Chapter 165: Dragon and Yong
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 165: Dragon and Yong
It didn’t take long for the Red Dragon to return.
She flew off with a whoosh and was back in a flash.
If I had tried to escape, she probably would have caught me at the foot of the volcano.
“You’ve been a good guard, haven’t you?”
“Gekgek.”
I’d considered running a few times, but there was no need to voice that thought.
Not that I had a way to, anyway.
The Red Dragon returned carrying a large bundle.
Actually, calling it a bundle was an understatement. It looked more like she’d torn off a piece of a house and brought it with her.
And what was it? A collection of items that could be called the symbol of a Red Dragon.
Things that inspired awe and captured one’s gaze just by looking at them.
“You’re still a baby, after all.”
It was treasure.
Gold and jewels!
“Gegegek!”
There were golden statues, of course, but also gems that looked like garnets and sapphires. There was even armor and a sword that didn't seem to be of Eastern origin.
There were so many rare and precious items that the gold and silver coins scattered among them looked like common pebbles.
How much would all this be worth?
No, forget taking it all—just one of those “pebbles” would make me a millionaire.
…Though it’s not like I have anywhere to spend it.
I wonder if Master would like it if I gave her some?
Wouldn’t she praise me and dote on me for a job well done?
The Snake Queen would probably be happy, too, if I brought her something pretty.
Should I grab a few for that Tang girl?
She seems to come from a prestigious family, but whenever I mention my scales or poison, she gets this crazed look in her eyes and starts talking about money. She doesn’t seem all that well-off.
“Gekgek.”
“…Hm?”
I was trying to sneak a few gold coins when my eyes met the Red Dragon’s.
“Baby, what are you doing?”
I quietly put them back.
“The statue is here, so you should sit next to it.”
“Gek?”
I thought she was angry that I’d touched the gold coins, but thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case.
She gently pulled my tail, adjusting my position.
“It definitely looks better here.”
…Huh?
The Red Dragon then arranged the other decorative items in suitable places.
Does that mean she sees me as a kind of decoration, too?
“This way, if someone tries to steal anything, I’ll know immediately.”
Flames flickered around her, as if warning anyone who dared to covet her belongings.
“Not that any fool would dare touch my things.”
“Geek…”
“You’re an exception, of course. A golden crown placed on a statue doesn’t mean the statue has disappeared, does it?”
Should I take that as a compliment?
It felt like I’d been given a special privilege, but also like she was saying it didn’t matter since I was her property anyway.
I mulled it over, but there was nothing I could do right now.
After the arrival of the gold and jewels, my life became much more comfortable.
You might wonder what I mean, since I couldn’t use any of it, but treasures like these tend to lose their value when exposed to high temperatures.
And this was the peak of a volcano.
There was no way they could withstand a temperature that felt like you’d catch fire just by breathing.
So, the reason the Red Dragon left her treasures here was…
She had some way of lowering the temperature.
Fshhh…
Just as I expected, the temperature in what she claimed was her nest wasn’t very high.
I don’t know what trick she used, but a cool chill constantly radiated out, keeping the area comfortable.
Thanks to that, it was now cool enough for me to move around without my fur hide.
“So young, and already like this.”
“Gekgek?”
The Red Dragon muttered something I didn’t understand.
I mean, what’s the big deal about taking off a fur hide?
I used to get around without one all the time.
*
More time passed while I was confined to the Red Dragon’s nest.
I say confined, but I was living a life of relative luxury.
The Red Dragon would bring me food even when I just sat around, and since we were on a volcano where water was scarce, she even brought me fruits full of moisture.
All I had to do was lie on my back, scratch my belly, and open my mouth, and food would appear.
Of course, every time she fed me, she would mutter, “When will you be fully grown?” and it reminded me of a scene from a fairy tale, making me shrink back instinctively.
You know the one.
Where the witch deliberately fattens up the children to eat them.
