There Is No Such Thing as a Bad Dragon, Part 1
'What is this now?'
It had all happened so fast that I couldn’t even begin to think about how to respond.
It was only natural that I’d frozen up for a moment.
Whatever conscience she had left stopped her from attacking with the horn on her head, but Max’s face was clearly twisted with pain.
Like time itself had stopped, all I could see was Toltol-i’s face, full of hostility, and Max, eyes screwed shut.
With a thud and a clatter, Max toppling backward was only to be expected.
After puffing out her nose as if to say, How dare you look down on me?, she held herself in a proud, imposing pose. It was a ridiculous sight.
Apparently dragons, too, understood that they had to look big to seem threatening, because she stood there on two legs, keeping herself rigid and solid.
“Kiekh! Hek-hek!”
Of course, after that she wagged her tail.
The fact that I was even debating whether I should pet her was laughable.
Just as I was about to snap something back, what reached me first was Dialugia’s shout.
“Dia! Lu! Ria!”
Thinking about how fiercely Dialugia doted on Toltol-i, I’d worried she might go into, What are you doing, scaring my baby? mode, but that didn’t happen.
What I saw in her eyes was disbelief and anger.
She had already shown plenty of impulsive behavior up to now, but this was the first time she’d displayed real aggression like this, so I was sure she’d decided this had to be corrected.
I briefly left Toltol-i with Dialugia and immediately ran over to check Max’s condition.
He clutched his chest as if pain was unfamiliar to him, then after patting at his own body, he leaned toward me with a dumbfounded look.
“Max, are you okay?”
“Re-Representative Lee….”
Instinctively, he understood that it was safer to stay by my side.
“Kieeeeeeeek!”
Of course, seeing that, Toltol-i let out a shriek, and that was only to be expected.
“Dialuria! What do you think you’re doing?”
“Kiekh!”
“What’s with that attitude? Are you saying you did well?”
“Kieeeeeek!”
“Why are you always….”
“Kieeeeeeeeeek!”
“Didn’t I tell you before that you can’t do things like that? Where did you learn to look at your mother like that?”
“Kiekh!”
“Your mother has put up with enough!”
“Kiek!”
“I’m a dragon too! A dragon!”
In the middle of all that, the sight of Toltol-i treating her mother with such lukewarm indifference was downright absurd.
She still hadn’t cooled off, and kept huffing out angry breaths.
That one needs discipline.
She definitely needed discipline.
This was the sort of thing that had to be corrected early.
Right now you could still classify it as somewhere between Rare and Heroic, but if I assumed she’d eventually grow into a Legendary dragon, then a simple body slam might not be simple at all.
What had just happened was the same.
If Max had been an ordinary kid, he would have been badly hurt.
The feeling that I’d already botched the first step was definitely there, but I needed to correct her behavior starting now.
In the end, I had no choice but to take a fairly serious stance myself.
When I spoke quietly, Toltol-i immediately whipped her head around.
Dialugia, displeased by Toltol-i’s indifferent attitude, also turned her head.
“Dialuria.”
“Hek-hek.”
“You do understand that what you just did was wrong, don’t you?”
“Hek….”
“Go back to your nest right now. You’re grounded from today on. No going out, no playing, and I won’t play with you until you’ve reflected on what you did. The excursion is over, and everything I promised about us staying together afterward is canceled. The outing is canceled too. No snacks, either, so handle it yourself.”
“Kiekh?”
She looked flustered.
When I didn’t even look at her, tears began to drip down one after another before long.
“Kiiiiiiing… kieeeeeek….”
She looked as though she’d lost a country.
It was almost strange that a dragon could make such a pitiful face.
The sight of tears spilling continuously from those huge eyes was, at first glance, almost adorable, but I already knew better than to be fooled by that cuteness.
My eyes kept drifting that way, but it was important to hold onto my composure as firmly as possible.
“Kieeeek! Kiiiiiing. Kiiing… kiiieeeing….”
If I had to translate it, it sounded like she was shouting, “I’m sorry,” and “I won’t do it again,” but that wasn’t nearly enough.
Actions have consequences.
That was what she had to learn.
