Chapter 34
[34] Half-Baked Dragon Tongue
With Tae-seong at the front, we made our way down the stairs.
Magic lit our path, but the atmosphere down here was still terribly eerie.
Considering the only sentence inscribed on the statue that anyone had managed to decipher was “The emperor sleeps here,” this had to be an imperial tomb.
They always said places like this were equipped with all sorts of measures to keep grave robbers out.
Even the strange layout outside—in other words, the “Garden of the Dragon Sword”—might have been deliberately designed to keep robbers from entering this tomb.
Perhaps it was meant to protect the secrets hidden here and repel intruders until another key arrived: the owner of the Dragon Bone Sword.
“Do you think this is how archaeologists feel? It’s scary because you don’t know what might pop out, but it’s kind of exciting, too.”
Maybe he was trying to shake off his nerves, but one of the Hunters said this.
The Hunter beside him looked confused and asked, “Are you seriously excited right now?”
“Think about it. We’re probably the first people to explore this imperial tomb. When else would we get a chance like this?”
“Ugh...”
The woman shook her head, still not understanding, then turned to me.
“What about you, Minjun?”
“Hmm... If we assume we’ll make it out alive, then yes. I’m excited, too.”
The other Hunters might not understand, but unlike them, I had one more reason to feel excited.
I was hoping I might find a clue here that could help me use the dragon’s power.
“What? Am I the weird one? This place just gives me the creeps...”
The woman shook her head as if she couldn’t understand, then muttered to herself, “Is that how you have to think just to get through this?”
Still, I could understand how she felt.
This was someone’s tomb, after all.
It was only natural that it felt unsettling.
We’d been walking for several minutes, chatting about the tomb, when—
“Tae-seong, wait a second.”
One of the Hunters, who had been following us in silence with hunched shoulders ever since we started down the stairs, called out to him.
“There seems to be something written here.”
At her words, Tae-seong and the others looked at the section of wall she was pointing to.
Just as she’d said, there was something that looked like writing, etched faintly into the wall.
I couldn’t make it out, but it looked similar to the inscription Tae-seong had shown me earlier—the one he said they’d deciphered.
“I’ll take a picture and report it later.”
Tae-seong took a photo for the report. A few of the other Hunters, apparently curious, followed suit and took pictures of their own.
I thought I should show it to Sia and Rokan later, too, so I joined them and took a picture.
This feels strangely familiar...
But as I was slipping my phone back into my pocket, one of the Hunters behind me accidentally nudged me. I flailed for balance, instinctively reaching out for something to grab—and planted my hand right on the writing carved into the wall.
I leaned against it at an awkward angle, and heard a Hunter behind me say,
“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. But...”
The wall had kept me from falling, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.
I felt something when my hand touched the wall.
A tingling sensation had run from my fingertips.
Wondering if I’d imagined it, I cautiously reached out and touched the writing again.
And then—
It wasn’t my imagination.
Even though I’d only lightly touched the wall, I felt that tingling sensation at my fingertips once more.
“Minjun, what’s wrong?”
“There’s... something strange about this.”
When Tae-seong asked with a puzzled look, I explained what I’d just felt.
“Really? It looks like an ordinary wall.”
Tae-seong reached out and touched it, too.
The moment his hand touched the wall, a look of surprise spread across his face as well.
He’d felt the same tingling I had.
Just then—
“I think I know why.”
It was the voice I’d heard behind me a moment ago.
It was probably the Hunter who had accidentally pushed me.
I think his name was Hyeonseok.
He raised his hand and spoke up.
“My cousin’s a gate archaeologist. Sometimes she tells me stories about her work, and apparently, this sort of thing happens now and then.”
“You mean the tingling sensation you get when you touch the wall?”
“Yeah. She said that always means the wall has been coated with special mana.”
Everyone listened with interest; it was the first time any of us had heard of this.
“So there’s magic on this wall,” Tae-seong said, having listened quietly.
“Right. Apparently, all you have to do is channel a little mana into it, and the magic inscribed here will activate.”
It really was an imperial tomb.
Even the walls of the grave had been enchanted with fascinating magic like this.
“Sounds like it works on the same principle as an artifact.”
“Exactly. That’s what my cousin said, too.”
He agreed with Tae-seong.
“Then I’ll try it.”
Since he’d brought it up, Hyeonseok offered to channel mana into the wall himself. The other Hunters readily agreed.
But—
“...That’s strange.”
Even though mana had been channeled into it, the magic didn’t activate.
“There’s definitely magic inscribed here...”
Hyeonseok tried channeling mana again, just in case, but the spell still didn’t activate.
“Move aside. I’ll try.”
When Hyeonseok struggled to get it to work, Tae-seong stepped in. He was the most skilled mage among us.
But just like Hyeonseok—
Even after Tae-seong channeled more mana into the wall, nothing happened.
“Hyeonseok, are you sure you got that right?”
“I’m sure! I told you, my cousin’s an expert. Ugh, and there’s no internet down here, so I can’t even look it up.”
As he grumbled in frustration, Hyeonseok suddenly turned to me.
“Minjun, could you try it? I feel like you might be able to.”
