Episode 216
Chapter 3-1. Maintenance (2)
2.
What goes through your mind when you’re suddenly accosted on the street?
Usually, nothing at all.
You just think, ’What?’ and blank out before wondering why this is happening to you.
The answer, however, doesn’t co easily.
After all, you wouldn’t get caught in an unforeseen accident if you knew the reason beforehand.
It is, quite literally, an accident.
This was especially true here on the continent, and even more so for Kim Buja, who had no reason to have ford a connection—or a grudge—with anyone.
’Why?’
No, on second thought, there were plenty of people who might hold a grudge against him.
However, almost all of that hatred was directed at the imperial princess or the Empire’s people; there was no reason for it to be aid at Kim Buja himself.
Besides, it was predawn, the sky still full of stars.
He hadn’t told anyone he was going out, and if soone with a grudge had co for him, they would have pressed a blade to his throat rather than just appearing out of thin air to grab him by the collar.
“My lord?”
More importantly, she was looking for soone.
He took a mont to ponder what kind of “lord” she might be looking for, but no one ca to mind.
Whoever their lord was, why was she asking him?
He was just about to protest the injustice of it all when it hit him.
’Didn’t Cassius say there were other dragons on the continent?’
Dragons had long since vanished from the public eye, but that didn’t an they were extinct.
He’d heard from Cassius that they were each enjoying themselves in their polymorphed forms, scattered across the land in different guises.
Once he rembered that, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.
Red hair, red eyes, glossy skin, and a flawless body.
Her figure was so perfect it made one wonder if she was even human, imdiately bringing the word “dragon” to mind.
On top of that, she had appeared in simple clothes with no armor or weapons, yet she was effortlessly lifting him by the collar.
’Judge quickly. Act swiftly.’
Even if she was a polymorphed dragon, he knew full well that at a re level 39, he was in no position to fight her.
He wanted to complain that this damned continent’s balance was completely broken if a creature that was practically a final boss was just wandering around in human form, but what could he do?
The weak have no voice.
Instead of whining about the unfairness of it all, he focused on how to respond and carefully opened his mouth, his voice solemn and confident.
“Lerbel?”
The woman’s expression twisted for a mont.
Simultaneously, the breath that had been caught in his throat was released, and his feet touched the ground.
“Who are you?”
Red Dragon Lerbel.
This was his second encounter with a dragon on the continent.
* * *
It wasn’t surprising that Kim Buja knew the na of a woman he was seeing for the first ti.
“Red Dragon Lerbel. The dragon Cassius was closest to. You cherished her so much you practically thought of her as your mother, and you’re currently in the middle of your ‘play.’ Am I right?”
“...How do you know that?”
“She told .”
The bold words that left his mouth were not lies.
Cassius really had told him all of this.
Granted, he had been the one to ask.
Just in case Cassius died, he had preemptively asked her for information on other dragons.
His plan was simple: if he ever ran into one, he would use Cassius’s na to negotiate his way out of a fight he couldn’t win.
It had been possible because he hadn’t spent the entire week just listening to her life story.
And Cassius had spoken most often of Lerbel.
A Red Dragon who, despite being a dragon, had a personality most similar to her own.
Her temper was fiery, but her heart was just as warm.
Because of that, she often chose to engage in ‘play’ that was friendly toward humans.
That was why Kim Buja was able to keep his cool and handle this with calm conversation.
Because it was Lerbel.
The fact that it was Lerbel might be why she had co here like this in the first place.
In any case, his opening gambit seed to have landed perfectly.
She released him and stared blankly into space. He couldn’t feel a trace of hostility from her—only emptiness and futility.
As a dragon who had lived for an incredibly long ti, she could sense the truth in Kim Buja’s words.
She might have already been certain of it.
Cassius, nowhere to be seen.
Her magic, nowhere to be felt.
The end of the Dragon Lord, whose very existence had been erased from the continent.
Perhaps she had co here just to hear the words spoken aloud.
He told her gladly.
“She is dead.”
He delivered the words flatly, but laced them with a layer of sorrow.
It couldn’t be a re act.
Dragons could read human emotions.
It wasn’t because they were omniscient or omnipotent, but because they could sense magic more keenly, and human emotions were mixed into the flow of that magic.
He used what Cassius had told him and put genuine feeling into it.
He really was sad, in his own way.
’When she used Breath, when she used teor...’
The sorrow of watching his gold evaporate was all too real.
“She gave everything and left. And she told to take good care of you, Lerbel.”
“That’s impossible.”
The sincerity she felt in his words threw Lerbel into confusion.
Kim Buja stubbornly pressed on.
“Dragons are the guardians of peace on the continent. She asked to stop the demons, who have been taking advantage of the fact that dragons cannot intervene directly, to slowly and cunningly extend their reach across the land.”
His resolute words gave her no ti to think.
“She even told there are dragons who are siding with those demons.”
“...That is—!”
Lerbel would already know this.
Only one thing mattered now.
All these words were, in the end, aningless.
Vwoom—!
He transford on the spot.
He transford into Cassius.
“Ah...!”
Seeing is believing, and seeing is truth.
Had Cassius not willingly handed her life over to Kim Buja for this very purpose?
Lerbel collapsed where she stood.
Tears stread from her crimson eyes.