The expedition members checked once more to make sure Max was all right, then headed back to the guild house.
What amused me a little was that Jung Hayan’s expression had also turned grave.
Is she feeling it too…?
She seemed to think that if she made one wrong move, she might end up walking the same path as Toltol-i.
No doubt the scene we’d just seen reminded her of something familiar.
She was probably realizing that if she made a mistake herself, she might be exiled somewhere else just like Toltol-i.
In a way, that’s a relief.
I could feel the effects of the dose I’d administered at the Cursed Shrine wearing off little by little anyway.
I’d been thinking I needed to take another measure with Jung Hayan as well, and this felt like a good opportunity. Soon enough, there would be more situations than I had hands to handle.
I don’t have time to personally babysit everyone one by one….
I didn’t have time to care for each person individually.
Of course, in Jung Hayan’s case, now that her mana had reached 98 and she’d become a top-tier mage, she did require attention, but for now the most important thing was the business directly in front of me.
For the time being, it doesn’t look like anything’s going to blow up.
Jung Hayan needed time to sort through the power she’d newly gained on her own, so for a while she’d stay obedient enough.
Especially after seeing what had just happened.
“Kiiing… kiiieeeing….”
-Representative Lee. Somehow….
“Don’t worry about it, Max. That kind of behavior needs to be corrected.”
-But she looks so heartbroken, I mean….
“Kids that age are sly. She needs at least a few days to chew over what she did wrong.”
-Ah… yes.
“Kieeeeeeeeng….”
Only Toltol-i’s cries kept echoing from behind us.
And I already have enough to do….
Since I’d been neglecting her education all this time, it wasn’t a bad idea to take care of it now and get it out of the way.
Anyway, leaving Toltol-i behind in tears, I entered the guild house and caught sight of the faces of the new recruits I hadn’t seen in a while.
Yoo Ahyoung, who’d apparently been hammering away since morning, greeted us brightly with a slight sheen of sweat on her skin, and Lee Changryeol bowed his head and welcomed us with, “Good work, everyone.”
Han Sora also did her best to avoid Jung Hayan and greeted us in a voice so tiny it was practically an ant’s crawl.
Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be any real problems among Blue’s new sprouts.
After a little while, our lovely regressor announced the end of the expedition, and the party members all started resting in their own ways.
Of course, this was rest time for us, but it wasn’t rest time for the guild staff.
At this point, it wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say work was just beginning for them.
Team Leader Kim Miyoung was already calling the guild staff and keeping them busy.
And naturally, I, who was in charge of overseeing the guild employees, couldn’t exactly relax either.
The instant I sat down on a chair in the lobby, new tasks began piling up in my head.
We said we’d officially announce the Eighth Seat of the Empire too….
We’d already delayed it plenty, so it couldn’t be postponed any further.
I also need to drop by Castle Rock’s black market….
I had to check whether things were actually being handled properly.
Before the business gets underway, I should also do some market research in the conflict city….
I also had to consider whether our products could be introduced into the Republic.
I’ve got to take care of the chicks too… and I still have black magic research scheduled….
And that wasn’t all.
I absolutely couldn’t cut ties with the Holy See, so I needed to spend time with Cardinal Basel, and at the same time I had to hold tea parties with the noble ladies under the pretense of gossip.
And once I thought about the fact that I also had to push ahead with research into the museum control device and various other business ventures, it was obvious I didn’t have the luxury of sitting back and resting peacefully.
One thing at a time. Let’s finish them one by one.
I would hand things over to capable employees, of course, but there were some tasks I couldn’t leave entirely to them.
Coming back to the guild house was pleasant, but finishing one thing only meant the beginning of another.
I was seriously starting to wonder whether this was how people ended up dying young, so there was nothing more to say.
I was in a state where my head felt like it was about to split open.
But Park Deokgu, freed from every burden, was already making a racket.
“Hey, hyung. What do you say we men take a nice, warm soak together after all this time? Brother Gimo said he was going too, and Hyung said he’d join us, too… ah, Changryeol’s coming as well! Max says he’s going too!”
“There are private baths, so why would we….”
