Leon crouched back down beside the old bastard, Augu.

Though the old dragon had surrendered, his face remained rigid, etched with stubborn defiance.

Not that Leon gave a damn about that defiant look. All that mattered was that the old man obediently spilled all the information Leon wanted to know.

"Since you knew my human identity, we've got the right guy after all, that means we found the right person. Constantine must have thought highly of you, right? Otherwise, he wouldn't have entrusted you with such a secret," Leon analyzed at a steady pace.

He knew his human identity remained unknown to the Crimson Flame Clan.

Not that Constantine couldn't reveal it—he simply didn't dare.

Constantine only knew Leon's secret because he had entered into some kind of deal and cooperation with the Empire, helping them accomplish certain things.

In short, Constantine was a damn traitor among dragons.

For a fucking Dragon King to collude with humans, he had secretly colluded with the human Empire. If the other dragons were to find out, the consequences would be nothing short of disastrous.

If exposed, best case scenario, Constantine would be removed from power via internal factional disputes within the clan. At worst, the entire Crimson Flame Clan would become the laughingstock of the Dragon Clan and face widespread ostracism.

This was why Constantine didn’t immediately launch an attack on the Silver Dragon Clan from the outset. Instead, he spent a full year ravaging cities and territories, using these actions as a smokescreen for his true goal.

By the time Constantine hypothetically succeeded in killing Leon within the Silver Dragon Clan, all the other dragons would merely view it as part of the Crimson Flame Dragon King's territorial expansion plan, having nothing to do with whether the Prince of the Silver Dragon Clan was secretly human.

Leon had to admit, Constantine’s plan was flawless. Not only did he expand his territory and reassert his dominance within the Dragon Clan, but he also perfectly fulfilled his obligations under his deal with the Empire—

But there was one problem: General Lai.

No matter how cleverly Constantine had plotted everything, he never anticipated that the human Empire would produce such an overwhelming anomaly.

If old Constantine had known that the fool who was once stabbed through the heart still retained the combat prowess of their prime, the only response he might have given when the Empire handed him the mission would have been two words:

“Huh? Me?”

(*waves hands dismissively*)

Leon had pieced together the logical progression of these events several times before he finally dared to come to the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan to “open the box” with Roswitha.

Augu stared straight at Leon, confirming his inference.

“Aye, the late King Constantine trusted me with your dirty secret.”

“And did your former king tell you anything else? Like… cooperation with the human Empire, for example?”

Having entered the interrogation phase, Augu’s dragon pupils flickered with a trace of unwillingness.

But after a brief hesitation, he finally chose to speak.

Who knew if everything these two lunatics had just said was true or not? Augu didn’t have the guts to gamble on it.

He could accept dying a heroic death—or at worst, dying under cruel torture.

But he could not accept being toyed with and ridiculed to death by this bizarre couple. That was a matter of dignity for the second-in-command of the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan.

Among dragons, the obsession with pride was no less intense than their inclination for vengeance.

“The former king did cooperate with humans for a time,” Augu said tersely.

Leon spread his hands. “And then? What were they cooperating for? Just to kill me?”

“It wasn’t just to kill you,” Augu replied flatly.

“Then what else was it for?”

“For a grander plan.”

The moment the words left his mouth, a blazing dragon flame streaked past Augu's face, piercing through the tree trunk he was leaning against.

The side of Augu’s face was scorched by the flame’s intense heat.

Clutching his burning cheek, he glared furiously and was about to shout.

But before he could speak, Roswitha interrupted, “Stop playing fucking word games with us. If you keep this up, I promise it won’t just be half your face getting burned next time.”

The queen’s voice was cold and commanding, exuding authority.

She had already seen through his game. Even though Augu claimed to be cooperating, he was still trying to run circles around Leon.

Leon asked a question; Augu answered, but only barely. It was as though he were merely repeating Leon’s inquiries in a different guise.

Like a lazy horse, he would take one or two steps forward when whipped but otherwise remain idle.

On the surface, Augu appeared to be cooperating with them, but in reality, he was providing nothing of substance.

After being threatened by Roswitha, Augu shrank back reluctantly, enduring the stinging burn on his cheek as he spoke.

“The information I know isn’t nearly as much as you two imagine. The former king’s main goal in collaborating with humans wasn’t to kill Leon—Leon just happened to intrude upon the chessboard at the wrong time, becoming an uncontrollable piece for both sides.”

Leon frowned. “An uncontrollable piece...”

Augu continued, “You were supposed to die three years ago. If you had, none of this would’ve followed. But as it turned out, the idiot tasked with assassinating you back then botched the job.”

“So, to clean up the mess, the Empire had no choice but to have the former king Constantine use territorial expansion as a cover to kill you in the Silver Dragon Clan.”

“As for the things that happened after that… there’s no need for me to explain further.”

Leon didn’t continue the interrogation immediately. Instead, he turned to look at Roswitha.

The couple exchanged a brief glance and gave each other a subtle nod.

Leon turned back to Augu and continued questioning, “So, what you mean to say is, my survival disrupted some original plan between the Empire and the Dragon Clan. Is that it?”

Augu closed his eyes and said nothing, treating it as acknowledgment.

“What’s the purpose of this plan? Or, to put it another way, what are the human Empire and the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan trying to achieve through this plan?”

“That, I don’t know,” Augu replied. “The former king only told me that for the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan to remain unshaken, it was necessary to cooperate with the human Empire.”

Augu’s tone didn’t suggest he was lying.

It made sense—just because he was a trusted confidant of Constantine didn’t mean Constantine would spill all the details like a routine report.

After all, he was a Dragon King. There were secrets he was bound to protect.

