< 157. There Are No Bad Dragons in the World (29) >
Min-jun looked at Jenkins with a genuinely disdainful expression, which made Jenkins feel awkward.
In that moment, he began to doubt whether his counterpart was not a friend but someone disguised as one. Min-jun would never refuse a reward like a talant; he would even demand more if anything.
However, Min-jun had his reasons. He was certain that his detainee account would soon be frozen. Sending talants, even with special gift taxes added, would only benefit the committee.
Moreover, Min-jun no longer needed talants in the form of data or deposits. What he needed was tangible talants. But Jenkins did not seem capable of procuring meaningful amounts of physical talants.
And the final reason.
"This is likely to be the last time I'll be able to help you. For a while."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Stay here for a moment. Don't follow me."
Given the words of the tax collection officers he had killed, it was likely that the chaos at Inaïs's side was being caused by them.
It was a good opportunity.
When they deployed the number of soldiers they deemed appropriate, it was a chance to systematically reduce their numbers.
"Wait! Min-jun!"
Jenkins was disoriented by the darkness enveloping him. He had lost sight of Min-jun and shouted out.
"Even if you know the coordinates... How are you going to get there alone?!"
Teleporting to the other side of the world consumed immense magical power. Only beings like dragons or ancient races might wield such magic.
"Min-jun!"
Leaving Jenkins behind, Min-jun reached out into the void. Something flew out from the darkness—a dazed, bleeding alien creature. Grasping the neck of the Yuntus, Min-jun fiddled with the artifact he had been holding.
It was a spatial condensation magic tool. The Todd tribe had been unable to escape or break the isolation with it and had been annihilated, gripped by irrational fear.
He manipulated the artifact, grumbling about its crude structure and awkward controls. The barrier that had confined Jenkins was set to automatically dissolve over time.
It was sufficient to bind him temporarily. If not, Jenkins would disregard his warnings and chase him all the way to the Amazon.
Min-jun's brows twitched. That dragon would likely live until the day they met again, barring any unforeseen accidents.
"But what about the others?"
Faces flashed through his mind, and he pondered their remaining lifespans.
"..."
With a deeply focused gaze, Min-jun summoned his strength. There were no incantations. No slow activation typical of dark magic spatial movement.
Min-jun and the Yuntus vanished in an instant.
Inaïs felt the limits approaching.
'My egg... My egg...!'
Her eyes were tightly shut to protect her vision. She couldn't see the flames raging around her. All she felt was intense heat.
In a pit where no life other than dragons could survive, she repeated over and over. Her mind was half-dazed. Inaïs was afraid. She was terrified not only of losing her life but also of the defensive barrier she had focused on the egg breaking, causing her to lose it. It seemed that if things continued this way, terrifying futures would sequentially come to pass, which was despairing.
'No. It can't be.'
Now she was pouring even the magical power that sustained her life into the egg. Thanks to this, the hellish heat running over her back did not reach the egg's shell. In return, she had to endure the agony of being burned alive.
The hunters were persistent. They were truly what one would call dragon hunters. Todd had no interest in efficient slaughter. It seemed he enjoyed pushing the dragon into a dead end and slowly roasting it. The persistent hatred towards dragons from the last war made him savor the rare opportunity.
'They'll come.'
She spoke to both the egg and herself simultaneously.
They will come to help us.
That was the last hope she could cling to.
Unknowingly, she thought of the dead dragon once more.
'Lord.'
She recalled the communication that took place across the sea just before his death.
'Inaïs, you know, right? The egg you've laid this time is very special to me. Although all my children are special... this one is even more so.'
'Yes, you understood. You didn't agree or empathize with my wishes, but you respected the fact that I wanted it. I want to leave as many children resembling me in this world as possible. It may sound arrogant, but it seems like it will be an important asset for the future of dragons.'
'The birth rate among our kin is despairingly low. Despite being biologically designed to bear many offspring, few dragons show interest. To defeat the ancient races, we need to increase our numbers. And... we must prepare for even greater threats that might come in the far future.'
'Hmm? We don't know what that danger might be. We didn't anticipate the return of the ancient races. If other nightmares we dismissed as myths also become reality... Ah, forget that. Even as I say it, it seems a bit editorialized.'
