Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first morning that Kim Rok Soo had woken up as a dragon, he hadn’t immediately been able to process what had happened. His body had felt unwieldy and the environment had been completely unfamiliar, but after the initial confusion he had managed to access the memories of the body he found himself in. After that, adjusting to his new life hadn’t been that difficult, particularly once he figured out how to shape-shift.

Since the universe had apparently handed him a quiet place to live and mind his own business, Kim Rok Soo dug a small garden and planted some seeds, thinking of the conversations that he’d had with his companions in his previous life. The Red Dragon had been a hoarder of all kinds of things, and Kim Rok Soo had been pleasantly surprised to discover seeds among the myriad items collected by the body's previous owner.

It was still winter when he had first become a dragon, but that didn't stop him from digging around in the frozen ground and setting up a garden area. He simply put his new magic to use, warming the earth and air around his new home. It created the effect of a greenhouse without the inconvenience of having to actually build one, allowing him to start planting seeds despite the snow that surrounded his secluded meadow.

Although he had remained in dragon form to do the initial digging, Kim Rok Soo typically spent his time in a more human-like shape when working on the garden. It was easier to handle delicate tasks in a more familiar body, particularly since he wasn't really used to the talons and claws of his dragon body when compared to fingers. He was just as likely to pull out a plant that he wanted to keep as he was to pluck a weed if he attempted to tend the garden as a dragon.

Looking in the mirror after shape-shifting, he had discovered that his hair was vibrantly red, like the dragon's scales. It didn’t really matter what he looked like, or what he wore, since there wasn’t anyone out here but him in this stretch of wilderness that he had woken up in. The surrounding area was fairly rocky and accessing the meadow that the Red Dragon had claimed for himself wasn’t easy without wings. The valley was surrounded on all sides by slopes of rock, and if someone didn't know it was there, it was easy to overlook completely.

Within the sheltered confines of the rocky slopes, there was a wide swatch of meadow, several small patches of trees, and even a little spring welling from the ground. While he could easily change shapes and go find a human town, Kim Rok Soo liked the idea of being left alone to quietly mind his own business and tend to the garden that he had dreamed about planting so many years ago.

There were plenty of stories about dragons being hunted down and killed simply for existing in the books that he had read in the past, so he hadn’t really gone out to investigate the new world he now lived in despite his ability to maintain human form. All of his knowledge of the world came from the memories of the Red Dragon whose body now belonged to him, and the thing that primarily stuck out to him was that dragons were solitary creatures. 

There was only one other dragon that the Red Dragon had known about, a golden dragon that had assisted him through his first growth phase. Kim Rok Soo was glad that he hadn’t personally needed to live through that experience, since just sifting through the dragon’s memories was enough to indicate that it hadn’t been pleasant. While the golden dragon seemed amiable enough in the Red Dragon’s memories, he had left the Red Dragon to its own devices after the growth phase was over, so Kim Rok Soo assumed that he preferred to live alone.

His inherited senses did also indicate the presence of dragon energy somewhere in the vast forest that he could see if he flew to the mountaintops that surrounded his secluded valley, but Kim Rok Soo hadn’t felt the need to investigate further. Dragon energy was not the only thing in that forest and even if he was considerably stronger as a dragon than he had been as a human, he had no desire to go out of his way to look for trouble. He had experienced enough instances in the past where trouble had come looking for him to feel the need to potentially add to his own problems.

The other thing that Kim Rok Soo had gleaned from the Red Dragon’s memories was that it had experienced a rather rocky childhood, just as he had. Until he had met the golden dragon Eruhaben, the Red Dragon had lived on the run. What exactly he had been running from wasn’t completely clear in the memories, but the simple fact that he hadn’t felt safe in the world was justification enough for Kim Rok Soo to keep to himself in this quiet mountain meadow. Perhaps it was a blessing for the Red Dragon to be able to forget the worst of the shadows that had plagued his youth.

Kim Rok Soo had lost track of how many days or weeks or even months it had been since he woke up as a dragon. It certainly hadn’t been a year yet, as his little garden wasn’t ripe for harvesting and was still growing, but it was definitely early spring outside the valley now. The days blended together in a rather seamless stream of napping, hunting, and gardening. With no particular responsibilities or anyone to report to, Kim Rok Soo hadn’t been bothering to count the days or even pay attention to what day of the week it was.

One evening his quiet stream of similar days was disrupted by a huge wave of what he instinctively recognized as mana from another dragon. It was too close for him to not feel the need to go investigate, particularly since it had been such a massive blast of power. His knowledge of the world from the Red Dragon’s memories identified the energy as a mana explosion and he knew it was a dangerous situation for not only himself but also any people living in the surrounding valleys.

Now that he had been a dragon himself for so long, Kim Rok Soo had the feeling that he could suppress and calm the mana of the other dragon if he intervened, preventing a wide-scale disaster. If he left the situation alone, it seemed likely that the other dragon would go on a rampage and many lives were likely to be lost, not to mention the damage that would be done to the surrounding area. 

Since he could fly, it wasn’t like Kim Rok Soo couldn’t at least get himself out if the situation seemed bad, though he would need to make sure that he didn’t inadvertently alert the people of the region to the location of his secluded hideaway. He reasoned to himself that this incident was similar to asking a noisy neighbor to quiet down, and with that thought in mind he took to the air. 

What he found when he reached the source of the mana disruption surprised him. He had expected a dragon of similar size and bulk to himself, but instead he saw a tiny black figure in the process of destroying a mountain. Despite the other dragon’s small size, it was clearly very powerful, perhaps even more than it usually would be due to the state that it was currently in. Kim Rok Soo could see a mana suppression collar around the smaller dragon’s neck, but it was lashing out violently despite the collar. 

The remnants of chains hung from the dragon's paws and there were wounds all over the little dragon too. Kim Rok Soo wondered if the Red Dragon whose body now belonged to him had endured a similar situation in the distant past. Perhaps this was why he had always been on the run, to avoid ending up like this little Black Dragon, chained and covered in wounds and burning its own life energy to overcome the mana restraints in pursuit of vengeance.

At the rate things were going, the little dragon was going to drive itself mad with pain, the collar inflicting increasing agony as the dragon continued to destroy the mountain that Kim Rok Soo suspected had previously concealed the place where it had been held captive. With a sudden flash of recognition, Kim Rok Soo realized that he knew both where he was and what would happen next if the dragon was left to rampage un-checked. If he couldn’t calm it down and get it out of here, it was doomed to be mercy-killed by Choi Han to put it out of its misery. 

Scanning the area, he spotted the village where Choi Han likely was already staying. For now the dragon’s rampage was contained to the mountain, but if it started to attack the viscount’s manor or the village itself Choi Han would definitely get involved. Kim Rok Soo flew lower so that he wouldn’t be spotted from the village.

“Hey you,” he called telepathically to the little dragon below. It was convenient not having to raise his voice and try to be heard over the chaos the dragon had started. He saw the dragon flinch and look around, vengeance momentarily forgotten. 

“Up here,” Kim Rok Soo called again, settling himself on the sturdiest tree he could see. It groaned under his weight but fortunately didn’t break. “You should stop that, you’re hurting yourself.”

The other dragon was crouched on the ground, staring up at him warily. Kim Rok Soo was reminded of a feral kitten, back arched and fur on end, ready to scratch or flee at any moment. It was clear that the dragon hadn’t expected to meet another dragon just outside where it had been kept captive. A small spark of indignant anger flashed in the little Black Dragon’s eyes.

“You don’t know anything,” he growled.

“I can see for myself that you’re in pain,” Kim Rok Soo pointed out, taking in the smaller dragon’s terrible condition. The mana was still burning and boiling just under the skin, ready to explode but barely contained by the collar now that the dragon had been distracted from actively using it. He needed to get the dragon away from here, because he could hear people coming to investigate the sounds from the previous attacks.

“Come with me, I’ll help you out,” he told the Black Dragon. The Red Dragon’s lair was pretty well stocked, though Kim Rok Soo had confirmed from the memories that he had sifted through that it was not all obtained legally. Still, the little dragon was going to need some recovery potions at the very least, and he was sure that he could find something to get that collar off if he looked around a bit.

“No,” the other dragon said, bristling at him. Kim Rok Soo wasn’t surprised that it didn’t trust him, even if he wasn’t human like the dragon’s captors had been. “You should have helped sooner if you wanted to help,” the little dragon accused. Kim Rok Soo supposed that from the Black Dragon’s point of view, the Red Dragon had been close enough to break him out all this time and yet had done nothing to save him.

“I didn’t know you were here,” Kim Rok Soo admitted. It was partially his own fault for not scouting the area more thoroughly instead of just setting up his little farm. If he had recognized the world that he had found himself in sooner, he could have definitely come up with a plan to break the Black Dragon out before it had broken out by itself. Then it would have suffered less and wouldn’t be in the current state of barely contained mana explosion.

“I only realized that you were here because of your mana,” Kim Rok Soo continued. He could hear the sounds of shouting getting nearer as the people from the viscount’s villa came toward what was left of the mountain. “You can’t stay here though. People are coming.”

“I’ll kill them all,” the little dragon said viciously. Kim Rok Soo didn’t blame it for holding a grudge, but without getting the mana restraint collar removed, the dragon was just going to make his own condition worse.

“Come with me and I’ll get that collar off for you,” he offered. “You can decide if your revenge is really worth it after you’ve healed up a bit.” The glimmer of torchlight was visible now as the people drew nearer. Kim Rok Soo willed himself invisible, manipulating his mana slightly. Of course, the tree still bent nearly in two beneath him would give away his position, but he intended to move soon.

“You’re lying,” the little dragon accused.

“It’s true, I am a good liar,” Kim Rok Soo admitted. “But if you want to smack these guys in the back of the head, you should run away now and come back when you’re at full power.” He took flight again, hovering just above the tree he had previously been perched. “I’ll even carry you,” he offered, noting the state of the Black Dragon’s wings.

“I can fly by myself!” the younger dragon retorted quickly, but the moment that he stretched his wings, he winced. Kim Rok Soo was pleased that the little dragon had finally agreed to leave, since they only had seconds to spare by this point, but he stayed silent and watched the other dragon. After a few more experimental attempts at spreading his wings, the Black Dragon growled in frustration at his own limitations. 

“...I’ll let you carry me just this once,” he conceded, having apparently taken Kim Rok Soo’s words to heart about not using his mana further while still restricted by the collar. Without that restraint, he would be able to fly even with his wings in such a poor state.

Kim Rok Soo gingerly scooped the small dragon up with his talons and extended his mana to cover it and make it invisible too. The mana restriction collar made it difficult despite the fact that he wasn’t the one wearing it, and Kim Rok Soo hoped that the little dragon wouldn’t flicker in and out of sight enough to be noticeable as they flew away. He flew swiftly and silently back to his hidden lair, carefully setting the other dragon down by the garden when they arrived.

“Wait here a moment,” he instructed, heading into the cavern that the Red Dragon had laid claim to before he had inherited this body. He shifted forms, figuring that it would be easier to handle the potion bottles and find something to cut the collar with if he had fingers instead of talons. A low growl alerted him to the fact that the other dragon hadn’t listened to his instruction to stay outside.

“Why do you look like a human?” the Black Dragon asked, voice full of suspicion. 

“So that I can help you,” Kim Rok Soo answered simply. He located a pair of shears and eyed the collar, trying to determine if they would be strong enough to cut through it. After thinking about it for a moment, he rummaged around a bit further and found a pair of gloves. He hadn’t even been touching the collar before and it had still affected his mana when he carried the other dragon.

There was no way that the shears would break the collar as they were, but it didn't take long for Kim Rok Soo to layer some enchantments onto them. The memories of the Red Dragon came in handy in moments like these. Eruhaben had taught the Red Dragon a few things when he had helped the younger dragon through his first growth phase. Even the suppressing power of the collar wouldn't hold against enough magic, as proven by the Black Dragon's use of mana earlier.

“Hold still,” Kim Rok Soo told the other dragon, who was eying the shears with distrust. Despite the obvious flinch as Kim Rok Soo grabbed the collar, the dragon was otherwise still as Kim Rok Soo slid one of the blades underneath the ring. He had been right to grab gloves, since he could feel a bit of a burning sensation in his palm even with the gloves on. The Black Dragon must have been in constant pain while wearing the collar.

It only took one attempt to break the collar, though he did also unfortunately break the shears, as the blades were ruined afterward. Kim Rok Soo tossed both aside as he knelt and grabbed the little dragon by the chin to force a potion down his throat. There was a brief scuffle as the other dragon tried to get free, but as he realized the potion was healing him, he stopped trying to break out of Kim Rok Soo’s hold.

“Here,” Kim Rok Soo said, tossing the mostly empty bottle at the little dragon so he could finish drinking it. He found another potion and poured it over the worst of the injuries on the dragon’s back, allowing the potions to heal the dragon both internally and externally. It would probably be best for the little dragon to rest for a while and recover, but he guessed that as a being that was born proud and arrogant, the younger dragon would leave as soon as he could.

“I hope you get better soon,” he told the other dragon. He eyed the now broken mana restraint collar with distaste, wondering what the best way to get rid of it was. Leaving it here in his home was out of the question. Returning his attention to the Black Dragon, he saw that most of the wounds were healed now, though there was still some scarring that would need additional attention. At least the other dragon’s mana had stabilized and wasn’t going to eat away at him from inside anymore.

“What do you want to do now that you’re free?” Kim Rok Soo asked.

“I…want to live,” the younger dragon said after a moment. “I want to be free.” Kim Rok Soo nodded in acceptance.

“Yes, dragons should be free,” he agreed. “You should live the life you want.”

“I’m not going to be tamed by anyone,” the Black Dragon said resolutely. “Not by you, or anyone else!” Kim Rok Soo nodded again.

“Yes, you’re a smart and prideful dragon.” He stood up, crossing his arms. “I’m not going to raise you, so you should live how you want to live.” It was very unlikely that the Black Dragon would still be around in the morning, since dragons tended to be solitary creatures. 

If nothing else, the younger dragon would probably go back and finish destroying the mountain where he had been held captive. Kim Rok Soo hoped that the other dragon would at least wait until Choi Han was gone if he was going to attack the viscount’s vacation home. The whole point of stepping in had been to prevent needless deaths, both that of the dragon and those of the people who hadn’t even been involved in the dragon’s confinement.

A being as intelligent as the young dragon should know that the best move would be to find himself a lair and grow in power before coming back to destroy the estate properly. Either way, whatever the dragon chose to do next was not Kim Rok Soo’s problem. He’d stepped in and averted the immediate crisis, but now he had a different problem on his hands.

If this really was the world of the book that he had been reading before becoming this Red Dragon, the plot indicated that there was an event coming up soon that would claim quite a few more lives than the Black Dragon’s rampage had originally been meant to take.

As much as he might like to say ‘I’m not human anymore, so this isn’t my problem,’ Kim Rok Soo knew that he wasn’t really going to do that. He knew that Choi Han would be able to mitigate about half of the damage, but that wouldn’t be enough. If the protagonist knew about the bombs ahead of time, he could both seek revenge for what he had experienced in Harris village and save more lives.

The only problem was that Kim Rok Soo had no desire to get anywhere near someone as dangerous as Choi Han, particularly not if he had Ron and Beacrox Molan in tow, which he most likely did if the plot was properly on course. Any one of those three might stab first and ask questions later if Kim Rok Soo approached them carelessly. Dragon strength probably wouldn’t do him any good against someone who had killed a dragon in the book, even if he was older and stronger than the young Black Dragon that Choi Han had been meant to kill.

Logically speaking, Kim Rok Soo knew that as a dragon, he was among the strongest beings in the world. However, Choi Han was a protagonist who had some crazy growth potential and was already incredibly strong. Even if he might not kill Kim Rok Soo, he could probably do some serious damage, and Kim Rok Soo hated pain. He wanted to avoid even the slightest chance of being injured, if he could.

His best bet was to get himself some sort of insurance before he approached them. Knowing what he did about the world, Kim Rok Soo was aware that there were many hidden powers in the world. He wasn't really interested in divine powers, since he didn't want to get involved in any way with gods, or devils, or angels. There were plenty of natural powers he could look into though, powers that had come from nature or been developed naturally by people in the past.

There were several powers he could think of that Choi Han's party and other main characters in the book were supposed to collect, but they were supporting powers that the strong main characters wouldn't really miss. Dragons were definitely powerful beings, but supporting powers couldn't hurt if Kim Rok Soo was going to be face to face with the dangerous main characters. He had read enough about Choi Han's strength to be concerned about his own safety even if he knew that he had strong defensive magic.

Considering where he was, the closest and safest option was a power that would allow him to protect himself with an extra layer of shielding if he went and retrieved it. Since he could fly, getting to the location of the so-called ‘man-eating tree’ and gaining the power before catching up to Choi Han wouldn’t be a problem. 

He could probably even spare a little time for networking and meet Billos, who was in the same area as the tree, which might give him an advantage later. Even a dragon could never have too much money, and he was about to spend some of what he currently had to get his hands on the Ancient Power of protection. Having connections with a merchant like Billos would work in Kim Rok Soo’s favor in the future if he ever needed anything from the human world.

Considering the approximate timeline of events, Kim Rok Soo should be able to pick up a secondary power and strengthen the protection of the shield as well, which would give him a little extra peace of mind. He intended to stay out of the main character’s way in the future, but having some additional strength wouldn’t hurt when the world was going to be engulfed in war.

After he sent Choi Han on his way to prevent the plaza incident, Kim Rok Soo might even head north to pick up an additional power in interest of his own self-preservation. Even with the added benefits of the Ancient Powers to augment his skills, he knew that there were some ridiculously strong people in this world. He might plan to stay hidden away in his little valley and not bother with the war, but he still wanted to have a way to defend himself and run away if things got messy.

It was already late enough that Kim Rok Soo didn’t see much point in heading into the Henituse territory tonight. Glancing around to see what the Black Dragon was doing, he saw that it was poking around through the Red Dragon’s stash of treasures. He didn’t blame the little dragon for being curious, considering that he had never known anything but darkness and torment thus far in his short life, but Kim Rok Soo was a little annoyed that the other dragon hadn’t asked before he started touching things.

Briefly surprised by the flare of possessive anger that washed over him, Kim Rok Soo wondered if being protective of a hoard was ingrained in a dragon’s nature. Perhaps there was some residual trace of the Red Dragon’s original soul still somewhere in this body. He could access the Red Dragon’s memories from the time before he had taken over the body, but he had never felt any sort of indication that there might be another consciousness in the body with him.

“Hey you,” he called to the younger dragon. “It’s not polite to touch what isn’t yours without asking.” The Black Dragon bristled slightly.

“I’ll touch what I want to touch,” he said with a mildly disdainful tone, but despite his words, he retracted his paw from the pile of gold coins that he had been gently sifting through with his claws. While his eyes kept roaming the room, he kept his paws to himself, wrapped around the glass of the potion bottle that Kim Rok Soo had given him.

Kim Rok Soo rummaged through the items himself, looking for some healing salve for the remainder of the dragon's wounds. There was likely to be some residual scarring either way, but scars were the mark of a survivor. Kim Rok Soo was familiar with scars. The Red Dragon had a number of them too, though they didn't show on his human body when he was shape-shifted.

"Come here," he told the other dragon. The Black Dragon looked at the container of salve in his hands distrustfully, but came closer anyway.

"You still look like a human," he complained. Kim Rok Soo ignored the complaint and opened the container of salve, dipping one finger into it. He reached toward the other dragon, but the younger dragon flinched at the motion.

"I'm not going to hurt you." He held out his hand for the other dragon to sniff the salve. "This will help you."

"You still look like a human," the Black Dragon repeated in a petulant voice. Kim Rok Soo resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Because I'm helping you. Not all humans are bad you know. Just because I look like one doesn't automatically mean I'm trying to hurt you." The little dragon gave him a distrustful look.

"Humans are bad," he countered. Kim Rok Soo nodded.

"Some humans are definitely bad. But there's good ones too." He thought briefly of his former team. "Some humans are definitely good."

"I don't believe you," the little dragon said firmly. Despite his words, he inched one step closer and allowed Kim Rok Soo to smooth the salve onto his remaining wounds.

"Do what you want," Kim Rok Soo told him. It wasn't his business if the little dragon didn't believe him that some people were good. Dragons kept to themselves anyway, so it wasn't like the Black Dragon was going to go live in a human town or something.

He finished treating the wounds on the dragon's back and put the bottle of salve back where he had found it. The natural healing effect of the dragon's own mana should help him recover from this point, so there wasn't much else Kim Rok Soo could do for him, aside from getting the remnants of the chains off the dragon's paws.

It looked as though the little dragon had attempted to claw them off himself, because there were some marks around the shackles on his rear legs. Kim Rok Soo sighed as he saw the marks.

"Look here. You can't just hurt yourself all over again," he said, picking the salve back up. He was going to need it again once he got those shackles off.

"Let me see," he ordered. After a moment of hesitation, the younger dragon extended one of his paws toward Kim Rok Soo. He examined the fastening mechanism and realized it wouldn't be that hard to undo with the right tools.

"Wait here," he instructed the Black Dragon. Leaving the salve next to the other dragon, he went and rummaged through the Red Dragon's collection some more. Eventually he found what he needed and returned to the other dragon's side.

"I need you to hold still," he told the smaller dragon. The Black Dragon bristled slightly at the unfamiliar items in Kim Rok Soo's hand. "I'm going to get those off of you," he explained. "For that I need you to hold still, got it?"

"…I'll hold still," the Black Dragon agreed. Kim Rok Soo used a combination of the tools and his magic to get the shackles and remnants of the chains off the other dragon's limbs, and the little dragon shook himself afterward as if testing what it felt like to finally be truly free.

Kim Rok Soo treated the injuries that the Black Dragon had inflicted on himself when trying to get the shackles off and stood, dusting himself off.

“Come with me,” he instructed, walking back outside. The younger dragon glanced around the room and hesitated a moment, but then took to the air and flew after him. Leading the little dragon further into the open meadow, Kim Rok Soo sat down and gestured for the other dragon to join him.

“Look up,” he said after the Black Dragon had settled itself a few feet from him. He noted that the younger dragon had carried the potion bottle out with him, clutching it as if it was some sort of good luck charm. The dragon gave him a perplexed glance, but then looked up and made a small noise of astonishment.

As Kim Rok Soo had predicted, the little dragon had been so absorbed in the destruction and distracted by his own pain that he hadn’t even taken notice of the splendor of the stars overhead. Unlike the skies of Kim Rok Soo’s childhood, where the stars were hard to see because of light pollution, the stars here were bright and clear, innumerable as they filled the sky above. 