She didn’t entertain the foolish suspicion that Kim Buja might be another dragon in polymorphed form.
There was nothing more ridiculous than a dragon failing to recognize another dragon.
Even the question of how a human could possibly transform into a dragon seed to fade before the perfect image of Cassius standing before her.
“Do you believe now?”
“She left without even telling ...”
As her hurt feelings spilled out, he carefully stepped forward and pulled her into an embrace.
Lerbel lowered her head and wept into the arms of a human, offering no resistance.
Was she accepting that Kim Buja was now Cassius?
“She said dragons do not reveal their lifespans. I asked if she could at least tell you, but she said she didn’t want to interrupt your play.”
He soothed her, mixing in just enough lies.
Kim Buja had been startled as well when a dragon suddenly appeared in the middle of the night, but a crisis was always an opportunity.
Lerbel, more fragile than he had expected, was prey he could not afford to let slip away.
His mind began to race.
“I understand how the lord feels, but dragons do not interfere in human affairs. Especially not while they are in the middle of their play.”
“I’ve heard there are dragons who join forces with the demon race during their play and disrupt the peace of the continent.”
“That is their burden to bear. Even so, direct intervention only ever cos after peace has already been broken.”
“You have got to be kidding ...”
What a frustrating mindset.
It had been the sa when he talked with Cassius; they just couldn’t see eye to eye.
It wasn’t because dragons were stupid.
As a race that lived for tens of thousands of years and was called the race of knowledge, there was no way they didn’t know that prevention was easier than a cure.
He had heard it straight from Cassius, with whom he had shared everything.
It was a rule.
For a dragon destined to live for tens of thousands of years, rules were the final line they could never cross.
Rules for themselves, rules for their race.
The mont they broke them, the frawork of their existence shattered.
Humans, who lived a hundred years at most, could do whatever they wanted and die, but dragons struggled to endure the millennia of emptiness that followed even a brief mont of deviation.
It was a realm humans could not understand.
Lerbel refused him firmly, but the complicated look on her face told him she shared the sa thoughts as Cassius.
A lingering regret over a situation she could not change.
He needed to stop her as she turned away, but he couldn’t grab her carelessly.
Up to this point, he had been using Cassius’s na to keep the conversation going, but if he pushed any further, it would be obvious he was acting on his own selfish, human desires.
The Lerbel facing him after that would not be a daughter longing for Cassius, but a ferocious dragon.
Just then, as they were parting with such regret, a single ray of light fell from the sky, connecting them.
“Kyuu!”
A sound that froze Lerbel’s steps!
She whipped her head around, and she saw Hwangdo, finished with his walk, leaping into Kim Buja’s arms.
“A Gold Dragon...?”
Her gaze, disbelieving the color of Hwangdo’s scales, swung back to Kim Buja.
“Why is the lord with a human...?”
Seeing his opening, Kim Buja played his trump card.
“Why don’t we go inside first? I think we have a lot to talk about.”
Cassius had been the sa; dragons were a race of knowledge.
They had spent tens of thousands of years seeing, hearing, and experiencing everything on the continent, even creating new things themselves.
There was no way this wouldn’t work on soone like her.
A triumphant smile tugged at his lips.
* * *
Lerbel had barged into their late-night date out of nowhere, but the imperial princess tactfully slipped away and stayed quiet, which allowed the conversation to continue smoothly.
“Thank you. I’m going to go talk for a bit.”
“Yes.”
Even when he returned, she didn’t ask any questions and quietly gave them space.
It was a testant to her caution and intelligence.
Once they were in his quarters, he set up an item that blocked sound from the outside, then told Lerbel exactly what he had told Cassius.
He knew nothing good would co from too many people knowing his secret, but if it was a dragon who could pay a higher price than the value of that secret, then sharing a few words was a small price to pay.
“...So that’s what happened.”
“The demon race’s sches twisted the power of the dinsional rift, and because of that, it is now connecting to other dinsions as well. That is why Cassius gave a portion of her power. She said we had to stop it sohow. She realized it far too late, so it was already over for her, but she told that if I ever t you, Lerbel, I had to tell you this.”
She fell silent.
“Hwangdo is proof of Cassius’s will, and he is also the link between us.”
And just like that, Hwangdo, a random pull from a pet gacha, had beco the child of Cassius and Kim Buja. Not that he cared.
Becoming a dad in an instant was no big deal.
“Kyuu.”
He stroked Hwangdo, who was snuggling up to Lerbel with perfect timing, and watched her reaction.
Kim Buja didn’t care in the slightest about breaking rules.
What mattered was justification.
“If the rift collapses further, who knows what will happen to the continent. There might already be beings like who have crossed over.”
“But...”
“Then how about this?”
Even with that justification, it wasn’t easy to break rules that had been upheld for millennia.
So he made a proposal.
“You’re currently enjoying your play as a high priestess, are you not? Then simply continue, but do it with . Watch and wait until you are sure. You can make your decision after that. Wouldn’t that be acceptable?”
Lerbel was silent for a mont.
Earlier, he had lacked the justification to hold on to Lerbel.
Now he had it.
Her gaze shifted to Hwangdo.
Then she nodded.
In a simple bonus Chapter, he had just reeled in a catch far bigger than he had ever expected.
* * *
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