WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈

Chapter 38: Oppa, I Miss You.

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Was it because Minjun’s Dragon Speech was still incomplete?

Or perhaps the virtual space Minos had constructed was simply that demanding about the degree of completion required for Dragon Speech.

He had clearly felt it, yet no notification appeared to tell him he had met the clear condition.

But.

The endless sky split apart, and the soldiers and wyverns began to twist grotesquely out of shape.

Unlike before, it seemed he had come noticeably closer to completing Dragon Speech this time.

‘It worked...!’

The clear notification had not appeared yet, but if things continued like this, he would soon be able to use perfect Dragon Speech.

Minjun shouted Dragon Speech again and again.

[Shatter into pieces without leaving a trace!!!]

Then, together with the Dragon Speech that followed, Minos’s sword embedded in the ground and Minjun’s sword shattered at the same time.

Clang!

A deafening crack rang out from the fractured sky.

The soldiers and wyverns, unable to maintain their forms, turned back into dark crimson smoke and began scattering in all directions.

As though trying to hide those cracks, the sky quickly began turning black.

Holding the Dragon Bone Sword, now broken in two, Minjun blankly stared up at the sky.

Luck had certainly been on his side in many ways, but he had never expected to succeed in using Dragon Speech so quickly.

“Still, this broke.”

Minjun’s gaze, which had been fixed on the split sky, eventually turned to the Dragon Bone Sword.

It was the Dragon Bone Sword Sia had given him, the sword that could be called the beginning of all this.

It had seemed like a sword that would not break from any ordinary impact, yet it had shattered so easily.

‘Can it be repaired?’

What if Sia became upset when she found out the gift she had given him had broken in two?

Now that the tension had eased, all kinds of thoughts came to him.

And at last.

A notification announcing that the clear was complete appeared before Minjun.

Then, in the space that had now become nothing but darkness,

an exit leading back to Earth appeared.

“Urgh...”

He had cleared the Gate, but the pain throughout his body had not disappeared.

Perhaps because he had used too much power, his breathing was growing ragged, and his mind was becoming increasingly hazy.

Dragging his exhausted body along, Minjun headed toward the exit, holding the broken sword in one hand.

‘Still, what did that Minos guy think when he saw me succeed in using Dragon Speech?’

No.

If he had succeeded, Minos could have at least congratulated him. Or he could have pretended to be surprised and said he had not expected Minjun to succeed.

In any case, once Minjun passed through the exit, the sights he had seen before entering the Gate came into view.

Only then did it truly sink in that he had cleared the Gate.

‘What about the others?’

If the Gate had been cleared, the others trapped inside should have come out too, but he could not see the other Hunters.

Just as he began worrying that something might have gone wrong,

the Gate opened, and the raid members who had entered the dungeon with Minjun appeared one by one.

“Minjun!”

Taeseong spotted Minjun as soon as he came out of the Gate, called his name happily, and hurried over.

The other Hunters crowded in behind him.

“Are you all right?”

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“What a relief. No, what on earth happened?”

The Hunters gathered around Minjun, worried that something might have happened to him. They asked after him and questioned him about what had happened after the fall.

But Minjun was in no condition to answer every question.

He looked perfectly fine without even a scratch, but the accumulated pain from clearing the Gate made it difficult even to stand properly.

Seeing how pale Minjun looked, Taeseong supported him and asked with a worried expression.

“Are you feeling unwell? Should we go to the hospital right now?”

But it would take quite some time to get to a hospital from here, and no doctor would know about the side effects of using Dragon Speech.

Going to Rokan’s lair would be the better choice.

Rokan would understand Minjun’s condition better than any doctor.

Without even the energy to respond, Minjun barely forced out a few words.

“...I’m sorry. I’ll be going first.”

With that, Minjun immediately used the Teleport Ring to teleport to Rokan’s lair.

‘Ah...’

He wanted to call for Rokan and ask for help, but for some reason, Rokan was nowhere to be seen.

Perhaps he had finally reached his limit.

Minjun lost consciousness and collapsed where he stood.

