Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Dragons and Dinosaurs Are Cousins
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Dragon Observation Journal.
All the dragons that hatched from their eggs have successfully polymorphed.
However, there’s a problem with calling them human.
‘Red, blue, green. Fine, the hair color and eyes can pass. But what about the horns and tails?’
Two horns symmetrically placed around the crown of the head.
A long, scale-covered tail firmly planted between the waist and hips.
Everything else looks like a particularly cute and special girl between six and seven years old.
I decided to ask if there was any way to fix that.
“Hwa-ryeon.”
“Why!”
“The horns and tail. Can you hide them so they don’t show?”
“House owner. I told you! Dragons can do anything!”
As expected of a dragon.
Hwa-ryeon immediately stretched both hands forward and let out a spirited yell to hide her horns and tail.
“Hya!”
“…”
“Hyaap!”
“…?”
Nothing happened.
I asked Hwa-ryeon, whose face had turned as red as her hair.
“You said you could.”
“I-I can! There’s nothing in the world I can’t do!”
“Then why aren’t they hidden?”
“That’s… be-because I don’t wanna listen to you! Got it?! I’m not hiding them just because you told me to! Don’t talk to me anymore!”
Thud thud thud—
Hwa-ryeon shouted that and ran off on her short legs.
The house was small, so she couldn’t run far.
It seems she can’t hide the horns and tail after all.
“That’s not something I can control.”
Taking them outside would be tough.
As I was worrying about that, Su-ryun approached and explained.
“It’s only natural that we can’t hide our horns and tails. We haven’t fully mastered polymorph yet.”
“Is that how it works?”
“We just ended up in human form by chance. We still can’t change our appearances at will. Polymorph is one of the higher-level spells among dragon magic to begin with.”
“Ooh…”
I learned some new information.
“Right now, it’s not that we can change our forms freely. We’ve only changed our original dragon forms into human ones.”
Not transformation, but conversion.
That’s why we can’t hide the horns and tails.
Dragon top instructor Su-ryun explained it perfectly.
I think I get the gist.
“So you’re saying your skills are still lacking.”
“…It’s true, but I don’t like how you put it.”
Glare—
Su-ryun shot me a cold look.
Anyway, it seems horns and tails can’t be hidden.
In that case.
“Can you go back to dragon form?”
“Yes.”
As Su-ryun answered, she emitted a blue light.
The blue light briefly obscured my vision, and in the spot where Su-ryun had stood, her training jumper lay abandoned.
Then, Su-ryun crawled out from underneath it in her dragon form.
“Shaa—”
It looks like she can’t speak in dragon form.
I nodded, satisfied that this was good enough.
Su-ryun emitted blue light again and returned to human form.
“That’s how it is. Got it, house owner?”
“Yeah, but Su-ryun.”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s talk after you put some clothes on first.”
The transformation is fine.
But the clothes fall off.
Su-ryun put on the training jumper, her long blue hair swaying down to her waist, with an annoyed expression.
“Why do humans wear clothes? They’re not efficient at all.”
Su-ryun grumbled as she slipped into the baggy training outfit.
From a dragon’s perspective, where nudity is the default, she just couldn’t understand.
“Shelter, food, clothing. The three essentials for human survival. You have to wear them, even if you grumble.”
“Such a hassle.”
“Wear them anyway.”
“…”
Su-ryun sat down in front of the TV without another word.
I didn’t feel like pushing it further.
So, I decided to watch TV with them.
“What kind of kids watch documentaries.”
A documentary was playing on TV.
It was a program narrating the history of dinosaurs and explaining the different types.
Maybe because they shared similarities with dragons.
The kids were watching intently, each in a comfortable position, wagging their tails.
“Dinosaurs, huh. Now that I think about it, they’re similar to dragons. Dinosaurs existed on Earth before dragons did.”
I remembered memorizing all sorts of dinosaur types as a kid.
And debating with friends about which ones were the strongest.
“Is Tyrannosaurus the strongest? Or Giganotosaurus?”
Triceratops? Stegosaurus?
We’d hold these dinosaur showdown cups like that.
And it seemed the dragons were no different.
They were deep in discussion.
“You can tell at a glance that T-Rex is the strongest!”
“Hmm, really? Isn’t Giganoto bigger?”
