Chapter 123
Chapter 123
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Side Story, Song of Ice and Fire (4)
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8.
“Food.”
……It really came charging at him with its jaws wide open.
“Wait! I’m kidding, it’s a joke! Spare me! Hyun-ji! I’m sorry!”
Shin Tae-yeop begged frantically, rubbing his hands together until they were raw.
Did it work?
Ryu Hyun-ji took several deep breaths to calm herself down before recalling Black & White.
“D-Don’t ever do that again…….”
“Sorry.”
“I got such a fright…… My mind went completely blank…… Come back, Black, White.”
Having escaped the crisis, Shin Tae-yeop grumbled like this.
“Hey, I’m sorry, but for you to react like that to a joke confession──”
“Food.”
“──Sorry! I’m sorry! Spare me! My bad!”
He had to beg again with his hands clasped together in front of Black & White, which had rushed right up to his face once more.
“S-So…… what did you really come here for?”
“Oh, right. This. I brought the manual to pass on.”
“The manual?”
Ryu Hyun-ji took it carefully and flipped through the pages, letting out a stream of “wow”s.
“Y-You already finished all this? That’s insanely fast.”
“The sooner the better. The recruits already got theirs.”
“Theory classes don’t start until day three, so we could take it slow…….”
Shin Tae-yeop looked her up and down.
Ryu Hyun-ji was different from Heo Cheon-gyeom.
She was dressed in the full formal manual uniform, just like a fresh recruit who’d finished basic training.
“Hyun-ji, you need to add some flair.”
Ryu Hyun-ji had been temporarily assigned as an instructor for the liquor shaman hunters.
“F-Flair?”
Two recruits with divine beast unique skills had joined up, and since Ryu Hyun-ji was the only hunter in the <Association> who could handle divine beasts.
“Look over there at Cheon-gyeom.”
“Cheon-gyeom?”
“Adding personality to your uniform used to be a veteran thing…… People might mistake Cheon-gyeom for the lead hunter.”
At that, Ryu Hyun-ji let out a “pfft.”
She clamped both hands over her mouth, as if surprised by her own reaction. But the laughter kept leaking out.
“Ch-Cheon-gyeom must really be in his element as an instructor. H-He’s been super pumped lately.”
“The guy always had a dominant streak?”
“N-Not exactly like that. B-But…… why’s your bag so heavy?”
“Oh, this? Because of this.”
What Shin Tae-yeop pulled out after rummaging in his bag was an ice orb.
“It’s pretty…… What is it?”
“Equipment refined from the Ice Dragon’s soulstone. Wanna see?”
“Equipment? This?”
“Yep, equipment. The way to use it is──”
“──Hey, Chocosongyi!”
Chocosongyi?
Who the hell dared to slap that old-man-snack name onto my ‘songyi’ series…… The moment he turned to glare at the culprit.
“Hyah!”
A blow to the side.
Why…… was it so damn heavy? This wasn’t a joke.
“Urk!”
The instant he felt it.
Shin Tae-yeop was rolling across the dirt floor of the training yard.
What the hell?
Which lunatic?
His combat memory and judgment kicked into 300% overdrive, pinpointing the attacker.
It was that bastard.
There was only one person in this whole wide world who could pull off something this insane.
“Y-Ye-jin……?!”
Sure enough…….
There he was amid the dust cloud.
Looking down at him smugly with arms crossed.
“You’ve gotten weak. Seriously ~so~ weak. Weaker than random passerby Heo Cheon-gyeom A.”
A youthful but strikingly beautiful face.
Eyes sparkling with mischief.
A ponytail swaying wildly from the momentum of her charge.
“Stuck in the hospital and your room all day, and this is what happens!”
That hair…… I’m the original.
Why the hell is she copying me ever since the ‘Exalted Ones’ raid…….
“D-Do Ye-jin…… you little punk…….”
Shin Tae-yeop clutched his side and staggered to his feet, but Do Ye-jin flashed a victorious grin.
“Who’s the punk now?”
That was when it happened.
He didn’t even have time to be shocked by the sight. Do Ye-jin spoke.
“Huh……? What’s this?”
The ice orb gleaming brilliantly in the starlight.
That precious item refined from Scesari’s soul……
It hit the dirt hard.
──Crack.
And shattered with a bursting sound.
“A…… Aaaah……?”
Shin Tae-yeop bolted in an instant.
Forgetting the pain, running like a half-madman.
Crack?
He must have misheard.
He definitely misheard.
But……
Shin Tae-yeop arrived at the ice orb and collapsed to his knees.
