The Foreigner on the Periphery

Minjun's thoughts were in turmoil.

A crack formed deep within his consciousness. From that fissure, like a split in thick bedrock, memories began to leak.

That message was the brand the primordial race left on its livestock. It likely dated back to the era just before they fell into their deep slumber.

‘It's not displaying the information properly because it's been spliced with an Ober spider.’

Since the livestock in question—the dragon-spider monster—was alive and well, the word "slaughter" should never have appeared. Normally, it would display age, breeding history, and disease records. But perhaps because the genetic data was severely corrupted, it was displaying information based on post-mortem criteria.

Minjun thought about it. It was a kind of barcode engraved into the genes. Information that automatically updated to reflect the livestock's life and death.

When the creature bred, the exact same system was passed down into the offspring's blood. Of course, keeping it active across generations required continuous maintenance.

‘Just whose dragon genes did the bastards who made that monster use?’

Jenkinson had said his own blood didn't react to the same Magic wave. It hadn't reflected anything.

So nothing should have remained.

Yet here it was, holding its shape, even if only by half.

‘Even if you tested the blood of the oldest living dragon today, you wouldn't get a reaction like that.’

After a moment of thought, Minjun spoke.

“I can't decipher it either. I don't know.”

It was a white lie.

Because this was one issue he simply couldn't be honest about.

What if he told the whole truth? That the mark was a remnant left by those who farmed dragons like livestock, and that it was part of a system meant to manage the quality of dragon meat?

Jenkinson wouldn't believe him, of course, and the situation would become incredibly complicated.

“Is that so? It can't be helped.”

Jenkinson seemed to accept this.

Minjun added a request.

“Could you give me a sample of the blood? I'd like to study it a bit more on my own.”

“Of course.”

   *

Three days before the Balaur Council convened in Hong Kong, Jenkinson used Teleport. The massive Magic, which the Ancient Dragon had constructed with considerable care, moved Minjun, the evidence, the witnesses, and the subordinate staff all at once.

“Minjun, if you'll excuse me.”

Upon arriving at their destination, Jenkinson vanished along with his staff. It seemed that before the main meeting began, the dragons needed to gather, exchange pleasantries, and align their agendas in advance. Solitary dragons living in seclusion might have been a different story, but Ancient Dragons deeply involved in human society led busy lives. They couldn't afford to waste any time.

“Your accommodations are here, Agent. We will come to escort you on the day of the meeting.”

The staff had hidden the monster and the hybrid children in a secret location, and Minjun had no intention of getting involved in that. Nor did he feel like trailing after Jenkinson to intrude on the dragons' conversations. Since it was still before the main meeting, it was obvious they would all be walking around in their Polymorph states.

So, he holed up in the Hotel booked for him by the Dragon Lord. He spent the time organizing his thoughts and agonizing over what to do next.

Eventually, night fell.

—Dun! Dun-dun-dun!

Majestic music echoed from outside. Minjun naturally turned his head.

He could see a crowd gathered below his balcony. Just a few steps from the Hotel at the southernmost tip of the Kowloon Peninsula, right against Victoria Harbour, lay the Avenue of Stars, a major tourist attraction. The tourists gathered there were busy snapping photos of Hong Kong Island across the water.

“It's starting, finally!”

The music was part of a laser show hosted by the Hong Kong municipal government at this hour every night. Strings and harsh electronic beats blended together to hammer the air. From among the skyscrapers lining the harbor across the water, multi-colored beams shot out to dye the sky. Shafts of light danced to the rhythm. The external LED lighting on the buildings collectively traded flashes, spreading the glow.

Up to this point, it was just part of the daily repeating show.

Today, the entity that most captivated the tourists' eyes was floating above the skyline.

“Look at that!”

Above the beautiful, color-drenched skyline, a serpentine object glided forward. Its movements were seamless, its flight elegant. It leisurely crossed the night sky of Hong Kong amidst the laser show.

Its pace was akin to a stroll or an evening outing for a terrestrial creature. But the impact was massive. Every single person with a clear view of the sky could witness the magnificent sight.

