The Foreigner on the Periphery

To reiterate, Jenkinson was very busy.

In fact, he might well have been the busiest dragon on Earth at the moment.

It would hardly have been strange if he had returned immediately to interrogate Kaien and Asisphael the moment he captured them. Instead, Jenkinson went back to Kentius. It was out of respect for a dragon who had suffered the misfortune of having his home destroyed simply for letting visitors in. Just as the young were expected to show deference to an Ancient Dragon, he believed an elder had courtesies to uphold toward his juniors.

Thanks to that, Jenkinson was able to revisit a question he might otherwise have overlooked.

All because he had taken the time to return to Kentius's half-destroyed Lair.

"Why so serious all of a sudden? I was merely asking out of curiosity."

Why would a dragon be captivated by the scent of grain?

What had Kentius hidden away in his subspace?

The moment Jenkinson voiced the question, Kentius's eyes glazed over before quickly snapping back to normal. To answer truthfully would inevitably require naming one particular person.

The hypnotic suggestion blocked Kentius from giving an immediate reply.

"...Ah, this? It is nothing special."

It was, at most, a question about food. Yet Kentius's excessively stiff demeanor only invited greater suspicion.

Jenkinson feigned composure, but suspicions swarmed through his mind. He clearly remembered a similar case: a young dragon possessed by a ghost had experienced something nearly identical. His creditor had locked the dragon in a basement for a time, where he did nothing but eat, watch television, and sleep on repeat until he grew so bloated it was hard to tell whether he was a dragon or an elephant. That dragon had confessed:

"The food that tall, pretty lady brought me was just so delicious... I couldn't help myself..."

His friend's secretary, Cathy, had fed the dragon meals prepared with an ego frying pan over a long period. Jenkinson had dismissed it as nonsense when the dragon claimed he had binged himself into obesity simply because the food was that delicious.

Even if possessed by a human soul, the body belonged to a dragon. With the taste buds and brain cells of a dragon, how could one be captivated by human food? It was absurd.

'Yet am I not doing the exact same thing right now?'

The Ancient Dragon's mind spun rapidly.

'Come to think of it, Kentius worked alongside Minjun for a time.'

Right after Rod's death was confirmed.

Some kind of deal had reportedly taken place between Kentius and Minjun.

'And Kentius has locked himself in his home ever since Minjun disappeared!'

One thought chased another in rapid succession.

Immediately after Minjun vanished, Jenkinson had searched his office. If there were anything that shouldn't fall into the hands of the Committee, he meant to keep it safe and return it later.

At the time, he confirmed that most of Minjun's assets, including his Earth currency, remained untouched. However, the bottom drawer of his desk showed signs of a broken seal and was completely empty inside.

And.

'Right—there wasn't a frying pan anywhere in the office or the house!'

It defied Jenkinson's common sense.

Why would anyone pack a cooking utensil during an urgent escape?!

No matter how fantastic the meals it provided, there would hardly be time to leisurely fry rice while on the run.

Yet despite that, someone like Minjun went out of his way to take it?

The dragon's deep intuition whispered to him.

There was something here.

'Let's break this down.'

A frying pan that crafts delicacies capable of astonishing even a dragon.

Kentius turning into a shut-in recluse the moment Minjun disappeared.

Minjun's reason for taking the frying pan even while on the run.

"...!"

The facts Jenkinson had uncovered tangled together in his mind like knotted thread.

If he carefully traced these clues, an answer would surely await at the end of the spool. Yet the complex knot refused to yield, the solution hovering just out of reach.

Concealing his serious inner thoughts, Jenkinson spoke as if it were no big deal.

His tone feigned complete disinterest.

"It must not have been your own cooking; you likely hired a chef. But looking at the state of your Lair, it seems you've let all your staff go by now. Introduce them to me if the chance arises later. Anyway."

He shifted the topic.

"About your home."

With no sign that Ye Minjun would be brought up again, the suggestion tightly gripping Kentius's mind weakened. Gloom replaced the tension on his face.

"...Yes, I put quite a bit of effort into it. It has become a total mess."

He mumbled, his shoulders slumping.

"Who knows how long it will take to repair..."

Staring at the gaping hole in the Lair's wall, Jenkinson tossed out a remark.

"I will help you."

"Excuse me?!"

Kentius wondered if he had heard incorrectly.

"The durability of a Lair built by a dragon your age is obvious. With this much damage, it would be better to rebuild from scratch. I will personally construct your new home."

Kentius looked as if he couldn't believe his ears.

Strictly speaking, Asisphael was the culprit who smashed the place.

Jenkinson hadn't broken it himself, so for him to step up like this...

"Then what should I offer in return...?"

Was he aiming for the financial assets inherited from Rod?

