Episode 2
The man named Steon was always like this.
“Anyway, talk to her when she wakes up. I’m going to get some sleep.”
Leaving those words behind, Steon went outside, and once again, only Julitan and the woman who might have been a mermaid remained in the house. Come to think of it, it had really been a long time since someone else (well, Steon said he wasn’t human, but that didn’t matter) had stayed in his house for so long, Julitan thought. His mother had passed away long ago (he said this because he had absolutely no memory of her), and his father too had failed to return from the sea around the time he turned ten, so unless Steon came in to nag him, Julitan was almost always alone. Perhaps because he had grown quite used to such circumstances, he didn’t feel particularly lonely, but being with a woman he had never once been acquainted with was a different story. Being alone with a nameless woman in such a situation… At the very thought, Julitan’s face turned red again.
“Well, just looking at her face shouldn’t be a… problem, right?”
Believing in the justification of his actions, Julitan slowly approached the sleeping woman. How should I put it… let’s just say he wanted to look at her closely. Without stirring in the slightest, she was quietly breathing through her small lips. Her face looked quite comfortable, creating an atmosphere as if she were sleeping in her own home. Her white skin, like looking upon the smooth surface of finely polished ivory… in other words, let’s just say she didn’t seem to be a rough woman of the North, at the very least. Her appearance was so beautiful, right down to the long black hair flowing behind her ears, that it even brought about the pathetic delusion that perhaps she was the princess from the myth, the one who had hidden inside Peseter’s ship to escape the Evil God’s proposal… Her extremely fine, lustrous hair would likely flutter charmingly near her shoulders if she woke up. Julitan wanted to see her eyes, but with them closed, he had to be satisfied with seeing her long, neat eyelashes. Still… he wanted to see a little more closely. He thought that if she woke up, she was not a woman who should be in a place like this, so he wanted to see more of her while she was asleep. With his face burning red from his own imagination, Julitan slowly brought his gaze closer to her face.
“Her eyes… I want to see them.”
It was a foolish wish. There’s no way she’d suddenly wake up, right? That was what he thought, but then, as if preordained, she opened her eyes, and before he could even panic, her expressionless gaze met Julitan’s dark blue eyes with surreal clarity. Her pupils were red. Pupils of bright, transparent red, like a pure red gemstone seen beneath a clear afternoon sky. They were so beautiful, as if not of human origin, that one could lose oneself in them and forget everything else without regret. It was a trite expression, he thought, but there was simply no other way to put it… that sentiment flashed through Julitan’s mind in an instant. And the fact that she had woken up struck him belatedly in the back of his head.
“Hurk! She’s awake!”
Flustered, Julitan hastily pulled away from her, and she rose halfway with some difficulty.
“….”
Completely frozen, Julitan could only stare at her like that, unable to say a word.
Looking around. Then she began to blink her red, round eyes and look around her surroundings. A face that seemed to say, “Where is this?” She didn’t seem particularly frightened or scared of the unfamiliar situation, but—
“Ahahaha. You’re awake.”
Ahahaha. You’re awake? That was all that Julitan, a sixteen-year-old rural cook, could manage as his first words to her upon waking from her long sleep. Anyway, he was tens of times more flustered than when he had made a mistake preparing a Peseter. This was when Steon should have been here, but that guy was never around when you needed him. With an expression as if thinking about something, she tilted her head and looked at Julitan’s face. It was the gaze of a very small, cute animal waking from sleep and looking at its owner, rather than that of a human. Still bearing the traces of a girl, she had a slender face and small, white shoulders, and her neatly groomed black hair flowed before the beautiful curves of her shoulders. She looked at Julitan without a word and blinked her red eyes.
“Cu… cute.”
Then she suddenly broke into a bright smile. He had no idea why she was smiling, but Julitan was happy anyway. When expression came to life on her face, already the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, it reached a point where the word “beautiful” simply couldn’t explain it. His heart began to beat as if it would burst.
“What is your name…?”
She asked in a rather awkward manner of speaking with an accent he had never heard before. A clear voice with a slightly high tone.
“M-me?”
“Yes. Please tell me your name.”
She continued to wear a faint smile and nodded. Like a girlfriend who had been waiting for him to arrive for a long time.
“So, my name is… Julitan.”
He couldn’t help but scratch his head as he spoke. Julitan felt as if his mind were going blank at her sudden smile. To the point that it even took him a moment to remember his own name.
“Sir Julitan? Julitan….”
She muttered the name softly a few times, seeming to think about something. Then she smiled brightly again and spoke in that lovely voice words that Julitan would never forget for the rest of his life—words he would probably remember forever.
“Then now…”
“…?”
“Please tell me my name.”
“…?”
Julitan doubted his own ears. He had expected hundreds of things a woman who suddenly woke from a long sleep might say, but to ask him to choose her name… he couldn’t understand what it meant at all.
