Episode 618: Dragon (龍).
Creak.
I examined my body this way and that.
After repeating a few movements to check,
My left arm felt completely fine. My internal injury was the same.
‘How can it be this spotless?’
I had been wondering how to deal with this, but
The regeneration was already completely finished.
‘How did this happen?’
At least three months.
It was an internal injury that would have taken up to half a year at the longest.
It was an internal injury that should have taken half a year because not even a divine physician could do anything about it.
Yet it healed all at once.
‘Not to mention...’
I looked at my left arm.
It was the arm that had been torn off by his hand.
But now?
‘It's perfectly fine.’
It was clean, as if it hadn't been torn off in the first place.
There wasn't even any sense of discomfort.
How could this be?
‘The place I was just in was the same.’
I looked around.
It had definitely been full of snow, yet there had been a fleeting feeling of a garden,
But now it was nothing more than a field of snow.
Had I moved from the original location?
‘That might be possible, but...’
It didn't seem to be simply that.
Because I felt that the space from before had been false in and of itself.
The reason was none other than this.
‘That feeling.’
The feeling of when the space collapsed.
And even the atmosphere the space itself possessed.
It was a sensation I had definitely felt somewhere before.
There was no need to recall it for long.
Because it was a sensation deeply embedded in my memory.
‘The Dark King's domain.’
The black space the Dark King unfolded.
The place where I had died hundreds, thousands of times over.
That place had been exactly like this.
‘He called it an Authority, didn't he.’
The Authority (權能) one could receive because they were a Dragon.
The Dark King had referred to that power as his Authority.
The memory of continuing to come back to life despite dying countless times there.
It subtly resembled the current situation.
‘Then was the power from just now something like an Authority as well.’
That explained to some extent how my arm had been restored to its original state.
Though I didn't know the reason even my internal injury had been healed.
“Huu....”
After checking my body this way and that, I let out a sigh.
Whatever the case, what was important was,
‘That I survived.’
That I had kept my life.
My arm hadn't been torn off, and I hadn't lost my life.
Just remembering it made cold sweat run down my back.
How long had it been?
Since I had been in a situation where my life was threatened to that extent.
Not to mention, a situation where I survived thanks to my opponent's mercy.
[Are you a pureblood?]
The words my opponent left behind drifted in my head.
‘Pureblood, huh...’
What on earth had he meant by that?
He was a Dragon too.
Every phenomenon had been saying so.
‘What is a pureblood? Does that mean he isn't one?’
Pureblood.
The meaning contained within was a mystery.
I was someone who had shattered the vessel and shed from the start.
It was extremely ambiguous to call me a pureblood.
Yet he had called me a pureblood.
‘To be precise.’
The moment I had unknowingly used the Dragon Tongue.
He had called me that upon hearing it.
What was the difference?
‘Can he not use the Dragon Tongue?’
I had simply thought of the Dragon Tongue as one of my Authorities.
That reaction he showed upon seeing the Dragon Tongue.
It grated on me.
As if there was something to the Dragon Tongue.
And.
The same went for the reaction he showed the moment he thought I was a pureblood.
‘As if he had found some kind of target.’
Was being a pureblood that important?
Questions piled up.
What was most important here was,
‘Ultimately, it means there are more Dragons besides me.’
That was what I had to look at as the most important thing.
Not cases like the Dark King or the Palace Lord, but beings I could recognize as Dragons.
The fact that one more had appeared besides the Blood Demon.
What was more,
I was talking about a being that had become a Dragon through shedding, just like me.
No.
‘To begin with, aren't Dragons themselves creatures changed through evolution, not born as such?’
Such a doubt also crossed my mind.
Thinking thus.
Crack.
I grabbed the shackles before me and crushed them.
Crack-!!
I put in a bit of strength and the shackles broke with ease.
I didn't feel any other issues despite having broken them by force.
‘I heard they have the effect of suppressing qi.’
I didn't feel anything particularly different.
I brushed away the debris.
“...Huh....”
Showing a peculiar reaction from the front while looking at the broken shackles,
It was Namgung Bia.
She had somewhat surprised eyes.
“What's wrong?”
“It... wouldn't break...?”
Reading her, it seemed she had been continuously trying to break them.
Judging by her reaction, the effect seemed to have been working.
“...”
Namgung Bia's wrist, where the shackles had been, was red.
Seeing that, I casually grabbed her wrist.
“It doesn't hurt.”
“I know.”
I just wanted to.
At the same time, I examined Namgung Bia's upper body and waist.
Through the gaps of her martial uniform, I could see bandages tied around.
They were different from the compression bandages she usually wore.
“...How is your body?”
“I'm fine.”
I said that because she didn't look fine at all.
“Haah....”
With a sigh, I stroked my own forehead.
Fortunately, I had met a ‘living’ Namgung Bia.
Considering I had been worried sick that something might have happened to her, it was indeed a good thing, but,
It wasn't a result with only good things remaining.
Holding Namgung Bia's wrist, I asked.
“...What did you do to end up like this?”
“...”
A trembling could be felt in the wrist I was holding.
“I told you to behave yourself. I'm sure you promised?”
Don't do anything unnecessary.
If trouble breaks out, abandon those around you and run away as fast as you can.
