Episode 4
Chapter #2 How to Survive
-intro
“They say people with nothing precious in this world aren't afraid of death, don't they? I think it's because they don't have a single thing in this world they'd regret losing even if they died right now.”
I've heard somewhere that even animals commit suicide…….
The one called Castello, son of the local lord, arrived in Kione two days after receiving the letter. Determined to intimidate the country villagers, he arrived accompanied by some thirty mercenaries and even two low-ranking Seals. The people were so bewildered that their jaws hung open. With coarse blonde hair and flashy clothes weighed down with all sorts of accessories as if he were attending a ball, Castello—perhaps worried he might forget he was a knight—wore at his waist a sword encrusted with thick clusters of gems that looked like they had never been drawn once. The moment he arrived at the village entrance, he leaped down from his horse and began searching for Carnelian, making no effort to hide his vulgar, glee-filled expression.
“Where is she! My Seal! Bring her before me at once!”
He was a specimen of a vulgar nobleman through and through.
“What terrible taste. To think someone like that…….”
Steon frowned as he looked at Castello, who exuded a baser aura than a pimp shouting “Your husband's here!” He couldn't understand why Castello had brought Seals and an army if he had come to obtain Carnelian. It was a display of Castello's personality, to say the least. But contrary to that cynical attitude, Steon stepped forward before Castello and began to pay his respects courteously.
“For you to personally visit such a humble place…….”
“I have no business with you lot, so hurry up and bring me the Seal you found!”
Castello cut Steon off with an arrogant air.
“Yes…… right away.”
No change was visible on Steon's expression as he bowed his head.
‘Damn, where did she go.’
Julitan was searching the coastline, looking for Carnelian. He had called for the lord's son, but if Carnelian—the one he was supposed to hand over—disappeared, that man's personality made it clear he wouldn't leave the village alone.
‘There she is. What on earth is she doing…….’
Carnelian seemed to be sitting on the coast, gazing at the sun falling beyond the horizon. She was clutching her sword, wrapped in white cloth, with both hands. She wore an expression that seemed neither happy nor sad.
“Hey, what are you doing there! Your master's here!”
Julitan had neither the time nor the inclination to humor Carnelian's mood. She turned her head at his voice, looked at Julitan for a moment, then dusted off her clothes and rose from her spot. She looked like she would fire off a retort at Julitan's tone, but said nothing.
“Ah. Since you're my master for now.”
She tucked her flowing black hair behind her ear in the evening breeze as she spoke. Her crimson gaze was looking slightly up at Julitan's face.
“What was that? That attitude.”
“Anyway…….”
She turned her head toward the village and continued.
“They say that lord's son fellow is a knight? Is he really a knight? He's this close, but I can't feel anything at all. His power…….”
“Power? You can feel things like that? You're really different from humans.”
“You don't yet know what kind of people true knights are. Anyone who has seen such a knight would know what I mean by power.”
She let those words fall and began walking toward the village, passing Julitan. Just how many…… Tamers had she served? Had it been a pleasant experience?
“You…… no, you Seals. Why are you so obsessed with power? Sure, as you said, I'm just a stupid country cook, so maybe I can't understand such things…… I can't understand the way you live. Do you just find someone strong and obey them without any will of your own? Is there even a reason you have to?”
As Julitan followed, saying those things, Carnelian neither looked back nor stopped walking. Had she heard it often? After a brief silence, she spoke without showing her expression.
“A reason I have to…… I don't remember anymore. And I don't want to remember.”
It would have suited her better if her voice had been on the verge of tears, but it was parched. Her voice was. Just how many years had Carnelian…… had Seals lived? And during that time, what side of humanity had they been observing and feeling? Could it be that, in truth, they despised humans terribly and despised their own fate? Carnelian's bare feet, heading toward the village, made small footprints in the sand.
“Ooooooh! Incredible!”
It was Castello's voice upon first seeing Carnelian. Castello claimed to be a knight and a Tamer himself, but at the end of the day, he was a low-ranking knight from a small province. Not only was he not an honorable knight protecting the kingdom or the imperial palace, but this was also the first time he had seen a high-ranking Seal like Carnelian in person. The mere thought that he would soon obtain an incredible Seal with a value higher than the entire territory put Castello in the highest spirits. He began approaching Carnelian with an expression that looked like he could drown in a pool of ecstasy at any moment. It wouldn't have been strange if he were drooling. Even the brazen Carnelian seemed slightly flustered.
“W-wait…….”
Carnelian blocked the approaching Castello and let out a long sigh. Her expression said, ‘I have to become this guy's Seal?’
“I am currently Sir Julitan's Seal, and I have received the name Carnelian.”
Carnelian regained her composure quickly and spoke to Castello in a mechanical tone, but his expression didn't change in the slightest.
“I know, I know. That's why I've come to have you transferred. A beautiful Seal like you isn't needed by some country bumpkin. Now it's farewell to those lowly Seals like dolls without expressions or emotions!”
