"Such a pitiful and stupid guy!"
Ferdikion, his cheeks swollen red, tried to get up halfway but spat out the blood that had pooled in his mouth.
The man who slapped him scowled as if he had witnessed a sinner.
"How could someone who is supposed to become the ruler of fire fail to handle a mere poker that even lowly dwarves use well?"
The red-hot poker was thrown to the ground.
"I'm sick of it. You're nothing but a piece of trash."
"Never show your face in front of me again."
The young fire hatchling lowered his ruby-red eyes, hiding his melancholic gaze.
The man with golden eyes, speaking in a high-handed tone, shook his hand as if he had touched something dirty and left.
The eyes that had been burning with anger soon became dim.
The young fire child slowly raised his eyes and took in the poker.
A painful, burning mark was imprinted on his cheek, a scar left by the red-hot poker.
The young red dragon lifted one of his front paws to stroke his swollen cheek.
Then he rubbed the spot where his heart was.
It was hard to gauge which hurt more.
Both were too painful for the young Ferdikion.
A red dragon should have scales as hard as steel and feel only a tickle from a heated poker.
He recalled what Phasyas had said.
Looking at that gaze made him feel like a sinner, not a child.
Ferdikion, who could neither resist nor be acknowledged, felt angry at his father, who caused such misery.
Ferdikion examined his body.
He had tried to draw the fire energy within him to meet expectations, but the impact of the powerful slap had torn his scales.
The inevitable disappointment in his father's eyes followed.
His clenched fist turned to the poker, which was still glowing red from the fire Phasyas had heated.
Determined, Ferdikion stretched out his hand and tightly gripped the poker handle.
The tip of the poker, which had been heated to a red glow, made a sound as it was lifted from the ground.
The young Ferdikion, who had seen this, took a deep breath and looked at his arm.
Though he had decided what to do, his hand trembled with instinctive fear, and cold sweat trickled down.
'If I act so weak, Father will never acknowledge me as his child.'
Just as he was about to press the heated poker against his arm, a calm and mature male voice stopped him.
Ferdikion, startled, looked around, and the voice came again.
Ferdikion, surprised, narrowed his eyes and looked at the back of his hand holding the poker. There, a small human, about the size of a palm, with black hair and black eyes, was sitting.
A young Ferdikion, seeing this figure for the first time, felt a sense of relief.
The young Ferdikion was puzzled.
'Why? Why do I feel like I should listen to this black-eyed kid?'
Rune, as confused as Ferdikion, was also puzzled by his appearance.
Everything around him, now smaller, seemed enormous.
It felt like he had entered the kingdom of giants.
'Besides, this is my appearance from my previous life.'
Strangely, he had the appearance he had when he was an Imugi in his previous life.
After a moment's thought, he let out a light sigh.
'While there's no risk of Ferdikion's illusion breaking, I've appeared in a form familiar to me.'
The Imugi appearance was a third form, neither part of Ferdikion's reality nor his past.
To Ferdikion, who believed the unfortunate past before him was his reality, the appearance of Rune Eclipse, who was both present and future, seemed unacceptable.
'…Well, even if I came in the form of Rune, it might just add to the confusion.'
Rune's current appearance, though he had only grown for 10 years, had the mental age and power of a dragon over a thousand years old.
It wasn't strange that he had taken on a form befitting that.
'Being this small must be due to the power of the black pearl, which served as a passage.'
Once Rune had assessed the situation, Ferdikion used telepathy.
[What are you? How did you get in here?]
'Is there anything that can make the current Ferdikion not find me strange?'
Mentioning that he was a future step-brother would require additional explanation.
Trying to convince him might lead to unnecessary suspicion and complications.
'If the memories of the present and past collide, I might be chased away. Let's start with the truth I can tell.'
Rune looked up at Ferdikion and said,
"I came from the black pearl you're holding."
Ferdikion, still puzzled, used telepathy to ask.
Holding the pearl in his hand, Ferdikion looked back and forth between Rune and the pearl.
As if in response to Rune's affirmation, the pearl shimmered with a dark luster.
He looked up at Ferdikion and spoke quite seriously.
"You're in a difficult situation, and I need to save you to escape from here."
Ferdikion, reacting with a fierce frown, didn't seem to like it.