The Hunters around us agreed that Hyeonseok’s suggestion made sense.
“Yeah. Maybe Minjun can do it. He’s the one who opened this hidden dungeon in the first place.”
Even I thought it sounded reasonable.
I approached the wall and channeled mana into it, as they suggested.
And then—
At last, the writing carved into the wall began to glow.
Everyone was speechless at the sight, but only for a moment.
We swallowed nervously, tensing at the sight of something none of us had ever seen before.
Soon the writing stopped glowing, and then an image like a hologram appeared before us.
“Recording magic...!”
I’d never seen one in person, but I’d heard about them somewhere before.
I’d heard that recordings made with magic like this were occasionally found in gates.
But who would’ve thought that the magic inscribed on this wall was recording magic?
A moment later, the holographic image began to play.
The first thing we saw was a young boy, who looked about twelve, crying with tears streaming down his face.
“Looks like that kid’s the one buried in this tomb, right?”
“Seems like it.”
Judging by the look of things, the recording magic seemed to hold the life story of the emperor buried here.
We couldn’t understand their language, but from the context, we could more or less figure out what was going on.
He belonged to the royal family that ruled over a small kingdom.
Unlike his brothers, who were gifted martial artists, the boy had little talent for martial arts.
The founder of the kingdom had been a Swordmaster, and all his descendants had inherited his bloodline and shown great aptitude for swordsmanship. Yet for some reason, the boy’s talent was woefully lacking.
On top of that, I guessed he was the youngest of his siblings and a concubine’s son, with no chance of inheriting the throne.
Was that why?
His brothers—and even the officials—treated him with quiet contempt.
The boy’s feelings were captured so vividly in the recording magic that, for a moment, I forgot we were inside a tomb.
Then, one day, after enduring so many miserable days that he wanted to die—
A mysterious man appeared in the boy’s bedroom.
He carried a sword.
Though the boy was a concubine’s son, he was still a member of the royal family, so security around him had to be strict.
And yet this man had slipped past the guards as if they weren’t even there.
Startled, the boy shouted for the guards, but whatever this visitor had done, his voice didn’t reach them.
As the man drew closer, the boy trembled with fear.
Was he an assassin sent by someone?
Or had he come to kidnap me for some reason?
But the man smiled gently and whispered something sweetly to the boy.
Normally, it made no sense that I could understand a language I’d never heard before, either.
“...You have a talent you don’t even know about.”
At that moment—
For some reason, I understood what he was saying.
Before I knew it, I’d repeated the man’s words in Korean, and every Hunter turned to look at me.
“Minjun, what did you just say?”
At one Hunter’s question, I waved my hand and made an excuse.
“Oh, I just thought that was what he was saying, judging by the situation.”
“...Well, that does seem plausible.”
As soon as the conversation ended, a dark shadow fell behind the man.
The shadow of a dragon.
“...That’s creepy.”
“Wait, does that mean the owner of this tomb really did get a sword from a dragon?”
“So that’s why the dungeon’s called the Garden of the Dragon Sword.”
Had we thought the only inscription anyone had deciphered on the statue—the phrase “a sword blessed by a dragon”—was just a figure of speech?
Maybe because most of the Hunters hadn’t believed dragons actually existed, they couldn’t hide their shock.
But the recording magic continued to play.
After receiving a sword directly from a dragon, the boy’s fate changed completely.
The boy, who had been considered untalented at swordsmanship, began using his extraordinary power to overpower the brothers who had looked down on him.
In the end, though he was the youngest and a concubine’s son, he ascended the throne in keeping with the custom of passing it to the most capable member of the royal family.
What followed was more or less what you’d expect.
He used the dragon’s power dwelling in his sword and body to unify the continent.
This is more than I expected.
Yet after unifying the continent and becoming an emperor who ruled the world, with nothing left to fear, the boy still seemed dissatisfied for some reason.
“If it were me, I’d just retire and enjoy the rest of my life without a care.”
“Everyone has their own troubles. Even top stars do. You see people who have money and fame go on a show and confess they’re lonely or have panic disorder.”
As they watched the emperor’s epic story unfold in the recording magic, the Hunters forgot about everything else for a while and immersed themselves in it.
Seated on his throne, the emperor rested his chin in his hand and muttered with a dissatisfied expression:
“What if I could use complete Dragon Tongue, like the dragons, instead of this half-baked version?”
Half-baked Dragon Tongue...
Wait a second.
How am I able to understand what the emperor is saying?
It wasn’t just a hunch, and I wasn’t simply guessing what the emperor meant.
I had just understood exactly what he was saying.
Until a moment ago, I hadn’t understood a word any more than the others had...
“Does anyone know what the emperor is muttering about?”
Wondering if anyone else could understand him, I asked the others.
“Of course not. I can’t understand a word.”
The Hunter beside me shook his head.
“I even tried a translation spell, just in case, but it didn’t work.”
“Maybe it’s because it’s another world’s language?”
Even Tae-seong, the highest-ranked mage among us, shook his head and said he couldn’t understand it.
Then why...
Why was I the only one who could understand him?