Chapter 61

Chapter 61. Oppa… Are You Okay?

The violent frenzy, in which her mind had shattered while raw magical power surged forth like an overwhelming tidal wave, finally died away. When the wild outburst she assumed would rage on until its natural span had run its course abruptly vanished, bewildered astonishment instantly gripped her gaze.

‘Just how…?’

In what conceivable way had Minjun subdued the catastrophic surge utilizing Dragon Tongue, a tongue he could barely articulate? Yet this was hardly the moment to dwell on such mysteries.

‘What happened to Oppa?’

Sia scanned the surroundings to find Minjun, but the heavy mist kicked up by the catastrophic tide of unrestrained ether that had saturated the air until moments before completely obscured her line of sight. Furthermore, the harsh recoil of the sudden suppression left her utterly incapable of invoking even the most rudimentary spell.

She had no recourse other than to scream Minjun’s name with whatever breath remained and search blindly until the haze thinned out.

“O… ppa…”

Yet her voice carried no weight, fading into a feeble rasp that failed to travel beyond her lips.

‘I have to… reach him.’

Before she could catch any sign or sound from Minjun, Sia’s consciousness faded entirely, and she collapsed where she stood.

Not long after Sia lost consciousness, the dense fog began to dissipate, granting Minjun sight of her limp figure lying motionless on the ground.

“Cough, S-Sia!”

He wanted nothing more than to dash across the rubble to confirm she was alive, but right before her frenzy fully consumed her, Sia had explicitly ordered him to ignore her well-being, escape the area immediately, and notify Rokan of what had transpired.

Abandoning a defenseless Sia tore him apart inside, yet he knew there must have been a vital necessity behind her desperate warning. Fighting back his tears, Minjun dragged his injured frame toward the gateway, hobbling forward with every scrap of stamina he had left.

Each stride brought searing torment through his flesh, forcing him to spit up thick crimson repeatedly as he pushed ahead, but he refused to slow down. Upon finally crossing beyond the dungeon, Minjun frantically activated his communication with Rokan, roaring into the channel before the other party could even utter a greeting.

“Sia, she lost control—”

[Hold on! I am arriving instantly!]

Fortunately, the instant the word slipped from Minjun’s lips, Rokan crossed the spatial expanse and materialized directly beside him.

“Shasha! Tell me, where is Shasha?!”

Never before had Minjun witnessed Rokan—ordinarily a figure of absolute warmth, grace, and serenity—appearing completely rattled and shouting with such raw dread.

“The training… area…”

Squeezing out even a fragmented whisper required an agonizing effort. Minjun gestured toward the entrance of the subterranean realm and barely forced out the direction of the practice grounds. Perceiving that Minjun’s injuries were similarly catastrophic, Rokan rapidly accessed his pocket of dimensional storage, retrieving an Elixir and pouring its restorative contents down Minjun’s throat.

It would serve as temporary stabilization. To ensure his survival, Rokan placed several additional phials of Elixir along with the elemental Undine at Minjun’s side.

“Bear with it just a bit longer. Minjun, stay strong. I am profoundly sorry.”

Even with those safeguards prepared, Rokan clearly despised abandoning a grievously wounded ally, continuing to voice his remorse right until he crossed the threshold into the depths. Yet, despite his genuine concern for Minjun, the matter that truly rattled Rokan to his core was the fate of his beloved granddaughter, Sia.

‘Please let Shasha hold on.’

From the second he learned that his cherished granddaughter had succumbed to the frenzy, Rokan’s usual composure had shattered completely. Having accompanied her through these episodes ever since her very first occurrence, he understood intimately that the madness itself seldom endangered her life.

If any party faced lethal danger, it was whoever happened to be trapped in her vicinity while her raw essence exploded outward, rather than Sia herself. Nonetheless, survival did not spare her from horrific torment. Whenever a rampage unfolded, she endured agony so overwhelming it pushed her to the brink of despair, and carrying that unbearable truth, Rokan flew through the ruins with an agonized spirit.

Watching his irreplaceable descendant, the dearest treasure of his existence, convulse and shriek beneath that torment tore his soul to shreds.

‘My poor Shasha.’

