## Chapter 299 – The Monarch of Monsters (1)
– It hurts… it’s agonizing…
A place where rough shouts and flickering flames spread like a lavish bloom.
“It’s completely wrecked, seriously!!”
“It hit!! Start the search!!”
“Another guaranteed overtime today…!! Damn it!!”
Next to them were towering ramparts, and people in heavy armor were shown running frantically along the top.
A girl, her eyes half-closed with vertically split pupils, glanced up at them as she staggered aimlessly.
– It’s hard… I can’t move…
Above her head, a massive barrier composed of hexagonal planes, reminiscent of an AT field, covered the vast city like a dome.
This was the Undenbrah, the great monster barrier that the royal capital boasted.
It was a defensive structure that concentrated physical and magical power to prevent giant monsters from approaching, effectively defending against powerful enemies.
The story was well-known that countless mages poured their magical power into maintaining the barrier, and over three hundred mages sweated profusely during its development.
When a large monster approached, it would collide with the Undenbrah, a hemispherical shield like a dense net, and be torn to shreds as easily as slicing cheese.
No one doubted the performance of the Undenbrah, which had a track record of stopping even the ultra-large avian monster Albator.
However, it wasn’t designed to stop small or medium-sized monsters, so soldiers had to deal with those directly…
But had the Undenbrah, a steel net perfectly suited for tearing apart monsters with threatening size and mass, done its job?
– Hiss… Aah… Aaaah…
Looking at her body, mangled from being caught in that barrier, the girl collapsed to the ground.
Her barely moving, torn eyes scanned her surroundings, struggling to take in the scenery.
A dark alley with little light, fragments of bloodied flesh scattered everywhere, broken buildings, and clamorous voices.
As she took it all in, her eyelids slowly closed.
“Why is something like this rolling around here?
Is she a runaway slave or something?”
The last thing she saw was someone with an obscured face looking down at her, reaching out with a rough hand, and then the girl lost consciousness.
– …Tired… I want to sleep…
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.
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“So… what happened in the year 52 before the founding of the kingdom?
Is there a student who can answer?”
The professor’s question was met with an awkward silence in the quiet auditorium.
But even amidst that awkwardness, a faint voice broke the silence.
“The… formation of the Human Alliance… perhaps?”
“Well done. If you know, don’t be shy and answer.
The Human Alliance was formed 52 years before the founding, and they fought a long battle for over 50 years.
And they reclaimed the human territory, leading to the present day.
Heh… are you all so averse to lessons?”
“Ahaha…”
“Heehee…”
In the classroom filled with awkward laughter, the professor, seasoned from dealing with countless students, chuckled and mentally organized the episodes that worked best in these situations.
And once the topic was decided, the professor pointed to a male student and posed a question.
“Then let’s talk about a story that’s been passed down for a bit.
What is commonly referred to as the world’s strongest monster?
Tell me what you think. You.”
“A Wyvern…? Maybe?”
“A Wyvern? They are powerful beings.
Though they are called winged lizards…
They are more ferocious and formidable predators than you might think.
Then… you?”
“Uh… um… well… I heard that…
There’s an enormous monster living in the western sea…”
“You’re probably talking about Charybdis.
Only shocking accounts of its sightings have been passed down, and its true form has never been identified.
That’s right. The vast ocean, which humanity hasn’t even set foot in yet.
It is said that countless powerful, giant monsters lurk in those deep waters.
But let’s talk about what’s outside the water for now.
Then this time… you, the one looking out the window.”
Still, the students, full of youthful adventurousness, were starting to give fairly satisfactory answers, so the professor looked around at the students and called out to a female student by the window who caught his eye.
Her hair, bathed in sunlight, shimmered azure like the sky, and she finally turned away from the window to look at the professor.
“Ah…? Yes… Yes…!!”
“What do you think is the strongest monster?”
Was she thinking about something else?
The professor, met with a response that suggested she hadn’t even heard the question properly, leisurely repeated the question and waited for her answer.
“Um…”
She pondered for a moment, rolling her eyes, then slowly began to speak, her brow furrowing slightly.
“Annik… perhaps…?”
The professor was taken aback by the unique answer she gave.
But after nodding as if somewhat convinced, the professor looked at her with eyes that seemed to say she was doing a great job, adding further explanation.
