'I'm thirsty.'
That was Minjun's thought upon visiting the prophet's house.
The thirst that had begun just before he left Hong Kong clung to him tenaciously. Knowing it would be useless, he asked the orc for a glass of water anyway. Choi Panseok had already dismissed all his employees from the house, including his secretary and housekeeper. With the utmost politeness, the assemblyman personally offered him the glass.
Gulp! He drained it in one breath, but the parched craving lingering in his throat did not vanish. Struggling to suppress it, Minjun spoke. His tone was dry.
“Let's hear why the prophecies have been delayed for the past six days.”
Minjun had instructed them to update him on their visions once a day. However, the messages they had delivered over the past six days had been entirely unsatisfactory.
Even before this, Choi Seona had occasionally asked for a day or two of leeway, but this was the first time she had delayed for six whole days. Minjun didn't think there was an issue with the brainwashed Choi Panseok. If something had gone wrong, the problem lay with Choi Seona.
The prophet glanced nervously at her adoptive father. Choi Panseok smiled brightly, acting as if meeting Minjun again was the greatest honor imaginable. Seeing it gave her a fresh wave of goosebumps.
“I have no excuses. Fearing that conveying an incorrect prophecy might cause trouble, my daughter and I have been racking our brains to analyze it. We also wanted to wait until we had grasped as many clues as possible from the future scenes before reporting back. We couldn't risk misleading you and bringing you harm, Agent.”
Forbidding any action that might harm Minjun under any circumstances was a behavioral condition embedded when the hypnotic suggestion was planted.
But the part he still couldn't understand was...
“And that interpretation took six days?”
Choi Seona answered instead, explaining what had happened. She had only been seeing the exact same future scene for the past few days. A strange light flashed in Minjun's eyes.
“It was blurry at first, so it was difficult to understand. The scene only gradually became clear.”
“As you know, prophecies can unfold exactly as seen, but they are also frequently expressed through symbol and metaphor. This case is definitely the latter. It is not the kind that should be interpreted literally. My daughter has seen thousands, tens of thousands of different visions by now, and we have interpreted them together. Please trust the empirical knowledge we have accumulated.”
Perhaps it was just his imagination, but Minjun felt his thirst growing worse.
“And the result of your interpretation?”
“We delayed the report for a few days to try and find out more, but we couldn't confirm any further details. So, based strictly on the scenes we've seen so far, our interpretation is...”
The orc lowered his voice and leaned toward Minjun. Minjun naturally assumed a serious expression as well.
Choi Panseok spoke as if divulging a massive secret.
“Exactly 94 days from now, you will dominate every person in power from behind the scenes... You will become the true master of this world, Agent!”
“...”
A brief silence followed.
When Minjun finally spoke, his voice cracked slightly.
“...What?”
The orc replied in all seriousness.
“I imagine you must be bewildered. We were as well.”
Choi Seona murmured her agreement. She wore an expression that suggested she still found her own words hard to believe. At the same time, it looked as though she simply didn't want to believe them.
“But we simply couldn't interpret it any other way.”
Choi Seona had already witnessed Minjun completely brainwash Choi Panseok.
If he could do it to one person, he might be able to do it to many.
Brainwashing all the world's powerful figures in that manner was the most fitting interpretation. Of course, he wouldn't be able to do anything about the ‘real dragons’ just as they had appeared in the vision.
“No, wait. Hold on.”
Now a headache joined his terrible thirst. Minjun furrowed his brow.
“More details. Tell me exactly what you saw.”
“There are three definite points. First, all the powerful people in this world will submit to your commands. Second, your rule will remain unknown to ordinary people and will operate in absolute secrecy. Third, the timing for this is 94 days from now.”
94 days from now.
It was a timeframe that grated on Minjun's nerves even more than the absurd title of ‘master of the world.’
Minjun knew what was going to happen in 94 days.
It was the day a new Dragon Lord of Earth would be elected, and the day the ownership of the Dragon Heart would pass to the new Rod if Rod's direct descendants failed to find his killer. At the same time, it was also the day the barrier protecting the inheritance Minjun had received from the deceased would break.