“What do you mean… why would I… your name…?”
“You must decide it. My name… please, quickly.”
She rose from her spot, approached Julitan, and spoke with an earnest gaze.
“Hey Julitan! Is that woman okay! Huh!”
Steon, who had suddenly opened the door and come in, froze on the spot upon seeing her standing up. But from Julitan’s perspective, the situation was so frenzied that he didn’t even know Steon had entered. He simply couldn’t tear his eyes away from her face.
“A name? How could I suddenly do something like that…”
“Please decide quickly. My name.”
Name?
At her continuous urging, something came to Julitan’s mind. The name of a beautiful red stone he had seen once long ago. Her eyes definitely resembled that stone’s captivating red light.
“What was it? The name of that stone….”
“A-are you talking about choosing a name? Could it be…”
Steon muttered as if something had dawned on him, like a groan.
“My name… please decide it.”
“No, Julitan! You mustn’t say the name!”
Steon shouted in an urgent voice and ran toward Julitan. With a face as though he were trying to save a foolish younger sibling about to fall into a trap. His face had turned pale as never before. But there was no way Julitan’s ears could hear his voice right now. Julitan’s head was completely filled with trying to remember the name of that red stone.
“Carnelian…”
Julitan muttered, struggling to recall the stone’s name. The name of that red stone was certainly Carnelian.
“That’s right! It’s Carnelian!”
“Carnelian? It is a good name. Now my name is Carnelian.”
“Huh? You like it… that’s a relief.”
Julitan smiled with a foolish face and scratched the back of his head.
“Then Sir Julitan, from now on you are my Tamer. I shall serve you.”
It was she, who would from now on be called by the name Carnelian, looking at Julitan with a bright smile.
“…Tamer? What’s that?”
“C-crap. That woman was a dragon….”
Steon muttered words tinged with dismay with a panicked look.
“Sir Julitan, are you a knight of some domain? Or a magician? Or perhaps a warrior in training?”
Carnelian looked up at Julitan with an expectant face.
“A knight? A magician? A warrior? I’m a cook.”
“A cook? What a joke…”
She looked at him, laughing silently, but to Julitan, it was no joke at all.
“I really am a cook. I’ve never even thought about being a knight or anything.”
Julitan spoke with an unconcerned smile, but the smile on her tilting face vanished completely, seemed to become very complicated, and then suddenly turned pale. And as if squeezing out her last strength, she smiled with difficulty and asked Julitan again. No matter how much she tried to hide it, her expression held a desperate message: “That’s a joke, right? Right?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
Julitan nodded with an innocent face and grinned, but Carnelian’s expression began to harden seriously in exactly the opposite manner. How should I put it—if I had to shorten it, it was an expression that said, “I’m doomed.” She staggered as if strength were leaving her legs and shouted.
“G-good heavens… a cook! Of all things, a cook!”
With a pale face, staggering and hanging her head, she kept muttering nothing but, “Of all things, a cook… unbelievable.” And at that sight, Julitan’s inwardly cheerful smile vanished without a trace in an instant.
“Wh-why? Is there a problem…?”
“Y-you idiot! Did you just say you’re a cook!”
“Hurk!”
Suddenly, with an enormous shout, Carnelian, who had lifted her head, grabbed Julitan by the collar and began to shake him. With tremendous strength impossible to believe could come from such thin arms.
“What did a cook wake me up for! Take responsibility, you stupid fool!”
“Gurk! Wake you up? Why are you doing this! Save me!”
“Die! Just die like this! The worst man on earth!”
Though he didn’t know why, the scene that had seemed like the pitiful confession of a maid to a dashing prince suddenly turned into an atmosphere brimming with ferocity. Had Steon, realizing this was no joke or prank, not hurriedly intervened, Julitan’s sixteen years of life might truly have met their end within ten-odd minutes of meeting her, memories with her and all. Going by the personality he would come to know in detail later, she definitely would have sent him to his grave….
-intro
“You’ve become a truly wonderful knight. Now I… can feel you.”
She looked at me, smiling with difficulty.
And tears that fell without my even realizing it dropped onto her cheeks and streamed down.
Though I had never once seen her like this, I knew that this was her true heart.
“What the… This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. If I knew it would end like this, I wouldn’t have become a knight or anything. I would have just stayed a cook!”
I grabbed her small shoulders and finally shouted.
My chest hurt, and it was hard to continue speaking.
“Now I think I understand why you were able to wake me.”
“Don’t say that… You appeared so arbitrarily, knowing it would end so arbitrarily like this… Please… Please! Don’t say such things to me!”
“Even if you die, and even if all beings in the world forget you… I will remember you forever.”
It was then, for the first time since meeting her, that I learned she could cry too.
