Brude Donahue was the ferocious ancient who started the God War, so his strength definitely wasn't lacking.
If he had been weak, he wouldn't have succeeded in history.
The evil dragon was incredibly powerful now, and Brude Donahue probably wasn't weak either.
He couldn't beat him back then.
So many years had passed. Maybe the evil dragon still couldn't beat him. Lance wondered whether Brude Donahue was still alive.
He was somewhat curious how that ferocious and flamboyant ancient had offended the evil dragon back then.
He must have offended him so badly that the evil dragon had held a grudge for so many years and even deliberately drawn him with a crooked mouth and slanted eyes.
He had definitely offended him severely. If he hadn't, the evil dragon probably wouldn't have deliberately made someone look so ugly.
"Did he beat you up back then?"
"He didn't just beat me up. He coaxed, deceived, and threatened me, trying to get me to sign a Dragon Knight Contract with him and become his mount. He was a shameless, immoral bastard. But as a human, he was outstanding. If another dragon had encountered him, it might really have signed a Dragon Knight Contract with him.
Even a Pure-Blooded Dragon would probably have been sweet-talked by him until it couldn't tell east from west."
Lance's gaze fell on the young dragon. If that bastard from back then had encountered Lucia, this young dragon might have been deceived into calling out and bearing his offspring.
He hated Brude Donahue, but he had to admit that the man really was capable. When the light of the God of Light Court shone over half the continent, he had resolutely started a God War.
This was how human history recorded the Anti-God War he had started.
The most outrageous part was that this man had resisted the God of Light Court while raising the banner of the War God.
His rallying cry had been the War God's own words. That outrageous move had left the God of Light Court completely at a loss.
If the War God had been watching from the heavens, he would probably have praised him as a remarkable talent.
"Would such a powerful and formidable human really die?"
Anyone capable of making an evil dragon suffer defeat during its youth was truly ferocious.
From the evil dragon's words, it seemed that he had spent some time with that ancient man during his youth.
He had coaxed, deceived, and threatened him. If they hadn't spent time together, how could such a ferocious ancient have coaxed the evil dragon?
How had he threatened the evil dragon?
"He could die, or he could choose not to. It depended on what he chose. In history, he died."
"I-I don't really understand. If he could live, why would he choose to die?"
"He was afraid that if he entered the divine realm, the gods would gang up on him."
"..."
Lucia didn't know whether the gods would gang up on him, but the ancient man would certainly have been beaten by the War God.
After all, that ancient had single-handedly forced the War God to stand against the other gods. Yet the War God could do nothing to him and couldn't even accuse him of blasphemy. He had trapped the War God in a situation where he could only suffer in silence. When that ancient started the God War, Lance wondered whether the War God in the divine realm had been ganged up on by the other gods.
"Lance, how did he deceive you back then?"
"He said that if I signed a Dragon Knight Contract with him, he would give me a huge pile of gold coins every year. After several decades, the coins would cover my Dragon Lair."
"Wasn't that pretty good?"
What dragons loved most was glittering gold coins and jewel-encrusted gems, wasn't it?
If that ancient had truly fulfilled his promise, the evil dragon wouldn't have ended up as poor as he was now.
The evil dragon was so poor now because he must have rejected that ancient's proposal.
The proud evil dragon had been unwilling to become someone else's mount.
He must have assumed that signing a Dragon Knight Contract with a human would make him a mount.
In truth, the relationship between a dragon and a knight was not that of a master and a mount.
They were partners! The relationship between a dragon and a knight was that of partners, friends, and comrades-in-arms.
It absolutely wasn't the master-and-mount relationship ordinary people imagined.
Knights wouldn't dare treat dragons as mounts either.
To become a Dragon Knight, one needed not only powerful strength but also sincerity.
A knight who treated a dragon as a tool for swaggering was destined not to last, and could never hope to become a Dragon Knight.
"Pretty good? It was indeed a good offer, but if that bastard had been holding a genuine gold coin at the time instead of a Copper Coin, I wouldn't have whipped him without hesitation.
That son of a bitch held a Copper Coin and told me it was a gold coin. He was practically rubbing my intelligence into the ground. Back then, I simply couldn't beat him. If I could have, I would have beaten him into a pig's head!"
For a thousand years afterward, every time he thought of it, he grew angry. After reaching adulthood, he had let it go. Whenever he recalled the matter, he was still somewhat angry, but mostly he wanted to beat Brude Donahue, that bastard, up.
"Passing off a Copper Coin as a gold coin? That... really is too much. He was practically deceiving you like a three-year-old child."
No wonder he was bold enough to trick the War God. When it came to deceiving an evil dragon, he really went all the way.
"Lance, does that count as deception? It doesn't count as coaxing. How did he coax you?"
"He painted me a grand picture. He said that if I signed a Dragon Knight Contract with him, then once he had a daughter, he would let me date her. He also said that, so I could experience what having a family felt like, I should try calling him 'Father' first."
"..."
The young dragon was dumbfounded. Was this ancient man really so unreliable? He deceived the evil dragon to the bitter end, coaxed the evil dragon to the bitter end, and even tried to take advantage of him while he was at it.
Wanting to become a Dragon Knight was normal.
But wanting to become an evil dragon's father was a little too absurd, wasn't it? And to coax the evil dragon into signing a Dragon Knight Contract with him, he had even been willing to let his own daughter date the evil dragon. Had he asked his daughter what she thought before saying that?
"Was his daughter pretty?"
"At that time, he didn't even have a girlfriend. Where would a daughter have come from?"
"..."
That was too much. Far too much. He had dared to paint an imaginary future for an evil dragon despite not even having a daughter, truly treating an evil dragon who wasn't even a thousand years old like a child.
"Then how did he threaten you?"
"He said that if I refused to sign the contract with him, he would portray me as an evil dragon who committed every kind of atrocity and have groups of heroes come to subjugate me."
"..."
Vicious.
That was truly vicious.
The young dragon suddenly felt that the environment in which the evil dragon Lance had grown up might not have been as good as she had imagined.
"Did he really do that?"
"No. Later, he probably decided that bullying an underage black dragon like me wasn't interesting, so he went off to torment the War God."
This man was truly hateful.
He was also truly brave.
He had dared to challenge the God of Light Court at the height of its power and had even succeeded. In more than two thousand years, Lance had only encountered one person like that.
Only after he succeeded did all kinds of temples begin appearing across the continent.
There had been some temples at the time, but none of them had much popularity.
In the several hundred years after he founded the War God Temple and defeated the God of Light Court head-on, all kinds of temples began to emerge.
His appearance taught the human kingdoms for the first time that they didn't have to pay taxes to the God of Light Court. The heirs to the throne, the laws of the kingdoms, and their policies didn't need to be interfered with by the God of Light Court either.
The idea that divine authority was higher than royal authority wasn't necessarily correct. He was shameless, lewd, sleazy, and utterly thick-skinned, but one had to admit that in the human world, he was a hero—a king worthy of respect.
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