Storm Warrior - Chapter 341



Only Noblemtl

#341, You are precious to me

The reason it was expressed as ‘spirit’ is because it had a broader meaning than the soul of the dead.

It could be that it is not a ghost or something, but a spiritual being from birth, and the energy I felt could be the presence of such a being or spiritual energy.

“You met Lou, Lucas… when? Where? Yes?”

I just mentioned Lucas as an example, but Gayoung reacted more strongly than I expected.

But I soon understood. They were twins.

No matter how different a dragon’s family relationship is from that of humans, isn’t there definitely something more special about twins?

“… when I jumped into Rumpgate. That’s when I got lucky and ended up in Chaos.”

“Lucas-”

I cut the guy off as he tried to ask more about Lucas.

“Anyway, what I’m talking about now isn’t Lucas’ soul that was left there. It’s the… energy I felt at that time.”

Gayoung closed her eyes for a moment as she watched me continue to look around cautiously, then opened them and shook her head.

“… I don’t feel anything.”

“That’s right. In Chaos, I lost control of my body. In the first place, I had no sense of anything other than consciousness.”

“You mean the realm of the sixth sense?”

The sixth sense that the portrait era speaks of has become synonymous with the sense of feeling magical power, but traditionally, the sixth sense was used as inspiration or premonition.

The phenomenon of mass migration of animals before a disaster strikes,

Even the superstition that dogs and cats can see ghosts is based on intuition.

I laughed bitterly.

Gayoung didn’t mean to be sarcastic, but

Because my current feeling is that the sixth sense I can give is closest to that of a dog or cat.

“… … Anyway, the point is, something passed by here that shouldn’t have been there.”

“That ominous sound… You’re saying it while smiling?”

Gayoung seems to have taken the meaning of laughter differently.

Well, for those who are confident in the existence of spiritual beings, it is a story that can quickly become serious.

“Then why are you crying? If you cry… what if something bad happens?”

“Haha! I’ve felt this since I was in Cheongsong, but I find your cynical composure really reassuring. But… what do you mean by ‘passed by’? Is it not there now?”

“Yeah. It’s gone.”

“Ugh, haa… Now that I think about it, I didn’t smell anything at all earlier, but now I do? Could that have something to do with it?”

“Once that passes, all the odor molecules will be driven away or something like that.”

“There wasn’t that much gas flow?”

“I don’t know. I’m a liberal arts major.”

“Anyway, you’re saying that hyung saw it as some kind of spiritual being?”

“From there, it’s not a sixth sense, it’s just a feeling.”

Since becoming the Demon King, I sometimes feel Lucifer’s gaze or laughter.

Exactly what I felt was exactly that, but I believed that reality was no different.

In the same vein, I judged the feeling I had earlier to be a spiritual being.

“…?”

Of course, there was no way to explain it to Gayoung.

“More than that, I guess I should hurry up a bit.”

He shook his head and rose again.

Because I had a feeling that the unknown entity might be related to Katrinan’s imprisonment.

And the fact that the bastard was moving again probably had something to do with my appearance here.

“What are you rushing for? The gateway to the boss room is going to be random anyway, and the spawn points are all random.”

“Even if it’s random. No matter where the door opens, the one who blushes the most is the one who is found quickly.”

“Whew, got it.”

Phew!

Let’s shoot forward first. Gayoung followed right behind and said.

-Tell me more about Lucas while we’re at it. So, how was he?

As I briefly recalled Lucas, whom I had treated with some respect, the thought suddenly occurred to me that my genealogy had become tangled.

『…I was just more mature than you.』

-Oh my… It’s so endless?

『You know. Lucas tried to understand his mother… . In the end, it seems he failed, but there’s a clear difference between him and someone who only thought about himself from the beginning to the end.』

-… … .

Gayoung’s rebuttal was not heard.

***

“ah……!”

Ivy, who had prepared for the worst and had passed through the darkness, came face to face with a blue-eyed young man.

It was a familiar face, the husband of my sister whom I had been looking for.

I was speechless for a moment.

First of all, I felt relieved,

She was surprised by the size of the huge cavern that unfolded before her eyes, and was puzzled by the sight of a woman looking at her from inside the cave.