“No.”
There was a crack in the ice orb.
“……Why? What is that thing?”
It wasn’t despair from the crack…… I can’t feel it anymore…….
“……I-It’s subordinate equipment.”
“……What? Don’t lie. Equipment doesn’t just crack like that?”
Scesari’s presence…… vanished like a lie…….
“……I d-don’t know. But it seemed really precious…… Ye-jin, why’d you suddenly…….”
A jumble of voices buzzed in his ears.
「That idiot screwed up again.」
His own breathing.
The girls whispering.
The divine beasts jeering wildly.
「Idiot! Moron! Trash-tier! Trash-tier!」
Distant sounds closing in, nearby ones fading away.
“……What did you say? T-Trash, trash-tier?”
In short, his mind was a total mess.
The moment the crack appeared in the ice orb.
A sense of severance, like a bond being cut…… The sudden loss of unity, the influx of isolation.
What the hell…… Why does this break so easily…… What……?
“Sh-Shin Tae-yeop…… you know…….”
The girl’s hesitant voice.
“I didn’t…… um…… know you were holding that…….”
Careful footsteps laced with guilt.
“I’m sorry…… For real…… I’ll go to Hwa-yun unnie and get it fixed───”
“───Enough already.”
He knew.
There was no malice. It wasn’t anything new to be shocked about.
“You cause every damn accident under the sun, say sorry, and that’s it? Fix it and done?”
But why?
Shin Tae-yeop felt his tone turning rough on its own.
An awkward silence fell.
Finally, Do Ye-jin forced her usual clumsy smile.
“Yeah…… I didn’t mean it like that…….”
Shin Tae-yeop sat with his back to her, carefully lifting the shattered ice orb.
“I’m too dumb to know how to explain…….”
A glance over his shoulder.
Do Ye-jin was fidgeting with both index fingers, giving a troubled “hee” laugh.
“Just go.”
“……Sorry.”
“There’s a limit to pranks. I said go.”
Shin Tae-yeop began picking up the shattered fragments one by one.
It didn’t mean anything.
He just felt suffocated by the silence after those words.
“…….”
How much time passed like that?
Finally, the sound of the girl’s footsteps started up. Fading away, then cutting off completely.
Only then did he stand.
“Uh…… um…… Tae-yeop oppa……? So…… um…….”
Ryu Hyun-ji, flustered and stuck between the melodrama.
「T-T-T-T-T-T-Tremble.」
「Scary. Terror. Ruin. Death.」
Black & White hiding behind Ryu Hyun-ji to avoid Shin Tae-yeop’s gaze.
What the hell did I just do?
His hand trembled around the ice orb.
Do Ye-jin hadn’t done it on purpose.
“Sorry, Hyun-ji.”
This was why he always tried to stay gentle.
He always regretted it after fighting. The aftermath hurt more.
But…… but…… The trace of Scesari he’d barely reclaimed…… That was when.
───Shirak.
Shin Tae-yeop’s eyes widened.
Just now…… just now…… What was that sound? Like ice cracking?
“Th-That…… o-oppa? The sorry? Not to me, but──”
“──Shh. Quiet. Be quiet.”
Shin Tae-yeop instantly raised his left hand to Ryu Hyun-ji.
“……Huh?”
“I said be quiet.”
Shirak… Shirak… Shirak….
Some kind of…… squirming presence.
And…… a groaning sound.
At the same time…… Crack…… craaack…… the crack growing louder. The next instant.
Something broke free from it.
Shin Tae-yeop felt his mind go blank.
What…… is this creature?
Eyes clear like a winter lake.
Mouth pale blue like a winter sky.
A cry clear like lake ice shattering on a winter day……
“Shirak, Shiark, Shiark.”
Is this…… a lizard?
No…… Do lizards have wings? Are there lizards covered in frost……?
That was when their eyes met.
It stared at Shin Tae-yeop for about three seconds, then resumed hatching.
“Shirak, Shiark, Shiark.”
Crying vigorously……
Pounding the ice orb with its slender four legs……
“Wow…… What is this…… It’s so cute…….”
Ryu Hyun-ji’s voice.
In that haze of mental chaos.
One word flashed through Shin Tae-yeop’s mind.
Ice Dragon.
Ice Dragon……?
No way.
The last Ice Dragon met its end in Samcheong-dong that day.
“This…… i-isn’t it a dragon? I saw one in a movie.”
“Not a dragon.”
Shin Tae-yeop cut Ryu Hyun-ji off firmly.