* * *

The morning of the day Minjun set out to clear the dungeon, Dragon Sword Garden.

As soon as Sia finished speaking with Minjun on the phone, she teleported to Yangpyeong, where Minjun’s parents lived.

She had originally planned to visit her future in-laws with Minjun, but...

‘If I stay with oppa too long, he might collapse.’

So she decided to visit Minjun’s parents alone for now.

Of course, it was not normally the kind of thing a person did, visiting their future in-laws alone without their boyfriend.

But Sia did not feel uncomfortable about it at all.

In the past, she had lost her entire family in an accident at a young age.

To her, Minjun’s parents were people who had loved her as though she were their own daughter.

Besides, though this was a slightly different matter,

visiting Minjun’s parents today had another meaning for her.

She had a secret purpose she could not tell anyone about.

“Mother, Father! I’m here!”

The moment she arrived, Sia brightly greeted Minjun’s parents.

As soon as they sensed her presence, they hurried over to welcome her.

“Oh my, Sia! It’s been so long. Have you been well?”

Minjun’s parents welcomed Sia as though nothing had happened.

Minjun had told them that Sia, whom they had believed dead a year ago, had miraculously returned to life not long ago.

Naturally, they did not know that she had been reincarnated as a dragon in another world before returning to Earth.

Well, perhaps they could tell them when the day came for Minjun to become a full dragon.

In any case, they had many things they wanted to ask Sia.

Like everyone else, they were extremely curious about what had happened to her from the moment of the accident until her return to Earth.

But before Sia arrived, they had agreed not to mention the accident at the Gate.

Most of the few Returnees who had been trapped in Gates and returned to Earth, like Sia, had spoken in interviews about terrible experiences.

Neither of them wanted to bring up those events and stir up her trauma.

“Yes. You’ve both been well too, right?”

“Of course.”

It had been a long time for Minjun’s parents as well, but for Sia, this was the first time she had seen them since her reincarnation. That made this meeting especially precious to her.

After greeting them, she handed over the gifts she had prepared.

“And I bought these because they made me think of you both.”

“Oh, you didn’t need to bring us anything. Sia, have you had breakfast?”

“No.”

“The food is almost ready, so wait just a little.”

“I was already really hungry. Thank you!”

A little while later, a feast large enough to make the table legs break was prepared.

Sia could not hide her surprise when she saw it.

“Wow. Mother, how do you manage to make so much food?”

“We prepared all sorts of things because our Sia was coming. Just tell us if it isn’t enough.”

The meal began in a warm atmosphere.

As they ate, the three of them talked about everything they had been unable to share until now.

There was plenty of food and plenty of stories that had built up over time, so the meal went on for a long while.

As the long meal was nearing its end,

“Mother, Father, do you have any photo albums at home?”

“You mean the ones with the old film photos?”

“Yes.”

Sia took out a photo scanner she had bought the day before.

“This is called a photo scanner. It turns film photos into digital files. If you scan the photos with this, you’ll be able to look at them anytime and anywhere.”

“Oh my, there’s something like that? How fascinating.”

Both of them seemed amazed by the unfamiliar device.

“I’ll scan them for you. Is that all right?”

“Of course. Since we’re at it, we can look through the albums for the first time in a while.”

Minjun’s father brought out several thick photo albums from deep inside a wardrobe and sat down. Sia hurried to sit beside him.

“Sia, Minjun never showed you this album, did he?”

“No! I’d really wanted to see it sometime. This worked out perfectly.”

Saying she would scan the photos was just an excuse. This was actually her real purpose.

Looking through old photos of Minjun.

And while she was at it, turning them into digital files so she could secretly keep them for herself.

That was why she had brought two USB drives today.

One was for giving the files to Minjun’s parents.

The other was for secretly copying the scanned files for her own collection.

“I wonder whether Minjun will complain later that we showed you his photos without telling him.”

“As long as you and Mother keep it a secret, I’ll keep my mouth shut too.”

With a cute smile, she pressed her index finger to her lips.

