Digging for the Dragon’s Bones

On the way back, Caliburn asked.

—Do you believe that promise?

It was obvious what he meant.

“No.”

Caliburn fell silent for a moment.

Maybe he was surprised.

—Haha, unexpected.

Then he laughed a beat late and answered like that.

—I thought you believed it since you let him live immediately.

“He’s a kid.”

—Is he?

What do you mean is he.

He obviously looked like a kid.

Anyway, these supernatural beings.

They live for hundreds or thousands of years with no sense of cost-efficiency, so they can’t even tell things like that apart.

“Maybe barely over ten.”

I said that, then corrected myself.

“Could be around fifteen.”

When I first saved him, I thought he was maybe twelve or thirteen at most.

But seeing him up close, he looked older than that.

“He was really skinny.

If you don’t eat properly during your growth years, you look way younger than kids your age.”

—Haha, I see.

But you seem to know that well, honey.

Experience perhaps?

“…No?”

—You hesitated though.

Of course, if you don’t want to talk about it I won’t pry.

“No, it’s not that.”

It really wasn’t an excuse.

“I didn’t have some painful childhood or anything.”

My background and upbringing were ordinary.

Extremely ordinary.

No need to dwell on it.

So let’s not describe it or think about it and just move on.

The reason I hesitated was something else.

‘Why do I know that though?’

“Well, what I said earlier is just common sense.”

I scratched the back of my neck and wrapped it up like that.

Caliburn didn’t say anything more.

“Anyway, his body’s a kid’s.

If I just throw him away somewhere it leaves a bad taste.

If I tell him to get lost, the ending is obvious.”

—How merciful of you, Your Majesty.

“Are you mocking me?”

—Ahaha, of course not.

Why would I do that?

That was true.

Mocking someone requires some kind of feeling toward them, but that guy didn’t really have that.

What was this.

My mood soured again.

Probably because of that kid earlier.

—Honey, have you ever thought about this?

“What.”

—A person’s nature rarely changes.

Even if you try to force it to bend another way, it doesn’t really work.

At first glance it looks like it’s growing the way you want, but if you look deeper, it isn’t.

I blinked in confusion.

What kind of random topic was this all of a sudden.

“Do you do gardening?”

Then I thought maybe that made sense.

He basically lived in a greenhouse.

Maybe he liked plants.

Even if he had no interest in me—no interest in humans—he might still care about plants.

“Living things don’t grow however you want.”

—Haha, that’s true.

Sometimes I even wondered if I should just kill them and preserve them instead.

Dried flowers?

That could be nice.

But apparently drying them nicely is surprisingly difficult.

“Sometimes wondered?”

—……

“So you didn’t actually do it?”

There was no reply.

“Caliburn?”

I watched the jewel butterfly fluttering beside me with narrowed eyes and carefully reached out my hand.

Did the connection cut off.

Is that thing okay?

The jewel butterfly silently flew onto my fingertip.

It felt strange describing something made of jewels like this, but it seemed gentle.

—When you come back, I’ll adjust the system a little.

Only then did Caliburn’s voice return.

But instead of continuing the earlier topic, he completely changed the subject.

It seemed the previous conversation had simply ended while the sound cut out.

‘It wasn’t anything important anyway.’

So I didn’t ask about it and just answered him.

“Again?”

—I just thought of it.

You said that when dealing with the candidates, sometimes you suddenly feel irritated, right?

I’ll make a visible gauge for that feeling.

If you can see it, it’ll be easier to deal with.

“Instead of that, how about preventing the bug in the first place.”

—Haha, like I said before, this isn’t even my specialty.

If we compare it to your world, imagine someone hired for office administration suddenly having to do package design, editorial design, and marketing too.

Wow.

That’s a black company.

“Quit.”

—Hahaha.

A question suddenly occurred to me.

Caliburn didn’t seem to like humans that much.

So why was he doing all this.

Did he get incentives or something.

And if so, who was giving them.

“Fine.

When I get back to the greenhouse, check it then.”

Feeling a little sorry for his miserable supernatural working conditions, I answered without complaining further.

Caliburn asked.

—From the way you said that, honey, do you have somewhere to stop by?

The jewel butterfly sitting in my palm tilted sideways.

Did that happen because Caliburn tilted his head.

‘That’s kind of cute.’

Probably because it’s a butterfly.

—Strange.

There’s no one besides me you’d go see, honey.

“What are you saying.”

—Haha, it’s true.

Most of the candidates either hate you terribly or don’t want to associate with you.

And the few who don’t feel that way are people you avoid instead.

“…I have something to do.”

—Something to do?

