RGS Vol 7 Part 9

The Duke eats rotten meat?

Everyone who heard Abel’s words had the same blank expression. They were so focused on connecting the hawk’s herb to the black potion that they had never anticipated this at all. It was the first thing they should have suspected.

“Yes, that’s right. The reason Truyde has a hawk’s herb might be because he eats rotten meat.”

Melmond was the first to return to reality and spoke again, revealing his doubts.

“But why does he eat rotten meat?”

He asked Abel, but as he was the one who had asked that question first, he had not expected an answer right away. However, Abel was thinking a little deeper.

“Well, if the Duke really eats rotten meat, it seems like it might be related to the black potion.”

“Young Master, what connection is there?”

The butler, clearly confused, asked immediately, but Abel kept his mouth shut, finding it difficult to explain his guess easily. To others, Truyde, rotten meat, and the black potion seemed completely unrelated. So, they just waited for an answer as they looked at Abel. However, Abel’s gaze was fixed on the book he had been reading since earlier. After a while, he said something completely out of the blue.

“This book seems to be a bit different from other books after all.

As he picked up the book, Melmond’s face instantly distorted.

That was the blasphemous work that called the dragon a mongrel.

“Hand it over. I’ll burn it.”

As he reached out to snatch it, Abel panicked and hastily opened the book to a specific page. And after a moment of searching, he looked up.

“Look here as well. In fact, this passage isn’t just about the dragon, but also about the knight who saved the country. It’s written differently from what we know.”

Abel held out the book for them to see, but no one had any intention of looking at it.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice?

Everyone’s eyes showed strong resistance, but Abel, undeterred, began to continue reading the section about the knight aloud.

“Hmm, the knight is known to have a very brazen and shameless face. Thus, he was the only one who could withstand the dragon’s cold insults and threats. As a result, he persistently visited the dragon and bothered him, creating an incredible fortune where the dragon had no choice but to help him. Furthermore, due to his groundless confidence in his appearance, even though he was over 30 years old, he shamelessly claimed that he looked like he was still in his early twenties. His only redeeming quality was his good personality.”

Having read this far, Abel slowly raised his eyes, finally feeling the intense gaze on him, and asked in a tiny voice.

“Doesn’t this seem somewhat written realistically?”

“No.”

Nani expressed his anger, shaking his head. To him, the legendary knight was a brave and beautiful man who subdued the dragon.

“The knight who saved the country had a face as beautiful as a flower and was braver than anyone else, not to mention he was the best swordsman on the entire continent! Even the dragon fell for him and had no choice but to love him! He was so perfect that a group of people jealous of him slandered him and spread nasty rumors, causing him to receive no reward despite saving the country! You must not believe such content! Even if it’s you, Abel, if you insult the knight, I will truly get angry!”

As Nani suddenly sprang up to his feet, Abel hurriedly closed the book and apologized in a timid voice. Only then did Nani, still fuming, grumble and sat back down but turned his back on Abel as if he was sulking.

While the butler patted Nani, Abel quietly took something out of his pocket. Although he should have given up on the book’s content by now, Abel held the wooden pendant and stared at it silently. Noticing this, Melmond frowned.

“Are you really going to believe that book and try it out?”

“Uh, well, whether it works or not, there’s nothing to lose, right?”

Abel stammered while glancing nervously at Nani’s expression, then added as he held the wooden pendant with both hands.

“If the wooden pendant has been passed down through the Regas for generations, I think the first Regas who used this was not the King’s Regas but the Dragon’s Regas, the knight. So, he called out the dragon’s name while holding it. But I don’t think that it necessarily has to be a name. It might have been a nickname the knight used to call for the dragon back then.”

Although his words seemed plausible, the eyes of the three who were looking at Abel were filled with a dumbfounded look.

So, the nickname was ‘Gechaban’?

[T/N: Gechaban – Mongrel]

However, amidst their disbelief, Abel sincerely called out to the dragon with the wooden pendant.  Calling out the nickname the knight had supposedly used.

“The untamable dog, Chaban, The untamable dog, Chaban.”

A moment of tension flowed along with the silence. However, as they had anticipated, neither Abel nor the wooden pendant showed any change.

Of course, it was only natural.

As they all shared the same thought, Melmond stepped forward to console Abel as their representative. That’s when Abel and the wooden pendant suddenly started to become as transparent as water.

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

Truyde had one vividly clear memory from his childhood.

It was when he was about five years old.

His father, whom he had barely seen before, took him by the hand and led him into the forest where their ancestors’ graves were. There, he handed him a piece of meat about the size of two fingers and commanded.

‘Eat it.’

Although Truyde was young, he felt that he should not eat this. It wasn’t just because the rotten-smelling black raw meat was disgusting and revolting. He just felt that way. No one had told him, but a sense of dread filled him, making him certain he should never eat it. He trembled.

I don’t want to eat it.

He shook his head and tried to step back, but his father reached out. The rough hand grabbed the child’s slender neck tightly.

“Gah!”

Unable to breathe, his mouth opened instinctively, and his father shoved the meat into his mouth. The child gagged, trying to spit out the disgusting thing. His father then used his other hand to close his small jaw forcefully.

“Chew and swallow. Only by eating that can you become the heir of the Truyde family.”

