Chapter 23 - A Talent Beyond Exceptional—and Dangerous

Time passed, but Rokan showed no sign of coming back. Whether he really did just need a brief rest or had some other reason I knew nothing about, I couldn't tell.

I asked Sia if she had any idea. She tilted her head, just as baffled as I was. ["No, I'm not sure. He didn't look particularly tired to me."] In the end, all we could do was wait.

As the awkward silence dragged on, I asked Sia, hoping to lighten the mood. "Sia, that sword energy... Do you know what it looks like?"

Aurora-colored sword energy had never once been reported since gates opened and awakened people first appeared. I didn't know what it was, but I thought Sia might have seen it during her many years in another world. Instead, she watched the footage again, thinking in silence, then shook her head. ["Hmm... I don't know either. I was curious myself and was going to ask Grandpa, but he happened to step out."]

Even Sia didn't know what it was. "This is getting more and more mysterious." ["Tell me about it. The mana pattern the wearable camera recorded is strange, too. I've seen just about every kind of pattern, but... I've never seen anything like this."]

Sia said analyzing a mana pattern usually gave her a rough idea of what sort of power it was. But this pattern was entirely new to her, so even that seemed difficult. She looked every bit as frustrated as I felt about not knowing what the sword energy was.

["Grandpa will know, though, right?"] "Probably." While we waited for Rokan, we replayed the section where the aurora-colored sword energy first appeared over and over. But he didn't return until more than twenty minutes after he'd left.

"I'm sorry I stepped out so suddenly." ["It's okay. Grandpa, are you feeling better now?"] "My head throbbed for a moment, that's all. I'm fine."

He said he was fine, but he didn't look it to me. His brow was still slightly furrowed, as though his head continued to ache. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the calm air about him that I'd noticed every time we met seemed to have vanished. That bothered me, too. He looked shaken by something.

"Let's finish our conversation. We were talking about the sword energy... weren't we?" "Yes. I asked Sia, but she said she'd never seen sword energy like that either." ["Grandpa, what exactly is that sword energy?"]

At last, I thought we'd have an answer to the mystery. But Rokan replied firmly, "Right now... I can't tell you." Not "I don't know," but "I can't tell you"? Sia and I turned toward him almost at the same time.

"I've told you before that you have exceptional talent, haven't I?" Rokan had often added that whenever he gave me advice, and not just to make me feel good. But what he said next stunned me. "I was wrong. Your talent isn't merely exceptional. It's dangerous enough to consume you." ["...!"]

Sia gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. I was just as shocked. I stared at the frozen image on the screen before me. That breathtakingly beautiful aurora-colored sword energy—the power that had saved me when I was about to die... was that dangerous?

"So, Minjun, stay out of gates for the next few days, until I tell you otherwise." ["I-is it that dangerous, Grandpa?"] Sia asked, trembling. "I just told you. If things go wrong, that power could consume Minjun." ["Th-then my Oppa..."] Her face drained of color, as though she was imagining the worst. "He's fine for now. This is only a precaution against what might happen."

After reassuring Sia, Rokan continued. "Once he's strong enough to wield a dragon's power fully, at least that power won't consume him. At least." The way he repeated at least left me uneasy. "Until then, you'll have to wear a device that suppresses this power." "A... suppressor?" "Yes. Even if I start making it now, it'll take at least a few days to finish. Until it's done, Minjun, don't even dream of entering a gate." He spoke so firmly that neither Sia nor I dared argue.

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help when you must have so many questions." "Not at all." Ordinarily, he would have said that with a kindly expression. Now he looked grave. "Shasha can tell you about everything else, apart from this sword energy. I'm going to make your suppressor." With that, Rokan left.

After he left, Sia remained silent for a moment, still looking stunned. Then she said, ["Oppa, I've never seen Grandpa act like that before."] "It's okay. I'm sure it's nothing serious." Despite Rokan's repeated reassurances, she still looked anxious. I told her everything would be fine and that, looked at another way, this might even be good news. "If I learn to use it properly, it could be a powerful weapon. Lord Rokan said the chances of it harming me are slim. As long as I'm careful until the suppressor is ready, there won't be a problem." ["... You're right, Oppa."] After I'd coaxed and reassured her, she finally seemed to relax and smiled like herself again.