“Annik, you say… certainly, from the perspective of female students, it might be the worst monster.
In fact, Annik is an extremely difficult giant monster to deal with when it has properly grown.
During the last Chaonan monster crisis, Annik had a strong resistance to fire, so unlike other plant-type monsters that are weak to fire, it showed a defense against its weaknesses. It would have been difficult to burn it to death if it weren’t for the Chaoxing Transcender’s ‘Soul Flame’.”
The professor wrote the words ‘mutation’ and ‘adaptation’ on the blackboard, underlined them, and focused the students’ attention.
“Countless mutations and adaptations are, in a way…
A powerful weapon that allowed humans to adapt and fight countless times, reclaiming our land.
Annik, who physiologically walks that path, can also be seen as a powerful monster.
However…”
The professor, who began to trail off as he finished his explanation, soon picked up a piece of chalk and began to draw something on the blackboard.
The aristocratic students began to murmur among themselves at the sight of the familiar shape that many people seemed to have seen somewhere.
“This is the format of a family crest that many people think of.
They have in common a shield protecting humanity as a background.
You, and you, and you too, and of course, me as well.
Perhaps if they are renowned families, they are bound to have their own crests.
And there is something that appears quite often in those crests.”
“……?”
“If there is something that can be called a monarch simply by its existence?”
At the professor’s words, which suddenly lowered his voice, the students looked at him with eyes that seemed to say, ‘Could it be?’
“Our great ancestors, the heroes of the past who reclaimed the human world.
The most terrible and worst enemy they faced.
That is the Dragon.”
The reaction in the auditorium to the professor’s words was extremely divided.
But there was a good reason for that.
When the female student who had given the answer ‘Annik’ to the professor’s question earlier asked a question, the professor looked at her again and burst into a hearty laugh.
“Aren’t dragons just from legends?
From what I’ve heard… dragons are monsters born from descriptions…”
“Hahaha… you know it well?
Many aristocratic families use crests depicting dragons…
But in reality, it’s the same as if no one has ever seen one.
What’s your name, the student who asked the question?”
“Bibi… I’m from a commoner background.”
“Yes, Miss Bibi. As you said, there is much debate about that part.
Some documents say this.
When the Alliance reached this place, the center of the human domain, this royal capital.
There was actually a very powerful monster that caused great damage, and that is said to be a dragon.
And also, there is a story that in those days, when living itself was difficult and humans were technically and physically weak, each and every monster seemed so ferocious that they looked like ‘dragons’.
Some of them claim that they mistook the ‘Misoetic Wyvern’, which refers to an elderly, giant Wyvern individual, for a dragon.”
As the students’ expressions began to become subtle at the professor’s explanation, the professor gave them a kind smile and gently raised both hands above his shoulders.
“But humans are drawn to romance, aren’t they?
Emitting flames of destruction that cannot be compared to Wyverns.
That giant body moves magical power as it pleases.
Hard scales that no weapon can penetrate.
A monster that can be called the strongest simply by its existence.
Of course, it would be a nightmare for humanity.”
As the professor finished speaking and began to wipe the blackboard with the blackboard eraser, a male student raised his hand with an adventurous expression. Sensing that, the professor glanced back.
And as the professor blinked as if to say, ‘Ask your question,’ the male student asked him in an excited voice.
“Then what do you think, Professor?
Do you really think they exist…!?”
“Given the circumstances…
It doesn’t seem strange that they might exist?
There are horned horses, so why wouldn’t there be the strongest lizard?
I think it will be revealed in due course. Hehe!!”
Not long after that, the class ended, and Vivian gathered her books and writing utensils and walked out of the lecture hall.
She narrowed her eyes as she looked at Lanié, who was following her out and yawning, with a sleepy expression.
“René. You have to listen to the lessons diligently.”
“But… Professor Fedorff’s lessons are too… Huaaaang…”
Vivian let out a small sigh, seemingly dumbfounded, as she watched Lanié, who was energetic enough to stay up all night when snuggling into her tentacles, turn into a zombie as soon as she entered the lecture hall after sleeping well.
Vivian herself was originally a diligent honor student who studied hard for the sake of her family, so even if she acted like a delinquent outside of those times, she had no problems with her studies.
