〈 Episode 619 〉 Dragon (龍).
I had to frown upon hearing those words.
What did she mean, pretty? What kind of nonsense was this?
“I clearly told you she goes around wearing a mask because of her burns…!”
Ah.
Only after hearing Yuri’s words did I finally understand.
It seemed Namgung Bia had been going around wearing a mask after all.
‘At least she kept that one promise.’
Before Namgung Bia left for the North Sea.
It was also the part I had warned her about most strongly.
I don’t know what the people there are like, but.
‘Your face is a problem, so I told you to cover it up as much as possible.’
In any world, beautiful things are easily targeted.
When you got down to it, Namgung Bia’s face wasn’t simply at the level of an ordinary treasure.
That was why I had told her to cover it up as much as possible.
Fortunately, it seemed she had listened well.
“Ah.”
Having been called out on it, Namgung Bia nodded slightly as if understanding Yuri’s words and spoke.
“That was a lie.”
“…Huh?”
At the confession spoken so nonchalantly, Yuri’s face went blank for a moment.
“It was a lie…?”
“Yeah. A lie. Sorry.”
Even the apology was composed.
Though the situation was somewhat absurd.
“…Get up for now. We need to move.”
It wasn’t time to just keep watching, so I hurriedly decided to rise first.
As I moved, I grabbed Namgung Bia.
“Ah…?”
Before Namgung Bia could react, I lifted her up in both arms.
“…”
“…I’m doing this because you look like it’ll be hard to move. Even if you don’t like it, just stay—…”
“I don’t mind.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Her firm response made me feel awkward.
“Wait…. Before, you wouldn’t even touch me because you said carrying me was dirty….”
I ignored the dumbfounded words from behind.
I drew up energy and sent it toward Yuri.
*Fwoosh—!*
“Hah.”
The energy wrapped around Yuri’s body and lifted her into the air.
This was possible because my body had returned to its original state.
It was to quickly get to the hideout. While checking the direction, I asked Yuri at the same time.
“There’s something I want to ask before we set off.”
“Yes?”
“That brother of yours who was said to have been involved in the rebellion. He said with his own mouth that his name was Yuseon.”
“…Huh?”
Hearing the question, Yuri’s expression changed strangely.
It was an expression as if she had heard something bizarre.
Judging by her reaction, was he the eldest?
They had said the Second Young Master was highly likely to have instigated the rebellion. That could be the case.
“Information about him—…”
“Just a moment….”
“Hm?”
“Did you just say… Yuseon?”
“That’s right.”
I had clearly heard it.
Yuseon. He said his name was Yuseon.
I gave her a definite answer, but Yuri’s expression only twisted further as she listened.
“Could it be that you… heard something wrong?”
“What?”
What was she saying?
Asking if I had misheard?
“Really, if you heard that name, I think you must have misheard.”
“No, I heard it clearly. He definitely said Yuseon….”
“Yuseon, that name is not my brothers’ name.”
“Hm?”
At Yuri’s answer, this time I furrowed my brow.
Not her brothers’? What did that mean?
Toward me, who was scrunching up my face in incomprehension.
“That name is….”
Yuri said.
“The First Princess of Binggung. My older sister’s name.”
Words I had never expected burst out.
******************
Underneath Binggung.
The Blood Clan. A space that only the Palace Lord, the ruler of the North Sea among them, could enter and exit.
Yuseon was walking upon that path.
*Thud.*
One step.
*Thud.*
Two more steps.
Each time Yuseon walked, a subtle change appeared.
Her body gradually grew more diminutive.
The lines of her physique gradually became more graceful.
The cold-looking young man gradually changed into a beautiful woman.
A person who looked similar yet different from Yuri.
“Today was a day of great harvest.”
While continuing to walk. Yuseon spoke to the person behind her.
Even her voice had changed. It was a woman’s charming tone.
“To think, not only is your weakness the same race as me, but a Pureblooded one at that. Truly surprising.”
At Yuseon’s words spoken with a smile, the one behind her.
Uhyeok bit his lip.
“…That friend is not some weakness of mine.”
