Chapter 397
Chapter 397
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 397
>Chapter Title: Little Dragon
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More than two years had passed since the Yaksha Grand War came to an end. In that time, Khan had changed a great deal.
If someone asked whether a dusty, old empire that had flourished to its limits could possibly change, the answer would be no.
However, if that empire was Khan, the answer would be yes, it could.
Khan possessed countless talents, each one a star.
Before long, Khan had healed its wounds and begun sprouting new flesh.
"Jinryeo! What are you doing sleeping sprawled out here again? You're the one who said you wanted to join the escort!"
"Ah, right!"
"'Ah, right' like you've just realized something! What if there's a gap in the escort because of you?"
Jinryeo wiped the drool from her mouth as she got up.
"Lord Chiwu works hard enough to cover for my absence, so there won't be any gaps."
"That's exactly why—why is there an absence in the first place?"
"Who knows? Maybe a rat chewed through it?"
"Then I guess we need to club that rat. Let's see, where's my stick..."
"Rats have lives too! You wicked..."
Half-joking, half-serious, the two bantered back and forth.
They were the people closest to Seolhong.
In those two years, both had changed quite a bit.
First, Jinryeo had grown her hair into long braids alongside her straight locks. She said it was a tradition from her tribal days living among the northern minorities.
There had been some who questioned whether a foreigner from a minority tribe, not even of Khan's blood, could truly stand by the dragon's side.
In the end, though, she became a symbol of Seolhong's ability to embrace all sorts of people.
The person herself just muttered, "It has nothing to do with my background..."
Chiwu had changed even more drastically than her.
He had grown enormously in height.
Beastkin were generally larger than humans to begin with, but for a beastkin like Chiwu—who carried dragon blood and had once been around Kang Seol's size—it didn't make sense.
In the end, he had reached full physical maturity.
He was a full head taller than other large adults, and his muscles were ripped and defined.
On the other hand, his face still carried a vague boyish air, making him wildly popular with the women of Khan.
"Why don't you ever work hard, Jinryeo?"
"You know, I have this feeling... It seems like the total amount of effort is fixed."
"What nonsense is that from someone who eats well?"
"I feel like I'm saving up my effort for some important task later. It has to be that! So it's okay if I sleep more, right?"
"......"
Chiwu grabbed Jinryeo's ear and pulled.
"Ow! It hurts!"
"Effort is a habit. If you're always this lazy, when the time comes to put in effort, you won't know how and you'll flounder. So let me teach you the way."
"You're so mean!"
"Sigh... Jinryeo, you're too lacking in awareness. Do you even know what Seolhong has become to the people of Khan now?"
"...An amazing existence?"
"Specifically."
"...A mother, I guess. Mother of the common folk!"
She was right.
Seolhong was sailing smoothly through the Dragon Contest with overwhelming support from the masses.
The Dragon Contest was a test based purely on ability, so such support couldn't change the outcomes, but it gave Seolhong great strength.
All the countless things she had resolved in Khan. In the process, she hadn't spared her body and had taken bold actions, winning over even those who had doubted her true intentions.
She had captivated many people.
"So now, we just need to get rid of Lord Shin-yo and Lord Taeyul, right?"
"Get rid of? Don't say something that'll cause a huge mess!"
"Ah, you've been eliminating competitors all along... The only ones who could compete are those two!"
"Anyone who hears that will misunderstand. I haven't eliminated anyone. I've just overtaken them."
"Same difference... Anyway, just guard her well, got it?"
Mass eliminations from the Dragon Contest.
With the final trial approaching, the last ten had been decided.
Seolhong was one of them.
Out of over two hundred dragon candidates, she was the only one who had started at the bottom and made it into the top ten.
She was a woman touching miracles in many ways.
"You know that, and you're still like this? Do you even have any awareness as Seolhong's escort?"
"Ve-ry aware, I am. And the one who needs awareness isn't me—it's Seolhong! She shouldn't be coming to a dangerous slum like this with just a few escorts! She needs a scolding! Right?"
"Well... You have a point there."
