WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ My Girlfriend Returned as a Dragon ◈
Chapter 93: I’m Here to Share Some Good News.
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Gates and dimensional rifts.
At first glance, you might think they were similar, but they were in fact clearly different.
People who entered a Gate could not remain there permanently, and since they would eventually reach its end if they kept walking, they could not go beyond a certain point.
Based on these traits, scholars had speculated that Gates were massive fragments broken off from other dimensions, and that remained the leading hypothesis.
A dimensional rift, on the other hand, was a kind of passage connecting one dimension to another.
In theory, any Hunter could enter a Gate, but there was still no record of any life-form other than dragons passing through a dimensional rift.
Still, even if Minjun could use a small measure of a dragon's power and occasionally speak Dragon Speech, it was still a stretch to call him a dragon.
“…You're right. Now that I think about it, something does seem strange, just like you said, Grandfather.”
Sia nodded at Rokan's explanation.
“Besides, Gates don't pull people in like black holes the way dimensional rifts do.”
But the Yongduam Gate had directly swallowed Minjun, making it closer to a dimensional rift than a Gate.
“How was oppa even able to enter it?”
“Setting aside that he could enter it, it's stranger still that nothing happened while he passed through it.”
As mentioned before, an ordinary human would inevitably suffer pain too intense to endure while passing through a dimensional rift.
Thus, Rokan believed that Minjun should have felt that pain while traveling between Earth and Pangaea.
Yet Minjun had never mentioned anything like that.
Sia had not thought deeply about the matter at first, but as she listened to Rokan, she realized there were indeed many strange details.
“Grandfather. Come to think of it… there still hasn't been a case of someone getting sucked into a dimensional rift and returning to their original world, has there?”
As Sia said, they had never heard of any dragon settled on Earth returning to their original dimension.
No, except for the recent incident on Jeju Island, a dimensional rift had never even been discovered before.
Yet Minjun had gone into a dimensional rift and returned as if to prove them wrong.
He did not seem to realize what that meant.
“……”
Rokan stared into space with a complicated look in his eyes.
“At this point, it's not even strange anymore that things like this keep happening around Minjun.”
Unexpected things always happened around Minjun, to an almost absurd extent.
The first one or two times could be dismissed as coincidence, but by now, it could not possibly be a coincidence.
Even Rokan, who might know Minjun better than Minjun knew himself, felt that the troublesome mysteries only grew with time.
But he could not tell even his granddaughter Sia about the secret he knew regarding Minjun.
With no one to consult, Rokan swallowed a sigh.
“Grandfather. Why do things like this keep happening to oppa…?”
Whether they were good or bad, none of them were ordinary.
She only wanted to live an ordinary life with Minjun, nothing more.
Why?
Why did things like this keep happening around them?
Rokan understood Sia's feelings well.
However.
“…”
He could not bring himself to answer his granddaughter's question.
* * *
The next day.
While eating breakfast and mindlessly scrolling through my phone, I noticed a text from Rokan.
<I'll secure us an S-rank Gate soon.>
The instant I saw that S, my slightly groggy mind snapped awake.
“…An S-rank?”
I knew Rokan and I would be entering a Gate together soon.
But even so, I had never imagined we would skip A-rank Gates and go straight to an S-rank Gate.
Other than the Gate Break I saw on Jeju Island, I had not even entered an A-rank Gate yet.
It seemed he intended to make me stronger, as he always had.
“He really doesn't hold back.”
Well, it was not like we were entering an S-rank Gate tomorrow.
As soon as I finished eating, I headed straight to Rokan's lair.
When I arrived, I saw Rokan watering his plants.
It seemed he quite liked gardening, his new hobby.
And I felt a little bad saying this, but with his hands clasped behind his back as he watered them, he really did look like a grandfather.
He looked like a handsome middle-aged man who could be Sia's father, but he was actually already entering old age.
…Next time, I should bring him a small succulent.
“Minjun, you're here.”
“Good morning, Rokan.”
“Yes. As you can see, I have something to finish up, so wait there a moment.”
After finishing watering the plants, Rokan sat down and immediately brought up the guild.
“Yesterday, several guilds nearly simultaneously said they wanted to acquire our guild.”
“Acquire it?”
“Yes. In corporate terms, they want us to become a subsidiary. You know the reason as well.”
