WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈

Chapter 74: Bellium’s Tears

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We needed to deal with the monsters that had escaped yesterday while safely bringing Adil, the statue’s caretaker, back to Elysium.

After hearing that, I told Estelle I wanted to join the group going to rescue him.

“You want to come too, Minjun?”

Estelle’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes. Wouldn’t it be better to have one more person?”

“But... you must be tired. You don’t need to push yourself just to help us.”

Estelle expressed concern again, saying I was probably not in top condition after drinking all night.

“It’s fine. I want to help.”

After yesterday, I felt closer to the people here and wanted to do something for them. But I had another reason, too.

I wondered whether that mysterious aura would appear and surround me again today, just as it had yesterday. It would also be a good chance to gain practical experience.

And since this was only an escort mission and a cleanup of the remaining monsters, it didn’t seem like it would be too difficult.

When I refused to change my mind, Estelle finally decided to respect my wishes.

“Then... whew, all right. We’d be very grateful to have you with us, Minjun. I’ll show you where the escort party is. Just don’t overdo it.”

“Don’t worry.”

After finishing the meal, I followed Estelle to the front of the city wall, where the escort party was waiting.

When we arrived, one of the escorts spotted me and greeted me warmly.

“Hello.”

“Hello! Judging by your clothes, you must be from another world, right?”

“You were amazing yesterday!”

I had only been here for a day, but because of what happened yesterday, every member of the escort party recognized me.

“I wanted to thank you for helping us, but I never had the chance. Thank you for yesterday.”

“It was nothing.”

“By the way, what brings you here?”

When the elf mage who appeared to be the party’s leader asked, Estelle answered for me.

“Minjun wants to join you on the escort mission.”

“You were running all over the battlefield yesterday. Aren’t you tired?”

“That’s what I’m saying. Minjun, we can handle this mission on our own. Why not get some proper rest and take a leisurely look around the village?”

Their reaction was remarkably similar to Estelle’s.

“I asked Estelle because I wanted to help. Besides, I have a personal favor to ask Adil. The sooner I meet him, the better.”

The elf mage smiled and nodded at my answer.

“Then we have no reason to refuse.”

“Thank you for allowing me to come.”

“No need to thank us. We’ll be relying on you again. We’ll be leaving soon, so please get ready quickly.”

I took my equipment from my pocket dimension and quickly put it on.

Once we were ready, we headed beyond the city wall to escort Adil.

I had not gone outside the walls yesterday, but now that I saw them from outside, the walls surrounding Elysium looked enormous and sturdy.

There was something else, too.

Perhaps everyone had been too busy yesterday, but uncollected monster corpses were scattered along the road to the meeting place.

“Didn’t you clean everything up yesterday?”

After the battle, I had seen a large number of people working on the cleanup, so I had assumed it was mostly done.

One of the swordsmen behind me answered my question.

“It was difficult to clean up everything yesterday, so we focused on the wyvern corpses first. There were a lot of injured people, and there were just too many bodies...”

“Now that you mention it, that makes sense. Yesterday was the first time I’d ever seen so many monsters in one place, too.”

Even thinking about it now made me shudder.

There probably wasn’t a single Gate where one could encounter such a massive horde of monsters.

“Once we deal with the remaining monsters that escaped yesterday, we’ll probably finish cleaning up then.”

“I see.”

“Oh, and I don’t know if anyone else mentioned this, but naturally, you’ll also receive a portion of the money from disposing of the monster corpses. There are so many of them that it may take some time.”

Everything had been so hectic that I hadn’t thought that far ahead, but hearing that made me look forward to it.

Considering I had put on the best performance of my life yesterday, I would probably receive a considerable payout.

“That’s good news. It makes me even more motivated. Come to think of it, I never asked for everyone’s names.”

“I’m Araben.”

Starting with Araben, the leader of the escort party, the other members briefly introduced themselves and exchanged greetings with me.

“By the way, Araben, how much farther is it to where Adil is?”

“At this pace, it should take a little over an hour.”

Araben took a pocket watch from their clothes and checked it before answering.

“I can’t wait to meet him.”

I had heard he was the person most knowledgeable about Elysium’s history and the statue, so there was much I wanted to ask.

We continued toward the meeting place, talking about various things along the way.

At first, I didn’t notice it, but after some time, I began to feel uneasy.

“...Am I the only one who feels like something is off?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said the monsters that fled yesterday would be hiding along this route, but we haven’t seen a single living monster.”

I had seen plenty of monster corpses, but strangely, we hadn’t encountered even one living monster the entire way.

After traveling this far, we should have run into at least one.

“They may have hidden more deeply. Or... it wouldn’t be strange if they had already fled somewhere beyond our sight.”

Max, the swordsman beside me, spoke up.

“That could be it. After we complete Adil’s escort mission, we should consider whether to investigate further.”

The others also seemed to realize something was strange, but no one appeared as bothered by it as I was.

Walking through the forest, which was as silent as a grave, made it feel even more ominous.

There were far too few monster tracks heading in the direction opposite Elysium for them to have escaped the forest.

‘Where did all those monsters go?’

I couldn’t shake the chilling feeling the entire way.

Before long, I learned that my ominous intuition had not been wrong.

“Adil...?”

In the distance, a lizardkin who appeared to be Adil was bound tightly from head to toe with thick ropes.

