Chapter 40 - Oppa, I Heard All of That

'How long was I asleep?'

I let out a huge yawn and checked the time on the phone by my pillow. It was already past eleven. Since I'd gone to bed around ten last night, I'd slept for a full thirteen hours. And yet I was still tired. The aftereffects of pushing myself to use dragon speech seemed worse than I'd thought.

After checking the time, I looked through my phone. As expected, I'd missed a lot of calls and messages. I supposed that was only natural after being unconscious for three days. Yesterday, I hadn't had the energy to contact anyone, and my phone was dead, so I couldn't have taken their calls anyway.

Normally, I'd start my day with a sweet call to Sia... But if I wanted to relax and give her my full attention, I should take care of everything else first. So I called Taeseong, who had led the raid on the Garden of the Dragon Sword. The call connected almost as soon as I hit the button.

["Minjun! Why haven't you been answering your phone?"]

We'd only met that day, but I'd acted strangely before disappearing without a word. Of course he'd been worried. He sounded angry, but I could hear the relief beneath it.

I apologized and explained why I hadn't been in touch, mixing truth with lies since I couldn't tell him about Rokan. I said I'd decided treatment from a healer I knew would be more effective than going to a hospital, and that I'd been unconscious and unable to contact anyone since. By the time I finished, Taeseong seemed to accept it.

["I see... Are you feeling any better now?"]

"Yes. I think I'll be fine after a few more days of rest."

["That's a relief."]

It wasn't my fault things had turned out this way, but I still felt bad.

Come to think of it, how were the others? I'd been so out of it right after leaving the gate that I hadn't checked on them properly.

"Are you and the others all right?"

["We're... well."]

Taeseong said that, apart from exhaustion due to accumulated fatigue and a few minor injuries, most of the team were fine. Considering the scale of what had happened inside the gate, the damage was light. I breathed an inward sigh of relief.

That was enough catching up. I had a few questions for Taeseong, so I got to the point.

"By the way, Taeseong, what happened while I was gone?"

["It was hell."]

He swallowed, apparently shaken just remembering it, then explained. After the sudden accident separated me from the rest of the raid team, ghost-type monsters had begun pouring in from the other side. They looked like the Sword Wraiths we'd seen outside the tomb, but they gave off the same gloomy light as the other monsters inside it, and there were a great many of them. Both in fighting strength and in how badly matched they were against the monsters, the raid team was at an overwhelming disadvantage. Everyone, Taeseong included, had felt it was only a matter of time before they were wiped out.

["But just as we were bracing ourselves to hold out, the exit suddenly opened. I didn't know what had happened, but did the reason matter? What mattered was that we could get out alive."]

After that, they'd escaped the gate almost as if by magic. As soon as they got out, they ran into me, who'd emerged ahead of them. That was everything that had happened to them there.

As I listened, something struck me.

"So you never found out what the clear conditions were?"

["No. It's still a mystery. Clearing a dungeon gate without knowing its clear conditions isn't exactly normal, is it?"]

"No, it isn't."

The situation made no sense, but part of me was relieved. It seemed no one else had learned about dragon speech.

But then—

["Do you happen to know what the clear conditions were, Minjun?"]

"Sorry?"

As if he'd read my mind, Taeseong went straight for the heart of it.

["I wondered if they might have had something to do with you."]

... Well, I'd been at the center of most of the strange things that happened. Anyone would have suspected me. If we'd been talking face-to-face instead of over the phone, my expression might have given me away.

"I... don't know either. I thought everyone else knew the clear conditions and I was the only one who didn't."

Even if I knew, this was one of those times I had to say I didn't. Nothing good would come of other people learning about dragon speech. I didn't know about Sia, but Rokan probably wouldn't want the world to know it existed.

["Then could you tell me what happened to you during that hour?"]

Wait. An hour?

