Chapter 47

Chapter 47. Oppa, Did You Wait Long?

‘What on earth… am I looking at?’

My jaw hung open as I gaped at the breathtaking spectacle unraveling across the open sky.

It had been clear to me for quite some time that Sia’s prowess operated on a plane entirely beyond comparison with ordinary hunters. Even so, there was true truth in the phrase that one must see something to truly believe it.

I understood her might in theory, yet I had never once witnessed her unleash her full capabilities in a true engagement. Until this very moment, picturing what would happen if Sia genuinely fought with absolute seriousness had been confined to my imagination.

Right now, that mere visualization had materialized into absolute reality right before my eyes. The incantation in question was none other than Meteor.

It was an art that pushed even high-ranking S-rank mages to their absolute limits. In wizard circles, casting such a phenomenon was considered an extraordinarily taxing endeavor.

Yet floating above us in the firmament, there were at least five colossal falling stars suspended at once.

Merely manifesting and sustaining such immense masses should have drained an unimaginable quantity of mana, yet Sia showed not the slightest trace of exhaustion. She manipulated them effortlessly, maneuvering the celestial rocks as smoothly as a child flicking pebbles in the dirt.

Fierce and terrifying as wyverns were reputed to be, enduring such sheer catastrophic weight was entirely out of the question.

Every slight gesture of Sia’s arm seemed to deliver devastating trauma. Wyverns lost their balance in mid-flight or tumbled helplessly earthward in rapid succession.

Suddenly, an anxious realization flashed through my mind.

‘If things carry on like this…’

Annihilating the winged predators themselves would take only seconds. However, if their massive carcasses rained down into this tightly packed urban district, the casualties among civilians on the ground could be catastrophic.

Just as I began wondering whether I ought to intervene somehow to mitigate the civilian destruction, the plunging corpses threading through the city skyline unexpectedly halted and began drifting skyward on their own accord.

One after another, they were gently deposited and lined up tidily across various building roofs.

Even throughout this dizzying commotion, Sia maintained immaculate control over the orbiting meteors, relentlessly pulverizing the remaining wyverns that still drew breath.

‘…!’

That was not the half of it. I had failed to perceive it in the initial moment, but observing the engagement further, my intuition caught on to another shocking truth.

From the very beginning, Sia had deployed Dragon Fear, completely paralyzing every single wyvern in their tracks.

These were murderous aerial beasts that had snuffed out the lives of countless seasoned hunters, yet they could not even muster an offensive maneuver, much less take flight and flee. They remained paralyzed mid-air right where they hovered.

Up in that expanse, there existed merely two categories of wyverns: those that had perished and were drifting downward, and those that clung to life but lacked the freedom to budge even a fraction of an inch.

All the while, the house-sized astral rocks Sia had summoned soared through the air like acrobatic jets, while dazzling bursts flared dozens of times each second as an endless barrage of unidentified spells rained down.

Within an almost laughable blink of an eye, scores of wyverns capable of laying waste to the entire district were completely suppressed before managing to stage any resistance whatsoever.

The entire affair had consumed barely five minutes.

All because of their fatal blunder of disrupting Sia’s romantic outing.

“What in the world… is that?”

I had distinctly instructed everyone in the dining room to take shelter along the outer walls, yet an unfamiliar male voice suddenly drifted from right beside my shoulder.

Turning around, I found him gazing through the glass, his jaw slacked in total disbelief.

Apparently, as soon as the battle commenced, he had quietly shuffled over to the window to watch the entire spectacle unfold.

‘Honestly, I specifically told everyone to stay back.’

There were always individuals who simply refused to heed direct instructions no matter how plainly warned.

It was fortunate that Sia had wrapped up the threat cleanly. Had she failed to do so, his recklessness could have yielded grim consequences.

Rather than giving him a lecture for putting himself in harm’s way, however, I raised my voice to let the entire dining room know the danger had passed.

“It looks safe to come out now. The threat is eliminated, and the dimensional rift appears to have vanished.”

With individuals of that sort always bound to exist, and with the peril safely cleared away, there was zero reason to start a pointless confrontation.

“Phew…”

“Seriously? It’s over already?”

People let out collective sighs of relief, slowly ambling back to their respective tables.

“I guess that gate break wasn’t as bad as it seemed.”

Shortly after calm returned, a woman seated behind me made that remark to the companion dining with her.

Right then, the man who had secretly spied on the fight through the window inserted himself into their discussion.