Minjun's mind grew chaotic.
'No, even so... the master of the world?'
The orc spoke in a tone that failed to hide his excitement.
“When that day comes, you will hold every nation in your hands and shake them from the shadows, Agent!”
He didn't really want to shake anything like that.
Minjun frowned. He had asked them to foresee a future where the Committee was overthrown, yet they had produced this bizarre result.
Even if Minjun were to rule Earth from behind the scenes, a single marginal dimension like this could not have a decisive impact on the fight against the Committee. What mattered to him was acquiring enough Talent to regain his memories and power, and to awaken his kin. No matter how fully the people of Earth cooperated, there was a strict limit to what they could practically achieve.
He pressed his temples firmly and spoke.
“Stop interpreting and just tell me exactly what you saw.”
“But, as I have already explained, prophecies are...”
“I will be the judge of whether your interpretation is good or bad, so just tell me the raw details without filtering them.”
Then Choi Seona began her stammering explanation.
“...!”
Minjun felt his breath catch, unable to speak.
Hiding his shock, he barely managed to ask a question. His voice sounded utterly exhausted.
“A shadow, you said?”
“Yes. And that shadow... the brains of the dragons...”
Minjun had no choice but to once again acknowledge the skill of the prophet he had secured. And because of that, he couldn't help but wonder just how that future would come to pass.
Choi Seona was describing the dragon-slaughtering method Minjun had favored in the past with meticulous accuracy.
*
“Jenkinson, I know you must be busy, so thank you for helping.”
“I can spare this much time for you. Besides, after hearing such a shocking story, I had to rush straight over.”
After confirming the prophecy, Minjun had come to Jenkinson's laboratory without even taking the time to organize his thoughts. He had adjusted his schedule to accommodate his friend—the Ancient Dragon who had briefly returned to the country just for him despite his busy affairs.
He pushed the incomprehensible prophecy—a future where Earth became a dragon slaughterhouse—to the back of his mind for the moment. Instead, he decided to focus on the task at hand.
“I heard you were traveling with Kentius. Is he here in Korea as well?”
“Yes. But I left him behind for today.”
Jenkinson hesitated before asking.
“With that personality of his, he probably didn't act very politely in front of you. Still, the fact that you accepted the deal... are you perhaps digging a massive trap to stab him in the back?”
“...”
Minjun did not answer. Jenkinson wore an anxious expression.
“I'm begging you. Please don't be too harsh on him. He isn't a bad kid by nature.”
Minjun changed the subject.
“Have you thought about the hypothesis I mentioned? Do you still find it hard to believe?”
Jenkinson snorted.
“Of course. Rod is not that kind of dragon. I can be certain of that. However, I can't guarantee that he doesn't have any hidden children. He fathered so many kids in his life, it's highly likely he has a hidden child or two out there. But to say that kid is Rod's new body? That is sheer nonsense.”
“We'll find out soon enough. We'll see who is right.”
“Since it's your request, I will give it a try, but I don't know if I can track them down properly. By the way, you sure are drinking a lot of water today. This space is normally just for my own use, so I don't keep any drinking water around.”
“Ah, it's fine. This is enough.”
Minjun put down the water bottle he had just emptied.
The thirst seemed to be psychological. Still, drinking something made it subside a little, so Minjun had been continuously gulping down water.
Among Dark Magic spells, there were curses that abruptly increased the water content in the body to shatter the electrolyte balance, and curses that turned spilled blood into water. However, he didn't want to waste Dark Magic Power simply because he was thirsty.
Minjun took a bloodstained piece of concrete out of his coat.
“It's Rod's bloodstain.”
Groaning softly, Jenkinson accepted it.
Then he familiarly manipulated the control panel and muttered a few words of a spell. While waiting for the preparations to finish, Minjun looked around the laboratory.
This space had been dedicated to researching dragon-spiders until recently. To use as an experimental catalyst, Jenkinson had drawn a suitable amount of his own dragon blood and stored it here. The liquid inside the transparent containers lining the wall was exactly that. From a dragon's perspective, it was just a little drawn blood, but it was a volume large enough to drown an elf, a human, or a member of any other petite race.
