Chapter 58 - Oppa, What Do You Think of This Place?

"Are you saying you're going to start a guild yourself, Rokan?" Rokan's bombshell snapped me wide awake. I'd wondered whether I should join a guild, but Rokan starting one himself? That possibility had never occurred to me.

I didn't know much about this sort of thing, but starting and running a guild had to come with a mountain of responsibilities. If I were in Rokan's position, I doubted I'd go out of my way to start one. But as if he'd expected my reaction, Rokan explained why he'd decided to do it.

"For one thing, I've thought before that it might be interesting to run a guild myself. I enjoyed all sorts of diversions before coming to this world, but I've never lived as the head of an organization."

Dragons naturally enjoyed trying different experiences for amusement, he said. What made a human think, Why bother? might strike a dragon as an entertaining pastime. When I still didn't understand, Rokan added, "Don't you humans have management simulation games?" Put that way, I could see how he might think of it like that. His simulation game would just be on a slightly larger scale.

"I'd vaguely thought I'd try it someday, but what you told me made me decide to actually do it." Seeing me wrestle with whether to join a guild had reminded him of the idea.

"For you, the most efficient approach is to train according to the plans Shasha and I make. But as I told you before, that doesn't mean you can neglect real combat."

It would be more effective to hone my dragon power through real combat alongside training than to do nothing but train. Yet the stronger I got, the harder it would be to find gates I could raid without a guild. I was stuck either way.

"That's why I thought I might as well start a guild. Then you wouldn't have to worry about that problem anymore, would you?" He was right. If I joined a guild Rokan had founded, he could make accommodations for me, giving me the flexibility to take part in gate raids. If the circumstances allowed, I might even be able to tackle A-rank gates instead of B-rank ones with his support and learn more from them.

"You're right. Thank you. Really... thank you so much." "Didn't I tell you? I wanted to try running a guild even before I met you. I'm doing this for myself too, so there's no need to thank me." Rokan gave me a warm smile as though it were nothing.

Then a thought struck me. "Rokan, about your plan to start a guild. Have you told Sia?" "No, not yet." "Then..."

I remembered my last phone call with Sia. She'd wanted to tell me herself that she'd helped remodel the dungeon—and that the work was finished. She'd looked unmistakably disappointed when I said Rokan had already told me.

"No, I haven't told Shasha yet." "Then could you ask Sia to break the news to me? I'll pretend I haven't heard." "You have a romantic streak, don't you?" Rokan couldn't have known about what had happened between Sia and me last time, but he seemed to grasp what I was after and nodded. "I will. You must be tired, so go get some rest."

Rokan took me home, and I sprawled on the floor without even the energy to wash up. I could have sworn we'd set out around lunchtime, but the clock said it was well past nine at night. I was hungry, yet too exhausted even to eat. Today's training really had been the hardest yet. It would probably be like this every time from now on. I wanted to fall asleep right there, but I needed to wash off the sweat, so I took a quick shower and lay down in bed.

Before I fell asleep, a thought came to me: the place where I'd sparred today would be perfect for our next date. If Sia had designed it herself, it had to mean a lot to her. Besides, I wanted to hear more about her life. We'd talked about plenty since our reunion, but I realized I hadn't heard much detail about the years she'd lived as the dragon Shasha. I'd call her before bed and ask if we could change our plans for this week. It wasn't even ten yet, so she probably wasn't asleep.

Sia picked up as soon as I called. "Oppa! You trained with Grandpa today, right? How was it?" Apparently she'd already heard from Rokan; training was the first thing she asked about. "Now I know what hell is like." I complained with deliberate exaggeration, then told her what had happened during the session.

"Though the scenery was far too beautiful to call it hell. Where would you find a hell that pretty? It was a shame to spend all my time training in a place like that, with hardly a chance to relax." "Hmm, I see. Did Grandpa tell you what place he modeled it after?" "No, he didn't. Where was it?" Rokan had told me the moment we entered the training ground, but I wanted to hear Sia explain it excitedly, so I decided to lie. I'd have to ask Rokan to back up my story after the call.

"Oh, he didn't tell you? Want to guess, Oppa?" Since I'd said I didn't know, Sia turned it into a quiz, apparently hoping I'd guess. "Hmm, let's see. I think there's a mountain like it in China. Was it inspired by that? Or was it somewhere you used to live?" "That's right! How did you know?" Sia clapped in surprise, and I lied without batting an eye. "I know you that well."

