Dragon-Humans

As the roc snatched Han Yuhyeon and rocketed into the sky, he bit down hard on his lip. He knew this thing wasn't going to kill him. The roc held him without digging in its talons, and it wasn't even draining his spiritual energy.

Even so, the sheer mad ascent was at least ten times more terrifying than any roller coaster. He could barely breathe.

Once the initial surge of inertia passed, the roc leveled off and steadied both its speed and altitude. Yuhyeon still had his spiritual energy intact, but he made no attempt to escape. Even if he tore through a handful of talismans in a desperate struggle, he wasn't winning against this thing.

"Hey, Gojo."

He called out just in case. The roc dipped its head to look at him—and on closer inspection, it had tilted its head to the side like a girl playing cute.

"Ngae?"

"Yeah, yeah. You're not gonna kill me, right?"

"Ngae, ngae."

The roc nodded as if to put him at ease. As expected of a great demon beast—its intelligence was easily on par with a human's. Even if it didn't understand the words, it grasped the feeling behind them.

They landed at a cave high on a cliff face, its entrance yawning wide enough for something of the roc's size to come and go freely. Of course it would need an entrance that big.

"Ee-ee-eeing."

The sound it made this time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was nothing like the sharp, aggressive cry from before—it was almost cute. The roc set Yuhyeon down carefully inside the cave, releasing his foot only once he could stand on both legs. Even that felt considerate.

"Thanks."

"Ngae, ngae."

Unlike Biyong, whom he'd met before, this one didn't seem capable of human speech. Still, it appeared to catch the general meaning of what he said.

Now it was Yuhyeon's turn to ask questions.

"Why did you spare me?"

"Ngaee."

The roc raised its head, let out a cry, and headed deeper into the cave, glancing back at him every few steps.

"You want me to follow?"

The roc nodded. Yuhyeon trailed after it at a measured pace. The cave walls were studded with night-luminous pearls—nothing of particularly high quality, given they were still in Yeongil-ju, but stripping them all out and selling them would still fetch a handsome price.

Following the pearl-lined passage, they soon emerged into a vast chamber like an open plaza. This had to be the roc's home. The plaza served as a kind of living room, with several tunnels branching off from its center—bedrooms, presumably.

"Ngaeeae."

The roc entered one of the chambers, cried out, and looked back. This was what it wanted to show him.

Its massive body blocked the view, so Yuhyeon had to duck between its legs to see. Inside, thick layers of leaves had been arranged in a neat circle—like a rug in some wealthy household.

The roc slowly stepped into the nest of leaves, settled onto its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠side, and thumped its tail against the floor while staring at him.

"……?"

For a moment Yuhyeon doubted his own reasoning. No way. He was just being self-absorbed. That had to be it.

But when the roc let out that same cry and winked one eye, a chill ran down his spine. Come to think of it, that baby-like mewling was practically identical to the sound a cat in heat makes.

"Fuck."

The curse he'd been holding back slipped out before he could stop it.

Unbelievable as it was, this insane roc was courting him.

Yeonhwa Seonrok was an all-ages game. There was no event, no episode, where a demon beast made romantic advances. Even if it had been rated for adults, no developer with a functioning brain would put in a bestiality event with a demon beast.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Ngae, ngaeae."

When he asked, the roc arched its waist with deliberate allure—as if to say, you already know—and prodded its own chest with the horn on its head. Lie down here.

"……Are you out of your mind?"

The insult bypassed his brain entirely and fired straight from his spine. Even if he died right here, some things had to be said. That was the last shred of human dignity he could cling to. The roc seemed to understand, and hung its head.

He still couldn't figure out why. What about him could possibly have earned a demon beast's affection?

Wait. Was it possible the roc had mistaken him for a demon beast because of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the scales covering his body? That… actually made sense.

"I'm not a demon beast. I'm human."

"Ngaee?"

The roc cocked its head sideways, clearly not understanding. Please. Of all the things to not get…

His first confession in his entire life, and it was from a great demon beast. The horror of it was almost sublime. They said first experiences stayed with you forever—he was genuinely afraid this one had been branded into his brain as a permanent scar.

"Ee-ee-eeing."

The roc rose from the leaves, shook itself off, and left the chamber for another. The cave had quite a few rooms.

It lifted its snout with pride, as if showing off its home. The courtship wasn't over. Its eyes said something like, I own a dedicated twenty-six-pyeong apartment free and clear.

The last room was filled with every kind of treasure and magical implement—loot, apparently, taken from the cultivators and humans it had eaten.

"Eeing, eeing."

After displaying the hoard, the roc stepped into the doorway, jerked its chin at Yuhyeon, and flapped its wings.

The gesture said, all of this is yours. Yuhyeon looked at the roc and let out a long sigh.

"Hey. Gojo."

"Kiiing."

"I'm sorry. I just don't see you that way."

"Kiiiing……."

Once you'd decided someone wasn't your type, nothing else registered—not the apartment, not the résumé, nothing. That was true even between humans. Between different species, it went without saying.

Still, the roc's feelings seemed genuine, so he tried to be reasonably polite about it. Whether human or demon beast, confessing took courage. Or so he told himself.