Even though that former prophet had just poked a sore spot, I gave him credit for not prying further and answered.

“My friend is probably very busy right now.”

—Friend?

Haha, how cute.

You still believe in imaginary friends—

“He gives me stuff, so he’s my friend.”

I was sure that if Caliburn were physically beside me right now, he’d be curling his lips upward in amusement.

—That kind of friend?

Got it.

Though whether he thinks of you as a friend too is another matter.

“That’s none of my business.”

As I said that, I lightly jumped up onto the half-collapsed castle wall.

Then I looked down below.

Among the ruined creatures of the middle zone, something glowing white like a bridge could be seen.

The bridge extending from the center, and identical bridges from the other cities.

Those four bridges all led toward a single city.

I opened the system window.

Combat is currently occurring in the Eastern Province.

The Eastern Province is currently in a state of civil war.

The walls of territories in civil war have weakened functionality.

If a territory in civil war receives severe damage, the wall function will be nullified.

Total battles occurring in the Eastern Province: ○

My ability wasn’t high enough to see the exact number of battles, but that didn’t matter.

All I needed to confirm was that the Eastern Province was being invaded.

“My friend is probably extremely busy right now.”

Of course he was.

The other three cities—excluding mine—were constantly fighting over the Eastern Province.

If he was defending against that, he’d be overwhelmed.

“He probably doesn’t even have room to move.”

I’m not a charity worker.

There was a reason I caused all this trouble and then stayed behind.

“So I’m going to find the treasures that should have belonged to him in the first place.”

I never cared about Imok’s territory to begin with.

[R: After DAY 3, Imok’s army rose instantly to Duke rank.

It was thanks to a relic he obtained during DAY 3.]

[R: On Day 2, when DAY 3 began, Imok’s army discovered a relic using the traits of the Master Creature Imok.

Only dragon-type creatures could sense it.

After detecting the relic, Imok locked down the entire city…]

Replay of the 7th run.

In my seventh playthrough, Imok rose to Duke rank on DAY 3 and became the overwhelming number one.

So I could never allow DAY 3 to reach the second day again.

—I thought you just hated the Eastern Province, honey.

“Are you a kid?”

……

Well.

There’s a little bit of that too.

The existence of character routes means one thing.

“There is a story centered on a specific character.”

Which means.

“In that story, that character prospers.”

The seventh playthrough was Imok’s story.

[R: Among the five five-star candidates, Imok attracted particular attention.]

[R: Although they were grouped together as five-stars, public opinion did not see them as equal.

The Four Seas Alliance led by Benzel had lower status than the four cities.

Seolya had rumors of being an illegitimate child.

Jeog-o once suffered a serious illness.

People whispered that he was only pretending to have recovered.]

[R: Bloodline, city prestige, health.

Only Imok of the Eastern City had perfection in every category.]

But that was only in human society.

[R: However, Imok had a complex.

His Master Creature was Imok, son of the Dragon King and a poisonous dragon.

Dragon-type creatures are among the highest-ranked post-apocalypse creatures.

Yet Master Creature Imok held an ambiguous position.]

[R: He was the son of the Dragon King—meaning he was not yet a fully independent being.

And since he had once faced extermination by the Heavenly Emperor, he could not be classified as purely good.]

[R: A fitting metaphor would be a gyrin—a lesser dragon.]

Leaving aside the status of the human vessel, if you judged by Master Creature rank, people said Imok fell short of Seolya or Jeog-o.

Of course, no one was insane enough to say that to his face.

But Imok must have known those rumors existed.

‘Some even said that purely in terms of power, he might lose to OZ.’

Numbers always win in the end.

Anyway, the core of Imok’s route was overcoming that complex and devouring everything alone.

‘So how did he devour everything.’

Thinking about it again, Imok was unbelievably spoiled.

Compared to certain people with rivers of Styx flowing between them and their families, or certain people with no family at all, this guy…

‘He’s the perfect example of what happens when you spoil a kid too much.’

Imok’s father adored him so much it was painful.

When sending Imok to Bran, he prepared everything.

Followers who alone gave him the largest numbers among all factions.

Rare items and enormous resources.

And.

[R: The fossil of a dragon-type creature buried somewhere in Bran.]

Imok’s father secretly told only Imok about that information.

So after the competition began, Imok had been searching for that fossil.

[R: Creatures of the same type can sense each other’s existence.]

Even if one side is dead, as long as the body remains, the living one can detect it.

Among the candidates, only Imok and OZ had dragon-type Master Creatures.

To be precise, OZ’s creature was actually a low-rank earth dragon, centipede, or snake rather than a true dragon.

But since it looked similar, it was apparently counted as a subspecies.

