Valerian, The Legendary

162 Cost.

Valerian waited for the driad to leave after he received an ancient pinewood sword. The sword was simple and rough but had a certain charm about itself. The young man did not want to ponder over the question as to why Fortuna made him take this wooden sword. His eyes were fixed on the records that the driad handed him.

Suddenly, he wished to kill that driad. After scratching his head for a few minutes he put the records to the side and found a tree to vent his anger. He began to punch the thick trunk of the old tree at the bank of the lake. Fortuna was napping at the side when she heard the constant low thuds, she turned her gaze at Mathiyus and asked with a growl, “Why is he so restless?”

Mathiyus did not understand why Valerian was acting like this, he replied to Fortuna, “I have no idea, your excellency.”

The honorifics must be used when faced with a higher-ranking beast, especially a dragon. Mathiyus was strong but this young dragon could make a morsel out of him on a whim. Fortuna did not care about his amiability and said, “Ask that woman, why is he so worked up.”

Mathiyus nodded and asked Priscilla about things. The maid was busy cooking some food when she hear the question and said, “What else could it be? He cannot understand anything mentioned in the record he was reading. I wonder why he picked up a book that he cannot understand.”

She was not around when the silver-haired boy was meeting with that Driad. So, she did not know that the record was filled with driad text. Mathiyus relayed the words to Fortuna who sighed at how silly this child was. She said, “Show me that record.”

She was now slightly bigger than Mathiyus in size and looked really intimidating. Priscilla was shocked when Mathiyus told her to pass on that record book to Fortuna. She looked at the dragon and thought of the adorable kitten she loved so much, the contrast was striking. Fortuna did not want to communicate with the humans often and thus she did not say anything to Priscilla directly even if she could.

She did not want to mingle with humans other than Valerian. He was the only one who provided her comfort and warmth that she could not explain with words. It could be that she was able to break out of her egg when he appeared or the fact that he was the first person who called out her name.

To be true, she has pondered over it over many events, why was Valerian, a human able to get her name? Only the dragons closest to her, meaning her father and mother should be able to get her name. This was an anomaly she could not decipher. She snapped out of her daze and Priscilla placed on the ground in front of her.

.....

Fortuna did not rush to open the record and read it. She inspected it first then slowly used her tongue to flip the cover open and began to read the front page. The text written on the page made her surprised, and then she raised her head to flip over to the second page and the more she read the more surprised she became.

She could not help but let out a low roar, startling everyone, “Valerian, get your ass over here.”

Dragons were a lot of things apart from being arrogant and proud, they were unruly when feeling extreme emotions. Valerian suddenly stopped his punches and looked at her with indifferent eyes and asked, “What’s the fuss about?”

Fortuna replied, “I can read the record that the wood stick gave you. Come here, and listen to me.”

Valerian was interested and jogged over to him. He squatted beside her and asked, “What is happening?”

Fortuna said, “These records mention the complete troop moment of the Valkyrians, and a surprising fact.”

She took a pause and Valerian gazed at her intently. She continued, “While the Sapientia intents to kidnap Ignis, the Valkyrians intend to kill the eldest prince and then push the blame onto their allies. This will trigger the flames between the two nations, namely the Lumen and the Sapientia empire. They will reap the benefits from all the chaos.”

Valerian squinted his eyes and said, “I did not expect these savages to be so cunning.”

Fortuna scoffed and said, “You are correct, they are not cunning or sly. However, the beast they worship is like that.”

Valerian was surprised and asked, “What do you mean by the beasts they worship?”

“What else can I mean? They worship a beast as their patron. Do you know the reason why Valkyrians are not able to receive the blessing of Magus and only have warriors among themselves?” asked Fortuna.

Valerian shook his head and the beast said, “They worship the wolves. These things are cunning, strong, greedy, and united. I am not the one to say this, but the records that wood-stick passed do. It is said that the founders of the Valkyrian nation were nomads, in ancient times and they only liked the strong. So one time, the leaders of the tribes gathered and decided to go on a hunt.

They settled on the rule that the one who kills the highest number of beasts will be the winner. The result was a slaughter parade, the guardian of that forest was a magical beast, one of the earliest of them to be born in this world.

That wolf subdued every single of the tribe leaders and they were forced to pray to him, it is mentioned that the wolf made them cower in fear and even beg for their lives. They began to worship him and that wolf trained them, he taught them how to hunt and how to execute strength.

The first magical beings had the power to bless others but to gain the blessings one must pay the price. The strongest tribe leader held a meeting and the council decided to have a blessing of strength. The wolf agreed and asked them to forsake the chance to receive the blessing of the moon magus in the future ever. The beasts all have a moon they are affiliated with, the wolf was a follower of the gladius.”

Valerian nodded and asked, “So, in order to receive that brute force, they forsake the chance to be blessed with mana runes, and thus forsake not only the chance to have a mage but also a battle mage among their ranks? The leaders of the tribe were all primitive people right?”

Fortuna chuckled and said, “Do not insult the old.”

Valerian shrugged, he asked, “Then why are they instigating wars?”

“They are seeking dragon treasures, these treasures have the power to affect the entire world if both the good or the bad way given how they are used.”, said Fortuna.

The young man nodded, and said, “I have read about these treasures. However, I have also read that most of these treasures only pop up in a few centuries, and most of these treasures are held by four parties. The temple of mercy, the dragon temple, the beast continent of the south, and the eastern continent. I have always wondered why do the north and the western kingdom lack these treasures.”

Fortuna shook her head and said, “They do not lack these treasures. The western continent has a council of magical headed by the bloomkin, one of the strongest and even older than the dragonkin. This council manages the dragon treasures for the humans, they do not wish to have this continent turned into a battlefield. This agreement was made in ancient times as well.”

Valerian said, “I think you magicals have scammed the humans a lot in ancient times.”

Fortuna laughed and said, “You dare to say that to me? What if any magical heard you?”

Valerian shrugged and said, “I do not care about them.”

The two fell silent, and the boy said, “So, do any of the two countries hold such a dragon treasure?”

Fortuna nodded and said, “The Sapientia empire holds the bow of Azure. It is a weapon that allows the wielder to shoot across an entire continent. For example, if you wish to kill someone, you just need to think of them and shoot an arrow from that bow. The target will meet Primus as long as they are on the same continent.”

Valerian was shocked and asked, “This is so overpowering. So, why does Emperor Thales not use it and kill the Emperor of the Valkyrians?”

The dragon scoffed and said, “If only he could. Everything in this world comes at a cost. The greater the power the heavier the cost. To fire that bow, one must give up fifty years of their lifetime. Do you think a king will do that? That cost is only for a mage or a warrior, a commoner will die as soon as he touches that bow. Do you think that the royals will trust anyone with that overpowering weapon, other than themselves?”

Valerian was surprised but he understood, that one must be ready to dig up their own graves if one wished to wield that power. He sighed and said, “The gods surely like to play with those below them. Such a good weapon yet no one to wield it.”

Fortuna nodded and said, “Good that you understand, now let us eat and leave this place, or your elder brother might lose his head.”

Valerian nodded, but he was unaware that a pair of eyes was observing him from the dark forest with great interest.