At that reaction, Jenkinson burst into genuine laughter.

"Haha! You must be joking. Do you really think I would do this to get my hands on your wealth?"

This was the truth.

Jenkinson truly had no desire for such things.

"I am offering this out of pure goodwill. I also feel a moral responsibility."

Free from the aura of the suggestion, Kentius began to stare at Jenkinson with a strange look.

'I heard he was a dragon with a few loose screws, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.'

Offering to rebuild a house he didn't even break!

The 'pure goodwill' he spoke of sounded like pure madness by dragon standards.

'But an Ancient Dragon promised personally. There is no need to turn him down.'

Right then, Jenkinson added a condition.

"However, I am quite busy these days, so I don't have the time to build it right away."

"Ah... I understand completely, of course."

Even if it was delayed, he was more than grateful.

For a dragon of Kentius's age to acquire a home crafted by an Ancient Dragon was incredibly difficult.

"So let's start construction after my current affairs are settled. Ah! Then you will not have a proper place to stay in the meantime."

He added, as if just realizing it.

Jenkinson's generous offer didn't stop at securing a new home.

"So how about you stay at my place for a while?"

"Pardon? But I want to stay alone without seeing anyone..."

"You must not know how massive my Lair is. I will block off a section and lend it to you. If you don't want visitors, I'll ensure no one goes there. From your perspective, you'll have more space all to yourself than in your original home. How about it?"

Kentius deliberated a little longer, but he had no justification to refuse.

"Then... I will gratefully accept."

Bowing his head to show respect, Kentius failed to notice the dark gleam that briefly flashed across Jenkinson's warmly smiling face.

'Kentius, I need to keep you close to figure out exactly what happened to you.'

And then, one person naturally came to mind.

'Minjun.'

He recalled the day the Tax Collection Command failed their raid on his friend's office, the last time Jenkinson crossed paths with the prisoner. He remembered the gaze Minjun had directed at him through the thick, cloying darkness. Looking back, that presence was entirely different from the friend he once knew.

Recalling his friend's face, Jenkinson felt a profound sense of mystery once again.

Just what was Minjun thinking as he looked at him back then?

'Minjun, what emotions, what judgments were crouching inside you at that moment...?'

How could a person look at another person with eyes like that?

Jenkinson had absolutely no idea.

*

When he left home, Jenkinson had never expected it. He never imagined he would return trailing three hatchling boomers along with him.

After arriving at Bukhansan, he allocated a suitable section inside the Lair and handed it over to Kentius. The tricolored dragon looked satisfied. He immediately turned off all the lights, retreated into a corner, and coiled up. After setting up a monitoring eye without him noticing, Jenkinson moved on to his next task. He began interrogating the thief couple who had committed the most audacious crime in the history of dragons on Earth.

It didn't take as long as he expected. Once he regained consciousness, Kaien did scream maliciously, vowing not to yield to any torture.

However, in contrast, Asisphael...

"I will tell you everything."

Jenkinson would not forget the look on Kaien's face at that moment for a long time.

Looking as though his world had collapsed, he demanded to know how she could betray him. To her lover, Asisphael replied in a calm tone.

"Just give up now, Kaien. It's all over."

After finishing his inquiry, Jenkinson locked them away in the depths of the Lair.

Only then did he finally find a moment to breathe.

The time to figure out what to do with the Dragon Heart he had confiscated from them.

'Just what should I do with this?'

With the blood-red jewel placed in front of him, the Ancient Dragon let out a deep sigh.

Worry clouded his eyes.

'I can't exactly return it to Rod's corpse.'

He had already tested it, but Endelion's barrier refused to grant Jenkinson entry.

The artifact Kaien received from his (rather obvious) accomplices had long since ceased functioning. Giving it some more thought, it made perfect sense. They never intended to hand such a powerful weapon over to Kaien unconditionally. Thus, they likely configured it to naturally lose its function after exerting a certain level of power.

'I can't just absorb it myself, either.'

That wouldn't be right.

Even in the slim chance he lost the election, Jenkinson believed the will should be honored.

In that case, the heart would be bestowed upon the new Rod, not him.

"..."

While tossing around various thoughts and staring at the jewel, he suddenly muttered.

"Was a Dragon Heart... always this kind of object?"

Truthfully, this was the first time he had stared at a Dragon Heart from so close and for so long.

First of all, Jenkinson's parents were still perfectly alive in another dimension, so he had never experienced absorbing one.

Additionally, when attending the funerals of strangers, there was never a chance to leisurely observe it like this. Usually, it would be shattered immediately so the children could divide and absorb the pieces.

"...!"

Gazing at the brilliant light leaking from within the blood-red jewel, Jenkinson couldn't shake his bewilderment.

