Big Brother (1)
Dragon Transformation (SS)
▸ Transforms the body into a half-human, half-dragon state.
"Dragon Transformation?"
An SS-rank skill gained as a reward — and, incredibly, my second one after Baek Seo-ha's Blackening.
Reward Enhancement had stacked three times over, apparently. Seemed my credit for dealing with not just Behemoth but Elpiros's avatar had been tallied in as well.
The skill description was stripped of any frills. As the name alone made clear, it was a transformation-type skill in the same family as Blackening.
I couldn't quite grasp the feel of it yet. But I'd find out soon enough simply by using it.
Activating Dragon Transformation.
The instant the skill activated, scales like a suit of armor sprouted across my entire body. At the same time, a pair of wings unfurled from my back and my whole frame turned lighter. A cascade of subtler changes followed one after another, until I had quite literally become half-human, half-dragon.
It felt altogether different from Demonization.
"My physical stats didn't climb all that much, though…"
They had risen a little, but nowhere near the dramatic leap Demonization delivered.
Instead.
An enormous augmentation had taken place somewhere else entirely. Mana and Wisdom. In the language of my status window, everything falling under Technique had shot up beyond any comparison to before. It felt as though the bottomless mana I'd once sensed from Behemoth had been handed over to me intact.
"At this level, I've got to be outclassing Ji Yeon-ha."
If my mana had been a river until now, after Dragon Transformation it had widened and deepened into an ocean. In practical terms, calling it infinite mana would hardly have been an exaggeration.
Flap! And there was one more benefit on top of that.
Whoosh! I could glide through the sky on my own wings. I wasn't yet used to the sensation, so I couldn't streak across the air the way Moth did — but once I adapted, my battlefield would only grow wider.
"Kh… the view's to die for."
From high above, I looked down over the full breadth of the gate's interior. Up close it was a jungle bristling with toxic flora, but from a distance it was simply a boundless sweep of wild, unbroken nature.
…Hold on.
Right in the middle of admiring the scenery, a thought flashed through my head like a struck spark. Dragon Transformation… half-human, half-dragon… which would mean…
Wasn't I half dragon at this very moment? At least for as long as Dragon Transformation remained active?
"Then, could it be…?"
Gulp. I swallowed, throat tight with anticipation. Cradling a small, hopeful flame, I stretched out my hand.
"Resonance."
Overflowing mana whirled violently around me, manifesting the Demon Dragon's authority.
Vzzzzt!
Violet energy converged hard at the center of my wing, and within moments the dragon mana had gathered into a single pinpoint. I carried it to my fingertip, leveled it at a target far in the distance, and released it all at once.
"Dragon Breath."
KWA-BOOOOOM—!
The dragon mana drew a straight line through the world toward the point I had designated, unmaking everything in its path. Naturally, its scale couldn't match what a full-grown Behemoth would produce —
but this insane power…
There was no mistaking it. This was a genuine Dragon Breath. Even the most celebrated magic-type hunters on the planet had never dared to wield a dragon's own technique.
"…Unbelievable. Actually unbelievable."
Somehow, without even meaning to, I'd gone and pulled off a landmark achievement.
Astonishingly, the gate boss had been caught square in the blast of my Dragon Breath. Thanks to that, I could walk straight out — no tedious hunt across the jungle to exterminate the thing required.
"Ugh, my body's shot…"
Dragon Breath really was a skill with vicious recoil. Even a true dragon needed time to recover between uses — heaven knew what it did to someone like me, firing it off through a loophole.
Still, there's no way I'm giving up Dragon Breath.
Yes, the backlash was brutal — but by the same token, that was the worst it got. Weighed against the sheer power of Dragon Breath, the risk was effectively nil. And setting the breath aside entirely, Dragon Transformation was a superb skill that earned its SS rank all on its own. With it, I would never again find myself short of the stats a barrier or a domain demanded.
