Shining Gold (2)
She had explained the characteristics of dragons before.
Arrogance. Laziness. A love for gold and treasure.
Serpina had always believed she didn’t fit any of those. If nothing else, the part about loving gold and treasure felt especially far from the truth.
After all, she used to be human.
She wasn’t some golden spoon who collected sports cars as a hobby or only knew the term “public transportation” from the dictionary. She had been an ordinary citizen who spent every tax season worrying whether she would even get a refund.
That was why, even after becoming a dragon, she had never been particularly attached to gold or jewels. In the era when Serpina was born, other dragons used their hoarded precious metals and gems as magic catalysts anyway, so her attitude hadn’t seemed all that unusual.
It was the same after coming to Earth.
The bounty she had received after dealing with the cat mom last time was a staggering sum—tens of millions of won—yet Serpina felt absolutely nothing when she saw the number printed in her bank account.
Guess I won’t be short on money for a while. That was the full extent of her reaction.
Since even tens of millions of won had only drawn that level of interest, it wasn’t strange that Serpina thought she lacked the greed other dragons possessed. The sensibilities she had carried over from her human days remained, so she never found her own attitude particularly odd.
But.
In this very moment.
Serpina realized how wrong she had been.
A dragon’s body reacted to gold and treasure with perfect honesty. Numbers written on paper elicited no response, but the tempting sparkle glittering before her eyes struck a chord deep inside her.
The reason she had never felt any greed for gold until now was simply that she had never truly experienced it.
Real gold was this intoxicating… this mesmerizing. Serpina learned the truth for the first time.
“My treasure…”
Serpina muttered in a daze. Even right after waking up she usually wore a languid expression rather than a blank one, so this was an extremely rare sight.
Yet the moment Serpina tried to step into the room as if possessed, Narel called out to stop her.
“Ah. Benefactor-nim. Please wait a moment.”
“…?”
Serpina’s head snapped around with startling force. It was the kind of sharp movement she hadn’t shown even during her battle with Kurta.
The desire of a dragon experiencing real gold for the first time was transparently obvious. Narel hadn’t expected quite this strong a reaction. She quickly explained why she had stopped her before Serpina could move.
“If you walk in like that, you’ll crush the gold coins underfoot.”
“Ah… right. Of course.”
Serpina gazed down at the gold coins covering the floor. They didn’t resemble any currency she knew, yet the simple fact that countless identical coins were gathered together filled her with satisfaction. Destroying them herself was out of the question.
She hurriedly cast a spell on the coins, waited until she confirmed it had taken properly, then finally stepped inside.
Clink, clatter.
The pile wasn’t all that deep—only up to her ankles. Still, every time the glittering light touched her skin, Serpina’s heart fluttered with excitement.
She even sat down right on top of the coins. An inexplicable sense of comfort curved the corners of her mouth upward. To an ordinary person the uneven surface would have felt uncomfortable, but a dragon’s body was nothing like a human one.
“Wow…”
Ayoung, watching the scene, let out a soft gasp of admiration.
It was incredible to see Serpina looking as excited as a child—something she had never witnessed before—and the brilliant golden sparkle filling the room was equally stunning.
It shone so brightly that it almost felt unreal. She even entertained the ridiculous thought that maybe they weren’t gold coins at all, but chocolates. That alone said everything.
She was also curious what real gold would feel like to the touch. But every time she even considered taking a single step closer, Serpina’s eyes would slice toward her like blades, so fear kept her rooted in place.
Narel tugged on Ayoung’s arm.
“Ayoung, could you come over here for a moment?”
“Yes?”
“Benefactor-nim, I’ll borrow Ayoung for a short conversation.”
“Huh? Sure, go ahead.”
Ayoung’s opinion was irrelevant. Narel had already received permission directly from Serpina and was now dragging the younger woman toward the living room. Naturally, Ayoung possessed neither the right nor the ability to refuse.
Once the glittering gold coins disappeared from view, Ayoung regained some of her composure. She remembered that she and Narel had things to discuss.
Narel introduced herself first.
“Shall we greet each other properly this time? Our last meeting was rather abrupt. I am Narel Liliasen, first disciple of Benefactor-nim and current leader of the Wolha Association.”
“Ah, yes, yes! I’m Choi Ayoung! Um… a fifth-grade mage, and I’m currently learning magic from Senior.”
Even as she spoke, Ayoung tilted her head inwardly. Could she really call what she was doing “learning magic”?
