"Welcome back, Human."
A familiar voice, Sabathran suddenly turned his face to the lake. And, the Dragon was there, waiting.
"You know what you must do, yes?"
Sabathran didn't answer that question. Instead, he kneeled despite his numb leg. Then, he crossed his hands over his thighs.
"I will pay. But, can you tell me your name?"
"My name is Juthym Faymn. Dragon of The Lake, they call me. And I am the deity of wisdom."
Sabathran nodded.
"Now, close your eyes."
Sabathran closed his eyes. Cold sweat covered his body. He knows, in a split second, the Dragon will kill him.
Or not?
"Wha? What is this?" Sabathran held something in his right hand.
"Your pay, Human. I won't take your life. That was just a test. I gave the test to see your determination, and in the end, you are as relentless as you could be."
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Sabathran bowed his body over and over.
"That is the Gildas's Tool. It is a stone I found in the deepest part of the lake. It will turn everything you want to be gold."
"Really?!"
"Yes, try and turn that pebble over there to gold."
Sabathran then picked up a pebble. Then he put it near the stone, eager to turn it to gold. Then, the gravel turned into gold.
"This! This is amazing!"
"You shall return, Human."
"Yes! Thank you!"
Years later, Sabathran, Rahmiel, and Lucia didn't live in that fragile and small house. They live in a castle built with money Sabathran created after selling the gold. He is now one of the wealthiest people in the Ragna Empire.
They wore beautiful clothes, ate premium foods, drank the most expensive wine. But that happiness did not last long.
"Son, you must stop throwing your money to kill people. Please, I know you are better than this," said Rahmiel to him in the corridor.
Sabathran then turned his body, "Do you know what they did to me, you prick?!"
"Son," sadness enveloped Rahmiel's face.
"They trample my head on the floor! I beg for your cure for that annoying Black Blood! They deceived me over and over again! Of course, I would catch them and torture them before they died!"
"Please, Son. Don't do-"
Slap
Sabathran slapped Rahmiel's face so hard that she fell on the floor.
"You ungrateful prick! You shouldn't talk back to me! I am your saviour! If not me, you'll die there in that garbage house!"
Rahmiel sobbed. Her eyes started to be teary.
"I could just find this stone myself and not risk my life over yours!"
After that, Sabathran left to his chamber, then slept. When he woke up, he was not in his room. He can't see the gold mountain in his section. Instead, he only found a lake.
"Greetings, Human."
A familiar voice was heard. Sabathran turned his face and found Juthym showing his body completely over the lake.
"Juthym! My friend!" Sabathran raised his two arms. He said it like he was meeting an old friend of his.
"Don't address me in such a friendly manner, Human," Juthym said.
"What do you mean, Juthym?"
"Long ago, there was a child, a young child, who cried and asked for my tear for his mother. So I gave him, but I also tested him."
"Do you mean me? Of course, I passed your test, right?"
"I didn't say there was only one test."
"What, what do you mean?"
"After those ten years, I watched over you. In the beginning, you were compassionate. You bought Dragon's Tear and distributed them among the poor, you feed the poor, and you prison criminals. But, in the last two years, you have always neglected your mother. You slap her. You raised your voice. You chose violence when she tried to warn you about dangerous things. And with that, you failed your test; to love your mother who you gave up your life over to me."
"Wait, wait! Please! Let me-"
Juthym flew over the sky. Then he dived from the sky with his mouth open. After that, Sabathran was eaten.
"Hmph, he didn't even say sorry at the very end."
Juthym then went to the lake and submerged.
"I wonder that someone like him appears once more in the future."
At that dawn, Rahmiel knocked Sabathran's chamber. But, no answer. After she opened the room, she found Sabathran's skeleton on the mountain of gold he created. Then she cried ocean for a week.
That skeleton still holds the stone Juthym gave him.