Encounter with the Unknown (4)
Ha Se-na’s wand slammed hard into Eldritch’s head.
The skull cracked, and Eldritch slumped to the ground.
“Nice one, sis!”
Bang Su-hwan pumped a fist and cheered.
It was the kind of moment that should have felt like victory, but Ha Se-na’s face remained dark.
Useless.
The shattered pieces of Eldritch’s skull pulled together as if drawn by a magnet, knitting themselves back into their original shape. The collapsed skeleton knight rose again and tightened its grip on the staff-spear in its hand.
Ha Se-na let out a tired breath.
No. At this rate...
Unless the one controlling Eldritch was eliminated, the skeleton would keep reviving over and over again.
“Tch!”
Eldritch’s spear slashed past Bang Su-hwan’s thigh.
“Bang Su-hwan!”
At his pained groan, Ha Se-na rushed to his side at once.
“You okay?”
“It’s nothing. Just a graze.”
The flesh on his thigh, sliced by the spear, had already swollen and turned a bluish purple.
“It’s poison. Hold still.”
Ha Se-na brought her wand down to his thigh and focused.
Green blood seeped out, and the wound began to settle.
“Thanks, sis.”
“You don’t have to thank me every time. More importantly...”
Their eyes turned in the same direction.
Eldritch was glaring at them, exuding a vicious, malignant mana.
“This is getting old.”
“Tell me about it, sis.”
Bang Su-hwan drew a steady breath, forcing himself to stay calm.
The core damage dealer, Choi Yongki, was gone.
With Bang Su-hwan as the tank pushing forward and Ha Se-na as support, the lineup was a little lacking.
On top of that, Eldritch’s resistance was no joke.
They had won the skirmish quickly enough with a combined assault, but Eldritch had still managed to land one last strike before meeting death.
All of that damage had piled up on their bodies.
Ha Se-na looked at Bang Su-hwan with concern.
The wounds keep adding up.
A fight that repeated damage and recovery endlessly would always end with someone winning eventually.
Eldritch, still standing, exhaled an ominous breath from the corner of its mouth.
Deep inside Manjanggul, they were in a sealed chamber with no windows.
With less oxygen to begin with, the more violently they moved, the worse it became for them.
The undead don’t care, though.
The longer the fight dragged on, the more it was the humans who lost strength.
“Here it comes.”
“Yes! Got it, sis.”
This was already the eighth exchange, and the clash began anew.
“Huff, huff...!”
Soaked in sweat, Ha Se-na moved frantically.
Bang Su-hwan slammed Eldritch’s spine with his Kite Shield.
“Kieeek!”
Eldritch screamed in agony and went down, but even as it fell, it raked Bang Su-hwan’s ankle with its claws.
“Tch! You bastard!”
Blood seeped from Bang Su-hwan’s ankle.
“I’ll heal you.”
“Th-thanks, sis.”
Ha Se-na could feel her mana running low.
Bang Su-hwan’s movements were slowing noticeably, too.
...
...
Both of them could dimly sense defeat approaching.
In a real battle, defeat meant...
Death, soon after.
Trying to quiet her unease, Ha Se-na shook her head.
There were plenty of ways to preserve their lives.
They could retreat right now.
Eldritch was only there to guard the gate.
It wouldn’t chase them beyond its range.
But I can’t do that.
Choi Yongki.
To protect the two of them, he had thrown himself into the gate alone.
Hunters who had defeated dragons were few and far between in history.
Still impossible.
And yet, maybe...
If it’s Choi Yongki...
Thinking of him, Ha Se-na allowed a tiny sliver of hope to bloom in her heart.
Maybe he can do it.
Then it happened.
“Aaaagh!!!”
A scream ripped through from beyond the gate.
As a healer, she could tell immediately.
This is...
It was a scream wrung from pure agony.
He wasn’t fighting at all.
He’s being tortured.
They had no way of knowing what was happening on the other side of the gate.
All they could do was listen and imagine.
That made it even worse.
Ha Se-na frowned.
He’s going to die if this keeps up.
Flames erupted beyond the gate.
Even though the door was sealed shut, the heat rolled over them unmistakably.
“Agh! Aaaagh!!!”
Stop. Stop it and come out already!
What Choi Yongki was doing now could not be explained simply by the fact that he was a hunter.
The dragon had only been crouched in Manjanggul, doing nothing that could truly be called harm.
It wasn’t because of guild orders.
It wasn’t for monster extermination.
It wasn’t even to save the citizens of Jeju Island.
It’s only for me...
She couldn’t understand it.
Even if they were close, they were only colleagues at the company.
They had never once shared a truly honest conversation or opened their hearts to each other.