Those secrets could become critical trump cards in a life-and-death situation or even turn the tide of battle.

Reality, however, was cruel. Constantine had taken those secrets with him to the grave.

“How long has this plan been in operation?”

“The former king didn’t tell me when it started, but it’s been at least thirty years.”

Thirty years...

Leon blinked, trying to calculate the timeline.

Something about a span of thirty years felt oddly familiar…

But he didn’t dwell on it. Even if it rang a bell, it probably wasn’t directly related to the interrogation at hand.

“Was Constantine the only Dragon King collaborating with the human Empire?” Leon stared into Augu’s eyes as he asked the critical question.

Augu’s gaze shifted slightly, hesitating for a moment before answering, “Hah! You think the Crimson Flame were the only traitors?.”

As Augu explained, if this were a game of chess, then the human Empire and the Dragon Clan were two players holding the pieces, while Leon was a rogue piece that had disrupted the game.

And the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan had already been reduced to a sacrificial pawn.

With Constantine dead, the entire Crimson Flame Dragon Clan had lost its value in the Empire’s eyes.

Thus, Augu no longer felt any obligation to keep the Empire’s secrets.

He could use the information he had to bargain for a glimmer of survival—or at least a dignified death.

Augu was loyal to the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan and to Constantine.

But as for the human Empire?

Ha… what did they have to do with him?

“To my knowledge, there are at least five Dragon Kings that collaborated with the human Empire.”

Five Dragon Kings...

Even though Leon had mentally prepared for this, he was still astonished upon hearing the number.

So it seemed that, in the shadowy corners unknown to him, this conspiracy had already sunk its roots unimaginably deep.

And if these remaining Dragon Kings were on the same level as Constantine, it meant that the Empire was indeed planning “something massive.”

Something far beyond even Leon’s imagination.

In the midst of his surprise, Leon suddenly felt a soft touch on his shoulder.

He snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look. It was Roswitha.

The queen gave his shoulder a reassuring pat, signaling for him not to let the current information overwhelm him and to stay focused on the interrogation.

Leon nodded, pulling out a pen and a sheet of paper he had prepared in advance.

“Write down the names of all the Dragon Kings you know that are involved.”

Augu took the pen and paper, hesitating for a moment before beginning to write.

Leon wasn’t worried that Augu would write down random names, nor did he fear the dragon trying to frame other clans.

There was no need for that anymore.

Leon wasn’t about to take this list and interrogate the Dragon Kings one by one. Leaving aside his current magic reserves—which weren’t sufficient to support such an endeavor—the risks involved in such an approach were also unacceptable.

Plus, the Empire still held the upper hand. The intelligence Leon had gathered so far was far too limited for him to mount a proactive offense.

Augu surely realized this as well, which made the notion of setting them up for a “borrowed blade” attack utterly unnecessary.

After a few moments, Augu finished writing and handed the paper and pen back to Leon.

Looking over the names, Leon wasn’t surprised by what he saw. “Ravi, Blye, Jargus… Three Dragon Kings proficient in spatial magic.”

Roswitha’s grandmother had already warned the couple not long ago about these three Dragon Kings, who had mysteriously vanished without causing any major upheaval within their clans. This indicated that their departures had been carefully arranged behind the scenes.

There are no such coincidences in the world. Three Dragon Kings skilled in spatial magic left their tribes simultaneously, and it just so happened that all three of them had alliances with the Empire.

It’s not difficult to deduce—the Empire likely gathered them together with the intention of delivering a grand “gift” to General Lai.

On the list, there were also two other Dragon Kings:

Warhammer Dragon King · Adam.

Starshine Dragon King · Sta.

Similarly, these were names of Dragon Kings that Leon had never heard of in all these years.

He put away the list and then stood up, towering over Augus.

“Do you have anything else to add?”

Augus slowly closed his eyes and remained silent.

Leon didn’t continue pressing him.

Everything he wanted to know, he had already asked.

Leon looked up and gazed into the distance, spotting flames rapidly approaching—the pursuers must have arrived.

He withdrew his gaze and addressed Augus,

“It seems your fate is sealed, Augus. You won’t live to see the end of this chess game.”

With that, Leon turned and walked toward the edge of the forest with Roswitha.

But before he could take more than a few steps, he suddenly heard Augus shout from behind,

“Leon Casmod!”

Leon halted and turned back.

The old man glared with wide, furious eyes, and the half-burnt side of his face made him look even more terrifying—like an aging lion roaring toward Leon.

“You chose the wrong opponent! You have no idea how powerful the enemies you are about to face truly are!

“They will stop at nothing to kill you and take everything away from you!”

“Killing Constantine isn’t your first step toward victory; it’s your final moment of glory.”

“So… Leon, cherish the time you have left!”

“You cannot withstand the true retaliation of the Dragon Clan!”

“Crimson Flame Dragon King · Constantine—forever eternal!”

With a final roar of 'Long live King Constantine!', Augus' body erupted, his veins shimmering with a deep crimson glow beneath his skin, as though molten lava flowed through them.

In the next instant, Augus’s chest erupted, and a blazing flame shot into the night sky.

The shockwave and searing heat from the explosion surged outward. Roswitha unfurled her dragon wings, shielding herself and Leon from the blast.

“A self-detonation...”

“Yes, the proud Dragon Clan—they would never allow themselves to be trampled to death.”

And so, the Crimson Flame Dragon Clan would no longer have a chance at revival for the next century.

In that dazzling blaze, it seemed the echoes of Augus’s final roar to Leon still lingered—

You cannot withstand the true retaliation of the Dragon Clan.

What exactly… does this represent?