"Of course you do. They say people in love understand each other, don't they? That must be how you knew. What did you think of it, Oppa? Tell me more." Eager to hear my impressions of the scenery, Sia pressed me for details, and I told her exactly how I'd felt. "... So I thought I'd like to go there with you sometime. It seemed a shame to train somewhere so beautiful when we could go on a date instead." "Why didn't I think of that? Oppa, should we have our date there this week?" I'd meant to suggest it myself, but Sia liked the idea enough to bring it up first.

"What about the date we already planned for this week?" "We can go there later. If you're okay with it, we can put it off. Or we can keep this week's plans and have a picnic there next week." Either way was fine with her; she'd leave the choice to me. Our original plans weren't bad, but when an idea felt right, why not go with it? "Let's do it this week, then. We can go to the other place another time."

"Mm-hmm! I'll make kimbap and sandwiches so it feels like a proper picnic." "Then I'll bring a picnic mat and some fruit." "Oh, right, Oppa! Bring tteokbokki too!" "You got it." Hearing how excited she was, I was glad I'd brought it up. I was already looking forward to our date.

* * *

At last, the day of our long-awaited date arrived. I entered the training ground at the time we'd agreed on. It was a faithful recreation of Sia's home, with scenery far too beautiful for a training ground. The fact that it was an artificial space connected to the imperial tomb gave me a slight chill, but even seeing it again, I couldn't deny how beautiful it was. Beautiful enough to make me forget entirely what the place used to be.

I found myself wanting to visit the world where Sia had been born and raised as a dragon someday, if that was possible. Not right now, though—only after I'd learned to control my dragon power completely. From the perspective of Sia's parents in this life, it would be a bit much if their precious daughter returned from another dimension with a mere human and announced she intended to marry him... I should wait until I'd become dragonlike enough to earn the other dragons' approval before bringing it up with Sia. Besides, I wasn't even sure I could travel to that world in the first place. Even if Sia knew dimensional travel magic, traveling between dimensions alone and taking someone along could be two very different things.

In any case, after taking my time looking around, I spread the picnic mat in a spot with a good view before Sia arrived. I was arranging the tteokbokki I'd brought in a pretty dish when I heard her call, "Oppa! I'm here!" Sia had arrived.

A beige sweater and ivory pants. Simple clothes, but Sia made them look stunning. As always, she ran straight into my arms the moment she saw me. I hugged her tight and patted her gently on the back.

"I missed you." "I missed you too. I don't know why one week felt so long." "Right? And this week was so hectic that I think I missed you even more." She was right. So much had happened since we'd reunited that neither of us had had a moment to catch our breath. "And you must've been busy helping your grandfather remodel this place." "Yeah. I checked everything at the end, too, to make sure nothing was wrong. Once I'd finished checking and took a proper look around, I realized it really is beautiful."

"It is. I know I said this before, but it's gorgeous. It makes me happy to think you grew up looking at scenery like this in that other world." How many places on Earth could boast a view like this? "You know, I felt just like you when I first saw it. The first time I stepped outside the lair, I never expected the view from the front yard to be this beautiful. My jaw dropped." Her eyes took on a wistful look as she recalled that distant memory.

"Do you know what I thought when I first saw that view?" "What?" "That I wanted to show it to you, too." Sia gazed at the scenery, her expression calm. This wasn't really the front yard of her lair, but standing with me in a place that looked exactly like it seemed to have brought back a lot of thoughts. With an arm around my shoulders, she watched the view a while longer. Then she took a picnic basket out of her pocket dimension. "I guess that wish has half come true. I never imagined I'd get to have a picnic with you and look at scenery like this together."

Sia took out the food she'd made, one item at a time. But then she pulled some tangerines from the basket, even though I'd said I'd bring the fruit. "Tangerines?" "Yeah. My lair's on Jeju Island, remember? And Jeju is famous for tangerines, so I bought some. You can take home whatever we don't eat." She hadn't lived on Jeju long, but she'd already become a true local.

I took out the things I'd prepared from my own pocket dimension: fruit, drinks for us to share, and the tteokbokki Sia had asked for. Once everything was laid out, it really felt like a picnic.

"It's been ages since we went on a picnic together, hasn't it?" "When was the last time? That picnic by the Han River? I loved that day." Reminiscing, we settled in together and began eating the food we'd brought, with no idea what lay ahead for us.