“Of course. Naturally.”

Minjun’s mother opened the thick photo album, and Sia snuggled close beside her to look at Minjun’s old photos.

“This was taken when Minjun was not even a week old.”

The first photo they saw showed baby Minjun, completely naked without even a diaper, scrunching up his face as he cried.

“...Minjun would have been embarrassed if he were here.”

Even if he had only been a newborn, he had been photographed completely naked.

“Hehe. That’s why I came alone. I thought oppa would stop me from looking if he were here.”

“Then did you bring that because you wanted to look at Minjun’s photos?”

Minjun’s father pointed at the photo scanner, and Sia nodded playfully with a wide smile.

“Yes. You caught me.”

“Oh dear.”

Minjun’s parents naturally thought Sia was joking and laughed it off.

Her tone had clearly sounded playful.

But did they know?

That she was not joking at all.

“Anyway, our oppa was so cute even as a newborn, wasn’t he?”

At Sia’s words, the two of them looked slightly flustered.

“Well... Minjun is handsome now, but honestly, he wasn’t when he was a baby.”

“To be honest, when he first came into this world, we were really worried.”

He had looked like an ugly little potato when he was born, so they had worried about what would happen if he grew up like that. Fortunately, as time passed, his features became more defined and he began to look better.

“You know how they say babies who are ugly at birth grow up to be pretty and handsome. That was the case with him.”

“He’s still cute to me. Cute enough to nibble on.”

After that, they continued slowly flipping through the album, completely forgetting about scanning the photos.

Minjun’s mother reminisced as she explained one by one when and under what circumstances each photo had been taken.

Sia was incredibly happy to see photos of Minjun’s childhood that she had never seen before.

And soon, she would be able to keep copies of these photos on her personal USB drive.

That thought made her heart race.

To her, this album was a precious treasure she would not trade for anything.

As they turned the pages, they eventually moved past Minjun’s infancy and began seeing photos from his early childhood.

There was a photo of Minjun awkwardly making a V sign while wearing a bright yellow hat and a kindergarten uniform of the same color.

A photo of Minjun smiling brightly during a family trip.

And then.

There was even a photo from his days as a child model, taken with Go Yuna, who had worked as a child model with him.

The moment she spotted that photo, the smile on Sia’s face began to stiffen slightly.

But Minjun’s mother did not notice her expression and excitedly explained the photo.

“Minjun worked as a child model when he was little. Isn’t he adorable? The child here is Yuna. She worked as a model with Minjun when they were little.”

She knew. She already knew.

She had even met her recently.

They already knew each other, but Sia acted naturally as though she were seeing her for the first time.

As they continued flipping through the album, photos of Minjun and Yuna together appeared every now and then.

The problem was that, in most of those photos, Yuna was actively making physical contact with Minjun, hugging him or pretending to kiss him.

Some might say there was no reason to read too much into little children kissing, but it did not look pleasant to Sia.

“It seems like oppa and this person were pretty close.”

“They were. When they were young, Yuna followed Minjun around like she was glued to him.”

“I guess our oppa has been popular since he was little.”

Suppressing the emotions rising in her chest, Sia answered with a calm expression.

“Of course. It’s not just because he’s our son, but girls were always following him around when he was little.”

She had suspected it, but hearing it directly from Minjun’s parents was another matter entirely.

‘That woman really has liked oppa since she was little.’

No wonder.

She had felt uneasy from the first time they met.

Go Yuna’s feelings for Minjun surely continued even now.

She did not know when or how, but her instincts told her Go Yuna would approach Minjun and flirt with him like a fox.

If that was the case...

‘I can’t just sit back and do nothing.’

She decided she needed to come up with a plan from now on.

After spending a long time looking through the album filled with Minjun’s photos,

Sia scanned the photos one by one with the photo scanner and divided the files between the two USB drives.

One was for Minjun’s parents, while the other was naturally for her private enjoyment.

After quietly hiding one USB drive in her pocket dimension,

Sia handed the other USB drive to Minjun’s mother.

