Chapter 73
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: My Horn!!
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“Ughk?!”
Screams, and then silence.
The air in the basement grew heavy in an instant.
All three of them fell silent. Only the bubbling of boiling chemicals and the flickering of the lights could be heard.
In that silence, I blinked vacantly.
My head... feels light?
To be precise, my left side felt empty. The usual weight was gone.
I slowly lowered my gaze.
Yeon Geum-hee was sitting on the floor, having fallen flat on her butt. Her face was deathly pale, her mouth flapping open and shut like a fish out of water.
“Uh, ubuh...”
And in her trembling hand.
A golden glow, elegantly branched like a tree twig—part of my own body.
“...Uh-eh?”
A stupid noise leaked from my mouth.
Yeon Geum-hee looked at the thing in her hand, then at me, then back at her hand. Her pupils shook like there was an earthquake.
“Th-that, so this is...”
My horn had completely broken off.
I cautiously raised a hand to touch the left side of my head, but the pillar that should have been there was nowhere to be felt.
“U... uuu...”
It wasn't pain. I felt no pain at all. My body was tough, after all.
The problem was the emptiness atop my head.
My dignity. My cool factor. My identity as a dragon!
That magnificent, shining golden horn was now rolling across the floor like a discarded twig.
“U... uuu...”
My lips quivered. A wave of grievance welled up.
“My horn... my root...!”
I tried to hold it back by biting my lips, but the sadness soon overflowed my throat.
“Wuaaaang!”
I burst into tears that shook the basement.
I collapsed to the floor and pounded the ground. This had to be a dream. It had to be! How could my horn break like this!
“Di-Divine One! I-I'm sorry! I've committed a grave sin...!”
Yeon Geum-hee turned ashen, her limbs trembling. She scooped up my fallen horn from the floor and brought it to my head with shaking hands.
“St-stick back on! Please stick back on! Stick, I said!”
She muttered like she was casting a spell, pressing the horn firmly against my head.
But a broken bone wouldn't just reattach because she'd placed it there. The moment she let go, it plopped limply back to the floor.
Roll roll.
At that pitiful sight, my wails grew even louder.
“Waaaanng! It won't stick! My hoooorn!”
“Hiiik! W-wait a second! There has to be a way! If I fix it physically...!”
Yeon Geum-hee's eyes spun in panic. She picked up the horn from the floor again and hoisted it over my head.
“L-like this!”
Bonk!
“Ek?!”
“D-doesn't fit? If I hit it a little harder...!”
Bonk! Bonk!
Yeon Geum-hee hammered the horn down onto my head like she was driving in a nail.
“Ack! Eek! Ugh!”
“E-even this doesn't work?”
Having lost all reason, she kept smashing the horn onto my head, rubbing it, pressing it down over and over.
“Stooop! Stoooop!”
As I frantically shook my head and tried to cover it with my wings, another sound rang out.
Plop.
The sound of something hitting the floor.
It wasn't the horn that was already out. That was still in Yeon Geum-hee's hand.
Which meant that fallen golden rod was...
I slowly looked down.
My right horn lay discarded on the floor.
“......”
Swipe.
I raised my hand to touch the right side of my head.
Smooth.
The shock from her bonking my head had knocked off the horn on the other side too.
Now I was a completely bald dragon without a single horn.
“Puaaaaang!!”
The moment I realized it, a massive, heartbroken wail erupted. I flopped onto my back, flailing my arms, legs, and wings, pounding the ground.
“My horns are all brooo-ken...! Now I'm bald! Waaang!”
I rolled on the floor, crawled around, twisted my body every which way. My precious horns were all broken—what good was saving face now?
Yeon Geum-hee stared blankly at the floor with a soulless expression.
In the midst of that chaotic mess, Yu So-jeong picked up one of the fallen horns and examined it closely. Then she slowly approached and grabbed hold of me.
“Lady Dayun, please calm down.”
“Hic! Miss So-jeong... m-my horns are all goooone...”
“First, wipe your tears and check this out.”
She placed the right horn in my hand.
“Uuuh, uu...”
Just looking at it made tears well up again.
Yu So-jeong gently stroked my now hornless head and patted my back to soothe me.
“Check the item information.”
I sniffled and shook my head.
“...What's the point of items? No horns. N-now I'm just a lizaard!”
“You should still check. There's important info.”
At Yu So-jeong's firm tone, I reluctantly swallowed my tears and looked at the horn.
Gold Dragon Wyrmling's Horn (S+)
A horn grown from the head of a young gold dragon. It contains immense magical power and serves as a potent magical catalyst in itself. The only ways to obtain a dragon's horn intact are for the dragon to cut it off personally or to find one shed during the extremely rare and special "horn shedding" process of certain young dragon species. Due to its rarity, it's said to hold value surpassing that of an entire metropolis.