Blue hair, blue eyes.

White jade skin that is hard to find a blemish on,

Beautiful appearance.

Although Ivy had no ability to detect polymorphs, she was able to guess the woman’s race well enough based on a few features that closely resembled Maru’s.

‘Could it be that over there… Katrinan?’

Maru was equally surprised.

He held up the tooth pendant and urged me.

“How did Ivy get here…, why is it here? Did Seongyoon come with you?”

“…yes.”

“!”

Maru’s eyes opened wide at Ivy’s answer and he quickly turned his head towards the entrance.

As I was entering, my eyes met with Han Seong-yoon’s.

“Seo, Seongyoon.”

In an instant, relief, joy, resentment, and anger flashed across Han Seong-yoon’s eyes.

“Hey, Mr. Husband. You must have a lot of work to do, leaving your family behind? What, you even hid a woman here… Yes?”

Han Seong-yoon was shocked when he discovered Katrinan.

“Ha! There really was a woman?”

Ivy quickly intervened to correct her oblivious younger sister’s misunderstanding.

“Seongyoon, I don’t think that’s right-”

Fortunately, Maru introduced the woman to him before it was too late.

“Please. My mother, who once told me… .”

“… … !”

Seongyoon’s eyes, which had been bloodshot and fiercely raised, closed tightly.

‘Damn! Damn! They look alike somehow.’

And when it rose again, it drew a soft curve.

“Oh my~ You look so young. This is my first time meeting you, Mother.”

It was a change of posture that would have made anyone laugh if they saw it from three perspectives, but there wasn’t a single sound of comfortable breathing in the entire space.

Ivy couldn’t shake off her worries since she realized who Gwangryong really was, Maru was extremely nervous because he hadn’t been able to convince Lord last time, and Katrinan’s eyes looking at Seongyoon were infinitely cold.

This time, Han Seong-yoon wasn’t unable to read the mood, but what could he do?

There is no choice but to approach with a brighter smile.

‘You wouldn’t grab someone’s hair the first time you met them, would you? … Right?’

The moment when Seongyoon thought like that.

Wheeing─ Whew!

A blast of cold air swept into the center of the room, creating a blob of ice the size of a house that fell directly onto Seongyoon’s head.

“!”

If things had gone as planned, it wouldn’t have been difficult to use his hands, but the opponent and the situation made Seongyoon’s head stiffen for a moment.

Ivy, who had noticed Seongyoon’s condition, flew away in shock.

“danger-”

But before that, Maru, who had moved as if teleporting, wrapped around Seongyoon.

Boom! Thud.

Maru, who had withstood the ice attack in place of Seongyoon, suddenly turned around and shouted at Katrinan.

“What the heck is this!”

Katrinan’s eyebrows twitched.

“How dare you… You are the one who has now lost all respect for the history of your clan! All because of that one human woman.”

“No… I asked you so much!”

“Have I ever accepted it?”

“Are you really going to do this? He is precious to me.”

“Humans cannot be precious.”

In fact, forming relationships with humans is not something that should be absolutely avoided.

If you look into the history of dragons, there have been quite a few such incidents.

Of course, most of them were just ‘games’ that were nothing special.

There is the case of Belliona, a tragedy that could determine the existence of the clan, but only the Balauru clan knew the details.

Therefore, falling in love with a person who might only live for a full 100 years can be considered a fleeting experience.

But that was the story of a fully grown dragon.

The hatchling that Katrinan sees – Maru, perhaps, can be compared to a ‘high school senior son preparing for the college entrance exam’?

Moreover, from Katrinan’s perspective, who was tied up in an unexpected place while raising her children, there was even less time to waste the attention of the next generation on anything else.

Maru also felt pain because he fully sympathized with that fact.

“Please… This is my first and last request to you, Lord.”

Meanwhile, Han Seong-yoon was looking at Maru with eyes full of affection, which was out of place with the conflict between the hats.

The resentment she had felt toward her husband and the shock she felt from her mother-in-law’s mistreatment had already passed.

‘How can I hate a man who wants to be with me so desperately?’

