#181

At Cullen’s question, Cat tilted her head and looked up at him. Her golden eyes, resembling the Dragon’s, looked up at him, and for a moment, he felt discomfort. It felt just like when he was a child asking for help to escape.

“Cullen-nim, are you leaving?”

Cat, who had been staring intently at him, asked the crucial question. Whether it was a child’s intuition or something inherent to being a Dragon, Cat wasn’t fooled by the question that might have deceived a child. When Cullen didn’t answer, Cat’s face grew more crestfallen.

“Are you going?”

Cat’s reddened eyes immediately welled up with tears. He recalled the Dragon’s eyes, which would redden but not cry. The Dragon’s image, which kept overlapping, made Cullen feel confused and hurried. This was not what he wanted. He didn’t want to think of the Dragon.

“Are you going to tell me?”

Instead of lying to the child, Cullen simply asked. Looking up at the expressionless Cullen, Cat clutched the hem of his clothes.

“Don’t go. Kiyen-nim and we all like Cullen-nim. Kiyen-nim doesn’t sleep without Cullen-nim.”

Cullen, who had been gently trying to pry Cat’s hand off, paused. Cat continued.

“Stay with us, okay?”

The child wasn’t holding him by force, nor using Magic, so it was difficult to pull away. Cullen hesitated and finally gently detached Cat’s hand.

“I will be back shortly.”

Cat’s eyes widened as she stared at him. Perhaps sensing the firm resolve in his voice, the child said nothing more, only gazing endlessly at Cullen.

Cullen slowly stepped back. Since he couldn’t get help from Cat, it was best to run quickly. He had to reach the village before the Dragon noticed, to blend in with the humans.

As Cat’s figure, staring blankly at him, grew distant, his stomach churned, and Cullen turned his body.

Then, after hesitating, he gradually quickened his pace. He plunged into the forest shrouded in darkness. The night forest was as dark as pitch. The sound of the wind sweeping through the branches echoed eerily. Only the low chirping of birds could be heard.

The forest, which could be easy to get lost in even during the day, was even more dangerous at night. Fortunately, since it was where the Dragon resided, there were no winged beasts. He hadn’t grabbed his sword because he’d wasted time with Cat, but based on what he’d heard, there wouldn’t be any beasts.

Still, just in case, Cullen twisted and broke a thick branch he found. He held a branch as thick as a child’s forearm. With its end broken to a sharp point, he began to descend the mountain again. He had done this countless times since he was young.

As he followed the gradually sloping terrain, Cullen occasionally checked the sky. The sky with Aksha’s symbol, the unusually large star visible slightly away from the moon, was his guide. Travelers and mercenaries at night used that guiding star as a reference to find their way.

Cullen ran south without rest. Having left without preparing anything, branches scratched his cheeks and neck. He paid no mind to the stinging pain. He couldn’t sense the Dragon’s presence, so there was no time to catch his breath.

While running fast, he tried to suppress his presence as much as possible. After running for the first time in a while, he started to get a little breathless. Roughly an hour passed, and he knew the stars in the sky were getting closer to the south.

In the distance, lights began to flicker. Unlike when he descended with the Dragon, he had run frantically, so it roughly matched his calculations. If he continued like this, he would reach the village in 30 minutes.

He couldn’t rest even after that. Dawn was approaching, and the day would soon break, so he had to blend in with the hunters and merchants leaving the village and move away from the mountain range. And then…

His steps slowed as he thought of where to go. He had nowhere to go. He had decided to leave because he was confused by his unstable state, but he didn’t have a clear destination. Thinking of a destination brought to mind the cabin. The place the Dragon had called his home.

My hesitant steps quickened again. The thought that I should go meet Ulli came to me belatedly. According to what the villagers had said, Ulli seemed to have reclaimed her position in the Count’s territory. She would likely be trying to protect people from Demonic Beasts as well, so if I went there, I would have something to do.

The unprecedented appearance of Demonic Beasts was undoubtedly Zarkas’s doing. Ever since they crossed over to Dark Island, Demonic Beasts had been appearing in the east.

If I could find the cause and defeat the Demonic Beasts, the world would somehow become livable again. I couldn’t eliminate all dangers, but it would be a world that ordinary humans could somehow navigate with their own strength. A world where the souls who would eventually return could live safely.

After that…

What should I do after that?

As emptiness filled Cullen’s heart, raindrops began to fall. I lifted my head, thinking it might be the night dew on the leaves.