Castello shouted without even looking back at his two low-ranking Seals, but their expressions showed no change whatsoever. With a scornful look in his eyes, as if questioning whether “beautiful” was what one said when evaluating a Seal, Steon squirmed, but Julitan seemed unbothered. More than that, his mind was preoccupied with what Carnelian had said earlier. I don't remember anymore. And I don't want to remember.
“Now. Let's begin.”
Castello looked at Carnelian with a sinister face.
As Steon had said before, the transfer procedure was extremely simple. The new master-to-be, Castello, would give Carnelian a new name, and then the previous master—that is, Julitan—would merely have to agree to those words. There were quite a few Tamers who had obtained Seals superior to their own abilities through this method. Usually they were wealthy merchants or rich nobles who had purchased the Seals from poor knights.
“Your name shall be…… hmm, that is to say…….”
Castello began to ponder seriously yet ridiculously, with a face that didn't look like it could produce anything decent. Anxiety flashed across Carnelian's face.
“Castella! Good! You are Castella!”
She was doing her best to hide an expression that said, ‘I had a feeling it would be like this…….’ And what was that bizarre emphasis, the kind one would use for a foodstuff? She looked at the two male low-ranking Seals standing behind Castello. They showed no expression whatsoever and no interest at all. Those Seals, dull to emotion, surely had low combat ability as well, which was why humans classified them as low-rank.
‘Those Seals probably…… have similarly tasteless names as well. Anyway. I've been encountering a lot of names starting with “Ca” lately.’
Carnelian set aside her complicated thoughts and looked at Julitan. If Julitan simply agreed to Castello's words now, everything would end. If Castello was a man with even an ounce of conscience, perhaps he would build a few ships for Kione. But Julitan merely looked at Carnelian for a moment with a face carrying complex emotions, saying nothing.
‘Does it really end if I agree?’
“What are you doing. Hurry up and say it. Say you agree with my words!”
Castello shouted with an annoyed expression.
‘Does agreeing mean it's fine for her to become the plaything of a noble with such a filthy personality? Is that what a Seal is?’
“My Tamer, please speak quickly.”
Carnelian used honorifics with a calm, beautiful, yet emotionless voice. No emotion whatsoever was contained in her pupils. Did she have no feelings for Julitan after all? Perhaps she, who may have lived for eons, thought nothing of a fleeting relationship. Born under the malicious fate of having to serve a master forever, whether suffering under an arrogant noble or becoming broken as a slave merchant's errand runner, she might truly feel nothing about this moment. Was she simply wishing the day would pass quickly?
“I…… agree to those words.”
Julitan avoided Carnelian's crimson gaze and spat out the words.
“Good! Now you are Castella! Obey my every command!”
Castello's vulgar manner of speaking began again, but Carnelian said nothing. Without giving any answer to Castello's words, she seemed to be thinking about something, then let out a deep sigh. Her expression changed to one of extreme exhaustion, and she merely furrowed her brow.
“No matter how much I think about it, my name seems to be Carnelian…… tch.”
“What!”
The eyes of everyone around Carnelian grew wide, but Carnelian returned to her brazen, irritable attitude from before and began to explain.
“Well, anyway, my master Julitan is a cook who can't feel any resonance with me at all. He agreed to transfer me, but…… the problem is that those words don't resonate with me at all either. So to sum it up…… I don't feel the slightest urge to obey my master's words. Damn, to have a master who can't even perform a proper transfer, my luck is truly nonexistent.”
Transfer failure! People looked at her with expressions asking if such an impossible case could even exist. But while it was strange that foolish Julitan—who couldn't resonate with a Seal in the slightest—had awakened her, it was only natural, in a way, that such a powerless Julitan lacked the ability to transfer her.
“Th-then if you didn't resonate, h-how did he awaken you!”
If Castello had been walking on clouds in heaven just moments ago, his current appearance was the very image of someone discovering poison in their first meal after a week of starvation.
“How should I know! Anyway…… the name Castella is really the worst.”
Carnelian looked at Castello with an annoyed expression and spoke. An abrupt change in attitude. Her transformation upon learning the transfer was impossible was astounding and brazen.
“You dare take such an insolent attitude! Do you know who I am!”
“Who do you think? The stupid son of a backwater lord with a territory the size of a rat's tail.”
Carnelian's venomous words seemed to have no end. Her specialty, “Looking at someone like a bug,” was being displayed.
“Th-then…… I'll take you by force!”
“Huh?”
Castello suddenly drew a glinting blue sword from its gaudy, childish scabbard and began striding toward Julitan.
Dragon Lady
Author / Kim Cheolgon
Publisher / Bak Seongin
Editor-in-Chief / Editorial Department
Published by / Next Level Studio
Address / 4F, 113 Seongsu-i-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Main Phone / 070-8801-6987
ISBN 979-11-92729-25-1
This book was published as an e-book by Next Level Studio under contract with the copyright holder.
Any unauthorized reproduction of this book's contents without the publisher's permission is prohibited by copyright law.