The Sea Dragon Who Gives Rewards
I was once again reminded of the sheer greatness of seasonings and spices like salt, sugar, and aromatic vegetables.
All those fish and wild berries I’d shoved into my mouth whenever I got hungry or bored because there was nothing else to eat… those weren’t real food.
But these? These were something else entirely.
Juicy meat dumplings that burst with savory broth hot enough to burn your tongue.
Vegetable dumplings that carried the rich, nutty aroma of fresh greens.
Dongpo pork that practically melted in your mouth, and a hearty beef noodle soup that finally satisfied my long-starved craving for carbs.
I had no idea how many plates I’d gone through by now. I was practically inhaling the food with loud chomps when I finally noticed something.
“Uh… aren’t you eating?”
Rin hadn’t ordered anything and was just sitting there watching me. I only realized it now.
“You looked really hungry, so please eat first. Watching you enjoy it so much is actually making me feel full too.”
“Oh, uh, really?”
I did feel a tiny bit guilty for a second…
“Well, if that’s how it is, I guess I can’t help it…?”
My tongue, my salivary glands, my hands—they all refused to listen to reason. There was no way I could force food on someone who said they were full, and I still had plenty of room left anyway.
So I kept moving, picking up more food, chewing, and swallowing.
Eight meat dumplings.
Eight vegetable dumplings.
Ten pieces of dongpo pork and ten stalks of bok choy.
Chewy beef noodles simmered in a rich pork broth, plus egg fried rice bursting with the fragrance of green onions.
I even scraped up every last drop of sauce and grain of rice from the plates.
It was the most satisfying meal I’d ever had. I couldn’t imagine anything better.
My once-soft belly, which I’d thought was basically a plush toy, now felt pleasantly tight.
Modern food? The sea dragon perk of being able to drink cold water? The romantic idea of roasting fish over a campfire?
I didn’t need any of that nonsense.
After more than two weeks without anything that actually tasted like real food, the salty-sweet perfection of dongpo pork and bok choy was enough to send my taste buds into absolute ecstasy.
This was seriously…
“The best.”
I placed a hand on my slightly swollen stomach and let out a deep sigh.
It really had been the perfect meal.
“Ah, um…”
Rin stared blankly at the silver coins in her pouch and started counting them.
And then—
-Thud!
Someone slammed a cup down on the wooden table so hard it nearly shattered.
“Did you enjoy your meal?”
Judging by his outfit, he was the chef of this inn.
“I am Gu, the suksu of this establishment.”
Apparently they called chefs suksu here. Whatever.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a customer eat so heartily. As a special treat, I’ll only charge you half price.”
“Half price!”
Rin, who had been pouting while counting the money, reacted loudly.
“That’s right, half. The young lady over there counting coins didn’t touch a single bite, after all. It seems this divine beast lady here ate everything for both of you?”
“No, no. It’s not because of her. I just have a small appetite.”
“Haha, no need to lie. A small appetite doesn’t mean you can survive without eating. I’ll specially throw in a free bowl of beef noodles. Why don’t you sit with the divine beast lady and have some tea together?”
“Th-thank you.”
“I’m already completely full, so after tea I’ll have the noodles too. It’s free anyway, right?”
“Should I? Well then…”
“And from now on I won’t eat this much. It’s been so long since I had real food that I got a little too excited…”
“No, no, I told you to eat without holding back. It’s fine. This is my first time meeting a divine beast in the real world, so I didn’t know how much you could eat. As expected, even their appetite is on a divine level, huh?”
“Real world?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Ah, never mind.”
Real world, real world…
What an idiot I was.
Of course people in Murim wouldn’t have any concept of anything outside of their “real world.” I can’t believe I slipped up like that.
‘I knew it. You’re a Murim League security guard, aren’t you?’
Confirmed. I had her completely figured out.
But I wasn’t planning to call her out on it. Every gallery user wants to cosplay as a normal person in the real world. We hadn’t known each other long enough to pry, so I decided to keep Rin’s secret for now.
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Why is there no one here?”
I’d been so focused on eating that I hadn’t noticed—the inn was completely empty.
-Slurp.
Rin took a sip of tea and gave me a bitter smile in response to my question.
“They all slipped out right after you started eating. Remember that guy who tried to pick a fight earlier? I think the others got scared and followed him out.”
“Oh, was there a fight?”
“Huh?”
“No, I was just really hungry…”
Maybe because I’d only been thinking about food, I couldn’t clearly remember what had happened back then.
Anyway.
“This tea is really good. It’s so refreshing.”
“Right? It’s top quality.”
For the first time since we met in that cave, we actually had a normal conversation—talking about food and tea like regular people.
We were dressed neatly, sipping tea, and enjoying a leisurely moment.
But then…
“Why isn’t the food coming out? He said he’d bring it, so it should be ready by now.”
“D-don’t rush him. It feels like we’re pressuring him…”
“Is it? But we can’t just sit here forever.”
“That’s true. Then… huh?”
Suddenly, Rin’s body swayed as she tried to stand up.
I thought she’d just stepped wrong, so I headed toward the kitchen to check on the suksu when—
“Wait! Don’t—!”
Rin’s shout was almost drowned out by the sound of something slicing through the air.
But my ears still caught it clearly.
“Hah!”
With a sharp shout, I snatched the dagger that had been flying straight for my throat.