Cruelly enough, her calamity had struck within a closed sanctuary devoid of any elder kin to intervene, leaving only Minjun to accompany her. How terrifying and isolated must she have felt? He needed to close the distance without wasting a single heartbeat and alleviate whatever fraction of suffering he could manage.

“Shasha!”

With that agonizing cry, Rokan frantically scanned the chamber for Sia. Following Minjun’s frantic report, he had anticipated coming upon a maelstrom of uncontrollable energy and a young woman writhing beneath unendurable pain.

Yet the underground realm remained eerily calm, unbroken save for the dry rustle of scattered debris drifting over the ground. A sudden chill swept across Rokan’s spine, as that uncanny stillness struck him as a far more ominous sign.

There was simply no explanation for her frenzy to cease on its own. Whenever an episode began, it persistently raged for a full turn of the day. If complete silence reigned now, perhaps something disastrous had befallen Sia—perhaps her spark of life was already fading away.

“No. That cannot be…”

Rokan drew in a sharp breath and banished the dark thought. Had her vital force truly expired, there was no way his senses would have remained blind to it.

He promptly wove a sensory charm and shortly identified his granddaughter collapsed across the opposite end of the zone. Though exceptionally weak, subtle movements were undeniably visible across her form.

“Grand… father…”

Her murmur was so tiny that no normal mortal ear could have registered it, yet it reached Rokan with absolute clarity.

“Shasha!”

The instant that faint murmur touched him, Rokan rushed across the stone so frantically that he never even noticed losing one of his shoes along the way, gathering her frail frame into his embrace.

Mending her condition was paramount. Rokan invoked Dragon Tongue to revitalize her depleted reserves while simultaneously extracting bottles of soothing drafts from his spatial pocket, coaxing the liquid into her mouth.

Happily, the remedies proved effective. Sia let out a dry cough, indicating that she had reclaimed at least a flicker of vitality.

“Cough, cough.”

“Shasha, speak to me, are you whole? Does your body obey you?”

“I… cannot…”

Her voice remained thoroughly hollowed out, but even that faint response offered immense solace amidst the chaos. Such a state was entirely anticipated. Following such violent surges, severe lethargy and bodily exhaustion were customary aftermaths.

Countless puzzles lingered in Rokan’s thoughts, questions he longed to voice, yet he chose to delay every interrogation. Restoring her took precedence over curiosity.

Hoisting Sia securely onto his back, Rokan hurried through the exit. The moment he stepped into the open air, he encountered Minjun slumped just past the threshold, drawing ragged gasps of breath.

Upon catching sight of Rokan, Minjun immediately sought out Sia and saw her resting on the elder’s shoulders. Seeing her utterly limp at first sparked a dreadful panic that she might have perished, but when he caught a faint twitch from her limbs, a profound wave of relief washed over him.

Meanwhile, Rokan’s gaze shifted between the panting Minjun and his granddaughter. Transporting both to his personal retreat to nurse them in tandem would have been ideal, yet Sia’s volatile aura remained fundamentally incompatible with Minjun’s present vulnerability.

Discerning Rokan’s dilemma merely from the shift in his features, Minjun preempted the elder’s hesitation, forcing a faint smile through his exhaustion. “Do not worry about me. Please focus on tending to Sia.”

Since her affliction manifested only once across several decades, Sia’s state was unquestionably more perilous. Minjun signaled with an easy gesture of his hand, insisting he could stay behind a bit longer and endure the strain with the aid of the Elixir.

At those words, Sia, still resting upon Rokan’s shoulders, strained to angle her face toward Minjun.

“Oppa…”

Remorse, regret, deep gratitude, and sorrow intertwined within her gaze as tears welled in her eyes when she called out to him. From her perspective, Minjun was in dire need of aid himself, and worse still, he had sustained those wounds purely as a casualty of her uncontrolled madness.

“Put your heart at ease. Thanks to the Elixir, I am far sturdier than I seem. Hurry along and receive your treatment.”

“Still…”

“Shasha, do not fret. Undine is watching over Minjun, and his critical danger has subsided, so he will be safe. I shall convey him to his dwelling immediately.”

After sending Minjun straight back to his residence via spatial transference, Rokan carried Sia toward his personal domain. Upon reaching the sanctuary, he eased her down onto a couch and examined her condition thoroughly.

