WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈

Chapter 19: Will to Survive, Will to Dominate

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All three were Villains.

They disguised themselves as low-rank Hunters, entered Gates with other Hunters, robbed them of their equipment, and murdered them.

Naturally, Seo Yuhyeon, Seo Yura, and Seo Yuseon were not their real names either. In truth, they were complete strangers, not siblings.

“This one looks like it’ll be harder than the last. Was it Yoon Minjun? That bastard can fight.”

“Maybe it’s just his equipment, but he was pretty decent for a D-rank. It’s not like he’s too tough to kill, though.”

“True enough.”

Their actual ranks were B-rank for Seo Yuhyeon, and C-rank for Seo Yura and Seo Yuseon. They had more than enough strength to easily overwhelm two D-rank Hunters.

Unless there were other variables, there would be no problem killing Junhwi and Minjun, then taking their equipment.

“Let’s ambush them in the middle of the fight, like last time.”

“Hit them when they’re distracted and at their most exhausted.”

Even with every advantage, they never let their guard down.

“Even a tiger gives its all when hunting a rabbit.”

It was in a bad way, but they were remarkably thorough.

That was probably why they had gotten away with their “work” without being caught until now.

“If we take any longer, they’ll start getting suspicious. Let’s head back.”

At Seo Yuhyeon’s words, the three left.

* * *

“Aren’t you resting, hyung?”

“I think I need to review the fight from earlier. Don’t worry about me.”

More accurately, I was reviewing the feeling of wielding the sword, not the battle itself.

Kim Junhwi marveled as he watched me swing my sword even during our break.

“You’re really hardcore, hyung.”

“No. I’ve just had some motivation lately.”

I answered Kim Junhwi while swinging my sword.

A few minutes of this would not suddenly make me stronger, but every little bit added up.

“Does that motivation have something to do with your girlfriend?”

“You could say that.”

“Oh, you’re a real romantic. Your girlfriend must feel so secure with you.”

“Thank you.”

Well, actually, it was the opposite.

I was the one who felt secure because of Sia.

My dragon girlfriend had torn through dimensions to return just to meet me.

The reassurance Sia gave me was greater than I could have imagined.

“By the way, those three are running a little late, aren’t they?”

“They are.”

The Seo siblings had been gone for about ten minutes, yet there was still no sign of them returning.

It was not enough time to call them particularly late, but it was strange that all three, who had gone in different directions, were missing at once.

Still, speak of the tiger and it appears.

“Sorry we’re late. Did you wait long?”

“Not at all.”

No sooner had he spoken than Seo Yuhyeon returned with an awkward expression.

I did not ask because it would have embarrassed him, but it did not look as though he had gone off to deal with something substantial.

The two sisters then returned to the group one after another.

Did they all eat something bad together yesterday?

Their oddly embarrassed expressions looked suspicious.

Anyway, after regrouping, we began moving through the Gate again.

“Once we finish clearing it, it should be around five or six, right?”

Kim Junhwi still seemed to have plenty to say, chatting amiably as we walked.

“Yes, probably.”

“How about a drink afterward? This area is pretty lively, so there are lots of good bars nearby.”

At this point, I could not tell whether I had come to clear a Gate or attend some kind of social gathering.

The three siblings cheerfully agreed with Kim Junhwi and continued chatting.

Then, in the middle of the conversation, Seo Yuhyeon, who was leading the way, abruptly stopped and pointed ahead.

“I think we’ll have a harder time than before.”

There appeared to be three or four times as many as before, and some of them were especially large.

As Seo Yuhyeon had said, it was clearly a tougher group than the ones we had faced earlier.

But...

It was still not impossible to clear.

If I considered it an opportunity to gain real combat experience, it was actually good for me.

“Uh, hyung. Why are you smiling?”

Kim Junhwi, standing beside me, asked.

“There were too few monsters earlier, but this looks just right.”

“...You’re a real pervert, hyung.”

“I feel the same way as Minjun.”

Seo Yuhyeon cut in from beside us.

“This is just enough to make killing satisfying.”

Make killing satisfying?

Maybe it was just my imagination, but Seo Yuhyeon’s smile as he said it sent a chill down my spine.

“Whoa, creepy.”

Kim Junhwi must have felt the same way, because he pretended to shiver all over.

Seo Yuhyeon put on an innocent act, laughing as he asked if he had looked a little scary just then.

