Time passed, but Rokan showed no sign of coming back.
Maybe he really, literally needed a short rest, or maybe there was some other reason I didn't know about.
I had no way of knowing.
I asked Sia if anything came to mind.
'No, I don't really know. He didn't look particularly tired to me.'
Sia tilted her head too, saying she had no idea why.
In the end, all we could do was wait.
The awkward silence dragged on.
To clear the air, I asked Sia a question.
"Sia. About that sword energy. Do you know how it came about?"
Aurora-light sword energy, never once reported since the Gates opened and the Awakened appeared.
I didn't know, but I thought Sia, who had lived so long in another world, might have seen it.
But after replaying the footage in silent thought, Sia soon shook her head.
[Hmm....... I don't really know either. I was curious too and meant to ask Grandpa, but he just stepped out.]
Even Sia didn't know what it was.
"It feels like we're getting deeper into a maze."
[Tell me about it. The mana pattern the wearable cam caught is weird too. I've seen just about every pattern there is...... but this is a first even for me.]
According to Sia, you could usually get a rough idea of what a power was by analyzing its mana pattern, but this was a type of pattern she'd never seen, so even that looked difficult.
Perhaps because she was as curious about the sword energy as I was, Sia looked thoroughly frustrated.
[Still, Grandpa must know, right?]
"He probably does."
While we waited for Rokan, we kept replaying the stretch where the aurora-light sword energy began to manifest.
But it was a good twenty minutes after he'd left that Rokan returned.
"Forgive me. For leaving so suddenly."
[It's fine. Grandpa, are you okay now?]
"My head was only throbbing for a moment. I am fine."
He said he was fine, but at least to me, Rokan didn't look fine.
Not with the slight frown on his face, as if his head were still throbbing.
On top of that, maybe it was just me, but the calm air I always felt from Rokan seemed to be gone, and that bothered me too.
It was as if something had shaken him.
"Let us finish what we were discussing. Your sword energy... that was what we were talking about?"
"Yes. I asked Sia, and she said she's never seen sword energy like that either."
[Grandpa, what on earth is that sword energy?]
Now, at last, we'd solve the mystery.
But.
"For now... that is hard for me to tell you."
Rokan answered firmly.
Not 'I don't know,' but 'I can't tell you'?
Sia and I turned toward Rokan at almost the same moment.
"I have told you all along that you have exceptional talent, have I not?"
It wasn't flattery; whenever Rokan gave me advice, he'd always add something like that.
But.
What Rokan said next was shocking.
"I was wrong. Your talent is not merely exceptional. It is a dangerous talent, dangerous enough to swallow you whole."
[......!!!]
At Rokan's shocking words, Sia startled and covered her mouth with both hands.
I was no different.
I looked at the frozen scene on the screen in front of me.
That breathtakingly beautiful aurora-light sword energy, the power that had saved me from death... was that dangerous?
"So for the next few days, Min-jun, do not enter any Gates until I say otherwise."
[Is it... th-that dangerous, Grandpa?]
Sia asked Rokan, trembling.
"I told you. It is a power dangerous enough to swallow Min-jun if things go wrong."
[Th-Then my oppa.......]
Perhaps the worst had crossed her mind; Sia's face went deathly pale.
"He is fine for now. I am only preparing for every possibility."
After soothing Sia, Rokan went on.
"Once you grow strong enough to fully master a dragon's power, you will at least not be consumed by it. At least."
The way he repeated and stressed those words, at least, left me uneasy.
"Until then, you will have to wear a limiter that can suppress this power."
"A limiter......?"
"Yes. Even if I begin making it now, it will take at least a few days to finish. Until it is done, Min-jun, do not even dream of going to a Gate."
He said it so firmly that neither Sia nor I dared argue.
"You must have had many questions. I am sorry I could not be of more help."
"Not at all."
Normally he'd have worn a kindly expression while saying something like that, but right now Rokan looked deeply grave.
"Sasha will tell you about everything other than this sword energy. I shall go and make your limiter now."
With that, Rokan left.
Right after Rokan left.
Sia stayed silent, as if still dumbfounded, then finally spoke.
[Oppa. I've never seen Grandpa like that.]
"It's okay. It's probably nothing serious."
Even though Rokan had reassured her several times, Sia still looked anxious, as if she couldn't put her mind at ease.
I reassured Sia that nothing would happen, and that if you looked at it differently, it might even be good news.
