Star-Embracing Swordmaster (Full)

A road in the north, still covered in snow, which was just beginning to melt.

There was a carriage traveling along the road, where they say spring is the last to arrive on the continent.

"Giddy up! Giddy up!"

Knights in gleaming armor escorted a dark brown carriage.

At first glance, the group seemed extraordinary, but they were now rushing along the frozen northern road as if something was chasing them.

"Sir Gregory! We must hurry!"

The breath of the exhausted horses grew thicker, and the sweat of the men, frozen by the cold wind, was already sticking to their beards.

However, there was a reason why they couldn't stop, despite their exhausting march.

"They've just spotted the shadow of a dragon over Soara!"

That's because the being following them now was a dragon, one only spoken of in legends.

It was neither an ordinary enemy nor a cunning trap, but the pursuit of a dragon, which made this convoy, sent from Sturma under Peter's command, unable to stop.

"Shit! It's too fast!"

Gregory, the knight in charge of the convoy, pressed his lips together at the sound of Ragmus's voice coming from inside the carriage.

The shadow of the ancient dragon, spotted over the skies of Soara.

It was likely after the dragon piece they were transporting.

"I knew from the beginning this wouldn't work!"

Today marked the 14th day since they began transporting the dragon piece from Sturma.

Gregory had never run this far in his life, but the dragon chasing them had already crossed the northern part of the country and had arrived at the white, pure snowfield.

"Maxim! How much farther to Deirmar?"

"We still have at least 12 hours to go, sir."

"Damn it!"

Not much was left, but the distance seemed impossible to cover.

Realizing that the mission would be impossible to accomplish, even without calculating, Gregory looked at Ragmus, who was running alongside him.

"Do it."

Just as the rising sun cannot be stopped, a flying dragon is also something that humans cannot stop.

The dragon was like a calamity, but that didn't mean he could simply sit back and watch the impending destruction.

"…We'll proceed with the second plan."

Seeing Ragmus nod as if he was ready, Gregory's finger, pointing at the knights, became busy.

"Maxim! Cade!"

Gregory's fingers selected the fastest knights, not the strongest.

As he pointed, the knights galloped closer, their horses running at full speed.

"And…"

Knight Cade, son of a hunter, and Knight Maxim, an expert horseman, were natural choices.

However, unlike before, Gregory's last finger hesitated slightly.

"…Will you help us?"

Because where Gregory's finger now pointed stood a barbarian warrior with colorful cloths tied around his head.

Agge, a warrior of the Budart tribe, who called themselves the Children of the Plains.

In the past, their relationship was one of plundering and pillaging, but among the men present now, none were likely as fast as Agge.

"You finally acknowledge me, imperial knight."

It was a somewhat nervous question, but Agge's face remained calm as he answered.

"Don't worry. I've been planning to repay the debt for losing the inner wall."

The Budart tribe, which had lost their home to the Dragon Slayer Knights and Lindworm.

However, thanks to the wall provided by the young man with dark eyes, they managed to escape the deadly cold.

"In essence, the price of life can only be paid with life."

The northerners and the barbarians had been divided by the line drawn by the ancient dragon.

However, the dragon fragment that Gregory was transporting clearly passed through that divide.

***

Vlad and the knights were heading towards Soara along the northern road that was gradually thawing.

Dressed in varied attire and carrying different banners, they rode hard toward the northern city.

"I see it! I see it!"

"What is it?!"

At that moment, Nibelun's urgent voice echoed among those riding without pause.

"A golden dragon!"

Nibelun's vision, cupping his rounded palms over his eyes, looked rather comical.

However, no one could easily mock the mystery of Nibelun when they saw the eyes drawn on his palms moving wildly.

"Over there… Soara. No, the concentration is too strong."

Nibelun quickly raised a few fingers as if it wasn't the case, and began to recite the scene before him in detail as though he could see it this time.

"It looks like it's already passed Soara! It's flying toward us on the road!"

Though he didn't shout loudly, everyone heard his voice.

The ancient dragon, flying in the opposite direction, was approaching rapidly, causing several knights to swallow nervously in anticipation of the imminent encounter.

"Is that so?"

However, unlike the other knights, Vlad, who was riding ahead, seemed a little relieved.

"I guess we're not too late."

Having to be where one needs to be also means arriving at the right moment.

The fact that the dragon was descending from the sky to the ground meant that it hadn't found what it was looking for.

"Eh?! Oh!"

However, the urgency in Nibelun's voice now told Vlad that there wasn't much time left.

"It's descending! It's descending!"

"To where?"

It was a sight only he could see, but Nibelun was gasping nervously, raising his voice as if he'd forgotten even that.

"…To the carriage!"

Through his cupped hands, Nibelun could see the terrifying vision of an enormous dragon descending from the sky, rapidly approaching the dark brown carriage.

"The carriage has been destroyed!"

The knights of Bayezid, who tried to fend off the dragon with their auras, were useless against its hard golden scales.

"Hurry, everyone! We're out of time!"

The fragments of the carriage flew noisily from the dragon's claws.

Nibelun felt as if his screams could be heard even in the terrible scene he witnessed through his mysterious sight.

***

"Ughhhh…"

Red blood was splattered across the snow that had yet to melt.

The mangled bodies of horses and the scattered corpses of knights painted a horrifying scene.

Under Bayezid's tattered banner, Knight Gregory lay unconscious, as if dead.

"You ran quite far."

"…Isn't it the duty of a mage to find a way, anytime and anywhere?"

The roof was shattered, and the mage Ragmus laughed weakly from within the remains of the carriage, which now only retained its shape.

