The Foreigner on the Periphery

After cutting off the Magic communication, Minjun weighed his options.

What if he found the culprit who killed Rod?

Kentius, whom he had brainwashed, would obtain the Dragon Heart, and the anti-Committee thinker with a bounty of 770,000 Talents would fall into Minjun’s hands.

He had previously dismissed the option due to its low probability of success, but now he possessed at least a small clue.

Even if the plan failed, he had nothing to lose.

He confirmed the terms with Kentius once more.

“You said you’d cooperate on the condition that you get the Dragon Heart if the plan succeeds, right? And Inais agreed to that.”

“That is correct. She interpreted Rod’s will conservatively. To uphold his dying wish, she believes the inheritor must possess it intact, without dividing it. Taking various factors into account, she decided to yield the heart to me. In exchange, Inais will receive a portion of the other inheritance meant for me.”

This entire arrangement, of course, hinged on the assumption that Kentius could find the culprit within ninety-nine days.

“She’s currently brooding an egg, so her maternal instincts should be at their peak, right? Yet she readily gave up the Dragon Heart, which could have been her child’s share?”

Minjun fell into deep thought. Rod had wanted a dragon covered entirely in gold scales, one that looked exactly like himself?

Well, he supposed it made sense.

But that was incredibly difficult to achieve in nature. For a Hatchling to perfectly resemble its father...

A certain creature suddenly flashed through Minjun’s mind.

‘Who knows. What if an Ober spider devoured a dragon’s testes and used them to spawn a soldier spider? Would a clone of that male dragon be born? Would they at least look identical? Even if one were born, it would just be a degraded copy with an extremely short lifespan.’

Considering that crossbreeding with Non-Dragon Races was impossible in nature, it was little more than a wild delusion.

And yet...

‘An artificially created mutant hybrid already exists, doesn’t it?’

It was a troubling notion. Deciding to ponder the matter more deeply later, Minjun turned his head.

“Grrr!”

Bogor, who had lost consciousness, was finally stirring. Perhaps thanks to his monstrous physique, he was recovering faster than Halisnaim despite having suffered a much more brutal attack.

Minjun planted a suggestion in his mind as the dragon stared back with blank eyes. The black dragon muttered in a dull, mechanical tone.

“I... fought Kentius... I lost... Kentius took the inheritance... I gave up and... fled...”

He seemed somehow even stupider than before, but Minjun didn’t pay it much mind. With the suggestion firmly imprinted in his brain, Bogor carefully bit down on Halisnaim’s nape, much like a mother cat carrying her kitten.

With a powerful flap of his wings, the troll-like dragon took off and vanished beyond the horizon. Watching him leave, Minjun made a mental note. From now on, he would have to use the Frying Pan to cook feed—no, meals—and have them regularly delivered to the brute. The results were remarkably effective given the minimal time, effort, and resources required; there was no reason not to do it.

Minjun watched the dragon’s staggering flight. The light of the setting sun, signaling the end of a long day, washed over its receding back.

*

Minjun returned to New York alongside Kentius. The moment they showed themselves, the number of prying eyes following them noticeably decreased. Kentius’s public declaration was clearly taking effect.

Once the other heirs confirmed that the inheritance had passed to Kentius, those who lacked the confidence to fight him quickly gave up. Although he had been pushed back by the mutant Bogor, Kentius was still undeniably a powerful Ancient Dragon. Moreover, with the two of them moving together, the others no longer had the reason—or the guts—to provoke Minjun.

Minjun went grocery shopping one more time before heading back to the residence. Ha Eun-seong greeted Minjun, who had returned much sooner than expected, and then stared in bewilderment at Kentius, who was standing behind him carrying enough groceries to run a soup kitchen.

“Oh, you’re back?”

“Pack your bags. We’re leaving for Hong Kong today.”

“...?!”

No further explanation was given, but Ha Eun-seong simply took it in stride. While the ghost packed his luggage, Minjun stepped into the kitchen. He dumped all the newly purchased ingredients together and started cooking. The meal, of course, was for Kentius.

