Episode 191

4.

Dragons were big. They were huge in people's imaginations, and they were huge in the games and movies that tried to bring those imaginations to life. The classic image of a Dragon Slayer was of dozens of heroes surrounding a dragon and raiding it.

But Kim Buja now realized that this was the limit of human imagination. No, he was convinced that because dragons were beings humans had created, they had been made just barely manageable enough for humans to fight.

That was how enormous it was.

He also understood why its mere presence had frozen his body and kept him from moving. He understood why dragons were the guardians of the continent, why they were legends, and why countless heroes and Grand Sword Masters had become so small before them.

Dozens? Not even close.

Hundreds? Even that would just look like a line of ants.

Thousands? Maybe with that many, you could at least pretend you had the minimum numbers to face a dragon.

Even then, the thought that you might win didn't cross his mind for a second.

It was a colossal wall. Could thousands, tens of thousands of people, bring down a solid wall with their bare fists? That was what it felt like.

No matter what level you were, if that thing fell on you, you would die. That was his first impression.

And what if you added dragon magic on top of that?

His gaze naturally shifted to Hwangdo. Maybe because he had watched Hwangdo so closely, he had never really thought about it. Hwangdo had been the size of a fist, and even after his first evolution, he was only about as big as a large hawk.

Second evolution, third evolution. Even if he went through them, Buja had never imagined he would get this big.

'Could Hwangdo someday… become like that?'

Even in this situation, that hope didn't last long. Any hope he had right now was nothing but a useless dream. This was not the time to be marveling at how amazing and cool the giant dragon was, or to be awestruck at seeing a real one for the first time.

This was a fantasy continent. The Forbidden Mountains, the land where dragons lived.

Would a dragon personally descend to greet the humans trampling its land? That dragon, who could skewer the dozens of people gathered here on a single claw and swallow them in one bite?

'How do we survive this?'

He didn't even consider fighting. All he thought about was survival.

When he looked at the princess, she seemed to be thinking the same thing. From her perspective, this must have felt like a bolt from the blue. She had fled the Temple only to run straight into a dragon. If the enemy before her had been the temple's army, tens of thousands strong, she might at least have racked her brain for a way to deal with them.

A dragon was a natural disaster. A legend that appeared only as a vague description in the history books. There was no information on what to do, what it was weak against, or anything.

So Kim Buja made a bold decision.

'Please just pass us by.'

He knew perfectly well how ridiculous that was.

'Like hell that's going to happen.'

No matter what he tried, his body, paralyzed by its presence, refused to move. He was on the verge of collapsing from the tension when—

"How are humans together with a hatchling?"

The dragon's voice pierced straight through his mind.

At the same time, Hwangdo flapped his short wings, flew up, and rubbed his body against the dragon's.

Watching that, Kim Buja realized.

"Ah!"

Hwangdo's scales and the ancient dragon's were the same shade of gold, differing only in tone.

"Who are you?"

Thankfully, this shared trait seemed to be enough for the dragon to choose conversation over violence.

* * *

Dragons are vicious. They are merciless, deigning to grant nothing to creatures they consider less than insects. That was what he had always heard, what he had learned from countless games. Of course, he knew those depictions weren't based on real dragons.

But human prejudice—those fixed ideas—was a terrifying thing, and Kim Buja was no exception. The assumption that a top-tier predator would act with a certain arrogance applied to everyone, not just dragons. After all, don't humans treat those they consider beneath them more harshly? With that in mind, he tried to answer carefully. But he never got the chance.

"Let us move first and talk later."

The dragon spoke without waiting for an answer. The moment the words were spoken, his vision blinked, and the scenery instantly shifted to the inside of a dark, gloomy cave.

Mass Teleport. It was a 9th-circle spell, and not a simple movement of individuals, but one that transported every living being within a certain area all at once.

He didn't bother with the foolish exercise of calculating the mana cost. Instead, he hurried to make a judgment.

'Surprisingly civil.'

Maybe it was because they had the special medium of Hwangdo, but the Gold Dragon they had met was, for the moment, quite friendly. It had chosen conversation, had not treated them violently, and had even changed its appearance for their sake.

"Now, speak."

In stark contrast to the overwhelming majesty it had shown before, the dragon now had long, golden hair cascading to its waist and skin as white as jade. Kallis and the knights bowed their heads. A dragon, unconcerned with superficial trappings, wore nothing cumbersome, even in its polymorphed state.

Naturally, since such primal aspects were not what mattered right now, Kim Buja did not avert his gaze; instead, he stepped forward. He had already faced countless crises like this, starting with the imperial princess, and by now, he had built up a certain resistance to beautiful women.

Of course, that didn't mean he was immune to a face like this. After Seora, the imperial princess, and the saintess, this dragon exuded yet another kind of charm, and he could honestly say she was breathtakingly beautiful.

