When the spatial turbulence shrouding the Abyss vanished, the Abyss’s brutal environment seemed to improve in the blink of an eye.

From atop the fortress wall, the Duke lifted his gaze and saw that red-white sun hanging in the sky. It wasn’t as blinding or fierce as the sun outside the Abyss, but being able to see sunlight in this hellhole was something he wouldn’t have dared dream about before.

The howling wind that never seemed to stop was gone, too. Endless yellow sand, pulled by gravity, sank back to the ground. As far as the eye could see, visibility in the Abyss was better by an absurd margin.

And yet the Duke still looked as if he couldn’t see far enough.

"Has the first wave of scouts returned?" he asked.

"They’ve already returned," an officer behind him reported. "All twelve squads made it back. Three of them died because they got careless and ended up in a beast’s mouth, but everyone else returned safely. According to their reports, every demonfolk tribe they encountered along the way was completely empty. Not a single demonfolk was found."

"None at all? So what King Yintuo said was true—did the entire demonfolk really vanish from this world?"

The Duke still found it hard to believe.

This was too bizarre.

Even though he’d personally witnessed the scene of millions of demonfolk souls rising to the heavens on the battlefield, he’d never imagined it would extend to the entire demonfolk race.

Were they really all dead? The demonfolk who’d fought the Empire for centuries... gone from this world forever?

The Duke himself had fought demonfolk for over twenty years. And before him, the feud between House Campbell and the demonfolk had stretched a full century.

He had never imagined there would be a day when it ended.

The Duke drew a slow breath.

"Then... do you have any news about Muen?"

"This... we still don’t have any news about the young master," the officer said.

"Go find him!"

"Yes, sir!"

After the officer rushed off with men in tow, the Duke finally closed his eyes.

Whether the demonfolk existed or not wasn’t what mattered most to him. How to handle this now-ownerless Abyss in the future—that was for the people above him to decide.

He’d worked himself raw for long enough. If he could retire with one or two estates, he’d be satisfied.

But...

My good son... don’t let anything happen to you. If anything happens to you—

The Duke slammed a fist into the wall. When he opened his eyes again, a lion’s cold light burst out of them.

No matter who it was, if they dared harm his son, he would make them pay.

"Du—Duke!"

Viscount Donick came sprinting over in a panic. "The watchtower sent word—there’s something in the sky, coming fast toward the fortress!"

"What are you panicking for?" the Duke snapped. "Something flying near the fortress is just an Abyss flying beast. Is that really worth making a scene over?"

"Uh."

Donick skidded to a stop, then scratched his head. "I guess it’s not."

"How many times have I taught you—when something happens, don’t panic. Stay calm. Calm, understand?"

"Understood, sir!"

Donick reflexively straightened his back, but he only stayed serious for a few seconds before hesitating.

"...But according to the watchtower, the thing coming in is kind of big."

"Big? The biggest beast in the Abyss is just a gryphon. I’ve caught a few of those and used them as mounts. How big could it be?"

The Duke snorted and looked up with disdain.

Sure enough, at the very edge of the sky, he saw a tiny black dot.

With no reference point in the sky, he couldn’t tell how big it was. But judging from how fast it was swelling in his vision, its defining feature wasn’t “big.”

It was fast.

In the span of a blink, it expanded from a dot into a clear silhouette. A savage gale, still separated by a vast distance, was already slamming into the wall. And that outline looked... honestly—

"Wow."

Donick stared up and couldn’t help praising it. "That gryphon looks like a dragon. Do gryphons have dragon subspecies too? I’ve heard true dragons really do breed with other races, but even a predator bird like a gryphon is inside their... tastes? Dragons really are horny as hell, huh, Duke. Don’t you think so—"

Donick turned, only to find the Duke’s face already dark.

"Duke?"

"Stop calling me that like you’re summoning a demon!"

The Duke smacked Donick on the forehead and roared, "All units, alert! That’s a damn dragon!"

The alarm instantly shrieked through the entire fortress. Soldiers who’d already started to relax snapped back into tension. The Duke locked his gaze on the approaching dragon, deliberately not releasing his aura yet, silently praying it was just passing by.

"Come to think of it, this dragon looks kind of familiar," Donick mumbled, still not learning his lesson after the slap. He rubbed his chin and kept talking. "Doesn’t it look like that Calamity from the old illustrated book I read?"

"Shut up. Calamity, the Dragon of Death and Doom, is in the Forest of Death and Doom. How could it be in a place like this?"

The Duke wanted to toss Donick straight off the wall and feed him to the dragon.

