The Dragon and a Little of the Past
"Did you pack everything? Underwear, money, passport, charger, toiletries, spare clothes..."
"Rhea threw most of it together for me. If anything's missing, I can just buy it over there. It's a five-star hotel, so the service is top-notch. There's no way I'll run out of money."
"Still, you never know."
Closing ceremony day. The four of us had a pretty wild hangout at my place before we finally split up.
Do Ji-yeon went home like a normal friend—watched some TV, ate some food, chatted a bit.
But that bastard Choi Hoon milked every last thing in my house for all it was worth before he left.
He cleaned out the fridge, wandered every corner of the place, and even squeezed every ounce of fun out of the VR gear before heading home.
And then at the end, what does he say? A watch? That little shit. And on top of that—
"From now on, you're paying for everything. Living in a house like this and still cheaply spending your friend's pocket change?"
"Ugh. I swear, that little—"
"Hey! Friends don't hit each other!!"
"And friends telling me to pay for everything just because I've got money makes sense? I oughta just—"
It was half-serious and half-joking, but Choi Hoon seemed to have a good time of his own, and we parted with laughs in the end.
Normally we'd have been busy hanging out every day of vacation, but this summer break both Ha-yan and I had a pretty packed schedule.
As I'd been saying all along, the day Ha-yan and I left for Japan was now only one day away.
"Did you pack your bags properly? We have to leave at dawn tomorrow, so finish packing before you go to sleep. And Siu, come see me for a moment."
I was helping Ha-yan pack at her house when her mother opened the door and called for me.
I exchanged a quick glance with Ha-yan and stepped out of the room.
Outside, her mother and father were sitting at the kitchen table, and I took the seat across from them.
Once I sat down, her mother handed me a cup of coffee she'd prepared along with an envelope.
I could tell at a glance what was inside—something I already had more than enough of.
I'd expected her to just wish us a good trip, so I looked at her in confusion.
"Ma'am? What is this...?"
"What do you think? It's pocket money for taking our daughter on an overseas trip."
"...You know about my assets, right?"
"You think I don't know? I'm giving it to you knowing full well, so take it without complaining. I get that you've been helping our daughter, teaching her, living with her without taking a single penny from us—but this is one of those times you take it without a word. Going to Japan this time is partly for travel, but there's more to it than that, isn't there? You've taught our daughter all that without charging tuition. This much is the least I need to do to feel at ease."
"..."
I stared blankly down at the envelope in front of me for a moment.
Well. If some other dragon saw this scene, I don't know what they'd think.
They'd probably say I was disgracing dragons left and right.
But by now I was a male dragon only in species—my mind and everything I showed on the outside were at the level of a Korean high schooler.
A high schooler with a little money—no, quite a lot of money, I suppose.
So I couldn't say anything more to her words and politely picked up the envelope.
And I said just one thing.
"Thank you. I'll put it to good use."
"Heh heh. So all that hard work educating our Siu back in the day paid off after all. Just thinking about those days makes me sigh..."
"Ahaha... There was no helping it back then. I was a brat with a rotten temper who just happened to know a lot."
I've said it before, but Ha-yan's mother must have been a saint in a past life.
I may not have used violence, but I threw every tantrum short of it.
"Really... It's a good thing you first recognized our daughter as something like a master. If you hadn't, wouldn't you have hit me too? Like those kids in kindergarten?"
"I can't exactly argue with that. I still remember it vividly."
I said with an awkward smile at her half-lament.
I could laugh about it now, but back then it had been genuinely serious.
My instincts hadn't allowed any human other than Ha-yan near us.
"Hehe. Mom gave you pocket money too? How much did she put in?"
Ha-yan, having finished packing in the meantime, joined the conversation.
"Well look at that? Straight to opening the envelope?"
"Why~? Money given to Siu is basically money given to me anyway?"
"Oh my, oh my. Listen to this girl talk. Hey. Siu. Give that money back."
"Eek! Taking it back after giving it is even worse!! It's mine now!"
When her mother narrowed her eyes at Ha-yan and reached for the envelope in her hands, Ha-yan quickly stood up and hid behind my back.
Looking at her daughter like that, her mother smiled wryly.
"Right. So now she hides behind her husband. Aigoo. I raised my daughter all wrong."
"Ahaha..."
In that situation, all I could do was laugh awkwardly.
