WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈
Chapter 22: How on Earth Did He Do That?
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The next day.
I started my day with a video call with Sia.
[Did you sleep well, oppa?]
She looked like she had only just woken up, rubbing her eyes, but she was still beautiful.
“I did. Thanks to you listening to me so well yesterday.”
[That’s a relief.]
Sia’s warm voice made my heart melt.
At first, I had thought it was better not to tell her about the villains if possible. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt I had done the right thing by telling her early.
Otherwise, I might have lost sleep worrying about when and how to bring it up.
“Sia... are you okay?”
She had not looked well before we ended our call yesterday, so I asked her cautiously.
[Me? Of course I’m okay!]
But Sia’s voice sounded strangely too okay.
As if she had not heard anything from me yesterday.
That only made me worry more.
“Are you really okay?”
[Of course. I already got revenge.]
“Revenge? They’re already dead.”
Was there even a way to take revenge on dead villains?
Besides, I had never told Sia their identities.
Of course, with Sia’s abilities, she could probably find out who they were somehow... but even for a dragon like Sia, taking revenge on people who were already dead should be difficult.
When I looked confused, Sia opened her mouth in surprise, as though she had said something she should not have.
But only for a moment.
Sia soon returned to her usual expression.
[In a dream. In a dream.]
Sia said she had given them such a beating that they cried in her dream, then cutely threw a punch into the air with a little, “Hya!”
‘In a dream...?’
For some reason, I had an uneasy feeling.
It seemed like that was not what she had originally meant to say.
Well, anyway.
There was no point digging further into this topic, so I decided to change the subject.
“I’m going to see Rokan later.”
[Grandpa?]
“Yeah. I need to give him the Gate raid footage from the camera. I want feedback while we watch it, and there are also a few things I want to ask him personally.”
I needed feedback based on the footage from the wearable camera, and I also needed to ask about the aurora-colored sword aura I had temporarily been able to use.
So going to see Rokan with the camera was already part of the plan.
But then...
[Can I watch too?]
“Of course. But first, I need to talk with your grandfather for a moment. Could you wait a little?”
[...Is it something I’m not supposed to know?]
Perhaps because she thought I was hiding something, Sia’s mood suddenly changed.
She was half right.
There was a scene in the wearable camera footage that I did not want Sia to see, and I had intended to ask Rokan to erase it.
If it had been footage from an ordinary camera, I could have deleted it myself. But since Sia had specially modified this wearable camera, clumsily tampering with it might only make her more suspicious.
“What could I possibly hide from you, Sia? It’s nothing like that, so don’t worry.”
After reassuring her, I stayed on the call for a long time, chatting about ordinary things instead of heavy topics like Gates or aura.
“Sia, I’ll see you later. I’ll call you soon.”
[Okay!]
After ending the call, I picked up the camera and headed for Rokan’s lair.
“Welcome.”
Rokan greeted me warmly as soon as I arrived.
“I heard roughly what happened from Shasha. Something major happened yesterday.”
“Yes. I’ll explain everything once we go inside.”
After our brief greetings, I gave Rokan a short explanation of what had happened in the Gate yesterday.
Once I had finished explaining...
“I have a favor to ask.”
“A favor?”
“It’s nothing major, but I’d like you to cleanly erase part of this footage without leaving a trace. I thought it would be better to ask you than to tamper with it myself.”
I explained why the footage needed editing.
The villains had said degrading things about Sia shortly before they died, and I asked whether he could remove that scene because it might hurt her.
But after silently thinking over what I had said, Rokan soon gave his answer.
“It would be better not to.”
“...What?”
Contrary to my expectations, Rokan refused my request.
The human criminals had been caught on video insulting his granddaughter. I had naturally assumed Rokan would want to erase that part just as much as I did.
What did he mean by saying it would be better not to?
When I looked confused, Rokan continued as if he had expected that reaction.
“Even if you erase only that part, it will only be a matter of time before Shasha finds out. And.”
Rokan looked at me with a meaningful smile.
“I think Shasha might actually like it more if she sees that.”
...She would like it more?
No matter how much I thought about it, there did not seem to be anything in that footage Sia would like.
Still, if he was saying this much, he probably had his reasons.
For now, I decided to follow Rokan’s advice.
“Shasha must be waiting. Let’s go.”
In the end, I stood before the huge screen without deleting that part of the video.
The moment Rokan connected the call, Sia appeared on the large screen.
[Oppa! Grandpa!]
It had not even been ten minutes since our last call, but Sia greeted me happily as if she had not seen me in a long time.
“Yes. Have you eaten?”
[I’ll eat later! What about you two?]
“I will as well. What about you, Minjun?”
“I probably will too. If it’s all right with you, let’s eat together later.”
Our brief small talk soon ended.
It was time to get to the point.
Rokan put the footage I had given him on the screen and shared it with Sia as well.
“I would like you to give me any feedback you have without holding back.”
After skipping the parts without fighting, we played the first clash with the Antmen.
Sia and Rokan both stayed silent, concentrating on the footage and the flow of mana captured in it.
As everyone watched the video with serious expressions, Sia was the first to speak.
[Grandpa. I know he’s my oppa, but don’t you think he’s a true genius?]
“Yes. His rate of growth is extraordinary.”
I had not really felt it at the time, but dragons seemed to see things differently.
“What a waste of talent. If you had been born a dragon from the beginning...”
Rokan suddenly flinched and waved a hand.
“No, I said something I should not have. Forget you heard that.”
It had not sounded especially strange, but Rokan apologized as though he had made a slip of the tongue before focusing on the video again.