"See? Instead of me, Seolhong should get scolded for my share too?"
"Not that. Now, to your assigned position."
Jinryeo muttered to her jin.
"No, Kunna. Don't say you'll knock down Lord Chiwu for me—that's not okay!"
Kunna was Jinryeo's jin.
The jin's voice rang out.
- I never said that.
Jinryeo and Chiwu's eyes met.
"Ehehe... Ehehehe... Why is the quiet one suddenly..."
Sigh...
Chiwu let out a sigh and looked out the window. A small building in the slums. He had visited this place once in the past.
"...Seolhong."
* * *
A child clung to the woman's embrace, spittle flying as they chattered away.
"Seolhong, Seolhong! Hey, if I become a dragon, can I eat whatever I want?"
"Hmm... Probably?"
"Then, can I do whatever I want without worrying about others?"
"You'll still have to mind them some... But there won't be many who can stop a dragon from doing what they want. And if they do try, they'll have a damn good reason."
"I see... Becoming a dragon sounds so great..."
"Do you want to become one?"
"Yeah. I think it would be good."
The child grinned.
"I have something I want to do."
"Something you want to do?"
"Yeah! I'm going to protect Seolhong!"
It wasn't words for a child much smaller than Seolhong.
"So... not now, but later."
"...You'll protect me?"
"Yeah! Seolhong is weak! I'll protect you. I'll show that even a slum kid can protect Seolhong. If I become a dragon, even someone from here can stand together, right?"
"......"
For a moment, someone else's shadow flickered in Seolhong's mind.
She shook her head to dispel it. It was a memory she must never yearn for. If she wasn't careful, she'd sink into it, breathless.
She had done it dozens of times already. Once rain fell in her heart, the whole day was ruined.
Thwack-!
"Ow!"
Someone flicked the child's forehead.
"Kid, I told you to call her Lady Seolhong."
"Uwaaak! It's the Yushin monster!"
"You little..."
"I don't know! I don't know!"
"Hahaha..."
Yushin approached and sat down.
The one who had connected Mia and Seolhong, helping change the past.
He was the light of the slums.
"Seolhong. They say don't come anymore—it's dangerous."
"Dangerous my foot... Everyone's so kind."
"You're lacking awareness. You can brush off the wrinkles, but you can't pretend they never existed. Not everyone feels the same."
"I know. Chiwu came with me."
"Then that's good."
The two fell silent for a while.
"Seolhong. Do you want to become a dragon?"
"You think I'll become one too, Yushin?"
"Of course— you've come closest to dragonhood. What about you?"
"...I don't know. If it's okay for me to become one."
"What?"
"All I've achieved... might not be from my own strength."
Seolhong still lacked conviction about lording over the masses.
"You know, maybe dragons don't even exist anymore... Maybe they're just an illusion of the era. And yet we chase their lingering echo so we don't forget. Why is that?"
Clunk.
Yushin set down his tea and spoke.
"Because Khan's birth stemmed from that."
"Is that right? The idea that one dragon rules all this vast Khan..."
"...What do you mean? Are you saying the world you want is different, Seolhong?"
Seolhong's expression darkened.
"I don't know. I just... sometimes fantasize that there were no dragons... Or that everyone was a dragon."
"That's dangerous thinking. Not everyone can fly through the skies and breathe fire."
"Even so... Hmm... I don't know. Maybe I'm just anxious because it's a path I've never walked."
The anxiety was real.
The thought of ruling all of vast Khan as a dragon made her hands tremble. Taeyul was probably the only one who wouldn't tremble.
Snicker...
"Seolhong, do you know why Eastern dragons are treated differently from other dragons?"
"No idea...?"
"Because they command the weather."
"The weather?"
"Dragons are all dangerous, but Eastern dragons are said to have power over weather—making it rain or clearing the skies..."
Words from legends.
If Hwagmu revived, fierce storms would rage.
"To our ancestors, weather was as vital as life itself, so everyone reveres dragons. People gather by their side. That's how hope is born. Because they believe dragons will change the world."
"......"
