< 71. Dragon Lover, Dragon Hater, Dragon Slayer (5) >
Minjun reunited with Edward Mitchell several days after subduing the monster.
He had matters to discuss with Jenkins before informing Edward of the results.
"What? You captured it?!"
The news of capturing the monster, which was a mix of dragon and alien creature, was not something that would make its way to the media.
Such an announcement would only amplify societal unrest and hinder the search for its origins.
So, there was no official announcement, but Edward was probably already aware. The cycle that recurs every three days was fulfilled, and no threatening videos had arrived. As the expectation turned into reality, relief finally appeared on Edward's face.
"Here is the evidence."
To convince Edward that the blackmailer was in custody, Minjun showed him the video.
"What do you think?"
"...It's unmistakable."
The creature on the screen was in its polymorph form— the pure-blooded elf body used when meeting Edward. She was reciting her current state as Minjun instructed.
To prove it wasn't a fake, the creature was narrating the details of the day that only the monster and the vampire knew. This was information Edward had never shared with Minjun.
Seemingly satisfied with the evidence, Minjun turned off the video.
"This woman will no longer bother Mr. Mitchell."
Edward hesitated before asking.
"Will you kill her?"
The agent shook his head.
"Sorry, but I can't disclose that."
Minjun then decided to reveal the part he had been contemplating, with some alterations.
Leaving her to live with the mistaken guilt of being a rapist, versus informing her that she was actually a victim and thereby causing trauma.
Minjun couldn't make a moral judgment on which was right.
However, from the perspective of a contractor paid to perform a job, he concluded it was best to tell her the closest thing to the 'truth.'
"But I will tell you this, Mr. Mitchell. The one who used the allure was not you."
"What?!"
Edward's face went pale as he listened to the explanation.
"It was a power to allure vampires?"
"Think of it as an ISP (Inborn Superpower) user who doesn't discriminate by species. Technically, it's not a true ISP since reproduction is possible, but... we'll skip the academic classifications."
Jenkins, who was busy absorbing the pharmaceutical aspects of the Heavenly Creation, planned to study the chemical components of the substance.
"My goodness, I can't believe it."
The vampire, who had become a rape victim instead of a rapist for the first time in Earth's history, muttered in disbelief.
"Do you happen to know what species it was?"
Minjun feigned ignorance.
"Does that matter?"
"...It does."
He couldn't reveal that dragon genes were mixed in. This was a promise he had made with Jenkins, who represented the dragon kin of this land. Instead, Minjun decided to provide another name for the creature.
"It was a creature similar to a spider."
A five-second silence.
"...Pardon?"
Edward, who had turned pale as a stone, asked again.
"I'm sorry. Did I hear that wrong..."
"You heard correctly. It was a spider-like creature."
"A spider? With eight legs... Is that what you mean?"
"Yes. There were definitely eight legs. Three of them were more like protruding internal organs than legs, though..."
"Ugh!"
In the end, Edward couldn't hold it in and rushed to the bathroom to vomit profusely.
Meanwhile, Minjun watched Edward's retreating figure and muttered to himself.
"Why make such a fuss when it was in polymorph form anyway? The number of legs doesn't really matter."
Having lived with a creature with twenty-six tentacles for decades, eight legs were just trivial.
After a while, Edward returned, looking even paler, and took his seat.
"...I'm sorry."
"It's alright."
The matter wasn't over yet. Edward brought up a sensitive topic he had been postponing.
"So, what about the children?"
The issue of the children's future was more delicate than how to deal with the monster. After all, they were still Edward's children.
"First, look at this screen."
It showed the interior of some facility. The boys Minjun had brought were being cared for by Jenkins' employees. There were more caregivers than children in the playroom. Books and toys were plentiful.
Edward spoke in a dazed tone.
"...There are four of them. Another one was born in the meantime."
"Yes."
The sight of the boys, who had noticeably grown over a few days, caught Edward's eye. The largest boy looked to be in a developmental state that could easily be mistaken for a ten-year-old.
Minjun said.
"If you wish, you can claim parental rights over these children. But before that, please listen to what I have to say."
Edward stared at the video as if mesmerized.
Four half-elf boys. They looked just like him, playing with innocent expressions on their faces. The cold, mannequin-like expressions were gone, replaced by wide smiles, then frowns, and finally tears. They displayed a range of emotions.
The children who had been controlled like marionettes under the queen spider's rule had returned to being ordinary children the moment she released them from their shackles.
Or, more precisely, they weren't truly ordinary. Although the results were like regular children, their growth rate was abnormal.
The children acquired language at an impossible speed for normal half-elves and displayed extraordinary development in intelligence, emotion, and physical abilities. The eldest, comforting the third child who was crying after falling while running, seemed more like a being older than a two-week-old.
To develop their brains, muscles, and bones at that speed required an enormous amount of energy.
In other words, their life force was depleting rapidly.
"The remaining lifespan of these children is about a year."
"!"
Edward, who had turned his head sharply to look at Minjun, gazed down at the screen again with trembling eyes.
"A year... you say?"
Edward had secretly rushed a genetic test for parental verification only.
But Jenkins had collected blood samples and conducted thorough analyses with top researchers.
The result revealed that while the monster inherited many traits of dragons in terms of magic and intelligence, its reproductive methods and outcomes were more akin to spiders.
