He's talented. He's a genius.
Rokan heaped praise on me to Sia.
He praised me even more than he had to my face, until his mouth practically went dry.
The whole time she listened to him praise me, the smile never left Sia's lips.
"Still, I want you both to keep in mind that you must not be complacent. However much talent you have, Min-jun, this will certainly be no easy task."
"Of course."
We hadn't even started yet, so it was too early to celebrate.
I had no intention of letting my guard down either.
"Anyway, I will take good care of Min-jun, so do not worry too much, Sasha."
[Of course! I'm counting on you, Grandpa. Oh, right, Grandpa. The thing I left with you yesterday, you can give it to oppa, right?]
"I will."
Could it be a present?
I didn't let it show, but I was secretly curious.
"Then I will call you again soon."
[Okay! Oppa, it won't be long until we see each other again. See you then! Call me when you get home!]
"Yeah. I'll call."
As soon as the call ended, I asked what the item was.
"Lord Rokan, what's this thing Sia left with you?"
"I will give it to you now."
Rokan took the item Sia had left out of his subspace.
Out of nowhere, it turned out to be a wearable camera.
"Wear it every time you go into a Gate. Sasha and I will watch the footage and analyze it. What was good, and what needs fixing."
With an ordinary camera, the feedback would have had its limits, but he said that thanks to Sia's modifications, unlike a regular camera, it could even capture the faintest flow of mana.
When had she even thought to make something like this?
Biased as I might be, my Sia really seemed like a genius.
"Thank you for looking out for me in so many ways."
"Enough of that. Just train well."
"I will absolutely live up to your expectations, Lord Rokan."
With everyone helping me this much, there was no way I could slack off.
With that in mind.
"Lord Rokan. If it isn't too much trouble...... would it be all right if I trained here for a little while before I go?"
Even if I went home right now, there was nothing to do, and there was no suitable place nearby to train.
Besides, other than Sia, Rokan was the only being I could get advice from about Dragon Words.
If he allowed it, I wanted to keep training here.
"Not just today, but from now on, anytime."
***
From the moment I got permission to use the lair until late at night, I gritted my teeth and threw myself into training there all day.
What does it mean to put will into something, and what on earth does wielding a Dragon Word feel like?
It felt like rowing through thin air.
Naturally, I couldn't wield a Dragon Word by the time training ended.
Well, I'd never expected to learn Dragon Words overnight anyway.
Still, the day would come when I could wield Dragon Words freely.
Then came the next day.
After a quick breakfast, I immediately opened a Hunter recruitment app and looked for Gates worth raiding.
Training was good, but nothing beat real combat.
After searching for a suitable Gate, I decided to join a raid party for a D-rank Gate about an hour away by public transit.
'It feels empty.'
Before the accident, nine times out of ten or more, I'd raided Gates with Sia.
Maybe that was why searching for a Gate on my own and joining a raid alone felt so awkward.
Right after the raid party was formed, I called Sia.
A video call, of course.
Sia picked up before the first ring had even finished.
"Good morning."
[Good morning, oppa! Did you sleep well?]
We started with ordinary talk, asking how each other's night had been.
After catching up briefly, we talked about yesterday.
[Oppa. How was training yesterday? It was really hard, wasn't it?]
"It wasn't easy...... but it wasn't hard enough to kill me or anything."
[That's a relief, at least. Did you get a feel for it?]
"No, not yet. I just can't figure out what this dragon's will is supposed to be. Your grandfather was right there helping me, and I still couldn't make heads or tails of what he was saying."
I poured out my complaints about yesterday's training to Sia.
I had asked him specifically how to express will, and Lord Rokan had demonstrated while explaining concepts that were, to me, baffling.
Naturally, I couldn't understand a thing.
[That's normal for now. Which is why I'm thinking of watching you train next time.]
"We can only meet once a week. Even if you want to watch, you can't, can you?"
[There's video calling. I'll watch that way. Oh, right, I bought a screen for video calls with you, you know?]
......A screen?
'Like grandfather, like granddaughter.'
Saying she'd show me her new screen, Sia flipped the camera.
And there on one wall was a massive screen, a good twice the size of the one I'd seen at Rokan's lair yesterday.
[I'm going to watch you train on this. Since we can't meet, I'll at least see you this way.]
"Ah......."
If we could see each other often like a normal couple, Sia wouldn't have gone this far.
It tore at my heart.
By the way.
"You already found a place?"
I was the one living in the place Sia used to live in.
Since we couldn't live together, I couldn't help worrying about it.
I'd been wondering what she'd do, since freeloading at her grandfather's lair wouldn't be great for her either.
