“Why are you here.”
Yeorum looked confused.
“It’s been a while. How have you been?”
Bom returned an intimate reply as the vengeful spirits gazed at her with suspicion and displeasure.
She persuaded them, saying that she and Yeorum were still young dragons unlike them, and that Yeorum would only open her heart and move proactively for her sake if she pretended to be nice.
“Can’t you tell from how I’m still alive?”
“Looks like it. You must have beat your oldest unni. That’s great.”
“It’s been 500 years already.”
“Congratulations.”
A deeper frown appeared on Yeorum’s face. Her reddened eyes and her frowning nose openly displayed her discontentment.
“Oi Yu Bom.”
“Nn.”
“…Don’t you have something to tell me?”
“Nn?”
“Isn’t there something you should say to me.”
Bom touched her green hair for a bit.
Something to say…
“Sorry for turning you down when you were looking for me.”
Yeorum widened her eyes.
“…So it really was you.”
“I was too busy. You know how the war is going right now, don’t you.”
“Bullcrap. I know you were busy, but were you not even able to spare just 5 minutes for 800 years? Even though I ignored all the shit from my race and attended your war just to see you?”
“Sorry. But, it really was impossible for me to see you…”
Bom locked her fingers and slightly lowered her head. There was no such etiquette among dragons, and it was the one used by humans on Earth.
“…”
Yeorum shook her head, before adding more words along with a sigh.
“So, why are you here.”
“…”
“There must be a reason why you came here.”
“I need to see someone with authority from the red dragons.”
“Is it because of the war?”
“Nn…”
“Alright. I’ll introduce you to him.”
“Really?”
“But in return, let’s go see the kids together.”
This was something that had been outside of Bom’s expectation. Her expectation was something that was also viewed by the vengeful spirits, and what happened was therefore against their calculations as well.
“That’s… Right now, I can’t…”
However, there was an unexpected look on Yeorum’s face. She no longer looked displeased in the slightest.
Bom scrutinised Yeorum’s expression and noticed it slowly turning brighter alongside a faint light of anticipation.
“They all want to see you.”
“…”
“Dude. You have no idea how much they wanted to see you right? Fuck, you came right on time.”
“Yeorum.”
“You turned down their requests as well didn’t you? That’s okay. And fuck, so what if you turned me down 10 times! You’re right here. I knew you were going to come back one day.”
She was completely misunderstanding her.
“Yeorum.”
“Let’s be real. You bothered coming here to ask me something like this for a reason, right? I know you’re not very honest with these things. Of course I do.”
“…”
“Ahaha! Ahh! Fuck I’m so happy! The kids are all going to be super happy when they hear this! They’re gonna like, jump around and stuff you know?”
“…”
“Here! Come here you bitch!”
Yeorum threw her arms wide open with a bright smile asking for a hug, not realising the amount of internal commotion she had caused for Bom.
“No… Sorry, I don’t think I can do that.”
“Huh?”
Her expressions were over the top – this had been completely unexpected for Bom. Instead of welcoming her this much, Bom thought she would be slapped or something because that was the type of person Yeorum was in her mind.
But she could understand why she was like this. It seemed that Yeorum had missed her for a very long time, and was worried about her risking her life during the war.
There were roaring voices inside her, shouting at her to immediately leave this place. Almost twelve voices were yelling inside her at the same time and it was so clamorous that she turned dizzy.
“Ehng? What’s wrong with you? You feel super distant all of a sudden.”
“No. I’m not here to see you guys.”
“Eeeeng. What’ss wrong, my darling, Yu Bom. Uuun~~?”
As if she couldn’t believe her attitude, Yeorum came even closer while acting cute. The internal roars became even louder the more she approached. <Push her away!> <Dodge!> <Prove you’re not close!!> They pushed Bom into a corner like they were in a seizure.
“No. Forget it. Let’s pretend this never happened.”
“Uh? Oi, Yu Bom!”
“No.”
Bom hurriedly turned her body but Yeorum came closer in the blink of an eye and grabbed onto her wrist.
“What is wrong with you, huh?”
“…What.”
“You came here to see me, didn’t you?”
“…”
“Don’t do that. Like, you came all the way here already. Why are you so embarrassed and why are you trying to go back?”
“Yeorum. I have no plans of seeing them.”
“What are you talking about. If you really didn’t, then you wouldn’t have come all the way here right? Ah, if it’s because of the war, then don’t worry. I can bring the kids over to your squad. We will make it quick. Just take a day off and we’ll be all set.”
She showed more affection the more she was pushed.
This was again out of her expectation. Bom was hurting her and yet Yeorum was coming even closer, so she had no choice but to make her go back by hurting her even more.
“Stop.”
“…What?”
“Stop. Please.”
“Aigo, come on, what happened to you boss. What should I do for you.”
“I’m not joking.”
“Aye, I know you’re not serious. You’re suddenly going to crack up and tease me or something, right you bitch?”
What happened next startled Bom. Yeorum tried to hug her from behind while murmuring like the past, ‘Let’s see. How has our unni’s titties been?’
Bom had to be resolute.
“Get away from me.”
Despite saying that herself, even she was surprised by her own cold voice.
“…Huh?”
“Do you think I cut my precious time off to come here and play around with you?”