-end intro
Julitan doubted his ears. He had expected hundreds of things a woman who suddenly woke from a long sleep might say, but to ask him to choose her name… he couldn’t understand what it meant at all.
“What do you mean… why would I… your name…?”
“You must decide it. My name… please, quickly.”
She rose from her spot, approached Julitan, and spoke with an earnest gaze.
“Hey Julitan! Is that woman okay! Huh!”
Steon, who had suddenly opened the door and come in, froze on the spot upon seeing her standing up. But from Julitan’s perspective, the situation was so frenzied that he didn’t even know Steon had entered. He simply couldn’t tear his eyes away from her face.
“A name? How could I suddenly do something like that…”
“Please decide quickly. My name.”
Name?
At her continuous urging, something came to Julitan’s mind. The name of a beautiful red stone he had seen once long ago. Her eyes definitely resembled that stone’s captivating red light.
“What was it? The name of that stone….”
“A-are you talking about choosing a name? Could it be…”
Steon muttered as if something had dawned on him, like a groan.
“My name… please decide it.”
“No, Julitan! You mustn’t say the name!”
Steon shouted in an urgent voice and ran toward Julitan. With a face as though he were trying to save a foolish younger sibling about to fall into a trap. His face had turned pale as never before. But there was no way Julitan’s ears could hear his voice right now. Julitan’s head was completely filled with trying to remember the name of that red stone.
“Carnelian…”
Julitan muttered, struggling to recall the stone’s name. The name of that red stone was certainly Carnelian.
“That’s right! It’s Carnelian!”
“Carnelian? It is a good name. Now my name is Carnelian.”
“Huh? You like it… that’s a relief.”
Julitan smiled with a foolish face and scratched the back of his head.
“Then Sir Julitan, from now on you are my Tamer. I shall serve you.”
It was she, who would from now on be called by the name Carnelian, looking at Julitan with a bright smile. Julitan tilted his head with a smiling expression.
“…Tamer? What’s that?”
“C-crap. That woman was a dragon….”
Steon muttered words tinged with dismay with a panicked look.
“Sir Julitan, are you a knight of some domain? Or a magician? Or perhaps a warrior in training?”
Carnelian looked up at Julitan with an expectant face.
“A knight? A magician? A warrior? I’m a cook.”
“A cook? What a joke…”
She looked at him, laughing silently, but to Julitan, it was no joke at all.
“I really am a cook. I’ve never even thought about being a knight or anything.”
Julitan spoke with an unconcerned smile, but the smile on her tilting face vanished completely, seemed to become very complicated, and then suddenly turned pale. And as if squeezing out her last strength, she smiled with difficulty and asked Julitan again. No matter how much she tried to hide it, her expression held a desperate message: “That’s a joke, right? Right?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really.”
Julitan nodded with an innocent face and grinned, but Carnelian’s expression began to harden seriously in exactly the opposite manner. How should I put it—if I had to shorten it, it was an expression that said, “I’m doomed.” She staggered as if strength were leaving her legs and shouted.
“G-good heavens… a cook! Of all things, a cook!”
With a pale face, staggering and hanging her head, she kept muttering nothing but, “Of all things, a cook… unbelievable.” And at that sight, Julitan’s inwardly cheerful smile vanished without a trace in an instant.
“Wh-why? Is there a problem…?”
“Y-you idiot! Did you just say you’re a cook!”
“Hurk!”
Suddenly, with an enormous shout, Carnelian, who had lifted her head, grabbed Julitan by the collar and began to shake him. With tremendous strength impossible to believe could come from such thin arms.
“What did a cook wake me up for! Take responsibility, you stupid fool!”
“Gurk! Wake you up? Why are you doing this! Save me!”
“Die! Just die like this! The worst man on earth!”
Though he didn’t know why, the scene that had seemed like the pitiful confession of a maid to a dashing prince suddenly turned into an atmosphere brimming with ferocity. Had Steon, realizing this was no joke or prank, not hurriedly intervened, Julitan’s sixteen years of life might truly have met their end within ten-odd minutes of meeting her, memories with her and all. Going by the personality he would come to know in detail later, she definitely would have sent him to his grave….
-intro
“They say a dragon used to live here before. …Aah, truly unbelievable.”
“Fool! Don’t say such things based on guesswork!”
“Why are you getting angry!”
She got incredibly angry at my casually muttered words, so we didn’t speak to each other all day. It was only after I apologized the next day that she seemed to lighten her mood somewhat.
Dragon Lady
Author / Gim Cheolgon
Publisher / Bak Seongin
Managing Editor / Editorial Department
Published by / Next Level Studio
Address / 4F, 113 Seongsu-i-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Main Phone / 070-8801-6987
ISBN 979-11-92729-25-1
This book is published as an ebook by Next Level Studio under contract with the copyright holder.
Unauthorized reproduction of the contents of this book is prohibited under copyright law.