It was a relief that she seemed to have found her own place somehow.
[Yeah! Grandpa and I went looking together, and this spot looked the best.]
"If you went looking with your grandfather, does that mean you built a lair?"
[Yup. Myself.]
So this was how dragons became homeowners.
Then again, with a lair, there was no need to find a house.
[Come visit my lair soon, oppa!]
"Of course. Should we have our next date at your lair?"
I had to go at least once, for a housewarming and a stay-at-home date.
I was curious how Sia had decorated her lair, too.
[Ooh, yes, yes.]
"So where is it? If it's not far, I'll come to you."
[Um...... it's a bit far, so it'd be really hard for you to get here. I'll come get you.]
"Where is it?"
Since I lived on my own in Seoul, I'd figured she'd picked somewhere near Seoul, but apparently not.
Her grandfather lived in Gangwon Province, so maybe she'd built her lair near there?
[Out by Mount Halla.]
"......Ah."
If nothing else, I'd get to eat all the Jeju tangerines I wanted.
We kept chatting about little things after that, and the call ended with Sia saying her battery was dying and she'd call again soon.
It felt like we'd talked for quite a while, so I checked the call time.
Sia and I had talked for over an hour plenty of times before, but I thought today was the first time we'd ever talked this long.
But this would probably keep happening from now on.
Now, let's see.
The time.......
"......There's hardly any left."
I was supposed to meet the raid members at one in the afternoon.
And it was currently 11:50.
It took about an hour by public transit, so even if I got dressed and left now, it would be cutting it close.
"Uwaaah—."
It would be so nice if I could Teleport at will like Sia.
***
Sia had been on the phone with Min-jun for about four hours.
Since it was lunchtime anyway, Sia visited her grandfather's lair to have lunch with him.
"Grandpa!"
"Welcome, my Sasha. Have you eaten?"
A granddaughter's visit was always a joy.
Rokan greeted her warmly.
"No. I came to eat with you."
"Perfect. I was just about to eat myself."
Before long, Rokan brought out a hearty spread, and the two of them began to eat, chatting away warmly.
"Grandpa, how was oppa's training yesterday?"
She'd already heard about it from Min-jun over nearly three hours on the phone, but she wanted to hear about yesterday from her grandfather too.
They'd each see it from a different position and perspective, after all.
"It has only been a day, but I can certainly tell that he works very hard."
She had heard something similar yesterday, but she never tired of hearing Min-jun praised, no matter how many times.
"Your boyfriend will surely grow faster than you expected. He may even be able to wield Dragon Words before long. But that very thing worries me somewhat."
"Worries you?"
Sia's pupils wavered for an instant.
"Once he can wield Dragon Words, the rest of our kin will be able to sense Min-jun's energy too, however faintly."
It was almost unknown to the world, but there were other dragons on Earth besides Sia and Rokan, and the dragons were already aware of each other.
Thanks to the distinctive energy dragons carried, they could sense each other wherever they were in this world.
'Until now, we have all tacitly kept our identities hidden, but...'
The problem was that once Min-jun could wield Dragon Words, however imperfectly, the other dragons on Earth would be able to sense his energy.
"I guess that— could be a problem too."
As if she thought it wasn't as big a problem as she'd feared, Sia heaved a sigh of relief.
But Rokan thought otherwise.
"Sasha. This is a far more serious problem than you think."
Rokan knew that not every dragon here would look kindly on Min-jun.
It would be their first time seeing a human who used Dragon Words, so some dragons might be intrigued, if not exactly fond of him.
But Rokan knew all too well that there would also be dragons who took offense at a mere human using the great power of dragons: 'Dragon Words.'
"I guess, you're right."
Accepting Rokan's words, Sia nodded weakly.
She wanted to deny it and didn't want to hear it, but she had no choice but to accept reality.
"Is there anything I can...... do for oppa?"
She asked Rokan in a voice unusually drained of strength.
"Unfortunately, there is nothing right now. And, just to be safe, do not tell Min-jun for now. Knowing it now would do him no good."
"Okay......."
But there was one thing Rokan couldn't bring himself to tell even Sia.
Some ancient dragons like Rokan came to open a third eye that could read the traces not of the body, but of the soul.
Once that eye opened, one could not only tell whether a soul was good or evil, but see straight through to the very nature of the soul itself.
'There seem to be no dragons here who have opened it yet, though.'
As far as he knew, there were hardly any dragons settled on Earth as old as he was.
But suppose one of his kin opened that eye, as he had.
And suppose they could read the record built up in Min-jun's soul.
That dragon would not stop at merely taking offense.