If word of this skill ever saw the light of day, the Magic Tower headquarters would probably try to bag me alive and put me under the microscope. Quasi-infinite mana and a Wisdom stat blown through the roof — that was the very thing they'd coveted for half their lives.
"…And those lunatics genuinely would do it. That's the scary part."
A chill shot down my spine. Note to self: no Dragon Transformation in front of anyone from the Magic Tower if I could possibly help it…
Vrrrm! Right on cue, my phone buzzed the moment I stepped out of the gate.
A call from my father. The old me wouldn't have picked up, obviously — back then I'd have counted myself lucky to escape without an earful of curses.
…
Once again, I could feel just how much had changed since I came back.
"Hello, Father."
An energetic voice burst through the receiver the moment I answered.
"Tae-hyun! Busy these days?"
"No, nothing like that."
This job had wrapped up more or less cleanly, so nothing urgent demanded my attention at the moment. If it were up to my gut, I'd have gone straight for another Advent Cult branch —
but with one branch gutted, the rest would be lying low. The crackdown on illegal elixirs, Moon Fragments above all, had been tightened considerably too. Meaning those bastards had no opening to poke their heads out. Annoying as it was, shoring up our strength was the more efficient play for now — so we'd be ready to strike the instant they so much as twitched.
"Bwahahaha! Glad to hear it!"
"I meant to come see you first. My apologies."
"Forget it! Watching you make a name for yourself is what keeps this old man of yours alive these days. You don't have to lift a finger — just quietly, stubbornly walking your own path is the finest filial devotion there is."
"F-Father…"
Awkward as it feels to think in these terms — hadn't the stock price climbed quite handsomely thanks to me? Surely I'd contributed my own share of filial devotion by now.
"Ahem! Anyhow — about why I actually called."
Father changed gears quickly.
"Would you happen to be free around next Friday?"
"Next Friday?"
I couldn't exactly claim a clear calendar. Ayase had only just joined the guild, so we needed joint drills to see how she meshed with the other members, and I still had levels to grind for Rir and Moth by running gates. That said, if it was Father asking, I could carve out the time easily enough.
"Nothing pressing. Why do you ask?"
"Well, you see…"
And then Father faltered, unable to spit out the rest.
What? That man, hesitating over his own words? How serious could this possibly be?
My heart dropped like a stone.
"Is it something serious…?"
"It… might be."
My mind snapped taut and began racing. Did anything happen to Cheonseong around this point last time? Don't tell me another major incident had erupted that I knew nothing about?
"Hoo…!"
I steadied my breathing for a moment, then pressed on over the line.
"What is it?"
"…She's coming."
"…Come again?"
"She's coming back to Korea."
"Who's coming? Who?"
"Your mother… and Chae-rin…"
"…What?"
"They're flying home to Korea next week!"
Hold on. Just — hold on. Mom and Chae-rin were coming back? To Korea?
Fuck's sake.
I felt the color drain from my face, leaving it cold and pale. The news my father had just delivered soared clean past anything I had imagined.
Inside an aircraft slicing across a flawless blue sky, a young girl gazed quietly out the window. Despite the first-class seat — the finest accommodation money could buy — she fidgeted and squirmed as though something about it didn't agree with her.
"Chae-rin, is something bothering you?" the girl's mother, Han Seo-yeon, asked carefully.
Lee Chae-rin pulled her eyes from the window and turned her head. "No."
"If it ever becomes too much, you tell me right away."
"I'm fine." Chae-rin shook her head with practiced efficiency.
Hoo… Han Seo-yeon sighed inwardly. Who on earth did she take after, to be this composed?
People don't usually wear that anxious a face when they're being described as composed. But Chae-rin carried her composure to the point of excess. Long black hair and a poised, aloof face. Academic results far beyond her years. Art if it was art, studies if it was studies, sports if it was sports — not a single field where she came up short. She was, in every sense, a genius among geniuses worthy of being called Cheonseong's youngest daughter. That was Lee Chae-rin.
