WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈

Chapter 23: A Talent Beyond Exceptional, and Dangerous

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Rokan showed no sign of returning, even as time passed.

Maybe he truly just needed a moment to rest. Or perhaps there was another reason I did not know about.

There was no way for me to tell.

I asked Sia if anything came to mind.

‘No, I’m not sure. He didn’t look particularly tired to me.’

Sia tilted her head, saying she did not know either.

In the end, all we could do was wait.

As the awkward silence dragged on, I asked Sia a question to change the mood.

“Sia, about that sword aura. Do you know what it is?”

An aurora-colored sword aura that had never once been reported since Gates opened and Awakened appeared.

I did not know, but I thought Sia, who had lived in another world for a long time, might have seen something like it before.

However, Sia silently watched the footage again, lost in thought, before eventually shaking her head.

[Um... I’m not sure either. I was curious too, so I was going to ask Grandpa, but he happened to leave.]

Even Sia did not know what it was.

“It feels more and more like a mystery.”

[Exactly. The mana pattern recorded by the wearable camera is strange too. I know most patterns because I’ve seen them, but... this is my first time seeing something like this.]

According to Sia, analyzing a mana pattern normally allowed someone to roughly guess the nature of its power. But this pattern was unlike anything she had ever seen, so even that seemed difficult.

Sia looked as frustrated as I was, as though she was just as curious about the sword aura’s identity.

[Still, Grandpa probably knows, right?]

“Probably.”

While waiting for Rokan, we kept replaying the moment when the aurora-colored sword aura began to manifest.

But Rokan did not return until more than twenty minutes after leaving.

“Forgive me. I suddenly left.”

[No, it’s fine. Grandpa, are you feeling all right now?]

“My head merely throbbed for a moment. I am fine.”

He said he was fine, but at least to me, Rokan did not look fine at all.

His brow was still slightly furrowed, as though his head was still hurting.

And perhaps it was just my imagination, but Rokan’s usual calm air, which I had felt every time we met, seemed to be gone. That bothered me too.

He looked like something had shaken him.

“Let us finish what we were discussing. We were talking about... the sword aura, correct?”

“Yes. I asked Sia, but she said it was her first time seeing a sword aura like that too.”

[Grandpa, what exactly is that sword aura?]

Now, we could finally solve the mystery.

Except...

“It would be difficult to tell you right now.”

Rokan answered firmly.

Not that he did not know, but that he could not tell us?

Sia and I turned toward Rokan at almost the same time.

“I told you before that you possessed exceptional talent, did I not?”

He was not just saying it to make me feel good. Whenever Rokan gave me advice, he would always add something like that.

But then Rokan made a shocking statement.

“I was wrong. Your talent is not merely exceptional. It is dangerous enough to consume you.”

[...]

Startled by Rokan’s shocking words, Sia covered her mouth with both hands.

I was no different.

I looked at the paused scene on the screen before me.

That breathtakingly beautiful aurora-colored sword aura, that power that had saved me when I was on the verge of death... was it really that dangerous?

“So, Minjun, do not enter a Gate for the next few days, until I speak with you again.”

[Is it... really that dangerous, Grandpa?]

Sia asked Rokan, her body trembling.

“I told you. It is a power dangerous enough to consume Minjun if handled incorrectly.”

[T-Then my oppa...]

Perhaps imagining the worst, Sia’s face went pale.

“It is still all right. I am only saying this to prepare for every possibility.”

After reassuring Sia, Rokan continued.

“If you grow strong enough to fully handle a dragon’s power, you will at least not be consumed by that power. At least.”

The way he repeated and emphasized “at least” left me feeling uneasy.

“Until then, you will need to wear a control device that can suppress this power.”

“A control device...?”

“Yes. Even if I begin making it now, it will take at least several days to complete. Until it is finished, Minjun, do not even dream of going to a Gate.”

Rokan spoke so firmly that neither Sia nor I dared argue with him.

“You must have many questions. I apologize that I could not be of more help.”

“No, not at all.”

Normally, he would have worn a kindly expression while saying something like that. But Rokan looked extremely serious now.

“Shasha will explain the rest to you, aside from this sword aura. I will go make the control device you will use.”

Leaving only those words behind, Rokan departed.

Right after Rokan left, Sia kept her mouth shut as though she was still stunned. Then she finally spoke.

[Oppa. I’ve never seen Grandpa act like that before.]

“It’s okay. It won’t be anything serious.”

