Chapter 11
Chapter 11. What Kind of Fate Do Oppa and I Have?
Ever since she was reunited with Minjun after twenty-five hundred agonizing years, each second spent by his side had seemed like a wondrous reverie.
Having endured a separation so vast that no mortal could fathom its true weight, her overwhelming joy was only natural.
She had been convinced that such bliss would stretch endlessly into their future.
After all, what reason was there to doubt it? Two soulmates who had yearned for one another through ages were together at last, with no hurdles left in their path.
Her only expectation had been a tranquil, carefree existence shared between them.
Yet without warning, right during their practice routine, Minjun’s consciousness faded and he hit the floor.
“Oppaaaa! Oppa! Oppa! Minjun oppa! Please open your eyes, Minjun oppa!”
In pure desperation, Sia screamed Minjun’s name while violently jostling his limp frame.
‘Why… why now, when we’ve finally crossed paths again!’
Panicked, she channeled every restorative incantation within her repertoire directly into Minjun.
“I… I have to see if his breath is still flowing.”
Her trembling fingers reached down to locate Minjun’s heartbeat.
Though faint, a pulse was indeed throbbing beneath his skin.
Yet beyond that slight reassurance, there was nothing positive; Minjun gave zero indication of stirring.
Even with her vast senses, diagnosing the source of his sudden collapse or discerning his exact affliction proved impossible.
‘Could it be an underlying sickness? Impossible. Oppa never suffered from ailments like that. Did something else happen to him in secret? No, that makes no sense either. Why did Oppa suddenly fall like this? The curative spells aren’t healing him at all. In fact, it’s far worse—his state is steadily degrading.’
Had she been a mere mortal instead of a mighty dragon, the sheer terror of the moment would have knocked her out cold.
Clinging desperately to her sanity, Sia wracked her brain to identify what was plaguing Minjun, yet not a single viable answer surfaced.
“Before… before things deteriorate any further…”
Action was imperative before tragedy struck, yet panic was systematically tearing away her rational thoughts.
Hands quivering uncontrollably, she started pulling out every single medicinal elixir and healing relic tucked away inside her dimensional subspace.
Yet would any of them actually fix this? Looking at Minjun’s dire condition, she grew terrified that these items might prove entirely useless—or even trigger lethal complications.
Was Dragon Tongue the only viable option left? There was no time to second-guess herself.
“I can’t afford to hesitate anymore.”
Speaking an absolute decree through Dragon Tongue carried far more promise than relying on questionable draughts and relics.
Right as she prepared to chant the authoritative Dragon Tongue command to awaken Minjun, a voice she did not immediately anticipate broke the silence: “Refraining from that would be for the best.”
Sia whipped around toward the direction of the voice. The figure she had reflexively treated as an intruder was, astonishingly, someone deeply familiar.
“W-Why are you…”
Standing there was an existence she never could have anticipated encountering on Earth.
“Why are you standing here, Grandpa—”
Shortly before her one-thousandth year, her grandfather, the former Dragon Lord, had vanished entirely off the face of the realm.
Yet Rokan was right here, physically present before her very eyes.
“Shasha. Does your heart ache for that mortal?”
Sia—or more accurately, the crimson dragon Shasha—nodded her head with fervor.
“In that case, take a step back from him. Leave the remaining matters in my hands.”
Just before everything went black, I honestly believed my life had reached its end. Yet finding myself regaining consciousness meant I was still breathing, even though every ounce of energy had been completely drained from my limbs.
I parted my eyelids and exerted what little strength I had to sit upright.
“What sort of place is this…?”
Having passed out so abruptly, I naturally assumed I would wake up surrounded by sterile clinic walls. That assumption was completely wrong.
This was neither the training field where my legs had given out, nor a medical facility, nor my private residence.
I could not comprehend my surroundings at all. The chamber resembled an immense subterranean cavern whose sheer scale would make most covered sports domes appear petite, yet this clearly was no wild, natural hollow.