'Anyway, whatever happens in the future, the more of our kind there are to face the situation, the better we will cope and overcome it. ...Even just a little. In that sense, this egg is special. It's special both in terms of increasing my offspring and the number of our kin. I've checked the records again, and there has never been a case like this. If we can uncover the hidden secrets in this egg's genes...'
'Oh, don't worry! I won't need to do anything until the egg hatches. And until then, it's best to keep it secret from the other dragons. It might be suspected of being a kind of deformity. Anyway, I'm already preparing for that day. Here, look. This is an artifact I won from Raymond. It's made by Endelion. ...Ah, don't look so stern. You don't have any war experience anyway? And it's not a weapon but a type that protects the wearer. So, now that you know the use, are you interested?'
'Why just one? Don't worry. I'll research it and make an identical copy...'
Whoosh!
Inaïs's thoughts were cut off.
Horrific pain. The poison had all burned away, revealing raw flesh that was already half-cooked and charred.
With a desire to faint and a strong urge to twist her body, she was unable to do so. She tried to open a spatial void to conceal the egg, but the space remained frozen and immobile.
She struggled to maintain consciousness, but the physical agony made it hard to focus. Moreover, she was already close to exhaustion.
Gradually, the barrier she had formed wavered.
'No, no!'
The sensation of a single layer of shell felt helpless.
She focused on the texture of what she held close. She felt the surface, which she had tried hard not to heat beyond body temperature, getting progressively hotter.
In the midst of despair, just as she was screaming.
Whoosh!
"...?!"
For a moment, Inaïs was so surprised that she almost forgot the pain.
The heat was receding.
The flames that had been burning and raging all around had miraculously subsided. Instead, the space was filled with deep darkness. It was an astonishingly fast transition. The darkness covered everything around her.
Soon, Inaïs could see nothing but herself.
A voice penetrated her mind.
=Stay huddled there, Dragon.=
She couldn't tell who the speaker was, but she was already determined not to move. She felt the frozen space thawing. Yet, the completely exhausted dragon could not muster the strength to move, only able to muster all her remaining strength to harden her body and protect the egg.
Amid the surge of sorrow, joy, and horror, she thought.
Is it Jenkins?
Did Jenkins intervene?
The guess was soon confirmed.
=The creditor of this debt is Jenkins. Remember that.=
With that final statement, the presence of the unknown entity withdrew from Inaïs.
And the surroundings fell silent. The darkness covering her severely damaged skin felt calm and cozy. Also, inexplicably, Inaïs felt the pain gradually subsiding. Even though her flesh was charred and severely damaged, there was a cooling sensation on her skin, which had been oozing and in tatters. Perhaps relief and joy had deceived her brain. Inaïs thought so.
And she curled up even more.
She whispered to the egg.
'It's okay now.'
The mental signal from inside the egg responded.
=...Really? Is it okay now?=
=Really? Are you not in pain?=
The returning mental signal was still in two strands, just like before.
But unlike the confusion and terror from before, the two strands of mental signals were now clearly distinguishable. Inaïs fully understood the whispers from the egg.
And she whispered to what could be the first twins in dragon history.
'It's okay. It will be okay now.'
Min-jun reluctantly withdrew his regretful gaze from the darkness.
His throat was still parched, and beneath his feet, a dragon lay immobile.
But he had no intention of laying a hand on that dragon. It was only natural not to disturb a beast with its offspring.
He was parched.
That longing easily turned into irritation and anger.
"Hey, where the hell is everyone? Damn it, the communicator is down!"
"This damn dragon... What the hell did it do!"
"Visuals unavailable! Visuals unavailable!"
Min-jun turned his head. He looked at the confused and stumbling Todd race in the darkness.
The culprits who had been slowly cooking the dragon until now.
The dragon with its egg.
'Lord, what were you hoping for from me?'
Min-jun noticed the two souls sharing a single egg shell.
Excessive follicle generation leading to multiple embryos.
In other words, twins within a single egg.
This was considered impossible among dragons of this era, but it was often witnessed in the past. Back then, it was even seen as a symbol of good fortune.
However, for modern dragons, such biological characteristics without precedents are considered deformities. To prepare for any eventualities before hatching, Dragon Lord and Inais kept this fact secret from their kin.