“Ow, that stings… damn it.”
I’d grabbed it by the blade and ended up with a small cut on my hand. I quickly tossed the dagger aside and pressed on the bleeding spot with my other hand. A human silhouette slowly emerged from the direction the blade had come from.
“Haha, well now. I was aiming for your neck.”
That voice…
It was the same as the suksu from earlier. He was now wearing a hood that covered most of his face, leaving only his eyes visible.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I received a commission. To eliminate you two and bring back the divine beast’s horns and tail.”
“Are you that guy who picked a fight with me earlier?”
“Hardly. I’m far above him.”
“Then you must be from the Blood Cult.”
“…”
The fake suksu fell silent, clearly struck where it hurt.
“Well, thanks to you suddenly radiating killing intent, all the other Murim folks cleared out. Made my job a lot easier. All I had to do was twist the necks of the real suksu in the kitchen and the waiter who showed up.”
“You killed them by twisting their necks?”
“Yes. It would be troublesome if that ‘nose’ of yours found the corpses, wouldn’t it? I was told to avoid spilling blood if possible.”
Tap. Tap.
The moment I saw the fake suksu point at his own nose with that disgusting smirk, I was certain.
This was definitely an assassination ordered by the Blood Cult.
“Salmun…! How dare you accept a commission to assassinate a member of the Murim League? Do you really think your sect will survive this? You even used paralyzing poison…!”
“Tracking and concealment are our specialties. There’s no need to worry, girl.”
“Paralyzing poison…”
So Rin’s earlier stagger hadn’t been a misstep after all. She’d been hit by the poison and could no longer move properly.
“Ugh…”
In the end, Rin collapsed to the floor with a loud thud.
“Now it’s just you, divine beast. I’ll make it painless, so it’s best if you don’t resist. This body is a 2nd-class assassin of Salmun. I’ve even carried out missions to assassinate elders of mid-tier sects…”
The 2nd-class assassin from Salmun kept rambling on about his résumé.
I just stared quietly at his face.
His pupils were trembling slightly. Cold sweat was dripping down.
He was clearly nervous.
The reason was probably…
‘Because I’m not poisoned?’
He must have noticed my reaction.
I’d drunk way more tea than Rin. I’d practically been chugging it like water.
Even if the food the waiter first brought out was safe and made by the real suksu, the paralyzing poison in the tea should have been a lethal dose for me.
Not to mention the dagger that had cut my hand earlier. It must have been coated in poison too. That’s exactly what assassins would do.
And yet…
“Hmm.”
I clenched and unclenched my fist.
It was perfectly fine.
Even though becoming a sea dragon had greatly enhanced my senses and physical abilities, none of my stats had dropped at all.
It felt exactly like normal.
In other words—
“That paralyzing poison you used. It doesn’t seem to work on me?”
“…”
“Do you even know how to use martial arts? No, of course you do. But can you use it well?”
“…”
“You don’t have confidence, do you? Well, if you were actually good at martial arts, you wouldn’t be a 2nd-class assassin. You’d be 1st-class or special-class. So all you’ve got is poison, huh?”
“N-no, that’s not—”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure it isn’t.”
Hehe.
I grinned and stepped toward the assassin, who was backing away.
“S-stay back! I’ll turn you into a honeycomb!”
“You sure about that? I just caught the dagger you threw, remember? You’re standing right in front of me and I can read your eyes. Do you really think you can hit me accurately? Wouldn’t it be smarter to run away right now?”
“Damn it!”
The assassin, terrified, spun around and tried to flee.
But I was faster than his first step.
“Got—”
I grabbed the back of his head.
“—cha!”
And slammed him face-first into the floor.
“You carry the antidote, right? It’d be smart to hand it over while I’m still asking nicely. I’m a well-fed sea dragon who can devour a 2nd-class assassin from Salmun as easily as eating cake.”
I threw his own words about not resisting right back at him.
*
Rin has been poisoned with paralyzing toxin!
‘This is insane…’
Rin grimaced hard.
The tension had completely vanished.
She had thought that as long as Hae Sua was there, everything would be fine—even after facing that monstrous Blood Cult member.
But she’d fallen for such a classic, dirty trick: poisoning a female martial artist’s food.
It was a blunder.
If she couldn’t even guide a newbie properly, making such a basic mistake was inexcusable.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the overwhelming inner energy needed to suppress the paralyzing poison and stay conscious.
“Damn… it…”
She muttered curses in a tiny voice that barely came out.
As her consciousness faded, she lost awareness.
Then, as if she had overslept and woken up long after her usual alarm—
She opened her eyes feeling strangely refreshed.
And in front of her was—
“Huh…?”
Not the face of an assassin about to violate her and sell her to some shady brothel.
“You’re awake? I caught him.”
“What… is this?”
Hae Sua was sitting on the assassin’s head like it was a cushion, waving cheerfully.
“I probably shouldn’t have run away last time. Turns out I’m way stronger than I thought?”
At Hae Sua’s bright, innocent smile, Rin couldn’t hide her confusion…
“Can I interrogate him?”
But she quickly returned to her professional self and began glaring at the Salmun assassin with terrifying eyes.
She was a guardian of the Orthodox Murim, a member of the Murim League.
She couldn’t just ignore the existence of the Blood Cult, which threatened to throw the entire Murim into chaos, or the Salmun that seemed closely connected to them.