"What is that?" the little dragon asked in a hushed, awed voice.

"Stars. There's more to the world than darkness, you know." The other dragon didn't answer, staring up at the skies. Satisfied that the little dragon was at least going to remain quiet for the night and not return to destroying the mountain for now, Kim Rok Soo changed back into his dragon form and curled up to sleep.

If the other dragon was still here in the morning, that was a problem for morning Kim Rok Soo.

Chapter Text

The other dragon was, in fact, still there in the morning. He had curled up nearby Kim Rok Soo to sleep, wrapped around the potion bottle that he had been given. It was clear that the little dragon was somewhat attached to that bottle, despite it being empty. Maybe it was just because that had been the first item that someone had ever given him.

Kim Rok Soo stretched lazily in the morning air, spreading his wings a bit. He probably should have given the other dragon something to eat last night, but it hadn't really occurred to him because it had been long past dinner time. At the very least he could offer the Black Dragon a meal this morning before sending him on his way.

As he thought that, he noted that there was a dead deer and some fruit not far from where he was laying. He stared at the items blankly for a moment, wondering where they had come from, but then he shifted his gaze to the Black Dragon, who quickly looked away and pretended that he hadn't been staring. The Black Dragon had become alert the moment Kim Rok Soo shifted, sitting up to watch him from where he was curled around the bottle.

"I don't owe you anything," the little dragon said, not meeting Kim Rok Soo's gaze. It was clear the little dragon had decided to go hunting last night in an effort to feel as if he had paid Kim Rok Soo back for his assistance.

"You don't owe me anything," Kim Rok Soo agreed. "You can leave whenever you want." The Black Dragon glanced at him again with a small frown.

"I'll leave when I want to," he announced.

"Sure."

The Black Dragon had brought him the food as payment of sorts, so Kim Rok Soo wasn't sure why the other dragon was still lingering in the area. If he was well enough to hunt, he was well enough to leave. Kim Rok Soo still expected the younger dragon to go seek out a lair of his own and work to grow his strength. The Black Dragon had at least confirmed that the older dragon had seen his gift, so he would likely leave before long.

Since he wasn't going to need to bother hunting for breakfast, Kim Rok Soo figured he might as well collect what he needed to head to the Henituse territory. At the very least he was going to need to take some money with him. He shifted back into his human shape, prompting instant wariness from the Black Dragon, but Kim Rok Soo ignored the other dragon as he went into his lair.

He found a small bag and decided that if the Black Dragon was so attached to the empty potion bottle he might as well give the other dragon something to carry it in. Putting in a few other potion bottles and small useful items, he set the bag aside. That would be the starting point for the Black Dragon's collection whenever he found himself a lair, but collecting anything else would not be Kim Rok Soo's job.

Locating another bag for his own use, Kim Rok Soo packed up what he was going to need for his trip to retrieve the Ancient Power. The magic bags in this world really were convenient. His mind briefly wandered to how useful this kind of thing would have been in his previous world, but he dismissed the thought. There wasn't anything he could do for anyone there now.

If there was one thing that seemed rather consistent among the dragons in stories that Kim Rok Soo had read, it was that they liked to hoard gold. The Red Dragon was no exception to this, and he had a large pile of coins, mostly gold ones. From what Kim Rok Soo remembered of how the currency in this world worked, just one of these coins would more than pay for a night at an inn with meals, even if he ate enough to make himself sick.

As he piled some of the coins that the Red Dragon had hoarded over the years into his bag, Kim Rok Soo felt a small twinge of dissatisfaction. There wasn't anything he could do about spending money if he wanted to play the part of a normal human and meet Billos, or buy the bread he needed to obtain the unbreakable shield. However, it wasn't like he could easily replace the money he was going to spend either.

Maybe he should set a condition with Rosalyn that she ask the crown prince for money when he expressed gratitude to her and Choi Han after they saved people. As long as everything went the way that he was planning, a major incident was going to be prevented, so Kim Rok Soo knew that the crown prince would step in to personally thank those responsible for protecting his people. Alberu Crossman definitely knew how to work a crowd.

Kim Rok Soo made a mental note to warn Rosalyn about the crown prince's silver tongue and tell her to respond in kind to wring everything that she could from him. If he could get some money out of Alberu in payment for the information he was going to give Rosalyn, he would feel less bothered by the spending he was about to do. He also needed to make sure that Rosalyn would be prepared to deal with Alberu's usual method of making people work for him by showering them with praise.

If she wasn't able to turn his requests down even with a warning, there wasn't much that Kim Rok Soo could do for her, but at least she would have some idea of what she was getting into.

Eventually he felt as if he had collected everything he was going to need for his trip. It would be quite some time before he could return, so he went out to tend the garden and set things up so that the plants would be fine without him. The Black Dragon hadn't followed him inside the lair, but he did follow Kim Rok Soo to the garden and watched him working.

"Red Dragon, what are you doing?"

"Gardening." He didn't see a point in giving an in depth answer, especially since they were both leaving soon. The Black Dragon made a dissatisfied noise.

"Isn't what I brought you enough?" he asked petulantly. Kim Rok Soo guessed that the dragon thought that he was looking for something else to eat.

"It's fine," he assured the younger dragon. "This isn't for eating anytime soon."

He straightened up, looking over the garden one more time. Everything looked good for now, so he supposed it was time to eat and head to the Henituse territory. Returning to where he had left the two bags, Kim Rok Soo brought one to the Black Dragon.

"Here, you can put your bottle in this," he told the other dragon. He had noticed that the little dragon was still carrying the empty potion bottle even while following him around. The Black Dragon eyed the bag curiously and accepted it, rummaging through the contents briefly as Kim Rok Soo retrieved his own bag. Satisfied with his preparations to leave, he shifted back into his dragon form.

While he did prefer to change to a human form to tend his garden, it was much easier to keep his dragon form fed. Dragons didn't have to bother with cooking if they didn't want to. The Red Dragon clearly did cook sometimes, because Kim Rok Soo had found spices among the myriad items the dragon had collected. He did like the quiet life that he'd been living as a dragon, but he also missed Korean food.

Still, the taste buds of a dragon weren't bothered by things that would offend a human palate, like raw meat. In his current life, the primary staple of his diet was meat. Now that it was spring, there were also some plants that he recognized as edible, so he had gathered some occasionally. The fruit that the Black Dragon had found was one of those plants.

Eventually his garden would be ready to harvest, and he would have a little more variety to work with, but for now Kim Rok Soo wasn't going to be picky. He'd certainly eaten worse things in his life than a dead deer.

The Black Dragon did not appear to be hungry, as he declined Kim Rok Soo's offer to share the food. It was likely that he had stuffed himself when he had originally gone hunting and then come back to sleep.

When he finished his meal, Kim Rok Soo used his magic to deal with the remnants, idly thinking how convenient it was to be a dragon. There were definitely a lot of perks to his new life, even if it had been a little lonely sometimes. He stretched his wings and glanced over at the Black Dragon.

"I'm leaving now. You can stay in the meadow if you want, or go wherever you want." With that, he took to the air, willing himself invisible as he gained altitude. It would be best if no one spotted him in dragon form.

"Hey Red Dragon, where are you going?" the Black Dragon called after him, but Kim Rok Soo didn't answer. He sensed that the other dragon was following him after a moment, but he didn't look back. Eventually the younger dragon would get tired of following him and go find a home for himself.

The two of them flew all morning and Kim Rok Soo mapped the land below, comparing the landmarks with his memories of the book that he had read before becoming the Red Dragon. When he finally spotted the town he was looking for, he flew down to the ground and landed.

Without any form of identification, he wasn't going to be able to go in the front gate, but he also couldn't land inside the walls in dragon form. He shifted back into his human shape, still invisible, and then used his magic to hover back into the air.

"What are you doing now?" the Black Dragon asked. Although they were both invisible, the energy of their mana allowed them to somewhat discern one another's outlines anyway. The other dragon could tell that Kim Rok Soo had changed into a human again and sounded unhappy about it.

"Why are you here? There's so many humans here," the little dragon complained.

"Not all humans are bad," Kim Rok Soo reminded him. The other dragon made a small sound of disbelief. "I've got business here. You don't have to come."

"I'll leave when I want to leave!" the Black Dragon declared, as he had done earlier that day.

"Sure," Kim Rok Soo told him again. "Do what you want."

He flew over the wall and found a quiet area to land where no one would see him suddenly appearing out of thin air. His first order of business was locating a well stocked bakery.

It didn't take him long to find one. The little Black Dragon trailed after him, still invisible, occasionally quietly muttering to himself about hating humans, but Kim Rok Soo ignored him. He pushed open the door of the bakery and a little bell chimed overhead, announcing his presence to the shopkeeper.

"Young Master Cale?" the baker asked incredulously, flinching and shrinking back slightly. Kim Rok Soo stared at the man for a moment, and the baker shook his head.

"No, I beg your pardon. I mistook you for someone else." He put on a business smile, straightening up behind the counter. "How can I help you sir?"

Kim Rok Soo assumed that it was the red hair that had prompted the mistake and wondered if red hair was really that uncommon in the Henituse territory. The real Cale Henituse was likely recuperating from being beaten half to death by Choi Han before the main character had moved on.

"I'll take everything you've got," he told the man casually. The baker stared at him blankly, the smile dropping from his face to be replaced with a look of confusion.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Everything from here," Kim Rok Soo pointed to one end of the counter and then swept his hand along the length of it to gesture to the entire thing, "to there." He dropped a gold coin on to the counter. "I'll take all of it, and everything you bake tomorrow too."

The baker stared at him in astonishment for a moment longer.

"I'll go somewhere else if you can't do it," Kim Rok Soo commented, and the man snatched the coin instantly. It was worth more than two days of the bakery's products, but Kim Rok Soo wasn't going to bother making change if he didn't need to.

"No, no, of course not sir! I'll get it all packed up for you at once!" He tucked the coin into his apron pocket and went to grab a bag for the bread. The Black Dragon, who had been observing everything in silence, crept closer.

"What is all this?" he asked. Kim Rok Soo could vaguely make out the other dragon's outline despite him being invisible and saw the Black Dragon's claw lightly tapping a loaf of bread. He didn't bother to answer the other dragon, but he did pick up the loaf that the dragon had touched and told him to eat it.

After a brief, suspicious pause, the little dragon bit into the loaf and made a noise of surprise. The loaf vanished astonishingly fast after that.

"How can a human make something taste that good?" The Black Dragon asked, eying the rest of the counter.

"It's just bread," Kim Rok Soo said quietly with a shrug. He picked up a small pastry, unwrapping it and passing it to the dragon surreptitiously as the baker returned from the back room and started packing up the items on the counter.

It wasn't long before Kim Rok Soo left the bakery laden down with a heavy bag of bread, still trailed by the invisible Black Dragon.

"Are we going to eat all that?" the little dragon asked. Kim Rok Soo wondered where this 'we' nonsense was coming from and why the Black Dragon continued to follow him when he had insisted that he wanted to be free and independent.

"We're not going to eat any of it," he said with a frown. The other dragon made a small noise of astonishment.

"Why not?" Kim Rok Soo stayed silent, continuing to walk through the slums. People stared as he walked by, drawn by the scent of the bread, but he ignored them as he had ignored the little dragon's question. He saw a few of them flinch at the sight of him, likely making the same mistake the baker had when they spotted his red hair. Any time he made eye contact, the person would look away immediately and quickly walk away. Cale Henituse had one heck of a reputation, even here in the slums.

One downfall of being a dragon was that his senses were considerably more keen than they had been as a human. Kim Rok Soo could smell the filth of the slums all too clearly. He was laying a thin invisible path in front of himself with magic to keep from stepping directly into the muddy street, but there wasn't much he could do about the stench.

Adjusting his sack of bread, Kim Rok Soo continued to walk. The closer he got to his destination, the less people stared. However, a pair of children were still trailing after him, even as he climbed the low hill that the 'man-eating' tree stood atop. Unlike the adults who had flinched and hurried away when he met eye contact, these two continued to follow him, eyes fixated on the bag full of delicious smells.

"Red Dragon, there's something different about these humans," the Black Dragon commented. Kim Roo Soo stopped walking as he reached the fence that surrounded the tree and turned to look at the two children.

"They're not human," he told the Black Dragon. The children flinched. He set the bag down and fished out two bread rolls, tossing them at the kids. "Take that and get lost," he called.

"You can't go in there," the silver-haired girl said, her concern for his apparent intentions overwriting her wariness about his comment. "You'll die."

"I won't die." Kim Rok Soo pushed lightly at the rotten gate and it fell apart under his touch. Maybe his dragon strength had been a little too much for it. The people around here were too afraid of the tree to come up the hill anyway, so it wasn't a big deal if there was no gate.

However, he didn't want those kids hanging around and watching what he was planning to do. The Black Dragon wouldn't go away, but Kim Rok Soo wanted to at least get rid of his other annoying shadows.

"One isn't enough? Fine. Here's another," he said, tossing another roll at the two children, which the little boy snatched up instantly. Kim Rok Soo noted the boy's hair was red, though a duller color than his own. It seemed Cale Henituse was not the only red-head in the territory after all.

"It's a man-eating tree," the girl warned.

"Is that true?" the little dragon's voice echoed in Kim Rok Soo's mind. He had apparently decided not to speak out loud since the two children hadn't left.

"I'll be fine. Get out of here," Kim Rok Soo said, ignoring the other dragon for the moment.

"You can't die…" the little boy said in a concerned tone, clinging to his sister's arm. He was half hidden behind her, clearly wary of Kim Rok Soo, but not so afraid that he was going to run away.

"I already said I won't die," Kim Rok Soo told them irritably, wondering just what it would take to get them to leave. "Look here, if you want more bread tomorrow, then get out of here and keep your mouths shut, got it?"

The siblings exchanged a glance and then looked back at him.

"Don't die!" the girl said one more time, before she and her brother finally turned and walked back down the hill.

"If you do die, I'll destroy this tree," the Black Dragon muttered viciously. Kim Rok Soo ignored him and went through the hole in the fence to approach the tree. As he had read in the book, there was a dark hole at the base of it. He glanced into the bag of bread, wondering if it mattered if he left the wrappers on.

It was a tree that ate anything, so it probably would eat the wrappers too. Kim Rok Soo didn't see a point in doing more work than he needed to, so he pulled out a loaf and placed it into the hole. There was an odd, cold sensation that felt as if the hole was trying to swallow his arm along with the bread and he quickly yanked his hand out.

He stood and grabbed the other end of the bag, flipping it over to dump the contents into the hole.

"Eat all you want," he commented, watching the bread vanish into the darkness. He guessed he was going to need several more trips if he wanted that darkness to disappear, and he should probably visit a couple other bakeries if he didn't want to spend too many days here.

"What are you doing?" the Black Dragon asked. "Where is that bread going?"

"The tree ate it," Kim Rok Soo told him. He faced the tree and spoke again. "I'll bring back more."

"Do trees talk?" the Black Dragon wondered, hearing Kim Rok Soo addressing the tree as if it were a person.

"Not usually." Kim Rok Soo walked back out of the fenced area and headed back down the hill. He saw the two siblings eating the bread that he had given them and idly wondered what two beast people were doing here, but decided that wasn't his business. As long as they kept their mouths shut about what he'd been up to, he would keep his word and give them more bread tomorrow.

He returned to the area where he had located the first bakery and walked around a bit more until he located a second, and then a third. In both establishments he was briefly mistaken for Cale Henituse, but both bakers were happy to receive the coin he offered in exchange for their wares. With how frequently people seemed to be mistaking him for Cale Henituse, Kim Rok Soo couldn't help wondering if it wasn't just his bright red hair that made people do a double take.

The first time that he had shape-shifted, he had gone to examine himself in the mirror, but he hadn't really felt there was anything particularly noteworthy about his appearance. However, as he eyed his reflection in the shop window while the baker was packing up the bread, he thought about the descriptions of Cale Henituse in 'the Birth of a Hero.' He supposed that at a glance, his facial features were rather similar.

Just based on appearance, it wouldn't be that far-fetched for him to be Cale's brother or cousin. Of course, Cale didn't have a red-headed brother, only a half-brother with brown hair. Kim Rok Soo made a mental note not to stay in town any longer than necessary in case the Henituse family heard about the Cale look-alike wandering around their city and came looking for him. Someone unrelated to the family might buy a story about him being a relative, which could potentially come in handy later on, but he wasn't going to attempt to lie directly to the members of the Henituse household.

Accepting the now bulging sack of bread from the baker, Kim Rok Soo made his way outside. He had learned what to expect from his first trip to the tree and had no intention of making more trips than he needed to. Using his magic to make himself appear uninteresting so that people's gazes would just slide past him as if he wasn't there, he ducked into an alleyway and began stuffing the bread into the magic bag that he had brought from the Red Dragon's hoard.

With the use of the magic bag's practically bottomless capacity, he only needed to walk between the bakeries and collect the baked goods that he intended to feed the tree rather than making the trip to the slums and back between each load. He went back to the first bakery that he had visited, ready to pick up the second load that the baker had packed up for him in his absence.

Even if he was a dragon and could probably have carried both bags despite their size in one trip, he would have definitely drawn way too much attention if he had tried that. He could sense that the Black Dragon was still trailing after him, though the other dragon hadn't spoken in a while. As he ducked into an alleyway once more to load the magic bag with additional bread and pastries, the other dragon finally spoke again.

"What is the point of all this?" he asked. Kim Rok Soo didn't answer, continuing to pile bread into the bag. "Are you really going to give this all to the tree?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because it's hungry." He wasn't about to explain the whole story of the Ancient Power to the other dragon, particularly since he needed to put in the effort of actually obtaining the power for himself and not have someone else interfere. The Black Dragon was silent for a moment.

"I'm hungry too," he announced as Kim Rok Soo finished stuffing the bread into the magic bag.

"I'll give you some more bread then," Kim Rok Soo promised. He still needed to pick up the second load from both of the other bakeries, so he would give the other dragon something from the selection of baked goods in those sacks as he transferred the items into the magic bag. The Black Dragon followed him as he moved back into the street and headed toward the second bakery again.

The baker seemed somewhat surprised that he had come back so soon, but she was happy enough to hand over the second well-stuffed sack when he arrived. She seemed to be on the verge of asking him what he was doing with all the bread, but kept her mouth shut in the end and politely bid him farewell as he left, promising to have additional baked goods packed up for him in the morning.

Kim Rok Soo slipped into another alleyway and rummaged through the bag to find something for the Black Dragon to eat. He picked a berry and cheese pastry and unwrapped it, handing it over along with a loaf of rye bread.

"This one's a different color," the little dragon commented, staring at the rye bread.

"Different ingredients," Kim Rok Soo explained, but he didn't bother to elaborate. Instead he worked at loading the contents of the baker's sack into his own bag. The interior was not as bottomless as it had initially seemed, but he was certain that he could still fit the second load of baked goods from the third bakery into the bag without any trouble.

His small, invisible shadow trailing after him once more, Kim Rok Soo returned to the third bakery and repeated the process of transferring all the baked goods into his own bag. This time when he walked through the slums, no one stared wistfully after him or followed him in hopes of a share of the bread he was carrying, because they couldn't see it. He returned to the tree, telling the Black Dragon not to get too close as he started feeding the tree again.

"I still think it's a waste of bread," he heard the little dragon muttering to himself as bread and pastries vanished into the darkness of the hole. It took considerably longer to empty his bag this time, since the load was more than three times as much bread as he had brought on his first trip. When he finally stood again, he thought that there was a slight difference in how dark the hole was.

Satisfied that the quantity from the three bakeries tomorrow would likely be enough, Kim Rok Soo was glad that he didn't need to go locate a fourth shop. Three gold coins was plenty to spend when his wealth was limited, even if he did intend to have Rosalyn wheedle some money out of the Crown Prince to repay him later. He might have Cale Henituse's looks, but he certainly didn't have his bottomless pockets.

Now that he had finished his initial business in the slums, he needed to arrange a room for the evening. He also intended to look into the tea shop where Billos was currently working while hiding his connections to the Flynn Merchant Guild. Billos' connections would be useful to have access too, particularly once things started getting hectic after the war broke out.

Kim Rok Soo had no intention of being involved in the war or anything leading up to it, with the exception of letting Rosalyn know what to expect in the capital. Once he had secured the ancient powers to keep himself safe and passed along his message to the main characters, he would return to his garden and enjoy the quiet solitude of his isolated meadow.

It didn't take him long to locate an inn that looked well kept and expensive. If he was going to rent a room, he might as well get a good one. He arranged for a room that had a balcony, since the Black Dragon was still following him around. If the other dragon wanted to stick around until nightfall, Kim Rok Soo doubted that he would want to sleep inside. This was only his second night of freedom.

Of course, once the Black Dragon realized that Kim Rok Soo did intend to stay in the city overnight, he might just leave. It was odd that he had already stuck around for this long, despite his complaints about being around so many humans.

His room for the night now secured, Kim Rok Soo went back out into the city and wandered around until he found the tea shop that Billos owned. He was sure that Billos had already heard about the gathering in the capital and would likely head to the capital himself, although the novels had indicated that he didn't go meet Choi Han there until volume three. Still, it was possible that he had gone to the capital on other occasions without the book mentioning it, and someone with his information network was unlikely to miss the upcoming events.

Even if Billos had already decided to go to the capital and left already, Kim Rok Soo had a secondary reason to visit the tea shop as well. The Red Dragon's collection had only contained a few books, and Kim Rok Soo liked to read. He was hoping to find a good novel to pass the evening, so whether Billos was in the shop or not, Kim Rok Soo's visit would not be in vain.

As soon as he stepped into the building, he spotted the rotund man behind the counter. An involuntary smile briefly graced his lips at the sight of Billos. It seemed the tea shop owner had not yet left for the capital after all.

His first impression was that the man looked remarkably like a piggy bank. He made small talk with Billos briefly before ordering some tea and heading upstairs, still trailed by the invisible Black Dragon. Billos didn't question him ordering two cups of tea at once, but he had suggested a novel for Kim Rok Soo to read.

"Why are we here?" the Black Dragon asked. Kim Rok Soo didn't bother to answer, sitting down in a comfortable chair and opening the recommended book. "What is that?"

"A book," Kim Rok Soo answered, also speaking directly to the Black Dragon rather than speaking aloud since there were other people nearby. "I'm going to read it, so I'd appreciate if you didn't keep talking to me."

He saw the little dragon settling onto the table and sniffing gingerly at the tea that Billos had brought. After a moment, the Black Dragon took a drink.

"It's hot."