Minjun planned to stick with the dragon for a while to hunt down clues about Rod’s killer. Therefore, he needed to maintain the effects of the suggestion for as long as possible. To ensure that, he intended to stuff Kentius’s stomach to the brim in advance.

The care he had put into his previous cooking was entirely gone. Minjun sloppily stir-fried the ingredients—just enough to infuse the food with the suggestion—and served it up. It looked like an absolute mess, but Kentius savored the taste with an expression of pure bliss.

“Mmm! Magnificent as always. You truly are the greatest chef in all the dimensions.”

Ha Eun-seong watched the spectacle with a thoroughly disgusted expression.

It was a cooking appliance he had once harbored near-reverence for. He had even genuinely missed the food cooked in it. He used to think that as long as he could experience that guaranteed rush of happiness, the meal was a worthwhile experience, even if the emotions were artificially induced.

But now, watching Kentius devour the slop from a third-party perspective...

‘...I really don’t want to eat that.’

He could feel his mind changing. His sense of smell tempted him, but Ha Eun-seong forcefully turned his head away and ignored it. He went back to packing his suitcase. He was too afraid to even ask what Minjun planned to do with the brainwashed dragon next. And while the whole situation was undeniably chilling, he didn’t feel a single ounce of sympathy for the beast. It was a dragon, after all. A dragon deserved whatever was coming to it.

“Hmm.”

While Kentius basked in absolute bliss and Ha Eun-seong grappled with chills and bitterness, Minjun finally sat down to focus on the task he had been putting off.

In his hand rested the metal Cube he had extracted from the private vault.

He finally had the time to properly study it. After examining the object—which was undeniably a subspace artifact—Minjun let out a heavy sigh.

‘Just how much effort did he pour into this? Even for an Ancient Dragon... this must have been a massive headache to create.’

The artifact was sealed with an incredibly intricate, complex, and unyielding structure. An ordinary magician wouldn’t even dare attempt to open it. They would likely search for a gentle method, eventually give up, and just try to forcefully smash it to pieces instead.

But Minjun was confident.

After all, he was no ordinary magician.

He was the man who had deciphered the mechanics of the Kavite’s soul-transference Magic circle with a single passing glance.

‘This should be child’s play.’

Minjun leisurely examined its structure, looking for a way to stimulate the Cube with Magic power to force it open.

And exactly fifteen minutes later, Minjun was seized by an overwhelming urge to smash the damn thing to pieces.

*

‘Seriously, what on earth was Rod thinking when he made this?!’

Minjun could feel his temper flaring.

At the same time, he was forced to revise his assessment of the Cube.

‘It’s intricate, all right. But... it’s intricately designed in a highly malicious way.’

To put it in physical terms, it was like finding a locked safe where it was impossible to forge a matching key. Why? Because someone had welded the keyhole shut and melted it down into solid metal.

Furthermore, if someone gave up on finding a key and tried to forcefully destroy the exterior, the mechanism was rigged to instantly banish its contents straight into the Abyss.

It would essentially be lost forever.

Minjun let out a low groan.

‘He designed it so that even if you perfectly understand the structure, you still can’t do a damn thing about it.’

Had Rod really left Minjun a gift he couldn’t even open?

Not exactly.

The Key to bypass the melted lock and open the Cube was a universal resource recognized and shared by everyone in the world—yet simultaneously, it was something no one could ever physically grasp.

Minjun murmured the true identity of that Key.

“Time.”

He muttered.

“This thing is basically a time bomb, isn’t it?”

It was a bomb, but it wasn’t designed to harm its owner. When the appointed time arrived, the Magic bomb embedded within the Cube would shatter the outer shell and safely reveal its contents to the world.

Minjun finally grasped Rod’s true intention. Rod wanted Minjun to see and obtain whatever was inside only when the designated time had come.

Deep in thought, Minjun suddenly paused.

“Hmm?!”

