After a quick lunch, we arrived at the D-rank Gate we were going to clear today.
Recommended party size: two.
An ordinary D-rank Gate known for lizardman sightings.
"Sia, do you have any gear?"
"Yep! I've got loads in my subspace. Why? Did you not bring your gear, oppa?"
"I brought mine, sure. I was asking in case you didn't have any."
Not much about me had changed since 1 year ago, so the gear in my subspace would still be there, but Sia was a different story.
When she reincarnated, the subspace she'd used in her past life, along with all the gear inside it, must have vanished.
So I had assumed she wouldn't have any gear, but as if it went without saying, Sia was already prepared.
But...
"......?"
The first piece of gear Sia took out was none other than a sword.
A sword that looked extraordinary from its appearance alone.
I could tell without even holding it.
Just how absurdly overwhelming a thing it was.
But I looked at her, a little puzzled.
It made no sense to begin with for a dragon like Sia to pull out a weapon in a mere D-rank Gate, though.
More than that, shouldn't Sia, a mage, be using a wand rather than a sword?
If she meant to pass herself off as a D-rank mage, that is.
Just as that doubt crossed my mind, Sia held the sword out to me.
"Here, oppa, use this."
"......Huh?"
"It's my gift. I thought it'd suit you."
At Sia's unexpected move, I was flustered for a moment.
"Don't you like it? Should I give you a different one?"
"No, no, of course not. If it's from you, Sia, I'd be happy with a toothpick. I'm just a bit dazed. Thank you. I'll use it well."
"There's still more, you know, oppa?"
"Huh? There's...... more?"
"Yep. Wait a sec."
As if the sword were only the beginning.
Next, Sia began taking all kinds of gear out of her subspace: armor, a helmet, a cloak, accessories, and more.
Judging by the class of the sword I had just received from Sia, that gear wouldn't be ordinary either, and sure enough, I was right.
When I put them on, the energy I felt from each and every piece was extraordinary.
"Thank you, Sia. I'll use them well."
"Hold on, oppa. There's still a lot more."
After that, Sia kept taking artifact after artifact out of her subspace.
I had heard from Sia that dragons piled their lairs high with treasure, but this was truly beyond my imagination.
"Sia, does this sword...... have a name?"
In the middle of all that, I asked Sia what the sword was.
The other gear was amazing too, but when I held this sword, I had the illusion that the sword and I were bound by some invisible thread.
How should I put it, even though it was my first time holding the sword today, I felt a familiar sensation, as if I had been wielding it for a long time.
At that, Sia spoke with a slightly surprised look.
"That's...... a Dragon Bone Sword."
A Dragon Bone Sword, huh.
It wasn't just that it was a good weapon; it felt good beyond that.
But to think that all I'd be hunting with this absurd gear was lizardmen.......
That felt a bit off in its own way.
Anyway.
Fully prepared, I stood at the Gate entrance with Sia, my heart pounding.
Maybe because it was my first Gate raid in a long time, I was nervous, but at the same time, memories of the way we used to be came back and my heart swelled.
Right then.
'Is Sia... okay?'
It suddenly occurred to me to check on Sia.
I had forgotten for a moment, but a Gate was the horrible place where Sia had once met her death.
Even if it was something from 2500 years ago for Sia, dragons were said to be beings that never forget.
Just as I had suffered from trauma for the past year, maybe Sia, though she didn't say so, had at least a little trauma about Gates too.
""Are you okay?""
But the moment I asked Sia if she was okay.
Sia asked me the very same thing.
Having said the same words to each other at the same time, we soon smiled happily.
"You were worried I might have trauma too, weren't you, oppa?"
I nodded.
Perhaps touched by that one small remark, Sia kissed my cheek out of the blue.
"I'm really fine, so you don't need to worry at all. More importantly... are you okay, oppa? After what happened back then......."
"Yeah. I'm okay too. I was worried, but I didn't think I'd be this fine."
To be honest, before entering the Gate, I had been a little nervous.
But right after we entered the Gate, I was strangely calm.
Curiously enough, far from anything like trauma, I was actually looking forward to it.
"What a relief. Let's finish quickly and go eat mala tteokbokki tonight!"
Hearing only that, you'd think we had come out for a stroll around the neighborhood instead of into a Gate.
Well, I had Sia beside me.
And carrying the artifacts Sia had given me, I felt no tension at all; it was practically a date.
We walked slowly through the Gate, waiting for monsters to come at us.
And after a while.
A few lizardmen appeared at ten o'clock.
Letting out their peculiar cries, the lizardmen were eyeing us warily.
"Oppa, over there."
"I see them too!"
"I'll watch from here. You can handle that many on your own, right, oppa?"
"Of course. I'll be right back."
Sia wished me luck, saying that although it wouldn't come to that, she would step in if things looked dangerous.
Well, it didn't look like Sia would be needed.
The difference in rank was way too lopsided.
Unlike the two of us, who were relaxed, the wary lizardmen seemed to sense danger and switched to a combat stance.
"Kieeeek!"
Once the brutes had come close enough.
Feeling a pleasant resonance from the sword, I swung it at the lizardmen without hesitation.
SHRRRK—!
Before it could even react, one lizardman's head was cleanly cut off.
I had thought my combat instincts would be badly dulled after the long hiatus, but maybe thanks to the rank reassessment that morning, I had no trouble at all swinging my sword.
No, maybe it was the gear, but my skills even seemed better than before.