"It's supposed to be hot," Kim Rok Soo muttered. He suspected he wasn't going to get much reading done as long as the other dragon was around.

"It's good though," the Black Dragon conceded. It didn't take him long to drain the cup and start investigating the snacks that Kim Rok Soo had also ordered. He had picked an assortment of things, aware that the little dragon was going to want to sample everything. If the other dragon insisted on following him around, he might as well introduce him to as much as he could before the Black Dragon finally decided to leave.

He watched the little dragon chewing on a small cake, thinking about the revenge that the other dragon had stated he intended to carry out at some point. Kim Rok Soo had already been considering visiting Puzzle City on the way to the capital, so maybe he would see about setting some wheels in motion to help weaken the power of the Black Dragon's tormentor.

Taking out the Sten estate entirely would be too messy, but if he played his cards right, Taylor Sten could do all the work for him, leaving the Black Dragon to pick off his targets as desired. All he needed to do was connect Taylor to the Crown Prince, which would also solve the problem of any guilt Kim Rok Soo might have felt about snatching away the source of Taylor's hope.

The Vitality of the Heart couldn't do what Taylor needed anyway, not that he knew that yet. Kim Rok Soo figured the power might as well go to someone who would actually benefit from it, but he could at least point Taylor in the right direction. His plan wouldn't make any sense to the little dragon if he tried to explain it now, so he said nothing.

With a more solid idea of what he wanted from Billos now that he had landed on the notion of assisting Taylor Sten, Kim Rok Soo told the Black Dragon to keep eating and went back downstairs. He asked to speak to Billos privately, and then confirmed that the man was planning to head to the capital soon.

Since Billos had met Choi Han in the capital in the book, Kim Rok Soo already knew the answer, but he needed to lead the merchant naturally in the conversation. As he had predicted, Billos was willing enough to sell or lend him the items that he was going to need to ensure that Taylor could make it to the capital unhindered as long as Kim Rok Soo was willing to pay for it. Money could make anything happen, if you had enough of it.

The simplest method for Taylor to enter the capital would be to just send Choi Han to escort him, but since the plot indicated that Choi Han was supposed to go meet Lark, that wasn't the best option. Kim Rok Soo was still not particularly keen on meeting the main character face to face anyway. Rosalyn would respect him automatically, but there was no telling how Choi Han might react.

Kim Rok Soo arranged to meet Billos in the capital and return the items that could only be rented. He hadn't originally intended to actually enter the city, but since he could simply go over the wall to avoid any security measures, it wasn't that big of a deal. Billos was able to supply what he was going to need to provide Rosalyn so that she could successfully avert the plaza terror attack as well.

Satisfied with the results of his conversation, Kim Rok Soo returned to his book. The Black Dragon had finished off his tea while he was gone, along with most of the snacks, but Kim Rok Soo had predicted that would happen and ordered another cup of tea before going back upstairs.

"Hey Red Dragon, you took a long time," the Black Dragon complained when he spotted Kim Rok Soo. "Aren't you done playing a human now? Can't we leave?"

"I have business here still," Kim Rok Soo responded. "You can leave whenever you like."

The other dragon grumbled a bit, but didn't make any move to leave, settling his nose onto his paws with apparent intent to nap. He did not actually fall asleep, clearly somewhat on edge with humans around even if he was invisible, but he pretended to do so anyway. That at least gave Kim Rok Soo some peace to enjoy his book for a while, so he said nothing about the fake nap.

Eventually he decided that it was time for a proper meal, so he returned the book to Billos and headed back to the inn. The Black Dragon was initially excited at the fact that they were leaving, but then he realized that they were just going to another building again.

"Are we really staying here tonight?" he complained. Kim Rok Soo realized that the other dragon hadn't really grasped what he was doing earlier in the day when he had reserved the room.

"You can leave whenever you want," he reminded the younger dragon as he closed the door of the room behind them. He crossed the room and opened the balcony doors, letting in the cool evening air.

"I don't want to fly at night," the Black Dragon responded, looking away as he made up an excuse not to leave. Kim Rok Soo didn't respond, getting the table ready for the meal that he had ordered be sent up to the room. It didn't take long for the staff to bring it up, and he invited the younger dragon to come join him once they had left the room again.

The Black Dragon remained invisible despite the fact that no one else was around, but Kim Rok Soo didn't comment on that. He was happy to have a well cooked meal and he could tell that the younger dragon was enjoying the food as well.

A noise from the balcony caught his attention and he turned to see two kittens clambering over the rail. He recognized them immediately as the two children he had seen in the slums and sighed. While he had vaguely wondered what sort of beast-folk they were, he had not expected an answer in the form of them showing up on his doorstep.

"I said I'd give you more bread tomorrow," he told them. The silver-furred kitten meowed and sat just outside the door, apparently waiting to be invited in. Kim Rok Soo sighed again. He didn't really care for cats, but he supposed he would make an exception since they weren't really cats.

"I guess bread isn't really enough anyway, is it? But I'm not going to look after you after this, got it?" He gestured for the kittens to join him and the Black Dragon at the table, although he doubted that they knew the other dragon was there.

"Cats?" the little dragon questioned, watching the two kittens hopping from the chair to the tabletop.

"These are those kids from this afternoon," Kim Rok Soo explained. To the kittens he said "Get off the table, I know you can turn into humans. Use the chair properly."

The two kittens froze and exchanged a glance before hopping back down into the two chairs on either side of Kim Rok Soo and shifting into human form.

"I guess I better go order some more food." Kim Rok Soo commented, noticing how hungrily the children were eyeing the food. "Eat what you want."

"You really didn't die," the little red-haired boy said.

"Thank you for the bread, and meat" his sister added, already serving herself a plate of the food.

"I told you I wasn't going to die," Kim Rok Soo pointed out. He stood and went to the door. "I'm going to order more food."

By the time he returned, most of the previously ordered food was already gone. The Black Dragon had stopped eating to observe the Cat children.

"Red Dragon, why are they so hungry?" he asked.

"They probably don't have any money to buy food," Kim Rok Soo responded, returning to the table.

"They really aren't human," the other dragon said, sounding somewhat amazed by the fact. Kim Rok Soo supposed that confined in the cave, he wouldn't have encountered anything but humans, so meeting a non-human for the first time was a novelty for the little dragon.

"You'll give yourself a stomach ache if you eat too much too fast," Kim Rok Soo reprimanded the younger of the two Cats, reaching over with a napkin to wipe sauce off the boy's chin. The child flinched away from the motion slightly, but stopped moving when he realized there was no ill intent behind the movement.

Kim Rok Soo frowned slightly at the pair as he observed them. It was clear they had not been living an easy life, but no children who lived on the street had it easy. He wasn't exactly looking to take in strays, but maybe he could talk to the older one about finding herself a job at one of the bakeries he intended to visit tomorrow. Even if they could likely survive somewhat better as shape-shifters than a child who was always human and they were smarter than the average street cat, their lives wouldn't improve if they just kept living on scraps.

He stood up as someone knocked on the door and went to retrieve the second round of food that he had ordered for the newcomers. After he dismissed the young man who had brought it up, he arranged everything on the table.

"I'm going to bed" he announced to the three children. "Eat what you want, but keep it down, got it?"

"Thank you!" the silver-haired girl said again, loading up another plate of food.

"Don't make yourself sick," Kim Rok Soo added as an afterthought.

"We won't," she assured him.

"I'll watch them," the little Black Dragon announced, as if he were planning to stand guard while Kim Rok Soo slept.

"Sure." The response could have been to either child, but Kim Rok Soo wasn't looking at either of them, already making his way to the bed. He'd grown used to sleeping in his dragon body, but as he settled into the bed and dragged a blanket over himself, he couldn't help thinking that it was nice to sleep in a bed again.

Chapter Text

When Kim Rok Soo woke the next morning, he found three small, warm bodies curled up on the bed with him. The two Cat children hadn't specifically been invited to stay the night, but he hadn't specifically told them to leave after eating either, so he supposed that they had decided it was fine to join him on the bed. They had changed back into their kitten forms and curled up near his hip together, while the Black Dragon was up near his shoulder, still invisible even in his sleep.

He wasn't going to begrudge the Cat children one more meal, but as he had told them the previous night, he had no intention of looking after them any further once his business in this town was done. The two of them startled awake as he sat up and he thought once again that they must be living a somewhat rough life as he watched them both flinch and tense defensively.

"You're still here," he remarked, but the statement wasn't directed at any of the children in particular. He was somewhat surprised that the little dragon had actually accepted sleeping indoors. It was only his second night of freedom, and he had expressed his hatred for humans more than once, but he seemed to be contradicting his words with his actions. Kim Rok Soo had fully expected the Black Dragon to leave in the night.

"I'm hungry," the little red-furred kitten said quietly to his sister. His sentiment was echoed by the Black Dragon in Kim Rok Soo's mind, the other dragon complaining telepathically rather than speaking out loud. He clearly had not revealed himself to the kittens, but he didn't seem displeased that they were around either.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll order breakfast," Kim Rok Soo said, digging through the bag he had brought with him for a clean set of clothing. He wondered briefly if he should give the two Cat children a few coins to get new clothing. Maybe the older sister would have better luck getting a job if she looked less ragged.

She walked with a slight limp even in kitten form, and as Kim Rok Soo watched her jumping onto the chair, he had a sudden realization how she must have been injured. The Birth of a Hero had mentioned Choi Han twisting his ankle when he snuck into the city over the wall while trying to avoid a cat. How ironic to find himself interacting with the very same cat that the protagonist had been unable to fully avoid landing on. The book hadn't mentioned that the cat was a shape-shifter.

"I'll be back," he announced to the room in general, heading down to place an order for food to be sent up to his room. He didn't intend to spend too long on breakfast, as he needed to visit the three bakeries that he had pre-paid for baked goods at yesterday and go feed the tree, not to mention he would need to meet up with Billos to get his hands on the items that they had discussed the previous evening.

The Crown Prince would need to reimburse Kim Rok Soo for those too. Knowing Rosalyn's personality, he wasn't too concerned about her ability to negotiate, particularly if he warned her ahead of time what to expect and how to handle the Crown Prince properly. If Choi Han let himself get manipulated and used by the Crown Prince later in the story, that was his own business, but for this first major meeting between the two of them, Kim Rok Soo was going to need Rosalyn to be the key figure.

That was part of why he needed to get the Ancient Power as quickly as possible. By his estimate he had at least two more days before he needed to rescue Rosalyn and keep her from needing to reveal her powers, so that she could continue to hide her ace up her sleeve. As a dragon, he would easily be able to traverse the distance to get to where she was going to be, but he did still plan to stop in Puzzle City first. The secondary Ancient Power would strengthen the one he intended to get today, giving him more peace of mind when it came to facing the story's scary protagonist.

Returning to his room, Kim Rok Soo found that the two kittens had returned to human form and collected all the dishes from the previous night, placing them neatly on a tray. The table was clear and ready for the morning meal, although he suspected he was probably supposed to have returned the dinner dishes the previous evening.

"Stay out of sight," he told them as someone knocked on the door. They obediently changed back into kitten form and darted under the bed. The Black Dragon was already invisible, so there was no need to worry about him. While Kim Rok Soo doubted that he would be charged extra for having children in his room when he hadn't announced them on check in, he wasn't going to risk it. Money was precious.

The staff was polite and efficient as they removed the tray full of dirty dishes and laid out the breakfast on the empty table. Within moments they were gone and the kittens re-emerged from under the bed. He saw the Black Dragon's mana outline move to the table and wondered if the other dragon planned to reveal himself. If the kittens hadn't noticed him eating last night, maybe he intended to just try to remain unnoticed this morning.

"By the way, I'm Ohn," the silver-haired girl announced as she returned to human form and took her seat. "And this is Hong." She gestured to her brother, who gave Kim Rok Soo a bright grin.

"OK." Kim Rok Soo didn't offer his own name in return. He wasn't really sure what the Red Dragon had answered to before he had taken over the dragon's body. None of the memories of Eruhaben included the Gold dragon addressing him by name. If they ever met again in person, he supposed he might learn the Red Dragon's name then, not that he had any reason to seek out another dragon. The little Black Dragon following him around was more than enough interaction with other dragons.

The kittens exchanged glances, but didn't comment on his rudeness for not introducing himself. Instead they started eagerly digging into the food laid in front of them. Kim Rok Soo served himself a plate full as well, making quick work of the meal.

"Don't give yourself a stomach ache," he admonished Hong, who seemed to be doing his best to inhale the food as quickly as possible. While Kim Rok Soo did want to get the dishes stacked up and returned so that he could check out and continue with his plans for the day, he didn't want the children to make themselves sick.

Eventually they were both done, and the Black Dragon appeared to be finished eating as well. It seemed like the two kittens had been so focused on their own food that they hadn't even noticed other food mysteriously disappearing as the Black Dragon ate.

"All right, I promised you bread, but I'm leaving after that," he told the two Cat children as he stacked the empty dishes back onto the tray. "Go wait for me outside."

"You'll still give us bread?" Hong asked, eyes shining. This was already the third meal that he had provided for the two of them, but he wasn't going to skip out on the bread he had promised just because he'd given them something else in the meantime.

"Of course. Go wait for me outside," he pointed out at the open balcony. "You can leave the same way you got in and I'll meet you after I go to the bakery." They shifted into kitten form once more and started toward the door. He watched them hop from the balcony railing to a protruding window ledge before continuing down toward the street.

"Won't they be hungry again after we leave?" the Black Dragon asked after Kim Rok Soo had closed the balcony doors behind the two cats. He was sure that they would, particularly if the older sister wasn't accepted as an assistant by any of the bakery owners. However, it wasn't his job to feed every hungry child in the world, so he didn't answer the other dragon.

The check-out process went quickly and Kim Rok Soo took a brief detour on the way to the first bakery to visit an apothecary. Although she was moving well enough to climb up and down a building, he was sure that Ohn's injury was still bothering her. He might as well give her something to ease her pain.

"Do you need an assistant?" he asked the first baker when he picked up the first load of bread. The man looked slightly puzzled by the question.

"Sir?"

"Do you need an assistant to help around the bakery?" Kim Rok Soo repeated. The baker shook his head.

"My wife and children already help when I need a hand with things." Kim Rok Soo had noticed a young boy peeking out from the back when he came in, and he assumed that was the baker's son. He dropped the subject, taking his load of baked goods and walking away to find a quiet place to transfer the bread into his magic bag.

Both of the other bakers denied needing any help as well, though the third did ask if he was seeking a job for himself. When Kim Rok Soo shook his head, the baker hadn't said anything further. He knew that they assumed he was at least minor nobility, since he had given them each a gold coin without seeming concerned by the fact that he was overpaying for things, so he guessed that they were doubly confused by his question about job openings.

He wasn't about to spend the whole day looking around for a possible job for the elder Cat child though, he had a deadline to meet. The two of them were waiting patiently by the decrepit fence that surrounded the tree in the slums, in human form once more.

"You really did bring us bread!" Hong exclaimed joyfully as Kim Rok Soo handed over the promised loaf.

"What's this?" Ohn asked, gingerly sniffing the package that she had been handed. "This doesn't smell like bread."

"It's for your leg," Kim Rok Soo told her. She blinked up at him in surprise. "Don't pretend you haven't been favoring that left leg of yours, I'm not blind."

"…thank you," she said quietly. She elbowed her brother, whose mouth was full of bread. He quickly chewed through the mouthful so that he could swallow and speak.

"Thank you!" he echoed. He watched Kim Rok Soo heading for the opening where the gate had been before he had accidentally knocked it apart the previous day. "You're really going in there again?"

"You mind your business and I'll mind mine," Kim Rok Soo commented. "Just go eat your bread."

"…you didn't die yesterday, but you should still be careful!" Hong said anxiously.

"I'll be fine," Kim Rok Soo told him, not even looking back. "Just stay out here." The last comment was directed at the Black Dragon rather than the Cat children, though they didn't realize that he wasn't addressing them.

"Why should I stay out here?" the dragon asked, and Kim Rok Soo could hear the frown in his mental voice even if he couldn't actually make out the invisible dragon's expression. "I'm coming too."

"No. I need to do this alone," Kim Rok Soo replied firmly. The little dragon hovered uncertainly, but after a moment Kim Rok Soo sensed the invisible dragon moving back toward the Cat children.

"I'll just make sure these kids are safe," he announced, as if that had been his plan all along. Kim Rok Soo didn't answer, making his way over to the hole in the ground and starting to unload his over-crowded magic bag. The hole was getting noticeably lighter as he went, defying the logic that the tree and ground should cast a shadow in that space.

He was halfway through the bread when he suddenly heard a voice.

"More! Give me more!" He flinched and glanced around, but the voice had definitely been in his head and it wasn't the Black Dragon. The Birth of a Hero hadn't mentioned any voices, but it seemed as if the hole itself was speaking. It had faded from black to gray and now it was nearly white.

"More, please, it's so good!" the voice spoke again, and Kim Rok Soo put another pastry into the hole. "Yes, yes! Give me more!"

"Sure, eat up…" he muttered, wondering why the book had neglected to mention the voice that appeared to be connected to the Ancient Power.

"Yes, more! Give me more and I'll give you a gift!" the voice promised, and Kim Rok Soo felt his lips curve in a faint smile. This was exactly what he had been waiting for. He fished out more bread from the bag, watching the hole faded from white to transparent as he continued dumping the baked goods into it.

"Ah…it's so good," the voice said wistfully. "So soft, so sweet, so rich. There was nothing like this back in my time."

Kim Rok Soo noticed that the area around him and the tree had become foggy, which also hadn't been mentioned in the book. He felt like these were key details that should have been included, but he stayed quiet as the voice kept going, extolling the virtue of the various breads that he had bought, comparing the flavors.

"I didn't really expect an evaluation like this," he commented eventually. "You're thorough and professional, but you're so loud…"

"You! You're a good person, you understand my thoughts!" the voice exclaimed. Kim Rok Soo wasn't sure that his comment really indicated understanding, but he said nothing. His attention was caught by the tree even as the voice continued to speak. The previously black bark was turning white as he watched, and green leaves sprouted at the tips of the branches.

He tuned back in to the voice in time to hear it, or rather her, thanking him. The hole was now emitting a bright light, so he knelt to reach down into that light.

"It will protect you," the voice told him as the light seemed to grow and wrap around his arm. Kim Rok Soo closed his eyes against the brightness, and it soon enveloped all of his body, wrapping him in a warm and comfortable sensation. He vaguely thought that this must be how the Red Dragon had felt inside his egg before hatching, a faint sensation of the dragon's oldest memories slipping through his mind.

When he opened his eyes again, Kim Rok Soo tugged open the neckline of his shirt. As he had expected, there was a mark on his chest now, right over his heart. He was pleased that being a dragon did not seem to have any effect on his ability to gain an Ancient Power. The shield's unique mark was proof that the power had accepted him.

He thought about how the Birth of the Hero had explained the power and quickly called forth the energy from the Ancient Power. A bright silver shield appeared in front of him, feathery wings spreading on either side of it. Kim Rok Soo tested adjusting the size of the shield, pleased with how easy and familiar it felt even though he had just obtained it. This had definitely been worth the trip.

"Red Dragon, what is that power?" the Black Dragon's voice suddenly echoed in his mind. Despite being told to wait outside the fence, the sensation of a new and unfamiliar power being used had apparently drawn him inside to investigate, and Kim Rok Soo could faintly make out the outline of the other dragon in the fog.

"What is that shield?" the younger dragon asked, staring at the holy-looking silver shield in front of Kim Rok Soo.

"Didn't I say to stay out there?" he asked rather than answering the other dragon's question. Dismissing the shield, he walked toward where the gate had once been. He knew that the strength of the shield came from the strength of his own heart, and as a dragon his heart was considerably strong. However, he knew how to make it even stronger, so he wasn't going to continue lingering here on this foggy hill.

He needed to go meet Billos before the merchant left for the capital and then he would be able to fly to his next destination. Walking past the two Cat children without a glance, Kim Rok Soo headed for the merchant's tea house. Billos had said he would be able to get his hands on everything that Kim Rok Soo had asked for by that afternoon, but he supposed if the merchant wasn't ready yet when he arrived, he could read some more of the novel he had found the previous evening.

"Where are we going now?" the Black Dragon asked, trailing after him as always. He didn't seem particularly bothered when Kim Rok Soo didn't answer his questions, but it didn't stop him from asking them.

"Are we getting more tea?" the little dragon asked, clearly recognizing the location that they had visited the previous day. "Are you going to read some more?"

"Maybe." Kim Rok Soo went inside and saw that Billos was at the counter as he had been the previous afternoon. The portly man's face lit up when he saw Kim Rok Soo, a wide grin stretching across his face.

"Welcome!" he greeted cheerfully, and Kim Rok Soo nodded politely in acknowledgement. "Come right this way," Billos said, quickly ushering Kim Rok Soo into the private office where they had spoken the previous day. "I have everything you asked for, young master."

The term of respect surprised Kim Rok Soo slightly, but he supposed that he must appear to be a nobleman if he had the kind of money to throw around that Billos assumed he did. The things that he had requested were not particularly cheap. He wondered which family Billos thought he was from. Given his resemblance to Cale Henituse, it would not be far-fetched for Billos to mistake Kim Rok Soo as a Henituse, or at least a Thames.

"Of course, as we discussed, you will need to return some of these to me in the capital," Billos said, his voice serious even if his expression wasn't. Kim Rok Soo nodded, debating the merits of signing his name as 'Thames,' and pretending to be related to Cale Henituse's late mother. He knew he would need to sign the contract, but he had just been planning to sign his own name since he didn't know the Red Dragon's name.

It was probably better not to potentially get himself caught up in a lie later, even if he didn't intend to get that involved with the human world after the plaza incident. He had no intentions of getting caught up in their future wars or political drama, he just wanted to save a few lives since he had the knowledge to do so. Rosalyn and Choi Han would be the ones doing all the work anyway, not him.

Tuning back into the conversation as Billos presented the contract, Kim Rok Soo decided to stick to his original plan and signed his own name. He suspected Billos was going to waste a lot of time looking for the non-existent 'Kim' family, wondering where this mystery noble had come from, but that wasn't his business. Kim Rok Soo had already told the merchant that he was from somewhere far away, which was technically true. The Red Dragon didn't live particularly far from the Henituse territory, but Korea wasn't even in this world.

The Black Dragon had been quietly watching the entire exchange, hovering just over Kim Rok Soo's shoulder.

"What was that?" he asked. "The marks you made."

"My name," Kim Rok Soo answered, standing and shaking Billos' hand.

