Chapter 17

[17] What Do I Do... About My Boyfriend?

He had talent. He was a genius.

Rokan showered Sia with praise about me.

Even more than he had in front of me, going on until his mouth practically went dry.

Throughout it all, the smile never left Sia’s face.

“Still, I want both of you to remember that you mustn’t grow complacent. No matter how much talent you have, Minjun, this will certainly be no easy task.”

“Of course.”

We hadn’t even started yet. It was too early to celebrate.

I had no intention of letting my guard down, either.

“Anyway, I’ll give Minjun all the help he needs, so don’t worry too much, Shasha.”

[Of course! I’m counting on you, Grandpa. Oh, Grandpa. Could you give him what I left with you yesterday?]

“I will.”

Was it a present?

I didn’t let it show, but I was curious.

“Then I’ll get in touch again soon.”

[Okay! It won’t be long until we can see each other again, Oppa. See you then! Call me when you get home!]

“Okay. I will.”

As soon as the call ended, I asked what the item was.

“Lord Rokan, what did Sia leave for me?”

“I’ll give it to you now.”

Rokan took the item Sia had left out of his subspace.

Unexpectedly, it was a wearable camera.

“Wear it whenever you enter a gate. Shasha and I will review the footage and analyze it. We’ll tell you what you did well and what you need to improve.”

There would have been limits to the feedback they could offer with an ordinary camera, but apparently, Sia had modified this one to capture even the slightest movements of mana.

When had she thought to make something like this?

She might be my girlfriend, but Sia really was a genius.

“Thank you for being so considerate.”

“Enough of that. Just focus on your training.”

“I’ll make sure I live up to your expectations, Lord Rokan.”

With everyone helping me this much, how could I possibly not give it my all?

And with that in mind...

“Lord Rokan. If it wouldn’t be an imposition... would you mind if I trained here for a little while before leaving?”

There wasn’t much for me to do even if I went home right now, and there wasn’t anywhere suitable nearby to train.

Besides, other than Sia, Rokan was the only person I could ask for advice about Dragon Speech.

If he gave me permission, I wanted to keep training here.

“Not just today. You’re welcome anytime.”

From the moment I received permission to use his lair until late that night, I gritted my teeth and devoted myself to training.

What did it mean to imbue something with my will? What was using Dragon Speech even supposed to feel like?

It felt like rowing through thin air.

Unsurprisingly, I still couldn’t use Dragon Speech by the time my training ended.

Well, I hadn’t expected to learn it overnight anyway.

Still, the day would come when I could use it freely.

Then, the following day...

After a quick breakfast, I immediately opened the hunter recruitment app and looked for gates I could raid.

Training was all well and good, but surely nothing beat actual combat.

After searching for a suitable gate, I decided to join a raid party for a D-rank gate about an hour away by public transportation.

‘It feels empty without her.’

Before the accident, Sia had been with me on more than nine out of ten gate raids.

Maybe that was why looking for a gate on my own and joining a raid without her felt so strange.

As soon as the raid party was formed, I called Sia.

A video call, of course.

She answered before the first ring had even finished.

“Good morning.”

[Good morning, Oppa! Did you sleep well?]

We began with an ordinary conversation, asking how the other had slept.

After briefly checking in on each other, we moved on to what had happened yesterday.

[Oppa, how was training yesterday? It was really tough, wasn’t it?]

“It wasn’t easy... but it wasn’t so hard that I thought I’d die, either.”

[That’s a relief, at least. Did you start getting a feel for it?]

“No, not yet. I still have no idea what a dragon’s will is supposed to be. Your grandfather helped me the whole time, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was saying.”

I vented to Sia about yesterday’s training.

I had specifically asked how to express my will, but Lord Rokan had demonstrated while explaining concepts that were utterly baffling to me.

Naturally, I hadn’t understood a thing.

[That’s normal at this stage. On that note, maybe I should watch you train next time.]

“We can only meet once a week. You couldn’t come watch even if you wanted to, could you?”

[We have video calls. I was going to watch that way. Oh, I bought a screen so I could video-call you!]

...A screen?

[I’m going to use it to watch you train. Since we can’t meet, I want to at least see you like this.]

“Ah...”

‘Like grandfather, like granddaughter.’

Sia switched cameras, saying she wanted to show me her new screen.

An enormous screen filled one wall. It was easily twice the size of the one I had seen in Rokan’s lair yesterday.

If we could see each other as often as an ordinary couple, Sia wouldn’t have gone this far.

The thought made my heart ache.

But more importantly...

“You already found a place?”

I was currently living in the home Sia had occupied before.

Since we couldn’t live together, I couldn’t help feeling bad about it.