And yet, perhaps precisely because she was so precociously bright…
…
Chae-rin had none of the childlike innocence her age should have come with. A twelve-year-old ought to slip up now and then, whine a little, lean on her parents when she needed to. Chae-rin hid all of that away and insisted on solving everything herself. Charitably, that was maturity and poise; less charitably, it was plain foolishness. And because she so rarely let a single emotion reach her face, from a parent's vantage it was impossible not to wonder what the child might be quietly agonizing over inside.
At least Si-hyun had his wants and ambitions. Chae-rin didn't seem to have even that much. She never said she wanted anything, never said she wanted to do anything. And then, just days ago, the girl had finally spoken her first request.
Mom, I want to go to Korea. Even a few days would be fine…
The moment she'd heard those words, Han Seo-yeon had canceled every engagement she had in the States and booked the flight home on the spot.
"So tell me — what made our Chae-rin suddenly want to go to Korea, hm~?" Han Seo-yeon probed, as casual as she could manage. In all the rush to prepare for the trip, she'd never gotten around to asking why.
"Did some place you want to see catch your eye?"
"No."
"Do you miss your father?"
"No."
That one, I am absolutely not relaying to Lee Jin-sung. She resolved it firmly.
"Then… did you miss your friends back in Korea?"
"I don't have friends in Korea."
"Ah…"
A bead of cold sweat slid down Han Seo-yeon's temple. Chae-rin's eyes drifted back to the vast scenery beyond the glass.
"Th-then whatever could it be~? Mommy has no idea~."
…
Chae-rin clenched the small fists resting in her lap, then spoke softly.
"Because I miss my oppa…"
"Your oppa? You mean Si-hyun?"
The answer came out of nowhere. Had Si-hyun and Chae-rin been that close? They were family, so of course closer to each other than to strangers, but hardly inseparable. A perfectly standard older-brother, little-sister arrangement. True, Lee Si-hyun had doted on his clever young sister in his own way — back when Chae-rin could do no more than crawl, he'd declare it dangerous for her to wobble around unattended and smother her with overprotection.
Is she missing the warmth of family because of some memory from when she was little? So Chae-rin was still a child after all. Han Seo-yeon's smile melted into something fond.
"Si-hyun will be so happy!"
She said it brightly — and all that came back was a cold, deliberate shake of the head.
"No."
"…What do you mean, no?"
"Not Si-hyun."
Not Si-hyun, she said. And if not him, then surely—
"I want to see my big brother."
Big brother. Cheonseong's eldest son — Lee Tae-hyun.
Han Seo-yeon's thoughts knotted themselves in an instant. Tae-hyun?! Out of nowhere?!
Of course she knew — knew that Tae-hyun had changed. Lee Jin-sung called nearly every day to run through a litany of praise about their son; there was no way she couldn't know. Her own chest, too, had swelled at her eldest boy's dramatic growth and transformation. So Tae-hyun finally got his head on straight! His name had grown loud enough to echo all the way to the United States. For Han Seo-yeon, it felt as though an old knot of worry, frozen solid for years, was finally thawing warm and soft.
But the same could not be said of Chae-rin. For a girl who almost never showed a flicker of feeling, there was exactly one thing guaranteed to pull a reaction out of her: anything to do with Lee Tae-hyun. There was a time when the mere sound of his name would crease that tiny brow of hers into a scowl of pure irritation.
W-will this be all right? A brand-new worry budded inside her. Surely Chae-rin wasn't flying to Korea to square accounts with Tae-hyun? Astonishingly, given her daughter's personality, that was the single most probable scenario. She was not a child who leaned on affection, nor one who ached for the embrace of family.
What am I supposed to do as her mother at a time like this?!
Before Han Seo-yeon could finish untangling the mess in her head, the aircraft slid into the sovereign skies of the Republic of Korea. The moment the Lee family of Cheonseong would gather in one place — truly, for the first time in far too long — had arrived.