“Huh? Winged lizard…… isn’t that a dragon? N-No?”
“It’s only fist-sized.”
“…………?”
“True Dragons aren’t this small even as hatchlings. More like fetuses. And they don’t hatch from eggs.”
Shin Tae-yeop flinched.
True Dragon……? What did I just say?
“Shirak. Shirak. Shirak.”
Shin Tae-yeop panted.
He’d spoken unknown knowledge like this before.
Berkenシア or something?
And True Dragons aren’t this small? What did that mean?
[Yeah, that’s right.]
Right then.
A memory he couldn’t recall.
[It’s not a True Dragon, it’s a Pseudo-Dragon.]
Fragments of unrecallable ‘game knowledge’ surfaced clearly in his mind.
[Pseudo-Dragons are subordinates born from a True Dragon’s soul…… Soul fragments.]
As if.
Someone was whispering.
[So this…… might be a soul gift left by Scesari?]
Why…… how……?
- Because you remembered me and came looking…… I’m happy……
His eyes stung hot in an instant.
- Kerak. Kerak. Kerak.
Did you really…… back then, did you really feel that way about me……?
That was when.
The top of the egg fully shattered.
The Pseudo-Dragon began flapping its wings. Again, again, again.
“Hey, let it…… fly!”
Wings so fragile they might break at a touch.
The frail, tiny hatchling flapping and flapping those wings.
The next moment.
The hatchling’s body began to lift into the air bit by bit.
“Shirak……!”
It wobbled in midair as if it might fall several times…… but kept flapping to the end.
“Shirak…… Shirak……!”
And.
It came right up to Shin Tae-yeop’s face.
A cold sensation brushed his eyes.
The hatchling had licked away…… Shin Tae-yeop’s tears with its tongue.
Huh……? He looked up.
“Aieha!”
The moment their eyes met, the hatchling barked affectionately.
“Shirak!”
That instant.
It lost power in its wings and plummeted.
Of course, Shin Tae-yeop caught it with both hands first.
“Shirak. Shirak. Shirak.”
The hatchling in his hands.
It kept groaning and licking his palms with its tongue.
“D-Does it think oppa’s its mom?”
Ryu Hyun-ji said that.
“Sounds like it’s going ‘mommy, mommy.’”
“What……?”
“B-Birds imprint on the first thing they see after hatching as mom, right? I-I think I saw a YouTube video like that.”
Shin Tae-yeop let out a hollow laugh.
It’s not a bird, and there’s no YouTube anymore.
No, that wasn’t why.
Overwhelmed by emotion—sadness or joy, he didn’t know—Shin Tae-yeop pulled the hatchling to his face.
“Aieha. Aieha.”
A gift left by Scesari.
A soul fragment remembering him, left by Scesari.
“Yeah. I’m right here.”
As he whispered, the hatchling’s cries seemed to calm a bit.
“It’s okay. I’m right here. Not going anywhere.”
That was when Ryu Hyun-ji cautiously spoke up.
“Ice Dragon…… The Cheonunhyoja-dong boss was an Ice Dragon too…… What was its name?”
“Ice Dragon Scesari.”
Shin Tae-yeop answered immediately, and Ryu Hyun-ji blinked.
“S-Suits it perfectly.”
“It suits the Ice Dragon species well.”
Shin Tae-yeop gave a bittersweet smile and stood.
“But I’m not naming this one Scesari.”
The Ice Dragon Scesari was with the Dragon Lady in the light now.
And.
He wouldn’t let it live the same life as the last Dragon Scesari.
“Because it’s not Scesari.”
“Then what……?”
Hmm. What to name it?
That was when the Ice Dragon in his hands cried out desperately again.
“Shirak. Shirak. Shirak.”
Suddenly, Shin Tae-yeop muttered without thinking.
“……Shiraki.”
“……Huh? Jura-gi? Jura-gi World? That…… d-dino movie?”
“No. Shi · rak · i.”
Ryu Hyun-ji shook her head excitedly.
“B-But it’s a dragon? The cool ones from movies?! But the name’s kinda…… cute.”
“The cuter the better. Dogs bark woof-woof so they’re Woofy. Cats meow-meow so they’re Meow-Meow.”
For this one.
He wanted to give it the most everyday name possible.
“Same principle. Our Shiraki goes shirak-shirak, so Shiraki.”
Shin Tae-yeop smiled softly and looked down at the hatchling. It met his eyes and cried out.
“Shirak! Shirak! Shirak!”
“See? Shiraki likes the name too.”