But after Donick said it...

the Duke had to admit it did look similar.

Still, he’d never personally seen the legendary Calamity, so he couldn’t be sure.

No, no, no. What kind of ridiculous thought was that? The legend said Calamity had been squatting in the Forest of Death and Doom for centuries. The human world had long since designated it a forbidden zone.

If that dragon had left the forbidden zone, it would cause massive upheaval in the human world.

How could he not have heard anything in advance?

"Look at you trembling like a coward."

The Duke ran a hand over his thick beard and shot a contemptuous glare at Donick, who’d started shaking.

With practiced calm, the Duke said, "It’s just a dragon. Does it really dare attack us? If that really is Calamity, I’ll pry bricks out of this wall and eat them one by one—"

"Father!"

"Hm?"

The Duke frowned hard.

What the hell was this—had he missed his good son so much that even with that dragon-wind howling, he was hearing Muen’s voice?

But in the next instant, the Duke realized he hadn’t misheard.

Because the black dragon beat its wings and surged in close. A horrifying pressure rolled over them like a skyfall. Everyone stared in shock as they realized it was far larger than they’d anticipated—its body blotting out the sky, its deep shadow swallowing the entire fortress.

Under that monstrous dragon might, even veteran soldiers who’d crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood rolled their eyes back and passed out on the spot.

The Duke’s eyes went wide. His Crowned One senses told him clearly—this dragon was far stronger than he was.

And across the entire continent, there was only one dragon with that kind of presence...

Calamity—Hamreign!

And compared to Calamity’s terror, the Duke realized something even more terrifying:

his good son’s voice had come from above Calamity.

The Duke fought the pressure as he focused, and saw Muen clenched in Calamity’s claws, only half his body visible. He looked pale, his breath thin—like he was on the verge of death.

"Bastard!"

The Duke shouted instantly, not caring whether it was Calamity or not. A blood-red phantom rose behind him as he released the aura of a Crowned One—

but just as he was about to throw his life at Calamity, the dragon’s claws loosened, and Muen dropped.

The Duke’s heart shot into his throat.

But Muen wasn’t as weak as he looked. He flipped midair and landed— 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

not exactly “steadily,” because the next second he braced himself against the wall and started vomiting.

"Dammit. Throwing up twice in one day, for the same reason. I never want to feel that again."

Muen struggled upright. Right after him, An landed lightly while carrying Ariel.

"My son—what happened to you—"

The Duke lunged over and grabbed Muen by the shoulders, looking him up and down as if afraid his son had already been eaten clean by the wicked Calamity and what he was seeing was just an illusion.

"All right, Father, there’s no need to be that tense. This... Great Dragon Calamity may look vicious, but she only gave me a ride. No hostile intent."

Muen gave a bitter smile and waved it off.

Getting a lift like that felt awful. And the worst part was that Calamity favored women and despised filthy men—An and Ariel had the right to ride on her back, but he’d had to fly the whole way hanging in a dragon’s claws.

"A ride?"

The Duke’s eyes went wide again. His brain was still spinning on how his son had become impressive enough to be given a ride by Calamity—

when the enormous dragon in the sky suddenly vanished, turning into a human figure.

Flame-red hair spilled like sunset. A delicate long dress flowed like a fallen strip of the Milky Way.

Hamreign hung in the high sky, breathtakingly beautiful, tall and slender—yet no one dared lift their head at that moment.

"I’ve delivered him. I’m leaving."

"Thank you very much," Muen said, pressing a hand to his chest in thanks.

"No need."

Hamreign gave a slight nod, her voice cold.

"Just remember the condition Mela agreed to."

"Of course I remem—huh?"

Muen blinked, completely lost.

A condition?

What condition?

Had Teacher Mela mentioned any condition? Wasn’t this supposed to be on the way?

And if it was Teacher Mela’s condition, why was Hamreign telling him specifically?

A bad feeling rose in Muen’s chest, but before he could ask, ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) Hamreign—still in human form—tore open space and left.

She only left behind a fortress full of people standing there in shock, still unable to process the dreamlike scene of Calamity descending as a giant dragon... then departing in human form.

Only Donick quietly tugged on the Duke’s sleeve.

"Duke... are you eating the wall bricks one by one... or the whole wall at once...?"

"I’m going to chop you into pieces and eat you!"

The Duke whirled around and glared at the idiot, but he didn’t have time to keep arguing with Donick.

He pulled Muen into a hard embrace.

A lion king who never flinched even before a million demonfolk soldiers—

now had something in the corners of his eyes.