Not only did my sword motions themselves feel better, but I could also see the lizardmen's movements far better.
Their stride, the arcs of the crude weapons they swung, all of it.
Like a fish in water, I kept swinging my sword.
The old me couldn't have ended their lives in a single blow, but now I had the overpowered weapon Sia gave me in my hand.
The lizardmen fell to a single strike each, unable to put up any resistance.
"Phew."
I had expected it to be fairly easy with such good gear, but I hadn't expected this much.
I turned my head toward Sia.
Killing mere lizardmen with a weapon this incredible was hardly anything impressive, though.
Sia was staring at me, wide-eyed with surprise.
"Oppa, that was...... totally amazing."
"Nah, it was nothing."
Killing a few D-rank monsters like these would be nothing to a dragon like Sia.
So I thought she had said it just to boost my morale, but.
"I'm not just saying that, oppa. I mean it."
Judging by her tone, Sia meant it, truly and genuinely.
She was marveling at the performance I had just put on.
'What? Is she serious?'
***
The sword Sia had handed Min-jun was no ordinary sword but a Dragon Bone Sword, made from a dragon's bones.
The weapon itself was so outstanding that she had naturally expected Min-jun to fight well.
But what surprised Sia was something else.
'He drew out the sword's power.'
He probably hadn't meant to, but Min-jun had definitely awakened the power dwelling in the sword and made use of it.
The power he awakened was still faint, but the very fact that he had awakened it was enormously significant.
And with good reason: those who had drawn out a Dragon Bone Sword's potential had, without exception, been no ordinary beings.
'Dragon Bone Swords... sift out their master's potential.'
Before Sia came here, to the modern world.
In her world, the Dragon Bone Sword was known among swordsmen as 'the sword that seeks its master.'
One who rose from an ordinary soldier to a Sword Master with a single sword.
One who was king of a weak nation, yet unified the continent with nothing but a blade.
Besides them, there were many great figures whose names alone anyone would know.
'What if my oppa ends up like that too?'
Picturing Min-jun leaving his mark on a page of Hunter history, Sia smiled softly.
But there was one thing she didn't know.
That in her world, the one who had once made the best use of the power latent in the Dragon Bone Sword...... was a being whose very name had long ago been taboo in dragon society.
***
While gathering the loot, Sia told Min-jun the secret of the sword.
That Min-jun had drawn out the power latent in that sword, however faintly.
And even what feats those who had drawn out that power in the past had achieved.
For Min-jun, it was a truly astonishing story.
"So what you're saying is, what you gave me isn't just a sword but something far more special...... and I drew out the power latent in it?"
"That's right, oppa."
But even after hearing the story, Min-jun still looked dazed.
"I had that kind of talent...?"
Min-jun's muttering carried one natural question.
'If I had that kind of talent, why am I stuck at this level?'
It hadn't shown up during the rank measurement, and to begin with, why had he been born with such a strange talent in a world without dragons?
Having talent was definitely a good thing, but Min-jun also felt a little bewildered.
"At this rate, isn't my oppa going to become a ranker in less than a year?"
Sia said it teasingly.
But unlike her tone, she actually took this possibility quite seriously.
Even before this, as long as she backed Min-jun all the way, it was entirely possible for Min-jun to become a ranker.
In fact, she had plans to do just that.
But what if Min-jun had this much potential on his own?
Min-jun might be able to accomplish such a feat even without her help.
Of course, it would never be easy.
"If you say that much, Sia... then I'll have to try."
"How dependable my oppa is."
He was dependable, but that very look was so cute and lovable that Sia ruffled Min-jun's hair.
"Sia, you're messing up my hair."
"This way you've got a whole different kind of charm."
As if embarrassed, Min-jun covered his face with one hand and pushed her hand away with the other.
But Sia only enjoyed his reaction all the more, smiling like a doting mother.
"Then, let's go!"
Now it was time to move on and hunt the other lizardmen.
And so Sia and Min-jun slowly wandered the Gate, feeling as though they were on a date.
Then, after some time had passed.
The two of them spotted a band of lizardmen moving somewhere.
Watching the brutes, Min-jun prepared an ambush.
'If the sword has that kind of power... let's use these guys to get used to it fast.'
He hadn't known it when he first swung the sword.
But now that he knew he could make use of the sword's potential, he couldn't just swing it mindlessly.
'Don't think about anything else; just try to draw out that potential.'
Of course, simply making up his mind wouldn't let him draw out more of the power in the sword right away.
He still hadn't figured out what sense he was using to draw out the power, or even what kind of power it was.
But.
'With stuff like this, visualization is what matters.'
He had found a possibility, so he had to develop it by any means necessary.
Fiddling with the sword's hilt, Min-jun leapt at the band the moment the timing was right.
"Kieek!?"
While the brutes were thrown into confusion by the sudden ambush, Min-jun quickly swung his sword at the one in front.
His body felt light, and he could see the lizardman's movements very clearly.
But he couldn't feel the power Sia had spoken of.
'I don't get it.'
Again.
This time too, Min-jun's sword pierced the lizardman's chest precisely.
'What on earth was Sia talking about?'
Min-jun still couldn't tell what energy in the sword he had drawn out, or how.
Even as he swung the sword in all sorts of ways.
Even as the lizardmen fell helplessly before that sword.
But.
In Sia's eyes, Min-jun was definitely drawing out the potential held in the sword.
In a way slightly different from other Dragon Bone Sword wielders.