But Lanié, who was a 100% pure delinquent who only liked to play, didn’t seem to care about such things, so she sometimes showed a frustrating side.
If Lanié also studied hard and became a high-level talent, it would be a great help to the plan for Annik.
‘But she’s still general material…’
With her excellent physical abilities and instinctive movements, Lanié, who had become capable of taking on several third-year students, would certainly become a talented individual with considerable combat power when her skills improved further.
As she had felt while robbing Laratina, Lanié, who fought as recklessly as the beastmen, was showing a breakthrough power like a runaway train.
She wasn’t sure, but perhaps she might even show as much skill as Lucia de Borgia later on.
“Knowledge is important, think of it as being for him.”
“Hehet… Yesss…”
Except for her brain, of course.
Vivian smiled as she poked Lanié’s side with her finger, watching her vaguely gloss over her words with a lackluster answer.
Just as she was about to turn around to go to her next class,
– Kwaaaaaang
“What was that?”
“Kyaaaa!!”
“What’s that sound!?”
At the earth-shattering impact that seemed to make the sky roar, Vivian immediately raised her hand to the hilt of the sword at her side.
It seemed like the sound came from outside, but even though they were inside, she felt the impact down to her bones.
“Vivian-nim…!!”
“Students!! Don’t go outside, stay inside and wait!!
I repeat, absolutely do not come out…!!”
The hallway was filled with the students’ screams and anxious voices.
As professors and teaching assistants who appeared from around them controlled the situation and ran off somewhere, Vivian paused for a moment, then began to move her feet somewhere.
“Follow me, Lanié.”
“Yes…!? Y-yes…!!”
Vivian, with a hardened expression, walked quickly towards the place where the faculty members had disappeared.
Before long, the main gate leading out of the building appeared in front of her, slightly ahead of Lanié.
Vivian walked towards the main gate and threw it open, and she could only understand why the students had been told not to come outside.
“It’s red…”
“Hey…!! Hey, student!!
Didn’t I tell you not to come out!!”
A sky that was as red as if it had been stained with blood.
And even the unidentified red fragments that were pouring down from the sky.
The fragments, which seemed to be about the size of a large stack of straw, were falling like meteorites and disappearing somewhere beyond her line of sight.
“You guys!! Hurry up and go inside!! It’s dangerous outside…!!”
– Kwahdeuk
“Ugh!!”
“It fell on the warehouse!!
Is this… flesh…?”
Watching the large lump of blood that had fallen like a meteorite, smashing the roof of the warehouse with a dull sound, the teaching assistant asked a question with a dazed expression.
“The Undenbrah is activated… a giant monster…
It seems a giant flying monster collided with it in the sky…
Sometimes monsters that have crossed the front lines reach even places like this.
That’s the defense system that has been prepared for that.”
At the answer of a professor who replied to that, the expressions of the people there were dyed with astonishment.
“It’s happened once before, so don’t worry.
But it’s dangerous outside. Let’s wait inside the building.
You guys go back quickly too.”
In the end, Vivian and Lanié, after witnessing the entire process with their own eyes, were dragged back inside the building by the teaching assistants.
Vivian, who had excused herself to go to the bathroom in the middle, went into a bathroom stall with Lanié and began to talk together.
“From what the teaching assistants were saying earlier…
It seems like we won’t be able to get out of here today…?
Until safety is secured…? What should we do…?”
“There are more than enough ways to get out.
And it’s not like we can’t avoid things like that falling on our heads.
The situation outside must be chaotic because of those things.”
As a faint smile began to appear on Vivian’s lips, Lanié looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“Then it might not be a bad idea to quietly blend into Deckard’s slave market at a time like this…
I was planning to leave Flora in charge anyway and go out to do some work today.
Now that things have turned out this way, let’s move right away.”
“Aha!! Are we skipping out?”
“Tell Aurora.
Tell her to come down to the den right away.”
Just the side wall of the last stall in the bathroom, which was covered with pure white tiles.
Watching the tiles slowly being removed from that place, and the beings with four pairs of legs holding the tiles and stepping aside.
Vivian’s footsteps, as she began to walk into the revealed inner space, were filled with a tremor of small elation.
“Must be my lucky day.
Is the sky helping me?”