“Not a chance! I saw the whole thing with my own eyes. That was no run-of-the-mill gate break. I’m positive there were wyverns out there…”

I could not fathom why he felt compelled to interrupt two total strangers to raise such an alarm, but the mere mention of the word “wyverns” struck enough fear into the women that they gave him their full attention.

The remaining patrons also grew visibly agitated upon hearing that this had not been a minor event, and within seconds, every gaze in the room converged upon the man.

“Did you say wyverns?”

“If those were genuine wyverns… we could have been slaughtered.”

“B-But if actual wyverns were out there, how could the whole area be secured so swiftly?”

“Hunter, is it true that wyverns showed up? And are we genuinely out of danger?”

My plan had been to sit patiently for Sia in total peace, but thanks to that man’s outburst, all eyes suddenly shifted right to me.

Some appeared skeptical of the claim, while others were terrified that the danger was still looming.

I did my utmost to settle their nerves.

“Yes. I understand it sounds unbelievable, but it’s the truth.”

“No way…”

To their understanding, wiping out so many wyverns in such a short window while avoiding collateral damage was an utter impossibility according to common knowledge. Guests huddled in small clusters, whispering back and forth in bewildered shock.

Paying no mind to the background murmurs, I remained seated in quiet anticipation of Sia.

Her arrival was not delayed for long.

She entered bearing such an unbothered demeanor that nobody would have ever suspected she had just brought down dozens of terrifying wyverns.

Anyone unaware would have easily assumed she had simply stepped away to visit the restroom rather than suppressing a catastrophic gate rupture.

“Oppa, I’m sorry. Were you waiting long?”

“No, but more urgently, that whole…”

With so many ears around us, I let my sentence fade out intentionally. Without missing a beat, Sia woven a barrier of Silence around us before replying.

“I couldn’t just let some disturbance ruin our date, could I? So I made sure to clean it up in a rush.”

She had just casually brushed off a presumed S-rank gate breach—a disaster massive enough to dominate national news broadcasts for an entire week—as merely “that.”

It served as another stark reminder of just how vastly superior dragons were compared to ordinary mortals.

“You didn’t suffer any injuries, right?”

“Not at all! There isn’t a single mark on me, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Sia insisted that trivial things like that could never harm her, immediately resuming her snack of tteokbokki as though nothing extraordinary had occurred.

I, however, found it much more challenging to put on a normal face.

I desperately wanted to slip back into our sweet romantic rhythm and exchange cheerful remarks with Sia like usual, but the vivid sight of her cleaving through wyverns with the ease of chopping vegetables remained burned into my consciousness.

The charming, lovely Sia sitting across from me and the terrifying entity who had swatted down high-tier wyverns like common insects were indisputably the exact same individual, and reconciling those two truths left my mind spinning.

“Oppa, what is it? Did you suddenly lose your appetite?”

Seeing me pause with my utensils and stare blankly, Sia’s expression softened with concern.

“No. It’s just… I couldn’t help thinking the entire country is going to be thrown into chaos because of what you just pulled off. There’s no way people will trace it back to you, right?”

Should her true identity slip out into the public eye, it would trigger endless complications and headaches.

Sia flashed a comforting smile and replied, “Relax! I shifted my visual appearance on my way out, and I wiped away every residual trace of mana afterward. Nobody among the humans will ever trace it to me.”

She then muttered in an undertone that perhaps another dragon could potentially notice.

Following that, Sia walked me through how the skirmish had played out.

Just as I had pieced together, she had initially pinned the wyverns under her Dragon Fear before dropping Meteor to resolve the threat with absolute speed and surgical precision.

Furthermore, she explained that the carcasses I thought had been obliterated had actually been stashed inside her lair temporarily. It turned out she intended to either liquidate them on the market later or refine the materials into high-grade gear.

“Well, whatever! I’ve babbled far too much about my own stuff. I really wanted to hear how things have been going with you, Oppa.”

“In that case, should we move over to a café to talk?”

The aftermath of the gate incident had left the atmosphere inside the eatery far too restless for a relaxed conversation.

“Great idea! But just before we head out, Oppa, I’m going to order some extra tteokbokki for takeout.”

Our Sia truly had an unconditional fondness for this shop.

We would definitely need to visit again in the future.

*

Following our meal, the two of us enjoyed a lovely, intimate conversation at an aesthetically pleasing café nearby.

