Chapter 61

[61] “Oppa … are you okay?”

The rampage in which she had lost control and unleashed magic like a tsunami finally came to an end.

The moment the rampage stopped, even though she had thought it would continue until her time ran out, her eyes widened in shock.

‘How …?’

How had Minjun managed to stop her rampage with Dragon Speech when he could barely even speak it properly?

But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

‘What happened to Oppa?’

Sia looked around, trying to check Minjun’s condition.

However, the thick fog left behind by the magic she had unleashed while out of control obscured her vision.

On top of that, the aftermath of the rampage had left her unable to use even simple magic.

There was nothing for it.

Until the fog cleared, all she could do was search for Minjun while calling out to him as loudly as she could.

“Op … pa …”

But her voice, already drained of all strength, could barely carry.

‘I have to … say something.’

Without ever hearing Minjun’s voice, Sia lost consciousness where she stood.

Just after Sia passed out, the fog slowly began to clear, and Minjun spotted her lying on the ground.

“Cough! S-Sia!”

He desperately wanted to rush over and check whether she was all right, but just before she had lost control, Sia had told him clearly:

Don’t worry about her. Get out of there and tell Rokan what was happening to her.

Leaving Sia unconscious and alone weighed heavily on him, but she must have had a reason for insisting so strongly.

Swallowing back his tears, Minjun limped toward the portal as fast as he could.

Every step sent a sharp jolt of pain through him, and he even coughed up blood along the way, but he ran with all his strength.

At last, he made it out of the dungeon and contacted Rokan right away.

As soon as the call connected, Minjun shouted with all his might before Rokan could even speak.

“Sia’s gone berserk—!”

“I-I’m coming!”

Fortunately, the instant Minjun said the word “rampage,” Rokan teleported straight to him.

“Shasha! Is Shasha—?!”

It was the first time Minjun had seen Rokan, who was usually so kind and composed, shout in such a frantic state.

“Training … grounds …”

Even saying a single word was difficult. Pointing toward the dungeon entrance, Minjun barely managed to get out “training grounds.” Rokan realized how serious Minjun’s condition was, quickly took an elixir from his subspace, and poured it into Minjun’s mouth.

It should at least serve as emergency treatment.

As a precaution, Rokan left a few bottles of elixir and the spirit Undine beside Minjun.

“Just hold on a little longer, Minjun. I’m so sorry.”

Even after taking every measure he could, Rokan couldn’t bring himself to leave an injured person behind. He kept apologizing right up until he entered the dungeon.

But as worried as he was about Minjun, it was naturally his granddaughter Sia’s condition that had left him so shaken.

‘Shasha has to be holding on.’

From the moment he heard that his granddaughter had gone berserk, Rokan had been unable to keep his composure.

He had watched her go through her first rampage, so he knew.

Her life wasn’t in danger just because she had lost control.

If anything, the ones whose lives were truly at risk were the people near the rampaging Sia.

Not Sia herself.

But even though her life wasn’t in danger, he knew that once a rampage began, she suffered pain so terrible she would wish for death.

With a heart aching for her, Rokan hurried toward Sia.

It was agonizing to watch his precious granddaughter, whom he loved more than life itself, writhe in pain and scream.

‘My dear Shasha.’

Her rampage had begun in a sealed space with no other dragons around to help her, and she had been alone with Minjun.

How frightened and anxious must she have been?

He had to get there as quickly as possible and ease her suffering, even if only a little.

“Shasha!”

With a desperate cry, Rokan immediately began searching for her.

When Minjun told him what had happened, Rokan had naturally assumed Sia would be writhing in agony, unable to control her magic. But—

All he could hear was the eerie rustle of leaves. The dungeon was as quiet as the grave.

A chill ran down Rokan’s spine.

The silence was more ominous than anything.

There was no way her rampage could have stopped for no reason.

Once Sia’s rampage began, it usually lasted all day.

So if nothing was happening now …

Something terrible might have happened to Sia.

Perhaps her life was in grave danger.

“No. No …”

Rokan took a deep breath and shook his head.

If that were the case, he would have sensed it.

He quickly used a detection spell, and soon found his granddaughter lying on the opposite side of the dungeon.

She was barely moving, but her body was definitely twitching.

“Grand … pa …”

Her voice was so faint that an ordinary person wouldn’t have heard it, but it was enough for Rokan.

“Shasha!”

Her recovery came first.

Using Dragon Speech, Rokan restored some of her strength. At the same time, he took pain-relief potions from his subspace and gave them to her.

Fortunately, they seemed to have some effect. Sia coughed, looking a little stronger than before.

“Cough, cough.”

“Shasha, are you all right? Can you move?”

“No …”

Her voice was still weak, but at least that was a relief.

This was within the normal range.

After a rampage, these kinds of aftereffects were common.

