Rare is Under the Bridge (7)
“Dragon?”
“That long thing that changes the weather?”
“That’s a wyrm, you idiot.”
“Must be a lie.”
“Still, that mana amount was real.”
“Never seen horns that big before.”
“G-Guild! We need to contact the Guild….”
“Those horns are magnificent…!”
“The novel I read yesterday had a dragon heroine.”
“Pardon me, but I’m this kind of person….”
“What was that atmosphere just now? My blood ran cold.”
“It was just a broken device!”
“Wouldn’t her clothes show everything if the wind blew?”
“Is that really the important part right now….”
“Rather than that….”
“Her race….”
Pandemonium. After Serpina revealed her race in the examination room, the resulting uproar could only be described as utter chaos.
“Security team! Block the exits!” Yucheol’s order rang out. The frozen security personnel finally moved, sealing the examination room doors. Yucheol addressed everyone inside.
“Please remain calm. The examination device will be repaired shortly. And I ask that you all keep what you just saw and heard to yourselves.”
Someone protested. “W-What is this! This is overreach! What right does the security team have to shut us up!?”
“If that’s what you believe, you’re welcome to defeat me here and leave.”
“……”
The person who had stepped forward so boldly fell silent the moment Yucheol drew his staff. This was Shinsi. Law and order weren’t as absolute here as they were in the human world. Yucheol returned the staff to his coat.
“I won’t ask you to keep it a secret forever. I only request an embargo for three days—until the Association decides how to handle this matter.”
“I-If it’s only that long….”
Yucheol’s request was relatively easy to accept. At the very least, staying quiet for three days was far simpler than trying to fight and defeat him right then and there.
Yucheol sent a security officer to fetch a magical contract and left the rest of the arrangements to them. Then he led Serpina to another room.
“Haa….” A long sigh escaped Yucheol once the immediate measures were complete.
“I’ll ask again.” He felt an unfamiliar fatigue as he turned to Serpina. “What kind of race is a dragon?”
“What?”
Yucheol’s question fell completely outside the range Serpina had expected. She never imagined he would start from there.
“You tried to shut everyone up without even knowing that?”
“I may not know the details, but judging from everyone’s reactions, I can tell it’s no ordinary matter.”
“Mister, you really don’t know what a dragon is? They show up in novels all the time!”
“If we’re talking about the dragons I know, they’re the evil dragons from myths… but Serpina-nim doesn’t seem like such a wicked being. More importantly, why did you follow us all the way here, Ayoung-ssi?”
“Aww, that’s not important right now. I’ll explain, so listen carefully. The dragons that appear in modern stories are—”
Ayoung launched into an explanation of the dragons she knew. Some details matched Serpina’s race; others didn’t. Yucheol organized what he had heard.
“So dragons are an extremely arrogant race….”
“They just have plenty of confidence.”
“They’re greedy and like to hoard gold and jewels in their lairs….”
“Maintaining proper dignity costs money, after all.”
“They’re so lazy they can sleep for hundreds of years at a time….”
“A being with great power has no need to move around unnecessarily.”
“So they’re incredibly powerful?”
“That part’s true.”
“…Senior. Aren’t you only agreeing with the good parts?”
“What?”
“Ah, nothing! So please put that fist charged with mana away!”
After silencing Ayoung with a single fist, Serpina looked at Yucheol.
“So? What are you going to do now? Just so you know, I hate being told what to do by others.”
“I have no intention of doing that. Nor do I have the authority.”
Yucheol pulled out his smartphone and searched through related documents.
“First, the race itself… is certainly unexpected, but race alone won’t cause problems. The Association already has many different races among its members.”
“Oh. Really? What races are there?”
“Vampires, witches, werewolves. Those three races have been with the Association since its founding. The details are rather long, so it would be best if you looked into them yourself later.”
“I’ve heard rumors that elves are also part of the Association!”
“…As Ayoung-ssi said, such rumors do exist. Though the Association has never officially confirmed them.”
Ahem. Yucheol cleared his throat lightly and steered the conversation back.
“In Serpina-nim’s case, the potential issue is that this is your first registration.”
“So what.”