"Shall we finish watching?" ["Yeah!"] Rokan was gone, but the feedback still needed to continue. We resumed the footage we'd had paused for dozens of minutes. ["First, setting that sword energy aside, Oppa..."] Sia calmly resumed her explanation, as though she hadn't been anxious moments earlier.

["You were outmatched, but charging into the enemy's midst instead of retreating was a good choice. If you'd run, you wouldn't have been able to draw out the dragon's power properly. Dragons don't flee, no matter the situation. Understanding what dragons are like will help you wield their power in the future, too. But if you look here..."] Her tone was gentle, but Sia laid out every point I needed to improve as objectively as she could. The actual fighting hadn't lasted long, yet the feedback went on for quite a while, perhaps because she wanted to explain everything in detail.

Some time later, she announced, ["Done!"] The long feedback session was finally over. "Finally. Thanks for watching all that footage. Your eyes don't hurt, do they?" ["I'm fine! I actually enjoyed it."] She'd watched for so long that I wouldn't have blamed her for being tired, but she seemed disappointed she couldn't give me more feedback. Maybe she genuinely enjoyed teaching me, or maybe she just wanted to spend time with me however she could. Perhaps it was both.

I asked her casually, "Sia, is there anything you want to do right now?" ["Anything I want to do?"] "Yeah. It feels a bit awkward to go home already, and Lord Rokan told me to stay out of gates for a while, so I think I'll have plenty of free time... Come hang out with me." ["Yes! I'd love to!"] She looked ready to jump for joy. From her reaction, I suspected she'd been hoping I'd suggest it all along.

["I'm happy doing anything with you, Oppa. Is there something you want to do?"] "Same here. I'm happy doing anything with you. So this time, instead of what I want to do, tell me what you want to do." ["What I want to do..."] She thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up with an idea. ["How about we finish watching that footage?"] "We've already watched it all. Do you still have more feedback?" I couldn't see why we'd need to watch it together again when the feedback was finished. If we were going to watch something together, a movie would be more fun...

["No, but there are still parts we haven't seen. Not just the parts where you're fighting—I want to see you chatting in the dungeon, taking breaks... Things like that."] As I understood it, Sia wanted a glimpse of my everyday life. More precisely, my everyday life inside a gate. It made sense that she'd be curious about what I did there when she wasn't around and how I got along with other people.

But while I didn't mind showing her those ordinary moments, there was one problem. 'Then... she'll see me kill those villains, too.' Those bastards deserved to die a hundred or a thousand times over, but I still didn't want Sia to watch me kill them. Worse, she'd hear the insults they'd spewed just before they died.

"You want to see... all of it?" ["Yeah! Every bit!"] "There really isn't much to see. You might get bored." ["No way. I won't get bored. It'll be like watching a vlog, won't it?"] I'd tried to dissuade her by saying the footage wouldn't be interesting, but it was no use. Judging by the determined look in her eyes, she intended to watch it no matter what. In the end, I changed tactics: I'd tell her the truth and try to get her to skip just that part.

"Actually, the end of the footage shows me killing a villain. I thought it might be hard for you to watch. What if we skip that part?" Watching someone die couldn't be pleasant, so I thought she'd agree. But she said without a change in expression, ["No. It doesn't matter. Let's watch it together."] "Are you sure? It'll be brutal." Before her reincarnation, Sia had even avoided horror movies because she was afraid they'd give her nightmares. Now, though, she nodded resolutely. ["Maybe that would've bothered me back then... but now? Not really. Besides, they're not human. They're beasts wearing human skin."] If anything, she wanted to see it all the more for that reason, and she kept pressing me. In the end, I gave in and agreed to watch the footage with her as she wanted.

For now, I'd watch with her and try to think of some way to keep her from seeing that scene. ... There had to be a way, right?