Chapter 61 - Oppa... Are You Okay?

Her rampage finally stopped. Until then, she had been unable to control herself, unleashing a tsunami of spells. She had thought it would continue until it ran its course, so when it stopped in an instant, her eyes widened in surprise.

'How...?' How had Minjun stopped her rampage with dragon speech he could barely use?

But now was not the time to think about that. 'What happened to Oppa?'

Sia looked around for Minjun, but thick mist from the spells she had unleashed blocked her view. The aftermath of her rampage had left her unable to cast even a simple spell.

She had no choice. Until the mist cleared, she would have to search for him and call his name as loudly as she could. "Op... pa..." But her voice, drained of strength, barely carried.

'I have to... say something.' Before she could hear Minjun's voice, Sia lost consciousness where she stood.

Soon after she passed out, the mist slowly cleared, and Minjun saw her lying on the ground. "Cough... S-Sia!"

He desperately wanted to run to her and check if she was all right. But just before losing control, Sia had told him not to worry about her: he should get out first and tell Rokan what was happening to her. Leaving her there alone and unconscious troubled him deeply, but she must have had a reason for insisting.

Swallowing his tears, Minjun ran toward the portal as fast as he could, despite his limp. Pain shot through him with every step, and he coughed up blood along the way, but he kept running with everything he had.

Once he finally escaped the dungeon, he contacted Rokan at once. The moment the call connected, Minjun shouted before he could even hear Rokan's voice. "Sia's lost con—" ["I'm coming! Right now!"] Thankfully, the instant Rokan heard that Sia had lost control, he teleported straight to Minjun.

"Shasha! Where's Shasha?" It was the first time Minjun had seen the usually gentle, composed Rokan in such a state, crying out so urgently. "Training ground..." Barely able to get the words out, Minjun pointed toward the dungeon entrance. Realizing that Minjun was in serious condition too, Rokan hurriedly took an elixir from his pocket dimension and poured it into Minjun's mouth. That should at least serve as emergency treatment.

As a precaution, Rokan left several bottles of elixir and the spirit Undine beside Minjun. "Hold on just a little longer, Minjun. I'm so sorry." Even after taking those measures, he kept apologizing for leaving an injured man behind, right up until he entered the dungeon.

Minjun's condition worried him, but it was his granddaughter Sia's condition that had shaken him so badly. 'Please hold on, Shasha.' Ever since hearing that she had lost control, Rokan had struggled to keep his composure.

He had watched over her since her first episode, so he knew that losing control did not, in itself, put her life in danger. If anyone's life was threatened, it was the lives of those near her. Not Sia's.

But while her life was safe, he also knew that once an episode began, she suffered pain so terrible she would wish she were dead. His heart aching, Rokan rushed toward her. Watching his precious granddaughter writhe and scream in agony was unbearable.

'My dear Shasha.' It had happened in a sealed space without a single dragon to help her, with only Minjun beside her. How frightened and anxious she must have been. He had to reach her quickly and ease her pain, even a little.

"Shasha!" Rokan began searching for her at once. When Minjun had told him what happened, he had naturally expected to find her unable to control her spells, writhing in pain. Instead, only the eerie rustle of leaves broke the deathly silence inside the dungeon.

A chill ran down Rokan's spine. The silence was even more ominous. Her rampage could not have stopped for no reason; once it began, it lasted all day. If nothing was happening now... perhaps something was terribly wrong with Sia. Perhaps her life was in danger.

"No. No..." Rokan took a deep breath and shook his head. If that were true, he would have sensed it.

He quickly cast a detection spell and found his granddaughter lying on the far side of the dungeon. Faintly, but unmistakably, her body moved. "Grand... pa..." Her voice was too soft for an ordinary human to hear, but Rokan heard it. "Shasha!" He ran to her, not even noticing a shoe slip off his foot, and swept her into his arms.

Helping her recover came first. Rokan used dragon speech to restore her strength, then took pain-relieving potions from his pocket dimension and gave them to her. They seemed to help at least a little: Sia coughed, looking stronger than before. "Cough, cough."

"Shasha, are you all right? Can you move?" "No..." Her voice was still exhausted, but at least her condition was within the normal range. These were the sort of aftereffects that usually followed one of her episodes.