As if he had only been joking on purpose.

But that was only for a moment.

Once the real battle began, all traces of playfulness vanished from everyone’s faces, including Seo Yuhyeon’s.

There were so many Ant-Men that I could not call the fight easy, but thanks to the Dragon Bone Sword and the other equipment Sia had given me, I had no major problems apart from fatigue.

But that only applied to me.

Once we had dealt with about half of them, I grew concerned about the others and checked on Kim Junhwi beside me first.

“Junhwi, are you okay?”

“Ugh, it’s getting a little rough. Maybe it’s just me, but the healing seems to be working well, too.”

Kim Junhwi honestly told me how he was doing.

I could see it too. Not only was his complexion poor, but his movements had noticeably slowed compared to the beginning.

“I’ll buy you some time, so fall back for a moment and catch your breath.”

“I appreciate it.”

Kim Junhwi did not refuse my offer and immediately retreated.

He seemed too exhausted to speak properly, so I asked Seo Yura to take care of him in his place.

“Yura, please take care of Junhwi!”

“...”

I shouted loudly enough that she could not have missed it, but there was no response.

“...Yura?”

As I pushed back the approaching Ant-Men, I turned toward the rear.

Kim Junhwi still had not received any healing, and Seo Yura and the other two were nowhere to be seen.

The moment no one was in sight, an ominous feeling crept over me.

Had all three been attacked by Ant-Men in the rear?

I had definitely checked that there were no monsters there before the battle started.

Still, I could not rule out the possibility that other monsters had arrived in the meantime.

“Yuseon! Yuhyeon!”

I called out the other two names, but there was still no answer.

We could not keep fighting like this. We needed to change our plan.

“Junhwi, I think we need to fall back farther first. Once we do...”

Before I could finish, something flew through the air from behind us.

Without even having time to see what it was, I instinctively knocked it away with my sword.

Clang!

The instant I struck it aside, I saw what it was.

An arrow condensed from mana.

Yuseon...!

There was no way an Ant-Man had fired a mana arrow.

It could only have been Seo Yuseon.

Had she been hiding in a panic from a monster attack, and had her arrow happened to fly toward me?

Just as I thought that, another identical arrow came flying.

Not at the Ant-Men, but directly at my heart.

This could not be an accident.

Which meant...

“Those bastards... They’re Villains.”

“What?”

“Those three siblings are Villains. I had my suspicions, but still.”

I knocked away the arrow and turned toward where it had come from.

There stood Seo Yuseon, aiming another mana arrow with cruel eyes.

“Almost had you.”

There was no need to look for the other Seo siblings.

Seo Yuhyeon and Seo Yura were standing right beside her.

“How do you miss something that easy?”

“I aimed properly. That guy knocked it away with his sword. Fuck, I didn’t think a D-rank could block that.”

The other two were licking their lips with vicious smiles.

Just moments ago, we had been chatting together in such a friendly atmosphere.

“You... You were Villains?”

Kim Junhwi’s voice trembled.

“What if we are?”

“If you hand over everything you have now, we’ll let you die comfortably. Sounds good, right?”

Seo Yuhyeon grinned maliciously and gestured for us to hand over our equipment, while Seo Yuseon and Seo Yura giggled and agreed beside him.

There were three of them and two of us.

And if they were Villains, there was a high chance they had hidden their real ranks. Anyone could see that we were at a disadvantage.

To make matters worse, most of the Ant-Men were swarming toward us rather than them.

That was because Junhwi and I had been on the front line, drawing the monsters’ aggro from the start.

Once I realized that, cold sweat ran down my back.

Dying here had never been part of my plan.

Somehow, I had to find a way out of this situation.

A way out of this... Right.

Cornered between life and death, I suddenly remembered the artifacts Sia had piled up in my pocket dimension.

I did not know if we could win as we were, but if I took those out and used them, we would have a good chance of winning.

But.

“...Huh?”

My pocket dimension would not open.

No matter how many times I reached out, my hand only grasped at empty air.

“Pfft, look at him.”

When I kept failing to open my pocket dimension, the Villains pointed at me and laughed.

“Wondering why you can’t open it?”

Seo Yuhyeon smiled sickeningly as he taunted me. I only glared at him instead of answering.

“You should at least know why you’re dying, so you’ll have fewer regrets. It’s simple. This artifact can lock other people’s pocket dimensions, and it can forcibly open them too.”