However, he steeled his emotions with a single thought: if he slipped up even a little, this woman could turn back into a gigantic dragon in an instant, and he wouldn't even be enough to grease a single wall of its stomach. Then he spoke.

"Great being."

He had never once imagined, not even in his wildest dreams, that he would say such a thing. He had met countless dragons across countless games, yet the only way he had ever addressed them was with casual, disrespectful speech. It had been for the thrill of it.

He enjoyed breaking the rigid, formulaic honorifics that had become a national rule for addressing dragons, instead declaring, 'I'm above you'. Even if the dragon grew enraged, it had never mattered. He had gone there to hunt it, after all.

But now, standing before a real dragon, the words slipped out of his mouth before he even knew it. In truth, he hadn't planned to say anything like "great being" at all. It had just come out on its own.

"You need not do that. You know me well. What an intriguing human. You reek of having slaughtered countless of my kin, and yet you are this weak."

"Ah."

But the dragon immediately shut him down. Her golden eyes swept over Kim Buja, seeing through everything. She saw that he had hunted many dragons, even if only in a game, and that he was not from this continent.

"Is it dimensional travel? I should hear about that first."

The dragon did as she pleased. The only saving grace was that she was, in her own way, civil.

"The rest of you may rest. I will call you when our conversation is over."

With those words, everyone except Kim Buja vanished once more. He didn't sense they'd been sent anywhere dangerous, so he swallowed hard and met the dragon's gaze. This time, her eyes were full of curiosity. The dragon stepped closer and placed a hand on his head.

Vwoom—

Mana seeped into him. He had no power to resist. It was simply too overwhelming, surging in like a tidal wave. A rough, bracing chill swept through his body.

"Haah."

The woman before him—the dragon in human form—suddenly staggered and collapsed into his arms.

"...?"

Instead of being moved, Buja simply caught her, his expression puzzled.

"You are a very amusing human."

The dragon soon regained her balance and spoke, then murmured in admiration.

"Is this the power of a god? A god with enough power to intervene in the human realm to that extent… If I had just a little more time, I might have been able to attempt dimensional travel myself."

The words that followed were completely incomprehensible to him.

"Are you sick or something?"

Unable to hold back, he slipped the question in. He could only say such a thing because he had already figured out that she was favorably disposed toward him and had no intention of killing him.

Besides, watching her casually spam Mass Teleport without so much as a gesture had made him realize that any countermeasure he devised would be pointless. He'd reached a state of enlightenment, of sorts. At his more relaxed tone, the dragon nodded and readily answered.

"I will die soon. I doubt I have even a week left. Had I found you just a month earlier, it would have been better."

Her answer was so nonchalant that he was left speechless. Even Buja had never imagined a dragon would so calmly state the date of its own death. Besides, for a dragon, did it even make sense to say it was going to die?

"If you don't mind my asking… how old are you…?"

'So it really is different from the novels?'

Since she could polymorph, he'd wondered if they lived in hundred-year increments, like humans.

"I stopped counting after thirty thousand years, so I do not know."

Buja was stunned into silence.

'Never mind, then.'

In any case, he could not find any hint of a lie in her expression. There was also no reason for her to lie about her impending death to a mere human. Perhaps that was why she was so friendly toward him, even though she knew nothing about him, even with Hwangdo acting as a medium.

She did not have much time left. So rather than using force, she had chosen a more peaceful way to satisfy her curiosity about the last human and hatchling she would ever meet. Whatever the reason, it was all good news for Kim Buja.

"If there is anything you are curious about, feel free to ask. I will answer anything."

Even on the verge of death—or rather, precisely because she was—her curiosity about a new world was burning all the stronger, and he had plenty of things that would appeal to that curiosity. He didn't know what part of his mind she had rifled through or how much she had seen, but that was only a fraction of the story.

"I will show you, right before your eyes, the blessing of a god from that world—a blessing so great it ranks in the top ten among seven billion people."

Gold Maker. He couldn't let her experience dimensional travel itself, which she was endlessly curious about, but he could show her something new about a divine power that was on par with it.

"Kyuu!"

Hwangdo, ever the loyal companion, also acted cute to keep the ancient dragon in a good mood.

"To see one of my own kind in my old age… If I had known they could be this adorable, I might have had a hatchling of my own."

"Kyuu."

It was, in its own way, a happy time. She might be a dragon, but in human form and friendly toward humans, she was so charming that it was hard to recall the fear he had felt at their first meeting. So, without thinking, the words slipped right past his mental filter.

"How do dragons make babies?"

At his blunt question, the dragon let out a small laugh and stepped closer.

"Are you that curious? Half-dragons aren't bad, you know."

* * *

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.