Chapter 187
**CHAPTER TITLE: Exploring the Sweet House**
“That much you should know. Having received the transmission knowledge, you must already have most of the necessary information.”
Hearing those words, Rune looked slowly at Perdikion.
‘I’m getting a wrong impression here. You can’t say you understand the world with that.’
Rune let out that thought without any bad feeling.
“But isn’t seeing and experiencing it different? This is just a model, but still, seeing the real thing is better than just knowing from words or knowledge.”
At those words, the eyes of the Water Dragon hatchling slowly swept around the surroundings.
The ceiling split into night and day.
Fluffy cotton clouds floated lazily on magic winds shaped like clouds.
The Gingerbread House and several other scenery pieces.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a place that felt like a toy.
He might enjoy playing while sightseeing, but he was rather skeptical that it would help with studying.
Rune, not knowing the depth of Perdikion’s feelings, pointed toward Amelia with his finger.
Amelia was curiously looking around at that moment.
“This is…… a human from the continent. I, and…… um, adventurer. A, a hunter? Ah. A person who slices meat…… right.”
Amelia stared at the tiny chocolate figure of a human.
Even if she held a knife, she could guess the job from the clothes and other tools.
Amelia nodded.
“Ah, I knew…… but…… it looks different…….”
Heungmi jumped in as well.
“Heungmi has never seen a waterfall this big!”
Heungmi, who often went to the human village where Jed lived as Rune’s errand, had traveled to Elf regions too, but she had only been to this one, so she had never seen such scenery.
The two of them enjoyed looking around the gingerbread houses with delight.
Rune spoke with a faint smile.
“How is it, hyung? Is my point correct?”
“Hmm.”
Yes, it was.
There had been some friction because of how he had ignored them before, but Perdikion directly faced the dwarf culture.
Ironically, compared to Amelia, who had no one else to experience, it was an even better environment to experience another being.
Perdikion turned his gaze to Rune.
‘So Rune must have realized that point earlier.’
He was really smart.
From when he was young, it was clear he was clever, but to notice the difference between Amelia and Perdikion right away.
Perdikion crossed his arms and let out a breath.
“I never thought of that. I didn’t know you’d find it so interesting.”
For Perdikion it was natural, but for Amelia it was not.
The Water Dragon hatchling had no choice but to acknowledge the fact.
‘Good. This way my understanding of Amelia will increase a bit.’
They had already had a big argument right from their first meeting.
If they built up the process of understanding each other’s situations, such big clashes would decrease.
‘If that happens, I can just sit back and let the two of them sort it out themselves.’
In the end, Rune would watch them grow up together and take his own time and comfort, the ultimate win-win method.
‘Since it’s come to this, shall I definitely play the teacher role?’
Rune looked at Perdikion with an innocent face.
“So, hyung. What were the humans you met like? Tell us about it.”
Perdikion narrowed his brows and nodded cheerfully.
“Alright. As the first one who went to the human world, I’ll tell you.”
“Thank you, hyung.”
With that, Rune expected that the worry of the two fighting during lessons would decrease a little.
They were two hatchlings with very different personalities.
Even if they tried to be considerate, misunderstandings would easily make them drift apart.
‘One is timid and cautious but careful and meticulous. The other is bold and straightforward, adventurous. Watching them…….’
Rune came up with the right thought and looked at Amelia and Perdikion alternately.
‘They’re like a dog and a cat, right?’
A dog wags its tail when happy, but a cat gets into a fight if its tail is raised.
In reality it would differ per individual, but the two hatchlings in front of them didn’t seem to be that different.
Meanwhile, Perdikion, who had been walking ahead, turned around to Rune.
“What are you doing, Rune! Come this way too!”
“Okay.”
Rune answered calmly and started walking.
And Perdikion realized that he had more experience than he thought.
“Explaining this gingerbread house is a bit tough. From its shape, it seems like Christina-nim’s suggested house, is that right?”
“Yes.”
Perdikion nodded once and continued.
“Looking at the house structure, it mainly used long vertical windows. There’s quite an interesting story here.”
Rune guessed what Perdikion would say.
‘He’s probably going to talk about the human tax system.’
Perdikion lifted only one corner of his mouth in a smile and continued.
“Once, the human king oddly collected a window tax.”
“Window…… tax?”
Amelia asked in surprise, and Perdikion nodded.
“That’s right. The bigger and better the house, the more windows it has, and that was the logic.”
It sounded oddly convincing when heard, but it was still strange.
“At the time it was just unbelievable. Houses had extremely small or no windows. What kind of house is that? I asked, and what do you think they answered?”
Rune listened carefully to Perdikion’s words too.
“Ugh, what did they say?”
Perdikion snorted when Heungmi answered while shaking her head.
“The bigger the window, the higher the tax, they said.”
“Heuk!”
Heungmi opened her mouth wide and looked back at the gingerbread house.
“Then this house has lots of windows and even two stories! They must have paid a lot!”