The training that had begun with simply channeling mana into a wooden stick and swinging it had now progressed to the stage of reinforcing her own body with mana. It was the foundation of physical enhancement magic—the kind that let you shatter rocks with your fists and run a hundred meters in five seconds.
Of course, body reinforcement was still magic. No human could achieve that kind of speed through talent and brutal training alone.
But with body reinforcement magic, it became possible. Turning the impossible into reality—that was what magic did. Mages like Lee Hogwang, who had reached first-grade purely through physical enhancement, weren’t exactly common, but they did exist.
Still, was this really the kind of magic Ayoung had wanted to learn? That was where her thoughts faltered.
Then she recalled a detail from Narel’s introduction that she had nearly overlooked.
“Wait… you’re Senior’s first disciple?”
“Yes. Though Benefactor-nim doesn’t particularly like terms like ‘disciple’ or ‘master.’”
“Ah, that’s right. Every time I call her ‘Master,’ she tells me not to.”
“Exactly. I really don’t understand why she dislikes such a normal word so much.”
Anyway. Narel steered the conversation back on track.
“As far as I know, Benefactor-nim only ever had me as a disciple. Now that you’ve become her disciple as well, that makes you my junior sister.”
“Junior sister…”
It was a term she had only ever encountered in old martial arts novels. Wasn’t it a bit outdated? Then again, for someone like Narel it might actually be cutting-edge terminology. After all, Narel’s age was…
“Ayoung?”
“Y-yes!”
It was as if Narel had read her irreverent thoughts. The high elf called her name, cutting off Ayoung’s mental tangent. Feeling guilty, Ayoung quickly lifted her head and focused on what Narel was saying.
“This must be fate as well. If you ever need my help with anything, please don’t hesitate to ask. I may not be able to assist much in my capacity as leader, but as your senior sister, I will gladly help.”
“Thank you! Then… could you look at this part for me?”
Ayoung didn’t refuse the offer. She wasn’t skilled enough to turn down help from others anyway. This was the time to be proactive, and fortunately she was the type who knew how to accept assistance gracefully.
“The mana flow keeps getting stuck right here…”
“Ah. In that case, try applying the Navron-style mana circulation method…”
And that decision proved to be the right one.
Serpina’s teachings were always accurate, but because she found explanations troublesome, her instructions were often sloppy and vague.
Besides, Serpina’s magic came from another world. Thanks to her dragon-level talent—which made the word “talent” feel inadequate—she could adapt her lessons to Earth’s magic system, but explaining things in a way a beginner like Ayoung could fully understand was difficult.
Narel’s teachings, however, were different.
The very foundation of modern magic theory had been established by Narel herself. While her roots were also in otherworldly magic, the formulas she had refined over a thousand years to suit the moon’s mana were easy for novice mages like Ayoung to grasp.
“…Hmm. This still isn’t working? Then I’m afraid all I can say is that you need to go back and solidify your foundations in basic mana operation…”
Still, the difference in talent couldn’t be helped. As a high elf whose talent was second to none, Narel could only encourage her to work harder.
“Hieeek…”
Ayoung let out a pitiful groan and threw herself back into training. The session under Narel’s personal guidance continued all the way until Serpina finally emerged from the room full of gold coins.
“Not like that. Push it in all at once—like this.”
“L-like this?”
When Serpina comes out of the gold room…
“Better than before. Keep that momentum going!”
“Yes!”
Comes out…
“Your mana is completely depleted. Let’s stop here for today.”
“Heek… Hek…”
Until then…?
In the end, Serpina never emerged from the room of gold coins until Ayoung’s mana ran dry and the training had to be forcibly ended. She stayed inside until Ayoung and Narel went in, grabbed her arms and legs, and physically dragged her out.
The next day.
“This is your house, sis? It’s amazing!”
As usual, Serpina had brought Heerin, who had come looking for her under the bridge, back to the house. She was carrying Heemang in her arms.
Heerin was thrilled by the new playground and looked around with sparkling eyes.
“A yard! It’s so big! We can put the cardboard house here and make it Heemang’s home.”
She even assembled the cardboard house she had painstakingly disassembled and carried over, setting it up in the yard.
“Everything’s so shiny! It looks like it would hurt if I stepped on it!”
She also reacted with pure, childlike delight upon seeing the room full of gold coins. She didn’t try to go inside, though, because it looked painful to step on. Serpina hadn’t given permission either.
“Oh! That’s right!”
After running around the house and playing for a while, Heerin suddenly remembered something she had forgotten and called out to Serpina.
“Sis! Wanna go play together?”