There was still a lot Rokan didn’t understand, and he had many questions for her. But he decided to leave them for later.

Her recovery was the priority.

Rokan carried Sia on his back and hurried out of the dungeon.

Just outside the entrance, he found Minjun, breathing heavily.

The moment Minjun saw Rokan, he looked for Sia and spotted her on Rokan’s back.

At first, she hadn’t moved at all, and he worried she might be dead.

But when he saw her body twitch ever so slightly, Minjun let out a sigh of relief.

Rokan glanced between Minjun, who was still struggling to catch his breath, and Sia on his back.

The best thing would be to take them both to his lair and treat them together.

But Sia’s energy was incompatible with Minjun’s. That was the problem.

As if he could tell what Rokan was worried about just by looking at his face, Minjun smiled and spoke first.

“I’m fine. Please take care of Sia first.”

It had been decades since Sia’s last rampage, so her condition was probably especially serious.

Minjun waved off Rokan’s concern, saying he could wait there a little longer and hold on with the elixir.

Then Sia, still on Rokan’s back, struggled to turn her head toward Minjun.

“Oppa …”

Guilt, regret, gratitude, and sadness—all of those emotions filled her eyes as she called out to him, tears welling up.

To her, Minjun looked like he desperately needed help, too.

And hadn’t he been injured because of her rampage?

“Don’t worry. Thanks to the elixir, I’m doing better than I expected. Go get treated first.”

“But …”

“Shasha, don’t worry. I left Undine with Minjun, and the worst is over. He’ll be fine. I’ll send him home first.”

Rokan teleported Minjun to his apartment, then returned to his lair with Sia.

Once there, he laid her down and carefully examined her condition.

‘This is strange.’

Considering she had just gone through a rampage, she was in surprisingly good condition.

Normally, by this point, she would be so weak she could barely breathe. But that wasn’t the case.

Of course, her condition couldn’t be called good by any objective measure. Still, given how soon it was after the rampage, she seemed better than Rokan had ever seen her before.

But that wasn’t the only thing he found strange.

‘How did Minjun manage to forcibly stop Shasha’s rampage?’

He had seen her go berserk countless times, but never anything like this.

Whenever Sia rampaged, the other dragons could only keep the magic she fired uncontrollably from escaping her lair.

Ever since Sia was a hatchling, how many dragons—including Rokan himself—had tried to completely control her rampages?

They had tried Dragon Speech, high-level magic, and even special artifacts designed to stop her rampage.

They had tried every method they could think of, but none had worked.

So how had Minjun …?

How had he managed to completely stop a rampage that usually continued for nearly twenty-four hours, in less than one?

“This only raises more questions.”

How could a human succeed at something even the dragons couldn’t do?

Rokan suspected it had something to do with a secret about Minjun that even Minjun himself didn’t know.

“What does?”

“Nothing. For now, don’t push yourself. Get some rest.”

Rokan eased Sia back onto the bed and covered her with a blanket.

But Sia was too troubled to fall asleep easily.

“Oppa … he’ll be okay, right?”

“Don’t worry. I’m keeping an eye on him through Undine, and he’s doing well.”

But that wasn’t enough to reassure her. Worry still filled Sia’s expression.

‘Of course it does.’

Rokan understood how she felt.

“Once you fall asleep, I’ll go check on Minjun.”

“Are you sure he’s all right?”

“You saw him earlier, didn’t you? He’s injured, but with rest and proper care, he should recover within a few days. If you’re still worried, I can video-call him.”

Rokan thought that seeing Minjun awake and well would reassure Sia, but for some reason, she shook her head.

He had assumed she would insist that she wanted to see Minjun. Her unexpected response surprised him.

“If I see Oppa … I think I’ll start crying.”

It was guilt.

A few hours earlier, while she was rampaging, her consciousness had gradually grown hazy.

But the moment her uncontrolled magic struck Minjun had left a deep trauma in her mind.

She remembered Minjun’s anguished scream and the desperate look in his eyes as he tried to save her, even though he could have been killed.

She wished she could forget that desperate look and his cries.

But dragons were not blessed with the gift of forgetting. Even though she didn’t want to, the memory kept returning to her, vivid and clear.

Tears began to well in Sia’s eyes.

“…I understand.”

Rokan held her hand for a long while as he watched over her. Once she had fallen asleep, he quietly went to Minjun’s home.

After Rokan left, Sia woke because the pain hadn’t completely faded. She sat up to take the painkillers on her bedside table.

Usually, before falling asleep again, she would look at Minjun’s photo saved on her phone.

But now, the more she thought of Minjun, the heavier her heart felt.

“How am I supposed to face Oppa the next time we meet?”

She felt so sorry. And so grateful.

She knew she needed to go back to sleep, but despite her exhaustion, she couldn’t stop thinking about Minjun and everything she had seen that day.

Maybe tonight, she would have a terrible nightmare.