Chapter 310
Chapter 310
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 310
Chapter Title: Faded Promise (2)
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A deep darkness descended like a curtain over the night.
On the rooftop of the fourth floor of a shabby, old orphanage, two boys and a girl were looking up at the night sky.
“Ugh, that damn bald bastard. Of all places, he had to hit you in the eye?”
The girl with auburn hair gently stroked the bruised eye of the scrawny boy.
The director usually avoided hitting them in visible places like the face, but today, he must have been so furious that he’d laid a hand on the boy’s face.
And in a dangerous spot that could have caused him to go blind.
“That bastard! I’m gonna report him to the police!”
“…You know it’s useless.”
The boy shook his head with a bitter expression.
They had reported him to the police a few times already, but the officers would just conduct a half-hearted investigation and leave, as if they’d been bribed.
Even if he showed them his bruised eye, they would probably dismiss it as him having fallen down.
“Honestly, a grown man making fun of kids’ names!”
The girl, unable to quell her anger, seethed and continued to curse the director.
“I should have just endured it.”
“Endured what! Oh-jin, you didn’t do anything wrong!”
A faint smile appeared on the boy’s lips at the girl’s firm declaration.
“Still, thanks to you stepping in, Noona, I didn’t get hurt that bad.”
“Not that bad?! Your eye is black and blue!”
“If you hadn’t been there, I would’ve been hit more.”
The boy gently took the girl’s hand and continued.
“Thank you, Noona.”
“Hmph! If you’re thankful, then get better quick!”
The girl lay down, resting her head on the boy’s lap, and looked up at the night sky.
The brilliant starlight poured down, shimmering beautifully like a blessing from the heavens.
The boy, taking in the beautifully shining stars, stroked the hair of the girl lying on his lap.
As if stroking a precious treasure.
Gently.
“Noona.”
“Hmm?”
The girl tilted her head, looking up at the boy.
The boy spoke with a faint smile.
“When we leave the orphanage, let’s live together.”
“W-Wha? What did you say?”
“I said, let’s live together, the two of us.”
The girl gaped as if she had been hit on the head with a hammer.
Her face, now as red as her hair, nodded.
“O-Okay. L-Let’s live together.”
“When that time comes, I’ll protect you, Noona.”
The boy caressed the girl’s flushed cheek and spoke as if making a vow.
The girl who had been lying on his lap shot up and scoffed.
“Hmph! How are you going to protect me?”
The girl placed her hands on her hips and laughed as if the idea was absurd.
“It’s the older sister’s job to protect her younger brother!”
“Really?”
“Of course! Who does a younger brother think he is, talking about protecting his older sister?”
The boy let out a chuckle and nodded.
“Then I’ll help you so you can protect me.”
“Help me with what?”
The girl let out a hollow laugh and pinched the boy’s cheek.
For her to readily accept his offer of ‘help,’ the boy was far too thin and frail.
“This kid, always lying through his teeth.”
The girl, who had been playfully pulling his cheek, soon turned away.
“Let’s head down. We’ll get caught if we stay any longer.”
Watching the girl’s retreating back, the boy muttered softly.
“It’s not a lie.”
Perhaps his voice was too quiet.
The boy’s final murmur did not reach the girl.
* * *
The tent swayed in the chilly wind blowing through the canyon.
Oh-jin opened his eyes and slipped out of his sleeping bag like a caterpillar shedding its skin.
“I guess it’s because I was talking about old times with Noona yesterday.”
The promise he had made on the orphanage rooftop long ago had appeared in his dream.
A faded promise she probably didn’t even remember.
Oh-jin chuckled as he retraced his childhood memories.
‘Help you so you can protect me, huh.’
He hadn’t had any specific plan or goal.
It was just something he’d blurted out impulsively, swept up in the moment.
“Thinking about it now, it really was a lie.”
Oh-jin shrugged and stepped out of the tent.
“You’re awake?”
