My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon - Chapter 34

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈

Chapter 34: Half-Formed Dragon Words

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We descended the stairs with Taeseong in the lead.

We had lit the way with magic, but even so, the atmosphere inside was extremely eerie.

Considering that the only sentence deciphered from the writing on the statue had been, “The Emperor sleeps here,” this place was clearly an imperial tomb.

Places like this supposedly had all kinds of measures in place to keep grave robbers out.

The strange structure outside, in the Dragon Sword Garden, might have been deliberately created to stop anyone trying to enter this tomb.

Perhaps it was meant to keep intruders at bay without revealing the secret hidden here, at least until the owner of the other key, the Dragon Bone Sword, arrived.

“Is this how archaeologists feel? It’s scary because you don’t know what might appear, but it’s also kind of exciting.”

Perhaps trying to shake off the tension, one Hunter said that.

The Hunter beside him looked at him as though she could not understand him.

“Oppa, you’re excited right now?”

“If you think about it, we’re probably the first people to explore this imperial tomb. When else would we get an opportunity like this?”

“Ha...”

The woman shook her head, unable to understand, then asked me.

“What about you, Minjun?”

“Hmm... Assuming we make it out alive, yes. I’m excited too.”

The other Hunters might not understand, but unlike them, I had another reason to feel excited.

There was a chance that I could find a clue here that would help me use a dragon’s power.

“What? Am I the weird one? This place just gives me chills...”

The woman shook her head again, then muttered to herself, “Do you have to think like that to endure this?”

Still, I could understand how she felt.

This was someone’s tomb, after all.

It was natural to feel uncomfortable.

We talked about the tomb as we walked for several minutes.

“Taeseong oppa. Wait a moment.”

One Hunter, who had been silently following us in a withdrawn, hunched state since we started down the stairs, called out to Taeseong.

“I think there’s something written here.”

At her words, everyone, including Taeseong, looked at the wall she was pointing to.

As she said, there was something resembling writing engraved in small letters on the wall.

I could not be sure, but it felt similar to the sentence Taeseong had shown me earlier, the one that had been deciphered.

“I’ll take a picture for now and mention it when I make my report.”

Taeseong took a picture for his report, and a few of the other Hunters followed suit out of curiosity.

Thinking that I should show it to Sia and Rokan later, I joined them and took a picture as well.

‘It feels strangely familiar...’

But just as I was about to put my phone away, a Hunter behind me lightly shoved me by accident.

I flailed my arms, reflexively searching for something to grab, and ended up placing my hand on the writing carved into the wall.

As I leaned against the wall in an awkward position, I heard a Hunter’s voice behind me.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. But...”

I had not fallen thanks to the wall, but that was not what mattered right now.

‘The moment my hand touched the wall, I felt something.’

A tingling sensation that began at my fingertips.

Wondering if I had imagined it, I carefully touched the writing embedded in the wall again.

Then...

“Ugh.”

It was not my imagination.

I had only lightly touched it, but a tingling sensation ran through my fingertips once more.

“Minjun, what’s wrong?”

When Taeseong asked with a puzzled look, I explained the sensation I had just felt.

“Really? It looks like an ordinary wall.”

Taeseong placed his hand against the wall as well.

The moment he did, surprise appeared on his face.

He had felt the same tingling sensation I had.

Then...

“I think I know why.”

It was the voice I had heard behind me earlier.

He was probably the Hunter who had accidentally pushed me. I thought his name was Hyunseok.

He raised his hand and began speaking.

“My older cousin is a Gate archaeologist. She sometimes tells me stories about it, and she said cases like this happen sometimes.”

“Cases like this... where touching the wall gives you a tingling feeling?”

“Yes. She said that always means the wall is coated in special mana.”

Everyone listened to him with interest, since it was something none of us had heard before.

“Then that means there’s magic on this wall.”

Taeseong, who had been quietly listening, spoke up.

“Yes. Apparently, if anyone channels even a tiny amount of mana into it, the magic engraved here will activate.”

It truly was an imperial tomb.

They had even placed this kind of incredible magic on the walls of a tomb.

“Sounds similar to how artifacts work.”

“That’s right. My cousin said the same thing.”

He agreed with Taeseong.

“Then shall I do it?”

Since he had brought it up, Hyunseok offered to inject mana himself, and the other Hunters readily agreed.

But...

“...That’s strange?”

Even though mana had clearly been injected, the magic did not activate.

“There really is magic engraved here...”

Hyunseok injected mana again just in case, but the magic still did not activate.

“Move aside. I’ll try.”

As Hyunseok struggled, Taeseong, who was probably the most knowledgeable about magic among us, stepped forward and injected mana.

But just like Hyunseok...

Nothing happened, even after Taeseong added more mana.

“Hyunseok, are you sure you know what you’re talking about?”

