Chapter 39 — Oppa’s “Thing” Broke?
Chapter 39 — Oppa’s “Thing” Broke?
Translation: GodTL
I had no idea how long I had been out. My head felt heavy, as if I were still half inside a dream. Little by little, the memories came back: clearing the Gate, making it to Rokan's lair, and then collapsing from the aftereffects of Dragon Words. As my thoughts settled, I finally managed to open my eyes.
"Ugh..." The first thing I saw was the familiar ceiling of Rokan's lair. Turning my eyes, I realized I was lying in a bed I'd never seen before. Rokan was there, too, and when I turned my head again, I saw Sia on a large monitor.
"Oppa! Are you okay? Does anything hurt?" The moment I let out a small groan and started to sit up, Sia called out to me anxiously, checking how I was. "Yeah. I'm just tired and sore all over. I think I'll be fine after some rest." "Phew. Thank goodness."
After reassuring Sia, I turned to Rokan. "Rokan, how long... has it been since I collapsed?" "About three days." I'd been out that long? I'd never been unconscious for anywhere near that long before, and the news came as quite a shock. As I stared at him in stunned disbelief, Rokan eased me back down onto the bed. "You still need to recover. Don't do anything for the next few days. Just rest."
Then Rokan told me what had happened before and after I lost consciousness. On the day I'd gone to clear the Garden of the Dragon Sword, the time I'd promised to call had long since passed without a word from me. Worried that something had happened, Sia had used a tracking spell to find the Gate I'd entered. As soon as she got there, she saw that its rank and clear conditions had changed, and she hurriedly called Rokan for help. But even as Dragons, neither of them had a way to force their way inside. So Rokan and Sia had waited endlessly in front of the Gate for me to come out, searching for a solution in case the worst happened. It was the best they could do at the time.
Then, after several hours of waiting, the Gate opened sooner than they'd expected. Sia watched me from a distance with Rokan, staying back just in case. She knew that meeting me in person while I was still in that condition would only make it worse. Once they'd confirmed I'd survived, Rokan saw me teleport to his lair and rushed over at once. But in that brief interval, I'd lost consciousness. And though it still hadn't sunk in, three days had already passed since then.
Hearing everything they'd done made my chest tighten with emotion. "Thank you, Sia. Really, thank you." "You don't have to thank me. You'd have done the same if our places were reversed, Oppa. I'm just glad you seem okay." Finally able to relax, Sia smiled brightly. But when I looked closer, her eyes were bloodshot, as if she'd been up for days.
"Sia, you haven't been staying up all night, have you?" "N-no, nothing like that. I've just slept a little less than usual?" Her momentary fluster made it obvious she was lying, and Rokan promptly corrected her. "She has. She stayed awake for all three days you were unconscious. She was worried you might wake up in the middle of the night." He'd told her he could watch over me during the day so she could at least sleep then, but she'd refused and insisted on staying awake. Caught in her lie, Sia looked away in embarrassment.
"You should have slept, Sia." "But... I couldn't help worrying." With her cheeks flushed and her voice adorably sulky, she looked so lovable that the thought of never seeing her like this again sent a chill through me. That was what would have happened if I'd failed to clear the Gate.
"You've seen Min-jun wake up now. Can't you go to bed?" "I'll stay a little longer. Just a little. He only just woke up." Sia protested like a child who didn't want to go to sleep. "Sia, listen to your grandfather. You can't be thinking straight after three days without sleep." "I'm fine. Dragons can go more than a week without sleeping." She met my concerned gaze with a little smile. Oh, right. Sia was a Dragon...
"That still doesn't mean it's good for you. Shasha, listen to your grandfather. Off you go." "Aw. I'm all grown up, you know." She could say that, but in Rokan's eyes she was still his precious little granddaughter, so adorable he couldn't bear to see her hurt. He gently coaxed her again. In the end, Sia muttered a few complaints at him, told me to call anytime I got bored, and turned off her camera.
From there, I drank the potions Rokan gave me and regained some strength. Once I'd finished, he asked, as I'd expected, what had happened inside the Gate. "I didn't want to pepper you with questions while you were unwell, but I think it's time. What on earth happened in there?" "It's... a bit of a long story."
Starting with my fight against the Sword Remnants in the Tomb of the Dragon Sword, I told him in detail everything that had led to my using Dragon Words, leaving nothing out. At first, Rokan seemed interested in the story of the emperor who'd wielded a Dragon Bone Sword. But when I reached the part where I'd met the emperor and used Dragon Words, his expression changed. "No matter how I look at it, that's impossible." "Sorry?" "I know I'm always telling you that you have extraordinary talent, but this goes beyond that. However gifted you are, this should be impossible." Rokan shook his head. But hadn't he seen the Gate's clear conditions himself? "... I don't really understand it either. But I've told you exactly what happened in there." "Hmm. I think you've misunderstood me. I'm not saying I don't believe you. I'm saying that, barring some exceptional factor, it should be impossible in theory. Did your camera capture any of it?"