Isabella, who was preparing breakfast, smiled brightly and approached him.
“You’re up early.”
“Hehe. The early bird gets the worm, you know?”
Isabella smiled sweetly and gently pressed her lips against Oh-jin’s.
A soft touch and a pleasant scent tickled his nose.
“Are you saying my lips are the worm?”
“Oh my, then I’ll have to eat them thoroughly so they don’t spread around the house.”
Isabella, who had pulled away for a moment, playfully pressed her lips to his again.
After one more kiss, Oh-jin pulled back and walked toward the campfire, looking around.
“Where’s Noona?”
“She’s still sleeping.”
“I’ll wake her.”
“Okay, I’ll finish preparing breakfast then.”
It was a conversation one might expect from a newlywed couple who just had a child.
A sweet atmosphere, like a scene from a romantic drama, spread between the two.
Of course, the fact that he was waking up not a child but another lover turned the romantic drama into a messy morning soap opera.
“Noona, wake up.”
Oh-jin stood in front of the tent and called for Ha-eun.
He called a few more times, but only the sound of even breathing could be heard from inside the tent. Ha-eun showed no sign of waking up.
“I said, wake up.”
With no other choice, Oh-jin entered the tent himself.
He saw Ha-eun fast asleep, dressed in a white t-shirt that exposed her navel and a pair of dolphin shorts.
She was scratching her belly and even drooling in her sleep.
“Hey, lady, if you sleep here, your face will get stuck that way.”
“Uuungh?”
Ha-eun groggily opened her eyes.
Still half-asleep, she stared blankly at Oh-jin before wrapping around him like a squid and pulling him into the sleeping bag.
“Hehehe. Oh-jinnie.”
“Hey, I told you to wake up. What are you doing?”
“Just five more minutes~”
Wrapping her long limbs around Oh-jin as if he were a body pillow, Ha-eun pressed herself tightly against him.
Oh-jin sighed as if he had no choice and lay down beside her.
“We have to eat breakfast, so get up.”
“I’ll just eat you instead of breakfast.”
She replied in a sleepy voice, tightening her grip.
“Hahm.”
Ha-eun nibbled on Oh-jin’s cheek, moving her mouth.
She was using her lips, not her teeth, so it didn’t hurt, but his entire cheek was instantly covered in drool.
“…This girl, I swear.”
He pinched the flesh of Ha-eun’s side and twisted.
“Agyagyagyak!”
Ha-eun shot up as if struck by lightning, screaming.
Oh-jin wiped his cheek with a wet wipe and got up.
“Are you awake now?”
“You jerk… Wake me up a little more gently, man.”
“I felt like I was about to be eaten if I didn’t wake you up quickly.”
He neatened Ha-eun’s messy hair and handed her the eyepatch she had left beside her sleeping bag.
When he and the now-eyepatched Ha-eun stepped outside, Isabella waved lightly.
“For breakfast, I made something simple: fried eggs and Spam.”
“Wow, you’re a real Korean now.”
Ha-eun quickly sat down and picked up her spoon.
She cut up the fried egg over the white rice, added a slice of Spam, and took a bite.
A taste that brought instant happiness filled her mouth.
“Mmm. This is great. This is the classic breakfast, for sure.”
“I was so surprised at first when you said you grill Spam.”
“Well, people don’t really eat it in other countries.”
“But it was delicious when I tried it with rice.”
Had her palate already become Koreanized?
Isabella skillfully used her chopsticks to cut the Spam and eat it with her rice.
“We would have been in real trouble without the backpack that kid made. We’d be eating nothing but beef jerky every day.”
He agreed.
The fact that they could enjoy meals like they did back on Earth, even in this distant Demonic Realm, was entirely thanks to the space-expanding backpack Kim Si-hoo had made.
“If you’re all done, let’s get moving.”
After finishing their meal and packing up the tent, Oh-jin’s party climbed onto Poppy’s back.