"…your name," the other dragon murmured quietly, seemingly to himself but still telepathically projecting to Kim Rok Soo. He hadn't given his name to the younger dragon, just as he hadn't given it to the Cat children, and he doubted the little dragon could read. Even if he had provided his name, he suspected that the Black Dragon would just keep calling him 'Red Dragon.'

When he left the tea shop, Kim Rok Soo found the kittens lingering nearby. He sighed in exasperation at them.

"I told you I was leaving," he said, staring down at them. There wasn't anyone nearby to notice that he was talking to a cat, which appeared to embolden the kittens to reply.

"We want to come with you, nya!" Hong announced.

"Yes, let us follow you!" Ohn agreed.

"You won't be able to keep up," Kim Rok Soo told them. As soon as he left the city, he would take to the skies, so even if they followed him into the woods, they would be stranded on the ground once he started flying.

"Why don't you just carry them?" the Black Dragon asked. "You carried me."

"I'm not a babysitter," Kim Rok Soo told the other dragon. He did feel a little bad that the two children would go back to searching for scraps on the street after he left, but he didn't intend to drag them halfway across the kingdom either.

"They're small, they'll be light," the Black Dragon pointed out.

"We can be useful," Ohn said at the same time, her voice overlapping the little dragon's mental voice in Kim Rok Soo's mind. He sighed again.

"Do you even know who I am?" he asked the two kittens. They trailed after him as he walked around the building, aware that someone might come out of the tea shop at any moment. If the kittens stayed in cat form, it would be better to speak to them somewhere less noticeable, and he wanted to turn invisible so that he could fly back over the wall anyway.

"You're someone nice," Hong said. "You're a good person who gave us bread!"

"You're like us," Ohn answered. "You're not human either." She was sharper than Kim Rok Soo had expected, but he almost laughed at her comparing him to them. A dragon was definitely not 'like' a Cat person.

"I'm not human," he agreed. The alleyway they were in was empty, but he double checked the area one more time just in case and then turned himself invisible. Both kittens gasped.

"I'm not a good person either," he added. "You're better off staying here."

"No, let us come with you!" Ohn persisted, still looking right at him despite his invisibility. She really was sharp, able to detect him through his minor movements even though she couldn't see him.

"Please?" Hong begged. Kim Rok Soo didn't answer and jumped into the air, intending to fly out of the city.

"Fine, I guess I'll carry them," the Black Dragon said grumpily. The kittens made another sound of surprise as they were turned invisible and lifted by the little dragon's magic.

"Do what you want," Kim Rok Soo said, giving up on the notion of leaving the two Cat children behind. They could just stay with the Black Dragon whenever he went off to find his own lair, since he seemed attached to them.

He landed briefly outside the city walls to shift into his dragon form and then took to the skies again. Behind him, three small invisible forms kept pace, the little dragon flapping his wings two or three times for time Kim Rok Soo flapped once his due to the size difference between them.

"We're so high up!" Hong exclaimed.

"Tell them to stop squirming," the Black Dragon complained. "It's hard to keep up if I have to focus on carrying them."

"Tell them yourself, you're the one who brought them," Kim Rok Soo answered, speaking out loud rather than responding mentally.

"Who are you talking to?" Ohn asked curiously, but she got an answer a second later as the Black Dragon finally spoke aloud.

"Me. Stop squirming, it's hard to carry you." Despite his words, Ohn twisted around, trying to spot the speaker. "I said stop squirming!"

Although Kim Rok Soo couldn't see either of the kittens due to the Black Dragon's magic, he sensed that they were frightened. He slowed down a bit.

"…fine, I'll carry them," he relented. If the Black Dragon insisted on following him, he would either need to slow down to accommodate the smaller dragon's pace or at least carry the kittens. He found a clear spot to land, though he remained invisible. The other dragon was able to discern his location by sensing his mana anyway.

Kim Rok Soo stretched out his awareness, checking the area for anyone other than the four of them. Since there wasn't anyone around, he lifted his invisibility and heard the kittens gasp.

"You're a dragon!?" Ohn squeaked.

"We are dragons," the Black Dragon said proudly, also lifting his own invisibility as he settled the kittens on the ground.

"Two dragons?" Hong said, sounding awed. He circled the Black Dragon, comparing his tiny form to the much larger Kim Rok Soo. "You're small like me! Are you my age? I always wanted a friend my age!"

The Black Dragon looked slightly taken aback and glanced at Kim Rok Soo.

"He's four," Kim Rok Soo said, wondering if the Black Dragon had really had a concrete grasp of time passing when he had been imprisoned.

"I'm seven!" Hong announced cheerfully. "Let's be friends!"

"Yeah, let's be friends!" Ohn echoed. The Black Dragon glanced at Kim Rok Soo once more, as if for reassurance, but the older dragon said nothing.

"OK, let's be friends," he agreed.

"We need to get moving. You two climb on my back," Kim Rok Soo instructed. The kittens approached him and he settled as low to the ground as he could. After a hesitant moment, Ohn shifted into her human form and climbed up onto Kim Rok Soo's forearm, reaching for the ridges on his back to haul herself up there. Hong followed suit, helped up onto Kim Rok Soo's spine by his sister.

"It will be easier to hold on like this I think," Ohn explained. "So we don't claw you."

"Sure," Kim Rok Soo responded, noticing that he could barely feel the two of them. He doubted that he would have felt their claws. He turned all three of them invisible and the Black Dragon also turned himself invisible. "Let's go."

This time he flew faster, accompanied by the commentary from the two Cat children as they observed the world from above. Eventually the Black Dragon started flagging, so Kim Rok Soo slowed down a little bit once more.

"I'll carry you too," he told the other dragon.

"I can keep up!" the younger dragon protested, but he sounded tired.

"You can't. I want to fly faster," Kim Rok Soo said bluntly. The Black Dragon made a disgruntled sound.

"…your wings are too big," he complained.

"Let's go," Kim Rok Soo told him, and he scooped the little dragon up in midair, gently carrying him in his talons.

"…fine, you can carry me for a little bit," the Black Dragon sighed. "But I can keep up!" Kim Rok Soo didn't bother to argue, picking up his pace and flying nearly twice as fast as he had been moving previously.

It would have taken nearly a week by carriage to travel to Puzzle City, but Kim Rok Soo was able to make it by sundown. He found a clearing in some woods near the city and landed after releasing the Black Dragon, settling as low to the ground as possible so that the two Cat children could get down.

Both of them complained how stiff their legs were before shifting into cat form and disappearing among the trees, presumably to find somewhere to use as a bathroom if the recent complaints from Hong were anything to judge by. The Black Dragon commented about being hungry, so Kim Rok Soo told him to go hunting. He had no intention of eating that evening, planning to simply curl up and sleep so that he could wake up early to go look for the Vitality of the Heart.

"I'm a good hunter!" the Black Dragon proclaimed, despite the fact that he'd only really gone hunting a couple of times. Still, he had brought Kim Rok Soo a deer the first night that he'd been free of his imprisonment.

"You are," he agreed, already curling into a comfortable position. "I'm going to sleep," he told the little dragon.

"OK, I can bring you back food for later!" the Black Dragon announced.

"Do what you want," Kim Rok Soo told him, closing his eyes. He would worry about food later, and check that the Cat children had eaten in the morning.

Chapter Text

Morning found three small bodies curled up against Kim Rok Soo once more, along with a dead boar and a small pile of fruit not far from where they were sleeping. The Black Dragon had kept his word and hunted for food for Kim Rok Soo in addition to himself. He wondered if the Cat children had also been fed.

He was unable to move without waking them, though he did try. The movement brought all three of the children to alertness almost instantly. It wasn't particularly surprising, considering the lives that they had lived. Being highly cautious had likely served Ohn and Hong well, and the Black Dragon's previous life in captivity spoke for itself.

"What are we doing today?" Hong asked as he watched Kim Rok Soo stretch and sniff at the pile of food.

"Did you eat last night?" Kim Rok Soo asked, rather than answering the young Cat's question. Hong nodded.

"Our youngest is a good hunter!" he said proudly. The Black Dragon looked smug at the compliment.

"Yeah, dragons are good hunters," Kim Rok Soo agreed. The younger dragon looked even more pleased at those words, his chest puffing up slightly.

"I am a great hunter!" he announced loudly, a hint of arrogance in his voice and posture. Kim Rok Soo made short work of a portion of the pile that had been provided, leaving the rest for the three children. He would probably just get them some snacks from town later that day after he was able to retrieve the Vitality of the Heart.

"So what are we doing today?" Hong asked again, mouth stained with berry juice. Kim Rok Soo shifted forms and fished through his bag for some fabric to use, catching the young Cat and wiping his mouth as Hong tried to shove his hand away with one paw.

"Do whatever you want," he told the trio. "Just don't follow me." The three of them exchanged glances, but he didn't notice. "Why don't you go see the towers in the city?" he suggested. "There's a story about the towers granting wishes, and the ruins are supposed to be interesting."

Technically the towers were more of a symbol of human determination, but Kim Rok Soo wasn't going to bother with the details of the story. He tasked the trio with finding out more for themselves, if they were curious, and told them once more not to follow him.

Despite his words, he could sense the three of them trailing after him as he walked toward the mountain behind the city. As he drew nearer to the entrance of the cave where the grave was, he sighed and looked back at the indentation in the grass that indicated the location of the kittens. The Black Dragon's mana covered all three of them, making them invisible to the average person, but as another dragon, Kim Rok Soo had no problem locating the trio.

"You know I can see you…" he said, a mild tone of exasperation in his voice. "You can't follow me here, got it?"

"You're not trying to leave us behind, are you?" Ohn asked. Kim Rok Soo frowned at her.

"After I went through all the trouble of carrying you here? Why would I bother walking away if I could just fly?" He sighed again.

"Look, I just need some time to take care of something. I'll see you three at dinner time, got it?"

"You promise?" Hong asked.

"Sure, I promise," Kim Rok Soo agreed. He really didn't understand why the two of them had decided to latch onto him when all he'd done was give them a room for the night and a couple of meals, but he wasn't planning to just dump them by the wayside now. Even if the Black Dragon left, as Kim Rok Soo still expected him to do at some point, the kittens were probably going to stick to him like glue rather than following the younger dragon.

With his promise secured, the trio finally agreed to leave him alone for the afternoon, wandering back toward the city and discussing the rock towers with one another in low excited voices. He noted that they remained invisible, but he supposed that with how wary the Black Dragon was toward humans, that was to be expected. It was surprising he was even going into an area with humans on his own instead of just telling the kittens to go explore without him.

Now that he was alone, Kim Rok Soo turned his attention to the vine-covered rocks around him. Eventually he managed to locate the cave entrance, well disguised by the foliage around it. If he hadn't specifically known where to look, he'd never have found it at all. He eyed the small hole and supposed it was a good thing that he could shape-shift. His dragon body would never have fit through that opening.

It took some effort to wriggle through the narrow space and Kim Rok Soo was impressed that Taylor Sten would have crawled through this passage without the use of his legs. That just showed how determined the man was to recover his ability to walk, not that the Vitality of the Heart would have done him any good.

Since he was going to crush the poor fool's hopes by claiming this power for himself, Kim Rok Soo planned to locate Taylor and Cage before he left the area so that he could at least point them in the right direction. If they joined the Crown Prince's faction, they could likely avoid the incident that would claim Taylor's life, particularly since Taylor wouldn't be lost in despair after discovering that the Vitality of the Heart couldn't help him. Kim Rok Soo was glad that he had thought ahead when meeting Billos.

The wind crashed violently around the open area as Kim Rok Soo finally reached somewhere that he could stand up again. He had come prepared for this, knowing that the winds would be at their lowest soon and the shield should be enough to fend off the weakened gale. Silver light glowed around him as he manifested the power of the shield, transparent wings wrapping around his frame to protect him. Even the so-called 'weak' wind was enough to push him around a bit, despite his innate dragon strength.

It was no wonder that the book had said that Taylor and Cage had struggled for a week. Kim Rok Soo stepped forward as quickly as he could against the pressure of the wind. His window of opportunity was three hours, but he didn't intend to take the full time just walking to the stone tower visible in the center of the room. As he walked, he started to hear a voice, just as he had heard someone speaking when he was feeding the tree.

An old man's voice echoed around him, sighing with regret and lamenting that he had grown old alone. Kim Rok Soo idly wondered why the book hadn't bothered to mention the voices that accompanied the ancient powers. His musing was cut short by the voice saying something about a familiar power. Unless the old man had known a dragon, he had to be talking about the shield. There hadn't been any information in the book to link the two powers to one another, but it was possible that their previous owners had known one another.

Eventually Kim Rok Soo tuned the old man out as he fought his way to the center of the tornado that raged through the room. When he reached the eye of the storm, the lack of wind was almost disconcerting after the deluge of gusts he had just waded through. The old man's voice still echoed in his ears as he made his way over to the little rock tower waiting to be completed in the center of the empty area.

All of the rocks were pitch black, markedly unusual when compared to the usual stones laying around in Puzzle City. Kim Rok Soo fished a pair of gloves from his bag, opting to play it safe rather than directly touch the obviously unusual stones. He stacked the rocks quickly, gently placing one on top of another until he had piled all of the black stones into one space. As he placed the last rock on the tower, the color started to drain from the stones and the wind around him began to die.

In less than a minute they were all white, and the old man was once again yammering away in Kim Rok Soo's ear about how selfish he was.

"It's human nature to be selfish," Kim Rok Soo pointed out. The voice was silent for a moment, but just as Kim Rok Soo was starting to hope that everything was over, the old man started crying and reminiscing about his older sister.

"…Are you serious?" Kim Rok Soo muttered to himself, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently. The book should really have mentioned this voice, because this was way more annoying than he had anticipated. As he was thinking that, the old man started to reminisce that Rok Soo's attitude reminded him of his older brother.

Eventually the old man finally said the words that Kim Rok Soo had been waiting for.

"Break it, and you will overcome your limits." With a smile, Kim Rok Soo kicked the tower over, watching the now white stones bounce across the ground. Just like the light that had appeared under the tree, a white glow rose from the ground here and enveloped him, wrapping him in a gentle sensation. The glow solidified into a small orb and Kim Rok Soo reached for it.

The light sank abruptly into his palm and raced up his arm, shooting straight for his heart like an arrow. There was an odd sensation on his chest, and when he tugged at the neckline of his shirt, he saw that there was now a heart tattooed above his own heart, replacing the shield image that had been there before.

Kim Rok Soo was pleased with his new power and quickly tested the strength of his shield. As expected, it felt stronger than before, and he was confident that between these ancient powers and his dragon strength, he could face the main character. At the very least he could take a hit or two and have time to run away if things went south.

Now all he needed to do was go rescue Rosalyn to give him an excuse to actually get in touch with the hero. He crawled back through the narrow tunnel and dusted himself off, sighing at the state of his clothes. At this point he might as well go rent a room so he could get cleaned up properly. His dragon form might not be affected by the events of the morning, but if he was going to show up in front of the main characters, he didn't want to do so looking as if he'd just rolled around in a ditch.

He had promised to meet the three children for dinner, but he hadn't specified that they would meet in the woods where they had slept the previous night. The Black Dragon would be able to sense where he was though, so Kim Rok Soo headed straight into Puzzle City to locate an inn. He had a message to write anyway, though he supposed he might task the kittens to deliver it rather than bothering to get too close to Taylor himself. Ohn had promised that they could be useful, and Cage might be able to sense a dragon of his caliber if Kim Rok Soo used magic too close to her, which would make it hard to pretend he wasn't involved.

As he had predicted, the trio of children turned up on his balcony that evening. The Black Dragon complained about all the humans around and the fact that they were going to stay in a human town again when there was a perfectly good copse nearby with trees for shelter. Despite his complaints, he was quite happy to stuff his face with the food that Kim Rok Soo had ordered.

Kim Rok Soo gave the kittens the letter that he had written, along with a corresponding note for them to place beside the tower that he instructed them to build on top of the letter. He had already figured out where Taylor and Cage were staying, so it was easy to direct the pair to the correct location. In the meantime, he had purchased another magic bag so that he could place some of the items that he had rented from Billos in them.

If Taylor accepted the path that Kim Rok Soo had marked for him to start walking, then he was going to need a little help to get safely into the city. Otherwise, Kim Rok Soo would have rented these things for no reason. He needed to return them to Billos in the city in a few weeks either way.

"Why are you getting involved with another human?" the Black Dragon asked crossly.

"Because not all humans are bad," Kim Rok Soo responded. He didn't feel like attempting to explain the nuance of human politics to the younger dragon, and he didn't think that the other dragon would understand that Taylor could be useful in taking down Venion's network, so he left it at that.

It wasn't long before the two Cat children returned. They announced that Taylor and Cage had decided to knock the tower down and read the letter, so Kim Rok Soo gave them a secondary task to deliver the bag of magic items to the location he had specified in the letter. The Black Dragon went with them this time, and Kim Rok Soo promised to have treats for the trio when they returned.

He went downstairs and ordered more food, picking some cakes and meat out to suit the preferences of the children. It was kind of convenient having someone to do the running around part for him. Even if he was perfectly capable of delivering things stealthily or stashing a bag of magic items somewhere, it was much nicer to just wait in his room while someone else took care of it. If the three of them insisted on following him back home, he supposed he would have some gardening assistants.

Although he still expected the Black Dragon to leave, Kim Rok Soo had already gotten somewhat used to having a second, opinionated shadow. He wouldn't mind the companionship of the children in his secluded valley, but he was well aware of the typical solitary nature of dragons. It was unlikely the Black Dragon would continue to stay after he felt a bit more comfortable with his freedom. Kim Rok Soo was fairly certain the younger dragon was just sticking around for a bit to get a better idea of how the world worked before he headed out on his own.

"We're back!" Hong's cheerful voice from the balcony cut through Kim Rok Soo's thoughts and he greeted the returning children. He felt a small smile creep over his lips at the sight of all three of their faces lighting up as they spotted the food he had set up for them.

"Oh! Dinner was already so good but now there's more!" Ohn said, sounding very pleased. Kim Rok Soo had promised them a reward, but it sounded like she hadn't expected quite so much.

"Did you go see the rock towers?" he asked, wondering how the trio had spent the day while he had been in the cave.

"They're just rocks," the Black Dragon said somewhat dismissively, but Hong cut in.

"We heard some people talking about the story about why they get built!"

"That's nice," Kim Rok Soo commented.

"What would you wish for if you built a tower?" Ohn asked curiously.

"Did you build a tower?" Kim Rok Soo asked instead of answering. She shook her head and he told her, "I don't do things like making wishes. It makes you have higher expectations. It's much easier to live if you don't have high expectations."

At least they didn't seem to have been bored, and the Black Dragon didn't seem to have been that bothered by all the people around even without Kim Rok Soo at his side. Maybe he would decide to leave sooner rather than later if the kittens were going to go with him. He had been quite vocal about his dislike of all the humans around in the towns, and Kim Rok Soo was only going somewhere more crowded, so he wouldn't blame the other dragon for deciding not to follow him to the capital.

"We're leaving in the morning," he told the three of them. "Probably pretty early, so you shouldn't stay up too late."

By his estimate, he needed a little over half a day worth of flight to get to where Rosalyn was going to be ambushed and if his timeline had been gauged correctly, he needed to be there somewhere between lunch and dinner tomorrow. The exact time of day hadn't been clear in the book, but at least he knew what day it would happen. He could just stake out the area if needed.

"OK!" three little voices chorused in response. Kim Rok Soo found himself thinking that they really were good kids. He waited for them to finish eating so that he could stack all the dishes back on the tray to leave outside the door for the inn staff to collect, then they all four crawled into the bed. As they had the previous nights, the children curled up around him, three little spots of warmth against his side and legs.

He couldn't set an alarm clock, but because he had left the balcony door open all night, the early morning sunlight woke him reliably enough anyway. The two cats stretched and then hopped over the balcony railing to head down to the street while the Black Dragon turned invisible and followed Kim Rok Soo down to the front desk to check out.

"Are we done staying in human places now?" the younger dragon asked plaintively. Kim Rok Soo didn't answer, making his way outside and picking up the two kittens sitting waiting for him. The small group made their way into the woods to a sheltered area where Kim Rok Soo had enough space to change back into his dragon form again.

"Hey you," he said to the other dragon, who gave him a grumpy look.

"My name isn't 'you,'" he complained. Kim Rok Soo waited a moment, expecting an introduction, but none came.

"Then what is it?" he asked after a moment, but the younger dragon looked away.

"You figure it out."

Filing that away as a problem for his later self, Kim Rok Soo sighed and shook his head.

"Sure, whatever," he said. "I'm carrying you again, got it?"

"I can fly!" the Black Dragon protested.

"I'm in a hurry," Kim Rok Soo responded, settling himself low to the ground so the two Cat children could clamber up onto his back and settle themselves for the flight. "Either ride with them or I'm carrying you."

"…" The Black Dragon looked at the Cat children in their human shapes and was silent for a long moment before he eventually agreed to be carried.

"I can fly fast," he complained as they took off, all rendered invisible by Kim Rok Soo's magic.

"Sure, but not for long enough," Kim Rok Soo pointed out. "My wingspan is more than double yours, and we're going to be flying at my pace today." With that he picked up speed, heading high enough to get a good view of the terrain. It wasn't exactly easy to pinpoint the locations without a map, but he'd managed well enough so far. However, he wasn't aiming for a town this time.

At least the book had been fairly detailed with information about landmarks. He should be able to locate Rosalyn easily enough, lend her a hand to win her over, and then send her to meet up with Choi Han armed with some of the information that they would need to prevent the plaza terrorist event. The important thing was to secure the promise of repayment from the Crown Prince, to be delivered via Rosalyn.

Once that was all settled he could finally go back to his peaceful valley and check on his farm, most likely with three new garden assistants in tow.

The landmarks turned out to be somewhat unnecessary as Kim Rok Soo got closer to where the books had detailed that the events of the day would be happening. He had been so focused on recalling the information about Rosalyn that he hadn't even thought about the fact that Choi Han and the Molans would be engaged in a rather flashy fight not too far from where they were supposed to meet Rosalyn.

Of course, Ron Molan wasn't flashy. That scary old man practically disappeared in battle, reappearing only to fatally wound his opponents when they least expected it. Choi Han was still pretty new to combat against people at this point in his journey to becoming a hero, since the incident in Harris Village had been the first time he'd taken a life. His actions were more destructive than they needed to be, allowing Kim Rok Soo to spot the fight from above.

As soon as he recognized what he was looking at, he immediately flew lower to the ground and angled himself slightly further northeast. His timing had been almost perfect, although all three of the children had started to complain about wanting a break. They were quiet as they watched the fight, or at least as much as they could see of the fight as Kim Rok Soo cruised over the area.