Assorted domestic items scattered throughout the expanse made it obvious that a resident occupied this interior.
‘Hold on. Where did Sia go?’
Sia had unquestionably been right beside me up until the second darkness claimed my mind, yet I couldn’t pick up her presence—or that of anyone else—in this cavern.
“Sia! Sia!”
A spike of dread gripping my chest, I screamed her name as intensely as my voice allowed.
What if she had vanished into thin air once more? Losing her again right after our hard-fought reunion was something I couldn’t bear to imagine.
“Minjun was your name, wasn’t it? Excellent, you’ve finally opened your eyes.”
Just then, an unfamiliar voice drifted into my ears.
Despite having sensed no approach whatsoever, a man appearing to be around his fourth decade of life was gazing down at me from above.
Most striking about him was his crimson hair and matching scarlet irises, which mirrored Sia’s own features perfectly.
“Seeing the panic swirling in your gaze, you must be thoroughly disoriented. Naturally so. Anyone placed in your circumstances would feel identical bewilderment.”
“Who… exactly are you?”
No matter how hard I scrutinized him, I drew a total blank. Aside from bearing the exact same hair and eye shades as Sia, he offered no identifiable indicators to reveal his identity.
“I happen to be Sia’s grandfather.”
“…What did you say?”
Her grandfather? To my recollection, both of Sia’s grandfathers had passed away long before she ever reached adulthood.
If he truly claimed to be her grandfather, that would mean…
“Pardon my presumption, sir, but did you undergo reincarnation as well—”
“Whatever gave you that nonsensical notion?”
What was the reality of this, then? He looked far too youthful to pass as her grandfather. Purely on outward appearance, claiming to be her uncle would have sounded far more believable.
And yet, there was a glaring detail I had momentarily failed to consider. Ever since she was reborn into dragonkind, Sia had acquired vibrant scarlet hair and eyes, and this man possessed the very same traits.
Beyond that, the sheer, stifling pressure radiating off his presence could point to only one truth.
“Are you… one of the dragons?”
“It certainly took you long enough to arrive at the obvious conclusion. Indeed. Precisely as your mind deduces, I am a dragon.”
Sia’s grandfather let out a robust chuckle at my tardy comprehension.
“You likely have an abundance of curiosities burning within. Speak, what tops your list of questions?”
A mountain of inquiries weighed on my mind, yet the most urgent priority eclipse everything else was locating Sia.
“Sia. Tell me where Sia is right now.”
“She is currently down below. Do not distress yourself. She will make her way up shortly. My little granddaughter was beside herself with fret over your state.”
“Phew. What a relief.”
I let out an exhale of comfort, yet having not laid eyes on Sia myself, the underlying tension refused to dissipate entirely.
“You still appear quite anxious.”
“There’s no way I wouldn’t be. Sia must have been terrified out of her mind when I collapsed like that…”
“Saying she was terrified is putting it lightly. The girl was gripped by sheer hysteria.”
“Haah. I merely ended up burdening her with needless agony.”
It made complete sense that she was distraught. We were engaged in normal training without a hitch, only for me to drop senseless without any warning.
“In that case, sir, regarding you—”
THUD. THUD.
Before I could voice my next inquiry, violent, thundering reverberations suddenly shook the ground beneath us.
Fearing an imminent cave-in, I frantically searched for an escape path, but Sia’s grandfather merely maintained a tranquil grin.
“Shasha. I can empathize with your urgency, but did I not remind you that your partner still requires recuperation?”
THUD. THUD. THUD.
“You appear even more petulant now than you were two millennia in the past. Shasha, I comprehend your impatience, but grant him a brief reprieve. Did I not instruct you to remain calm for just a short while?”
As though Sia was truly situated right beneath our feet, her grandfather spoke in soothing tones, pacifying his restless kin.
Shasha, is it? She had never brought it up to me in conversation, but I figured Shasha must have been the moniker bestowed upon Sia following her rebirth into dragonkind.