Furthermore, to ordinary people, it was a creature whose true form was rarely witnessed.

The flying entity in the night sky drawing everyone's gaze.

A Dragon.

“....”

The flying entity belonged to the same genus as the dragon whose skull Minjun had most recently caved in.

Meaning it was a Lightning Dragon.

A long, serpentine body. It flowed as smoothly as silk unspooled in dark blue waters.

The flying dragon seamlessly became a part of the Hong Kong nightscape.

“It's Leo!”

Exclamations erupted from everywhere.

That young dragon, whose name everyone knew, was the youngest son of the Ancient Dragon who had claimed this place as his Territory.

“Wow, he's even cooler in person.”

“So beautiful...!”

Looking out at the sight, Minjun clicked his tongue.

“Seriously, that attention-seeking bastard.”

Unlike the many dragons who tried to fill their unresolved psychological voids by dominating and controlling other races, he had chosen a unique method. That dragon had little interest in the submission that came with exercising power. Instead, he greatly enjoyed the cheers, attention, and praise thrown by other races.

“He's coming down!”

As the dragon deliberately lowered his altitude, laser strands touched his body. The Lightning Dragon's scales gleamed like glass beads, and every time a beam struck him, they fragmented and shattered it. Shards of light pierced in all directions. An explosive reflection. The dragon spewed colors from his entire body.

It was an unreal scene. The dragon's body looked like a wisteria branch, and the sparks blooming upon it were like flower buds. A feast of brilliant colors. Fireworks carved from pure light dyed the night.

The dragon never rushed. Deflecting the lasers with his entire body, he dipped dangerously close to the building rooftops before banking away. Then he soared high into the sky. The clouds were unusually low today. He swam as if barely brushing against the clouds tinged with dilute moonlight. The onlookers watched the spectacle, utterly spellbound.

Starting from the HSBC Building, by the time the dragon had followed the Route 4 coastal highway and reached the airspace over Wan Chai harbor.

=If you happen to be watching that clown show, let me make a suggestion. Why don't you come down here and mock him with me?=

Minjun knew exactly who the psychic wave belonged to.

He sent a reply without deliberating for long.

‘I see he still hasn't cured that disease of his. Wait just a moment. I was just getting sick of it anyway.’

He walked out the door of his room.

   *

The first-floor lobby lounge of the InterContinental Hotel was the perfect place to sit and watch the show through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond the massive glass panes—which spanned a ceiling height equivalent to two or three stories in a normal building—a panoramic landscape unfolded.

Everyone was entirely distracted, watching the collaborative circus of lasers and the dragon. Looking at them, Minjun felt a complicated mix of emotions.

He crossed the lounge and headed for the counter-style bar. It was far from the windows, at an angle that made it difficult to see outside, so there was almost no one there. Aside from the bartender, there was only one customer. It was someone he knew.

Minjun spoke first.

“Just what exactly is his problem?”

The man smiled bitterly.

“It's everyone's concern. Callieter evaluated that as a kind of deformity, too. Don't go repeating that. A massive fight would break out.”

“It's been a while, Rod.”

The representative of Earth's Dragon Race bared his teeth in a smile. The prisoner sat beside him, as the dragon offered. The Dragon Lord remembered Minjun's tastes.

“Caol Ila?”

That sounds good. Minjun replied as such, then added toward the bartender. Double, on the rocks.

“How long has it been?”

“I think this is the first time since that party.”

“Has that much time passed already?”

Minjun's gaze shifted to Rod's finger. The Dragon Race rarely wore accessories even in a Polymorph state. Therefore, the fact that he showed up wearing a Ring piqued Minjun's curiosity.

“I haven't seen that item before.”

“I won it from the owner of this place in a game of Go.”

The owner of this place.

It was a double entendre.

The person he mentioned was the owner of this Hotel, located on the most prime real estate in Hong Kong, while also... being the owner of Hong Kong city itself.

The father of the dragon currently acting like a clown outside.

“....”

Minjun hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Rod, you do know, right? What that is...”

“I know. It's an item made by the tentacle monsters.”