With what he knew of the book, Rosalyn would accidentally stumble into an ambush while trying to avoid the very obvious fight that Choi Han was engaged in, and she had needed to use her magic to get herself out in one piece. The men sent to assassinate her had already been tailing her for days and would take advantage of her distraction to make their move.

Kim Rok Soo planned to step in and lend her a hand, though he didn't want to do anything too dangerous. Still, if Rosalyn could handle these guys, they should be no real threat to a dragon, especially not now that he had his enhanced shield. Either way, he needed to make sure the kids didn't get involved. He found somewhere to land and told the three of them to stay out of sight, using his mana to scout the area and locate both Rosalyn and the men tailing her.

"It's going to be a little dangerous," he warned the trio when they made noises about wanting to follow him once he had shifted back into human form. "I'm going to save someone and I don't want you three underfoot while I'm doing that."

"We can help!" Ohn said quickly. Kim Rok Soo just stared at her for a moment, thinking that there was no way he would take a ten year old into a fight, much less a 7 year old or a 4 year old.

"Yeah, we can help!" Hong chimed in. "We can poison the bad guys!"

That made Kim Rok Soo pause to reconsider his options. If he just knocked them all out, they wouldn't even know who had gotten involved, and Rosalyn would still be able to safely escape without revealing the magnitude of her magical strength. Ohn quickly explained how her power worked, turning back into a cat and summoning some fog to demonstrate. Hong followed her example, transforming and using a little of his blood to add poison to the mist.

"How well can you control it?" Kim Rok Soo asked. "There's a girl here that we can't knock out, and we don't want to attract the attention of those people we saw earlier either."

"We can protect her and still poison the bad guys!" Ohn said, resolve on her face. Kim Rok Soo supposed there was more to these cats than met the eye. They were indeed making themselves useful, as she had told him they would.

"All right, but stay out of sight and fall back if any of them spots you, got it?"

"I'll help too!" the Black Dragon announced. "I can help move the fog with wind magic!"

Well that would certainly alert Rosalyn to the presence of a dragon. Kim Rok Soo had already been considering doing that himself, but he shrugged and told the younger dragon to do as he wished.

"Keep out of sight," he reminded them, draping them all in his mana to render them invisible. It wasn't as if they could remove the invisibility themselves, with the exception of the Black Dragon, but an observant person might still spot the movements of the kittens as they brushed against leaves or hear them if they stepped on something.

Ohn's fog was more impressive than he had expected, spreading rapidly and enveloping the trees in white. Kim Rok Soo zeroed in on Rosalyn's mana signature and moved swiftly toward her. He was immune to the low level toxin Hong was releasing, so it wouldn't matter even if he did breath it in.

One of the assassins decided to go for Rosalyn right as Kim Rok Soo reached her and he immediately deployed his shield, silver light bursting from his fingertips as wings folded themselves around Rosalyn. She was too astonished to do anything at first, though her staff had already been up defensively.

"Who's there?" she called, staff still at the ready as she traced the light back to the source. "Who are you?"

Rather than answering out loud, Kim Rok Soo sent a gentle pulse of mana at her as Ohn's fog enveloped the assassin, who was futilely trying to strike at Rosalyn through the shield. Rosalyn's eyes widened in recognition at the feather-light touch of Kim Rok Soo's mana. She let her staff fall back to her side, bowing her head respectfully in his direction.

"Honorable Dragon-nim, I thank you for your protection." The assassin dropped, having breathed in too much of Hong's poison, and Rosalyn looked back at him. "I was careless," she admitted.

"They're all on the ground now, but they don't look asleep," the Black Dragon reported in Kim Rok Soo's mind. Hong's poison was strong enough to paralyze but not quite enough to render the victims unconscious. Kim Rok Soo released the shield and walked over to the nearest assassin to knock him out.

"I can take care of them, Lord Dragon," Rosalyn quickly offered.

"That human is different," the Black Dragon observed, and Kim Rok Soo heard Rosalyn gasp, turning toward where the younger dragon was still invisible. She saw nothing in the fog and glanced back at Kim Rok Soo as if for confirmation of what she was sensing.

"Stop that," he told the other dragon, who was probing Rosalyn with mana curiously. The Black Dragon's mana withdrew. "Sorry, he's still young," he said to Rosalyn, who was momentarily speechless at the realization that she had just run into not one, but two dragons.

In the original story, because Rosalyn had needed to reveal her strength here, she had changed her travel goal to the capital city rather than trying to continue through Rowoon to reach the Whipper Kingdom's Magic Tower. She and Choi Han would have met in the nearby village and traveled together from that point, serving as escorts for a merchant group. Kim Rok Soo didn't intend to disrupt that part of the plot, though since Rosalyn hadn't revealed her strength he wasn't sure if she would go to the capital without his prompting.

The red-haired woman was frowning down at the unconscious man at her feet as Kim Rok Soo watched her.

"I need to find out who sent these men, and why…" she murmured. Since they were still alive, she could interrogate them, but Kim Rok Soo still needed her to follow the main character. His repayment from the Crown Prince hinged on Rosalyn, since he doubted that Choi Han had it in him to out-talk the glib tongue of the first prince.

"I can give you some information, but I need you to do something for me in return," Kim Rok Soo told her. He could, in fact, tell her who sent these men, since he had read that information in the novel. Rosalyn offered him another deferential head bow.

"I would be honored to assist you, Lord Dragon." Kim Rok Soo considered telling her the title wasn't necessary, but he wasn't sure if she would address him by name even if he did give his name to her. Mages were very respectful of dragons, and Rosalyn was no exception.

"There's a gathering in the capital soon, and a lot of people could get hurt if something isn't done to protect them," he began. Rosalyn looked surprised, but he had expected that. Dragons were proud and solitary and had no reason to get involved in the affairs of humans, even if they had some form of foresight. However, as much as Kim Rok Soo might rationalize to himself that he was a dragon now and not a human, a life was still a life and he was in a position to save a lot of people with the information he had.

"I want you to meet someone named Choi Han and work together with him to prevent this potential tragedy," Kim Rok Soo continued. "If you continue south, you should be able to meet him in the nearest village. Both of you can volunteer to accompany the merchant group that will also be there, who is in need of some guards since their guard has been injured. They have a delivery to make before they head to the capital."

The plot seemed on track so far, so Kim Rok Soo was fairly certain the merchants would be in the town when Choi Han and Rosalyn arrived there tomorrow, and they would still need to hire at least one guard. Even if they only hired Choi Han and the Molans, it would be safer for Rosalyn to travel with the group than travel alone, and she knew that too.

"Go with that group to make the delivery and you'll meet a boy named Lark along the way. Bring him along and come with the others to the capital. I'll meet you there for further instructions," Kim Rok Soo told Rosalyn. It would take them a couple of days to reach where Lark was and get to the city from there, and in the meantime he was going to go pick up one more power. The shield was great, as he had already tested out firsthand, but the speed boost he could pick up from the Sound of the Wind was too tempting to ignore.

"Oh, Choi Han isn't exactly the friendliest guy," Kim Rok Soo added. That guy was not the type to approach people to make friends after the incident in Harris Village, so he doubted that Rosalyn would become close to him very quickly. It had taken them some time to trust one another in the novel.

"He's a good person, but he's had a rough time lately," Kim Rok Soo explained. If Rosalyn could at least form some sort of basic bond with Choi Han as they traveled to pick up Lark, it would make roping Choi Han into the plan to stop the plaza terrorist event easier.

As Ohn and Hong returned to his side, no longer invisible, Kim Rok Soo mused that lives were still going to be lost if he let the plot continue as normal. The Blue Wolf Tribe had not yet been attacked, but if they weren't attacked, Lark wouldn't join Choi Han and he would be needed later in the story. Kim Rok Soo didn't want to change too many things, or the story would go off the rails and the future would be unpredictable. It was best to let some things happen as they were scripted, even if it unfortunately meant that lives would be lost.

He wondered if he should warn Rosalyn what she was going to be walking into, but thought that it might be meddling too much. She knew how to be discrete, but she probably wouldn't understand why he wasn't going with her if he knew about the attack on the Blue Wolf Tribe. Choi Han needed to encounter those assassins anyway or Rosalyn wouldn't understand his true strength. She was still going to need to ask him to accompany her back to the Breck Kingdom later if the plot was going to stay on track.

"What about these men?" Rosalyn asked, gesturing to the nearest of the paralyzed assassins that had come after her. She had given the two kittens a slightly puzzled look, but hadn't asked about them.

"The paralysis will wear off soon," Kim Rok Soo told her. An expression of resolve crossed Rosalyn's face.

"I better take care of them quickly then," she commented. Kim Rok Soo leaned over to pick up the two kittens and checked that the Black Dragon was nearby.

"Don't look," he told the three children, knowing Rosalyn was about to kill the assassins to prevent them from coming after her again or reporting back about their failure and his involvement. It was likely that the kittens had seen death before, but they were still children. Rosalyn gave him a slightly puzzled glance before realizing that he had been talking to the kittens. As smart as she was, she likely connected the dots that they were beast people, but she said nothing.

Rosalyn had initially intended to leave one man alive for questioning, but she had faith that the dragon would tell her what she needed to know. He had promised her information in exchange for accompanying the merchants to the capital. She checked for any form of identification to link the men back to whoever had sent them as she quickly and efficiently dispatched the assassins, but as she had expected, there was nothing.

"The crown is hosting a big event for the King's birthday celebration, so you'll need to get to the capital before that," Kim Rok Soo told Rosalyn as she used her magic to incinerate the remains of the assassins. It was better not to leave a trace of them. Fishing through his magic bag with the hand not holding the kittens, Kim Rok Soo found a map of the capital that he had purchased in the Henituse territory and marked one of the inns.

"I'm going to stay here," he told her. "Come meet me when you and Choi Han get to the city."

When she nodded her head in understanding and took the map, Kim Rok Soo set the two Cat children down. They had been complaining of hunger before landing, so he supposed they wouldn't want to just take off again right away. The flight to the Ubarr territory would take him a little over a day, and then he'd need some time to actually get the Sound of the Wind and the Fire-Suppressing Water. He'd purchased a special bottle from Billos with the intent of grabbing some of that water.

While he really didn't intend to keep getting involved in the affairs of the human world, there was a large benefit to him if he put out the fire in the jungle in the form of Highest Grade Magic Stones. Even if Rosalyn couldn't wring enough money out of the Crown Prince to cover what Kim Rok Soo had needed to pay Billos for his plans thus far, the Magic Stones would more than make up the difference. He and the three children would be able to live quite comfortably with that kind of money.

Now was a good time for him to go to the Ubarr territory anyway, since attention was focused on the capital. Amiru Ubarr would definitely not be in the territory, and Kim Rok Soo suspected at least some of her family had gone with her. It should be fairly quiet up there, easy for him to sneak in and grab what he wanted without too much hassle.

"I look forward to meeting you again, Honorable Dragon-nim," Rosalyn said, giving Kim Rok Soo a polite bow. He considered bowing back, since she was a Princess, but decided that dragons didn't need to worry about the social hierarchies of humans.

"Sure. See you in the city."

Chapter Text

After watching Rosalyn leave and head toward the village where she would meet Choi Han, Kim Rok Soo started walking in the other direction. He wanted to put a little distance between himself and the protagonists before he hunted for something to eat. The kittens trailed after him, talking quietly between themselves. Of course, with his sharp hearing, Kim Rok Soo could hear every word they said, but he tuned them out.

"Why was that human full of mana?" the Black Dragon asked after a while. "Is that what you meant when you said some humans are good?"

"Not really. Being a mage doesn't make you a good person or a bad person. How you use your magic is what makes a difference."

"She killed those other humans. That's good." The Black Dragon was all for having less humans in the world.

"Not really," Kim Rok Soo said again. "Killing people is unavoidable some times, but it shouldn't be your first plan."

He stretched and glanced around, deeming the clearing big enough to shift back to his proper form. Like the Black Dragon, he turned himself invisible. Even if they had walked a bit, there was still some risk of running into Choi Han, or some stragglers from the group he had been fighting. He had faith that Ohn and Hong's poisonous fog had taken care of all the assassins after Rosalyn, but the novel hadn't specified who the group that Choi Han had run into was.

According to the book, the Molan duo had meant to leave someone alive for questioning, but Choi Han had killed the last remaining person alive without realizing it. He had been quite angry at repeating the same mistake that he'd made in Harris village, leaving himself with no leads, but Ron's calm demeanor had kept him from dwelling on it for too long.

"Hey you, let's hunt," he told the Black Dragon.

"I told you, my name isn't 'hey you,'" the younger dragon said grumpily. Kim Rok Soo waited, but once again the little dragon didn't offer him a name. After a long pause, the Black Dragon finally said "I'll go hunt. I'm a good hunter."

"Me too!" Hong announced. "I'm a good hunter too!" Kim Rok Soo wondered if he had practiced using his poison on small game animals.

"…when can we have cake again?" Ohn asked. Hong immediately latched onto his sister's words and jumped up and down.

"Yes, cake! let's have cake!"

"Do you think cake grows on trees?" Kim Rok Soo asked the kittens with a frown.

"Of course not," Ohn said, sounding slightly offended. "I just wanted to know where we're going next."

Kim Rok Soo noted that she had already assumed he was going somewhere with people again and would be able to buy them more snacks. He idly wondered if there was a proper oven somewhere in the collection of items in his lair and made a mental note to sort through the catalog in his mind later. When he had first become the Red Dragon, he had spent some time organizing and going through the items in the lair to familiarize himself with the area.

He did plan to live in that valley long term, so he should make it more comfortable to live in while in both shapes and not just his dragon body, especially if the kittens were going home with him. There was a chance they might not want to go stay in the secluded area where he lived, so he was going to offer them the option to stay in the capital instead. If he asked Rosalyn, she would probably look after the two of them just because they had traveled with him. She would probably be delighted to have the opportunity to talk to someone who had flown with dragons.

"I'm going to have to learn to bake I guess," he mused, mostly to himself, but the Black Dragon and Ohn both perked up at the words.

"What's 'bake'?" the younger dragon asked. "Can I learn it too?"

"It means we can make our own cakes!" Ohn told him, eyes shining. The Black Dragon got excited by the notion, his tail whipping back and forth.

"We can do that? We don't have to go where humans are?"

"We have to go where humans are to get ingredients," Kim Rok Soo pointed out. "But once we have what we need, we can make our own cakes, sure."

He reminded the children that they were supposed to be hunting, something none of them were currently doing. The Cats immediately vanished into the underbrush, while the Black Dragon announced that he was the best hunter and would feed them all so Kim Rok Soo could just wait here. He waited a moment for the other dragon to get a head start before taking to the air himself. Even if he had been told that it was fine to just rest, he was the adult here. It was his job to be the responsible one.

Several hours later they were all well fed and flying through the air, heading north towards the sea. Kim Rok Soo was letting the Black Dragon set the pace for now, since he knew he had a number of days worth of wiggle room in his schedule now that he had ensured the plot was still on course. The younger dragon was annoyed that he had been carried so frequently and wanted to prove that he could keep up with Kim Rok Soo.

As they flew through the night, Kim Rok Soo found himself thinking about his garden again. He hadn't considered the merits of his dragon abilities when he left, aside from the ability to fly. Dragons were powerful mages and as long as he had the coordinates of a place, he could teleport there. While he wasn't about to attempt to teleport to a place that he'd only read about in the novel, he could easily teleport back to his valley and then come back to somewhere he'd already flown.

If he was going to teleport, he wanted to experiment with the spell a bit first before he attempted to transport more than just himself. The last thing he wanted to do was accidentally injure one of the kittens. The Black Dragon would be capable of teleporting himself as long as Kim Rok Soo gave him the coordinates, but the kittens would need to rely on the two dragons.

It had already been several days since he left, and while he had done his best to ensure it would be fine while he was away, he couldn't help worrying. Some of the plants had been fairly delicate and he wondered if they were getting enough water. After he found what he was looking for in the Ubarr territory, maybe he would teleport back to the valley to check on it.

Kim Rok Soo noticed that the Black Dragon was starting to flag, and he had heard Hong yawning a couple of times too, so he looked for a suitable spot to land. It would be a problem if one of the Cat children fell asleep and slipped off his back while he flew, and he probably ought to get some sleep himself.

"Hey, let's get some rest," he called to the Black Dragon.

"I told you not to call me 'hey!'" the other dragon said irritably. He was extra grumpy from being tired, so Kim Rok Soo ignored the angry outburst. From the sounds of things, the Black Dragon wanted Kim Rok Soo to pick a name for him, which is why he kept not introducing himself whenever he insisted his name wasn't 'hey you.'

He sighed, wondering just how long this troublesome little dragon intended to stick with him. They had only met a few nights ago, but the Black Dragon had attached itself to him like glue and now even wanted a name from him. It seemed like there was going to be an exception to the usual rule that dragons were solitary creatures.

His valley lair was definitely going to need some improvements.

It did take the four of them a bit longer than Kim Rok Soo had anticipated to actually reach the rocky cliff-side beaches of the Ubarr territory, but he wasn't that worried about his schedule. If timing got tight, he would just teleport to the capital. The coordinates for that had been on the map he bought, so he figured he could get there even without visiting it first.

Moving around while invisible meant that he could observe the area without needing to bother with renting a boat to go visit the island nearest the whirlpool that contained the Sound of the Wind. This early in the storyline, there shouldn't be anything to worry about in the area, since the Whales and mermaid tribe should all be even further north. Despite the information that he had from the novel telling him otherwise, Kim Rok Soo found himself staring down at a small humpback whale swimming alone.

Whales rarely traveled solo unless they were beast people. They tended to move in a pod, and even the beast people often moved with a pod, whether it was fellow Whales who could take human form or simply just normal whales. Kim Rok Soo wondered what this Whale was doing so far south this early in the story and why he was alone.

There were some flashes in the water around the Whale, but Kim Rok Soo couldn't quite make out what was going on. It almost looked as if there was a fight occurring, but that didn't make much sense. Any rational creature knew better than to attack a Whale.

"So much water," Hong said, his tone somewhere between awed and dismayed. Kim Rok Soo supposed that as cats, the two children would have a natural aversion to water. He was sure that they would be happy to eat any fish he could snatch from the water though, not that he had any intention of getting closer to the surface when there was a Whale swimming around.

"This is pretty," the Black Dragon said, admiring the view of the islands spread below them. "Those trees aren't the same as the ones in the woods we stayed in last night."

"There's a lot of variety in the world. You can see more types of trees if you travel too."

"We've traveled a lot already," Ohn said. "It's very nice to fly." Kim Rok Soo felt her shifting around a bit. "Can we land? That's…a lot of water."

As he had suspected, the two cats were not too keen on being suspended above the ocean. He had gotten a decent look at the area anyway, so he headed down to one of the islands. There was no reason to rent a room in the local town when they could have a private island for the night. There was plenty of greenery to shelter them from sight even if they removed the invisibility spell keeping them hidden.

Kim Rok Soo did a cursory sweep of the island with his mana to ensure that there were no people around. It had looked uninhabited from above, and the novel had indicated that no one lived on this island, but it didn't hurt to check. He flinched as his mana swept over what was unmistakably the presence of the small Whale that he had seen swimming in the sea earlier.

It didn't make sense for the Whale to come ashore, but it definitely had. There was some kind of weird energy alongside the Whale, but Kim Rok Soo had no intention of going any closer to investigate. He called to the kittens to stay close, knowing that the Black Dragon wouldn't wander far even without him saying anything. The younger dragon had apparently also sensed the Whale, because he was looking in the direction of the energy.

"What is that?" he asked inside Kim Rok Soo's head.

"Something we should leave alone," Kim Rok Soo told him. "It's none of our business."

Despite his words, he did plan to go investigate the area once the Whale had left, to see if he could figure out why it had come ashore. The notion of coming face to face with the Whale in the water when he went after the Sound of the Wind was not particularly reassuring, especially since he had intended to use his human shape and the power of the Indestructible Shield. He was planning to wait until the sun had gone down, so he hoped the Whale would be asleep when he made his move.

In the meantime, he watched the two kittens playing among the greenery. They were having fun dashing around and pouncing on things, and eventually the Black Dragon joined in. Kim Rok Soo couldn't help but smile slightly as he observed them. Kids were meant to have fun and play at their age. That was how things should be.

When the powerful energy from the Whale finally moved away from the island, Kim Rok Soo told the three children to carry on with their games and shifted into his human form. It was easier to move around among the trees as a human than a dragon, and he didn't feel like flying again right now. He made his way through the thick undergrowth to the beach, where he found three mermaid corpses. It was clear that the Whale had killed them.

The fact that he had dragged them up onto the beach to dry out was proof that the Whale was working alone, or he would have left them in the water to rot and lure in other mermaids. Kim Rok Soo was glad that he wouldn't need to worry about multiple Whales in the area. His shield and magic ought to be enough to handle a single Whale if he happened to run into it in the water. He planned to simply run away if it came to that, and the shield would be able to take a hit from the Whale to buy him time to get out of the sea. Whales couldn't fly.

Kim Rok Soo returned to where the children were playing and shifted back to his dragon form to curl up and rest until midnight. When the three children grew tired, they curled up around him even though he warned them that he was going to be doing something in the night. It seemed that they would rather snuggle against his warm scales now and deal with being woken up later rather than sleep elsewhere.

He did his best to disturb them as little as possible when he finally deemed it late enough to head into the sea. Once again taking human form, he fished through his magic bag to find the scuba gear he had obtained from Billos. After he changed, he made his way to the beach, three small shadows trailing after him. The kittens stayed in the edge of the treeline when they realized that he was heading into the water, but the Black Dragon continued to follow him.

"Go back to sleep, I'll be back shortly," he told the trio, but the younger dragon shook his head.

"No, I want to come too."

"Sure, whatever," Kim Rok Soo shrugged. He wasn't going to argue with the other dragon, not when he had other things to worry about.

Floating up into the air, he looked down at the huge whirlpool, which looked more dangerous at night than it had under the afternoon sunlight.

"Geez…" Kim Rok Soo muttered, staring at the quickly moving water and thinking of the novel. He couldn't believe someone had actually jumped into that just for fun. Wrapping himself in the silver wings of his shield, he dove into the water near the whirlpool. He sank like a stone, protected by the power of the shield.

It only took a moment to orient himself despite the darkness in the depths, the silvery glow of the wings dimly illuminating the area. There was a huge bolder at the base of the whirlpool, but he wasn't going to follow the path of the character in the novel and break the stone even if his magic could do that. It was much less hassle to just dig a little into the sand to fish out the spinning top that was causing the whirlpool.