Also, don't get hurt.
Eat your meals properly.
These were the things promised when Namgung Bia insisted on going to the Northern Sea.
“Which of these did you keep?”
“...I... ate well....”
“Don't make me laugh, it's obvious you've lost more weight.”
She was thinner than the last time I saw her when she said she was eating well.
“If you're not going to listen to me at all, why did you even come.”
She really hadn't kept a single one.
It was absurd.
“I told you to run without looking back if something happened. And you went off on your own and nearly died.”
“...”
“And what's this about being the Lady's escort? What the hell have you been doing? If I knew you'd run around like this, I wouldn't have told you to go....”
I tried to keep spitting out words but closed my mouth.
Because Namgung Bia grabbed my arm with her hand.
“...Sorry... don't scold me.”
There was a lot I wanted to say. Really, there was so much.
Yet this insignificant action lightly made me close my mouth.
“...Huu....”
It was fine.
I tried hard to force myself to think that way.
‘As long as she's alive, it's fine.’
It was fine as long as she was alive.
At least if she wasn't dead, nothing else mattered.
However.
“...Yeah, let's talk about the rest later.”
That didn't mean I wouldn't talk about it.
Just that now wasn't the time.
“...”
Having heard my words, Namgung Bia subtly averted her head.
Seeing that, I first got up.
Because it wasn't a situation where we could just keep chatting.
“First... let's wake that one up.”
I walked a bit to the side.
There lay Yuri, having lost consciousness.
I approached her calmly, placed my hand on her forehead, and,
Hum-! I sent my qi flowing.
Then.
“Heok...!”
Yuri, who had been unconscious, immediately came to her senses and raised her body.
Yuri shot up and looked around everywhere with wide eyes.
“This is....”
“Are you awake?”
“Ninth Young Lord...?”
Yuri's gaze turned to me.
Before long, she grabbed my sleeve tightly.
“Wh-what about Lord Bi'oegun? That friend... what happened to that friend?”
She asked about Uhyeok the moment she woke up.
Seeing that reaction, I couldn't help but bite my lip.
Because the image of Uhyeok being dragged away by him came to mind.
“I lost him.”
“...You lost him...?”
“What happened to you? Why did you suddenly appear captured?”
“Captured?”
At my question, Yuri made a puzzled expression.
Judging by her condition, it seemed she didn't even know she had been captured.
‘To begin with, I couldn't even notice him approaching. It's possible.’
Despite having internal injuries, I hadn't noticed him approaching so closely.
Whether it was because of such a difference in level, or because he used some other method, I didn't know.
In any case, it was no different that I had lost track of him.
“...Your kin intervened. That goes for knocking you out too.”
“Yes...?”
“Since it appeared to be a man. It must have been either the First Young Lord or the Second Young Lord.”
It was as Yuri had suspected.
A white-haired youth who appeared to be a Dragon.
I lost to him.
I was no different from having Uhyeok taken while unable to properly resist.
[How pointless.]
The words he spat rang in my ears.
I thought I had discarded my pride long ago.
Having it trampled upon like this didn't feel good at all.
It was an overwhelming defeat.
At that.
[It seems you still haven't decided.]
[I see. That's why.]
It seemed I ended up like this because of a problem I hadn't resolved myself.
That pissed me off even more.
‘What does he know.’
What did he take Uhyeok for.
What was he trying to do with Uhyeok.
Also.
How did a blood relative of the Ice Palace become a Dragon.
What was his goal.
What did he find out about me.
It wouldn't leave my head.
The pressing gaze. The eyes that looked down on me.
The instinct that had wanted to kill him.
Still remained, clouding my mind.
Sswiik.
A touch was felt in my hand.
Checking, it was Namgung Bia's hand.
“Calm down....”
“...”
My gaze turned to Namgung Bia's waist.
It was the injured area.
Seeing that, my head cooled.
I realized this wasn't the time to be like this.
“...We should go back first.”
Not for anything else, but because of Namgung Bia's physical condition.
Also, there was something that had come up to ask the Palace Lord.
Recalling this, as I tried to get up,
“Just a moment....”
Yuri stops me with her words.
Looking at her, I let out a light sigh.
She seemed to think losing Uhyeok was the problem.
“It's impossible to find him right now. For now....”
“No, who is that young lady...?”
“Huh?”
Wondering what she meant, Yuri was pointing at Namgung Bia.
What was this now?
“What do you mean who. You said you were her escort. What are you talking about.”
Yuri had definitely said Namgung Bia had taken on the role of her escort, even if briefly.
But now she doesn't recognize Namgung Bia?
When I asked with doubt regarding this,
“Escort? What do you mean...?”
Yuri still made an expression of not being able to grasp it, then,
“My lady.”
“Huh?”
At Namgung Bia's words, her eyes grew large in an instant.
“This voice... huh...? No way.”
As if realizing too late, she forgets she had collapsed and bolts upright.
“Baek Yeou...? Is it Baek Yeou?”
“Yeah.”
At Yuri's words, Namgung Bia nodded her head.
Hearing that answer, Yuri covers her mouth with her hand.
“What...?”
“What's wrong.”
“Wh-why. Is she pretty?”
...Huh?