Ever since her return from the Amusement, Yeorum had never visited her youngest unni’s grave.
On the day of her death, Yeorum pledged to herself that she would definitely survive, decapitate her oldest unni and bring that head to her. That was why she shouldn’t go to her youngest unni’s grave yet.
However, Yeorum headed to her youngest unni’s grave to remind herself of the pledge she had made in the past.
To red dragons, a funeral was an act of carnivalism. They ate the corpse of their dead comrades and burned a part of it.
That was why Yeorum, who had been a baby back then, was the only one who contributed to making the grave. After picking up a bone piece of an unknown part of her body that hadn’t been fully scorched, Yeorum had stuck it into the ground and buried it with the surrounding dirt into a round shape.
And yet,
“…”
The grave was ruined.
The only remaining bone piece was scattered into fragments both broken and charred. Under a small cliff, this place rarely got wind and sunlight – the ground was filled with ash, meaning that it was done very recently.
Yeorum felt like the world was crumbling down.
She checked the leftover trace of mana, and realised it had been less than half a day. With a vacant look on her face, Yeorum kneeled and collapsed to the ground.
The chilly gaze of her oldest unni resurfaced in her mind.
– You’ll regret blabbering like that.
“…”
Yeorum carefully gathered the fragments of her youngest unni’s bones that had been broken once again. She gathered everything including the charred fragments but they only summed up to a handful.
Gathering them to one place, she once again covered them with dirt. She then kneeled in front of the grave and stayed like that for a long time.
Closing her eyes, she restrained her emotions that were threatening to explode.
She quietly whispered.
I am sorry for being late.
It is almost over, so please wait just a little more…
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A Selection Ceremony was treated like a small festival because it was a proving ground for hatchlings to prove themselves by killing each other.
This time around, the Selection Ceremony was even more special.
Even though red dragons had an intercourse regardless of the gender and age of the opponent, even a place so crooked had feelings.
The younger sister had pulverised a lover of her older sister into smithereens, so hideous that death might have been a better future for him.
He had received every type of insult that a male could ever get, and the people knew how furious the older sister would be to have that happen to her lover. The red dragons wanted the enraged older sister to rip the younger sister to pieces as brutally as possible.
And if the younger sister happened to tear her older sister to pieces instead? That would be even more thrilling.
There were a lot of red dragons gathered to watch the Selection Ceremony with their blood boiling from expectation.
The complexions of Yeorum’s parents turned worse as more and more eyes gathered at the arena.
Yeorum’s father as a red dragon acknowledged honour and war. He was like that, his wife was the same, his parents and kids were also the same.
Fighting and dying during a fight was their pride and honour.
And yet one little kid had poured piss over the meticulously-built tower of honour.
“That damn fool…”
That same little kid was at the arena of the Selection Ceremony, and even that was an irritating sight for the parents. A red dragon should be late if anything. Coming earlier than scheduled for an amount of time that would be enough to have one meal – isn’t that what those pretentious green dragons would do?
“…”
Lifting her head, Yeorum looked at the surroundings.
The arena was made by cutting off an entire mountain range. Adult dragons were sitting on the high hills gazing down at her and each of their shadows were extremely huge.
Normally, hatchlings had their Selection Ceremony in their dragon forms because they had trouble moving properly in human form but both Yeorum and her opponent were over 300 years old, and were fairly old for hatchlings. If they fought with all their heart, it would destroy a whole kingdom.
That was why they had to restrict their power by fighting in human forms, but that was instead a welcome news for Yeorum.
“…”
With her hand resting above the scabbard, Yeorum waited for her opponent.
But even when there was 10 minutes and 5 minutes left until the start of the battle, the opponent did not show up. For Yeorum, who had learned the concept of time on Earth from Yu Jitae, it was something she couldn’t understand.
Why was she coming late on such an important occasion?
There were 3 minutes left.
She waited.
There was 1 minute left,
But she still didn’t come.
In the end, it was only when it was 10 minutes past the scheduled time that her oldest unni showed herself by crossing through the dimension.
Yeorum doubted her eyes.
Her sister was half-naked. She was wearing a gown without anything underneath and her thighs were in full display. Black pigments were all over her lips and cheeks; there were red flowers all over her body as well as other explicit traces of a sexual intercourse.