...No, I’ve always been like that.
Ha Se-na treated everyone superficially.
She kept her distance from people.
She never opened herself to anyone.
I can’t get attached.
She had been repeating that to herself without even realizing it.
Why?
When she dug deep enough inside, the answer came into view.
Because what if they leave like my brother did?
Ha Se-na never wanted to experience losing someone precious ever again.
So she had shut her heart tight.
Just like the gate standing sealed shut before her eyes right now.
If she left it as it was, Choi Yongki might lose his life too.
He staked his life on this just for me.
Ha Se-na took a step forward.
I have to stop him.
She had drifted for only a moment, and in that instant Eldritch had already closed the distance.
The skeleton knight’s staff-spear shot straight toward Ha Se-na’s abdomen.
At the very edge of death, Bang Su-hwan shoved the spear aside with his Kite Shield.
“Sis!”
“Ugh! ...Sorry.”
Bang Su-hwan swung the Kite Shield hard.
The eleventh destruction. Eldritch was shattered once more.
It was meaningless.
The broken skeleton knight would rise again as if nothing had happened.
Ha Se-na stepped forward and shouted at Bang Su-hwan.
“That’s enough. We can’t keep this up! We have to get out of here! Hurry and call Choi Yongki—!”
The moment she moved to strike the gate.
Bang Su-hwan blocked her path.
“Se-na noona.”
His voice was plain this time, without the usual clingy “sis” attached to it.
“It’ll be fine.”
Bang Su-hwan looked her straight in the eye.
“If it’s hyung, he’ll pull it off. Trust him.”
Ha Se-na shook her head.
“This isn’t the time to be saying things like trust and hope. We could all die if this goes on!”
Just as tears began to well in Ha Se-na’s eyes,
the gate opened slowly at the perfect moment.
“Kieeek!”
Eldritch, which had been walking toward them, turned to ash from head to toe and scattered into the air.
“...!”
Ha Se-na stared at the crack in the door where light was spilling through.
A shadow appeared in the backlight, together with the reek of smoke.
For a fleeting second, she thought she saw her older brother.
Even with the years that had passed, he still looked proud and dependable, just as he had before.
“Oppa...”
The smoke slowly thinned.
Where her brother had seemed to stand, Choi Yongki was there instead.
He stood with the massive dragon behind him, seated on its throne.
Bang Su-hwan grinned, flashing his white teeth.
“See? I told you he’d make it.”
Ha Se-na put some distance between herself and the dragon.
“Are you really okay?”
“I said I’m fine.”
Bang Su-hwan was still trembling with fear, but curiosity won out over caution, and he sneaked a hand out to touch Rose’s wing.
“Whoa... Hyung. This is the first time in my life I’ve ever touched a dragon.”
“You’re awfully rude. Touching me without permission.”
“Huh? It talks?”
Bang Su-hwan jerked his hand back in alarm.
Rose opened its mouth.
“So, what is your final wish?”
Today’s main character wasn’t me.
I pushed Ha Se-na forward.
“All right, your turn.”
Ha Se-na stammered before finally speaking.
“I-is my stuff... still here?”
“Hmm. Your stuff?”
The dragon tilted its head.
“What does it look like?”
“It’s about this big. There should be a pink sticker on the outside.”
Ha Se-na spread her hands apart.
“Ah. I know what you mean. Over there.”
Rose pointed with its tail toward the back of the throne.
It was a very small door compared to the huge gate.
The latch wasn’t fastened.
Ha Se-na walked over to it.
She glanced at me, so I gave her a silent nod.
Standing in front of the door, Ha Se-na pulled on the handle.
Clatter—
When the door opened, something spilled out onto the floor.
Bang Su-hwan’s mouth fell open.
“Whoa... It’s a treasure chest.”
Inside the door was a dazzling pile of gold coins.
I picked up one of the coins that had fallen to the ground.
It was surprisingly heavy.
One side showed the face of an emperor wearing a crown, and the other side was engraved with a temple.
The toothed edge had been finished with astonishingly precise casting.
Ancient coin.
It was a rare item that could only be taken from beyond the gate.
And that wasn’t all.
“Hyung. This...”
Bang Su-hwan pulled a lump out of the vault.
It was a blazing red jewel that called blood to mind.
No way.
Dragons live in resonance with mana from the moment they are born until the day they die.
The power of nature belongs to dragons, and dragons belong to the power of nature.
So without ever needing to try, mana naturally gathered in their hearts.
And when a dragon died, its heart transformed into something unique.
Also known as the Dragon Heart.
For reference, the price of a Dragon Heart couldn’t even be measured.
I can’t even begin to guess how much this thing is worth.