Even though Rokan had reassured us several times, Sia still looked anxious, as though she could not put her mind at ease.

I reassured her that nothing would happen. If we looked at it differently, it might even be good news.

“If we use it well, it could become a powerful weapon. Rokan said there was only a small chance that something would happen to me because of that power. As long as we are careful until the control device is finished, there will be no problem.”

[...You’re right. You’re right, oppa.]

After I comforted and reassured her, Sia finally seemed relieved and regained her usual smile.

“Then shall we finish watching?”

[Yeah!]

Rokan had left, but the feedback had to continue.

We played the footage again, which we had paused for quite some time.

[First, setting aside that sword aura, oppa.]

As if she had never been worried, Sia resumed her explanation calmly.

[Even though you were at a disadvantage, it was good that you broke through toward the enemy instead. If you had run away, you would not have been able to draw out a dragon’s power properly. Dragons are not creatures that run away in any situation. Understanding the traits of dragons will help you handle a dragon’s power going forward too. But if you look here...]

Her tone was gentle, but Sia explained every point I needed to improve as coolly and thoroughly as possible.

The actual battle had not lasted long, but perhaps because she wanted to explain everything in detail, the feedback session continued for quite a while.

And after some time...

[Done!]

The long, long feedback session ended.

“It’s finally over. Thanks for watching the footage for so long. Your eyes don’t hurt, right?”

[I’m fine! And I actually had fun.]

She could have been tired after watching the footage for so long, but Sia seemed regretful that she could not give me even more feedback.

Maybe she genuinely enjoyed teaching me. Or maybe she simply wanted to spend time with me somehow.

Perhaps it was both.

I asked Sia a little sheepishly.

“Sia, is there anything you want to do now?”

[Something I want to do?]

“Yeah. It feels a little awkward to go home right away, and Rokan told me not to go to Gates for a while, so I think I’ll have a lot of free time... Hang out with me.”

[Okay! I’d love to!]

Sia looked like she could jump for joy.

Seeing her reaction, it seemed she had secretly hoped I would say that from the beginning.

[I like anything as long as I’m doing it with you, oppa. Is there anything you want to do?]

“I feel the same. I like anything as long as I’m doing it with you. So this time, instead of what I want to do, tell me what you want to do, Sia.”

[What I want to do...]

She thought for a moment. Then, as if she had an idea, Sia’s eyes lit up.

[How about we finish watching that footage?]

“We already watched it all. Do you still have feedback left?”

The feedback was already over, so I wondered why we needed to watch it again, especially together.

If we were going to watch something together, I thought a movie would be more fun than that footage...

[Not that, but there are still parts we haven’t watched. Not just you fighting, but you chatting in the dungeon, resting... I want to see those parts too.]

My own interpretation was that Sia wanted to look into my daily life.

More precisely, my daily life inside Gates.

From Sia’s perspective, she might have been curious about what I did in Gates while she was not around, and how I got along with other people.

But there was one thing.

‘Then... she’ll see me killing those villains too.’

They were bastards who deserved to die a hundred or a thousand times over, but I did not particularly want Sia to see me killing that kind of trash.

More than anything, I did not want her to hear the insulting things those villains had said right before they died.

“You want to see... all of it, right?”

[Yeah! All of it!]

“There really isn’t much to see. You might get bored watching it.”

[No. I definitely won’t get bored. It’ll feel like watching a vlog, right?]

I tried to dissuade her by saying the footage would not be very interesting, but... it was no use.

Looking at those clear eyes, Sia seemed determined to watch it no matter what.

In the end, I changed tactics. I would tell her the truth and try to make her avoid watching that part.

“Actually, the end of the footage shows me killing a villain. I think it might be a little hard to watch. How about we watch everything except that part?”

Watching someone die could not be a pleasant experience, so I thought Sia would listen to me if I put it that way.

However.

Without changing her expression, Sia said,

[No, it’s okay. Let’s watch it together.]

“Are you sure? It’ll be brutal.”

Before her reincarnation, Sia had avoided even horror movies because she was afraid they would haunt her dreams.

But the current Sia nodded bravely at my words.

[Maybe I would have felt that way before... but now, not really? And they’re not humans. They’re beasts wearing human skin.]

Sia even said that was why she wanted to see it more, pestering me.

Unable to refuse Sia’s request, I eventually decided to watch the footage with her as she wanted.

For now, I needed to think of a way to keep her from seeing that scene while we watched.

...There had to be a way, right?

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