"Don't you realize it's a futile effort? The more you struggle, the more you'll suffer."

However, the Dragonblood Duke, Sarnus, merely scowled as if displeased by his laughter.

"You should've been content with crawling on the ground, as you were born to."

Insignificant humans who, despite being crawling creatures, had caused so much trouble for the northern knights.

Even after crushing them, Sarnus's blue eyes were still filled with insatiable anger, as if he wasn't yet satisfied.

"Where's the piece?"

"Cough Cough Ughhh…"

With a rough yank, Sarnus lifted Ragmus by the collar of his robe and uncovered a black box.

It was a black box that the old man, covered in blood, refused to relinquish until the end.

"Hmm?"

However, in the box Sarnus examined, the silver chains that should have been wrapped around it were missing.

"…No matter how lowly a creature may be, there's always room to escape."

Where the chains should've been, there were only symbols drawn in blood.

Looking at Ragmus's wrist, stained red, Sarnus, the Dragonblood Duke, felt he could tell where the blood came from.

"It seems age has finally caught up with you. Can't you even recognize a dragon's tracks hidden by an old man?"

Ragmus, who had hidden the dragon's tracks with his magic, smiled.

His aged face, full of wrinkles, showed the final smile of his life.

"Damn barbarians…"

Crack!

With a chilling sound, Ragmus's body, his neck broken, collapsed lifelessly.

"Still interfering to the end?"

At the same time, Sarnus's blue eyes turned toward a pure white forest.

Now, without the magic blocking his sight, he could clearly sense the presence of the piece hidden in the snowy woods.

***

Graaahhh!

The roar of an enraged dragon echoed in the distance, and snowflakes gently fell from the branches of the trees.

Even the forest seemed terrified by the fury of the ancient dragon, and that fury was directed at three knights.

"Get up on the road!"

A hunter's path somewhere between the road and the forest.

The trio—Maxim, Cade, and Agge—who were running along a hunter's trail between the road and the forest, realized they could no longer hide.

In a hurry, they began to climb up to the wider road.

"Have all the others fallen?"

"I don't know either!"

Cade shook his head, saying he didn't know, but in his arms was a piece glowing crimson.

The piece, wrapped in paper imbued with blood-red magic, had been handed to them by the mage Ragmus, who had cast his final spell over it.

"Either way, it's just the three of us left now!"

The piece, a manifestation of the most perfect possibility, continued whispering temptations even now.

However, to Cade, who was not a dragon, it was merely an annoying, sparkling jewel.

Still, the whispers of the piece kept calling out to the ancient dragon in the sky.

"…I see it!"

Finally, a green field became visible ahead of the knights on horseback.

Unlike the northern road, which had yet to thaw, it was a field full of spring, just beginning to bloom.

"It's coming!"

Graaaahhh!

But before they could reach the spring, the shadow of a colossal dragon loomed over them.

The shadow of a beast that sought to put all the world's possibilities beneath its feet.

Yet, even beneath that enormous presence, Agge managed to spot a small flag waving ahead.

"…I found it."

A flag that seemed vaguely like a mirage.

However, the flag was clearly moving toward them.

"Give me the piece."

"What?"

"Give me the piece."

The cool breath of the dragon could already be felt behind them.

Yet, despite the overwhelming force, Agge calmly placed the glowing red piece into his sling without hesitation.

"I'll tell you this for sure."

After winter, spring has finally come.

But as he calculated the distance that still seemed unreachable, Agge began to spin the sling.

Roaaaarr!

The shadow closing in on him grew darker, but it was probably not as dark as the black horse in front of him.

The descendant of the unicorn he had longed to possess.

Yet, Agge smiled as he looked at the blonde knight ahead of him, appearing far better suited for the task.

"…Yes. I heard he likes the color red."

Roaaaarr!

The ground on which the son of the plains trod was already filled with bright green shoots.

A red light fired by Agge in the direction where the shoots had started to grow.

The light flew beyond the dragon's claws toward the gleaming red reins of Noir, visible in the distance.

***

Booomm-!

"No!"

Along with the loud crash from the dragon, a massive cloud of dust began to rise over the northern road.

The dust cloud, mixed with many snowflakes, came with a cool breeze that ruffled Vlad's hair.

"Damn it!"

In dust so thick that it was truly hard to see even an inch ahead.

But what pained Vlad more was the last vision of the knights running toward him.

[Vlad! Look out!]

But the piece they had sent was undoubtedly aimed at Vlad.

Thump-!

"…Look out?"

The beating of his heart pointed in one direction.

Lifting his head in that direction, Vlad could make out a familiar red light amidst the thick dust.

"Noir!"

-Stop!

Amid the dragon's roar and the commotion, a red light hovered.

The dragon and the black horse began to race across the green field toward the sculpture floating at the boundary between winter and spring.

Graaaahhh-!

The majesty of the golden dragon before them was truly awe-inspiring, but Noir's eyes, as he ran, were filled only with the bright red fragment.

Hiiiiiing-!

As the horse raced toward the dragon fragment, a white horn began to form on its head.

That horn belonged to the unicorn, a creature that could only be born in the green meadow.

[Go faster!]

A red light lingered for a moment between the dragon's claws and the boy's hand, which barely passed by.

It was the last fragment of the dragon, lost among the scales of the same color and the golden hair, unsure where it belonged.

"…I've got it!"

The fragment of the dragon, shot by the knights who had endured the winter.

And the one who caught that fragment was the hand of the boy, reaching out at the end of spring.

Vlad's hand, arriving just in time, managed to grasp the last fragment of the dragon.