"So… are you going to eat me now?"

"Kiiing?"

The roc shook its head with a look that said, what are you talking about? At least it wasn't the kind of ruthless great demon beast that ate people for rejecting its love confession. Then again, anything with human-level intelligence wouldn't murder—much less devour—someone just for saying no. That much was obvious.

Suddenly the roc began to shake itself hard. Feathers exploded off its body in a dense cloud, swirling until they filled the entire room. Dogs shed when they shake, sure—but enough to blot out the view?

Yuhyeon frowned and shielded his eyes from the storm of feathers. When they finally settled and he could see the roc again, he froze.

"Wait. You……."

Amazingly, the roc was covered in scales—just like him. Even its wings, once dense with feathers, were now sheathed in them. The sight was staggering.

"Kiiiiiiing."

"What the hell is this?"

Yuhyeon strode over with wide eyes and ran his hand across the scales. The roc flinched, then seemed to accept the touch—closing its eyes and coiling into a tight circle, as if incubating an egg. That was irritating in its own way, but he still needed answers.

"……They're the same."

He stroked the roc's scales with one hand, then his own. The texture was identical.

These scales had come from cultivating the True Dragon Ascending Heaven-Shocking Art. Was there some secret buried in that technique?

Then the roc cried out and began stretching its neck. The neck elongated grotesquely without end, while its torso thinned until it was nearly the same girth. Yuhyeon stared, dumbstruck, as the creature's form settled into something new—a long, serpentine blue body with legs, and a pair of deer antlers crowning its head.

"……Whoa."

He knew exactly what this form belonged to.

A dragon. In the world of Yeonhwa Seonrok, dragons appeared only with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠extreme rarity. One of their defining traits was free transformation of their outward form. Which meant this was no great demon beast roc at all—it was a dragon that had been wearing a roc's body.

And then the contents of the True Dragon Ascending Heaven-Shocking Art flashed through his mind.

So far, Yuhyeon had only cultivated as far as Rising Scales Shatter Mountains—the stage where scales erupted and mountains broke, and colossal strength settled into the body. The scales had risen. The strength had taken root.

He had been guessing that the scales would shed when he advanced to the next stage, Dragon Form Shakes the Qi—the stage of taking on a dragon's shape.

Which meant the True Dragon Ascending Heaven-Shocking Art was a technique bound to dragons.

And then another piece of information surfaced in his mind.

"Hold on."

The Dragon-humans. In Yeonhwa Seonrok, Dragon-humans were an extremely rare race you could roll at character creation—pure random chance.

As the name suggested, they were a half-dragon, half-human people.

A dragon's heart—the Dragon Heart—was among the greatest spiritual medicines in the entire setting. Dragons therefore lived in polymorphed forms to hide what they were. But a Dragon-human's heart was treated as nearly equivalent medicine, which meant cultivators would kill them without a second thought. Their rarity and low numbers were inevitable.

Of course, the penalty came with perks. Dragon-humans unlocked unique abilities and exclusive encounter events. Starting as one was hardcore fun mode.

That also explained why the dragon had failed to understand only the part about him being human. It had clearly sensed a dragon's presence from him—being told he was human simply didn't compute.

"You can't speak human language?"

Yuhyeon asked. The dragon that had been disguised as a roc nodded.

"Not even roughly?"

"Kiiiing."

This time it shook its head side to side. So it understood a little, at least. Good.

Given that it couldn't speak and had been disguising itself as a great demon beast, this dragon was almost certainly young. It had probably figured that if it looked strong enough, no cultivator would dare attack—a classic mistake among young dragons.

"Don't transform into a great demon beast. Stronger cultivators will come to hunt you down. And if they find out you're a dragon, they'll go after you with everything they have."

"Kiiiing?"

"Yeongil-ju is full of weak cultivators, so it might work here. But with your spiritual power and level, you'd definitely get hunted the moment you set foot in So-ui-ju. Until you're older, you're better off disguising yourself as a weak demon beast or ordinary animal."

"Kiiing, kiiing."

The dragon seemed to understand. It suddenly coiled its body, then—poof—erupted in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the dragon was gone. In its place sat a raccoon dog. A solid choice. Raccoon dogs weren't prized for food and looked harmless enough.

"Yeah. That's a much better way to live."

"Kiiiiing."

The dragon swished its raccoon-dog tail left and right, clearly pleased. When it had been playing cute as a roc, Yuhyeon had wanted to kill it on the spot. As a raccoon dog, the same act was almost adorable. Such was the tyranny of looks.

The raccoon dog padded over on all fours, a faded gold necklace clamped in its jaws, and stopped in front of him. Was it trying to give him the necklace? Yuhyeon held out his hand—and the raccoon dog sprang backward, shaking its head hard.

"Kyaaang, kyaaang."

Its cry had shifted to a raccoon dog's yowl with the transformation. It jerked its chin toward the treasure room.

"Huh?"

When he still didn't get it, the raccoon dog looked exasperated, darted back into the room, and came out clutching treasures in both paws, shoving them into Yuhyeon's hands.

"……All of this is mine?"

"Kyaaang."

The raccoon dog nodded.

If the confession had come now, he thought, he might actually have wavered for a second.