The children in the story bought time by sticking out a bone to fool the nearly blind witch, but unfortunately, the Red Dragon’s eyesight is excellent. She’s a dragon, so she probably has something like Dragon Eyes.
Of course, I knew the Red Dragon wouldn’t actually eat me.
But that didn’t mean I could relax.
She definitely said she would “raise me up and eat me.”
If she didn’t mean chewing me up and swallowing, then the meaning was…
“Geeeng…”
Still, I wasn’t just living a shameless life of being fed and rolling around.
I was also learning various techniques from the Red Dragon.
“You’re a fast learner, baby. You even know how to shoot a beam from your mouth.”
The Red Dragon praised me after seeing my Gekgek Death Beam.
“But that’s a technique ordinary snakes use. For our kind, it’s less about that and more about…”
Swoooosh.
She took a deep breath.
FWOOOOSH!
And spat a torrent of red flames into the air.
“This is more our style.”
A breath weapon!
My tail wagged uncontrollably.
The Red Dragon before me was, without a doubt, a true Dragon.
A Dragon’s Breath… it was certainly an attractive skill.
But my Gekgek Death Beam was nothing to scoff at, either.
“Of course, there’s no harm in having that too. But if you walk the path of a dragon, you’ll often find yourself fighting against multiple powerful foes.”
The best option was to use both without giving up either.
“It’s a wide-spreading attack, and you can use it just by breathing in and out. It might be too much for you now, baby, but you’ll be able to learn it in the distant future if you walk the path of a dragon.”
“Gekgek.”
I’ll probably be able to use it as soon as I evolve into a Salamander.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a simple breath like a Dragon’s; I’d have to apply my ability to handle fire energy.
Meeting the Red Dragon didn’t seem so bad for me.
It was like meeting a senior who was further along the same path.
I was able to learn all sorts of things about Dragons.
I should learn what I can while I have the chance.
Even if I can’t become a Heaven Breaking Dragon, I should be able to aim for a lower-rank dragon after this next evolution.
And if I do become a Heaven Breaking Dragon, all the better.
The Red Dragon seemed to have noticed this, as she frequently showed off her draconic techniques.
So I watched her skills, ate more food, and tried to imitate the speech of spiritual beasts instead of just making ‘gekgek’ sounds.
Time passed like that.
“Hmm… strange. You should have started talking by now.”
The Red Dragon gently stroked my head.
She seemed to feel sorry for me, as I still couldn’t speak.
Does she think I’m a slightly slow lizard?
But it’s unfair.
I was originally human, so it was only natural that I couldn’t speak the language of lizards.
Besides, when I was born as a lizard, I had no parents and was immediately chased by an Oviraptor.
Of course I couldn’t speak.
But since I couldn’t explain that long, complicated story, I guess it couldn’t be helped.
“Should I hold you and teach you Sound Transmission? …No, would that even work if you don’t know words?”
“Gek!”
There’s a solution!
“Gekgek!”
I’m not the one who doesn’t know words.
I’m understanding you perfectly right now, aren’t I?
I just don’t know how to speak.
If I learned Sound Transmission, we could communicate easily.
I nodded my head frantically, but the Red Dragon didn’t catch my meaning.
“Geek…”
Come on, if I’m nodding and jumping up and down, it means ‘teach me.’ Why don’t you get it?
I glanced at her, but she had her eyes closed, seemingly lost in another thought.
“Gek?”
“Ah, I was just thinking for a moment.”
Alright, let’s try to appeal for Sound Transmission one more time.
I was preparing to nip at her when she spoke.
“Baby. Could you sit here for a moment?”
At the Red Dragon’s request, I rested my head on her lap.
“Umm… this isn’t what I meant, but well, I don’t mind.”
“Gekgek.”
“Baby. How much do you know about Yong?”
“Gek.”
The Red Dragon couldn’t understand me.
That meant she wasn’t expecting an answer, but just wanted to say something herself.
My role was just to listen.
“In a way, you could say I’m a Yong, too.”
It might seem random, but the Red Dragon was like that sometimes.