I’d been wondering what she would do, since staying at her grandfather’s lair would probably be awkward for her under the circumstances.

It was a relief that she seemed to have found a place of her own.

[Yep! Grandpa and I looked around together, and this place seemed the best.]

“When you say you looked around with your grandfather... do you mean you built a lair?”

[Yep. I made it myself.]

So this was how dragons became homeowners.

Well, if you had a lair, there was no need to find a house.

[Come visit our lair soon, Oppa!]

“Of course. Should we have our next date at your lair?”

I ought to visit, both for a housewarming and a date at home.

I was also curious to see how Sia had decorated the place.

[Oh, yes! That sounds great!]

“Then where is it? If it’s not too far, I’ll come over myself.”

[Uh... it’s a little far, so getting here would be really difficult. I’ll come pick you up.]

“Where is it?”

Since I lived alone in Seoul, I’d assumed she would have chosen somewhere nearby. Apparently not.

Her grandfather was in Gangwon Province, so had she built her lair somewhere around there?

[Near Hallasan.]

“...Oh.”

Well, at least I’d get to eat all the tangerines I wanted.

We continued chatting about this and that until Sia said her battery was running low and that she would call again soon.

Feeling like we’d been talking for quite a while, I checked the call duration.

<Call duration: 03:53:12>

Even before all this, Sia and I had often talked for over an hour, but I thought this was the first time we’d ever stayed on the phone this long.

Still, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be the last.

Now, let’s see.

What time was it...?

“...I barely have any time left.”

I was supposed to meet the raid party at one in the afternoon.

It was currently 11:50 a.m.

The trip took about an hour by public transportation, so even if I got dressed and left right now, I would be cutting it awfully close.

“Ughhhh—”

If only I could teleport whenever I wanted, like Sia.

***

After spending roughly four hours on the phone with Minjun...

Since it was lunchtime, Sia visited her grandfather’s lair to eat with him.

“Grandpa!”

“Welcome, my dear Shasha. Have you eaten?”

A visit from his granddaughter was always a joy.

Rokan greeted her warmly.

“No. I came to eat with you.”

“Perfect timing. I was just about to have lunch myself.”

Before long, Rokan had laid out a generous meal, and the two began eating while chatting cheerfully.

“Grandpa, how did Oppa’s training go yesterday?”

She had already heard about it from Minjun during their lengthy call, but she wanted to hear her grandfather’s account as well.

Their perspectives would naturally be different.

“It’s only been a day, but I can already say for certain that he works very hard.”

She had heard similar praise yesterday, but she never tired of hearing good things about Minjun.

“I suspect your boyfriend will grow considerably faster than you expected. He might even learn to use Dragon Speech before long. Though that does give me some cause for concern.”

“Concern?”

Sia’s eyes wavered.

“Once he starts using Dragon Speech, the others of our kind will be able to sense his presence, however faintly.”

Almost no one knew it, but Sia and Rokan weren’t the only dragons on Earth. There were others, and the dragons were already aware of one another’s existence.

Thanks to the distinctive aura dragons possessed, they could sense each other no matter where in the world they were.

‘Until now, we’ve lived under a tacit agreement to keep our identities hidden...’

The problem was that once Minjun began using Dragon Speech, however imperfectly, the other dragons on Earth would be able to sense his aura.

“That... could be a problem.”

Apparently deciding it wasn’t as serious as she had feared, Sia let out a relieved breath.

But Rokan saw things differently.

“Shasha. This is far more serious than you think.”

Rokan knew that not every dragon here would look kindly upon Minjun.

It would be their first time encountering a human who could use Dragon Speech. Some might take an interest in him, even if they didn’t feel any particular affection.

But Rokan also knew there would be dragons who resented a mere human wielding Dragon Speech—the power of their great race.

“I... suppose you’re right.”

Accepting his point, Sia nodded weakly.

She wanted to deny it. She didn’t want to hear it. But even she had no choice but to face reality.

“Is there... anything I can do for him?”

Her voice was unusually subdued as she asked Rokan.

“Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do right now. And just to be safe, don’t tell Minjun about this yet. Learning of it now would do him no good.”

“All right...”

But there was one fact Rokan hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell even Sia.

Some ancient dragons, such as Rokan himself, awakened a third eye that could read the traces left on a soul rather than the body.

Once awakened, this eye allowed them not only to distinguish a good soul from an evil one, but also to see through to the very nature of that soul.

‘It seems none of the other dragons here have awakened it yet.’

As far as he knew, very few of the dragons who had settled on Earth were as old as he was.

But if one of his kin were to awaken that eye, just as he had...

And if they became able to read the records accumulated within Minjun’s soul...

That dragon’s reaction would go far beyond mere displeasure.