“Sorry. I was a bit late, right?”
“…”
“My heart was so empty I needed some comfort.”
Yeorum did not reply but it seemed that she had been copulating with someone.
Her emotions that she had been controlling surged up again, because it meant she went mating immediately after ruining the grave of her youngest unni.
That made her think that she might be the only one that was serious about this event. Her sister was so arrogant that she wasn’t even thinking of a defeat.
“Sorry, elders~”
Looking around, she pretended to apologise. She was received by jeers of the crowd and some of them did not disguise their ridicule and aversion.
However, her action was not something disgracing their race, because a red dragon should have that much ambition at the very least.
“Tear her! Rip her to pieces!”
“Hurry up and kill your younger sister!”
“Shred her to pieces like your lover!”
The red dragons shouted.
Soon, the supervisors of the Selection Ceremony, Yeorum’s parents, began praying to the first red dragon.
——!!
——!!
——!!
A red dragon’s prayer was the same as a warcry. The fear-inducing screams of dragons gathered to one and menacingly shook the atmosphere.
However, Yeorum felt the world mysteriously turning quiet in the midst of all that.
Her feelings that she had been suppressing with difficulty were soaring back up from her heart like blazing flames.
Yeorum took in her oldest unni with her eyes.
The shouts of the praying one turned even louder as the two of them stared at each other. One of them raised the corners of their lips into a sneer but Yeorum did not smile back.
In a world tranquil like the time she was standing in front of an ocean with no waves, Yeorum placed her hand on her sword. For her, there was only herself and her nemesis in this area.
How long,
Have I been waiting for this moment…
[Fight—!]
Yeorum dashed in following the shout of her father.
*
An explosion at the bottom of her feet bounced her forward as wings of flame added momentum to her charge. Even though they were hundreds of metres apart, Yeorum’s sword was right in front of her opponent in the blink of an eye.
Fluster appeared in the face of her opponent. Yeorum’s strike was a lot stronger than what she, or what anyone else of this place could have imagined.
However, she did not fall back. By hurriedly taking out a large greatsword from the dimensional storage, she retaliated against Yeorum’s attack.
Mana condensed down as dimensions lengthened behind them. In a world with a distancing background erupted scorching flames.
Kwang kwang kwang kwang kwang–!!
The source of the shockwave trembling the dimension was at the place where their swords collided.
She glared at Yeorum. She could not believe that she was getting pushed back by each and every strike.
Her wrists quivered with each clash of the swords. Another clash and it was her shoulders, and after that was her entire body that was shivering.
Speed, power and accuracy. She was not Yeorum’s opponent in any of those aspects.
She was dumbstruck. What was happening in front of her was so complex that she couldn’t comprehend it. The little kid in front of her was a literally worthless filth among trash who was born a whole century after her. Didn’t she pathetically piss herself from one sentence before?
“How could this…!”
The battle went on. Flickering embers scorched her beautiful hair, and a sharp fierce strike smacked her arm. She tried retaliating with a stab to the stomach but the sword could not pierce deeply through Yeorum’s fortified abs.
Meanwhile, Yeorum approached further in while twisting her body away from the sword and used her own sword to chop her arm off.
“Kuuk!”
The eyes of the crowd shifted and their gazes changed.
In a fierce attempt to attack back, she stubbornly retaliated. Using the strongest flames among her thirty types of fire, she tried to scorch Yeorum but she failed. Yeorum squeezed in through the gap of the flames and stabbed the sword into her eyes again.
Feeling a rush of pain, she decided to ignore the rules.
Soon, her body was enveloped in a cloud of mana before gradually increasing in size.
There was a subtle calculation behind her actions.
It took time to cancel a polymorph but that had been concealed behind the cloud of mana, and it would be too late by the time the kid in front of her eyes realised it. After cancelling hers first, she would be able to rip her opponent to death before they cancelled theirs.
The moment her polymorph was almost completely dispelled, she smiled because she saw Yeorum widening her eyes into circles.
For red dragons, ripping the opponent to death was more of an honour in the end and rules were not important.
Is it unfair? You should have cancelled yours first then!
However, it seemed that the young bitch was a lot more stupid than what she thought. Without even cancelling the polymorph, she ran towards her in human form.