"Seolhong, become a dragon. As a dragon, make it rain in Khan too. Pour down rain like holes in the sky, washing everything away—the corrupt noble houses, the poverty of the slums, even the darkness Khan harbors."
"...Is that possible? Even if I become a dragon, to do all that, I'd need to pour rain every day and it still wouldn't be enough."
Yushin smiled.
"If you become a dragon, I don't think we'd fear the rain anymore."
Seolhong smiled faintly and stood.
Creak...
"I'm going. For a while... I won't be able to come."
"I figured. The final ordeal is right around the corner. ...Can you do it?"
"...I don't know. But..."
Seolhong hardened her face.
"I won't stop."
That was enough.
Someday, she would fill her nest.
"...Farewell, little dragon."
* * *
Time passed once more.
Scritch...
Scritch...
A woman was drawing a picture.
Her drawings didn't capture a single phenomenon.
They depicted all the colorful things that couldn't be expressed in simple words.
Her name was Mia.
The blind spirit-eyed girl whom Hye-myeong had protected in the past.
The deep darkness that had shrouded her had lifted. Because Kang Seol, Seolhong, and Chiwu had changed her and Hye-myeong's past.
They had given her back her paintings.
That was why she could still teach children and paint in her small mountain studio.
What she drew on the paper was not the world she saw, but the world she felt.
Scritch...
Scritch...
Rumble...
She stopped her brush.
With all the trainees gone, the visitors to this place were predetermined.
Mia recalled where the noise had come from.
'...That place.'
There was no need to be afraid.
It seemed a familiar person had come.
Step...
Step...
Mia slowly walked deeper into the studio.
With footsteps this loud, the visitor inside couldn't pretend not to notice.
"Sorry... Mia. I just wanted to see it one last time before I go. I didn't mean to startle you. I tripped on my own..."
"It's fine. Don't worry about me."
Mia smiled gently.
"Seolhong."
It had been a long time since Seolhong last visited her studio. She had come countless times before, but lately, her visits had grown sparse.
The studio's location wasn't great to begin with, and with the Dragon Contest ongoing, Seolhong had mostly stayed in the capital Hongyeon, so it was natural.
"Did you come to see it again today?"
"...Yeah. The final trial is coming, so I need strength."
Mia turned her head toward the painting Seolhong was looking at.
She could feel it.
What painting hung there.
Hye-myeong and Mia, Chiwu and Seolhong from a slightly younger time.
And finally... a painting with Kang Seol together.
"...So many missing spots in this painting."
"......"
Five people were in the painting, but two of them could no longer be seen.
"You know, Mia."
"Yes."
"I was scared. I felt like I couldn't bear it without looking at the painting."
"What were you afraid of?"
"Forgetting... Not being able to remember..."
"......"
Kang Seol in the painting.
It was the only trace of him left to Seolhong now.
"...Are you still searching for him?"
"...Yeah."
"You're a woman who will become a dragon, Seolhong. I feel a strong aura of fate around you."
"......"
"Even if Kang Seol doesn't return... don't collapse. A lot of time has already passed..."
Seolhong murmured.
"Yushin told me Eastern dragons command the weather. So I should become one too."
"It's an old legend."
Tears finally fell from Seolhong's eyes.
"...He's wrong. If I can't even stop the rain falling in my heart, what kind of dragon is that."
Kang Seol in the painting seemed to be looking right at her.
And as he had then, when he came to the mountain stronghold to save her, he seemed to whisper.
- Getting wet in the rain would be troublesome.
"Uh... Uh..."
Mia hugged her tightly.
With the warmth they had shared, she lifted her back up.
"You promised me, remember."
"Yeah... I promised."
She definitely had.
To return.
"Then believe and wait. You've always kept your promises."
"......"
At Mia's words, Seolhong finally stopped crying and spoke.
"Mia, you stopped my rain—you're the dragon."
"...I'm not interested in dragons."
The final ordeal of the Dragon Contest.
It was the night before the Path of the Multitude, surrounded by people.
Now, she had only one last step left to become a dragon.
Still, Kang Seol had not returned.