But it wasn’t night dew. The sky was darkening. Dark clouds had gathered in the sky, which had been clear and serene with the moon. The gentle breeze gradually grew stronger, soon letting out a ferocious sound.

This was not a natural phenomenon.

The weather couldn’t change so drastically without any warning. Not unless it was the power of a god or Magic. The raindrops quickly turned into a downpour. The sound of rain pattering on the leaves changed into a strong, rushing noise.

Water began to flow down my head. My neck and clothes were soon soaked. The ground quickly turned to mud from the rain that poured down as if to pierce the sky. The moment I stepped on the squelching ground, Cullen decided to stop. Running any further would be futile.

I knew who would be behind me. I couldn’t sense their presence, but I was sure. Taking a deep breath that filled my lungs to the brim, I turned around.

There stood the being I had expected. Even in the darkness, there was a long shadow cast particularly darkly. The golden wings were the first thing I saw. The strong membrane and sharp spikes felt sharper than usual.

“…Did you think you could escape?”

As Cullen turned around, the Dragon slowly opened its mouth. Despite the loud rain, the Dragon’s voice reached my ears clearly. It was a calmer voice than I had expected.

“Did you think I would let you?”

No, it wasn’t calm.

“Were you trying to blend in with those humans and leave me? To blend in with the humans you desire so much, and abandon me again?”

That wasn’t it. Cullen belatedly, foolishly, recalled the day the Dragon felt betrayed by me. On the day he spat words like a blade that pierced my chest, I left his side and went to Kihelene.

“Didn’t you say you would stay by my side!”

The Dragon’s voice seethed with anger and betrayal. It was the same as that day. The Dragon’s wings spread wide, and he walked towards me. At the same time, lightning struck. As if to represent his anger, the sky was enraged.

CRASH!

Along with the following thunder, lightning illuminated the Dragon’s face amidst the flashes. The face, briefly revealed under the whitened sky, was stained with shock and fury. Rainwater flowed down his cheeks. The raindrops pooling and dripping from his chin strangely felt like tears.

He approached Cullen, who stood in silence, and grabbed my wrist. He hesitated even to grab me, but at this moment, he seemed to disregard it, applying force gruesomely.

“If you go to their side, I will kill them all. Even if it means killing other humans by your side, I will keep you by my side. If you try to leave me, you will see blood.”

A chilling threat, unbecoming of a Dragon, escaped his lips.

“You say you feel nothing, yet you care so much for others; you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

A self-deprecating laugh was mixed into his sharp voice. Looking at the Dragon, whose eyes glinted with distortion, Cullen finally spoke.

“…That is not like you.”

The Dragon had never killed a person by his own will. Even when we wandered outside, he only intervened in human affairs at my request.

“I have already killed tens of thousands of humans. Adding more blood to that would barely make a mark.”

All sorts of emotions stained the Dragon’s face, visible to Cullen’s eyes. Staring at it, the scar on my chest ached. It was enough to make me dizzy.

This wasn’t what I wanted. The Dragon was more angry about my escape than I had thought, more than I had expected…

“…It wasn’t your will.”

Cullen said this to calm him down. But the Dragon shook his head. He leaned his upper body close, almost nose-to-nose, and growled.

“What use is that?”

“That is…”

Before Cullen could speak, the Dragon shouted.

“You don’t hate me anyway!”

The cry echoed. At the same time, the rain struck my cheeks with painful force.

“That I… so…”

The Dragon’s burning voice began to fade.

“So, you hate me.”

His voice, now small, soon sounded like weeping. The Dragon slowly crumbled. Still holding Cullen’s wrist, the Dragon knelt on the ground.

Cullen stared at the Dragon with wide eyes. He had never seen him like this…

“I was wrong, Cullen. I shouldn’t have… said that to you.”

Rainwater flowed down his pale, slender jaw. His eyes, looking up at Cullen from his kneeling position, were red. Tears truly flowed from his reddened eyes. He was begging.

“Only after you were gone did I realize. What you are to me. You are…”

His eyes, looking up at me desperately, were like a child fearing abandonment. More desperate and earnest than Cat’s expression. The grip on my wrist weakened. It felt like I could break free and run away right now.

But it was difficult to move.

“Without you… I cannot smile. I cannot sleep, cannot live, cannot feel anything without you.”

His beautiful golden-brown eyebrows furrowed. His sobs were mixed in. The Dragon, more human than any human Cullen had ever seen…

“I love you, Cullen.”

He confessed his love.