Sia played the video again.
It ran from the scenes of me chatting cheerfully with the villains, unaware they'd soon show their true colors, to the scene of Jun-hwi and me making small talk during the break.
To me, they were nothing special at all, but to Sia, these scenes seemed to feel very special.
[Seeing the world through your eyes is so fascinating, oppa.]
"Yeah?"
Come to think of it, if Sia filmed a video like that and showed it to me, I figured I'd find it pretty fascinating too.
Would it feel like secretly leafing through her diary?
[Yeah. And seeing that trash who tried to kill you while they were still alive....]
"Seeing them?"
Had she changed her mind about watching in the meantime?
It'd be better if she didn't watch, so I was about to tell her she didn't have to if it was hard.
But.
[Now I'm sure of it. This world is way too dangerous for you, oppa.]
What is she talking about now?
[Look at that. That bitch Seo Yu-seon over there keeps trying to seduce you with her eyes.]
"That was just to get us to let our guard down—."
Honestly, I never got the impression Seo Yu-seon was trying to seduce me.
But Sia seemed to think otherwise.
[That's a problem in itself. Anyway, what with that bitch back then too, there's no telling what other bitches might try to seduce you and do. This won't do.]
I'd felt it now and then, but since our reunion, Sia seemed noticeably more worried and jealous than before.
She was reading that much into the behavior of even a villain who'd tried to kill me.
Then again, we'd been apart for an unimaginably long time before meeting again, so I could understand it.
At this rate, I might end up in the absurd position of having to explain myself for briefly brushing hands with a female part-timer at a store.
Anyway.
"See, Sia, I told you. The video wouldn't be any fun."
[No. I'll keep watching. I still have to see it.]
But Sia shook her head as if to ask what I was talking about and got absorbed in the video again.
Even as I was forcing back yawns of boredom now and then, Sia never took her eyes off the screen.
How much time had passed like that?
The video had reached the point where the villains, in their last struggle before death, would spit out 'those vile words.'
I paused the video and spoke to Sia.
"Sia. Can't we stop here? Nothing good comes after this."
[I still want to see it, though.]
"Even though it shows people dying?"
[I told you, they're not people, they're trash, so it's fine.]
"......."
I made one last attempt to persuade her, but Sia showed no sign of changing her mind.
[I'm fine. So I really have to see it.]
"...Okay."
There was no point trying to stop her anymore.
In the end I gave up trying to persuade Sia and played the video again.
Slowly, the video began showing 'those scenes' I'd been dreading.
The unspeakable insults aimed at Sia and me, and the scene of me running their hearts through in a single stroke.
'Well, here it comes.'
Sighing inwardly, I carefully watched Sia's reaction.
When I'd first heard the villains spew that, I'd been furious to the core; Sia would be even more so.
But.
Sia's face was not at all the face of someone who'd seen something unpleasant.
Instead, her eyes were so full of life and excitement that it flustered me just to see them.
...Why?
[Oppa.]
Whatever I made of it, Sia was gazing at me with dreamy, excited eyes.
[Why are you so sexy?]
"...?"
What on earth is sexy about that?
***
Even after ending the video call with Min-jun, which had gone on for hours on end, Sia didn't leave the screen.
Instead, she pulled herself even closer to the screen and began replaying the paused video.
One might think she was replaying the combat footage because she felt her feedback had fallen short and wanted to give Min-jun more detail.
But that wasn't it.
Nor had she kept the video going because something in the chatter on the move, which Min-jun had called boring, had caught her interest.
The scene she wanted to see again was the one where Min-jun, without hesitation, drove his sword into the hearts of the foul-mouthed villains.
"Hee. My oppa is so unbelievably sexy."
In fact, contrary to Min-jun's worries, she hadn't taken the villains' insults to heart at all.
What interested her was how Min-jun had handled them.
The way he stabbed them in the chest without hesitation, as if they weren't worth listening to any longer.
And the sword energy that turned blood red for an instant, as if carrying his emotions.
"Oppa's probably the only one who doesn't know. How sexy he is."
When she'd first told Min-jun he was sexy while watching this video with him, he hadn't understood what part of it she found sexy, and had shaken his head without meaning to.
But as Sia saw it, Min-jun was simply embarrassed at being called sexy at all.
He'd shown off his sexy side for all to see, yet when told he was sexy, he shuddered and shyly denied it.
Sia found a nerdy charm in that.
Handsome, sexy, and on top of that, the surprising charm of a nerd.
The fact that a man as mythical as a unicorn was her boyfriend nearly sent a shiver through Sia.
"Still, this part's a bit disappointing."
Because it had been made in a hurry, the wearable cam still fell short in many ways, as far as she was concerned.
If she had to pick the biggest shortcoming, it was that its point of view was too limited.
What that meant was that, since the camera was fixed to Min-jun's chest, everything could only be seen from his chest's point of view.