Even the lowest estimate of how long I'd been trapped there was more than half a day. And that was being as conservative as I could. It wouldn't have surprised me if much more time had passed. There was no way all of that had happened in just one hour.

'That's impossible.'

I'd have to talk to Rokan about this later.

["... Minjun?"]

I'd gotten lost in thought and forgotten to answer.

"Oh, sorry."

For the same reason as before, I needed to lie to Taeseong again... What could I say that he'd believe? After a frantic moment of thought, I finally spoke.

"The truth is... when I came to, I was already outside the gate. Something must have happened, but I can't remember it clearly. I don't know what happened, but by the time I got out, I was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion."

Even as I said it, I honestly didn't think he'd buy it. I wouldn't have, in his place. My memory had just cut out? I sounded like a criminal trying to deny everything.

["Well, I suppose that's possible."]

Surprisingly, Taeseong accepted it without complaint. Maybe he'd decided to let it go for now, whether I'd genuinely lost my memory or was hiding something. Or perhaps so many things beyond common sense had happened in that gate that he thought this could happen too. Either way, I let out a silent sigh of relief.

["Anyway, I'll be in touch again soon. If anything comes back to you before then, please contact us."]

"Will do."

With the urgent business taken care of, it was time to call Sia. I used the phone Rokan had set aside. There was only one reason I called her on the phone he'd given me instead of my own: it was connected to the screen. Moments after it started ringing, Sia's face appeared on the monitor.

["Good morning, Oppa! How are you today? Feeling any better?"]

Maybe because I'd called late, Sia wasn't in her usual pajamas. Today she wore a hoodie and sweatpants. Come to think of it, that hoodie looked like one I'd given her. She seemed to find it more comfortable and useful than I'd expected.

"Yeah, thanks to you. I think I'll be all right after a little more rest."

["Get better soon, Oppa. Aww, I miss you already. I'm going to wear myself out waiting."]

Upset to see me laid up in bed, Sia pouted adorably.

After all, we'd normally been able to meet in person, even if it was only once a week. But Rokan had forbidden us from seeing each other this week, just to be safe. Of course we missed each other even more.

"What were you doing, Sia?"

She didn't look dressed to go out.

["Oh, I was making something."]

"What?"

Sia put a finger to her lips and gave me an adorable wink. I had a feeling she was making a gift for me. Knowing her, she wouldn't have called it a secret otherwise. So I decided not to ask any more.

["I was making abalone porridge for you, Oppa!"]

She disappeared from the screen for a moment, then came back holding a sealed container of porridge.

["I'll send it over now!"]

"Thanks. I'll enjoy it."

No sooner had I said that than the container she'd been holding appeared right in front of me. Magic really was convenient. It could send something from faraway Jeju Island to Rokan's lair here in Taebaek in less than a second.

I set a folding bed table on the mattress and started eating the porridge Sia had made. She said she was about to have lunch herself and brought over her food. Sure enough, lunch for Sia was tteokbokki.

We watched each other through the monitor and chatted as we ate, starting with everyday things before moving on to the story I'd already told Rokan—what had happened inside the Garden of the Dragon Sword. As I told her about it, a question occurred to me.

"Something just occurred to me, Sia. Was there ever an emperor in your world named Minos?"

["Hmm, I don't know. Give me a second."]

She tilted her head at my question.

["I don't know much about the continent's history from three thousand years ago, but if we're talking about roughly the last three thousand years, there were a few by that name. I doubt any of them is the person you mean, though."]

After searching her memory, Sia's answer was effectively no. Perhaps Minos had lived in a different dimension from hers, or in the distant past. I'd hoped she might have a clue to the secret behind that gate, so it was disappointing.

"Then were there any emperors who used dragon speech?"

["A few. Why? Curious?"]

"Yeah. I thought hearing about them might help."

As with Minos, their stories might someday help me learn to wield dragon power. Sia told me about the lives of emperors who had wielded it. Though they were different people, there was a strange similarity to the course their lives had taken. After awakening to a new power, they'd grown incomparably stronger and gone down in the continent's history as its greatest warriors. Just like Minos.