He sensed something and jerked his head up.

After returning to New York, the majority of the prying eyes tracking him had vanished, but they hadn’t disappeared entirely.

Even after Kentius’s public declaration, one of the lingering watchers was now boldly approaching the residence.

‘They’re coming right out in the open?’

Minjun stood up and walked over to the front door. The approaching presence didn’t feel like a dragon itself, but rather a familiar serving one. Moreover, he didn’t detect any immediate hostility or intent to attack.

Walking past the kitchen, where Kentius was entirely lost in a food-induced trance, Minjun pulled the front door open.

“What is it?”

Standing on the other side was an Asian man sharply dressed in a tailored suit.

“Good evening, Agent.”

He offered a polite greeting in English, his voice carrying a stiff British accent. The man offered a respectful bow, then pulled an envelope from his breast pocket and held it out to Minjun.

“...”

Minjun haphazardly tore open the premium silk envelope. His eyebrows twitched as he read the contents. Seeing his reaction, the suited man spoke.

“My master has extended an Invitation to you both. He anticipated that your business here in New York would be concluding right about now. He humbly requests that you accept. My master eagerly looks forward to the day he can host you.”

Without even waiting for a reply, the man bowed once more and promptly vanished. Minjun made no move to stop him. Instead, he carried the letter back inside and walked over to Kentius.

“Hey.”

“Whad iz zit?”

The dragon, thoroughly lost in a euphoric panorama of flavors, lifted his head with his mouth completely stuffed.

“I just received an Invitation. It’s addressed to the two of us.”

“To whewe?”

Minjun replied, his voice sharp with tension.

“Hong Kong.”

“...?!”

The two of them had just been about to depart for Hong Kong to search for clues regarding the culprit who had killed Rod.

To receive an Invitation right at this exact moment couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

Moreover, the one who had sent this Invitation...

Minjun stared at the signature inscribed at the bottom of the letter.

Among the dragons that had settled on Earth, the Ancient Dragons who dominated the political and financial spheres often adopted local names for public use instead of their true draconic names. Jenkinson, who had resided in the United States during the early days of immigration, and Changcheon, who had operated businesses in China for a long time, were prime examples of this.

A name chosen for that exact same reason was written on the page.

Raymond Wong.

Minjun grinned.

It was a grin of dark amusement.

“So this is how he wants to play it?”

He was the master who claimed Hong Kong as his territory, and he was the exact same Ancient Dragon that Inais had pinpointed as Rod’s killer.

The contents of the Invitation were simple. A request to sit down for tea together. The actual agenda, however, was conveniently left blank. Minjun’s imagination immediately began spinning in a dozen different directions.

“This bastard isn’t going to be a pushover either.”

Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, Kentius forcefully swallowed the massive mouthful of food he’d been chewing.

“What are we going to do? Are you going to accept?”

They had been planning to sneak around and dig into his background, but their target had beaten them to the punch by making contact first.

Almost as if he already knew exactly what they were planning.

“This Ancient Dragon is also a candidate for the next Dragon Lord. He should be swamped with gathering votes from the other dragons and running his behind-the-scenes schemes. He wouldn’t reach out to us for no good reason.”

Had the fact that Inais suspected him already leaked out?

He couldn’t be entirely sure, but he had a strong feeling it was related.

Minjun quickly came to a decision.

“Fine. Let’s go see him.”

Whether Raymond Wong had laid a trap for them, prepared an offer to win them over, or harbored some entirely different motive Minjun hadn’t even considered yet...

It would be well worth their time to figure out what the man’s true intentions were.

Meanwhile, Ha Eun-seong, who had been listening to their conversation, let out a heavy sigh.

In all his life, the ghost had never met anyone who got as deeply and frequently entangled with dragons as his creditor did. These were terrifying monsters that most ordinary people would be lucky to catch even a single glimpse of in their entire lifetime.

The ghost muttered inwardly.

‘Did this guy make sworn enemies out of dragons in a past life or something?’

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