If not for Brude Donahue, who became king of the kingdoms in the human world would still have to be appointed by the Divine Court.
The true purpose behind this man starting the God War was to make humanity grow stronger on its own.
Humans could revere and worship the gods, but they could not lose themselves.
He had succeeded, but not completely.
Even today, more than two thousand years later, most kingdoms in the human world still paid taxes to the temples every year.
The duchies were even worse. The temples could directly appoint the successors to the duchies.
That was not to say the temples were villains.
A temple that could appoint a duchy's successor also had the obligation to protect the duchy. Whenever a duchy faced war, or a town was invaded by foreign races, Ferocious Beasts, or Magical Beasts, the temple would send knights to help the duchy's soldiers defend the town.
There were both good and bad clerics in the temples.
One could not completely deny the contributions the temples had made to humanity just because a small number of bad people had appeared among them.
As a black dragon, Lance neither hated the clerics of the various temples nor particularly liked them.
As for the conflicts between human kingdoms, duchies, and temples, they had little to do with him, a black dragon.
He never interfered in conflicts within the human world.
He had neither the strength nor the time for that.
"You hated him that much. When he died, did you sit outside his house and watch him die?"
"Not quite. He was the king of a kingdom in the human world, as well as the first Pope of the War God Temple. Many powerful people followed him. I was not yet a thousand years old and did not have that kind of strength."
He had only truly grown powerful after the age of two thousand. Before that, his strength had been average. He could only be said to have been somewhat stronger than the ordinary experts in the human world.
When he was eleven hundred years old, he began taking on human form and went to the human world to study Combat Skills, swordsmanship, magic, card crafting, and beast taming. Well, he did not need to learn beast taming. Dragons already stood above all other beasts, and once they reached adulthood, they could easily command the myriad beasts.
Ordering the myriad beasts to attack human towns was nothing difficult.
Pure-Blooded Dragons rarely did such things.
Pure-Blooded Dragons preferred to roam alone.
"Lance, after he died, did he go to heaven? Or did he descend into hell? Or was he guided to the Hall of Valor?"
"If you are asking me, I hope he descended into hell after he died."
"."
The evil dragon truly did not hide his hatred for this ancient man in the slightest.
The relationship between the evil dragon and that ancient man seemed to be more than simple hostility.
For some reason, it felt as though the evil dragon and that ancient man had been both enemies and friends. They had been friends, and they had been enemies.
After all, that ancient man had beaten the evil dragon when he was young.
That was nice.
If she encountered the evil dragon in his youth, she could definitely force herself to stroke the young evil dragon's head.
"You are a Trainee Death God. Didn't you try summoning him before?"
Lucia suddenly remembered that the evil dragon Lance was a Trainee Death God. If he had confirmed that this ancient man had descended into hell after death, then with his vengeful nature, he should have tried summoning the ancient man up.
"Before today, the thought had never crossed my mind. If I had thought of it, I would have acted long ago. The reason I tried summoning Sophia tonight was because you reminded me."
He had summoned undead to fight for him with necromancy before. He had simply never thought of using necromancy to summon up a former friend.
Should he try summoning Brude Donahue up from hell?
Lance felt somewhat tempted.
But when he thought of Brude Donahue's deeds in life, he felt that necromancy might not be enough to summon him.
Wasn't there a saying: In life, one should be a hero among men; in death, one should be a champion among ghosts.
A human like Brude Donahue definitely would not become an ordinary undead after descending into hell.
Thinking of this, the evil dragon Lance suddenly lost interest.
"W-What is it?"
Why did it feel as though the evil dragon had suddenly lost all his energy? From his appearance just now, he had looked ready to summon that ancient man at any moment. How had he suddenly become like this?
The young dragon was puzzled.
"I suddenly thought of a saying."
"What saying?"
"In life, one should be a hero among men; in death, one should be a champion among ghosts."
"!!!"
The evil dragon had inadvertently displayed his literary talent again! Damn it, how could the evil dragon's literary refinement be so strong? Lucia took a notebook out from the Lucky Coin at her chest, opened a fresh page, and wrote down the evil dragon's words from earlier—"In life, one should be a hero among men; in death, one should be a champion among ghosts"—in her diary right in front of him.
She felt that this saying was very suitable for promoting within the Imperial Army.
Soldiers ought to possess such spirit.
Especially the soldiers of the Farolyn Empire—they needed to possess even more of it!
The evil dragon's use of this saying to describe that ancient man was very apt.
Given that ancient man's impressive deeds, he truly was a hero of his generation.
And there was also the evil dragon's line: "The black dragon plants peach trees, then breaks off flower branches to pay for wine."
That line was also very poetic. Write it down, write it down.
She had to become a clever and studious Imperial Daughter.
"Why are you writing that down?"
"I want to become an evil dragon with literary refinement like yours."
"That is a worthy goal. Changing humanity's view of evil dragons will rest on your shoulders."
"Lance, I have another question."
"Ask."
"When you were a Trainee Death God and signed a contract with the Death God of Hell, did you sign it with him as a human?"
"Mm."
"The Death God of Hell never discovered that you were a black dragon?"
"I don't know. Remember this: Don't be presumptuous, and don't treat other people as fools. I have lived for so long that hell must have suspected my identity. As for whether they could guess that I am a black dragon, I don't know. For now, it seems that my former partner and temporary superior, Death God Solomon, has not yet thought in the direction of dragons. You heard him too. He suspected that I might be the legendary Undying."
"Undying Lance, have you ever seen an Undying?"
"No."
Was that really the important part? Wasn't the important part the educational and cautionary meaning behind his words?
Why did it feel as though the young dragon he had picked up was not very good at identifying the main point?
"It's still early. Let's continue learning the phonetic letters for a while."
"Oh."
Lucia put away her diary and rose to walk toward the hall.
Compared with studying, she still wanted to hear the evil dragon tell stories about the love and hatred of his youth more. With so many portraits on the study walls, she refused to believe that the evil dragon had never fallen for a single human girl.
"Initials and Simple Vowels—you already learned them this morning. Aside from a few inaccurate pronunciations, there are no major problems.
"Tonight, I'll teach you Front Vowels, Front Nasal Vowels, and Back Nasal Vowels. They are all fairly simple.
"Let's start with compound vowels. Come, repeat after me: ai."
"Love."
An hour later.
The young dragon cried out excitedly, "Lance, I can read the 'dragon' in giant dragon in dragon language now.
"Listen if you don't believe me: Erweng Dragon, the dragon of giant dragons; Erweng Dragon. The dragon of black dragons; Erweng Dragon. The dragon of evil dragons."
"."
Before you continue