The Lawful Wife's Gambit
On a silent night in Pyongyang, a heavy stillness hung over the conference room of the Workers' Party Central Committee building.
Everyone sat holding their breath. Amid that quiet, Kim Ung-cheol rose slowly from his seat, his face tight with fury.
"What in the world is the meaning of this?"
His eyes flashed as they moved from one cadre to the next. Not a soul in the room dared meet them.
"A single dragon, and our corps and combat air wing were wiped out?!"
He clenched his fist and slammed it down on the table. The air in the room grew heavy in an instant, and several of the cadres hunched their shoulders.
"I will not tolerate this incompetence a moment longer."
"I would call the responsible men to account, but they are already in the afterlife. There is nothing left to do to them."
"But every officer of the neighboring units who failed to take further action afterward will answer for it."
The words had barely left his mouth before the conference room doors opened and the guards came in.
Among the cadres present, those attached to the units stationed nearest the annihilated force were dragged out before they could utter a word. Those who remained glanced at one another, faces drawn tight. Kim Ung-cheol smiled coldly and added one last thing.
"From this moment on, you will see to it that nothing of the sort ever happens again. Mark my words. This is your final warning."
The cadres answered in voices steeped in tension and filed out of the room.
Once more, only a heavy silence remained. Kim Ung-cheol let out a long breath and stared through the window.
"That vermin of a lizard... I swear I'll see the bastard dead."
Kang Do-hyun, president of the Korean Hunter Association, wanted nothing more than to clutch his head and look away from the report in front of him.
The deaths of Team Leader Kang In-ho and his hunters were already a disaster past the point of a mere headache, and the hunters sent in on the second reconnaissance had been defeated as well. It was no ordinary loss. The Association's own elite team — hunters ranked at least upper B, men and women who had matched their rhythm together for well over a decade — had been utterly crushed in a matter of minutes.
If there was any mercy in the misfortune, it was that no one had been maimed or killed. Even so, the Association's prestige had been driven into the dirt.
For the sake of his public image, and to set an example, he had long since quit. Now he set a cigarette between his lips all the same.
"Why did you have to go and do it, In-ho..."
For more than ten years Kang In-ho had served under the Association and earned the respect of nearly every employee there. His death had shaken the place to its foundations. The seat of the big brother who had looked after even the part-timers with meticulous care was empty in a single stroke.
"Haa..."
He breathed out smoke along with the sigh, and a headache throbbed behind his eyes as he turned over the Association's present state. Inside these walls, the talk of avenging Team Leader Kang In-ho never ceased. Outside them, scorn was already pouring down on an Association that had failed twice. And the major guilds, well aware that this was their chance, were quietly spreading word of the Association's disgrace and incompetence.
"My head doesn't just ache. It's about to split..."
He had already burned through more than half a pack, chain-smoking, and still no plan for containing the disaster would take shape in his mind. He reached for the pack on the desk to set a fresh cigarette between his lips — and from the news he had left running came words he could not ignore.
If he handled this well, he could put out the fire closest to his feet. The thought flickered through the president's mind.
She offered a greeting, then looked at me with an easy, bright smile, and I could not help but admire the nerve of it. I had known she was no ordinary woman. I had not expected her to be quite this shameless.
When I said nothing, she came closer and laid a hand on my wing as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Mm. Softer than I expected."
She stroked the membrane slowly. Where had the woman gone who had been wound tight with fear at the start? Watching her caress my body so casually, I was at a loss for words.
"Your gall hasn't merely crawled out of your belly. It seems to have burst."
"Nothing of the sort. I only wished to brush the dust from your body, Lord Dragon."
She answered me without missing a beat, wiping the stretch of wing within her reach with something like a thin cloth. I shook her off.
"Did anything happen just before I returned?"
She sank into thought for a moment, head tipped to one side. With a face like hers to carry it, the gesture was rather worth looking at. Then, as if it had come back to her, she told me.
"Now that you mention it, just before you returned, mana moved noticeably across this entire land."
"Is that so."
