Chapter 256
Chapter 256
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 256
Chapter Title: Heavenly Dragon (8)
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“……”
Oh-jin looked at Ha-eun, whose legs were trembling pitifully.
Her tightly sealed lips, clenched fists, pale face, and terrified eyes.
‘Did I push her too hard?’
He began to think that maybe it would have been better not to bring her here.
He hadn’t known she felt this level of terror toward Barbatos.
‘I thought she’d be fine with it.’
Had the memory of being blind become that much of a horrifying trauma for her?
No, maybe he had just been making assumptions about her.
That Ha-eun would be okay.
That Ha-eun would be able to laugh it off and shake it away.
Perhaps he had been pushing a groundless belief.
“…Sorry.”
Looking back, it was an incredibly selfish thought.
No one can ever feel another person’s pain one hundred percent.
You can empathize and try to understand.
But in the end, the pain belongs to that person alone.
To judge it as ‘this should be fine’ was, in itself, an act of utter disrespect.
“Huh? What do you have to be sorry for?”
“No, it’s just. I didn’t know you felt that way.”
Even after being together for over twenty years.
The fact that he hadn’t been able to grasp her feelings made him feel strangely frustrated.
“So what if you didn’t know? You think seeing a little skin means you have to know everything in my heart?”
Ha-eun jabbed Oh-jin’s side with a mischievous smile.
It was the Ha-eun he knew so well, but for some reason, her smile felt awkward now.
“It’s not your problem, it’s mine. No need to apologize, you dummy.”
Ha-eun patted Oh-jin’s shoulder.
This was her problem.
A problem only she could solve, only she could overcome.
The moment she received empathy and comfort from others, the meaning of overcoming this problem would vanish.
Especially if it was Oh-jin.
“Haa, fine. Go ahead and face him alone.”
Oh-jin let out a deep sigh and took a step back.
He would respect her wishes for now, but…
“The moment it looks even a little dangerous, I’m jumping in.”
Whether she overcame her trauma or not.
He didn’t want to let her life be put in danger.
“Okay.”
Ha-eun nodded and took a short breath.
Desperately calming her trembling legs, she turned to face Barbatos.
[What… do you think you’re doing?]
A voice as cold as ice.
Was it true that when anger surpassed its limit, the mind grew cold?
Barbatos glared at Ha-eun, who was approaching him alone, and gnashed his teeth fiercely.
Had he ever experienced such humiliation since being born a dragon?
A rage more intense than any he had ever felt before blazed within him.
It made sense.
He was about to enact a refreshing revenge drama on the enemies who had cornered him with the ‘grace’ he had received, but then a woman who had been trembling in a corner without fighting at all suddenly stepped forward, claiming she would face him alone. Anyone, not just Barbatos, would be consumed by fury.
“What am I doing? Didn’t you hear me? I’m saying someone like you is easy enough for me to handle alone.”
Ha-eun put on a smile of feigned composure and pulled a cigarette from her pocket.
The tip of the cigarette trembled erratically.
She struggled to light it and took a deep drag, filling her lungs with smoke.
“Hoo.”
Although she now possessed the body of a superhuman, on which nicotine and tar had no effect.
Perhaps because it was a habit ingrained in her body.
She felt her trembling, anxious heart calm down a little.
“Alright, shall we have a go?”
*Click.*
With a twisted smirk, she undid the eyepatch covering her left eye.
An eye socket with hideous sinews rooted in it.
A reptilian eye, gleaming amber, turned toward Barbatos.
[That eye…?]
Barbatos stared at Ha-eun’s eye as if he couldn’t believe it.
How could a human possibly possess the eye of a dragon?
Before an answer to his question could come.
“Burn.”
Ha-eun flicked the burning cigarette with her middle finger.
*Fwoooosh!*
A fierce flame erupted from the cigarette’s tip, coiling around her body like a living creature.
A swirling heat.
The flame, now in the shape of a dragon, shot toward Barbatos.
[Hmph! Do you truly believe you can face a real dragon just because you obtained an eye!]
Barbatos snorted and flapped his wings violently.
A black curtain imbued with a curse wrapped around his body protectively.
*Sizzle, sizzle.*
A curse that not even inanimate objects could escape.
The fiercely burning flame lost its power and scattered.
“This is just the beginning, you punk!”
Ha-eun relentlessly unleashed flames as she clenched her fist.
It was impossible to pierce the curtain by shooting flames from a distance.
In that case.
‘I’ll have to break through it myself.’
She took a step toward the cursed curtain.
Her legs, which she had barely managed to calm, began to tremble again.
She was out of breath, as if she’d run a marathon.
She was scared.
Unbearably so.
*—Ha-eun, are you okay?!*
A memory from six years ago surfaced.
After losing consciousness in the fight with the Cheonjuryong.
When she woke up in a hospital bed.
*—…Huh?*
The world was filled with pitch-black darkness.
Terrified, she moved her arms as if flailing.
*—What’s wrong, Ha-eun?*
Oh-jin had taken her hand.
But she couldn’t see him anywhere in her field of vision.
