Bathory Basarab.
She was the daughter of the Red King, Count Vlad Basarab.
Bathory glared at Zeke, gripping her axe tightly.
"...Zeke Draker. You bastard..."
"I'll ask again. Why did you get involved in this war? Was it really on the Red King's orders?"
Zeke spoke in a low voice as he took another step toward her.
At that, the knights bound by the Draconic Tongue behind her strained desperately to move forward.
"Ugh! We must protect the count!"
"Your Excellency! We'll go!"
They did not think about their own bodies breaking; they forced themselves to break free from the Draconic Tongue for her sake.
Seeing this, Zeke clicked his tongue in admiration.
"The loyalty of these knights is impressive. I almost want to show it to my own order as an example."
At Zeke's words, Bathory bit her red lips hard before she spoke in a low voice.
"You filthy Draker spawn. You plan to dishonor and kill me, but it won't go your way." A sharp blade sprang from her wrist.
Bathory glared at Zeke with eyes full of hatred and disgust as she shouted.
"Even in hell, I'll curse you, Zeke Draker!"
With that, she tried to drive the blade into her own throat.
Clang!
But before it could reach her neck, Zeke's Shadow wrapped around her throat and arm.
Because of the Shadow's power, Bathory could not stab her own neck.
"Urgh."
The Shadow devoured the blade protruding from her wrist, which slowly disintegrated and vanished.
Seeing this, Bathory's face twisted in despair.
"...You won't even allow me death, just to humiliate me further."
Zeke looked at her with an incredulous expression when he heard her words.
"I have no idea what you've been talking about since earlier."
He had never shown mercy to enemies, but he had never massacred the innocent or dishonored others, not even once.
Yet Bathory treated him like the worst demon in the world.
Bound by the Shadow, she screamed.
"Do you think the atrocities the Drakers have committed will stay hidden forever? You killed my father, kidnapped the family's Guardian Dragon, and even slaughtered innocent civilians! Then you used the Draker family's power to erase it all!" Zeke furrowed his brow at Bathory's words.
"Look, sorry, but I've never done any of that. Why would I invade the Basarab territory, kill the Red King? And a Guardian Dragon? You're saying there was still a living dragon in Basarab territory?"
The words pouring from Bathory's mouth were completely unexpected.
Bathory glared at Zeke's bewildered expression and snarled in a fierce voice.
"You filthy Draker. I saw you plunge a sword into my father's heart and chain the
Guardian Dragon's neck with my own two eyes. Denying it? Making excuses won't make it untrue!"
Feeling Bathory's vivid anger, Zeke realized that something was wrong.
'No way?'
With a gesture, the Shadows holding Bathory moved her forward, still bound.
Bathory struggled as she looked up at Zeke, who loomed over her.
"No matter how you humiliate me! The soul of Basarab! The soul of the Dracul Knight Order will never submit!"
"Anyone hearing that might misunderstand. Stay still."
Zeke removed his gauntlets and pressed a finger to Bathory's forehead.
Seeing this, the Dracul Knights shed bloody tears and shouted.
"That demon Draker is about to unleash his evil power on her Excellency!"
"We have to stop him!"
"Your Excellency! Just hold on a little longer! We'll somehow...!"
Hearing the desperate voices of the Dracul Knights, Zeke inwardly clicked his tongue; he felt like the real villain.
'I need to figure out what happened first.'
Pushing aside his discomfort, Zeke activated Dragonʼs Wisdom to examine Bathory's memories.
Woooong!
Bathory's memories flowed into his mind.
"Father!"
The Red King stood before Bathory, his heart pierced by a sword as he collapsed to the ground.
The sword-wielder turned to look at Bathory.
It was Zeke, his eyes gleaming with the Dragon Eye.
"The Red King's bloodline."
As Zeke stared at Bathory and pulled on the iron chains in his hand, a red-haired girl who had collapsed behind him was dragged out.
Bathory cried out when she saw her.
"Lady Eos!"
She was the Basarab family's Guardian Dragon, Eos.
With chains around her neck, Eos said to Bathory.
"Bathory... run, run away!"
Zeke, who watched the two, channeled lightning into the chains.
Crackle!
Eos could not withstand the power and groaned as she collapsed to the floor. Zeke turned his cold gaze to Bathory.
"Bathory Basarab. My name is Zeke Draker. Remember this day well. And fear this power."
At the same time, black energy surged from Zeke's body and seeped into the Guardian Dragon Eos.
Eos's eyes turned black, and her body began to change.
Rumble!
Emitting a powerful draconic aura, Eos reverted to her true form.
Roooar!
Zeke had wrapped the chains around her neck in her dragon form, and he mounted her body.
Bathory screamed in rage.
"Zeke Draker, I'll have my revenge on you!"
"Interesting. I'll look forward to that day."
With Zeke's mocking laugh, Eos opened her maw wide and unleashed a powerful breath that obliterated the ramparts.
Boom!
Zeke rode away leisurely on the dragon, and the path he left behind looked like a disaster had struck. That day, the livelihoods of the Basarab people were utterly destroyed.
Zeke frowned as he read Bathory's memory.
'Someone tampered with the memory.'
He examined Bathory's memory closely.
He then found something subtly embedded within it.
He immediately said to the system.
'System, analyze what's overlaid on this memory.'
[Proceeding with interpretation at the user's request.]
Soon, the system finished its analysis and displayed a message before Zeke's eyes.
[Analysis complete. Contamination point in the memory found. Shall we purify it?] Zeke immediately ordered the Curse-Lifting Treatment.