As he was thinking that, a voice started echoing around him, and he realized that he was once again hearing the former owner of the relic as he had with the Vitality of the Heart and the Indestructible Shield. This one was quite the potty mouth, swearing at the people who had killed her for stealing from the temple. She mentioned her 'friend's light' at one point, reminding Kim Rok Soo of another power.

He didn't really need an offensive power with all of his magic, but the character who would otherwise obtain that power wasn't going to be able to fully unlock it. Maybe Kim Rok Soo would consider going out into the world one more time after it appeared, since it was a waste to just let the potential go untapped like that.

The alarm on the scuba gear reminded him that he had limited air, so Kim Rok Soo pushed the thoughts of the Fire of Destruction out of his mind and scraped sand away from the top so that he could reach under the boulder and grab it. As he tugged at it, the boulder's balance shifted and it toppled away from the whirlpool, crashing down to the ground.

Kim Rok Soo put his newly acquired top on a smaller rock nearby and smashed it.

"Ohhh, you have the power of recovery," the voice said as the wind released from the now broken top wrapped around Kim Rok Soo. He dimly registered that the Black Dragon was also talking, asking why he'd broken the thing that he had put in so much effort to get, but he focused instead on the voice of the previous owner of this relic.

"Don't get caught like I did, got it?" she said. Kim Rok Soo thought that was a given. No one wanted to get caught, so he was certainly going to do his best to stay out of trouble. "Be free," the voice said as the wind surrounded Kim Rok Soo. It wrapped around his chest and his heart suddenly started beating so wildly that it hurt.

"Ugh…" he groaned, and the Black Dragon was suddenly in his face.

"What happened? Are you hurt? I'll destroy whatever hurt you!" he said fiercely, his voice almost painfully loud in Kim Rok Soo's mind.

"Calm down…" he managed to respond, projecting his words back to the other dragon. The pain was more acute now and he curled in on himself slightly, the alarm of the scuba suit warning him that his air supply was running out. That damn novel hadn't mentioned any of this!

Just as he felt like the pain might make him unable to return to the surface before he ran out of air, it subsided as suddenly as it had started and the wind rushed down his body to curl around his feet. There was an odd sensation on his ankle and he knew that when he returned to the beach he would find a tattoo there.

He wondered if the tattoos were visible on his dragon body too. This one was actually in a place he might be able to check, unlike the one over his heart. Kim Rok Soo activated his new power, darting forward through the water as wind propelled him toward the Cliff of Winds. The Black Dragon made a disgruntled noise at being left behind and hurried after him.

The scuba suit wasn't really necessary, since Kim Rok Soo could have shaped an air bubble around himself the way the Black Dragon had done, but he liked the solid familiarity of physical objects. The notion that the air bubble could pop if his concentration slipped was enough to make him prefer to do things as if he really were a human and not just a dragon masquerading as one.

Using the knowledge from the novel, Kim Rok Soo located the boulder that was shaped like the head of a lion. It was a loose resemblance, but it was close enough to easily identify the correct area and find the cave where Toonka had discovered the Fire Suppressing Water in the story. He hauled himself out of the water in the cave, but he froze as he sensed that the cave was not empty.

He could feel the energy of the Whale that he had sensed on the island that afternoon, though it was faint and feeble now, as if the Whale were dying. Kim Rok Soo took a tentative step further into the cave and heard the sound of something dragging across the stone.

"Please…" a weak voice called out shakily. "Please save me." The dragging sound continued and the Whale pulled himself into Kim Rok Soo's line of vision, also in human form. He saw immediately that the Whale's leg was terribly injured, and he wondered how the Whale had managed to drag the mermaid corpses up onto the island in that condition. It was no wonder he was in such poor shape now.

There was clear evidence of mermaid poison on the savaged limb and the Whale choked on a mouthful of blood as the poison wracked his body. He spit it out and weakly reached one hand toward Kim Rok Soo.

"Please," he begged again. Kim Rok Soo stared at the miserable Whale, mind racing. Whales were strong enough to resist the mermaid's poison, so the state of this Whale made no sense. After a brief moment, he remembered the existence of the half-blood whale who had been mentioned in the story. That Whale had died, and Kim Rok Soo guessed that he was witnessing the Whale's death now.

He had the power to stop that death. Crouching in front of the weakened Whale, he waited for the other man to lift his head and meet his gaze.

"S-save…" the Whale whispered, and Kim Rok Soo cut him off.

"Yeah, I'll save you. Just sleep for a bit and everything will be fine when you wake back up."

"Are you going to help him?" the Black Dragon asked, despite what Kim Rok Soo had just said.

"Yeah. WE are going to help him." The younger dragon perked up instantly at the notion of being involved in saving the Whale even if the injured man looked like a human. Kim Rok Soo wondered just where beast-people ranked in the Black Dragon's mental hierarchy, since they looked like humans but were not humans.

The Whale had passed out and Kim Rok Soo assessed his injury, summoning a light to see it better.

"Go back to the island where we were staying this afternoon and find those corpses on the northeastern shore. I need you to bring me the arm from one of those bodies." He knew that the little dragon had followed him that afternoon, even if he had kept all of his questions to himself at the time.

"The weird ones with the funny hands and legs?" the Black Dragon asked.

"Yeah, I don't need the whole corpse, just an arm is fine." He rolled the Whale into the water as he spoke and the Black Dragon made an alarmed sound.

"I thought we were going to help him! Why are you drowning him instead?"

"The water will help him survive," Kim Rok Soo explained. "He won't drown."

The Black Dragon gave the still body of the Whale one more look and Kim Rok Soo told him to get moving, so the younger dragon flew off to find the arm of a mermaid. While he was gone, Kim Rok Soo was going to go deeper into the cave and bottle up the Fire-Suppressing Water that he had actually come here for. The sea water would help the Whale's condition stabilize a bit in the meantime.

It didn't take long for the Black Dragon to come back, mermaid arm in tow. After drying in the sun all day, it resembled the limb of a mummy. The Black Dragon watched with curiosity as Kim Rok Soo maneuvered the Whale into a position that was easier to access the injured leg and dunked the shriveled arm into the sea water beside them.

With a sizzling sound, the arm returned to normal, no longer resembling the limb of a mummy. The Whale's eyelids twitched as Kim Rok Soo fished the arm back out. He needed something to cut through the mermaid's skin, so he glanced around for a sharp enough stone. Once he found a suitable rock, he sliced into the reconstituted arm to let the blood start flowing from the wound.

"What…?" the Whale asked weakly, clearly confused as Kim Rok Soo held the dripping arm over his injury, the mermaid's blood pouring onto the lacerations that covered his leg. The green fluid that was a result of the mermaid's poison started sizzling as the blood came in contact with it.

"Here, drink this, that's the best way," Kim Rok Soo directed, pushing the bleeding arm toward the Whale. The other man's pupils shook, but after a long moment of hesitation, he accepted the arm and brought the bloody cut to his mouth. His throat bobbed as he swallowed the blood, though his expression showed his clear distaste.

"You should probably stay in the water to recover completely," Kim Rok Soo suggested as the wounds on the Whale's leg started to close. The young man pulled the mermaid's arm away from his mouth and wiped the residue from his lips.

"…I need to return home," he said. Kim Rok Soo stood up.

"I have no desire to hear your useless story. I only saved you because you asked to be saved."

The Whale was quiet for a moment.

"My name is Paseton," he said softly. "Thank you for helping me."

"Sure." Kim Rok Soo glanced down at him. "Get some rest then. See you." He didn't bother to give his name in return, activating the Sound of the Wind once more so that he could fly back to the island where he had left the kittens. The Black Dragon followed, as usual.

"We saved him!" he said cheerfully. Kim Rok Soo wondered if the Black Dragon had really registered that they had also saved Rosalyn, since he was acting like this was the first time they had saved someone.

"Yeah, we did," Kim Rok Soo responded absently. He was thinking about his garden again and the possibility of teleporting. Once he got a little more rest, he was going to give it a shot.

Chapter Text

In the morning, Kim Rok Soo found that the Black Dragon had collected food in the night after he had changed back into a dragon to go to sleep. It seemed like the younger dragon was proud of his role as a provider, so Kim Rok Soo thanked him and nibbled on some of the fruit that had been gathered. He and the kittens were in human shape again for the moment, sitting in a small circle along with the Black Dragon around the heap of fruit.

He preferred to be human for food like this, for the dexterity that his fingers offered at removing peels or other unwanted parts. As a dragon he could eat those parts without any problem, but they tasted better if he peeled them. The kittens simply found it easier to keep clean if they ate in human form, since the juice wouldn't make their fur all sticky.

While the Black Dragon did still make some small complaining remarks about them being 'human-shaped,' he seemed less bothered by it now than he had the first time that Kim Rok Soo had shape-shifted in front of him. He did, however, make another comment that indicated he was waiting for a name from Kim Rok Soo.

Once he had eaten, Kim Rok Soo tested out his ability to teleport, moving from one end of the island to the other to get a feel for it. He teleported into the cave where he had saved Paseton the previous night and found the Whale had gone, as he had expected. Paseton had likely gone into deeper water to finish healing. It was highly likely that Paseton had figured out that Kim Rok Soo wasn't human, but he didn't know if the Whale had figured out what he really was. Either way, he didn't expect to see the Whale again, so it didn't really matter.

The Black Dragon had followed him by tracing his mana since he hadn't gone out of range, and he finally spoke up as he watched Kim Rok Soo glancing around the cave.

"What are you doing?"

"Even a dragon should make sure they know everything is safe when they're trying something for the first time," Kim Rok Soo told him. A real dragon probably wouldn't have done these small scale tests first, but Kim Rok Soo hadn't always been a dragon and while his magic was mostly intuitive, he still preferred to play it safe. Teaching the Black Dragon to think first and act after preparation wasn't a bad side effect though.

Kim Rok Soo teleported back to the island, but as soon as he arrived, he flinched at the sensation of something powerful coming toward him rapidly. The Black Dragon, arriving right behind him, also sensed it.

"Red Dragon, that feels like the Whale we saved, but it's different," he observed. Different was an understatement. Paseton's energy had been strong, but it was practically a candle next to the bonfire of the power approaching the island now.

He may not have tested teleporting much, but he suspected that he should just grab the kittens and go before he had to deal with whoever, or whatever, was coming.

"Ohn, Hong?" he called, looking around for the kittens. The Black Dragon had gone invisible, and Kim Rok Soo thought that wasn't a bad idea. He wrapped himself in mana to vanish just as a huge wave washed over the beach. Being invisible did not stop him from getting drenched and he sighed in annoyance.

"I know you're there," a voice called. Kim Rok Soo saw that there was a much larger Whale by the shore, and as he spotted the huge scar on her back he realized that Paseton had not actually been alone in the area after all. He wondered why Paseton had asked him for help so desperately if his sister had been nearby. Surely Witira could have helped him instead, although she likely didn't know how to treat the mermaid's poison.

"Who are you and why are you here?" Witira called. She jumped onto the beach, changing into her human form. A dragon was certainly more powerful than a Whale, but that didn't mean Kim Rok Soo wanted to fight one.

She had already seen him and Kim Rok Soo knew she could sense he was still there, so he dropped the invisibility that had been cloaking him. If diplomacy failed, he'd use the shield to take whatever hit she threw at him and teleport away. All he had to do was figure out where the kittens had gone.

"I'm not looking for any trouble," Kim Rok Soo told Witira. Behind him, he could feel that the Black Dragon's energy had gotten somewhat hostile, as if the younger dragon were planning to attack.

"Calm down," he advised the other dragon.

"If she attacks you I will destroy her!" the little dragon responded angrily. "How dare she look at you so aggressively!"

"What connection do you have with those mermaids?" she asked. Kim Rok Soo realized they were standing near enough to see the three corpses that Paseton had left on the beach, one now armless after the Black Dragon had brought him the arm the previous night.

"I don't have any connection to them and I didn't put them there," he assured her. Before he could say anything else, they both turned toward the water, sensing another approaching energy at the same time.

"Noona! Don't hurt that man!" Paseton was swimming at them full speed. If Kim Rok Soo hadn't already figured out who she was, Paseton calling her 'Noona' would have confirmed it.

"I'm not looking for a fight," Witira assured Kim Rok Soo, or perhaps she was saying that for her brother's benefit. Paseton had leapt onto the beach beside his sister and grasped her arm urgently.

"This is the man who saved me!" he exclaimed. "You can't kill him!"

"I'm not going to kill anyone," Witira stated, trying to calm Paseton down. "I just wanted to know what he was doing with those mermaids."

"I put those there," Paseton admitted. "He did feed me the blood from one to cure the poison, but I was the one who killed them." He glanced at the three dried corpses. "I was planning to get rid of them today."

Paseton's gaze flickered to Kim Rok Soo, and then he frowned in confusion, realizing the source of the still aggressive mana in the air was not the man in front of him or his sister.

"Calm down," Kim Rok Soo told the younger dragon again. He heard a grumbled response and the gathered mana started to dissipate.

"It's good that you recovered," he said to Paseton. "My business here is actually done, so I won't be sticking around."

"Wait!" Witira stepped forward. "You saved my brother's life, we owe you our thanks." Kim Rok Soo waved one hand dismissively.

"You don't owe me anything." The sooner he left here, the better. He had no intention in getting caught up in the territory wars between the mermaids and the Whales.

"I'm sorry I suspected you of potentially being involved with the mermaids," Witira told him. "Our kind and theirs are very old enemies, which I'm sure you know, and things have gotten very tense lately when it comes to them." She eyed him briefly and the Black Dragon made a small growling sound through the mental link shared between the dragons.

"Why is she looking at you like that? How dare she question you!"

"Calm down," Kim Rok Soo urged for the third time. Witira and Paseton might not be looking for a fight, but the Black Dragon seemed ready to start one at the drop of a hat.

"It's clear you're not human, but you don't feel like one of us either," Witira remarked after a moment. "We know someone, or something, is supplying these mermaids with extra potent poison, so I couldn't help but be suspicious when meeting you. I apologize."

"I found out why they have become so strong recently, and that is why I was being chased yesterday," Paseton explained. "I was able to kill the three who were after me, but not without sustaining injuries, as you saw." He gave Kim Rok Soo a grateful look. "Thank you again for saving my life."

"You already thanked me," Kim Rok Soo told him, wondering how best to excuse himself from this conversation. "I saved you because you asked to be saved, there's nothing more to it."

"How did you know how to neutralize the poison?" Witira asked curiously.

"Call it intuition." Kim Rok Soo wasn't going to explain further, particularly since he had learned the information by reading the book that this world was contained in.

Saving Paseton was the second time that he had directly intervened to prevent deaths, but he wasn't going to simply turn a blind eye to someone suffering in front of him, particularly not if they asked for help.

"I found out the source of the poison that the mermaids are using, so I was hoping to ask you for some additional help," Paseton said. "Can you tell me anything about the Forest of Darkness?"

Kim Rok Soo knew a number of things about the Forest of Darkness, but he wasn't sure if any of that information would be useful to the Whales. It wasn't that far from where his valley was. Now that he had realized what this world was, he recognized that the dragon energy he had noted in the past was in the Forest of Darkness.

There might be another dragon living there, although Choi Han had never encountered anything to suggest that a dragon was there. From what he had already experienced in the world, Kim Rok Soo knew that the novel had not contained information about everything, so it was possible that the dragon had simply deemed Choi Han insignificant and avoided him.

"I know where it is," he said eventually. Of course, anyone who lived on this continent knew where it was. It was one of the five forbidden zones on the continent. "Tell me what you know and I'll see if I can share anything further with you."

Witira and Paseton took turns speaking, explaining the history between the mermaids and the Whale tribe. They said that the mermaids had begun acting strangely a few months back, trying to provoke the Whales intentionally. This fit what Kim Rok Soo remembered from the story, although the timeline seemed a bit off. He had expected that conflict to come later.

"They're trying to take control of the sea routes," Witira said, and Kim Rok Soo frowned at her. In the novel, they had simply wanted to create a kingdom and take control of the ocean.

"What good would controlling a sea route do? Those are something for humans to use." He wondered where the Forest of Darkness fit into this story.

"It's clear that the mermaids are working with someone, or something, on land," Paseton explained. "I learned that the reason for the sudden increase in their strength comes from an ingredient they are sourcing from a swamp in the Forest of Darkness. Whoever or whatever is working with them has access to that swamp and we need to find a way to go there ourselves to see what is going on."

"I can't help you there," Kim Rok Soo said, shaking his head. "Like you said, I'm not human either. I don't have any connections to the people around there."

He did think that he knew what swamp they meant though.

"If you go there, you're sure to run into danger," he added.

"We know, but we'll still need to go."

Kim Rok Soo eyed them thoughtfully, considering the future events of the novel. He could not personally benefit from anything the Whales could offer him, since he knew that they had offered Choi Han the use of a sea route, which was more or less useless to a dragon. The only way it might benefit him would be if he could use it as a source of income.

Maybe he should add something else to his future conversations with Billos when he saw the merchant again in the capital. If Billos managed it and Kim Rok Soo simply visited now and then to collect the money, he could ensure that he and the children lived in comfort. It never hurt to have a back up plan when it came to money.

"All right, if I do help you, what will you do for me in return?" he asked.

As he had predicted, they offered him use of the sea route that went through the Whale's territory. It would take some logistics to actually arrange things, but that would be something to discuss with Billos later.

"I want you to promise me one more thing," he said. "Lend me your strength in the future." Paseton and Witira exchanged glances.

"Lend you our strength?" Witira asked. "You know we can't interfere with the issues of the land." Despite her words, they were about to do exactly that by going into the Forest of Darkness to disrupt the mermaid's poison supply.

"I just want assurance that you will come to my aid in the future if I aid you now," Kim Rok Soo explained. If he wanted a quiet and peaceful life in his valley with his garden, he needed to ensure the war would not come too close. Choi Han was supposed to work with the Whale Tribe in the future anyway, so all that Kim Rok Soo was planning to do was introduce them sooner.

"What I can do is take you where you need to go," he offered. "I think I know which swamp it is and I live in the area." he was only local in the sense that it was less than a day's flight, but he didn't mention that part.

"If you help us, we will return the favor if the time ever comes," Witira promised.

"All right, it's settled then." He glanced around and saw the kittens peering out from the underbrush. Calling them over, he knelt and picked them up.

"I have something to attend to first, but I'll come back for you tomorrow evening. Deal with whatever you need to do around here in the meantime." His gaze flickered over to the mermaid corpses that Paseton had mentioned intending to dispose of.

Kim Rok Soo had additional business on this island anyway. The primary whirlpool that had been powered by the Sound of the Wind had disappeared the previous night and the others would start to fade away as well if he didn't do something to maintain them. He would deal with that when he came back for the Whales.

Ensuring that the kittens were secure in his arms, Kim Rok Soo prepared to teleport. He had a pretty good feel for how the spell worked now, but he still wanted to test a short jump with the pair of them before he went all the way back to his valley.

Once he had hopped from one end of the island to the other with the kittens, he finally felt ready to make the final jump. Witira and Paseton had disappeared back into the sea in the meantime, and the rock that the corpses had once been leaning against had been pulverized by a massive blow. There was no sign at all that there had previously been three bodies there.

Kim Rok Soo looked away, glad that he hadn't been on the wrong side of the Whale's temper. Even if a dragon was stronger, a blow like that would hurt and he didn't like pain. He looked around for the Black Dragon and saw that the other dragon was watching him, no longer invisible.

"We're going home for a bit," he advised the younger dragon, whose eyes lit up at the word 'home.' "It's a ways to travel, but you're a great and mighty dragon, so the distance is nothing to you." He gave the other dragon the coordinates in case the Black Dragon had forgotten where the valley was.

Moments later he was surrounded by the familiar scent of the grass and woodlands that filled his secluded valley. It had only been a few days, but the meadow was full of flowers now. They had been starting to open when he left and now the grass was littered with blossoms. With the residual energy of his magic heating the air, Kim Rok Soo couldn't help standing still for a moment and enjoying the warmth of the sunshine on his face.

"This is home?" Ohn asked, looking around at the meadow and surrounding trees. Kim Rok Soo's farm was visible as well, and she could see the gaping opening of the lair, sized for his dragon form. Hong squirmed to be put down, so Kim Rok Soo leaned over to release the kittens.

His intention had been to check on the garden and leave again quickly, but now that he was back home, he wanted to relax for a bit. He still had plenty of time before he needed to meet anyone in the capital, so he could afford to spend a day or two here. Shifting back into his dragon form, Kim Rok Soo stretched in the warmth of the sunlight.

Dragons were warm-blooded creatures, but that didn't stop them from feeling the urge to bask in a sunbeam. His garden could wait a little longer. Kim Rok Soo curled up in the meadow, enjoying the gentle breeze that stirred the flowers. He hadn't particularly planned on falling asleep, but before he knew it his eyes were drifting closed.

He wasn't sure how long he slept, but when he finally opened his eyes again he discovered that the Black Dragon was sprawled against his side, out like a light. The kittens were nowhere to be seen, but Kim Rok Soo assumed they hadn't gone too far. He watched the younger dragon's sides rise and fall as he slept, snoring lightly.

The defenseless sprawl was a far cry from the wary ball that the other dragon had been sleeping in for the past few days. Kim Rok Soo felt an emotion he couldn't quite identify as he realized that the younger dragon felt safe here, safe with him.

It was pretty clear now that his little shadow wasn't going to leave and find a lair of his own, at least not for many years. Maybe when he was older he might want more space to himself, but for now, he was clearly planning to live with Kim Rok Soo.

He supposed he ought to give the little dragon a name, since the Black Dragon had made it clear that he wasn't just going to pick one out for himself. His mind wandered back to his previous life, when he had seen his teammate flipping through a book of Pure Korean words. The characters in the book seemed to leap from the page in his memory, as if the name was suggesting itself without him even thinking about it too hard.

No one in this world would ever know what those characters meant, aside from Choi Han, but he was sure to question Kim Rok Soo's name too if he ever learned it. Rosalyn would likely introduce him as 'Lord Dragon' or 'Honorable Dragon-nim,' so it was unlikely that Choi Han would find out through her. Kim Rok Soo hadn't even given her his name. He had put it on the contract with Billos though, so it was already out in the world somewhere.

Even if he had picked out a name, Kim Rok Soo was going to make the little dragon ask for it properly instead of just alluding to the fact that he wasn't going to choose one himself. Hinting at things without being clear when you wanted something wasn't a good habit to encourage.