“Just as you witness, my granddaughter frets over you immensely.”
Was he implying those massive tremors rattling the floor were entirely caused by Sia?
While I still lacked a full grasp of the entire circumstance, if her elder declared it to be true, I had no reason to dispute it.
“My original intention was to permit your reunion only after we had exchanged words and your vitality had recovered adequately, but my grandchild seems on the verge of snapping her restraint, leaving me little alternative.”
Her grandfather placed his palm upon my crown and began softly chanting in an incomprehensible tongue.
“There. Finished.”
I couldn’t fathom what sort of sorcery he had woven over me or what altered within my body, but having declared his task complete, he raised his voice toward Sia.
“Shasha. You may ascend now.”
RUMBLE—!
The stone beneath us abruptly fractured, and the figure vaulting out from the fissure was none other than Sia.
“Oppaaaa—!”
The moment she cleared the breach, Sia surged forward with blinding velocity, crashing into me and locking her arms around my torso.
“Honestly… you’re going to squeeze the life out of me. Oppa, are you all right? Have your eyes fully opened? How does your body feel? You collapsed out of nowhere, so I—”
“I’m okay. I’m completely fine. Please take a deep breath.”
Clearly traumatized by the terror of potentially losing me, Sia simply couldn’t rein in her agitated state.
I gently stroked her back, exerting every effort to bring her peace.
“You’re truly unharmed, aren’t you? Grandpa, our oppa really is whole, isn’t he?”
“Just as your sight confirms, he is well. He merely needs to rest his body for a brief span.”
Her grandfather observed Sia and me with profoundly affectionate eyes.
Even though our meeting had only occurred moments ago, it took zero effort to discern just how deeply he treasured Sia.
“On another note, calling him ‘oppa’? Shasha, your existence stretches beyond twenty-five centuries, whereas that youngster you refer to as an older brother has barely walked this earth for twenty-five years by mortal standards.”
“Grandpaaaa!”
“Hoho.”
Taking clear delight in teasing his grandchild, he aimed a playful jab straight at Sia.
Sia puffed up her cheeks in visible indignation.
‘Should I chime in and poke fun at her as well?’
With Sia now possessing an age advantage of over two thousand five hundred years, I caught myself wondering how she might react if I suddenly addressed her as Grandma.
Yet the very second I shifted my focus toward her to drop the quip, an instinctive dread ran straight down my spine.
“…Oppa? Just what kind of mischief is running through your head right now?”
“N-Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I was only admiring how wonderfully close you and your grandfather are.”
“Hmph. I suspected it was something else entirely.”
Much to my relief, Sia dropped the matter without interrogating me further.
“Well then, the moment Oppa gathers a bit more stamina, we should head out immediately. Oppa, didn’t we promise to share a date once our training concluded? Is there anywhere special you’d like to visit?”
“Hmm. Let’s see. Pushing myself right now is probably unwise, so what if we just head home, get some food delivered, and relax together for the rest of the day?”
My physical form seemed free of catastrophic damage, and it felt as though the crisis had cleared up without further incident.
I naively presumed all that awaited us was heading back to our space to indulge in a low-key romantic evening.
However, Sia’s grandfather, who had remained quiet while observing us from our blind spot, suddenly broke in: “I dislike intruding upon your plans, but there is a vital reality the two of you must confront.”
“The two of you are bound by a destiny that strictly forbids your union.”
“…What did you say?”
In that instant, I genuinely questioned my own hearing. What sort of ludicrous, nonsensical fate was that meant to be?
“Grandpa, w-what on earth are you talking about…?”
“Shasha. I fully grasp your yearning to remain perpetually clinging to your partner, but should you persist, the youth you cherish will repeatedly suffer the agony that befell him today. And worse still…”
Keeping his gaze fixed on Sia, her grandfather gradually shifted his eyes toward mine.
“It may ultimately cost him his life.”
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