“…”
Yeorum’s eyes widened in shock, unable to believe her words. However, Bom continued saying such cruel stuff to convince the vengeful spirits inside her.
“How long are you going to stay indulged in playing house.”
Those words that seemingly denied their past turned Yeorum blank.
“…”
“You need to do a negotiation properly. My time is gold, and I have many things that are cheaper than that.”
“…”
“If you need those worthless conditions to help, then forget it. I wish you all the best and goodbye.”
Bom turned away from her as Yeorum was frozen stiff. She couldn’t say anything in return.
Only then were the vengeful spirits inside her body content. The chaos had settled and a few of them even gave her compliments for being able to differentiate private matters from the important ones.
“Bom. My sister.”
But Yeorum’s words stopped her in her tracks.
“My friend. You fucking bitch.”
Her feet came to a stop. There were tears mixed into Yeorum’s voice.
Although she was met with internal complaints again, Bom couldn’t help but stop her feet.
“What.”
“It really, feels like my heart is being crushed…”
“…”
“Did you actually mean that?”
“…”
“You don’t know what the kids are doing right now do you?”
“I don’t know. They’re probably sleeping, because they’re around that age.”
“No. They are not sleeping. The two of them left on a journey together 300 years ago to meet you again.”
Bom couldn’t comprehend those words. Why would they have to leave on a journey to meet her?
“We can’t see our guardian anymore. They all accepted that by now, but to at least be able to meet you again, they think they have to be a high enough dragon.”
“…”
“They think you’re not seeing them because of how useless they are, so they want to come back useful. Because of that, they’re not in Askalifa. They are going around the outer dimensions learning everything. You had no idea did you? Since you have zero interest in what the kids are thinking.”
Bom’s eyes turned vacant.
“Yu Bom. You know what. I had no fucking idea that’s how you thought of me and those kids…”
Yeorum was on the verge of tears while saying that.
“I was delaying my sleep just so I could see you once but I should tell the kids now. To give up.”
“…”
“Thank you for being honest, you damn bitch. At least we don’t need to have any false hope now.”
After finishing her words, Yeorum disappeared into the distance.
“…”
Left alone, Bom blankly stared at the ground like a statue. She couldn’t even hear the commotion inside her.
– My dear daughter. Do you feel alright?
However, the clearer voice of her mother still reached her ears. She was not trying to cheer her up; that was a question of suspicion.
“Of course.”
I can’t ruin the Grand Schema because of this.
Bom shifted her mother’s suspicion with those words.
“Hmm, then the next red dragon I should talk to is…”
She carried her feet on despite the stagger,
As if she did not care about Yeorum in the slightest.
.
.
.
It was already nighttime when she left Yeorum’s nest.
Bom stood still for a bit to turn her gaze towards the sky.
She then looked at the stars,
While remembering someone’s voice…
.
.
.
War. Blood. Pain. Despair. Frustration. Determination.
And Grand Schema.
Another 200 years went by.
.
.
.
The green dragon race led the war against quons to victory.
The vast continent was soaked in blood. Both flora and fauna were destroyed during the war; the ground was desolate as if there had been a meteor strike, and a whole empire was turned into a desert. Air was filled with dirty germs and mana embedded with killing intent; every water flowing aboveground was polluted with poison with a portion of them flowing underground. It became impossible for lives to bloom in those lands for the next thousands of years.
It was a long war that went on for approximately 1,000 years, and this was also very long in the standards of dragons.
There was only 30% of green dragons left and the quons had gone extinct.
Those lands were called the [Grave of Species] by the dragons, because countless species of Askalifa’s ecosystem had completely vanished during the war.
Despite the aftermath of the war, time continued flowing and opened up a new era. The surviving green dragons had a party and noisily praised themselves for destroying their longtime nemesis.
Hatchlings were not dead in spite of the long battle, and it was about time for the current Dragon Lord to step down from his position. Another few thousand years and a new era was bound to come to the green dragon race.
The new era was ahead of them.
Although no-one openly mentioned it, they were all aware of the upcoming change. And as for the one that would be the pioneer of the new era, they all thought of one specific dragon.
“To think we had yet to conduct a coming-of-age ceremony for you even though you are already 1,000 years old. I can only say it is our fault as the previous generation.”
The one saying that was an old man whose green hair had turned into white. It was rare to see dragons looking like old humans, but that was because he couldn’t make himself look young with polymorph due to living for over 9,000 years.
He was an elder of the green race.
“What kind of problem will there be to not having a name?”
“How can a candidate of the future Dragon Lord not have a name?”
The elder intriguingly smiled in response to the candidate’s question, and looked at the young green dragon as if she were a precious jewel.
“Isn’t there not enough time for a coming-of-age ceremony?”
“That is indeed a problem, but whatever the case, we still need a name.”
“I see…”
“The Lord will soon call you, so you must come up with a name before that. Otherwise, how would he call you?”
“Ah.”
“Decide on it right now. What do you want for your name?”
The young dragon squinted her eyes for a while, looking anxious as if she was exposed to a noisy song. She opened her mouth after a slight hesitation.
“Tue-Ru-Bomana.”
It meant ‘My Grand Schema’ according to the continental language of Askalifa.
The vengeful spirits inside her were pleased.
Bom also gave a hazy smile with black dead eyes.