Minjun thought to himself. 'Drowning in dragon blood... a truly luxurious death.' In more ways than one.
The thirst that had suddenly flared up upon his entering the laboratory grew even worse. Now his throat was stinging.
Vwooom!
The lower section of the glass container holding the blood opened up.
Swoosh!
A massive amount of blood sprayed into the air. Minjun swallowed dryly. His throat ached as if it were splitting.
Instead of falling to the floor and creating a sea of blood, the dragon blood clumped together in the air to form a sphere. When Minjun gestured that it was enough, Jenkinson stopped the flow.
Minjun muttered an incantation toward the sphere, which looked like a droplet of blood magnified tens of thousands of times. Then, for the first time in a long while, he gripped his Ritual Dagger tightly.
Stab!
He plunged the black blade into his bare left arm. His arm went limp, and an ominous wave rippled through the air. His skin turned like dry bark. In an instant, his left arm twisted into a mummified state.
Vwoom! Vwooom!
The red sphere in the air moved. Blood-formed protrusions sprouted from its surface, reaching out to touch the bloodstain on the concrete fragment.
What happened next was a phenomenon indistinguishable to the naked eye. But Minjun knew it was progressing exactly as he intended.
This right now was also a type of curse. A curse that altered the properties of blood into someone else's.
This Magic was used to leave behind false evidence to throw off trackers, but it could also be used to attack opponents. In the latter case, it was easy to imagine what would happen inside a body when the blood flowing through its veins suddenly changed into someone else's.
“Is it working?”
Jenkinson asked.
“Perfectly.”
Minjun nodded.
He had chosen this Magic for a reason other than the two aforementioned purposes.
Rod's bloodstain on the stone fragment was extremely small, and it had already dried up and lost its vitality. In that state, it could not be used as a magical catalyst. Thus, Minjun had decided to reproduce the blood in a viable state.
He chose Jenkinson's fresh dragon blood as the base. The information left in the bloodstain could be compared to dye, while Jenkinson's lifeblood played the role of water. He was dissolving the former into the latter to dye it all with Rod's color.
The expected result was simple. It would change Jenkinson's blood, which still retained its life force, into the Dragon Lord's blood.
“Now.”
In front of the altered dragon blood, Jenkinson chanted a spell.
A spell that only a dragon could use.
Flash!
The moment the Magic was completed, a subtle power spread out into the surroundings. Minjun knew it would slowly sweep across the land and sea, eventually covering the entire planet.
“I'll say it again, but since I'm not the true owner of this blood, the effect won't be perfect. The most certain way would be for the Dragon Lord to chant this spell himself, but that is impossible.”
Jenkinson had just activated a Magic to find the direct descendants of the Dragon Lord. Due to the caster's limitations, it was a somewhat imperfect spell. Minjun nodded.
“Even a small clue is fine.”
“I'll let you know when the results come out. Though I don't know if they'll be in the clean format you want. Then...”
Jenkinson looked at the cluster of blood, which had noticeably shrunk in size. Even after being consumed by the spell, a little still remained.
“What will you do with this?”
Hearing those words, Minjun was reminded once again of just how unique a dragon Jenkinson was.
From drawing his own blood here for experiments—no matter how much seeing Jang Tae-jun had shifted his perspective—it was not a dragon-like behavior at all.
Furthermore, to ask a non-dragon race how to dispose of Rod's dragon blood...
Minjun was about to answer that he would keep it, but then he stopped.
“...”
He had suddenly remembered something and changed his mind.
“If you have the time, could we try one more experiment with it?”
“With what?”
Minjun pointed to one of the devices in the laboratory. Not long ago, Jenkinson had shown him how he operated that Magic Tool right here.
“Ah. So you were interested in it too?”
It was a device that projected various magical power patterns into the blood of a dragon-spider and analyzed the results.
That day, Minjun had read the traces carved into the blood. Data from the distant past starting with the phrase ‘Livestock Product Traceability System Information Access’.