It was an artifact similar to the one Dell had given Blair as a gift. Minjun had recognized it at a glance.

To the people here, it looked like a Ring, but in reality, it was closer to a ‘tentacle band.’ Even if the user transformed, it would freely expand and contract to wrap around the body.

To Minjun, it was surprising that the Ancient Dragon who kept Hong Kong as his Territory had been storing such a thing in his warehouse, and equally surprising that Rod, having won the bet, had specifically chosen it. Seeing his expression, Rod laughed.

“You have a look that says you can't understand why I chose this.”

“Honestly, I was a little surprised.”

“When I asked for it, he handed it over without hesitation. He knows its value, but he had no desire to use it himself. Like a chicken rib—too tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.”

Before their defeat by the Ancient Race, the dragons had proudly paraded themselves as the strongest creatures in the universe. The psychological trauma they experienced after losing the war was fatal.

Thus, the Dragon Race shoved the painful memories into the deepest drawer of their minds. And they rarely touched it, let alone dared to open it.

The Ring that Rod wore right now was practically a key to force that drawer open.

He smiled bitterly and spoke.

“There is no progress in simply looking away. The fact that dragon technology could not figure out its operating principles at all must have added to the trauma. But we can't just keep feigning ignorance. That's why I intend to keep it close and run various experiments myself.”

He meant that he had asked for it for research purposes.

It was a world of difference from the reactions of other dragons to the bizarre items made by Endelion.

“I belong to the generation that personally witnessed their return.”

The Ancient Race, having returned after being away for an unfathomable amount of time, pointed to the dimensions they had originally lived in and demanded their sovereignty back. They cited that these places were fundamentally their spiritual roots and homelands. Proudly, as if they had merely left it in someone's care.

The logic was simple. While they had vacated the premises, intruders had come in without permission and occupied the land, so they would exercise their rights as the rightful owners. To the Dragon Race, who had been ruling those places in the meantime, it was maddening nonsense.

In the Dragon Race's records, descriptions of the Ancient Race were written so ambiguously that it was difficult to distinguish between myth and history. Furthermore, even if those records were true, they did not provide grounds for dragons to abandon their homes.

In the end, both sides had a historical right to claim territorial sovereignty. Neither side showed any sign of conceding, and thus the first war between the Dragon Race and the Ancient Race began.

The Dragon Lord, who had witnessed that battle firsthand, reminisced. Back then, the Ancient Race were not monsters possessing terrifying technology as they did now. In the end, the Dragon Race was victorious. That was how the war went.

“And then those bastards suddenly showed up to the next war with ridiculous weapons and technology?”

The second war took place during an era that even the relatively young Jenkinson could vaguely remember. The outcome inflicted trauma upon all dragons.

The defeat of the Dragon Race.

“Researching this Ring won't solve every secret. But we can't give up. Someday, we have to repay this humiliation. Even if it's impossible for my generation, the next generation might be able to do it. I am satisfied just being a stepping stone in that process.”

It was a statement unimaginable from an arrogant, self-centered dragon.

Minjun thought to himself. Perhaps he had taken on the headache-inducing position of Rod precisely because he was such a unique dragon.

“I have to, if only for the sake of my children.”

Only then did Minjun offer a belated congratulation.

“Congratulations on the joyous occasion.”

“Thank you.”

Minjun searched his memory, but there was simply no way to count them all.

“Which child is this now?”

“Eighteen on Earth alone.”

Then the gathering he had attended last time must have been the seventeenth divorce celebration party on Earth. Since his routine was to have exactly one child with a spouse and then divorce.

Even compared to other dragons, the Dragon Lord repeated marriage and divorce to an excessive degree. As a result, a succession of half-siblings of roughly similar ages by Dragon Race standards was mass-produced. He was the single largest contributor to the Dragon Race's birth rate on Earth.

Minjun muttered inwardly. Anyway, he really was an unusual dragon in many ways.

Then Rod spoke.

“Oh, right. Didn't you say you had something to sell me?”

Ah.

Is that why he came looking for me?

At the same moment the Orichalcum Frying Pan came to mind, Minjun realized his mistake.

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