Kim Junhwi reached out to open his pocket dimension as well, but he too could only grasp at empty air again and again.

I did not know what they had done, but they were not lying.

“What the hell...”

“You wouldn’t know, but the black market has all kinds of things.”

“See? What did I tell you? I said we should buy this even if we had to stretch ourselves.”

There was no point listening to them any longer.

“Fuck. You people sure love flapping your goddamn tongues.”

I spat toward the Villains as I cursed.

“Empty wagons rattle the loudest. If I were you, I would’ve killed us instead of wasting time talking.”

“It’s fine. We have time to spare.”

Seo Yuseon said, folding her arms with a smug tilt of her head.

“Unlike you.”

Ant-Men were swarming toward us from behind, while Villains watched for an opening in front.

Trapped between them like a sandwich, we had only one ally.

There was nowhere to go.

“Every time I see that anxious look, I feel rewarded for doing this. I’m so glad I chose this line of work.”

With that taunt, Seo Yuseon drew her bow again with a mana arrow condensed in her hand.

“Who should I kill first?”

Wearing a vicious smile, Seo Yuseon released the bowstring.

The mana arrow targeted me again rather than Kim Junhwi, and I slightly twisted my body to avoid it.

Fortunately, the missed arrow pierced the Ant-Man that had been about to attack me.

Kiiiii!

The Ant-Man collapsed the instant it was struck.

Its destructive power was on a completely different level from the supporting fire earlier.

They had definitely been hiding their real ranks.

Wait.

The moment I saw the Ant-Man struck by the arrow, a thought occurred to me.

Maybe I could lead them into doing this on purpose.

Use one enemy against another.

It was not a bad idea for one that had just come to me.

Whoosh!

After dodging another of Seo Yuseon’s arrows, I moved close to Kim Junhwi and whispered.

“I’ll only say this once, Junhwi. Keep running away as much as possible. Don’t cross paths with me.”

“What?”

I had not explained why, so he asked again, apparently not understanding.

But this was not a situation where I could explain everything in detail.

Kiiik!

An Ant-Man attacked from behind, and Kim Junhwi and I dodged in opposite directions.

Seizing that opening, the Villains launched another fierce assault.

I quickly hid behind a large Ant-Man, and the Villains’ attacks struck the Ant-Man instead of us.

Good.

When I glanced over, I saw that Kim Junhwi, despite his exhaustion, was squeezing out every last bit of strength to nimbly evade the Villains’ attacks.

But they were not fools. It was only a matter of time before they saw through our plan.

To delay that as much as possible, I kept moving in and out of the Ant-Men while pretending to confront them with my sword.

Kim Junhwi seemed to realize what I was doing and began copying me, slipping among the Ant-Men as well.

After several minutes of wearing down both the monsters and the Villains by turning them against each other...

“Those bastards are doing that on purpose, aren’t they?”

“You’re right, fuck. I wondered what they were doing.”

As expected, they saw through the plan, and the moment they did, they began looking for a countermeasure.

“Hey, don’t do anything. Let them fight each other. They’ve drawn all the aggro anyway. We’ll go back in once they’re exhausted.”

“Okay. Smart call.”

I could no longer make out exactly what they said afterward, but I could roughly guess their strategy.

They would ignore the fight until we had dealt with a certain number of Ant-Men, then wait for us to tire out.

It was a painfully sensible decision.

Is this... the end?

But.

This is ending here? I haven’t even been back with Sia for long.

No.

I had to survive by any means necessary, so Sia would never have to grieve because I died.

I had to survive and return to Sia’s side.

The moment I thought of Sia, a powerful will rose from deep within my chest.

The will to survive without dying, and beyond that, the will to break through those Villains.

Will?

Suddenly, I remembered what I had heard yesterday.

Domination is not the wrong answer, but will is even more important.

In the end, the most important thing in wielding a dragon’s power was my unyielding will.

The desperate will to survive, the will to defeat my enemies, and beyond that, the will to dominate those I had defeated.

That will would awaken the dragon’s power sleeping within my sword, or perhaps within my own body.

With the fierce resolve to defeat them and survive, I gritted my teeth and glared at the Villains.

I will return to Sia.

So I will never be defeated by the likes of you.

No, I will crush you completely.

At that moment.

A brilliant light began to rise from my sword.

A dazzling, intense light unlike anything I had ever seen before.

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