[Normalizing the memory by purifying the contamination with the Authority of Great Purification.]
Woooong!
The aura of Great Purification flowed from Zeke's body.
Golden waves spread out, sweeping over Bathory before him and even the Dracul Knights who shed bloody tears behind her.
Sizzle.
As the golden halo purified Bathory and the Dracul Knights, the atmosphere shifted.
"...What is this?"
Bathory's memory replayed rapidly.
The figure who had pierced the Red King's heart with a sword.
The memory overlaid with Zeke's face slowly changed.
A man in Draker attire held a black sword similar to Zeke's.
Zeke ground his teeth as he reviewed Bathory's restored memory.
'Arthur Draker.'
Arthur Draker, said to be dead, had stabbed the Red King in the heart, kidnapped the Basarab Guardian Dragon, and carried out a merciless massacre.
At the same time, he had framed Zeke for the horrific atrocities, directing Bathory's rage toward him.
Even knowing how Arthur Draker had maintained the Draker family's power all this time, Zeke trembled with rage at his villainy.
At that moment, Bathory, who had recovered her true memories through the purifying power, suddenly widened her eyes in shock.
"H-How could this...?"
Suddenly regaining her normal memories, she could not help but be flustered.
Zeke released the Shadow that held Bathory and extended his hand toward her.
"Countess, it seems we have some things to discuss together."
*
Zeke entered the Dracul Knights' camp deep in the ravine.
Sitting in the command tent and waiting for Bathory, he admired the meticulous plans and maps plastered everywhere.
'All this preparation just to catch me.'
In the situation where the Red King, known as Count Vlad, and the territory's Guardian
Dragon had vanished, the Dracul Knight Order was one of the top forces on the Central Continent. However, without the black knight known as the Red King, it was impossible for them alone to defend the autonomous city of Basarab.
Rebuilding the ruined city was already grueling, so they could not afford to cause more chaos.
In the end, Bathory had no choice but to hide the Red King's death and use Hercion imbued with draconic power to impersonate him and protect the territory.
'And that method worked to some extent.'
Even Zeke had not suspected she was not the Red King until he clashed with her directly.
Bathory's power, which fully utilized the dragon's strength, was truly formidable, so others could not distinguish it. However, Zeke had an Elder Dragon's heart, which allowed him to notice.
'The Hercion Bathory wore—given the ability to create an artifact of that caliber, it was likely a dragon that had survived the War of Liberation.' It was probably as old as Hades, or even older.
It was not a good sign that Arthur Draker had captured such a dragon.
'He killed the Red King but took the dragon alive. That meant he had some other use
for it.'
Zeke had also found traces of Arthur Draker in the homunculus that had ambushed him in the Siemens Labyrinth.
A homunculus of the Hero King, an Elder Dragon heart, and now a living Guardian Dragon.
He did not know what Arthur Draker planned, but it surely was not for the continent's benefit.
Sighing at the headache-inducing situation, Zeke organized his thoughts as Bathory entered the tent.
The Hercion, shattered by Zeke's attack, had regenerated over time, returning to its original form.
Though her memories were restored, Bathory sat across from him with a guarded expression, as she still could not fully trust Zeke.
Looking at Zeke, she said.
"I still can't trust the Draker bloodline itself." Zeke nodded at her words.
"I'm glad we're on the same page."
Zeke agreed that he could not easily trust the Draker bloodline either and replied nonchalantly.
Bathory paused, slightly taken aback by his candid response, before she spoke.
"Zeke Draker, if you didn't tamper with my memories again, then the one who killed my father, kidnapped the Guardian Dragon, and massacred Basarab's people was Arthur Draker."
"Yes, I only purified the contaminated memories; I didn't alter anything."
From Zeke's perspective, he had simply revealed the truth, but Bathory still found it hard to believe.
Shrugging at the seeds of distrust Arthur Draker had sown, Zeke got to the point.
"Why did Arthur Draker kill the Red King and kidnap the Guardian Dragon?"
Bathory furrowed her brow and replied.
"That's what I want to ask. My father always declared neutrality and said he wouldn't interfere anywhere as long as the territory's autonomy was respected. From our side, it doesn't make sense that the Drakers struck first. Aren't you hiding some scheme and deceiving everyone?"
Zeke shook his head at Bathory's words.
"As you know, Arthur Draker is officially dead. The current head of the Drakers, Kali
Draker, seeks to correct the past wrongs of the Draker family." Bathory looked skeptical and said.
"After Kali Draker became head, her first act was to rally the allied forces and attack Jupiter. It's different from Arthur Draker, but it's similar to what the Drakers have always done. Conquer and subjugate."
Zeke found it hard to refute Bathory's words immediately.
Though various circumstances were entangled, she was right on the surface.
"...I have nothing to say to that. But you can't deny that the previous emperor of Rom and Siemens caused a lot of problems. In any case, we chose the lesser evil to prevent the worst outcome, so I hope you understand." Bathory looked at Zeke and said.
"The lesser evil. A convenient excuse for conquerors." Zeke shook his head at her scoffing tone.
"No, if we don't stop them, even more terrifying conquerors will rise from below." Bathory frowned at his words.
"What does that mean?"
"The Demon King. The lords of the Demon Realm are trying to resurrect the Demon
King. If that happens, war will break out between the Demon Realm and the Phenomenal World. And..."
Zeke met Bathory's eyes and said.
"The one trying to start that horrific war is none other than Arthur Draker."