In other words, these 'boys' were designed to grow rapidly like ordinary soldier spiders but were also meant to live short lives. Despite both the half-elf and dragon providing genes being long-lived species.
After explaining this aspect adequately, Minjun said.
"So there is no need to worry about the children claiming inheritance rights. Even if they tried to file a lawsuit, they would all die before it even reached the third trial. There's no need to worry about them having descendants. They were born with bodies incapable of reproducing. Furthermore, there are no plans to adopt them as someone's wards, as assured by the Immigration Bureau. However."
Minjun looked into Edward's eyes deeply, as if trying to discern his intentions.
"If the biological father, Mr. Mitchell, wishes to claim parental and custodial rights and care for the children himself, the Immigration Bureau will cooperate as much as possible."
"No."
Edward did not wait for Minjun to finish speaking.
With firm resolve, he repeated his statement.
"No."
Minjun silently watched him. The vampire slowly turned his head.
"These are not the children I wanted. If there were any way to avoid them, I would take it. They grow up, age, and die within a year, cannot have descendants, and their mother is a spider? Such... such a thing..."
The half-elf muttered softly.
"What kind of people are these?"
On the day Minjun captured the monster.
Jenkins was first horrified, then slightly terrified, and as time passed, he became furiously angry.
"Who would do such a vile thing with a dragon's body!"
The monster in front of him was a biological provocation against the dignity of dragons. Consequently, Jenkins initially wanted to kill her on the spot, but Minjun stopped him.
As Jenkins' subordinates continued their research, Jenkins began to feel hesitation and uncertainty, quite different from his initial resolute decision.
This crack led to a single question.
Can this creature truly be considered a dragon?
"I thought it was a chimera that recycled parts of a dragon's body, but it seems that's not the case."
Looking at the genetic level revealed clear characteristics.
"This is the result of an artificial 'crossbreeding' attempt. Judging by its condition, it wasn't a complete success. But it wasn't a total failure either. This might be a concept that theoretically existed but could never exist in nature... yes, it might be considered a hybrid of dragons."
Until now, interspecies entities that exhibited ISP (Inborn Superpower) against dragons, like Kim Yeon-ju, only tempted their targets without producing offspring from that love.
Minjun thought.
"If that's the case, is the Ober spider the only species capable of creating a dragon hybrid?"
A creature designed from birth to enable interspecies reproduction. Minjun could vaguely guess why the creators of the monster chose a spider.
Meanwhile, Jenkins felt as though his head was going to explode.
"The children born from that spider also have some dragon genes."
"I thought as much. My curse didn't work on them. It requires anti-magic power that only dragons could have."
Of course, the range of dragons couldn't be recklessly expanded at this point. But neither could Jenkins simply eliminate all of them.
In the end, Jenkins reached a compromise.
"I will protect the spider and the children for now, given their biological father's stance."
"I don't mind."
Minjun's concern lay elsewhere. The real reason for capturing the monster.
The convict and the dragon questioned the mutant.
"Now, tell us everything. Where did you come from? Where were you born?"
And another crucial question.
"Why were you searching for the Dalant relic?"
Shaking, the monster answered.
Unlike normal dragons, the monster did not retain memories from the moment of birth.
At the time of its birth, its mind seemed closer to that of a spider than a dragon. However, as time passed, a faint light began to appear on the dark walls of its mind, gradually illuminating its once-dark consciousness.
A self-awareness emerged.
And it began to remember what it had experienced.
=They experimented on me... many, many experiments.=
Realizing that its fate depended on the agents and the Red Dragon before it, the monster complied with the questions.
According to the monster's memories, those conducting the experiments considered it a failure. During the process of mixing genes, it failed to achieve harmony and had many deficient aspects.
"Did you see what kind of people the researchers were?"
"No, I only ever received mental waves. It was similar to how I'm transmitting my will now."
Upon hearing that there seemed to be other creatures similar to the spider monster based on their conversation, both of their faces hardened rapidly.
"I'm not sure how long I was in that state. One day, I just woke up and found myself 'outside.'"
Since it hadn't known of the outside world, it had never attempted to escape.
It simply woke up and found itself outside.
'So it was released.'
The creators of the monster had, for some unknown reason, let it loose into society.
"When did that happen?"
"Approximately... 10 years ago."
Minjun frowned.
A monster like that had been roaming for 10 years, and he hadn't known about it?
But the subsequent information clarified the mystery.
The place where she was initially released was where the People's Republic of China used to be, and she had lived for a while moving through the successor states of old China.
"Remarkably, she wasn't caught."
It was relatively recent that she had come to Korea. Minjun frowned upon hearing the date.
"Right after Changcheon's death?"
The news of Changcheon's death was bound to be major news that would be covered by the media.
The report that the ancient dragon had committed a major crime violating both domestic laws and Draconic codes, and was punished by another Elder Dragon, was featured as an exclusive by foreign media as well.
Meanwhile, information that would not have leaked if Changcheon had been alive also made the news. There was widespread public interest in how her assets would be distributed, but it was later revealed by bank employees that a large amount of Dalant had been stolen.
Of course, ordinary people were mostly unaware of such things and paid little attention.
However, there was a monster that was listening to that news.