He had noticed an anomaly that those dragons barely past their Hatchling stage had failed to perceive.

'How does one... even split this?!'

When Kaien and Asisphael failed to divide the heart, they vented their frustration, convinced that the Ancient Dragons must know a spell to split it.

But Jenkinson knew of no such thing.

A way to cleanly sever 'something like this.'

'This is no ordinary Dragon Heart!'

Entranced, he stared into Rod's heart. The Ancient Dragon perceived a domain the young dragons could not see. It was only natural that the two couldn't break it.

Because the faceted shell that looked like the jewel's outer wall was no ordinary crystal.

'This surface is practically a Dimensional Wall!'

The composition of the Dragon Heart's surface resembled the thick wall that blocked the space between dimensions.

And its interior...

'Despite establishing a solid boundary on the outside, the division between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds has completely collapsed inside!'

Within the solid walls, certainty and uncertainty, existence and absence mixed and melted together. They swirled and crashed together like a turbulent vortex.

The dragon stared into it as if possessed. Becoming the 'observer' of this Dragon Heart for the first time, Jenkinson continued his observation.

Unlike the previous two dragons, he had no intention of breaking, fragmenting, or absorbing it to cause any loss. He merely sought to watch and understand it. To perceive it.

At that, the energy brimming inside the blood-red jewel reacted. Watching its movements, the dragon couldn't contain his excitement.

'It is an unbelievably complex spell. I couldn't even dream of imitating it!'

The immense power filling the Dragon Heart was not fixed in a static form. It interacted ceaselessly, assembling a sophisticated, high-dimensional spell.

The forces comprising the spell behaved as waves, shifting form and position whenever Jenkinson observed them. Entranced by the sight, Jenkinson realized that the Magic fueling this process was the inherent mana within the Dragon Heart.

In other words, the dragon's heart itself was a single magic circle.

And the spell this magic circle was weaving had not yet finished. It was expected to take a long time to activate. By his estimation, there were still dozens of days left.

However.

Fwoosh!

Suddenly, the spell began to activate in a bizarre manner.

The act of observing had influenced the Magic.

'No, why already? There's still time...!'

The Magic embedded within the heart was trying to trigger in an incomplete state. Jenkinson froze in shock.

'No!'

There was no telling what would happen if it continued like this.

He struggled to stop observing, but it was already too late.

The shell encasing the Dragon Heart remained intact. The solid wall was perfecting its structure without a single flaw. Yet despite that, Jenkinson felt something from inside hurtling straight toward his mind.

---!

And then, he heard a voice.

Jenkinson knew the owner of that voice. A familiar, dearly missed voice. It belonged to the dragon he had revered—the one he thought he would never hear again.

'Rod...!'

The voice of the deceased brushed past his mind for only a brief moment. It was a sentence Jenkinson couldn't comprehend. Immediately after, his vision faded to pitch black. Jenkinson felt all sensation detaching from his body.

Fading further, and further away.

As if everything he could once see, hear, and feel had all been a dream, it slipped away in vain. Everything grew faint.

For a long time in that state, he could perceive nothing aside from his thoughts and emotions. For the first time in ages, the Ancient Dragon felt true fear.

Tossed into the darkness like a vegetable, an unfathomable amount of time passed.

'Ah!'

Like a lie, the stolen senses returned. However, Jenkinson couldn't exert any control over them. They returned in a form he could not command. He had lost the power to intervene in reality, reduced to merely perceiving it from the perspective of an observer.

Damp, and warm.

And stifling.

Jenkinson felt as if he had been summoned somewhere other than the Lair at Bukhansan. But where?

Thump! Thump! A loud reverberation starting from the chest sank deep into his entire body. Still, nothing was visible. His limbs and wings were crumpled and folded, moving in unintended ways. A dense liquid seeped through the gaps of tender scales.

At that moment, someone spoke to him from beyond a thick wall.

It was different from Rod's voice, which he had heard before losing his senses. This time, it was a voice Jenkinson was hearing for the first time.

"Do not forget. ...must... the noble blood."

"...Protecting the bloodline... It is a duty. A special dragon..."

The voices of two unidentified individuals whispered in turn. Warm, gentle, echoing like a dream.

Once again, the body moved independently of Jenkinson's will, causing the heavy liquid to slosh in response. With every thrash, the brushing skin felt so fragile it seemed it would tear with a single touch. It was an incomprehensible phenomenon. Jenkinson plunged into a state of confusion so deep it was hard to hold onto his sanity.

'Where is this? Rod, what on earth... did you do to your heart?!'

Jenkinson recalled Rod's voice that had echoed just as the darkness swallowed him.

*

"I hope that you, who are comparable to gods, will empathize with us."

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