The cold voice, devoid of any emotion, etched itself into his mind even in the midst of the tormenting situation. The rotten meat filled his forcibly closed mouth, making him feel like he was going to vomit. Then his father’s command echoed in his ears again.

“Eat.”

At the same time, the hand holding his neck tightened its grip. The child was seized by fear. If he didn’t eat the meat, his father would kill him. He had to eat it. As he tried to move his mouth forcibly, the hand on his jaw fell away. Every time he chewed, the nauseating smell spread within him making his head spin, so he swallowed it without chewing much.

After confirming he had swallowed it, his father released him and stepped back, but the child was too busy coughing and choking on the ground to notice it. However, there wasn’t much time to rest.

His father grabbed his arm and forcibly lifted him up, dragging him to the stone structure around the tombs. As he rummaged through the bushes, looking for something, he roughly pulled the child who was lying down weakly.

“Look at this plant carefully. Notice the shape of the leaves, the way the stem splits, and its unique scent.”

After making him look at the herb, he pulled it out by the stem and handed it to the child.

“Eat it.”

At the second command, the child gave up any thought of resisting, and with trembling hands, he shoved the herb into his mouth. It was much better than eating the rotten meat. Just as his father said, the herb had a distinctive scent.

“Remember this well. From now on, after eating the meat I give you, you must eat this herb to avoid getting sick.”

Avoid getting sick?

When the child asked weakly, his father let out a sinister laughter. His voice was filled with sarcasm aimed at no one in particular.

“It would be the most absurd thing if you got an upset stomach from eating rotten meat after becoming immune to all poisons.”

Although the child still didn’t fully understand, he seemed to know that he must eat this herb. The child put the remaining herb in his hand into his mouth and chewed it thoroughly before swallowing it.

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

Although his father said that eating the herb would prevent illness, Truyde had to lie in bed with a high fever for a week after eating the meat his father gave him. It felt as if his entire body was being torn apart. The heat was so intense it seemed like it would burst through his skin shaking the insides of his body. It was all because of that meat.

Delirious with fever, the child muttered nonsense and burst into tears, saying that the meat would kill him. After losing consciousness several times from the unbearable force, the fever finally subsided after a week, as if it had been absorbed into his body. During that week, his father locked his sick young child in a room, forbidding anyone to enter.

When the child finally regained consciousness, his father came in holding a small dagger. Seeing the gleaming dagger in his father’s hand, the child trembled with fear. However, his father roughly grabbed his trembling son’s arm and then spoke gently. The secret of their family flowed from his mouth like a beautiful fairy tale.

“Once upon a time, there was a king who lost his beloved Regas early. The king of this country inherited the power of the dragon to protect his country, but he also inherited the dragon’s ferocity and cruelty. Thus, an evil dragon in human form was born. To control his temper, he needed a Regas. The problem was that only one Regas could tame the king. If that Regas died before the king, the king would give up everything and choose death himself. Because the Regas was everything to the king. One day, the king’s Regas died too early. The still young king turned his great sorrow into anger and directed it in another way. Instead of ending his own life, he destroyed everything around him. He took lives indiscriminately, both human and animal. Human civilization, such as buildings, was not spared. This dark age continued for several years.”

The child, forgetting he was still held in his arms by his father, became absorbed in the story.

“Then shouldn’t the king be eliminated?”

At the bold question, his father twisted his lips.

“Right. For everyone to survive, the king had to disappear. However, the king had received the power of the dragon and was immune to poison. Moreover, he possessed an immense power that ordinary people couldn’t approach. Eventually, the king went mad and couldn’t bear his madness, and he died, but by then, the country was already in ruins. If the same thing happened again, if the next king faced the same fate, the country might disappear. At that time, the only one who remained by the king’s side, the Regas, our ancestor, made a great decision. He decided to create a power to control the king in case anything happened to him.”

“What is that power?”

“Poison. A poison that can control the king even without the king’s real Regas.”

The child remembered his father’s earlier words and asked again.

But didn’t you say the king was immune to poison?

His father twisted his lips again.

“Yes, but our ancestor discovered the only poison that would work on the king. If other poisons didn’t work, they decided to turn the dragon’s power into poison. Whether by heaven’s help or sheer luck, the method our ancestors chose was effective. So, he sacrificed his own body to create the poison. For the sake of this country. He became the poison himself.”

Emphasizing sacrifice and patriotism, his father brought the blade to the child’s slender arm. With just a light pressure, a wound opened, and blood began to flow out.

“In your blood contains the poison left behind by our ancestors.”

The child flinched in pain from the wound, but his father did not release the arm he held tightly.

“Me, my father, his father, and his father before him… Our family all had the same blood flowing through our veins. But it wasn’t enough. Ordinary people could be poisoned by our inherited blood, but it couldn’t control the king. To create a stronger poison, we had to consume it.”

The child realized that what he referred to was the meat his father had fed him in the forest and asked quietly.

“That… meat?”

“Yes. The only meat that can control the king, the meat containing their own power.”

What kind of meat is it?

The child tried to ask again but was distracted by a strange smell. A smell that was more nauseating than the rotten meat. Following the scent unconsciously, his eyes lowered to his own arm, where his own blood was flowing. The smell was coming from beneath his torn skin. Along with the red blood.

“Look. You have now become the perfect poison. Your blood is now the most precious in the world. But remember. To maintain the poison’s effectiveness, you must periodically consume a small amount of the meat. The meat of the dead king’s corpse.”