If only she could have seen Min-jun from a third-person view.
'I could have seen even what face oppa was making then.'
The face Min-jun must have made as he snuffed out the 3 villains.
Another side of Min-jun he showed in Gates, one she could never get to see.
That was what she'd prepared the camera for, but once she lifted the lid, it left a lot to be desired.
Now, if she had a drone up in the air filming, that would be different.
Ah!
'Why didn't I think of that?'
She'd been so focused on other things that it had never crossed her mind.
A camera drone, huh.
If she modified one, she could observe Min-jun in more detail and from many more angles.
If she'd made something like that from the start, she could have seen the look on Min-jun's face at that moment, and more, his every expression and every move.
But there was no use regretting it now.
She'd use a drone from the next Gate raid on.
For now, she had no choice but to make do with what she had.
Sia played that part again in slow motion.
Not in detail, but there had to be somewhere Min-jun's face was reflected, however faintly.
For instance......
'The eyes, maybe.'
Min-jun's image, perhaps reflected in someone else's eyes.
To find it, Sia zoomed in and checked every villain's eyes, one by one, for Min-jun's reflection.
Given the nature of eyes, making out his exact expression might be hard, but it was better than nothing.
And at last.
"Found it......!"
Sia found Min-jun reflected in someone's eyes.
She'd found him in the eyes of Seo Yu-seon, the villain who'd been facing him head-on.
Sia enlarged the image.
It was a bit blurry, but she could make out the shape of Min-jun holding his sword.
'Can't I blow it up more?'
Swallowing hard, she zoomed the video to maximum magnification.
But unfortunately, only a blurry outline of Min-jun's face showed.
She couldn't make out his exact expression.
'Should I just give up?'
The thought crossed her mind for a moment, but she soon shook her head hard.
She had spent two thousand years researching a single spell, dimensional transfer magic.
She was the indomitable icon of never giving up.
If science and technology had hit their limit, it was time to borrow the power of magic.
To sharpen the hazy image of Min-jun reflected in Seo Yu-seon's eyes, she brought every bit of knowledge she'd built up over 2500 years to bear.
Using magic might seem like it would make it easy, but since the video was born of a mix of magic and modern technology, it was by no means an easy job.
But that was only hard by human standards.
As a dragon, she succeeded in enlarging the video into a sharp image in just ten minutes.
Her heart trembling, Sia looked at the expression on the Min-jun reflected in those eyes.
"Ahh...."
Eyes stretched wide, glaring at the villains.
Lips quivering with rage he couldn't contain.
In the Min-jun reflected there, an indescribably deep fury was unmistakably churning.
A violent fury that savage things unworthy even of drawing breath had dared insult his woman.
Feeling every bit of Min-jun's emotion, Sia clapped a hand over her mouth and couldn't take her eyes off him for a long while.
Her heart slipped out of her control, pounding harder and harder, and her face flushed redder than the sun with a thrill too big to handle.
If she could have followed her heart, Sia would have run to Min-jun that very moment and thrown herself into his warm arms.
She wanted to be held, to feel his warmth, and to pour out everything she'd felt to him.
But she knew perfectly well.
She couldn't do that right now.
'I wish I had something more.'
Calls with Min-jun, photos with Min-jun, and now videos of Min-jun.
At first she'd thought these alone would be plenty to last a week, but she was starting to hit her limit.
Perhaps because she missed Min-jun so much, her hands had strangely begun to shake.
'This won't do.'
Not a video call; she wanted to feel his warmth and breathe in his scent in person.
She needed some way.
A way to feel like Min-jun was beside her even when he wasn't.
***
Since 'that incident,' I'd taken Rokan's advice and stayed out of Gate raids.
I asked Rokan if I couldn't at least train, but he shook his head, saying we had to guard against even the slightest possibility.
And so.
Forced to take a break, I spent my time on the phone with Sia for hours a day.
We chatted as usual, but I also took the chance to ask Sia to teach me all sorts of things about dragons.
I thought a deeper understanding of dragons might be a big help in wielding a dragon's power.
Time went by.
And at last, the day I was to meet Sia arrived.
When I finished getting ready and checked the clock, there were about ten minutes left until the promised time.
I used that time for one last check that I hadn't forgotten anything.
Today I was visiting Sia's lair.
Since I was visiting her new home, I figured I should bring a housewarming gift, so yesterday I'd told Sia to name anything she wanted.
But instead of an ordinary housewarming gift like rolls of toilet paper, Sia named something truly unexpected.
We'd dated for so long that I thought I knew Sia pretty well, but lately I had no idea what on earth she was thinking.
'Why on earth does she want my old worn clothes?'
And not new clothes, or clothes I'd only worn a few times, but clothes I'd worn for years until they were threadbare.
...What on earth is she going to use them for?