Bang Su-hwan swallowed hard and carefully offered the Dragon Heart to me as if it were a bomb.
“Take it, hyung. Stuff like this really scares me.”
Rose said,
“It belongs to my bloodline.”
I guessed it must have been Rose’s brother’s heart.
“Do you want it? Then let’s make another wager. If you win, I’ll give it to you.”
Perhaps because its competitive spirit had been stirred, Rose’s eyes were burning.
Bang Su-hwan exploded in excitement.
“A-a Dragon Heart? You know that if you process this properly, it becomes an incredible artifact, right? You could even create an elixir of immortality that lets you live for two hundred years, and if you mount it on weapons or armor, then—oh, wow...!”
If I got my hands on a Dragon Heart, that would be an enormous gain.
That’s a brutal reward, too.
However...
Rose said excitedly,
“Instead, I’ll decide the terms. Spend a month here without ever leaving and fight me until you draw blood from me...”
“I’ll pass.”
It was the kind of offer that sounded favorable to me, but my opponent was a dragon. There was no winning that.
Lucky break.
I wasn’t interested in being trapped in Manjanggul for a month, fighting a dragon day and night either.
That sounds miserable...
Rose was the kind of monster who could sever my arm with a single sentence.
If I got greedy, I might die for it.
I soothed Rose gently.
“You already decided to leave this place.”
“Hmm. That is true.”
“Let’s make the bet next time. Put the Dragon Heart on the line.”
“...Very well.”
I turned back to Ha Se-na.
She wasn’t even looking at the coins or the Dragon Heart.
After rummaging for a long while, Ha Se-na finally pulled something out from deep inside the vault.
Then, as if overwhelmed, she said, “Found it.”
I walked over and stood beside her.
The iron box was rusted and corroded.
Its surface was covered in pink stickers.
I checked the picture drawn on one of them.
PinkChuu?
It was a character mostly liked by little girls.
Just as I had admired Zin Shark, Ha Se-na had probably loved this person when she was young.
“Hoo.”
Ha Se-na drew in a shaking breath and opened the lid of the iron box.
For something that had been abandoned for so long, the inside was still in relatively good shape.
A PinkChuu doll, multicolored pebbles, letters, bookmarks, and more.
It was packed with all sorts of odds and ends.
Things a child would collect.
Ha Se-na picked something up.
It was a photograph.
A picture of young Ha Se-na standing side by side with her older brother, both of them facing the camera.
Her brother had an arm around her shoulders.
In the photo, Ha Se-na was smiling brightly.
It was an expression you could never see on her usual stoic face.
“...”
A tear dropped onto the photograph.
Ha Se-na lowered her head and broke into sobs.
I gave her plenty of time until her emotions settled.
After crying herself empty, Ha Se-na carefully put the photo back into the box.
“Thank you, Choi Yongki.”
Then she hugged the iron box tightly to her chest.
“This is a real treasure chest to me.”
Ha Se-na smiled through the tears still streaming down her face.
I gently patted her back.
Rose, who had been silent until now, twisted its body.
Leaving the coins where they were, it swallowed the Dragon Heart in one gulp and spread its wings.
“Then I’ll be going now.”
My first wish had been for Rose to leave Manjanggul.
My second wish was for it to appear whenever I called.
I’d fulfilled the last one through Ha Se-na.
“Hold on.”
I called out to Rose as it was about to leave.
“Can I get you to tear off a bit of your tail before you go?”
Dragon hide would make valuable material for a Purple Devil suit.
The problem was that getting dragon hide was like plucking a star from the sky.
Karuki would love it if I brought him some.
Rose frowned.
“Why should I do that? I’m sure I’ve already granted all your wishes.”
“It’s a little extra service. Thanks to me, you got to reminisce about old times for once.”
“Hmph.”
Rose grumbled, then flicked its tail.
There was a splat, like someone throwing down a waterlogged newspaper.
Like a lizard, Rose severed the tip of its tail and tossed it down in front of me.
“Thanks.”
Rose opened its mouth wide.
“Open.”
The thunderous voice echoed through the cavern.
“Gah!”
“Urk!”
Ha Se-na and Bang Su-hwan, hearing dragon speech for the first time, clapped both hands over their ears.
Sand showered down from the ceiling.
The solid limestone cave shifted like a living organism taking a breath.
Then sunlight poured in.
The blocked ceiling burst open.
“...Magic? I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“S-so this is a dragon’s power...”
Rose’s golden pupils lingered on me for a moment.
“You said your name was Choi Yongki?”
“Yeah.”
“You were the second most interesting human I know. I’ll keep watching you.”
At last, the dragon took flight.
The legendary beast in the color of molten lava soared into the air and vanished into the distant blue sky.