“I’m sure! My cousin’s an expert. Ah, and there’s no internet in here, so I can’t even look it up.”

Hyunseok protested, then suddenly turned toward me.

“Could Minjun try it? I feel like Minjun might be able to do it.”

At Hyunseok’s suggestion, the Hunters present agreed as though it made sense.

“Yeah, maybe Minjun can do it. Minjun was the one who opened this hidden dungeon in the first place.”

It sounded plausible even to me.

As they suggested, I approached the wall and injected mana into it.

Then...

“...!”

At last, the writing engraved in the wall began to glow.

Everyone stared at the sight in disbelief, but only for a moment.

Faced with something none of us had ever experienced before, we all swallowed nervously.

Soon, the light faded from the writing, and something like a hologram appeared before us.

“Recording magic...!”

It was my first time seeing it in person, but I had heard about it somewhere before.

I had heard that recording magic like this was occasionally discovered in Gates.

But I had never expected the magic engraved on this wall to be recording magic.

A moment later, something like a holographic video began to play.

The first thing we saw was a young boy who looked about twelve, crying with tears streaming down his face.

“That kid seems like the owner of this tomb, right?”

“I think so.”

It felt as though this recording magic contained the life story of the Emperor buried here.

We could not understand their language, but we could still roughly tell what was happening from the circumstances.

A royal family ruled over a small kingdom.

Unlike his other brothers, who excelled in martial arts, the boy had little talent for it.

The kingdom’s founder had been a Sword Master, and all the descendants who inherited that bloodline possessed outstanding talent for swordsmanship.

For some reason, though, the boy’s talent was terribly lacking.

On top of that, he seemed to be both the youngest of his brothers and an illegitimate child who could not inherit the throne.

Was that why?

The boy was subtly looked down on not only by his brothers, but even by the retainers.

The emotions he felt were captured so vividly in the recording magic that I briefly forgot we were inside a tomb.

Then, after days so painful that he wanted to die...

An unidentified man visited the boy’s bedroom.

With a sword.

Even if he was illegitimate, he was still royalty, so security around him had to be extremely strict.

Yet this man had entered through that tight security as though it were nothing.

Startled, the boy shouted at the top of his lungs for the guards, but whatever method this visitor had used, the boy’s voice did not 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 softly and whispered something sweetly to the boy.

Normally, there was no way I could understand a language I had never heard before.

“‘...You possess a talent even you do not know about.’”

At that moment.

For some reason, I felt like I understood what he was saying.

When I unconsciously translated the man’s words into Korean, the Hunters around me all looked my way.

“Minjun, what did you just say?”

At one Hunter’s question, I waved my hands and tried to explain.

“No, it just seemed like that was what he was saying from the context.”

“...Well, it does sound plausible.”

No sooner had the conversation ended than a dark shadow fell behind the man.

A shadow in the shape of a dragon.

“...That gave me chills.”

“What? Then the owner of this tomb really received a sword from a dragon?”

“So the dungeon wasn’t called Dragon Sword Garden for no reason.”

Had they thought that the sentence deciphered from the statue, “A sword blessed by a dragon,” was merely figurative?

Perhaps because they had never thought dragons truly existed, most of the Hunters could not hide their shock.

But even as they reacted, the recording magic continued playing.

After receiving the sword directly from the dragon, the boy’s fate changed completely.

The boy, once judged to have no talent for swordsmanship, began overpowering the brothers who had looked down on him through the special power he possessed.

In the end, the youngest and illegitimate boy ascended to the throne under the custom that the most outstanding member of the royal family inherited it.

What followed was almost exactly as expected.

Using the dragon’s power dwelling in his sword and body, he unified the continent.

‘It’s more than I thought.’

But after unifying the continent, the boy had become an Emperor who ruled the world and feared nothing.

Despite achieving everything he possibly could, he somehow looked dissatisfied.

“If it were me, I’d retire and live out the rest of my life without a worry.”

“Everyone has their own troubles. Even top stars do that. People with money and fame go on shows and confess they have depression and panic disorder.”

As they watched the Emperor’s grand life story unfold through the recording magic, the Hunters temporarily forgot everything else and became absorbed in it.

Sitting on his throne, the Emperor rested his chin on his hand and muttered with an unhappy expression.

Half-formed Dragon Speech...

Wait.

‘How can I understand what the Emperor is saying?’

It was not my imagination, nor was I merely guessing what he was saying.

I had just understood his words exactly.

Until a moment ago, I had been unable to understand anything he said, just like everyone else...

“Does anyone else feel like they can understand what the Emperor is muttering?”

Wondering if the others were experiencing the same thing, I asked them.

“No. I can’t understand a word.”

The Hunter beside me shook their head.

“I even tried translation magic just in case, but it didn’t work.”