For the record, Poppy’s breakfast was the corpse of a monster they had caught nearby.
“Grrrr!”
Having eaten her fill, Poppy let out a pleased growl and powerfully kicked off the ground.
They traveled through the canyon for several more hours.
“Oh-jin, look over there.”
Ha-eun, still on Poppy’s back, pointed her finger.
In the direction she pointed, there was nothing but dull rock.
“There’s nothing there.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? There are things floating around like fireflies.”
“What?”
He tilted his head and drew upon the Stigma of Canis Major, but all Oh-jin could see was dull rock.
“I don’t see anything.”
“Hold on.”
Ha-eun leaped off Poppy’s back.
She went near the rock face and pointed.
“You really don’t see anything?”
“Yeah. I just see a pile of rocks.”
“…What is this?”
Ha-eun tilted her head and reached for the blue motes of light floating around the rock.
The blue lights, which floated like fairies of light, seemed startled by her outstretched hand and began to fly off somewhere.
“Oh, they ran away.”
“Can only you see them, Noona?”
“I think so.”
Ha-eun reached behind her head and untied her eyepatch.
If she could see it but Oh-jin couldn’t, the cause was likely the ‘Dragon Eye’ she possessed.
“Whoa.”
A soft gasp escaped Ha-eun’s lips.
The blue motes of light, which had been sparse before she removed the eyepatch, now filled the entire area.
“Let’s go that way.”
There was a place where the motes of light were flowing like a stream.
“Wait. First, let’s determine if it’s dangerous or not…”
“It’s not dangerous.”
Ha-eun said with a voice full of conviction.
“I’m not sure what this is… exactly, but I can tell it’s not dangerous.”
“Hmm.”
Was she sensing something unique because she possessed the Dragon Eye?
Oh-jin decided to follow her lead, walking along the trail of light motes that only Ha-eun could see.
After walking for some time.
“…This place.”
A structure that looked as if it had been carved out of the entire massive canyon.
A magnificent city, so overwhelming in its scale that it made his jaw drop, unfolded before their eyes.
‘Is this the Draconian Kingdom?’
Indeed, it was a city that exuded a heart-pounding grandeur befitting a kingdom of dragons.
“I think that’s the Draconian Kingdom.”
“Huh, what? Was this the way to the kingdom?”
Having unexpectedly arrived at their destination just by following some blue lights, Ha-eun looked bewildered.
Oh-jin nodded and continued.
“A city this massive couldn’t have been invisible from a distance… Was it hidden by some kind of barrier? And you found it instantly with your Dragon Eye.”
The veil that had hidden the kingdom of the Draconians had been revealed with almost laughable ease by Ha-eun’s Dragon Eye.
“W-What? My eye is pretty damn amazing, isn’t it?”
It was Ha-eun who now looked flustered, touching the area around her left eye.
The eye socket, with hideous veins spreading out like roots.
The pupil, slit vertically like a reptile’s, emitted an intense light.
“Should we check it out from the outside for a bit?”
Even though they had found the kingdom, they couldn’t just walk in without a plan.
They might be met with the same hostility toward humans as the beastmen had shown.
“Wait here for a moment. I’m going to go up and take a look at the city’s interior.”
The city walls surrounding the outskirts blocked the view from where they were.
*Thwang!*
Using his wire shooter, Oh-jin ascended a nearby cliff and then jumped higher using a series of Lightning Steps.
“…What is this.”
Oh-jin’s expression hardened as he looked down at the city, enhancing his vision with the power of the Stigma of Canis Major.
What he saw was a kingdom so utterly destroyed that one would believe it was a ruin.
There was no sign of the Draconians; instead, groups of what appeared to be Majin were roaming through the ruined city.
“Dammit.”
Oh-jin’s expression twisted fiercely.
‘Were we one step too late?’
The Draconian Kingdom, which they had struggled to find, had already been destroyed by the Majin.