‘This is bizarre.’

For an individual who had just weathered a catastrophic frenzy, her physical stability was remarkably intact. Under customary circumstances at this stage, she would have struggled merely to draw air into her lungs, yet that was not the reality before him.

While she was certainly far from robust health by standard measures, when contrasted with the usual aftermath of her episodes, her condition was remarkably better than any prior recovery. Yet that anomaly was only part of what troubled Rokan’s thoughts.

‘By what means did Minjun forcefully suppress Shasha’s frenzy?’

Rokan had observed her violent outbursts numerous times throughout the passing eras, yet never had such an anomaly manifested. Whenever Sia lost her senses, all the remaining dragons could manage was erecting barriers to keep her aimless magical deluge from spilling beyond the confines of her abode.

Ever since Sia’s youth, countless dragons, Rokan included, had attempted to suppress her destructive cycles entirely. They had applied everything from ancient Dragon Tongue to master-tier sorcery, and even treasured relics forged solely to subdue her outbursts, yet every intervention had crumbled into failure.

How then had Minjun managed to entirely halt an eruption that typically raged unchecked for nearly twenty-four continuous hours, bringing it to a dead stop within less than sixty minutes?

“This puzzle only muddles my mind further.”

How could an ordinary human pull off a feat that eluded the mighty draconic race? Rokan pondered whether it tied back to some latent power hidden deep within Minjun, an enigma the youth himself remained blissfully unaware of.

“What is puzzling?”

“It is nothing. Do not strain yourself. Simply allow your body to heal for now.”

Rokan gently guided Sia back against the pillows as she tried to elevate her torso, drawing the blanket over her frame. Yet from Sia’s viewpoint, her mind remained too restless to surrender to slumber.

“Oppa… will he truly be safe?”

“Cast aside your worries. I am observing his status through Undine’s senses this very moment, and happily, his vitals are steady.”

Even those reassuring words failed to calm her agitation, as worry still clouded Sia’s features.

‘It is only natural.’

Rokan sympathized with her inner turmoil completely.

“The moment you drift off, I will depart to inspect Minjun directly.”

“He is truly out of danger, right?”

“You witnessed him with your own eyes. He bears wounds, but with rest and attentive treatment, he will mend completely in a matter of days. Should your worries linger, I can easily establish a visual connection with Minjun for you.”

Rokan assumed that laying eyes on Minjun awake and composed would grant her peace, but unexpectedly, Sia moved her head in refusal. He had presumed she would plead for a chance to see Minjun, making her refusal an unexpected surprise.

“If I face Oppa right now… I know the tears will not stop.”

Her heart was suffocating beneath remorse. Hours earlier, during her destructive trance, her consciousness had steadily slipped into darkness, yet the memory of her rampant magical torrents striking Minjun had etched a harrowing wound across her spirit.

Minjun’s agonized cries, and the desperate light within his gaze as he threw his life into the storm to rescue her without heed for his own survival, stayed vividly branded in her mind.

She wished she could wipe away that frantic expression and those screams of agony, but as a dragon denied the mercy of forgetfulness, she was doomed to replay every searing detail over and over regardless of her desires.

Tears welled along Sia’s lashes, spilling down her cheeks.

“…I understand.”

Rokan clasped her hand gently for an extended time as he monitored her breathing, and once Sia finally slipped into sleep, he quietly vanished, making his way toward Minjun’s residence.

Following Rokan’s departure, Sia eventually stirred once more, roused by the lingering ache running through her veins. She raised herself slightly to swallow the remaining draft resting upon the side table.

Under normal circumstances, before yielding to sleep once more, she would pass the time browsing through photos of Minjun stored on her screen until her eyes grew heavy. At present, however, every thought directed toward Minjun only weighed heavier upon her chest.

“How could I ever face Oppa properly when we meet again?”

Guilt and deep gratitude warred incessantly within her soul. Though she recognized the necessity of falling asleep, the recurring image of Minjun from earlier that day repeatedly invaded her mind, ensuring that despite her heavy exhaustion, peaceful rest remained frustratingly out of reach.

Most likely, this night would bring only painful nightmares.