At his question, I pulled out the camera and checked whether it had recorded me using Dragon Words. If it had, I could just show him. Unfortunately, there was no footage of anything from the moment I met Minos onward, including my use of Dragon Words. Had the power gone out at some point? "... Would you like to see the rest of the footage, at least?" It hadn't captured me using Dragon Words, but perhaps something else in the recordings would offer a clue. I handed Rokan the camera, and he watched through the footage beside me. "That certainly wasn't an ordinary Gate."
Partway through, Rokan replayed one section, then frowned. "The fellow buried in this tomb has definitely tampered with it." Tampered with it? Seeing my confusion, Rokan sighed. "To find out exactly what he did, I'd have to go there and see it for myself. You must be exhausted, so let's leave the discussion here for today." He pulled the blanket over me himself and added, "I think it would be best if you didn't meet Shasha this week. Spend the next few days here recovering." "Thank you..."
I had wanted to go on a date with Sia as soon as I recovered, so being told to stay away for the week hurt more than I expected. Then another thought surfaced—one I had been avoiding since I woke. "Rokan... there's something else. I was too out of it to tell Sia yesterday, but the sword broke."
Saying it aloud made the loss feel real. That Dragon Bone Sword had been Sia's first meaningful gift after returning to me. It had awakened a talent I didn't know I possessed, saved my life, and led me all the way to Dragon Words. Now it lay in two pieces in my Subspace. I took the broken halves out carefully. "If it's possible... could you repair it?" I could have asked Sia myself. The truth was, I didn't want to see disappointment on her face.
The next morning, Sia contacted Rokan as soon as she woke to check on Min-jun. Rokan turned the camera so she could see him sleeping. Normally he would have been awake by then, but his body had yet to recover fully. Since she'd called, Rokan told her about the conversation he'd had with Min-jun while she was asleep. And that wasn't all. "... So he seems quite upset that the sword you gave him broke." He told her that Min-jun's Dragon Bone Sword had broken, too.
The damage was worse than Min-jun realized. A Dragon Bone Sword was not ordinary metal that could simply be reforged. The bone had carried Dragon power, and the fracture had damaged the flow inside it. Rokan might be able to restore the shape, but he could not promise the sword would ever feel alive in Min-jun's hand the way it once had.
"He should have told me." Sia looked more hurt by that than by the broken weapon itself. "It's only a sword. I could give Oppa ten more if he wanted." Rokan smiled faintly. "That is precisely why he was afraid to tell you. It was not only a sword to him."
Then an idea struck Sia so suddenly that her expression changed. If the old sword mattered because it had come from her, why replace it with another weapon from her collection? Why not give Min-jun something that was literally hers?
A sword made from her own bone. To a human, the idea bordered on horrifying. To Sia, it was almost embarrassingly obvious. Return to her true form, remove one suitable bone, heal the wound, shape the bone into a blade. Simple. More than that—it would create a Dragon Bone Sword that existed nowhere else in any world.
"But Grandpa, would that be okay...?" "What do you mean?" "It would be a bone imbued with my power. What if that power affects Oppa..." Their energies were incompatible, which was why they were avoiding meeting each other. A Dragon Bone Sword made from her own bone might actually harm Min-jun. Fortunately, it didn't seem likely that what she feared would happen. "It would contain only a tiny fraction of your power, so it should be fine. In fact, that might make it even better." "Better...?" "Yes. The sword might act as a kind of vaccination."
If the sword continuously exposed Min-jun to a trace of Sia's energy, perhaps he would grow a little more accustomed to it. Rokan thought it might work like a vaccine. Of course, this was unfamiliar territory even for him, so he couldn't guarantee the result... Still, he judged the risk of anything serious happening to be extremely low. Maybe Min-jun would feel briefly dizzy occasionally, but that was about it. Surely he could put up with that much. "There may be minor side effects like that, but I think the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. It should be fine." "I see!" Now she had one more reason to make Min-jun a sword from her own bone.
After Rokan left, Sia stayed beside the monitor and watched Min-jun sleep. The thought would not leave her. A sword carved from my own bone. Something he could carry every day. Something that would protect him even when I can't stand beside him. The more she considered it, the more perfect it seemed.
Other Dragons sometimes forged weapons from their own bones out of curiosity. Sia had never bothered. Now she couldn't understand why she hadn't thought of it sooner. 'I'll make him one no one else could ever have.' The thought made her grin. Min-jun slept on, completely unaware that his broken sword had just inspired Sia to plan a gift far more intimate than any human custom could explain.