"If I use it well, it could be a powerful weapon. Lord Rokan said the chances of that power hurting me are slim, too. If I'm careful until the limiter's done, there won't be any problem."
[...I guess so. You're right, oppa.]
After I'd coaxed and soothed her like that, Sia seemed finally at ease and got her usual smile back.
"Then, shall we finish watching?"
[Yeah!]
Rokan was gone, but the feedback had to go on.
We resumed the video that had been paused for dozens of minutes.
[First, setting that sword energy aside, oppa.]
As if she'd never been anxious at all, Sia calmly resumed her explanation.
[It was good that you broke through toward the enemy even though you were at a disadvantage. If you'd run instead, you couldn't have drawn out the dragon's power properly. A dragon never runs, no matter the situation. Understanding the traits of dragons as a race will help you wield their power from now on, too. But look here.......]
Her tone was gentle, but Sia was as clear-eyed as she could be, walking me point by point through what I needed to improve.
The actual fighting hadn't lasted long, but perhaps because Sia wanted so badly to explain things in detail, the feedback session went on for quite a while.
Some time later.
[Done!]
The long, long feedback session was over.
"Finally done. Thanks for watching the video for so long. Your eyes don't hurt, do they?"
[I'm fine! And actually, it was fun.]
She should have been worn out from watching for so long, but Sia seemed genuinely sorry she couldn't give more feedback.
Maybe she genuinely enjoyed teaching me, or maybe she wanted to spend time with me any way she could.
Maybe both.
I casually asked Sia.
"Sia. Is there anything you want to do right now?"
[Something I want to do?]
"Yeah. It's kind of awkward to just go home like this, and Lord Rokan told me not to go to any Gates for a while, so I'm going to have a lot of free time...... Hang out with me."
[Yes! Totally yes!]
Sia was so happy she could have jumped for joy.
Judging by her reaction, she'd been secretly hoping I'd say that from the start.
[Anything's good as long as it's with you. Isn't there anything you want to do, oppa?]
"Same here. Anything's good as long as it's with you. So this time, Sia, tell me what you want to do, not what I want."
[What I want to do, huh.......]
After thinking for a moment, Sia's eyes lit up, as if a good idea had come to her.
[How about we watch the rest of that video?]
"We already watched it all. Is there still feedback left?"
The feedback was already done, and I didn't see why we needed to watch it again, together at that, so I asked her.
If we were going to watch something together, a movie would be more fun than that video.......
[It's not that, but there are parts I haven't seen yet. Not the fights, but you chatting in the dungeon, taking breaks....... I want to see those scenes too.]
As I read it, Sia wanted to peek into my everyday life.
To be exact, my everyday life inside Gates.
From Sia's point of view, she might be curious what I did in Gates when she wasn't around, and how I got along with other people.
But.
I didn't really mind showing Sia that everyday side of me, except for one thing.
'Then... she'll see me killing the villains, too.'
They were bastards who deserved to die a hundred, a thousand times over, but I didn't want to show Sia me killing that trash.
Above all, the thought of Sia hearing the insults the villains spewed right before they died bothered me even more.
"You want to watch...... all of it?"
[Yeah! All of it!]
"There's really nothing much in it, so you might get bored."
[No way. It won't be boring at all. It'll be like watching a vlog, won't it?]
So I tried to talk her out of it by saying the video wouldn't be much fun...... but it was no use.
Seeing those bright, eager eyes, it seemed Sia meant to watch it no matter what.
In the end, I changed tactics: tell her the truth and just get her to skip that part.
"Actually, the end of the video shows me killing the villains. So it might be a little hard to watch. How about we watch everything but that part?"
Watching people die wouldn't exactly be pleasant, so I figured that would be enough for Sia to listen to me.
But.
Sia answered without so much as a flicker of expression.
[No. I don't mind. Let's watch it together.]
"Are you sure? It'll be gruesome, you know?"
Before her reincarnation, Sia had avoided even horror movies, afraid they'd show up in her dreams.
But the Sia of now nodded bravely at my words.
[In the old days, maybe... but now, not really? Besides, they weren't human. They were beasts in human guise.]
That was exactly why she wanted to see it all the more, Sia pleaded.
In the end, I gave in to her pleading and agreed to watch the video together, as she wanted.
For now, I'd have to come up with a way to keep her from seeing that scene while we watched.
......There's got to be a way, right?