Uhyeok tried to deny it.
“Haha.”
At those words, Yuseon merely burst into laughter.
“Bioegun. You are special.”
“…”
“Because I know that, I overlook the fact that you lie to me. Do you understand?”
It was suffocating.
For a moment, Uhyeok was engulfed by that sensation.
Yuseon stopped walking.
“Isn’t that so? If not.”
Then she turned her head and looked at Uhyeok.
As if covering slit pupils, Yuseon was smiling with her eyes.
“I wouldn’t have simply overlooked the fact that you lied to me.”
“…”
White Fox.
At the words meaning Namgung Bia, Uhyeok furrowed his brow.
Seeing Uhyeok’s expression, Yuseon spoke.
“I won’t ask such trivial questions as ‘why did you do it.’”
Her voice was filled more with laughter than anger.
“Because I knew from the beginning that you would do such a thing.”
“…!”
At Yuseon’s words, Uhyeok’s eyes widened.
“…What…?”
She had known he would do such a thing?
Those words shook Uhyeok’s heart.
“What do you mean, you… clearly ordered me to kill the White Fox!”
“I did. Even so.”
And she had predicted it would turn out like this?
Uhyeok’s pupils trembled.
“Isn’t this more fun? Whether you would move exactly as I expected. Whether you would truly follow my words. I was curious about that.”
At Yuseon’s words, Uhyeok’s clenched fist trembled.
“Really. Did you think you could act outside my sight?”
Whether because Uhyeok’s actions amused her, Yuseon’s smile deepened.
“There is no existence in the North Sea that can escape my eyes right now.”
The thing underground.
Herself, who had overcome the curse and become one with it.
Having escaped her filthy flesh to become a great being.
The current North Sea was no different from herself.
Therefore.
“Your attempts to save your master. The schemes you employed to save the White Fox. I know all of it.”
Whether it was the actions Uhyeok took for Gwiseon.
Or the deeds done for Namgung Bia.
Yuseon knew them all.
She had merely been watching those affairs unfold enjoyably.
Uhyeok, hearing such words.
“…Just what.”
He asked in an exhausted voice.
“What on earth do you want from me?”
Why was this woman going to such lengths for what she wanted from him?
“What do I want? Many things.”
Whatever Uhyeok was thinking, Yuseon desired far more from him.
“You are a far more important existence than you think.”
Precious.
So very precious.
An existence absolutely necessary for the future Yuseon dreamed of.
“Not just you…. The White Fox as well….”
Thankfully, there was another piece that had rolled in on its own.
Not to mention, a being who wasn’t just a fellow clan member but a Pureblood had appeared, hadn’t they?
This was an opportunity.
To gather three pieces.
An opportunity to devour a Pureblood and raise her value.
At that moment.
“First Princess….”
*Stiff.*
At Uhyeok’s call, Yuseon’s gaze sharpened.
“Bioegun. I told you clearly.”
A cold energy that hadn’t been felt until now.
*Crackle—!*
Frost formed on the wall.
“I told you not to call me that. I asked you that.”
“…”
“I. Am showing you great generosity.”
She had kept alive the younger sister whom she loved yet had wanted to tear apart before her very eyes.
And showed deep generosity by not killing Gwiseon either, sending him away alive.
In such a situation.
“A ‘request’ like this is worth granting, isn’t it?”
At the sinister atmosphere, Uhyeok forcibly turned his head.
He couldn’t understand it.
She seemed to let everything else pass easily, yet why did she react so fiercely to this part?
He couldn’t understand it at all, but.
“…I apologize. Lady Yuseon.”
“Hmm.”
Hearing this, Yuseon smiled as if satisfied and started walking again.
Going down like that again, she arrived at a certain entrance.
A heavy and massive iron door.
Before it, Yuseon reached out her hand.
Then.
*Rumble—!!*
An enormous vibration burst from the iron door.
*Screeeech—!!*
As if someone were pushing it, the door opened on its own.
From the slowly widening gap, *Hwoooosh—!* a cold chill burst forth.
Inside.
There was a snow-white space as if it had snowed.