In fact, in some OZ routes, OZ discovered the dragon fossil first and absorbed it.

Was that the 14th run.

Or the 15th.

Anyway, that’s why Imok hated OZ in particular.

Even if I hadn’t set a trap, Imok probably would have attacked OZ eventually.

‘Because he doesn’t know the real OZ is already dead.’

And all the evil-aligned creatures attached to OZ had disappeared too.

So naturally I shouldn’t be able to detect the dead dragon fossil.

Thunk.

—Honey.

“……”

Thunk.

Ah.

Another miss.

—Honey, honey, honey.

“I’m busy.”

So stop bothering me.

—You’re so cold.

Are you the type who swallows sweetness and spits out bitterness.

“Modern people swallow bitterness and spit out sweetness.

Study social media more. Fighting.”

After all, bitter means ginseng tonic and sweet just raises your sugar levels.

Clearly he didn’t know that.

—You really like digging, don’t you.

Well, relics come out when you dig the ground, so of course I dig.

—You’ve been digging day and night.

Don’t you get any skills or titles related to that.

Why wouldn’t I.

There’s Mole of the Frozen Earth, and even now…

Ding.

The system window updated with a shining sound.

Achievement: 10,000 shovel digs completed.

Title acquired: “Masochist of the Frozen Earth.”

『A title granted to someone who dug barren land—where even after planting crops 100 times only one sprout might appear—ten thousand times with a shovel.

Effect: Reduced sensitivity to frostbite.』

Sometimes the title descriptions feel like they’re picking fights with the player.

“Be honest.

You wrote the title descriptions too, didn’t you?”

—Haha.

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

The signal is bad.

Anyway, not here.

Maybe somewhere else.

Without detection, digging with only a rough location is inefficient.

I drove the shovel into another patch of ground.

Thunk.

“Don’t give me that.

What do you mean you can’t hear me.”

—How cruel.

Please don’t bully this poor and innocent prophet.

I spoke up because—

“Because you’re bored.

Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Honestly that guy was ridiculous.

Anyone hearing this would think he hadn’t spoken to me until now.

When he had been clinging to me like an autumn mosquito all this time.

—Haha, you must be really busy.

Should I not talk then?

“Sure.

I’ll play with you later.”

—Then I’ll wait quietly, honey.

The idea of him “waiting quietly” somehow made me imagine him preparing a naked apron or something.

Which was terrifying.

But if it meant silence, I’d accept it.

—Then don’t forget to check the system window often.

Goodbye!

“Yeah, yeah. The system window.”

……

Suddenly the system window.

A chill of unease ran through me.

I pulled the system window back in front of me.

Combat is occurring in the Eastern Province.

The Eastern Province is in a state of civil war.

Current civil war level: 60%.

Wall functions of the Eastern Province are completely paralyzed.

This was originally a game where Imok was destined to fall.

If Imok was an SR-rank card, the other five-stars were also SR.

And this was an SR-1 versus SR-3 fight.

Current civil war level: 65%.

Still…

Current civil war level: 70%.

Most followers have lost the will to fight.

Number of followers defecting to other factions…

This was too fast.

Something like this would only happen if a catastrophic species destroyed the king piece on the chessboard.

Or if a broadcast titled

〈[Live] King abandons citizens and flees—exclusive coverage〉

had aired.

“f*ck.”

A chill ran down the back of my neck.

“Wait.

Wait a second.”

No matter what, he was the leader.

The responsible one.

The guy who wanted to become king.

Surely he wouldn’t…

—Come to think of it, honey.

While I panicked, the jewel butterfly fluttered over and landed on the top of my head.

The voice that spoke was calm, as always.

—Strangely, people tend to think only within their own range.

The more he spoke, the further my mind drifted from calm.

—Selfish people cannot believe in goodwill during extreme situations.

Meanwhile, people who are not evil think, “Surely no one would go that far.”

And that is how downfall happens.

In the end, people only understand others intellectually and judge them by their own standards.

Imok…

—Haha.

Surely you wouldn’t make that mistake, honey?

I stared into empty space.

It was dark.

As if a massive black cloud hung only over my head.

—Well then, I’ll go heat up the bathwater and wait obediently.

“There isn’t even a bathhouse.

Stop talking nonsense.”

I muttered and laughed awkwardly.

“Right?”

I asked.

But no answer came back.

Of course not.

Caliburn had already thrown the bomb and left.

And besides.

“Well, you wouldn’t know anyway since you’ve never been to the greenhouse, young master.”

Imok had already fused halfway with his Master Creature after abandoning his territory and followers and running here.

He wasn’t even human anymore.