

“Is... is that so?”

As expected, Kran stopped thinking about those complicated matters.

His expression finally relaxed considerably.

The people of New Tars rarely lied.

This outsider...

This outsider who seemed to be the evil dragon’s lackey appeared extremely sincere and did not look like someone who would lie.

Then...

Before he truly did anything bad, believing him a little should be acceptable.

Yes.

He could also wait until his injuries recovered.

Whether he continued resisting in the future or cooperated as Muen had said...

He could make his own choice.

That was right.

His own choice.

A choice no longer influenced by anyone.

As captain of the Dragon-Slaying Team, as a dragonblood-bathed warrior, a choice that could truly protect this city.

“Thank you.”

Kran revealed a faint smile.

Then he mobilized the little strength he had left, grabbed Muen’s hand, and was pulled to his feet in one motion.

Then, taking advantage of the momentum, he moved closer to him.

Pff.

The sound of flesh being pierced was incomparably clear in this place where the conflict had temporarily been put aside.

Muen’s pupils abruptly contracted.

He lowered his head in disbelief and saw the sword blade coated in a layer of eerie colors so naturally...

Piercing into his body.

Even he had failed to react this time.

Because before he felt any pain, his death warning had not reacted at all.

How could it have reacted?

With Kran’s strength, logically speaking, no matter how he launched a surprise attack, he should not have been able to injure Muen.

But...

“Reconciliation... is not allowed.”

Kran was still smiling.

But compared to his smile one second earlier, his current smile had changed slightly.

It was stranger.

Colder.

And more... meaningful.

He stared at Muen like a venomous snake, hissing as it flicked out its tongue.

“If she does not become the ‘evil dragon,’ then how are we supposed to carry out our plan?”

Muen punched Kran.

A thunderous tremor erupted, directly blasting him away.

At the same time, Muen rapidly retreated and covered the wound in his abdomen.

A sword wound was not worth mentioning to him.

He even ignored the pain.

After all, compared to this minor physical problem, the scene before his eyes shocked him far more.

“Avik?”

“Clever.”

“Kran” curved his lips.

“You are Muen Campbell, correct? Just as Priscilla said, you truly are a troublesome person. However... you were a little careless. How could you so easily trust and approach an enemy?”

“Careless? I was not careless. I merely did not expect that after spending several hundred years as a rat, you would suddenly turn into a madman.”

Muen sneered.

“You dared to divide your attention while fighting Miss Dragon. Are you truly not afraid of death?”