Episode 7
-intro
“I…… had resolved that if I were ever defeated by the sword even once, I would never pick up a sword again.”
“Is that the reason? Truly…… there are many ways to run away from the world, I see.”
She spoke as though sneering. I worried, my expression asking if there was any need to go so far, but the person in question said nothing.
“Are you prepared to die? Don’t spew pathetic excuses. If I hear words like that, I might not end this so simply.”
Kanelian spoke words as cold as the slithering ring of a blade drawn from its scabbard, leveling her silver longsword at Seuteon, who stood with a rigid expression. Her red eyes blazed with a cold that threatened to kill where they looked, already piercing through Seuteon.
“In order to save the village…… there was no other way.”
Seuteon neither begged for his life nor seemed to have any intention of yielding his position. Yet it seemed his very words had greatly scraped against Kanelian’s nerves. Her gaze grew so cold that no villager could approach her. She continued in a tone steeped in contempt.
“So that’s…… the entirety of your excuse for sending someone who trusted you to their death? Disgusting. I wish you were done talking.”
She possessed a cold and dispassionate side, as though she could slice through flesh and bone with a blade. A voice that seemed ready to freeze her target at any moment. Perhaps it was an icy killing intent engraved into her body from having walked through this world for untold ages. She raised her sword.
“Drop dead. And never do something like reincarnate. Because this world would only grow filthier.”
Even in Seuteon’s bold gaze, fear began to frost over. His lips could be seen trembling faintly, yet he did not flee. In the end, he would not bend what he called his convictions.
“Stop. There’s no need to kill him!”
From behind Kanelian came Jullitan’s voice.
“He’s a filthy human. That’s why I’m killing him. Not because he deceived you. I’m killing him because he is unbearably filthy. He kills others to survive, then feels satisfied that he protected the village, doesn’t he? And if he apologizes to the dead and prays before bed just once, his guilt will disappear too. While telling himself it was an unavoidable situation…… You’re all the same.”
From that voice Kanelian spat out without even turning around, Jullitan could somewhat understand what wounds lay in her heart.
“……But if you kill Seuteon, you become one of those same bastards.”
At those words, Kanelian turned her head. A face so cold it was expressionless. How many had she killed with that very face?
“Put away the idealist’s clichés. What do you think I am…… Master? My body and heart are already filthy beyond redemption by you humans’ hands; there is no cure. Through eons of pitch-black time, do you know what I have seen and what I have cursed? You would neither believe nor want to know. ……I’d rather become one of the same bastards as you. So I can live to my heart’s content in hypocrisy and selfishness, and die an unremarkable death.”
Her voice, trembling for the first time as she spewed words toxic as a dragon’s flames, looked at Jullitan. Jullitan thought, Are you hurting yourself? Because you are so tired of this filthy world?
“I will…… heal you. So please believe me!”
A loud voice rang out, and she, not a hint of expression changing, gazed into Jullitan’s eyes for a moment before parting her small lips.
“No.”
Kanelian readjusted her grip on her blade and turned back to Seuteon. And her sword flew toward Seuteon’s neck. A tearing sound that rent the air…… The hair-raising shriek of the blade seemed to rip through Jullitan’s ears.
“Please stop! I can help you! I don’t want to see you hurting, so stop!”
Jullitan’s voice screamed with eyes shut…… For the first time, she felt that Jullitan’s voice resonated with somewhere in her heart. And the terrible emotional hue lingering at the corners of her eyes vanished soon after. Her blade, which had reached Seuteon’s neck, stopped its movement and quietly lowered. She kept her head bowed, seeming to think about something. And shortly after, Kanelian’s sigh was heard.
“I just won’t kill him, I won’t! Don’t shout so loudly.”
She spoke in an irritated voice and turned around.
“Heh. You’re back to your usual self.”
Truthfully, Jullitan’s smiling expression was so innocent that describing it was almost embarrassing.
“And you know…… Master. Please don’t say such skin-crawling things. How could a Tamer say such words to a Seal…… I thought I’d die of embarrassment.”
Her awkward mien was unexpectedly cute.
“And if you’re going to help me, do you know the first thing Master must do?”
“……?”
Something felt ominous.
“It’s becoming a proper knight quickly. Then, once you’re capable of transferring me, quickly transfer me to an excellent, wealthy knight. That’s the way to help me.”
Kanelian said such things with quite a brazen face. Jullitan, who had listened with a dull expression, cleared his throat and opened his mouth.
“Can’t I become an excellent chef? Though that would take more than ordinary effort……”
“You said you’d help me! Untrustworthy man! Show sincerity, sincerity!”
“Tch. Why would I work myself to death to do someone else a favor? Rather, why don’t you show me sincerity and study cooking? Aren’t I the master?”
Jullitan had grown quite a bit as well.
“Ugh. You’re really the worst master I’ve ever met.”
He learned that she was unexpectedly weak to being attacked.