It was a reaction that did not appear in modern dragons like Jenkinson.
'Rod was one of the oldest dragons.'
He recalled how the Dragon Lord's will had begun.
- Testator 'Ager-Pishko-Kois-Halekia-Lyubrai-Azel-Azel-Seknat-Kois-Ager' (Residence: Los Padres National Park, 6750 Santa Maria, California, United States of America), a dragon carrying on the honor and will of his great ancestors, has drafted this will with a complete and sound mind. Based purely on personal hopes and desires free from any unjust external pressure, I leave behind my intent as follows.
The unfamiliar words that made up his incredibly long real name.
The dragons assumed they were the names of the ancient Dragon Race. A naming convention that listed the names of ancestors as middle names was not uncommon across dimensions.
But Minjun knew the truth.
Those words were not someone's name; they were numbers used in the distant past.
Though the numeral system was a bit different...
'Ager-Pishko-Kois-Halekia-Lyubrai-Azel-Azel-Seknat-Kois-Ager'.
If one were to translate this long name, which modern dragons did not prefer, into a modern language, it equated to roughly this.
'1-7-3-4-5-2-2-9-3-1'.
It seemed Rod's name had been influenced by the livestock product identification numbers used to classify them in the distant past.
'He was born in an era where those faint memories still lingered as a socio-cultural custom... by today's standards, he was an Ancient Dragon among Ancient Dragons.'
Flash!
When Jenkinson placed the dragon blood that had been changed into Rod's blood into a vessel and activated it, the same thing from back then repeated.
The magical wave concentrated in one spot. Rod's blood reacted to it, reflecting a distorted magical wave. The device read the wave and displayed it on the monitor.
The gazes of the two focused on it.
“Ho?!”
Jenkinson exclaimed in awe.
He had never analyzed any dragon blood other than his own and the dragon-spider's. Since no dragon would volunteer, that was only natural. Secretly hoping to discover something new, his eyes shone.
“This is similar to the test subject's reaction from back then!”
“...”
“There is nothing matching in my database this time either. What does it look like to you? Are the characters still unreadable?”
Minjun had no leeway to answer. He stared intently at the monitor.
The magical wave was being schematized on the screen.
It was exactly the same as with the dragon-spider. Minjun could read it.
The beginning was similar.
Livestock Product Traceability System Information Access
- Individual Identification Number: Unknown
- Country of Origin: Unknown
- Slaughterhouse: Unknown
- Slaughter Completion Date: Unknown
- Processing Plant: Unknown
- Genetic Information: Fire Dragon-Type 241 (Breed Improver: Latuma, Registration Year: 6,210) / Pureblood Verification Complete
※ Genetic damage is severe; accurate information access is restricted.
However, this time it did not end there.
Following the information that his kin had likely carved in the distant past, a new string of text appeared. Jenkinson tilted his head.
“There is much more information than with the dragon-spider. Is it because Rod was a proper dragon? But why didn't I have a reaction like this?”
Letting the muttering slip past his ears, Minjun read the shape of the wave.
Unlike the previous one, it was incredibly crude. By comparison, it was like the crooked handwriting of a young child showing off their newly learned writing skills, filled with glaring errors in grammar and orthography. Furthermore, it hadn't been carved as clearly as the primordial race had done, so parts of it were blurry and distorted.
But it was just enough for him to barely read and decipher.
“Wait. These magical power patterns mixed in here and there... I feel like I've seen them somewhere.”
Jenkinson felt a vague sense of déjà vu but could not accurately pinpoint it.
The new magical wave following the livestock product information bore someone's fingerprints. Minjun clearly remembered whose they were.
'The Dragon Lord!'
His eyes moved rapidly. Minjun understood what that wave was.
It was a kind of letter.
A message he had hidden inside his own genetics.
To the 'someone' who would eventually stimulate this and check its contents, the Dragon Lord had written the opening of the letter, posing this question.
Minjun read it. Rod's voice overlapped in his ears like an auditory hallucination.
Rod's question was concise.
- Who are you people?
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