“Even the greatest genius has an inexperienced period. The most talented individual recorded in Association history was only at Rank 3 mana capacity when they first registered. Yet Serpina-nim displayed Rank 1 mana capacity on your very first registration.”
“Aha. So people are going to get suspicious?”
“Correct. Additionally, the Wolha Association holds a position comparable to a government within the world of mages and non-humans. In other words, registering with the Association is—”
“Ah, enough. You don’t need to say more. I get the gist.”
Serpina roughly understood what Yucheol was trying to say. No one has particularly high mana capacity at their first registration. Then suddenly someone appears with an enormous amount from the very beginning. The possible explanations weren’t very varied. Either they were a genius surpassing even the greatest in history, or they had deliberately delayed registration for some reason—in other words, a veteran pretending to be a newbie.
Naturally, most people would assume the latter rather than the former. And the Association was on the level of a government. If the latter were true, it meant someone with exceptional ability had been living hidden without officially registering. Ordinary people had no reason to hide like that. Only someone with something to hide—someone like a criminal—would do so.
“So that’s why everyone got so tense when I said I was unregistered?”
“Yes. Therefore, it’s highly likely that Serpina-nim will receive a verification request regarding this matter.”
“Verification? How troublesome…. Just handle it yourselves.”
“Understood. I’ll inform the branch chief. I can’t give a definitive answer since this isn’t my department, but it will likely be resolved smoothly.”
“Eh? Mister, the Association does that kind of thing? I never got that kind of service.”
“Normally they don’t. This case is being handled specially because it’s considered that important.”
As the conversation was winding down, a loud bell echoed from outside the building.
—Deng……
With the sound of the bell, the street scene visible through the window began to change. The crowd that had been moving about suddenly flowed toward the city’s outskirts, heading for the transfer gates that led outside.
Serpina asked Yucheol, “What’s that sound? Everyone’s trying to leave.”
“The bell signals that the sun is about to rise. If they don’t leave soon, they won’t make it to work.”
“Huh? Wait, what? Why are you suddenly talking about something so normal?”
It felt like waking from a dream. After discussing non-humans and mana capacity, hearing talk of going to work because morning had come felt jarringly out of place.
“Do you need to go to work? You said earlier that just doing requests would earn you a salary on par with an office worker.”
“That is true, but in reality, not many people rely on requests as their main source of income. The income isn’t stable, and many requests can put your life at risk. You can think of it as a high-risk specialized profession.”
That much made sense. Even Ayoung had been beaten senseless by Serpina after accepting a request to catch a kitten, only for Serpina to appear out of nowhere. If it had been someone worse than Serpina, she might have lost her life.
“Besides, most Association members maintain social standing and connections in the human world. Unless they intend to completely sever ties with it, it’s normal to have a job and earn money.”
“So it’s still a place where people live, huh.”
Serpina stood up with a scrape of her chair.
“Perfect timing. If it’s morning, it’s about time Heemang needs feeding. I’m heading back.”
“Understood. I’ll contact you once things progress. Do you have a phone number?”
“Hmm….”
She didn’t have a contact number. Serpina wasn’t ignorant of the conveniences and pleasures of modern civilization. Once she grew tired of her current sleeping-and-eating lifestyle, she planned to get a smartphone. But not right now. She didn’t even have money to live on.
Thud. Serpina placed a hand on Ayoung’s shoulder.
“If you need to talk, go through her.”
“Eeh? Senior?”
“Understood.”
“Mister?”
Serpina ended the conversation and left the room, not forgetting to hide her horns with magic once more. Looking out the window, she saw that most of the crowd had already left the city. Only the lingering excitement remained, like an amusement park after closing time.
Ayoung, who had been half-forced into becoming Serpina’s contact person, hurried after her.
“Senior, you’re going back under the bridge, right? I’ll give you a ride.”
“Do what you want.”
Following Ayoung’s guidance, they passed through the transfer gate and exited through the back alley wall they had entered from. A blue light was slowly spreading across the once pitch-black sky. The sun would rise within the next few dozen minutes.
Ayoung pulled out the electric kick scooter she had parked and said, “You’re not asking anything? I thought you’d at least ask why I’m trying to take you there.”
“Well, I figured you just wanted to ride on the road a little longer.”
“…Hehe. You caught me.”