Han Seong-yoon steeled his resolve and took a step forward.

“It’s no use opposing it, Mother.”

“…!”

“Seo, Seongyoon… I shouldn’t come out now-”

“Shh. It’s okay.”

He places his index finger on Maru’s lips in astonishment, turns around, and looks straight at his mother-in-law with a confident gesture.

And then he continued.

“I wanted to have a cheerful daughter-in-law rather than a spoiled one… I can’t help it since you’re like this. We already have a beautiful daughter. Of course, I hope you’ll give us your blessing, but no matter what my mother says, we’ll never break up.”

Maru tightly closed his eyes at the dizzying sight.

‘Ah! I haven’t even brought up the topic of Seongyoon’s father yet… .’

Of course, he quickly came to his senses, worried that Lord might harm Seongyoon again.

“… … .”

But contrary to expectations that there would be a violent reaction, Katrinan just smiled as if she found it funny and turned away.

“You just admitted it? You gave me unspoken permission, Mom? Whoa!”

Seongyoon was shaking and cheering, but Katrinan ignored her and spoke to Maru.

“If you can get me out of here alive, do whatever you want.”

“!”

Maru, who realized the meaning behind Lord’s words, hurriedly looked back at the entrance with a darkened face.

No way… I did.

The entrance to the dark side of the cave was covered with a red, translucent curtain.

“Lord─!”

Maru screamed.

Kwaaaaang!

The dragon’s roar, superimposed on Maru’s voice, echoed through the cave, causing rocks to fall.

“… … !”

“… … .”

Seongyoon and Ivy, who still didn’t know exactly what had happened, just blinked at the sudden change in Maru’s atmosphere.

Katrinan, looking into Maru’s bloodshot eyes, said with a look of pity.

“Don’t you know that this is beyond my ability?”

“… … .”

Marudo knew of the existence of the barrier that confined Lord here and of the magical power that the space itself possessed.

But Maru glared at Katrinan with eyes filled with even more anger and sadness.

Because I knew that Katrinan had intentionally used the space trap to bring about the current tragedy.

The system gimmick of the underwater dungeon boss room was that once you entered and the boss’s attack began, the path leading to the outside was completely blocked.

At the same time, a time attack is applied starting from Katrinan’s first attack, and if you fail to attack within a certain amount of time, everyone who enters the boss room will die.

That means that if Katrinan hadn’t attacked, they could have come and gone as many times as they wanted, but now there’s no way for Han Seong-yoon and Ivy to get out of here.

Besides, I couldn’t stay here alive.

The first chunk of ice was already a death sentence aimed at such a situation.

“Why… how… why are you doing this to me?”

“Because you are still lacking. And it is my mission to fill that.”

Maru shook his head as if he didn’t want to hear it.

“If you lose Seongyoon… you will have to prepare a new successor.”

Bam! Bam!

Cookies and nuts.

After finishing speaking, Maru transformed into his main body and charged at the red barrier covering the entrance at full speed.

Kuuung!

It was a barrier that looked like nothing more than a thin film, but it didn’t even tremble a little even after receiving a heavy blow from the dragon’s own body.

Instead, the shock wave that spread in the opposite direction shook the inside of the cavity.

However, Maru quickly regained his balance and slammed the red barrier again.

Kuuung!

Seongyoon jumped in front of the barrier to stop Maru from doing that desperate thing.

“Stop it! Calm down, calm down!”

-Get out of the way. There’s no time for arguing.

It was at that moment that Maru carefully grabbed Seongyoon with his large front paws.

Gurrrrrr!

The vibrations that had been ringing in the hall seemed to be growing louder, and then suddenly, with a loud noise, the barrier at the entrance split open.

“Ouch! It’s broken, I think it’s broken!”

“…!”

Maru, who had been anxious and desperate but had not expected it, and Katrinan, who had just watched in despair, both opened their eyes wide at the unbelievable situation.

Ki-ki-ki-ki!

Soon, a doll appeared in the narrow gap, and then tore the barrier apart and stepped inside.

Then he looked at Seongyoon with wide eyes and muttered.

“Fuck. I can really see it here.”

“…Brother?”