Behind him stood a large man covered entirely in a black cloak, radiating a sinister aura.

* * *

Adil, a lizardkin historian of Elysium and the caretaker of Bellium’s statue, had temporarily left Elysium on personal business.

But that was only the official reason, and everyone who needed to know was aware of the truth.

He had not simply left to attend to personal matters.

Adil’s true purpose was to recover Bellium’s Tear, an artifact that had been lost hundreds of years ago.

Not long ago, he received information that Bellium’s Tear had been found and made plans to retrieve it.

Because he was going to recover such a valuable artifact, some had argued that he needed an escort. But due to several circumstances, it had been difficult to assemble one when he first set out.

Fortunately, once Adil had obtained the artifact and was returning, Elysium had the means to form an escort party. The elders of Elysium decided to send one for Adil.

After acquiring the artifact, Adil waited for his escort to arrive.

However.

Before the escort party could reach him, an unidentified assailant kidnapped him.

Adil believed the man had done it to steal Bellium’s Tear, the valuable artifact. In truth, though, the man had another objective.

What he had originally sought was Bellium’s remains.

The assailant was a necromancer who had long wanted to study and use Bellium’s remains to improve his undead army. To fulfill that desire, he had kidnapped Adil.

And now.

“Who are you?”

“As you can see, a kidnapper with a hostage?”

When Araben asked coldly, the man gave a derisive snort.

“You’re a filthy criminal, yet you seem awfully confident. Why did you kidnap Adil?”

The man slowly looked over Minjun and the escort party with crazed eyes, then answered with a grim smile.

“Bellium’s remains.”

“How dare you speak of it with that filthy mouth!”

The instant the man answered, everyone, including Araben, hurled harsh insults at him.

Bellium’s remains were not merely a sacred relic. To the people of Elysium, they were the most sacred and precious relic in all of Elysium.

Bellium’s Tear, which Adil had recovered, was also an artifact beyond price. But Bellium’s remains were a sacred relic far more precious than even that.

“I think I could conduct some meaningful research with Bellium’s bones.”

“You’re a necromancer!”

“It would be nice if I could obtain all of Bellium’s remains and turn them into undead, but that seems difficult. Fine, I’ll be generous. Bring me even one piece of Bellium’s remains. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee either this relic or this man’s life.”

The necromancer crooked a finger arrogantly.

At the casual mention of Bellium’s name, Adil and everyone from Elysium were consumed with fury.

That made it all the more impossible to give in.

They had never intended to obediently comply with the demands of a shameless kidnapper. But for him to dare speak Bellium’s name with that filthy mouth?

That was even more unforgivable.

“Please hold on a little longer, Adil. We’ll save you.”

Mmph! Mmph!

Adil said something, but with a cloth tied over his mouth, no one could understand it.

“Can you, though?”

With a wave of the assailant’s hand, the ground began to shake, and an undead army hidden beneath the earth emerged.

“Could this be why we did not see any monsters on the way here...?”

“Bingo. My army happened to need more troops.”

In less than a day, he had single-handedly wiped out every monster that fled and turned all of their corpses into undead.

Despite his arrogant attitude, he appeared to be an exceptionally powerful necromancer.

“So you were rude because you had something to rely on.”

“This isn’t rudeness. It’s confidence.”

As much as they didn’t want to admit it, the moment they saw the size of the undead army, everyone had no choice but to acknowledge it.

That necromancer was an extremely troublesome opponent.

“This is your last chance. If you have no intention of offering Bellium’s remains to me, I’ll turn all of you into undead and make you point your swords at Elysium’s walls.”

As though trying to provoke them, the necromancer took out Bellium’s Tear, which he had stolen from Adil, and waved it around.

As if daring them to take it back.

“You think we can’t?”

Revi, a rabbitkin standing at the front, lost control and charged at the necromancer.

But.

A sharp bone shard flew in from an unexpected direction and pierced their chest.

Urk!

With a strangled cry, Revi collapsed where they stood, bleeding.

“Revi!”

“We didn’t even see it... How?”

“You got arrogant with nothing more than this level of skill. You have no right to be angry.”

Before his overwhelming presence, everyone felt such immense fear that their entire bodies seemed paralyzed.

But Minjun was the only exception.

‘Something’s strange.’

Minjun could also feel the necromancer’s overwhelming presence, but for some reason, instead of fear, confidence that he could win began to fill him.

At the same time.

Thump, thump. Minjun’s heart pounded hard.

‘Like yesterday, is this the aura’s blessing...?’

He turned around just in case, but the aura he had seen yesterday was nowhere to be seen.

‘Then what is this...?’

Before he could find an answer, Minjun’s gaze naturally turned toward Bellium’s Tear.

As though guided by instinct, Minjun unconsciously reached toward Bellium’s Tear.

Then, Bellium’s Tear in the necromancer’s hand began to be pulled toward Minjun.

“W-What?!”

The necromancer was only flustered for a moment.

Regaining his senses, he commanded the undead to seize Bellium’s Tear.

But Bellium’s Tear easily tore through the skeletons blocking its path as though they were paper, then flew toward Minjun as if drawn by a magnet.

And the moment Bellium’s Tear touched Minjun’s body.

As if by magic, it began to be absorbed into Minjun’s body.

“...!”

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