“That’s different! Stuff like this is for building camaraderie. The communal bath is there for exactly this kind of thing! What else would it be for? This is how you build teamwork. Teamwork!”
“Ugh… I’ll go in later, so you guys go ahead first.”
“Hey, you’ve got to come!”
“Fine, Deokgu.”
I had no idea what had gotten into him, but he seemed absolutely obsessed with a group bath.
The same was true of the women’s team, apparently, because everyone seemed to be getting ready to bathe.
Probably the main culprits were Hwang Jeongyeon and Park Deokgu.
“Hayan, hurry up and get ready.”
“Ah… I-I’m… fine….”
“Don’t be like that.”
Even Jung Hayan was being dragged along.
She was looking at me as if asking for help, but there was no way I could help her.
In fact, the one really begging for help was less Jung Hayan and more Han Sora.
She was still trembling just from seeing Jung Hayan’s face.
For her, the idea of seeing each other naked and bathing together was probably nothing short of hell.
Do I have to go in too?
Maybe, but first I needed to handle the matter right in front of me.
“Team Leader Kim Miyoung.”
“Yes, Vice Guild Master.”
If not for her, things would have gone really badly.
I’d stake everything on the fact that if Kim Miyoung hadn’t been here, I’d already have died of overwork.
“Did any letters come in while I was away?”
“Ah. I was just about to tell you. We received about five letters from Cardinal Basel, and Bishop Jessica and the Heresy Inquisitor Helena each sent three as well. Duchess Catherine asked for a reply regarding whether you could attend the party. Lady Marlin has sent exactly 144 letters. Beyond that, there are letters from other guilds as well as some with no identifiable sender….”
What the hell is with 144 letters from Lady Marlin?
“Letters with no sender listed?”
“Yes. The sender field only said, ‘Keep your promise.’”
What, is that Republic psycho bitch?
It was a name I’d forgotten about for a while.
“That’s a lot….”
“Yes. There are also many event invitations from Celia, and from Dawan as well, there was an official invitation…. There are simply too many to list one by one. Ah! Lady Cha Heera also said to contact her the moment she arrives in Lindel.”
“Ugh… just pick out only what’s truly important and organize my schedule. And Hyunsung’s too, of course. If possible, coordinate things so our destinations don’t overlap.”
“Yes. I’ll do that.”
“Ah, and Team Leader Kim, how old are your children now…?”
“They’ve just started school. W-Well, they’re very satisfied with the guild’s education program, too, but I thought it would be better for them to spend time with other people….”
“Ah, I see. That’s actually for the best. That little blonde kid who came in with us just now, can he go into that program too? No, no, just say he’s my adopted son and get his enrollment ready immediately.”
“Understood.”
“And… please coordinate with Black Swan and handle publicity for this expedition as well. It’s important that we emphasize the title of Guardian of the Continent, so please make sure that part is included.”
“Yes, Vice Guild Master.”
“I feel like I can still survive because you’re here, Team Leader Kim. As I always say, I’m truly grateful.”
“Not at all. I should be the one thanking….”
“Let me know anytime if you need anything.”
“No. I’m already more than satisfied, Vice Guild Master.”
“Then I’ll head in.”
“Yes. I hope you have a pleasant time.”
Bluntly speaking, if she ever said she was quitting, that would be a major disaster from my perspective.
I’d need to give her another raise at the first opportunity.
I feel a little lighter.
The work hadn’t even started yet, but I was already feeling a little lighter.
Maybe it was because I’d set down the heavy gear and the dampened load, but either way, the feeling wasn’t bad.
After heading into the bathhouse to keep my promise to Park Deokgu, I started taking off the rest of my equipment one piece at a time.
After the bath, the guild staff would probably come collect it all.
Is this my first time in a public bath since coming here…?
There were plenty of facilities in Blue, but this felt like the first time I was actually using them.
The moment I roughly stripped off my clothes and stepped into the steam-filled bath, Park Deokgu’s voice welcomed me.
“Haaah….”
“Why?”
“Kyah….”
“What?”
“As expected, hyung is hyung!”
It was hard to understand what kind of nonsense this idiot was going on about, but for some reason, the towel had migrated to my waist.