Ohn and Hong reappeared in the peripheral of his vision, emerging from his lair. They appeared to have been poking about through the items inside. Hong was wearing a sun hat that was too big, but he seemed happy with it. It looked as if Ohn had been looking for a basket to collect fruit.

She noticed that he was awake and waved at him.

"Can I use this?" she asked. Kim Rok Soo wondered if she would have used it anyway if he hadn't been awake.

"Sure." He glanced down to see if the other dragon had stirred, but the Black Dragon was still fast asleep. It looked like he really did feel safe here and trusted Kim Rok Soo to look after him. Kim Rok Soo had not intervened with the younger dragon's escape from the mountain with any intent of the Black Dragon staying with him, but it looked like he had latched on anyway.

Kim Rok Soo looked over at his garden and debated the merits of going over to check on it. The Black Dragon was sprawled directly against him though, so he doubted that he could change forms without waking the other dragon. He settled his chin back on his forearms, watching the younger dragon sleep. Rest was important for children too.

It was nearly sundown when the Black Dragon finally woke up. Kim Rok Soo supposed that this was probably the first time the younger dragon had ever slept completely peacefully, without his guard up against the outside world. He knew there were no humans nearby, nor could any access this area, and he had known Kim Rok Soo was by his side, watching over him.

Ohn and Hong offered the two dragons some of the fruit that they had collected for dinner. Kim Rok Soo shifted back into his human form and accepted one of the larger fruits, but rather than sitting with the children as he had done that morning, he went over to his garden to check on the plants.

Everything looked to be growing well. He adjusted one of the young vines so that it would grow properly onto the trellis that he had provided for it and thinned some of the seedlings that were likely to choke one another out if he left them alone. As it grew darker, he simply summoned a light with his magic to keep illuminating his work space. Being a dragon was convenient sometimes.

Once he was satisfied with the state of his garden, Kim Rok Soo went into his lair. If he was going to turn this into a proper home, he was going to need to construct a space that he and the kittens could spend time in while they were in their human shapes. Given the Black Dragon's deep-rooted dislike of humans, Kim Rok Soo didn't see him taking a human form anytime soon, if ever, but a house would be a nicer place to live than what he currently had.

The Red Dragon's memories indicated that because he had spent so much of his time on the run, he hadn't bothered to make his lair more habitable. He just kept collecting things with the intent of making it nicer 'someday,' but that 'someday' had never come before Kim Rok Soo had inhabited the dragon's body. This valley was secure enough that it would be safe to build a proper home, especially now that he was old enough and strong enough to layer protective magic over his area like Eruhaben had done.

What memories he had of the Golden Dragon were enough to give Kim Rok Soo some ideas of how a dragon could live comfortably. Eruhaben's golden home had been quite luxurious, and the elder dragon had apparently chosen to spend the large majority of his time in the shape of an elf rather than using his dragon form. While he did have an area to lounge and relax in his dragon body, most of the home had been designed for a smaller being.

Kim Rok Soo had admired the piles of gold that Eruhaben had in the room he occasionally slept in as a dragon. Having slept on his own stash of coins, he knew that it was not as uncomfortable as it initially sounded. Maybe it was something deep in a dragon's instincts to feel happy with a bed of coins. The little Black Dragon had gravitated to Kim Rok Soo's coins almost instantly too.

Money was the best, no matter what life he was living.

Calling a construction team up here to built him a home was out of the question, but that was where magic came in. He would still need to source the supplies for his new home, but once everything had been safely transported up to the valley, he would be able to use magic to construct the house. Maybe he should add construction fees into the money he would try to wring out of the Crown Prince via Rosalyn. They were going to be saving a lot of lives and one nice house wasn't much to ask in return.

With what he did have already stashed away, Kim Rok Soo was able to set up a small bedroom, though he would definitely be buying himself a nicer bed later. Having a quality bed to roll around in all day when he didn't feel like doing anything was important.

Despite setting up the space, he changed back into his dragon form and curled up on his pile of coins instead of crawling into the bed. Thinking about Eruhaben's piles of gold had made the little voice in his mind say there wasn't enough money here and he needed more, so he thought that he might as well get as close to what he had as he could. It must be some kind of dragon instinct whispering to him that his piles needed to be bigger.

Of course, more money would never be a bad thing. He had a family to support now and he wanted the children to be able to grow up in comfort. That thought cemented the notion that he would need to go to the Jungle once the Empire started a fire there, because he wanted those Highest Grade Magic Stones. If he let the novel play out as it had originally been written, someone else would get those stones instead.

For the sake of his desired peaceful life, Kim Rok Soo couldn't let something so precious fall into the hands of someone that wasn't from Roan, and if he was going to make sure someone in Roan had them anyway he might as well just take them himself. As long as Rosalyn played her role well and squeezed the Crown Prince for every penny she could, Kim Rok Soo might be willing to give her some of the Highest Grade Magic Stones too.

A mage like her deserved some nice stones, even if she was one of the main members of the protagonist's party and going to end up with plenty of wealth and recognition on her own. She was already a Princess, though she preferred the title of Mage, and he knew she was destined for great things even if he hadn't read the full series of "The Birth of A Hero."

The sound of coins shifting announced the arrival of Kim Rok Soo's faithful shadow and he felt the Black Dragon curling up against his side a moment later.

"Hey Red Dragon," the younger dragon said after a moment, one claw sifting through some of the coins as he carefully avoided eye contact.

"Yeah?"

"I told you my name isn't 'Hey you,' right?" The younger dragon paused, stealing a glance up at him, and Kim Rok Soo nodded. "Well, it's not Black Dragon either."

Kim Rok Soo wondered if the other dragon was trying to head off being called in the same manner that he always used to address the older dragon. He had already settled on a name, but he wasn't going to say anything until the Black Dragon asked for it directly.

"OK." He didn't press, waiting to see if the younger dragon would admit what he wanted or not.

"What is your name?" Hong piped up from the darkness. He and Ohn scampered up the coin pile, both in kitten form. They climbed onto Kim Rok Soo's forearms rather than laying on the coins directly. The metal felt nice against his scales, but the kittens did not seem to appreciate the feeling.

"I don't know yet," the Black dragon answered. Kim Rok Soo wondered if that exchange had been scripted or if Hong had done that unprompted. Ohn had definitely picked up on the Black Dragon's desire to be named by the older dragon, but he wasn't sure if Hong had noticed the little dragon's attempts to fish for a name. The slightly petulant tone of the Black Dragon's voice seemed to indicate that Hong's question had not been part of his plans.

"Our youngest is a good hunter, but he's not good at saying what he wants," Ohn told her brother quietly. Of course, both dragons heard what she said despite how softly she spoke.

"I can say what I want!" the Black Dragon exclaimed. Ohn gave him a look. "I was just…waiting for the right time."

A long moment of silence stretched between them and the little dragon looked up at Kim Rok Soo, who said nothing. When the other dragon didn't speak up, Kim Rok Soo stretched out his neck and laid down his chin as if he were going to go to sleep.

"I want you to tell me what my name is," the Black Dragon finally admitted. "I want a name you picked for me."

"OK." Kim Rok Soo didn't say anything further, planning to let the other dragon think that he had spent the night considering ideas. He would give the other dragon a name in the morning.

Chapter Text

The Black Dragon did not ask about a name in the morning, though he did give Kim Rok Soo the occasional peek as they ate breakfast. Kim Rok Soo was busy making a mental shopping list of what he was going to need to turn this place into a proper home, one that was comfortable for children, so he was silent while he ate. The two Cat children were quietly talking to one another, but the other dragon also stayed silent, watching Kim Rok Soo think.

Eying the Cat children, Kim Rok Soo wondered if they would need the sort of things that a pet cat might need. They spent a lot of time in their human forms, but perhaps they would like a scratching post or cat toys to chase. He should get them some toys either way, but he wasn't sure if he needed something that a kitten would like or something a human child would like. There hadn't been a lot of information about the daily lives of beast-people in the book.

He didn't know much about what a young dragon needed either, since the Red Dragon's childhood had been far from ideal. Maybe he should track down that Golden Dragon after all, although their amicable interactions in the past might have only been because he had been so young. Now that he was also an adult dragon, the other dragon might not want to interact with him. Dragons did tend to keep to themselves.

Kim Rok Soo knew a lot about the world in general, but there were also a lot of things he knew nothing about. He knew that there was going to be a war, but he didn't know what kind of education the average Cat person had. Knowing where the Whale Tribe lived was different than knowing how they spent an average day. Any time that the protagonists had spent there had not been an ordinary day, because they had been in the middle of a fierce territory war with mermaids.

When he went to the capital, he was going to have to spend some time in the library. No one there would suspect he wasn't human unless they were strong enough to sense his power level, and there shouldn't be anyone in the city that strong yet. Choi Han was probably the only one who might sense something if Kim Rok Soo wasn't actively using his magic for anything. Rosalyn only knew because Kim Rok Soo had directly touched her with his mana to introduce himself.

Tuning in to the Cat children's conversation, he realized that they were discussing possible name ideas for the Black Dragon, who was summarily rejecting all of their suggestions.

"I want a name from him!" the little dragon eventually said in annoyance. "You have a name already, now I want one."

"What if I were to suggest 'Blackwing?'" he asked, echoing Hong's last suggestion. Many of Hong's suggestions had been influenced by the other dragon's appearance. The Black Dragon flinched.

"I…I would be fine with it!" he insisted. "As long as you give me a name, anything is fine!"

"Even 'Black Dragon?'" The Black Dragon looked rather put out by that suggestion, but he stayed silent. Kim Rok Soo smiled. "Don't worry Raon, I won't just call you 'Black Dragon.'" The little dragon perked up at once, eyes bright.

"What did you say? What did you call me?"

"Your name will be Raon Miru. Your first name is Raon and your last name is Miru. It's a name that holds my hopes for a happy future for you. I want you to live a joyful life."

Directly translated it meant 'Joyful Dragon,' which wasn't much different than just calling him 'Black Dragon,' but Kim Rok Soo wasn't going to tell him the actual translation.

"Raon Miru…" The younger dragon tested the name out and looked up at Kim Rok Soo. "What does it mean?"

"It means you," Kim Rok Soo answered, pointing at the little dragon. "Those words are for you and only for you." Raon's eyes were shining as he repeated the name again.

"Words just for me…I am Raon Miru!" He took flight, doing a joyful circle in the air above their heads. "Guess what? My name is Raon Miru!" He landed in front of Hong, clearly delighted with his new name.

"Hello Hong, I'm Raon Miru!"

"Hello Raon Miru, I'm Hong!" The younger Cat child was also delighted by how happy Raon was, and Ohn was smiling too. Kim Rok Soo was satisfied as he watched the three of them.

"Hey Red Dragon, I am the great and mighty Raon Miru!" The younger dragon puffed his chest as he introduced himself, as if Kim Rok Soo hadn't been the one to give him the name only moments before.

"What is your name?" Ohn asked curiously. Thus far she and Hong hadn't really needed to address him directly, and getting his attention with 'hey' had sufficed. Unlike Raon, Kim Rok Soo hadn't complained about being addressed as "hey you."

"You can just call me Red Dragon if you want," he told them. Ohn frowned.

"Even if there's other people around?" Kim Rok Soo paused at that. She had a point. If the kittens were going back with him to the capital, they might need to get his attention around other people. Calling out 'Red Dragon' was probably not the best move, and they couldn't just speak in his mind like Raon could.

"…dad?" Hong suggested hesitantly. Kim Rok Soo stared at him. These children hadn't even been with him a week and they wanted to adopt him as a father figure? Unless Hong was simply suggesting that they play that role around other people, which Kim Rok Soo supposed could work.

"Couldn't you at least say 'big brother'?" he suggested. If they were going to pretend to be a family, he didn't feel quite right accepting the title of 'father,' even if he had already more or less accepted that he was the guardian of these three children now. As long as they wanted to stay, he would look after them, but he also wasn't going to stop them if they wanted to leave.

"If my last name is Miru, is your last name Miru too?" Raon asked.

"Sure." He was a dragon, he might as well call himself one.

"Miru Ahjussi?" Ohn offered. Kim Rok Soo frowned.

"Just how old do you think I am?" he asked. The Red Dragon was considerably older than all three of the children combined, but that didn't mean he wanted to be called 'Ahjussi'.

"Miru oppa?" Ohn corrected herself.

"That's fine."

"Miru hyung!" Hong said cheerfully. Kim Rok Soo wondered if he was going to regret this. He sighed.

"Sure."

The group spent another leisurely day in the valley before Kim Rok Roo told them to wait while he went to get the Whales. Raon went with him anyway, turning himself invisible and teleporting along. He claimed to be coming in case the older dragon needed a hand, but Kim Rok Soo suspected that Raon preferred not to let him out of sight for too long. After being confined for so long, he appeared to have latched on to the first being to show him any form of kindness and did not want to be apart from him.

Ohn and Hong were content to wait, particularly since Kim Rok Soo had assured them he wouldn't be long. The first thing he did on arriving at the island was check the area with his mana to ensure there were no mages around. The disappearance of the the largest whirlpool had definitely caused some fuss among the residents of the area and he didn't want anyone to notice him when he went to ensure that the others would remain active for at least another year.

At least some of the family was away in the capital. That would slow down any investigations a bit as they relayed information back and forth between the two locations.

Hovering invisible above the island, Kim Rok Soo looked around to locate the second strongest whirlpool in the area. He had specifically waited until after dark so that any residents or mages who were researching the change in the water would have returned to shore.

It would take a very high grade mage to detect him, but he preferred to play it safe anyway. Even Rosalyn wouldn't be able detect him at her current level if he didn't actively make his presence known, and she was going to become one of the best mages in the world. He lifted his palms, feeling his heartbeat starting to pulse faster.

In each hand, a whirlwind started to form. They swirled faster as he concentrated on the energy provided by the Sound of the Wind and he couldn't help thinking that the Vitality of the Heart had definitely made the wind stronger. After a moment, he combined the two winds, and they swirled together with a hiss, starting to generate some heat as they spun. The combined whirlwind continued to grow.

Eventually it reached a size that Kim Rok Soo deemed suitable and he summoned the silver shield to smack the whirlwind down into the water, disappearing beneath the whirlpool. The two spirals of wind and water combined and he watched with satisfaction as the whirlpool's speed picked up. Left alone, it would have died out in another week or two, but now it would continue to spin for at least six months and he would feel when the power faded no matter how far away he was.

He moved from island to island, repeating that process to strengthen all the remaining whirlpools. These whirlpools were part of the defenses of the Ubarr coastline, and while the family would probably be please to offer the area as a tourist destination in the future when they all disappeared, the extra line of defense would be useful during a time of war.

Kim Rok Soo thought that if there were a naval base for Rowoon, the Ubarr territory would be the ideal place for it. Of course, he was the only one who really knew there was a war coming, so he doubted that anyone would even think about building one here anytime soon. Maybe he should say something to Rosalyn so that she could subtly mention it to the Crown Prince at some point.

The two Whales were waiting on the island where he had seen them the previous day. Kim Rok Soo guessed that they had sensed him meddling in the currents and come to wait for him to finish. This was the most obvious location for him to find them, since he hadn't given them a specific meeting point.

"Are you ready?" he asked them, startling them as he appeared out of thin air in front of them. They might have sensed the changes in the water and realized it was his power, but they hadn't been able to detect him actually approaching them while he was invisible. Both of them nodded and Kim Rok Soo reached out to put one hand on their shoulders.

He knew that in theory it was possible to transport people without touching them, but the solidity and warmth under his hands was a reassuring signal that they were definitely with him as he teleported back to the valley. As someone who was still new to the general process of teleportation, Kim Rok Soo figured he might as well stick to what felt comfortable.

Glancing around at the quiet meadow that they had arrived in, Witira seemed slightly perplexed.

"This is the Forest of Darkness?" she asked. Kim Rok Soo released his grip on them and shook his head.

"No, this is where I live. We're not going to head there in the middle of the night." He had done a brief reconnaissance flight earlier that day while the three children had been taking a nap, so he had a general idea of the layout of the Forest of Darkness to cross-reference with his knowledge from the novel, but he thought it would be best to travel in the daylight. The Whales were strong, but being strong did not guarantee safety in a dangerous place like that, particularly because they were unfamiliar with the land.

Paseton clearly looked like he wanted to ask why Kim Rok Soo had come to get them at night if they were not going right away, but he silenced himself at a glance from Witira. They were asking for a favor, so they would just let Kim Rok Soo take the lead.

"This doesn't seem like an ordinary home," Paseton said instead.

"It's still a work in progress," Kim Rok Soo admitted. He supposed that setting up the bed last night would at least provide him a place to offer his guests to sleep, though they might just sleep under the stars. There were no large bodies of water around, so they definitely could not change back into their beast forms to sleep like he and the kittens would.

"We'll go to the swamp in the morning," he told them. The energy of the forest would prevent him from teleporting directly to the swamp, but he could teleport to the outskirts and fly from there. He was confident that he could carry both of the Whales in their human form, and the kittens too if they wanted to come. Kim Rok Soo intended to at least bring Hong, since the boy would benefit from studying the poisons there.

"It's already late, you two shouldn't have stayed up waiting for us to come back," he chided Ohn and Hong, who had come to rub against his ankles when he reappeared. "You should already be asleep."

"We were waiting for you and Raon to come home," Hong told him. At Kim Rok Soo's gesture, Witira and Paseton followed him into the lair, both of them looking around with some puzzlement at the area.

"It's not much but there is a bed here," he told them, pointing out the space that he had set up the previous night. "There is only one though, sorry." He hadn't really thought that far ahead, since the bed had initially been set up with the kittens in mind.

"If we take your bed, where will you sleep?" Witira asked.

"That's not my bed," Kim Rok Soo assured her. "I'll sleep over there, like I usually do on nights that I don't sleep outside." He pointed to the pile of coins, which Paseton stared at in bemusement.

"Is that…comfortable?" he asked. Knowing that the Whales lived on ice and found that comfortable, Kim Rok Soo knew that 'comfort' meant something different to everyone.

"It is for me." He moved toward the pile, distancing himself enough from the pair of them to shift back into his dragon body. Both Whales gasped in surprise. They had definitely registered that he was not human, but they had not realized he was a dragon.

"No wonder you're so strong," Witira said, admiration in her voice. She had been trying to gauge his strength ever since meeting him, but even a Whale as strong as she was did not measure up to an adult dragon.

"Of course he's strong, he's a great and powerful dragon, just like me," Raon said, finally removing his invisibility. If Witira and Paseton had been shocked before, they were flabbergasted now. Kim Rok Soo didn't blame them for being caught off guard by a second dragon, since dragons almost never stuck together like this.

"By the way, that's Ohn, Hong, and Raon Miru," Kim Rok Soo said, introducing the three children. "They live here too."

"I think meeting you was much more fortuitous than we realized," Witira said. Kim Rok Soo shrugged. This relationship was going to be beneficial to him in the future, even if it only appeared to benefit the Whales for the moment. At least Hong was also going to get something out of the trip into the forest tomorrow. While Kim Rok Soo didn't intend to encourage the children to get involved in further combat if they could avoid it, he wasn't going to skip an opportunity for Hong to get stronger.

"You two should get some sleep too," he pointed out as he settled onto the pile of coins where he and the children had slept the previous night.

"We'll sleep outside," Witira said. Kim Rok Soo wasn't particularly surprised by that. The grassy meadow was comfortable to lay in and with his magic enveloping the valley, it was a comfortable temperature even at night.

"Sure. See you in the morning then." The two Whales bid him and the children good night, heading back out into the meadow to sleep under the stars.

Kim Rok Soo enjoyed spending lazy days doing nothing and sleeping in, but he found himself awake just after dawn the next morning despite his preferred habits and the late night. He supposed the knowledge that he had things to do today had woken him up early.

The valley was not really set up for hosting guests, but Witira and Paseton didn't mind the simple breakfast they were offered and said they had enjoyed a comfortable night in the meadow. Kim Rok Soo wondered if he should teleport them back to the islands in the Ubarr territory once they located the swamp. There were only two swamps in the Forest of Darkness and from his initial scouting flight, he already knew where they would need to land.

One of the two swamps had been teeming with monster life while the other was a barren area where nothing could live. On the off chance that he had been mistaken, it wouldn't be hard to make a short flight to the other swamp, but since the mermaid's poison had grown stronger Kim Rok Soo was confident that they had been utilizing something from the toxic swamp that did not allow life to thrive.

He urged the two Whales to climb onto his back and the two Cat children scampered up after them.

"Is it really a good idea to bring the children?" Paseton asked. "This area is going to be dangerous, isn't it?"

"Dangerous places like that are our specialty," Ohn told him confidently. "Besides, Miru oppa won't let us get hurt."

"Miru oppa?" Witira echoed. Kim Rok Soo never had bothered to give her and Paseton his own name when they introduced themselves, nor had he provided it when introducing the children. It looked like they were going to use the same name that the kids used for him now as a consequence of that.

"It's nice to finally have a name for you, Miru-nim," Paseton said, sounding pleased to be able to address Kim Rok Soo properly. He sighed and accepted his fate. As he had decided yesterday, he would answer to 'dragon' since he was a dragon.

"Let's go," he said, rather than responding to Paseton's remark. Stretching his wings, he took flight and let his mana wash over the group, rendering them all invisible. Once they were not at risk of being spotted, he flew higher and teleported in midair, arriving above the wall that the ancestors of the Henituse family had built to delineate the edge the Forest of Darkness in their territory. It was both high and thick, but that hadn't stopped Choi Han from jumping over it, nor would it stop Kim Rok Soo from flying over it.

"Be sure you put on your masks and keep your skin covered," he advised. While he and Raon could filter the air they breathed and purify themselves with magic, the toxins in the air around the swamp would be detrimental to the Whales. Ohn would need to be careful too, but Hong was vibrating in excitement at the thought of tasting the poisons for himself.

As they flew, Kim Rok Soo told the others what he knew about the Forest of Darkness from the novels, explaining that it was divided into an outer region and an inner region, with the looming mountain ahead of them in the center of it. The closer you went to the mountain, the more dangerous things got, but the swamp that they were visiting was on the border between the outer and inner regions.

"Red Dragon, what is that smell?" Raon asked suddenly. Kim Rok Soo realized that as they approached the swamp, the sense of another dragon was growing stronger. It didn't give off the same feeling as Raon, nor did it feel dangerous. It just felt incredibly old.

This must be what he had sensed from the forest in the past. He realized now that it wasn't the energy of a living dragon, but the remnants of a dragon's power, somehow lingering after the dragon's death. Usually when a dragon died they simply returned to nature, the power they possessed naturally returning to the world. It was odd that there were remnants of power left behind like this.