'You wouldn't make a slip of the tongue. There was something you wanted to convey to me.'
But he decided to set that question aside for a moment. In the darkness, there were harmful beasts attacking the egg-bearing mother.
The future that the dragon race might be gifted was not yet fully determined. In other words, until then, all dragons in this world belonged to them. They were still the masters of dragons.
And the harmful beasts that touched Min-jun's possessions needed to be eradicated.
Whoosh!
The darkness swirled.
-------!
In an instant, terrible screams began to echo from the once forest fire-ravaged jungle sky.
It didn't last long.
The prophet woke up, drenched in sweat.
"The prophecy has changed."
"What? Really?!"
The waiting orc's expression became serious.
The prophecy had been at a standstill for a long time. For the current point in time, only the future corresponding to 93 days later had been repeated.
Had something finally changed? If so, perhaps he could convey new information to the one he trusted most in this world... that agent.
The orc, Choi Bansuk, looked at his daughter with an expression full of anticipation. His nostrils flared in excitement. He waited impatiently.
Choi Seon-a calmed her ragged breathing, gently closed her eyes, and reviewed what she had seen.
"······."
After a long silence, she slightly parted her lips, as if about to say something. The orc couldn't contain himself.
"What happened?!"
Then his daughter mumbled.
"Uh... wasn't it changed?"
For the first time since his adopted daughter had graduated from adolescence, the orc felt a violent impulse towards her.
But he suppressed his impatient feelings and said,
"… Are you saying it's the same scene?"
She spoke slowly and calmly, as if contemplating her own words.
"Compared to before, the scene has certainly changed. However, it's unclear whether this means the future has changed or if the metaphorical scene we saw before has become more concrete."
Upon hearing the following words, the orc understood their meaning.
"Ugh."
A deep groan.
"We'll need time to think."
He stood up and looked out the window. The orc and his daughter both fell into their own thoughts. Choi Bansuk opened the window. The now chill October wind tickled his flat nose.
He flipped through the calendar in his mind. In 93 days, it would be December 31, 2020. Although it is already a significant "New Year's Eve," this year would be even more special.
'The day the new Dragon Lord of Earth is elected.'
This fact was already known through the media.
He reflected on the prophecy Choi Seon-a had just shared.
The timing was the same. The last day of 2020. The dragons lined up to go somewhere didn't differ from before. But the figure waiting at the end had changed.
While the shadows flooding the world remained the same, it was said that a figure known to both father and daughter sat among them, waiting for them.
'Agent Min-jun.'
Even when only shadows were visible in the prophetic landscape, Choi Seon-a had guessed that the figure was that agent. Since the prophecy centered on Min-jun, the outcome was naturally inevitable.
But this time, the face was clearly revealed, proving that guess to be true.
When the orc had heard this far, he was very confused.
'That agent wouldn't really break the dragon's goal... Could it be that they will?'
According to the prophecy, Choi Seon-a saw dragons lining up and approaching someone positioned high above, as if paying homage. It was Min-jun sitting in front of them. On closer observation, the chair Min-jun sat in appeared to be a kind of throne. The dragons lined up in order to approach him as if meeting a king.
And at the moment when all the dragons in the world, none of whom were exceptions, gathered in an obedient and kind manner.
They bowed their bodies to the ground. And with boundless respect and reverence, they cried out.
'Guide me. Lead me on the right path. My lord, be forever praised. My lord who has returned here across the distant ages!'
The language the dragons used to praise was not Korean.
The orc mulled over the meaning of those words.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't deny it. In the prophecy, Min-jun had risen to a very important status among them. In modern Earth, that position carries more meaning as a representative of their opinions rather than a ruler of the dragon race. The actual election process also employs a democratic voting method.
But what about in ancient times?
The orc quietly muttered those words.
"Dragon Lord."
Just as a master of slaves doesn't need to be a slave, and a master of livestock doesn't need to be livestock.
A Dragon Lord doesn't need to be a dragon.
"My God... you are."
The orc realized desperately what kind of existence Min-jun had become in the future seen by Choi Seon-a.
He was the new Dragon Lord of Earth.
D-93.
< 157. There Are No Bad Dragons in the World (29) > End