There was much Rokan did not understand and much he wanted to ask, but it could wait. Her recovery came first. He carried Sia on his back and hurried out of the dungeon.

Just outside the entrance, he found Minjun breathing hard. Minjun immediately searched for Sia and spotted her on Rokan's back. At first, she was so still that he feared she might be dead. Then he saw her move ever so slightly and let out a breath of relief.

Rokan looked back and forth between the breathless Minjun and Sia on his back. Taking them both to his lair for treatment would be best, but Sia's energy was incompatible with Minjun's. Minjun seemed to read the worry on his face. He smiled and said, "I'll be fine. Please take care of Sia first."

Her episodes occurred only once every few decades, so her condition was probably much worse than his. Minjun waved away Rokan's concern, saying he could manage with the elixir and wait a little longer. At that, Sia struggled to turn her head toward him.

"Oppa..." Guilt, remorse, gratitude, and hurt all showed in her eyes as she called to him, tears welling up. To her, Minjun looked as though he desperately needed help too. And it was her loss of control that had injured him.

"Don't worry. Thanks to the elixir, I'm not as bad as I look. Go get treated first." "But..." "Shasha, don't worry," Rokan said. "I've left Undine with Minjun, and he's past the worst of it. He'll be fine. I'll send him home first." After teleporting Minjun to his apartment, Rokan took Sia back to his lair.

Then he laid her down and examined her carefully. 'Strange.' She was in surprisingly good condition for someone who had just lost control. Normally, by this point, she would barely have been able to breathe. She was far from well, of course, but considering how recently the episode had ended, she looked better than she ever had afterward.

But that was not the only thing Rokan found strange. 'How did Minjun forcibly stop Shasha's rampage?' He had witnessed countless episodes, but nothing like this had ever happened. Whenever Sia lost control, all the other dragons could do was keep the spells she fired indiscriminately from leaving her lair.

Since she was a hatchling, how many dragons—including Rokan himself—had tried to bring her rampages completely under control? They had tried dragon speech, advanced magic, even artifacts made specifically to stop her. Nothing had worked.

And yet Minjun had somehow... stopped an episode that normally lasted almost twenty-four hours in less than one. "This only raises more questions." How had a human accomplished what dragons could not? Rokan suspected it had something to do with a secret of Minjun's that even Minjun himself did not know.

"What... does?" "Nothing. Don't strain yourself. Get some sleep." Rokan eased Sia back down as she tried to sit up and pulled the blanket over her. But she was too uneasy to sleep. "Oppa... will he be okay?" "Don't worry. I'm checking on him through Undine. Thankfully, he's doing well." His assurance did not seem to comfort her; worry still filled her face.

'Of course she's worried.' Rokan understood how she felt. "Once you're asleep, I plan to go and see Minjun." "He really is going to be okay, right?" "You saw him earlier. He's hurt, but with rest and proper care, he should recover within a few days. If you like, I can video-call him for you."

He thought seeing Minjun awake would reassure her, but she shook her head. Rokan had expected her to insist on seeing him, so her reaction surprised him. "If I see Oppa... I think I'll cry." It was guilt.

A few hours earlier, as she lost control, her mind had grown increasingly hazy. But the sight of her uncontrolled spell striking Minjun had left her deeply traumatized. She remembered his cry of pain and the desperate look in his eyes as he tried to save her, seemingly heedless of the danger to his own life. If only she could forget that anguished look and his cries. But dragons were not blessed with forgetfulness. Whether she wanted to or not, the scene would return to her again and again, vividly.

Tears welled in Sia's eyes. "... I understand." Rokan held her hand for a long while as he watched over her. Once she fell asleep, he quietly went to Minjun's home.

After Rokan left, lingering pain woke Sia. She sat up to drink the pain-relieving potion beside her bed. Ordinarily, she would have looked at the photos of Minjun on her phone before falling back asleep. Now, the more she thought of him, the heavier her heart felt. "How am I supposed to face Oppa next time I see him?"

She was so sorry. And so grateful. She knew she needed to sleep again, but memories of Minjun as he had looked throughout the day kept her awake despite her exhaustion. Perhaps tonight she would have a terrible nightmare.