Chapter 120: Is it convenient to skip all dialogue sequences?

The vast black dragon in the distance was still rampaging. Charlotte and Alice had no time for pleasantries. Charlotte cut the small talk and immediately pressed the playback button on the memory window, starting the search for a method to restrain the giant dragon from the continuing story.

Of course, the situation was extremely urgent. Charlotte would not start the playback from the Big Bang.

Just as modern light novels often begin with the most exciting scene to hook the reader, the scene Charlotte now played was the most thrilling battle sequence of the entire story.

Charlotte still remembered the events that happened before this scene, roughly.

Long, long ago, the powerful Rose Empire unified the entire continent and, relying on the mighty Rose Knight Order, repelled the invasion of the Demon Army a thousand years ago, thoroughly driving them back to the desolate lands north of the Boundary Mountain Range to fend for themselves.

After several centuries, the Rose Empire grew corrupt and finally split into three nations: the Kingdom of York in the north, the Kingdom of the Red Rose in the southeast, and the Kingdom of the White Rose in the southwest, a configuration like the Three Kingdoms period of Wei, Shu, and Wu.

These three nations frequently waged war over border disputes. Seventeen years ago, the Kingdom of the White Rose and the Kingdom of the Red Rose formed a temporary alliance and launched a two-pronged attack on the eastern and western strongholds of the Kingdom of York.

To resist the enemy’s attack, the Holy Knights rushed toward the nearest eastern stronghold.

While passing Boiling Springs Mountain, a massive dragon suddenly erupted from the forest and attacked the Holy Knights’ encampment without warning, nearly wiping out the entire Holy Knights.

At the time, the commander, Lord Holoff, wanted the Holy Knights to retreat from the fight.

After all, the eastern front was tense, and this was not the time to waste military power here.

Although later investigation revealed that he only wanted to claim the military glory for himself to gain greater benefits, which was also the reason he firmly refused to split forces to aid the western front. If he split his forces, he couldn’t guarantee claiming victory.

Although Holoff advocated retreat, Vice Commander Sieg insisted on fighting the giant dragon to the end. After all, they were the Holy Knights, guardians of the entire kingdom and its innocent citizens. If they let this giant dragon run rampant, the nearby villages would suffer.

At Sieg’s call, many warriors of the Holy Knights answered, as retreating in shame was not their style.

Charlotte’s Dad Roland was also present at this time.

And so, a group of Holy Knight warriors rushed toward the giant dragon with fiery passion. But the dragon was no pushover. These warriors were quickly swatted away by the dragon’s claws.

Fortunately, protected by the other warriors, Roland finally reached the dragon, pulled out his Dragon Slaying Dagger, a blade specially made for hunting dragons, and killed the dragon with one blow.

However, the blow only stripped the flesh from the dragon’s body. The remaining white skeleton continued to fight, catching Roland off guard. He was nearly crushed by the skeletal dragon.

Luckily, Mom Rhynes, who was passing by, arrived in time to help and saved Roland.

Meeting again, Roland and Rhynes were both surprised. However, this was no time for a reunion. To stop the mysteriously moving skeletal dragon, Roland and Rhynes fought side-by-side.

Following them, Vice Commander Sieg and Gracia, who came with Rhynes, also joined the battle. Even so, the four of them, attacking the skeletal dragon relentlessly, fought for a long time without being able to put the dragon to sleep.

Sensing the anomaly, Roland asked the two witches where the skeletal dragon’s magical power was concentrated. Gracia, who had stronger magical perception, immediately replied that it was located on the dragon’s ribs, near its heart.

This confirmed Roland’s hypothesis.

A thousand years ago, the witch Shera had blasted the Demon King Kōse’s greatest general, the Black Dragon Emperor, into pieces here. The remnant soul attached itself to a lost dragon bone, strengthening itself by hunting the nearby flying beasts and wild creatures. After a millennium of accumulation, the dragon bone had grown into its current form.

Although it had grown into a massive dragon, it had not fully resurrected. It only existed here by absorbing flesh and blood, which explained why Roland’s previous attack, though piercing its flesh, still allowed it to move. After all, a dead dragon cannot be killed again.

Understanding the root cause of the matter, Roland formulated a battle plan. This obsession, which had lasted a thousand years, would be thoroughly ended by him now.

And so, Sieg and Gracia teamed up to distract the skeletal dragon, while Rhynes, riding a magic broomstick, carried Roland behind her, poised for a stunning attack.

Finally, after Sieg and Gracia restrained the skeletal dragon’s movements, Rhynes carried Roland and charged toward the skeletal dragon’s heart.

Even when the skeletal dragon launched a dense barrage of bone attacks, Rhynes blocked them all with barrier magic. Roland seized the moment, leaped forward, and violently stabbed the Dragon Slaying Dagger into the dragon bone, instantly crushing the hundreds of years of accumulated magical power within the bone.

The dragon-slaying campaign seventeen years ago ended there.

The four heroes parted ways again. Roland and Gracia continued toward the eastern stronghold, while Rhynes and Gracia returned to the Starsea Magic Academy to report to Master Noelle.

Noelle did not praise Rhynes and Gracia, instead blaming them for returning without cleaning up the aftermath.

Afterward, Master Noelle returned to Boiling Springs Mountain and completely sealed the dragon bone at the very bottom of the cave.

This was the complete story of Roland and Rhynes’s second encounter.

Due to the time constraint, all the dialogue in the story was skipped by Charlotte.

After watching the story, Charlotte and Alice fell into contemplation.

“So, to destroy the giant dragon before us, we just need to stab that small dagger into the dragon bone?”

Alice tried to deduce the correct way to hunt the dragon.

“No, I think it’s not that simple,” Charlotte said. “Mom Rhynes mentioned that Roland’s dagger was special. It contained power that could destroy the dragon’s magic circuits. It was essentially an insta-kill weapon against dragons.”

“Then all we need to do is use that dagger again, and we can easily defeat that thing. That dagger must still be with your father, right? Why don’t you go back and get it?”

“No, that dagger is no longer in my father’s hand. It was lost more than ten years ago. It could be anywhere. It would be hard to find it even if we searched now.”

“Does that mean that in this situation, we have no choice but to fight head-on?”

“Not necessarily. Although the Dragon Slaying Dagger is lost, if all we need is to destroy the magic circuits, I do have a substitute.”

Saying this, Charlotte pulled out a sharp silver dagger from her dimensional space.