Maybe because I couldn’t speak the language of spiritual beasts yet, she felt safe telling me all sorts of things.
Like how there was a woman named Irihwa in the Mount Hua Sect, what kind of food she liked, who the sect leader was, and what he’d done.
It seemed she thought of me as a sort of personal bamboo forest.
…Though considering the Red Dragon’s personality, it’s not like she’d hold back from saying what she wanted anyway.
“But it seems the Yong that people talk about carry something called a Dragon Pearl.”
A counseling session.
Maybe that’s what this was.
Sometimes, a problem can be solved just by having someone listen.
Of course, this too was far from the usual Red Dragon, but you can’t know everything about a person from their appearance.
“Honestly, I’ve never been envious. I’ve never seen a Yong with a Dragon Pearl, but I don’t think I would lose.”
“Gekgek.”
“But they say a Yong with a Dragon Pearl can control the weather. Did you know?”
Unlike Western Dragons, Eastern Yong are treated as gods.
Their power to control the weather stems from that.
“I was so envious of that.”
The Red Dragon calmly stroked my scales.
“Of course, I can imitate it to some extent.”
She probably could, just as she said.
A drought, for instance.
If she released her fire energy intensely, the ground would crack and the water would dry up.
“But it’s nothing more than an imitation.”
There was a fundamental difference from the power of a Yong.
“They say a Yong doesn’t even need to do that. They make it rain and make the land fertile.”
Her power was that of a monster that sickened the land, not the power of a god that made it bountiful.
“The warmth of spring, the heat of summer.”
The Red Dragon’s golden eyes looked at me.
“The coolness of autumn, the cold of winter.”
“Gek…”
“They say they can decide as they please. When I heard that, I became a little envious of the Yong.”
The Red Dragon gently pinched my cheek.
“Baby.”
“Gekgek.”
“There’s one thing that even my flames can’t melt. Can you believe that?”
Something the Red Dragon’s fire can’t melt?
It was hard to believe.
I thought my Master might be able to withstand it, but she didn’t seem to be talking about her.
“There’s something in this world that is the coldest and, at the same time, the most insignificant.”
The Red Dragon smiled faintly.
“No matter how hard I try, my artificial flames can’t seem to melt it.”
“Gek?”
“The warm energy of spring, the scorching heat of summer. I think maybe those could melt it.”
Something that the Red Dragon’s fire can’t melt would melt because of the weather?
That was the sound of Tang Soyeong’s internal energy pouch getting bigger.
Meaning, there was no way that was true.
“I wonder if a Yong could melt it for me.”
The Red Dragon stared at me intently.
Silence fell.
“…What was I talking about again?”
The Red Dragon immediately broke the silence.
As naturally and playfully as she always did.
“That’s a little embarrassing.”
She stroked my head as if it were nothing.
“Is it because I feel strangely at ease with you? I think it’s a good thing you haven’t learned to talk yet.”
Why would you say something so scary?
Was I just imagining that she meant if I could speak the language of spiritual beasts, she would have burned me to a crisp to destroy the evidence?
“Geeeek…”
It must be her unique brand of humor.
“Anyway, you get it, right?”
The Red Dragon gave me a clumsy wink, closing one eye.
“Later, if you become a Yong, will you melt what I couldn’t?”
If I could become a Yong, what couldn’t I do?
“Gekgek!”
“Well, it’s probably faster for me to create a Dragon Pearl than for you to become a Yong, baby.”
“Geeeeng…”
The Red Dragon grinned slyly.
“Anyway, that’s a promise, okay?”
“Gekgek!”
Alright.
I’ll do anything if I become a Yong, so can you please teach me that Sound Transmission thing now?
But the Red Dragon, not understanding my words, just played with my scales for a long time.
“Gek…”
A powerless lizard could only be toyed with.
…
…But why does it suddenly feel a little colder? Is it just my imagination?
Is it because I took off the Fire Rat fur coat?
I feel a slightly familiar chill…