After studying the footage for a while, Rokan spoke about what he had sensed.
“Watching you use a sword this time, I could not help but think you looked like a hatchling in human guise.”
“Pardon?”
Maybe it was just my imagination, but Rokan had been saying an awful lot of meaningful things today that I did not understand.
Seeing my confusion, Rokan explained further.
“I mean that although you are human, the way you use a sword makes you seem closer to a dragon than a human.”
“Could you explain a little more?”
[Oppa, I’ll explain.]
Wanting to add something, Sia stepped in this time.
According to Sia, human swords and dragon swords were fundamentally different.
There were broadly two reasons humans wielded swords.
To protect something precious, or to take something precious away.
In that process, a human’s sword became deeply charged with many emotions, from sorrow, desperation, and yearning to honor, greed, and more.
But dragons were different.
Born as the greatest race on earth, dragons had no need to wield swords to protect themselves or plunder from others.
Why would they need swords when they could simply use Dragon Speech?
That was why dragons wielded swords for no more or less than amusement.
As a result, dragon swords did not carry the desperate emotions found in human swords.
Instead, they carried something else.
The ease of knowing they could achieve whatever they wanted without wielding a sword as crassly as humans did, and the nobility born from that ease.
[What Grandpa means is that your sword had the ease and nobility unique to dragons.]
“Exactly. Yet your sword also carries profound human emotions, which is what I cannot understand.”
Rokan emphasized that they might seem compatible, but they absolutely were not.
Somehow, the more I listened, the more confused I became.
[Hmm. Oppa, you still look like you don’t understand.]
Sia hit the nail on the head.
“It’s a little embarrassing, but yes. Honestly, I don’t understand a word.”
Pretending to rack my brain, I complained to Sia that my head hurt.
The more I learned, the more complicated everything seemed to become.
As if he had expected this, Rokan gently placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Just remember what I said. You will naturally come to understand it someday, so don’t worry.”
“Yes. I’ll keep it in mind.”
“That is enough of this. Let’s move on.”
There was a more important matter to discuss.
I moved the footage to the part showing my second battle with the Antmen and my confrontation with the villains.
It showed me briefly panicking at the Antmen’s overwhelming numbers, then squeezing out every last bit of strength to get through the situation. It continued to the point when the villains attacked me after my strength had begun to fail.
Then came the moment when, at the brink of death, I unknowingly began to wield aurora-colored sword aura.
Right after the footage showed aurora-colored sword aura beginning to flow from the sword in my battered hand, Rokan stopped the video.
Then he said,
“Minjun.”
His voice was calm as he called my name.
But perhaps because it was too calm, that one word alone made goosebumps rise all over my body.
“How on earth did you do that?”
I did not know exactly what that aurora-colored sword aura was, but it certainly seemed to be some sort of achievement.
I had assumed Rokan would celebrate and be happy for me.
Yet for some reason, there was not the slightest hint of joy in his expression.
“I don’t know either. The only thing I can think of is that when the sword aura appeared, I had a powerful determination that I had to make it back alive.”
Though I had been startled at first, I calmly shared my thoughts.
The most likely explanation seemed to be that my will to survive had brought out the sword aura, but even I did not know the exact reason.
That was why I had wanted to ask about it here.
But rather than answer my question, Rokan swallowed a groan and wore a complicated expression that gave away none of his thoughts.
Then...
“Let’s take a break first.”
As though he had a headache, Rokan left us behind and went into his study.
What on earth was going on?
* * *
The moment Rokan staggered back into his study, he shut his eyes tightly and let out a sigh.
By reading the energy of Minjun’s soul, Rokan had long known that Minjun was no ordinary being.
But...
‘Even knowing that, this is shocking.’
Aurora-colored sword aura.
When Minjun had first mentioned it, Rokan had not been sure whether to believe him.
Judging coldly, the current Minjun could not possibly have wielded such immense power. Rokan had thought it more likely that Minjun had seen a hallucination while his power ran wild.
But Minjun’s words had, astonishingly, been true.
He really had wielded a unique sword aura reminiscent of the aurora.
And the other dragons who had settled on Earth probably knew nothing of the true nature of this aurora-colored sword aura.
Even Sia had looked as though she had never seen it before.
But Rokan knew.
He knew what kind of power Minjun had wielded, and what kind of being had once wielded that power.
A secret ancient tome, accessible only to successive Dragon Lords, contained the following record.
<...Wielding an unusual Sword Aura reminiscent of the aurora, he drew everyone’s attention. Gifted not only with the sword but in many other ways, he possessed strength powerful enough to overwhelm not only humans like himself, but even our clan. (omitted) He was friendly toward our clan, but he was fated to become someone we had to be wary of. This was because he was, * *** **** * ** ** ***.>
A story about a man who had stirred the entire continent tens of thousands of years ago, but was now regarded as a common legend among humans.
Yet among dragons, it had been passed down not as a legend, but as history.
Remembering that passage from the ancient tome, Rokan sighed again.
More precisely, for now, sighing was the only thing he could do.
‘How did you reproduce even that?’
Of course, compared to the power described in that record, Minjun’s sword aura did not come close to that power.
But one thing was certain.
If someday Minjun became able to wield that sword aura as skillfully as that being whose very mention was taboo...
He would wield power that went beyond the power of dragons, power mighty enough to overwhelm even Rokan, an ancient dragon.
But.
At the very least, until Minjun could properly wield the power of dragons, that power had to remain sealed.
Otherwise, Minjun would be swallowed by it.
And then Minjun would become a monster that could no longer be called human.
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