Well, if I were to write out all the bickering that followed, the two’s image would grow sullied, so I shall stop here.
A day later, Seuteon left the village without a word. Without taking the books he had collected, his money, or his spare clothes. When Jullitan woke in the morning, he realized that a single nate and Seuteon had disappeared from the village, and he found a brief note in Seuteon’s room saying he would not return. The people seemed to deliberately avoid speaking of it. Jullitan had wanted to tell him, “I understand, so don’t worry,” but it was already too late. And Kanelian had suggested to Jullitan that they leave the village and travel together one afternoon while he was cleaning out Seuteon’s house alone.
To the small village of Kione, a merchant who purchased their Pesetereu meat—the village’s sole source of income—came about once a month. And Jullitan and Kanelian climbed onto the merchant’s wagon drawn by two horses and headed for the city. Jullitan had decided to travel the world following Kanelian. Until now, he had never been curious about the world, the city, or new things he did not know. He had simply thought that if he did the set work like the other villagers, like his father, he could smile happily. But now he could no longer smile like that, and he had grown curious. What kind of place was the “world” he had only heard of in rumors?
White snowflakes, absent for some time, were falling as if scattering above the heads of the two seated in the roofless wagon.
“I hate snow!”
“……”
Jullitan looked at Kanelian, brushing the snow from her head and pouting, and thought, ‘She really is a woman who hates a lot of things.’ The faint smell of meat was stimulating the nose of the slightly hungry Jullitan, since he was sitting plopped on a pile of Pesetereu meat.
“I hate this smell too!”
“What on earth……”
Well, if he clashed with her at every turn, it was obvious a quarrel would break out and she would kick him with her shoe to send him flying out of the wagon, so he changed the subject.
“What is a city like? It must be enormous, right?”
“You’ll find out when you get there.”
There were times when Kanelian spoke without much thought, yet it sounded quite meaningful. In any case, when she answered like that, it became difficult to continue the conversation.
“Ah, right…… but where are we going?”
Jullitan did not even know the obvious.
“If the place name hasn’t changed…… it should be the city called Belesima. Yes, it’s definitely Belesima. We’re going there.”
Kanelian mumbled, looking at the sky swirling with snow with a face that fumbled through memories. Her eyes were steeped in nostalgia.
“Why there?”
“Because it’s close from here.”
“……”
It was a simple but clear answer. Yet indeed, answering like that made it hard to carry on the conversation.
“Belesima is one of the cities in the Heseupalkon Empire with quite a lot to see. Especially for an innocent country youth like Master who knows nothing.”
“H-hold on. If it’s Heseupalkon, that isn’t Gareubateu over here, is it? Why are we going all the way to another empire?”
“I hate cold places. Gareubateu is cold!”
“Is that so…… Damn. Do as you please.”
Thanks to her uncooperative answer, Jullitan had no choice but to give up on having a ‘long’ conversation with her.
“Aah, really……”
She stretched, then brushed the snow from her shoulders and hair once more. At times like this, she looked like a cat. She stretched with a grumbling face and muttered to herself.
“Aah, I want a can of beer. On a day like this, really……”
“Can of beer? What’s that?”
“You don’t need to know.”
She smacked her lips as if regretting something and soon lay down, and Jullitan thought that she sometimes used words he did not know. She was an incomprehensible woman.
Contrary to Kanelian’s words that it was close, the two arrived in Belesima only after riding several wagons, walking and walking again, and passing through the heavily tense border of Dallakat and the Heseupalkon Empire. Jullitan grumbled that he had never walked this much in his entire life, but she merely chided him for being a poor master without even the money to buy a single nate. It seemed they would not grow close easily. Without any further description, the city of Belesima was reached after countless hardships in any case. That city was under the control of the Kingdom of Risenbeoreo, which had its main fortress nearby. Well, in any case, Jullitan was on the verge of fainting from exhaustion of the long journey that was closer to an ascetic trial. Yet that physical need was forgotten the moment he passed through the city entrance.
Beyond imagination. Jullitan’s eyes went wide.
“W-what! What is this place!”
An enormous number of people were bustling about, each with their own purpose. The smells of bread, meat, cosmetics, and more from various shops were enough to befuddle his head. The park ground was cobblestone that raised no dust. It was so noisy and lively his heart pounded, and things he had never seen in his life were being bought and sold right before his very eyes. A city? A place like this is a city?
“Huh. This place has changed a lot too. If Master has money, you could at least buy clothes. Prices are on the cheaper side here.”
Kanelian also looked around as if a bit surprised.
Dragon Lady
Author/ Kim Cheolgon
Publisher/ Park Seongin
Editor-in-Chief/ Editorial Department
Published by/ Next Level Studio
Address/ 4F, Seongsuil-ro 113, 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.
Unauthorized reproduction of the contents of this book is prohibited under copyright law without the publisher's permission.