Not to mention, it was vast.
It was a space large enough to fit the entire North Sea Binggung without issue.
Such a space existed underground?
Uhyeok was looking at the space with surprised eyes.
At that moment.
“Congratulations.”
Yuseon said to Uhyeok.
“This is probably a first. A person who is neither the Palace Lord nor of the Blood Clan coming here.”
“…”
“How is it?”
Yuseon gently gestured and pointed ahead.
Something was floating in the air at the center of the vast space.
Small compared to the space, but an ice chunk of absolutely not small size.
What could that be?
The moment Uhyeok harbored that question.
“Your thoughts on seeing the Bingjeong?”
“…!”
At Yuseon’s words, Uhyeok gulped down a breath.
Bingjeong.
The most precious treasure of the North Sea Binggung.
An object that the Blood Clan regarded like a curse.
So that was ‘the’ Bingjeong.
Crystalline and cold. That was his first impression of the Bingjeong.
Now, looking at it, only questions came to mind.
“…Why are you showing that to me?”
“Mhm.”
At Uhyeok’s question, Yuseon calmly moved her steps.
It was toward the Bingjeong.
“I just wanted to show you. Isn’t it interesting?”
That ice so small compared to the land of the North Sea.
“Is causing snow to fall upon this land all year round.”
Furthermore.
“It is also prolonging its life using the Blood Clan as collateral, so to speak.”
“What do you mean—?!”
“Shall I tell you a truly interesting fact?”
Uhyeok was surprised by the shocking words he had just heard, but only for a moment.
Yuseon, who had approached the Bingjeong, spoke to Uhyeok.
“Bioegun, what do you think this is?”
It was a question asked while pointing at the Bingjeong.
“…Are you asking about the Bingjeong?”
“That’s right.”
A chunk of ice.
The Binggung’s ancient treasure.
The Bingjeong Uhyeok saw was that.
He had realized from her earlier words that it was no ordinary object, but.
Yuseon spoke to Uhyeok as if it weren’t merely that.
“This, you see. Is an ‘egg.’”
“…?”
An egg?
“The egg that is said to have been planted by the Dragon Emperor. An egg with not much left until hatching.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“I. Think this is fate.”
She smiled. Yuseon continued to smile.
“That the pieces have gathered when hatching is near. That a Pureblood appeared before me.”
Laughter came out. Even if it hadn’t, she smiled.
“That I was ‘chosen’ too. It must all be fate.”
“…”
An inexplicable madness was felt.
Looking at Yuseon, Uhyeok had to swallow dryly.
“All of this seems to be telling me to walk the path I wish to take without hesitation.”
Yuseon recalled the Pureblooded Dragon she had met moments ago.
Pureblood (純血).
Not a being like herself, who had bloomed the seed left by the Dragon Emperor in an attempt to transcend the species.
Dragons who had shattered their own vessels and ascended to the heavens above.
Because their value is different, it is fated that they stand above other dragons.
A being qualified to become the Dragon Emperor (龍帝).
That was what a Pureblood was.
Surely, she had heard that such a being did not exist in this land, so how had such a one appeared?
[Let go.]
Yuseon recalled the words he had spat out and felt ecstasy inside.
Born to rule, naturally endowed with power.
Though he seemed unable to even awaken his authority, those two words made Yuseon stop in her tracks for a moment.
A dragon who had finished evolving yet couldn’t find his way and failed to bloom.
Not to mention, a Pureblood who could become a ruler.
She coveted him.
Yuseon coveted him.
But she didn’t devour him and let him go.
Because it would have been a waste to devour him right there.
‘More, in a more certain state.’
Not in an injured or broken state.
She would trample and devour him in a state of perfect readiness.
And so, she intended to shatter all the qualifications and conditions that the Pureblood possessed.
Then she would know.
Not that he.
But that she is worthy of the Dragon Emperor.
Thus, having coveted all the pieces.
She would even covet the one to be born from the Bingjeong before her.
‘And so.’
Ascending and ascending again.
Soaring to a higher sky, she would bring about spring in the North Sea.
That.
Was Yuseon’s goal.