"Did any of them want to go beyond wielding dragon power... and actually become a dragon?"

["Hmm? I don't think so. If there had been someone like that..."]

Sia trailed off and glanced at me. She looked like she was hiding something.

["No, it's nothing."]

"What do you think would've happened if there had been?"

At my follow-up question, she looked away, thought hard, and finally answered.

["Nothing, really. I just don't think they'd have lived out their natural lives. You're different, Oppa. You were born with a talent other people don't have, and you have Grandpa and me to help you. They wouldn't have had any of that, would they? They'd have gone about it without understanding what they were doing, taken a wrong turn, and ended up damaging their health."]

It sounded much like what had happened to Minos with his mana backlash. Put another way, if he'd trained with help from other dragons... at the very least, the mana backlash might not have wrecked his body. Unlike those others, I was safe in that respect.

But I didn't think Sia would have hesitated so much just to tell me that... Something about it still bothered me, but I went on with our conversation. We talked about my training plans, other things concerning the gate, and our next date.

Of course, I deliberately left out the part that would upset Sia: her broken Dragon Bone Sword. I could think about that once I'd heard back from Rokan, one way or the other.

As we were finishing our meals, still chatting away, my mother called.

"Sia, hold on a moment. I need to take a call from my mother."

["Okay."]

I excused myself and answered.

"Hello?"

["Oh, Minjun. How have you been?"]

"Good."

["Sia came by the house a few days ago. Next time, come visit with her."]

Had she just wanted to hear her son's voice after a while? From the way she spoke, she didn't seem to have heard about what had happened in the dungeon. Knowing would only worry her, and I hadn't been in any danger of dying—I'd just lost consciousness. Sia must have decided there was no need to tell my parents.

We chatted about Sia's visit and a few everyday things before Mom brought up another subject.

["By the way, Minjun, do you remember Yuna from when you were little? The girl who did child modeling with you. Go Yuna."]

"Yes. I... remember her."

Why was she suddenly bringing Yuna up? Since getting contact information from her, I hadn't contacted her once. Neither of us even had the other's number, so how would I?

["Yuna's mother called me for the first time in years. She said Yuna's working in Korea now, so she'd come for a short visit to see her. It was lovely hearing her voice again."]

As I listened, I got a bad feeling. I tried to carry on as naturally as I could, pretending nothing was wrong.

"Oh, really? I thought she'd settled down in the States for good."

["The rest of Yuna's family is still there, but Yuna came back to Korea on her own to run a business. Her mother said you two met recently?""]

"Yes."

["Since you're both here, Yuna's mother suggested the four of us—her, Yuna, you, and me—have a meal together. What do you think?"]

"Well..."

Before I could say no, Mom continued.

["Yuna's mother really wants to see you. Do you remember how fond she was of you when you were little? Now that we're talking about it, I'm curious to see how Yuna's grown up too. So when are you free, Minjun?"]

Ordinarily, I'd want to turn it down because of Yuna and Sia, but now I was in a bind. If I went along with Mom, Sia was bound to get jealous. If I refused, I'd feel bad for letting Mom down. I remembered Yuna's mother doting on me when I was little, too, so I'd feel just as bad about disappointing her. Should I say I needed time to think about it?

Wait. Had I muted the phone I was using to talk to Sia?

'... I hadn't?'

I'd meant to mute it so my other call wouldn't disturb her, but I wasn't used to taking a call on one phone while talking on another, and it had slipped my mind.

'Still, she couldn't have heard what Mom said.'

I hadn't put Mom on speaker. There was no way Sia could have heard that too.

Or so I thought. Then I looked at the screen and saw Sia staring at me with a grave expression. I mouthed, "Did you hear that?" She nodded without changing her expression.

Oh.

Father. If you're watching me, tell me the answer.