Rune tried to guess what was going through his mind.
'Sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it?'
Even to Rune, it sounded like something from a fairy tale, like the story of Patjje and the toad.
Suddenly, without warning, Ferdikion grabbed him with his front paws and started running out the door.
Confused for a moment, Ferdikion quickly dashed out the door.
The vibrations from the urgent grip and hurried steps were felt in his body.
Ferdikion ran through the castle, darting down several corridors.
After how long of running,
The red hatchling slammed the door to a room where no one seemed to be and entered.
The young fire dragon, panting through his nose, opened his fist, which he had clenched tightly, worried that the creature in his hand might have disappeared.
Inside, Rune, frowning, lifted his head.
"Phew! Why did you suddenly run off?"
[That room is Father's. If we stayed any longer, we might have been discovered.]
[To begin with, how did you get in here? This is a place where even the fire clan's lair is off-limits. This is the castle of the red dragons!]
'If this is the lair of fire, then this must be the castle in Ferdikion's lair.'
Now that he looked around, the familiar architectural style, colors, and the familiar fire energy all seemed the same as the castle he had seen in Ferdikion's lair before.
"Where are the dwarves, then?"
The castle was filled with many dwarves.
The royal blacksmiths, the dwarf minister Verdin Maphers, the mine supervisor Hampert Fisher, the combat dwarf commander Wood Fellon, and Gorban Bov.
Even if they weren't there because this was a time long ago, it was strange that there were no dwarves bustling about or patrolling.
No wonder Rune hadn't thought of this as Ferdikion's castle.
In response to Rune's question, Ferdikion, looking at him, took out a golden bracelet with a red mana stone from a drawer and put it on.
It was an artifact that allowed him to transform into a human, which he had given to Rune.
"Those slaves? They're not in the castle. Those lowly creatures are all making weapons in the forge."
The words, spat out like an arrow, were perplexing.
To hear such words from a child who didn't even look ten years old.
'This kid. Compared to before, you've improved a lot.'
Unaware of Rune's thoughts, Ferdikion, after a moment, let out a sigh of relief.
"No one's around. Now we can talk freely. What are you?"
The fairy that came to mind was the one who was unconscious in the black pearl.
Ferdikion, squinting, glared at Rune.
"Definitely small and insignificant."
"Do you really think you won't regret saying that?"
"Regret? You, a mere thing like you, dare to mention it. How did you get in here?"
'Anyway, that fake attitude.'
It was a long time since he had heard such an arrogant tone.
Even now, he wanted to slap the back of his neck, but this was just a young Ferdikion from the distant past.
Right now, using the kid to escape this illusion was the priority.
Rune recalled what he needed to do.
'First, I need to resolve the cause of being trapped in this illusion.'
Ferdikion's suspicious gaze remained.
It was natural. An unpermitted presence in the castle.
The black pearl in his hand made it hard not to believe, but Rune's existence was still suspicious.
But Rune, unperturbed, countered.
"Instead of forcing you to believe, I'll show you proof that I'm on your side."
Rune, holding his hands horizontally in front of his chest, looked up at the suspicious red eyes.
A thread of mana extended from Rune's fingertips.
The pattern he was forming was none other than the 'Mana Thread Weaving' technique that Ferdikion had personally taught him.
As expected, the young Ferdikion was shocked.
"I know it. It's a technique your mother taught you."
It wasn't a clumsy imitation.
Rune even demonstrated the more complex windmill thread weaving.
'Should I show one more thing to drive the point home?'
Since this was Ferdikion's mental world, the more he accepted Rune's existence, the easier it would be to move.
Rune lowered his hands and took a deep breath.
Then a clear melody echoed.
"Heaven, my home, where I can rest my body, when my tired wings are lowered."
Ferdikion, hearing the song, looked confused and pressed his lips together.
The lullaby he had heard from his mother was being sung by the small creature in his hand.
The red-haired child, regaining his composure, fidgeted and hastily muffled the sound by tightly holding Rune in his hand before the next verse ended.
Thanks to this, the suddenly crumpled Rune in his hand started tapping against the inside of the fist.
"Why are you so surprised? I only sang one verse."
Ferdikion looked around and whispered urgently.