The struggle would be in vain.
She opened her mouth wide open. Her huge body that reached 19 metres stretched its enormous mouth out wide, threatening to swallow Yeorum in one bite.
A sublime mana of fire gathered to her mouth. It was one of the greatest authorities of the Ancient One that could burn an existence off the face of the planet.
[Dragon Breath]
A red ray of light drew a clean cylinder behind its path as it swallowed up Yeorum’s small body.
But that was when something that went completely against common sense started to unravel in front of her.
Despite being struck by it head-on, Yeorum did not avoid the breath. Instead, she parried it with her sword and came closer towards her.
Her body was being scorched. Her clothes had long disappeared and even her skin was being charred black but Yeorum did not stop.
Only then did she finally realise it.
They were in a whole different league.
That ungifted piece of filth had reached a height that was incomparable to that of her own by the time she realised it.
The polymorph that had been cancelled in a hurry failed in the middle due to the dragon breath that she had formed with haste. Unable to properly return to dragon form, her body turned small again.
Breaking through the flames, Yeorum ran in with her body scorched all over and grabbed her by the neck. A sword came flying in and created a deep wound at her cheek as blood bursted out.
Yeorum did not stop. This time, she drew a line from the forehead and chopped her ears off. Her nemesis struggled and wriggled in pain.
Lastly, she formed a fist with her hand holding the sword and smacked her opponent at the mouth. A loud slam echoed as her mouth, nose and jaws all broke together.
The crowd of red dragons gave a thunderous roar.
They were sending praise to the warrior but the ones at the centre of the battle could not hear it.
Yeorum brought her face closer to the head of her collapsed opponent.
She must have sensed death.
Her face tainted with fear was an amusing sight for Yeorum.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this day. You fucking bitch…”
There were words that had yet to be conveyed.
For a long time, Yeorum had words in her mind that she had vowed to convey if a day like this ever came to her.
“You said to me I was lucky…”
The strong could control the life of the weak as they wished, like how her nemesis of an older sister had defined her life.
That was why Yeorum decided to define the death of her oldest sister, in the name of her youngest unni.
“You were unlucky.”
Yeorum then chopped her head off.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Her oldest unni was dead and Yeorum was victorious.
Thus ended the Selection Ceremony.
Soaked in blood, Yeorum turned around. She walked out of the arena filled with roaring shouts of red dragons, without answering their cries.
Yeorum was now the rightful heir to her parents. They will now erase their doubt and disbelief against her, trust her and flood her with unconditional support.
However she did not take them.
Instead, she went to the grave of her youngest unni and kneeled in front of it.
She stabbed the [Dream Eater] nearby, and placed the half-crushed head of her oldest unni next to the grave and began wailing out loud.
To her precious existence that provided her starving self with food and taught her stammering self words, who also protected her so that she wouldn’t die in the hands of her oldest sister, Yeorum opened her mouth.
I achieved my revenge.
I have, at last, accomplished my lifelong aspiration.
After crying without an end for four days straight, Yeorum stopped her tears and scorched the head of her oldest unni into ashes before fluttering them under the breeze.
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“It’s astonishing. To think you were that strong.”
“You made me see you in a different light. How unexpected!”
“Why don’t you come marry me. Nn?”
Some dragons faced her with unwelcome smiles and words, as well as those who still showed a contemptible attitude.
“Fuck off.”
Yeorum made them go away and mindlessly started walking again.
Those were not the compliments she wanted to hear. Belatedly showing trust even though they had never trusted her before was nothing but a fake trust and a trash acknowledgement.
The acknowledgement she wanted was different.
There was one who showed her trust, back when she herself couldn’t even trust her. It was because he was there; because he believed in her that Yeorum was able to trust herself, and that was why she was able to crawl through the narrow and frightening ravines to stand in this place and achieve her revenge.
How amazing would it have been to share such an important moment with the one who allowed her to hold a dream…
Even though she had already verified her life, Yeorum wanted to be assured by him again. Because being acknowledged by the one who trusted her more than herself, would be the truest form of proving her life.
Yeorum unknowingly stopped in her tracks. Lifting her unfocused eyes, she stared into the distance and murmured.
“……Did I do a good job?”