Rokan himself was one reason, of course, but their main goal was likely to bring me into their guild.
Since I did not seem interested in joining another guild, they probably wanted to buy our entire guild and pull me into theirs.
…Wasn't that a little excessive?
“In any case, naturally, I have no intention of selling our guild. You only need to know that it happened. And there is one more thing.”
Rokan handed me a sheet of paper.
“Many people have contacted us looking for you. I have compiled them all here.”
After taking the paper, I scanned through it.
From a quick look, about half of the inquiries asked whether they could hire me as a day-hire mercenary.
Since there were few high-ranking Hunters of A-rank or higher, major guilds sometimes asked other guilds to lend them one temporarily when an A-rank Hunter had to miss a raid and they urgently needed additional personnel.
I had a rough idea of how much such jobs paid, but even conservatively, these offers looked at least one and a half to two times higher than what other A-rank mercenary Hunters received.
There was no reason to overpay without an ulterior motive.
“Some may genuinely be desperate for a Hunter, but I believe most of them made these requests so they could build a connection with you.”
“I think so too.”
Aside from the day-hire mercenary offers that made up about half the list, there were various other collaboration requests.
There was an offer to be a one-day instructor at my old school, mock battles with promising Hunters affiliated with guilds, and even strange meeting proposals I had never received before.
There were even offers to appear on broadcasts.
…But I did not think I needed to accept those.
“Think it over and decide for yourself. Go if you believe it's a good opportunity. If not, don't.”
“I will.”
“There will be even more interest in you from now on. So you need to manage these things well, and also…”
Rokan hesitated for a moment, seemingly debating whether to say it, before continuing.
“I am not saying I don't trust you, but be more careful so something like last time doesn't happen again.”
By something like last time, he probably meant the incident with Lia Black.
Regardless of the fact that I had no interest in that sort of thing, there was no guarantee something similar would not happen again.
Even thinking about it now made me break out in a cold sweat.
“Anyway, that's all I needed to tell you. Warm up, and we'll start sparring right away.”
“Yes.”
At my answer, Rokan gave a meaningful smile.
“You should prepare yourself. The training from now on will be difficult on an entirely different level from what you have done so far.”
Was he trying to scare me, or did he really intend to raise the difficulty that much?
I found out soon enough.
This man, no, this dragon, was truly serious.
“Rokan, even if I've grown stronger than before, this is still too much…”
“Didn't I tell you to prepare yourself?”
That day, I experienced hell.
* * *
The next day.
“Ugh, my whole body aches…”
The moment I woke up, my entire body throbbed.
I thought I had gradually become accustomed to the recent high-intensity training, but apparently that had been a mistake.
The training had been so much more intense than anything before that I dry-heaved throughout it, and my whole body convulsed.
It was bad enough that I wondered whether I might die like this.
Of course, Rokan had cast healing magic on me and given me a potion after yesterday's training ended.
Even so, the lingering effects made me realize just how absurdly intense that training had been.
Clutching my aching shoulder, I made do with a simple breakfast.
In the middle of eating, the doorbell suddenly rang.
At first, I assumed a delivery had arrived, but just before opening the door, I remembered something from the past.
The time the Aura Guild had approached me before.
The situation had been similar then too.
Just in case, I looked outside through the small lens in the front door.
A white woman I had never seen before was standing outside.
Wasn't this exactly like last time?
But now they would know I belonged to a guild, so she probably was not here to recruit me.
Still, it seemed worth finding out what she wanted.
As a precaution, I opened the door with the chain still on.
“Who is it?”
The moment I poked my head out, the woman answered with a friendly salesperson's smile.
“Hello. Are you Hunter Yoon Minjun?”
“Yes, I am…?”
“Sorry for coming by so suddenly. I have an important proposal for you. Could you spare me just a moment?”
It was suspicious no matter how I looked at it.
Were foreigners going door to door asking people if they believed in the Way these days too?
“Please tell me what this is about first.”
Keeping the chain on, I asked the woman cautiously.
Rather than answering immediately, she paused for a moment.
“If you won't tell me why you're here, I have no intention of speaking with you.”
When I tried to close the door, the woman urgently stuck her hand through the gap to stop me.
Then she whispered to me in a very quiet voice.
“Would you be interested in special naturalization?”
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