"It’s good you’re back... it’s good you’re back!"

"You don’t need to worry this much, Father," Muen said with a smile. "I’m not a little kid anymore... also, your beard really stings."

"Stings... hahahaha! Good. Stings is good. When you were little, you used to say the same thing."

The Duke laughed loudly and finally let go, but the confusion still lingered on his face.

"So what exactly happened to the demonfolk? And... huh? Isn’t that An? How did she end up coming back from the Abyss with you?"

"Good day, my lord."

Even while holding Ariel, An’s manners were still elegant and flawless.

"An is a long story. We’ll talk about it later," Muen said, drawing the Duke’s attention back. He took a small booklet from his clothes and handed it over.

"What happened in the Abyss... and to the demonfolk as a whole—everything I’m allowed to write down, I wrote down in here. Once you read it, you’ll understand."

"Wrote down?"

The Duke frowned. "You’re not just telling me?"

"I want to sit and talk with you too," Muen said with a bitter smile. "But right now, I have to get back to Belrand as fast as possible, so—"

"I see..."

The Duke looked into Muen’s eyes, as if understanding something. He patted Muen’s shoulder with a complicated air.

"My boy really has grown up. After this, I’ll probably submit my resignation to Her Majesty and go retire at the vacation estate. Over on your mother’s side, your younger brother or sister is probably about to be born too. With you holding House Campbell up, I can finally enjoy family life."

Of course, the Duke didn’t want to retire for only that reason. Now that the demonfolk—this massive imperial threat—had disappeared, House Campbell no longer had any justification to keep such sweeping military authority.

And with Muen’s relationship with Her Majesty, if the Duke still insisted on clinging to more power, it would only put the ambitious Empress in an awkward position.

"Father, you’re still young. You can’t say things like that," Muen said, offering a couple words of comfort. His expression turned a little awkward. "But speaking of estates... earlier, I really wasn’t trying to—"

"Relax. I’m not so petty that I’d truly be angry at you over a few estates," the Duke said, waving a hand broadly. "Honestly, your judgment was right. The invisible benefits House Campbell gained afterward were worth far more than a few estates."

Whether it was House Campbell’s now-unshakable standing, or Muen’s relationship with the current ruler—how could those be exchanged for mere estates?

A man who did great things didn’t nitpick small details. A lion king like him wasn’t going to obsess over something so trivial.

"And besides..."

The Duke suddenly squeezed his brows and winked with a conspiratorial look.

"You really think your old man only has that much money? Let me tell you—never keeping your private stash in just one place is a successful man’s basic skill. Sure, you sold off the estates on paper, but I secretly kept a retirement place for myself."

"You still have estates?" Muen’s eyes widened. "How many?"

"How many? Two or three, maybe. Not that many. The location isn’t as good as the ones around Belrand, but the environment is absolutely—"

"If you mortgaged them, you could definitely borrow a decent amount for now, right?"

"Of course. Your old man’s eye is no joke. When I bought them, I was sure they’d appreciate—hm?"

The Duke’s brows snapped together.

Because after saying all that, he didn’t receive the admiring look he’d expected from Muen.

He received the gaze of a hungry wolf.

Muen stared at him. His eyes were already starting to shine.

"M-My good son... what do you mean by ‘mortgage’?"

A lion king, and yet under that hungry-wolf stare, the Duke subconsciously took a step back.

"It’s nothing. Your son here has a bit of a cash-flow issue lately... so I’m asking if you could let me mortgage one or two estates to raise some money. I’ll pay it back once I’m through this difficult period, I swear."

Muen rubbed his fingers together with a forced, polite bashfulness—while pressing closer step by step.

"That’s nonsense!"

The Duke roared. "You’re the Empress’s fiancé now, and you’re still short on money? Borrow from Her Majesty if you have to—don’t touch your old man’s funeral money!"

"I... don’t have a choice," Muen said with a bitter smile. "If I borrow this from Celicia, she’ll kill me."

"What about your other lovers?"

"They’d kill me too..."

"Then—"

The Duke thought it through left and right. In the end, he discovered that in this world, the only quick way to get money without breaking the law—besides selling your body and living off someone—

was getting the old man to spit out gold.

And unfortunately, this old man really could spit out gold.

"Fine, then you at least have to tell me—what do you need that kind of money for?!"

In the end, the Duke couldn’t withstand the soft grinding of the good son he’d just praised, and asked in resignation.

"Honestly, it’s nothing," Muen said, glancing at the sleeping girl beside him. His expression turned serious.

"If I told you it’s to save the world... would you believe me?"