BONUS. Bret and Ranya
"Haha... so I'm dead."
The space Bret opened his eyes to was pure, endless white.
And the figure standing before him was none other than a woman with long, flowing blue hair.
Still, Bret could sense it instinctively — she wielded the same power as the Azure Dragon's Successor he had faced not long ago.
"So it's you. The sinner my junior sent my way."
The figure before Bret was none other than the Sixth Azure Dragon.
As the goddess who governed the heavens, overseeing the souls of the dead was also the Azure Dragon's duty — so her appearance here was no coincidence at all.
"Every one of your sins has been watched from the heavens. You slaughtered and violated people with unspeakable cruelty."
"Yes...."
"Your fate was never meant to be this, of course. Your destiny was to live out your days with your beloved, growing old together until death took you gently in the end."
"....."
The happiness he had longed for his entire life had, all along, been his true fate...
Crushed under the weight of a misery beyond words, Bret wept.
"But I cannot say your sins were none of our concern. As my junior told you, 'he' is a source of shame to us Azure Dragons."
"The reason my junior revealed that information to you was out of a hope that even if you committed terrible acts, you would come to repent — that you would prove yourself different from him."
"'He' would never repent for what he did to a victim like you — and in truth, he never has."
"So pay for your sins in hell. Three hundred years, give or take. Reflect upon your evil deeds in the flames."
Just then—
"L-Lord Azure Dragon!!!"
A woman's voice rang out from behind Bret, who stood awaiting judgment.
Tears still streaming, Bret's eyes flew wide open and he spun around in a panic.
There, running toward him from behind, stood Ranya — a face he knew so well, and one that had always been beautiful in his eyes.
"C-Could you... spare just three minutes of your time?"
"...So you're the one who helped my junior. Very well. I will grant it. But know this — my judgment will not be overturned."
"Yes, my lord."
The moment Ranya gave her answer, the Sixth Azure Dragon vanished in an instant.
"...Ra... Ranya!"
"Bret. I'm angry with you."
"Wh... what?"
"Did you really think I'd be happy about what you were doing? Watching you suffer and hurt from right beside you, unable to do a single thing — do you have any idea what that felt like for me?!"
"Wh... what? You were... beside me...?"
"Yes! I was! Everywhere, always! The man who used to smile so easily never really smiled again after I died... You fool, why do you insist on carrying that wound around? Go find someone else to mend it — live your life!"
"...How... how could I...? Your last words as you died still echo in my head... How could I ever...!"
"That's exactly my point! Why do you keep dwelling on it? It wasn't your fault, and it wasn't mine — it was that bastard's fault! Why did you have to go and commit such terrible acts over it?!"
Voice cracking with sobs, Ranya poured every word into him like arrows.
Bret simply pulled her into his arms and wept, great heaving sobs that would not stop.
All too soon, those three minutes slipped away far faster than the lovers wanted, and at last the moment arrived that they both prayed never would.
"All time granted has now passed. Let the judgment stand as delivered. Bret, once you descend into hell, every bond you forged in your previous life will be severed. You may never reunite with them. You may never see them again."
"I... I understand."
Even knowing he would never see Ranya again, Bret was fated to atone for his past and enter hell.
"However — through your beloved and my junior, I have come to know that you truly repented for your sins, and this confirms the possibility of your redemption. I shall bind your fate to Ranya's once more."
Thanks to Hyeon and Ranya, Bret had found at least a sliver of remorse in those brief three minutes — and it earned him a thread of destiny that would let him find Ranya again in his next life.
Next came Ranya's judgment... except—
"I'm sorry, but why exactly are you going to hell?"
"....."
Unlike Bret, Ranya had committed hardly any misdeeds at all — and the few she had were trivial things. Moving someone else's hammer without permission and shifting where it sat, that sort of thing. So trifling were they that her immediate reincarnation had already been decided.
And yet, driven by a single stubborn resolve to go wherever Bret went, Ranya had chosen hell.
"Do you find hell so trivial a place?"
Saying this, the Sixth Azure Dragon cracked open the gates of hell just a sliver, showing the two of them what lay within.
A land of molten lava and thorns, boiling cauldrons and lakes of acid — and even in their spirit forms, the searing heat was enough to drown them both in terror.
Having closed the gates again, the Sixth Azure Dragon spoke.
"And even so? Do you truly choose to descend into hell with that man?"
Terror had gripped Ranya's heart — but even so, she could not bring herself to abandon the man who had stood beside her, who had always thrown himself bodily into harm's way for her sake.
It was only natural.
The very reason she had fallen for him in the first place was that when the Fourth Azure Dragon laid hands on her, he had found the courage to risk his life to shield her from harm.
She had fallen in love believing that with this man, she could see things through to the end, no matter the danger.
And even now, the fool had done nothing but gaze at her alone, piling sin upon sin without end.
His evil deeds had cost her, too — she could not pretend otherwise.
What on earth had he done, to earn three hundred years locked in hell?
And yet none of it would ever have happened if she had not fallen into his hands.
Granted, becoming a plaything simply because she was a little pretty... no, because she was very beautiful, had been a painful — agonizing — experience. But she had endured it because he was there, and in the end it was the Fourth Azure Dragon's physical cruelty that had taken her life.
And so Ranya, hopeless in her devotion to Bret, made her decision: she would follow him into hell.
With a long sigh, the Sixth Azure Dragon made arrangements so that Ranya, too, could descend into hell alongside Bret.
Slowly, the two of them made their way into hell.
Unimaginable suffering awaited them ahead.
But unflinching, they walked slowly through the gates of hell, and soon the gates closed behind them.
Once the Sixth Azure Dragon's judgment was complete, the Fifth Azure Dragon slowly appeared and struck up a conversation.
"Aren't you being a bit too soft-hearted?"
"...You're one to talk, Senior. I saw you get chewed out by the First Azure Dragon yourself — all because you briefly manifested that junior's lover's father on the surface."
"...Ha. Damn it. You just have to leave me with nothing to say, don't you."
Chuckling to herself, the Sixth Azure Dragon gazed down at the surface world as she spoke.
"Our junior seems to be doing even better than I imagined."
"I can't stand that brat. Who does he think he is, grabbing the First Azure Dragon by the collar?"
"You sure know how to hold a grudge. It's not like he grabbed your collar."
"What, and that doesn't make you mad?"
"Why would it? The First Azure Dragon said it was fine, so why should I nitpick?"
Their bicker-that-wasn't-quite-a-bicker reportedly took a good two hours to finally resolve... or so the story goes.
"Ranya!"
"My, Bret. You actually caught it because I said I was craving it?"
In the hand of the human man called Bret hung a large, plump pheasant.
"I'll make it delicious."
At his words, the human woman called Ranya wrapped her arms around him and replied:
"Thank you, always~"
Bret moved his hand to Ranya's swollen belly and spoke softly.
"Little one, have you been listening to your mother?"
"Of course I have~"
It was Ranya's voice, playfully pitched, but Bret simply beamed with joy, pulled her into his arms, and led her inside.
They say that from dinnertime onward that day, the rich, savory aroma never once stopped drifting from the couple's home.