“Uuueh?”
As I read the description, my eyes locked onto one word.
Horn shedding.
I blankly lifted my head to look at Yu So-jeong.
“Mi-Miss So-jeong. This...”
Yu So-jeong nodded with a faint smile.
“Yes. Lady Dayun's horns aren't broken. They simply fell out as part of the growth process.”
She gently stroked my head.
“Just like with your teeth last time. Over time, the old horns get pushed out, and new ones grow in.”
“R-really...?”
I touched my head again with trembling fingers.
I'd been too panicked earlier to notice properly, but when I pressed on the spot where the horn had been, I felt something.
A very small, hard bump.
A tiny protrusion was growing right where the horn had been.
No pain, no blood. It had just come off cleanly, as if it was meant to—like a baby tooth falling out, in accordance with the body's natural order.
Only then did the sadness, injustice, and grief fade, replaced by overwhelming relief.
“Phew... what a relief.”
All the tension drained from my body, and I sprawled out on the floor. I'd been so terrified of living the rest of my life as a bald dragon...
And I wasn't the only one feeling relief.
“I-I'm aliiiive...”
Beside me, Yeon Geum-hee—who'd been frozen pale and breathless—finally snapped out of it and knelt, gasping for air.
I'd cried so much myself that my mind felt exhausted, my body devoid of strength.
As I lay there for a good while, Yeon Geum-hee crawled toward me on all fours.
“Da-Dayun. Then, could I just have that one horn...?”
“...What?”
What was this girl saying to me right now?
“You had two anyway, so donate just one—no, even half—to me, and I'll make something incredible! I gained know-how from the scales, so this time I can create a masterpiece!”
Even if it was just horn shedding, how could she say something like that in this situation?
I shot to my feet and blocked her approach with my wings and arms.
“No way.”
“Pardon?”
I had no intention of being friendly to the one who'd filled me with despair.
“Don't even think about meeting me for a month. And no more scales beyond what I already gave.”
“N-no way...!”
I stood up, grabbed Yu So-jeong's arm, and turned to leave.
“Oh, and have all the jelly delivered to my house. As soon as possible.”
“Da-Dayun! Just once, show mercy juuust once...!”
I shot cold words at Yeon Geum-hee as she tried to grab my pant leg.
“Want me to make it two months instead?”
“Understood. Have a safe trip home.”
At my hardline stance, she shrank back, knowing her place. Good. If you've sinned, you need time for atonement.
Once outside the building, Miss So-jeong brushed the dust off my body and clothes.
“Shall we head home, then?”
“Yeaah... I'm so tired.”
Right now, all I wanted was to get home, wash up, and sleep. Of course, I'd need some snacks on the way.
“Have one of these first. I'll bring the car around.”
Miss So-jeong pulled two chocolate bars from her bag and headed to the parking lot.
As I munched on the chocolate bar to regain some energy, the car pulled up in front of the building.
I climbed into the back seat, and as soon as the car started moving, drowsiness began to creep in.
Listening to the gentle music Miss So-jeong had put on, I soon drifted off to sleep.
A port on the west coast. A man in a hoodie popped out of thin air. The man in a suit greeted him nonchalantly, despite the impossible sight.
“Hoo, didn't expect you'd use a teleport stone to get here.”
“There were more guards than anticipated.”
Their conversation flowed in Chinese.
“Did you complete the mission?”
The hoodie man held out a single golden scale. The suit man took it and held it close to his eye.
“Hmm... Too high-grade to analyze as ‘powder.’ Still, it seems to be the main material. Good work.”
He handed the scale back to the hoodie man and continued.
“By the way, this wasn't the main mission. What about the ‘skill’?”
“...Failed.”
The hoodie man turned his head uneasily as he replied.
“Pardon? Failed? You?”
He handed the suit man a glowing orb.
Dragon Heart Fragment (S+)
“S+—an astonishing find! Hoo... this is mystical. To think a skill like this even exists... Incredible. Simply incredible!”
“The other skills were too high-grade. ...It's true.”
“Indeed, this isn't the ‘promised skill.’”
The suit man raised one arm. The hoodie man shuddered faintly, his expression uneasy.
Tap, tap.
His hand patted the hoodie man's shoulder twice.
“Well, never mind. This seems far more intriguing anyway. Huhu...! I can already hardly wait for the experiments. Aren't you curious about the scientific breakthroughs this skill will bring?”
“......”
The man stayed silent.
“Come now, board the ship. The ‘family’ is waiting, isn't it?”
“...Understood.”
The two men moved off without a sound. Soon, the ship at the west coast port vanished without a trace.