So it was confirmed: even when the Gate expanded, there was no particular danger. I had half expected each expansion to bring some cataclysmic upheaval, heaven and earth overturned, but the women were perfectly unharmed. No real problem, then.
"Lord Dragon, we thought we might go back once and bring more of our belongings."
"Do as you like. Do not trouble me with every trifling matter."
"Yes. Even so, I worry that someone might do you harm while I am away."
"Anyone with the strength to harm me would find the likes of you irrelevant, whether you were here or not."
"Do not overestimate yourself."
My rebuke did not cow her in the slightest. She only smiled, soft and bright, and I did not care for the look on her face.
"Even so, if someone should come to interfere with you, please tear this talisman."
"I will come running at once."
She bowed deeply after that, gathered the two waiting behind her, and left the cave.
"And yet I, the Gate Boss, am alive and well. How exactly do they mean to leave the Gate?"
The question nagged at me a little, but they must have had something to rely on. I let it pass.
A hush settled through the cave.
I had spent decades here. Why did it suddenly feel empty? If the feeling was that I wanted to speak with humans, then no — absolutely not. I had no need of their affection either. It was only that... since I had become this body, no living thing had ever remained beside me for so long. That had to be it.
At last I found an answer I could accept, and something that had been stifling me came loose. I took my place in the cave, curled my body, and lay down. Sleep would not come yet. I only wanted to savor a familiar quiet that felt long overdue.
"The shrine maiden has a stronger heart than I thought."
The moment the god's power carried us out of the Gate, Yuki, silent until then, looked at me as if I were something remarkable.
"Honestly, that dragon seems gentler than I expected, but you were far too familiar with him."
"Was I? His words are harsh, and so is his appearance, but I sensed neither malice nor killing intent."
"Usually, even without killing intent or hostility, an atmosphere like that makes it hard to get a word out."
Ayana nodded quietly.
"I was quite surprised myself. I didn't stop you, thinking the shrine maiden must have had her reasons..."
"Every moment my heart was pounding so hard my throat went stiff."
"Is that so? If you look closely, don't you think he's rather cute?"
At that, the two of them shook their heads hard.
He grew angry, and yet he never truly drove us off. To my eyes that was rather endearing. They simply weren't used to him yet. Even so, Lord Dragon was still no different from the beginning. He was granting me a measure of tolerance born of curiosity — but if I failed to make something that would let me remain at his side before that curiosity ran out...
Being driven from his side would not be the end of it. Because whatever else he was, he was a dragon.
The fact I had been trying so hard to avoid brought a faint heaviness with it. Then the warmth I had felt while holding him as he slept softened that heaviness in turn. A small wish — that next time I might savor that warmth to my heart's content — I folded carefully away and tucked into a corner of my heart.
We traded a little idle talk and headed for a nearby shopping street. We were just gathering the simple necessities we needed when Ayana's phone rang.
"Yes, hello?"
"Ah, is this Ayana?"
"Yes, this is she. President, what can I do for you?"
"The shrine maiden's with you, right? Put her on, now!"
At the urgent voice coming through the line, Ayana handed me the phone at once.
"Yes, this is Shiraishi Tsubaki."
"This is bad. Official news just broke — an inter-Korean summit is going to be held any day now!"
"Yes? Is that so...? Is that a serious problem?"
"The whole subject of this North-South summit is that dragon, that's why!"
At the president's words, a dizzying thought flashed through my mind.
I already knew Lord Dragon had clashed with humans somewhere else. I had not even managed to raise the matter properly, and already the two countries were holding a summit. As a third party, I had no right to speak at all. What could I say, when the two nations that had suffered the harm directly meant to sit down together?
"President, the summit is still some time off, isn't it?"
I steadied my trembling body and asked him.
"That's right. There's still about a week."
A mercy in the midst of misfortune. If time still remained, then somehow there was a way. Lord Dragon himself, honestly, would not take any great harm even if North and South both threw themselves at him. But I had already told him I would protect him. At the very least, I could not let it look as though the humans had struck first.
"President, would it be possible for us to arrange a meeting of our own before the inter-Korean summit?"