Once things settled a bit and Ha-yan sat beside me counting the money in the envelope one bill at a time, her mother spoke to me again.
"This time you're going just the two of you, but I trust our Siu. You know that, right?"
"Of course. I'll take care of things just like I do here. I'm bringing my Homunculus along too."
"Heh heh. Good, good. Go play to your heart's content, do everything you want, and come back. But that said..."
Her mother paused for a moment, then looked at me playfully.
"Your father and I think it's still a little early to be grandparents? Of course with our Siu's fortune, raising one kid—heck, twenty—would be no problem, but that might be a bit much."
"Eh? Ehehe... babies... ihihi."
But why did Ha-yan next to me completely lose it at her mother's words?
And her father's gaze as he looked at his only daughter—
"Ugh-hngh... Our daughter... already our daughter..."
"Ahem..."
—was the look of a man who had lost the world, and I could only cough awkwardly and try to avoid his eyes.
"Is Ha-yan asleep?"
"Yes, yes. I put her to bed and came out."
"Good, good. Our daughter's early bedtime is handy at times like this. And socially you may be a high schooler, but you can still have a drink, right? Legally, I'm your guardian, after all."
"Alcohol is basically water to me anyway."
"That's good. Means you'll be able to take care of our Ha-yan well even once you're in college. Here, take a glass."
"Yes, ma'am."
With Ha-yan deep asleep in the quiet of evening, her mother and I decided to have some time just the two of us.
Earlier, while the four of us were talking, her mother had suggested a drink via mana voice.
I politely accepted the soju she poured and waited quietly for her to speak.
"Khh... Hoo. Yeah. Every now and then you need a drink like this to feel like your insides are getting rinsed out. My husband is just like our daughter—can't hold his liquor and falls asleep early. I don't know what I'd do without our Siu."
Having already polished off a bottle of soju, her mother's face was faintly flushed.
Being Ha-yan's mother, even in her early forties her beauty was still intact.
Then, with a faintly mischievous look, she spoke.
"Even thinking about it again, it's amazing. That a child who was such a fierce beast would sit so politely in front of me."
"Are we going back to the old stories again?"
"What can I do? Seeing you and our daughter all lovey-dovey always brings it back. Do you know how shocked I was when Ha-yan first brought you to our house? Who would have thought a little kid could have that much mana?"
"And it turned out that kid wasn't human?"
"Right, right. That part at least was within the bounds of my common sense. I think of it as fortunate now, but back then I thought I was seeing things wrong. A dragon. A dragon that only appeared in legends."
After I first saw Ha-yan in the rain and imprinted on her.
Ha-yan had seen a boy around her age standing in the pouring rain, so of course she'd brought me to this very house.
I still remember it vividly.
And the moment I met her mother for the first time in that house—
"Oh my. Just thinking about the magic I saw that day still gives me chills."
"I'm sorry... I'm truly sorry..."
—I immediately cast an attack spell.
If Ha-yan hadn't thrown her whole body in the way, that spell would have actually gone off, and I never would have become the rational person I am now.
Recalling that time, all I could do was apologize to her mother.
But her mother waved it off as if it were just the past.
"Aigoo. This kid can't take a joke. Would it kill you to take a joke as a joke?"
"It wasn't a joke to me..."
"Heh heh. Is that so? Anyway. There was plenty of hardship after that too. A little less thanks to Ha-yan, though."
After that, until I could act like a normal person the way I do now, the days of living glued to Ha-yan's side continued.
Along the way, her mother figured out how to "use" Ha-yan on me, and began my socialization in earnest.
As she talked about this and that from the old days, something seemed to come back to her, and she looked at me with a more serious face.
"But. That thought of wiping everything out if Ha-yan is in danger. That instinct—you always have to be careful with it, okay? That is absolutely not something that would be for Ha-yan's sake."
The story of the time I was completely helpless before her mother—and before Ha-yan.
I recalled the resolution I'd made after that day and spoke to her.
"Of course. But... Ha-yan is the most precious person to me, so I'll probably go right up to that line."
"Good, good. That level of thinking is just right. You're leaving at dawn tomorrow, right? We'll be asleep anyway, so don't worry about us and just go. Have a good trip."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you."
And with that, I poured the last of the soju into her mother's glass and brought our trip down memory lane to a close.