When our time there came to a close, we made our way straight back to my studio apartment.

With barely an hour remaining on our schedule, moving on to another destination would have been inconvenient.

“Next time around, what if we spend the whole four hours chilling at your place with chicken and beer?”

“I like that idea a lot. It would bring back good memories.”

After picking up several snacks and beverages from the convenience store situated at the foot of my complex, Sia and I stepped into my living space.

“Mmh, it smells wonderful in here. Oppa, are you using an air diffuser?”

“No. Maybe it’s just the laundry detergent? Honestly, I don’t pick up on any particular scent.”

Perhaps Sia’s dragon physiology afforded her senses far sharper than those of any human being.

“Ah, then that has to be your natural scent, Oppa. How can even your personal fragrance manage to be so handsome?”

“…Good grief. Sia, you’re making me blush.”

Her strangely imaginative praise sent an intense wave of embarrassment through me, causing me to dip my head down. Sia tapped my shoulder with an amused pat and chimed, “Hey, it’s just the truth.”

Despite how little there was to observe inside such a modest studio, Sia attentively inspected every nook and cranny.

“You made sure to hang up the garments I picked out for you properly.”

Peeking toward the balcony, she caught sight of the clothes she had previously left with me neatly suspended on hangers, and a contented grin spread across her lips.

I still had no clear idea why she had insisted on leaving women’s clothing in my apartment, but I had kept them meticulously cared for just in case she came over again, exactly like today.

“It’s always smart for a bachelor living on his own to keep a woman’s outfit and shoes in his home, isn’t it?”

“…?”

Every so often, whenever I listened to Sia speak, I couldn’t shake the eerie sensation that I had wandered into an alternate reality where male and female social scripts were completely inverted.

At any rate, having finished inspecting my tiny dwelling, Sia settled down onto the floor and tore open the treats we had grabbed from the mart.

“We used to hang out like this all the time. Do you remember?”

“Regardless of how worn out I felt from work, sharing a cold beer with you right here was always the highlight of my day. Back in those times, I probably never appreciated just how precious those quiet moments of joy truly were.”

We spent the time reminiscing over shared memories and exchanging relaxed banter.

Right in the middle of our snacks, a sudden thought crossed Sia’s mind.

“Oh, right. Oppa, I brought a present for you.”

Reaching smoothly into her personal subspace, she retrieved an object and set it down before me.

Resting on the surface were a matching band and chain fashioned from a sleek, silvery-white substance.

Reflecting on it now, Sia had arrived today sporting a necklace and ring that I had never spotted on her previously.

Could that be the reason behind the mischievous little grin she flashed earlier when I told her that her new jewelry looked stunning?

“Wait, are these intended as a matching couple’s set?”

“Yep! I forged them myself so the two of us could wear them together. How do they look? Pretty, right?”

“The person who crafted them clearly has amazing aesthetic sense. They look extremely classy.”

Truthfully, I had wondered whether jewelry in that specific shade might look awkward on a guy, but the intricate detailing and understated elegance assured me that I could easily carry them off without feeling self-conscious.

“Ehehe, that makes me so happy. I poured endless effort into crafting them because I really wanted us to match. Would you like me to fasten the necklace for you?”

“Sure. Thank you.”

The second I gave my consent, Sia hummed a merry tune, gently clasping the chain around my collar before taking my hand and sliding the band over my finger herself.

“Mmh. Just as I expected, Oppa looks fantastic in everything.”

Thoroughly pleased with the result, Sia snapped a quick picture of me wearing the newly donned accessories.

“Oh, and Oppa, there’s actually a hidden secret woven into this chain and band. Care to take a guess?”

“A secret?”

Sia tilted her head toward me, her eyes twinkling with eagerness as if practically begging me to figure it out immediately.

“What kind of secret could possibly be buried inside small accessories like these?”

I turned the question over in my head for a few seconds before a sudden realization crashed through my mind.

The precise instant that thought materialized, a sharp wave of goosebumps erupted down my spine.

‘…There is absolutely no way, right?’

I attempted to dismiss the suspicion deep down, but my instincts warned me that my deduction was almost certainly on the mark.

Desperately clinging to the hope that I was mistaken, I looked at Sia and asked with trepidation, “Were these… crafted out of your bones as well?”

Sia’s eyes instantly curved into merry crescents at my words.

“That’s right! How did you figure it out so fast?”

‘…Why does an ominous gut feeling never fail to come true?’