“That’s right. Well, it was a few hundred years ago, so I don’t know if it still is.”
Perdikion showed a displeased expression, as if he was saying something unnecessary.
But Amelia and Heungmi’s eyes sparkled brightly.
“More! More please!”
“Me, me too…… I want you to…….”
“Hmm! If you want, I can’t refuse.”
Things were going better than Rune thought.
‘The transmission knowledge probably wouldn’t explain this.’
But Rune was the exception.
The tax story Perdikion told, Rune already knew too.
It was thanks to Christina who knew a lot about humans.
‘This is something Christina passed on through knowledge transmission. Lucky me.’
Among dragons, she was the one who had met humans the most, so it was only natural.
‘Since transmission magic can be selectively given, the caster’s will has to be involved anyway.’
Thinking that, Rune turned his gaze back to Amelia and Heungmi.
They were looking at the beer-shaped biscuit door and chatting with each other.
“This, this is alcohol……?”
“It says pub. Hmmm~! It smells like butter candy.”
Heungmi sniffed happily.
“Last time, Jed uncle said there’s a pub and I went. There the smell was sour and tickled my nose, so I sneezed. If it was butter candy smell, Heungmi would have liked it!”
Hearing that, Amelia carefully looked inside the door.
Beer and meat-shaped snacks on a round table.
Amelia sat lightly on a three-legged wooden chair and stared at the beer-shaped candy.
“This…… is a life with others…….”
For a girl who had only seen her parents and same dragons in the deep sea, the Gingerbread House and village felt like seeing another world.
Rune was satisfied.
‘Even without going myself, learning more about their culture would show more.’
Scenes the young hatchling had never seen.
Fortunately Perdikion was helping cooperatively, so after half a year of lessons Amelia would become familiar with the continent too.
Rune smiled faintly.
‘Learning while playing is like this.’
While teaching various things, Perdikion seemed to be getting absorbed.
With that momentum, they looked around all the gingerbread decorations and buildings.
***
“It was fun!”
“Ppyak!”
In response to Heungmi’s words, Baekya spread its wings.
And Rune looked down at Baekya, which he was holding tightly with both hands.
‘You were just in the way.’
Rune’s gaze was not kind.
Because Baekya had tried to peck at the snacks with its beak several times in the middle.
To stop that, Rune had to be very careful.
Because he had to make sure the time for Amelia, Heungmi, and Perdikion to become close friends was not disturbed.
‘Thanks to that, I ended up taking on an extra job I didn’t even have an arm for.’
Ugh.
Even though I’m feeding them delicious things lately, their greed is increasing.
Anyway, it’s not something Rune can understand about a bird’s mind.
“Well…… I learned a lot…… Thank you.”
“It was all my brother’s request.”
At those words Amelia looked at Rune.
“Thank you…… Rune.”
“No thanks.”
Heungmi laughed and stepped forward in response to Rune’s answer.
“Now let’s go to the Black Room!”
“Let’s go. Oh, snacks can be taken from here.”
It wasn’t a mistake to come to the snack warehouse.
The snacks here were excellent in shape and taste, and they had blessing magic.
No matter which one you ate, it was top-class.
“Umm…… it would be too sad to take them…….”
At the words of the light-blue girl, Rune shook his hand saying it was fine.
“They’ll make more later. If you want, you can think of them as souvenirs and take them.”
“Souvenirs……?”
With a question full of intent, Rune nodded and answered.
“Yes. When I went to the Elf festival, they sold all sorts of souvenirs and food.”
“That’s right! It was fun even then!”
Heungmi, holding meat-shaped candy, dried meat snacks, and teddy bear-shaped cake decorations, showed them to Rune.
“Heungmi has this!”
“Good. Put them in your pocket dimension bag.”
“Yes!”
Heungmi answered and stuffed the snacks into her pocket dimension bag.
Then Baekya flew over with a snack in its beak.
“Ppiyak!”
“You’re potato chips again?”
“Ppi! Ppiyak!”
Baekya, which had only pulled out the beak made of potato chips from its body made of white chocolate.
It was a bit unbelievable, but Rune accepted it too.
Perdikion scooped up lemon candy pebbles and beach sand made of lemon powder.
Everyone was picking one, and Amelia thought about it and chose one.
“Th, then…… this too…… is it okay?”
“That one?”
At Rune’s question Amelia hesitated.
“I, isn’t it…… no? But, it’s interesting…….”
What Amelia chose was the night sky.
A night sky colored jelly and candy dust sprinkled on sugar pearl candy shaped like stars.
“It’s fine. I’ll cut this much?”
“Uh…… yes!”
Rune cut the ceiling with magic and put it in his pocket dimension bag.
‘Well, that can be repaired.’
Seizing the moment, he cut the morning sky too.
White clouds made of cotton candy and vanilla ice cream.
With the clear pale blue sky-colored jelly, the preparation for enjoying the night was complete.