*—Oh-jin… S-Something’s wrong. I, I can’t see.*
A world as dark as a moonless night.
She curled up on the hospital bed and sobbed like a child left home alone.
‘I wouldn’t have been able to endure it without Oh-jin.’
It wasn’t just when she was cursed.
Her life had only been able to sprout in the shade provided by Oh-jin.
‘It was always like that.’
Oh-jin always stood in front of her.
Even while taking the world’s vicious malice head-on, he never took a single step back, protecting her from the front.
Wasn’t he scared?
Wasn’t he afraid?
Even though she knew the answer.
She hid behind the shade of Oh-jin, curled up like a hermit crab.
Because it was comfortable.
Because even if she did nothing, he would give his all to protect her.
“…Bullshit.”
*Grit.*
Ha-eun ground her teeth and bit her lip harshly.
Hadn’t Isabella said it once?
That Oh-jin was her one and only ‘hope’.
If Oh-jin was hope for Isabella, then for Ha-eun, Oh-jin was salvation.
The man who protected her, who was weaker than anyone else in reality, even as she put on a tough act and bluffed on the outside.
‘And I call myself his older sister.’
Ha-eun let out a self-mocking laugh.
Originally, as the older sister, she should have been the one protecting him.
But instead, she hid in the shade he created and was only ever protected.
And yet, she wanted to be someone he could rely on, as his ‘older sister’.
“It’s time… to break free.”
She couldn’t hide behind him, curled up, forever.
So that she could at least stand beside him.
So that she could share the burden of life’s crashing waves with him.
She had to move forward.
[Krrrrrr! You insolent wench! Do you think you can pierce this cursed curtain!]
Towards the being that had become her greatest fear.
“Haa, haa.”
One step.
Her entire body grew heavy, and a dreadful fatigue washed over her.
Two steps.
A headache and a wave of nausea rose up.
Three steps.
A freezing chill enveloped her.
Four steps.
A pain like being pricked by needles spread like poison.
Five steps.
She became breathless, as if she had climbed a high mountain.
Six steps.
Her skin felt like it was melting, as if she were submerged in a swamp of acid.
Seven steps.
A horrifying sensation, like insects crawling inside her ears, was accompanied by bloodcurdling screams pounding against her eardrums.
Eight steps.
An illusion of her mother and father, whom she had only ever seen in photos, appeared before her, their eyes wide as they spewed hateful curses.
And the ninth step.
“…Ah.”
Her vision went black.
A vicious darkness, like a moonless night, stole the light from her eyes.
[Khuhuhuhu! It’s a sensation you haven’t tasted in a long time, isn’t it?]
Barbatos looked down at the halted Ha-eun and burst into laughter.
The past, six years ago.
The electrifying thrill he had felt when he stole the light from her star-like eyes once again coursed down his spine.
“Agh.”
Ha-eun curled up in the oppressive darkness.
The terrible helplessness and despair she had felt after losing her sight filled her mind.
“Oh-jin… Oh-jin.”
She called his name instinctively.
If she just stayed here, curled up quietly, he would come to help her.
He would defeat the Cheonjuryong with ease and save her.
Just like always.
Without fail.
‘No.’
Ha-eun lifted her head.
Hadn’t she made a resolution?
That she would no longer hide behind his back.
“Ssssp.”
She took a deep breath.
A sharp pain shot through her left eye.
A sliver of light began to appear in the endless darkness.
*Fwooooosh!*
She felt a dragon made entirely of fire wrap around her.
One, two, three… a total of nine dragons surrounded her body protectively.
The flames illuminated the darkness.
She could see a dragon with black scales before her.
Cheonjuryong Barbatos.
The being that had given her such terrible nightmares was glaring down at her with wide eyes.
[Y-You… b-burned… the curse?]
Barbatos stumbled backward and cried out in a terrified voice.
“Ha.”
A dry laugh escaped her.
The image of the Cheonjuryong in her nightmares had always been terrifying.
But looking at him now, he just looked pathetic and shabby.
‘It was like that back then, too.’
She recalled a memory from the past.
A memory from long before six years ago.
It was the memory of the director at the orphanage who had subjected her to one-sided violence.
The director, who used to raise his fists to her as a child, had felt like a demon or a monster from a fairy tale.
Like a divine being she could never defeat.
But.
*—F-Fire?!*
When she saw Oh-jin trick that demon with a lie.
When she saw him running away pathetically without even wearing shoes.
She had inadvertently burst into laughter.
“What the, he was nothing special.”
Right.
Just like now.
“Hup.”
She took the tenth step.
A searing pain, as if being branded by fire, flared in the left side of her chest.
It wasn't a pain caused by Barbatos's curse.
It was a pain that would make any Awakened shout with joy.
A tenth line was engraved next to the Stigma of Draco.
And.
*Fwooooosh!*
As if completing the tails of the nine dragons, a tenth fire dragon appeared and coiled around her body.
Ha-eun clenched her fist violently as if grabbing the air.
The ten fire dragons rode up her arm and gathered in her clenched fist.
“Burn.”
Ha-eun pulled back her fist, now wreathed in flames, and powerfully kicked off the ground.