“What are you talking about! T-Rex is cooler! Being bigger doesn’t mean better!”
Even dragons couldn’t agree on the matchup of the century.
As the kids continued their heated debate.
Hwa-ryeon raised a question.
“But looking closely, those dinosaurs look just like dragons?!”
“Yeah. I can smell kin.”
The dragons stared intently at the TV screen.
“Hmm!”
“Hmm.”
Then, Su-ryun spoke with conviction, as if she’d figured something out.
“Those dinosaurs. They probably have dragon blood mixed in.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? How could dinosaurs have dragon blood?”
“Not the herbivores, maybe. But some carnivores have dragon blood flowing through them. I can feel it.”
That would’ve been an incredibly long time ago.
Over 100 million years, from what I recall.
How could dragon blood mix with dinosaurs?
As I wondered that, Cho-ryun gave a clear answer.
“Dragons existed back then too! There were probably dragons that came to Earth a really long time ago!”
“Really?”
“Yes, dragons travel through dimensional gates for leisure! Even 100 million years ago, since time flows differently, dragons would’ve existed! There are probably dragons enjoying themselves on Earth even now!”
So dragons could be hiding among humans in human form.
Cho-ryun’s polite speech made it strangely convincing.
But one question remained.
“You said dinosaurs have dragon blood.”
“Yes!”
“So that means they’re descendants of dragons. Then dragons must have…”
“Th-that’s…”
Cho-ryun faltered, then let out a “Hehe—”
“I don’t know either!”
She probably didn’t want to reveal dragon secrets.
I fully understood Cho-ryun’s feelings.
Anyway.
“Dragons enjoying leisure on Earth, huh. That’s interesting.”
If there are other dragons besides these kids.
I could ask them for info and raise these ones properly.
I still don’t know how to raise them.
So I’m just raising them like human kids for now.
‘I wonder if this is the right way or not…’
For now, I’ll stick to this method.
Raise them as human-like as possible.
Since I’m human, not a dragon.
“But hey, house owner.”
As I was thinking that.
Su-ryun glanced at me and added.
“It’d be better not to assume all dragons are like us.”
“You haven’t met other dragons. How do you know?”
“Dragons just know. And we’ve inherited knowledge about other races. Purple dragons. Especially black dragons—you need to be careful around ones like that.”
Not all dragons are friendly to humans.
“Those kinds are even exiled from the Dragon Society, where dragons gather.”
Su-ryun said that and turned back to the TV.
I think I get what Su-ryun was trying to tell me.
“Su-ryun. You’re worried about Dad, right?”
“When did I ever worry—”
“Just say it if you are. Dad’s touched.”
“What nonsense—”
“It’s okay. Dad knows how you feel. Dad understands completely.”
“…”
Su-ryun thumped her tail in frustration, at a loss for words.
That little tantrum looked utterly adorable to me.
“Dragons hiding in the human world…”
I wondered what forms they might take.
As someone raising dragons, I was extremely curious.
The ones I was raising didn’t disguise themselves at all—they showed their true selves completely.
***
Late into the night.
When everyone was asleep.
Cho-ryun carefully sat up.
“Everyone’s sleeping soundly.”
Hwa-ryeon had her foot on Yi Ha-jun’s head, Su-ryun was turned sideways facing the wall in her sleep.
Yi Ha-jun slept peacefully in the middle.
“Looks nice!”
Hehe—
Cho-ryun giggled and headed to the entrance.
It was a night when everyone was asleep.
Because there was something she had to do.
“This is how you open the door, right…?”
Click—
Cho-ryun cautiously opened the door without making a sound and stepped outside.
She hadn’t forgotten to take the rooftop key from the table.
Cho-ryun went up to the rooftop like that and breathed in the dawn air.
“Ahh— It’s not good. The air is terrible!”
Unfortunately, there’s no nature in this world.
Earth will collapse first at this rate.
We have to coexist with nature.
Cho-ryun said that as she approached the flower beds on the rooftop.
Then, she began blowing green breath toward them.
“Fuu— Fuu—”
The plants blooming in the flower beds twitched at Cho-ryun’s breath.
Cho-ryun smiled brightly at the sight.
“Grow well. Grow big and turn this area into nature! You understand, right?”
Cho-ryun was attempting environmentalism on top of vegetarianism.
It was the innate instinct of a Green Dragon.