“Here! You can view the files on a laptop or save them to your phone. If you’re not sure how, just ask me anytime.”

“Thank you, our daughter-in-law.”

“Hehe.”

They were not married yet, but Minjun’s parents knew it was practically certain that Sia and Minjun would marry someday, so they naturally called Sia their daughter-in-law.

Naturally, Sia loved being called their daughter-in-law.

Even after converting the film photos into digital files, she spent a pleasant time talking with Minjun’s parents and helping with the housework, as though she had come to visit her own family.

And then, time passed.

It was almost time for Minjun to finish clearing the Gate and come out.

According to Minjun, the clear condition for the Gate he was entering this time was simply to endure inside it for three hours.

That meant the completion time for this Gate was practically set from the moment they entered.

The time Minjun had mentioned was almost up, and he had said during their call that morning that he would call her as soon as he finished this Gate.

He would call soon.

“Mother, Father, I should get going now!”

“All right, we’ll see you again soon. And if you need side dishes, just let us know anytime.”

“Yes, Mother! I’ll be going! I’ll come visit again with oppa soon!”

Still cheerful to the end, Sia left the house and immediately returned to her lair with an excited heart.

The moment she returned, she did not even change clothes. She held her phone tightly and waited for Minjun to call.

But.

More than thirty minutes passed after the time they had discussed, and he still had not called.

‘...Why hasn’t he called?’

Normally, she would have assumed that the Gate clear had been delayed today and let it go.

Gates were places full of unexpected variables, so clear times often varied wildly depending on the situation.

But the place Minjun had gone today was a dungeon with an obvious clear condition. They only had to endure for three hours.

“Nothing happened to him, right?”

No. That could not be possible.

Maybe his phone battery had died and he was charging it.

Or perhaps he had lost his phone during the battle, or it had broken.

Sia tried to calm herself by rationalizing it on her own.

But.

‘...Even so, he should have contacted me by now.’

Even if all those possibilities had happened, Minjun had the Teleport Ring Rokan had given him.

If he used it to go to Rokan’s lair, he could have contacted her through Rokan.

Yet he still had not contacted her.

Something had clearly happened.

She did not want to admit it, but only one possibility remained.

“No. That can’t be...”

With a dazed expression, she immediately used mana-tracking magic to locate the Gate Minjun had entered.

As soon as she found the Gate where Minjun was participating in the clear, she moved there at once.

And she confirmed that the Gate had not yet been cleared.

“...!”

With trembling hands, she reached toward the Gate and checked its information.

Then.

[Rank: EX

Clear Condition: Reach the lowest level of Minos’s Tomb and use Dragon Speech (0/1)]

“H, he said it was a D-rank Gate...”

It was rare for a Gate’s rank to suddenly change, and cases where it changed to EX-rank were extremely rare.

And why was the clear condition specifically to use Dragon Speech?

That meant Minjun could not leave this Gate until he used Dragon Speech.

The moment she realized that,

she collapsed to the ground with a blank expression.

“Ah... Aah...”

Faced with a reality she wanted to deny, she clutched her face in both hands and cried out.

That could not be possible.

Even if Minjun possessed enough talent to earn Rokan’s highest praise, it was impossible for him to use Dragon Speech already.

And so,

she had no choice but to accept it.

Even if a miracle happened and Minjun cleared this Gate someday, it would be... a very long time before he came out.

Her legs gave out as she wept and contacted Rokan.

Rokan rushed to her side as soon as he received her call.

“Shasha, what is wrong?”

“Grandfather, sob, our oppa... sob.”

Sia tearfully explained the situation to Rokan.

She clung to the faint hope that perhaps her grandfather, an ancient dragon, would know what to do.

But even her grandfather, an ancient dragon, seemed to have no suitable solution. He shook his head heavily.

“...I’m sorry.”

Even for Rokan, an ancient dragon, and Sia, who had achieved dimensional travel magic,

the impossible remained impossible.

Gates were mysterious entities that not even dragons fully understood.

When even that faint hope disappeared,

she could not withstand the shock and fainted on the spot.

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