The swamp was obvious below them as they approach, a huge open area of pitch black, large enough for multiple ships to fit in easily. There were still plants in the area, but they were highly poisonous and dangerous to get too close too. Even they were black or brown. This place really suited the name 'Forest of Darkness.'

Kim Rok Soo flew lower and realized a slight flaw in his plan. There was nowhere large enough for a dragon to land without touching some of those plants.

"Raon, lend me a hand." He mentally connected to the other dragon, instructing him to lift the passengers and lower them to the ground so that he could shift back to human form and land properly. Hong was the first one down and he immediately dashed over to the nearest plant to take a bite of it.

"Hong!" Paseton gasped, but Ohn laughed.

"I told you dangerous areas are our specialty," she said. Raon lowered her to the ground as well, and Kim Rok Soo told the two Whales to jump down, keeping an eye on them to make sure they landed safely before he changed forms and landed himself.

"How is it?" he asked Hong, who was still chewing on the black leaves of the plant.

"Tangy. It's a paralyzing poison," he said.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Kim Rok Soo reprimanded. He had expected Hong to finish chewing before answering. "Also don't rush, the plants aren't going anywhere. You'll choke yourself."

The Whale siblings exchanged bewildered glances, but Kim Rok Soo ignored them and glanced around at the surrounding area. He gestured to an area where there were clear marks on the ground.

"It looks like someone was here recently," he observed, eying the multitude of footprints. Paseton and Witira quickly moved to investigate the traces. Kim Rok Soo was fairly certain the ingredient making the mermaids stronger wasn't simply an ingredient from the swamp, but the swamp itself. As Paseton and Witira analyzed the marks, they came to a similar conclusion.

"There's no sign of any plants being dug up, but it seems clear they were doing something with the swamp itself. It looks like they were here in the past few weeks, but it's been at least a week since these traces were left."

"They seem to have collected the swamp water and mud." Kim Rok Soo could have read the memories of the area to learn more, but he didn't see a reason to do so when it was this obvious what had happened here. Knowing the faces of exactly who had done this would only be useful to him if he actually recognized them, and that business concerned the Whales, not him.

"Red Dragon, I know what that smell is now!" Raon had finally come to the same conclusion that Kim Rok Soo had already reached and realized that there were traces of dragon power somehow contained in the swamp. With a space this size, a dragon could easily be concealed beneath the surface, but there was no sign of life in the energy they could sense.

It didn't make any sense though. Even if a dragon had fallen into the swamp after dying, it should have returned to nature. Still, the strength of the poison could be clearly explained if he rationalized that it was generated by the dead mana of a dragon. He frowned as he stared at the pitch black surface of the swamp.

After a moment he realized there was another energy beneath the surface as well. Raon identified it at the same time.

"It feels kind of like your shield and your wind in there." This was an ancient power that hadn't been listed in the books, and Kim Rok Soo couldn't help but smile at this find. It wasn't clear if this was a power that had belonged to someone before or if it had naturally developed here, but it was going to be his power soon. Perhaps it had belonged to the dragon whose corpse now lay beneath the surface, poisoning the swamp.

"What's going on?" Witira asked.

"Hong, don't drink the water," Kim Rok Soo told the young Cat, who had been eyeing the surface of the swamp after finishing his latest plant. "There's a dragon corpse in there and even you wouldn't be able to handle the poison of that dead mana." He turned his attention to the Whale siblings once he was sure that Hong understood to focus his attention on the plants instead.

"It looks as if the mermaids may have used the dead mana to increase their power and not just the poison of the swamp."

"Poison is one thing, because we can develop an antidote, but dead mana?" Witira looked at the huge swamp. "…I'm not sure how we're going to handle this. We can't set a guard here to keep people out of the swamp, particularly with how big it is." Kim Rok Soo smiled.

"First, take as much of the swamp water as you need to work on your antidotes." The Whale siblings looked at him blankly. "After that, we can discuss another deal."

"Another deal?" Paseton asked. He brightened. "Miru-nim, will you place your power over this place to conceal it?"

"No, but I will take care of things for you." He noted that Witira was subconsciously toying with her water whip, curiosity and anticipation on her face, and his smile widened. "I'm going to destroy it."

"What?" both siblings asked in astonishment.

"No need to think too hard about it. If you make a deal with me, I'll get rid of it for you."

"Of course. Let's make a deal." Witira was quick to accept his offer.

"There's nothing I need right now, but when something comes up, I'll let you know," Kim Rok Soo told her. "Also, anything in there will belong to me."

"Of course," Witira nodded. Kim Rok Soo spread his mana over the swamp to conceal it, as Paseton had suggested moments before. He would know if anyone came to collect more materials from the swamp, and anyone who hadn't already been there would be unable to find it. The magic would redirect and confuse people trying to navigate to the area.

"I'll need some time to prepare, but you can witness the destruction later if you like," he offered. It looked like he was going to have some additional instructions for Rosalyn when he got to the city. Once she and Choi Han disarmed the magic bombs, Kim Rok Soo intended to take possession of them and make use of them.

"Yes! I want to see that," Paseton said. Kim Rok Soo offered him a glass bottle to collect some of the swamp water. It was specially tempered with magic and wouldn't break, so containing the dangerous swamp material wouldn't be a problem.

"You'll have to wait a bit, I have some business to attend to first, but you're welcome to stay in my valley in the meantime," he told the two Whales. "If not, I can take you back to the island where we met and come back for you in a week or so."

"Where are you going?" Witira asked curiously.

"The capital." The Whale siblings exchanged another bemused glance, their faces clearly expressing that he was not anything like they expected a dragon to be. Kim Rok Soo didn't bother to elaborate. He already knew he was acting unusually for a dragon, but he hadn't always been a dragon. Even now he had the same morals and sensibilities that he had possessed as a human, just with an edge of the Red Dragon's memories laid over them.

"Should we bring them with us?" Ohn asked. Kim Rok Soo shrugged.

"Sure, if you guys want you can come to the capital too. Otherwise let me know where you'd like me to leave you." If the Whale siblings went to the capital, they would need to be in disguise and he doubted they would be interested in the over-crowded city, but he supposed it didn't hurt to offer.

As he had expected, they declined the option of visiting the capital, opting to remain in the valley instead despite the lack of large bodies of water. Kim Rok Soo gave them permission to use whatever they needed from his lair, depositing the pair of them in the meadow and collecting what he needed to take to the city. Ohn and Hong went to play in the field, experimenting with the new poisonous fog options based on what Hong had learned from eating the plants in the swamp while Kim Rok Soo prepared for their trip.

Once everything had been packed for the trip to the capital, Kim Rok Soo collected the kittens again and gave Raon the coordinates for Puzzle City. While he had the coordinates from the map for the capital, he would rather go somewhere he had physically been so that he knew there was a place to appear without anyone noticing. The clearing where he had landed the night before collecting the Vitality of the Heart was secluded enough that no one would notice him teleporting even if he was using his dragon shape.

From there, he planned to fly to the city, following the roads while invisible. That way, if Taylor and Kage had not actually made it into the city with the instructions he had given them, he could locate them and make a back up plan. After he made it to the city, he would check into his inn and then he planned to go shopping. He had grabbed several more magic bags so that he could stock up on the things that he would need for a comfortable life in the valley. A little bit of experimentation had proven that the bags could be carried inside one another, vastly increasing the amount of things that he could carry at once.

Figuring that he had plenty of time before Rosalyn or Billos got to the city, Kim Rok Soo once again let Raon dictate the pace. It was a fairly leisurely flight for him, but once he noted that Raon was struggling he offered to carry him the rest of the way. Raon insisted that he was fine for another half hour before finally giving in. He didn't even complain that they were going to a place with more humans this time, apparently having accepted that Kim Rok Soo was going to keep interacting with people whether Raon liked it or not.

Kim Rok Soo had offered all three of the children the option of staying behind in the valley. He knew that there was plenty of food and water for them there to survive without the need to leave the shelter of the area, and it was safe there, but they had all three insisted on coming back to the city with him. Ohn and Hong had eagerly announced that he owed them cake for the poisonous fog they had created to save Rosalyn, and he had to admit that they had more than proved their worth at that time.

He had no intention of entering the city legally, because he didn't have an official identity in this world. While the city defenses would definitely catch an ordinary mage if they tried to sneak in, they weren't really calibrated to handle a dragon's level of magic. Kim Rok Soo simply cloaked himself in invisibility and stuck close to one of the carriages entering the city. While the contents of the carriage were being inspected, he walked right past the guards, kittens in his arms.

Rosalyn was unlikely to enter the city with her real identity, which was another reason that Kim Rok Soo had instructed her to come to him when she arrived. He had no intention of trying to hunt someone down in such a massive town, particularly not if she was using a fake name. Choi Han didn't have any official identification either, but had managed to get into the city as part of the merchant group in the novel. Kim Rok Soo expected the plot would remain consistent on that, although he wasn't sure if Rosalyn planned to bring Choi Han or the Molans when she came to see him.

The two cats changed back into their human forms and Kim Rok Soo set out with them in tow to get them both a proper wardrobe. Now that he had agreed to look after them, he intended to do it properly.

Raon was on edge with so many people around. When Kim Rok Soo had explained that there would be more people than he'd ever seen before, he had under-estimated what to expect. He stuck so close to Kim Rok Soo that he was practically glued to his back, invisible and clinging. With one Cat child holding either hand and the little dragon clutching his shoulders, Kim Rok Soo was somewhat hindered as he made his way through the crowded streets.

Although he had been consciously suppressing the dragon fear that was a natural trait for any dragon his age as much as he could since meeting Raon, Kim Rok Soo found himself loosening the hold on it just a little bit. People started to give him a wider berth and he finally had room to breath. Hong stared up at him, eyes wide.

"Miru hyung, you're kind of scary…" he whispered.

"He won't hurt us," Ohn assured her brother, but her grip on his hand had tightened too, her knuckles white. Kim Rok Soo hadn't really meant to pressure them with the dragon fear as well, but it was an inevitable side effect of them being so close to him.

"Sorry. It was getting hard to walk," he explained.

"Red Dragon, why do you feel so much stronger now all of the sudden?" Raon asked. As young as he was, he had no idea about the natural gifts that he would develop as he aged.

"You'll understand when you're older," he assured the younger dragon. He reigned the dragon fear back in as they entered a shop, trying not to intimidate the shopkeeper too much. A little intimidation was fine when it came to getting a good bargain, but he didn't want to scare the man out of his wits. The two Cat children released his hands and went to browse the store. After a moment of hesitation, Raon followed them, the grip of his claws vanishing from Kim Rok Soo's shoulders.

It was already pretty late, so most of the shopping would have to happen tomorrow, but Kim Rok Soo was determined to at least get the kids something nice to wear while they were out and about in town. Since the Crown had called all the nobles to the capital for the celebration, people were aiming to look their best and impress on another. He didn't want anyone judging the Cat children for the worn and patched clothing they had originally had.

The notion of buying them nicer clothes had occurred to him in Puzzle City, but he hadn't actually done anything at the time since they were spending most of the time as kittens anyway. Now that they finally had some time to stay in one place for a few days he was going to make sure that they had everything they needed. His stash of coins was definitely going to be smaller than it had been, but at least the Highest Grade Magic Stones in the jungle would make up for that even if the Crown Prince didn't offer enough of a reward for saving so many lives.

Once both children had picked out a couple of outfits, Kim Rok Soo paid and tucked them away in one of his magic bags. The room had already been reserved at the inn, along with dinner, so he traced his steps back through the crowd and led the children upstairs. Unlike his previous stays, he had reserved a room for all three of them instead of just booking a room for himself and telling the kittens to climb up to the balcony.

"Cake!" Hong squealed in delight when he saw the food that Kim Rok Soo had ordered.

"Wash your hands first," Kim Rok Soo reminded him as the boy ran straight for the table. "You too Raon, wash your paws. You guys touched all kinds of stuff in the street and shop."

All three children had a lot to say as they sat down to eat. They were excitedly discussing things that they had seen in the shop or on the walk there. Raon had plenty to say too, despite all the people in the area. He might not like humans, but he did like things that they made.

"Red Dragon, those little sticks of meat smelled so good!" Raon commented.

"Chicken skewers? We'll get some tomorrow then." All three of them nodded happily at his response.

There were two beds in the room and Kim Rok Soo expected the Cat children to share one, possibly with Raon as well, but when he crawled into bed that night all three of them joined him as usual instead. The two kittens curled up near his hip and Raon snuggled against his shoulder. Their warmth was kind of soothing and Kim Rok Soo found himself thinking that he was already getting used to having them around.

Chapter Text

While Kim Rok Soo had expected a lazy day of shopping followed by another evening of lounging around with a large dinner, the plot was not as on track as he had thought it would be. Rather than arriving in several days like he had expected, Rosalyn had turned up on his doorstep just after he and the children had sat down to eat. Choi Han was with her, as was Beacrox. Supported between the two of them, one arm over each man's shoulders and barely upright, was a boy that Kim Rok Soo instantly recognized as Lark.

He was breathing hard and his eyelids were shut tight as if he were fighting off a lot of pain. Kim Rok Soo recognized the symptoms of an imminent berserk state and frowned.

"I'm sorry Honorable Dragon-nim," Rosalyn said quickly. "I know this isn't what we discussed, but he's in so much pain and I don't know where else to turn." Her gaze flickered past him to the children at the table, and Kim Rok Soo assumed that she thought he knew about beast people because he had the Cat children with him. While he did immediately recognize Lark's state, it was only because he knew things from the novel.

It was clear that Rosalyn had already explained his status to Choi Han and Beacrox, because neither of them reacted at all to the way that she addressed Kim Rok Soo. They didn't seem particularly surprised by the fact that a dragon was lodged in an inn in a human city either, but perhaps they were just too preoccupied with Lark's condition to think much about it.

"Bring him in," Kim Rok Soo said, stepping to one side. The two Cat children stood up, keeping the table between themselves and the strangers, and Kim Rok Soo could see the barely notable trace of Raon's mana behind them, marking the outline of the invisible dragon. He directed the others to lay Lark on the unused bed and told Beacrox to fetch a drink from the table for the struggling boy.

"Just keep your eyes closed, there's no need to strain yourself," he told Lark. "Everything is going to be okay." Lark's eyelids fluttered once more, but then he seemed to lose all strength and wilted against the pillow.

"What's wrong with him?" Rosalyn asked anxiously. "He's from the Blue Wolf tribe, so potions won't work on him, and healing magic did nothing either."

Kim Rok Soo saw that she was clutching her staff and realized that she must have teleported straight to the city to find him rather than traveling normally. When he had told her to bring Lark to the city, he had not expected this complication. Rosalyn likely thought that the boy had some connection to the dragon already, like the kittens, but Kim Rok Soo had simply wanted an important member of the protagonist's party to meet the others.

"Have you ever heard about the berserk mode of Beast tribes?" he asked. Rosalyn made a surprised noise and Beacrox's eyes flashed with understanding. Only Choi Han still looked confused.

"I've read some things, but I never saw anything about this sort of condition in relation to it." Rosalyn gestured to the flushed and sweating boy on the bed.

"It's not as widely known what happens during the first time a beast person enters the berserk state." Kim Rok Soo explained. He only knew thanks the 'The Birth of a Hero.' "They lose sanity during the first time due to the physical pain of the transformation, but as long as they can push through this first painful transformation, the berserk mode becomes a powerful weapon."

Glancing around the room, Kim Rok Soo sighed. There was no way to handle this here, because they were going to need a considerable amount of space.

"Usually when someone from the wolf tribe goes berserk for the first time, their parents and siblings help them through it to make sure they don't get hurt. That means taking attacks from the berserk individual." He paused, giving Rosalyn a meaningful look, and she shook her head.

"That…isn't going to be an option for him."

"I figured as much since you brought him here. You can tell me the rest later." He already knew that the rest of the Blue Wolf Tribe had been killed, but he would pretend to be learning it for the first time when Rosalyn told him the full story.

"In that case, are you willing to help him?" Kim Rok Soo asked. The question was directed not just at Rosalyn, but also at Choi Han and Beacrox.

"He's just a boy," Rosalyn said. Choi Han and Beacrox exchanged a glance, but then both nodded.

"We can't handle things here," Kim Rok Soo told them. "It's probably going to get a little messy. Come here."

When the three of them came closer, he told them all to grab his arm and rested his other hand on Lark's shoulder. Once again he opted for the firm confirmation of the other party's presence when teleporting rather than simply transporting the group without contact. Having them grab onto his arm also gave the others some warning about what to expect.

"We'll be back soon," he said over his shoulder to the nervous Cat children, but to Raon he mentally added "Turn those two invisible and follow me." It would be good for Ohn and Hong to watch this in preparation for their own future experiences.

Kim Rok Soo teleported the group to the same clearing just outside the outskirts of Puzzle City that he had already been to several times. His mana supported Lark for an extra moment so that he could the young man to the ground and then he took a step back to set up barrier around the other four.

"You're going to need to get beat up a bit," he said. "He's not going to recognize you, but you're going to need to take the place of the siblings and parents he doesn't have. He'll eventually tire out on his own and the berserk state will slowly disappear. The important part is maintaining his consciousness during this transformation so that he will be able to maintain rationality the next time he wants to use the berserk mode."

"What are you going to do?" Choi Han asked, eying the barrier between them and Kim Rok Soo.

"Keep people from overhearing and him from going too far," Kim Rok Soo explained. He wasn't about to do the 'getting hit' part himself, not when people like Choi Han were around for that. His shield would definitely be able to handle the blows, but he wanted the bond between the protagonists to get stronger. There was no point in Lark getting attached to him instead.

"How long do we have to help him?" Rosalyn asked.

"Probably about two hours. Are you still going to help?" Kim Rok Soo glanced at the barely conscious Lark, who was baring his fangs and growling. "You better decide fast."

"Yes." Rosalyn exchanged a glance with Choi Han. "We promised to be his new family when he lost his old one." Kim Rok Soo raised one eyebrow slightly at that. He hadn't expected them to be that close already. At best he had thought that Rosalyn had only coaxed Choi Han into helping her transport Lark because she needed someone to carry him.

Choi Han had lost his family too, so he certainly wouldn't want to lose someone again. His eyes were resolute as he watched the now trembling Lark.

"I can do this. I'm his brother." Kim Rok Soo wasn't sure if the statement was directed at him or if Choi Han was talking to himself, but he nodded.

"You guys should be fine. Just do your best." Behind him he could feel the familiar trace of Raon's mana and he knew that the three children had arrived. He layered another shield on top of the existing barrier, sound-proofing the makeshift arena.

"You two should watch this closely," he told the kittens. "You haven't experience the berserk transformation yet, right?" They shook their heads and then remembered that they were invisible, so he couldn't clearly see them aside from their general position due to the mana draped over them.

"No one taught us about that," Ohn said. "We don't really know anything about it."

"The Wolf Tribe is one of the four tribes that loses the most rationality during the first transformation," Kim Rok Soo explained. "The fastest way to deal with it would be smacking him on the head to make him faint, but then he won't be able to keep his rationality the next time he transforms."

Inside the barrier, Lark lunged at Choi Han, who blocked the blow with his scabbard.

"Wow," Hong was impressed by how fast and strong the transformed Lark was.

"Watch that Wolf kid's movements. You can see the instincts of a beast person in action. The berserk state is when Beast people are at their strongest. While you two are cats and not wolves, you can still learn about the style of a wild animal and relying on your instincts."

"Okay…" Ohn's voice wavered slightly and she sounded nervous. Kim Rok Soo felt Hong huddle against his leg.

"Watch closely and think about how to make that style your own," he instructed. "Either that or think of a way to kill those so called 'monster' tribes. Bears, Tigers and wolves are strong, but cats are smart."

"Do dragons go berserk too?" Raon asked, also sounding a bit nervous. Kim Rok Soo almost choked at the thought.

"No. But look at how Rosalyn is using her magic to not hurt her opponent. Notice that Choi Han is using his aura not to attack, but protecting himself while avoiding harming the Wolf boy. It's much harder to not hurt something than it is to hurt something when you're strong."

"I am strong," Raon said. Kim Rok Soo nodded.

"You are. So watch them and make your own judgment." He glanced around, wishing that he had brought a chair with him. Maintaining the shield did not require standing up and two hours was a long time to stand around. His legs were going to get tired.

While they were focused on Lark, the trio inside the shield could still see Kim Rok Soo and he felt like it might be in poor taste to sit down while they were struggling to defend themselves against the attacks. Still, he was a dragon, so he couldn't be held to the same standards as a human. After about fifteen minutes Kim Rok Soo got tired of standing and used his magic to weave some sticks together into a makeshift stool.

Beacrox was definitely having a rougher time than the other two, but Choi Han and Rosalyn had noticed that too and were making an effort to keep Lark focused on them instead. Time seemed to drag on inexorably slowly, but eventually Lark's eye's finally regained some clarity and he recognized who he was attacking. Kim Rok Soo waited a bit longer, watching the boy apologize to the other three, and then he dropped the shield.

Lark was struggling to stay upright, but Kim Rok Soo told him that he could rest and the boy promptly passed out. Choi Han barely caught him.

Putting his dragon abilities to use, Kim Rok Soo was able to mend the small injuries that the three defenders had sustained. He wasn't a proper healer, but he could do some things. It would be best if they had a potion to fully heal up though, and he told them so.

"Healing isn't my specialty," he explained.

"What is your specialty?" Raon asked curiously.

"Memories." Kim Rok Soo didn't elaborate, but Raon seemed to know that now was not the time for further questions.

"Let's head back," he said, leaning down and picking Lark up. The boy was lighter than he looked, but Kim Rok Soo supposed that having a dragon's strength might account for part of that. This time he teleported without having everyone grab his arms and a moment later they were all in his room at the inn once more. Raon had taken the two kittens ahead only seconds before Kim Rok Soo returned, but they were back in human form and sitting at the table as if they had been there all along by the time his group arrived.

Laying Lark back on the spare bed, Kim Rok Soo looked at Rosalyn.

"I think it's time for us to talk," he commented, and she nodded. "I guess I should order more food."

Beacrox volunteered to do that and left the room before Kim Rok Soo could even agree to the notion, so he turned his attention to his remaining guests. There were only four chairs and the Cat children were already using two of them, so he sat on the other bed.

Choi Han and Rosalyn gave the two children a polite greeting, and Ohn and Hong politely greeted them back as they sat down. They had turned the chairs to face the bed rather than the table so that they could speak to Kim Rok Soo properly.

Rosalyn did most of the talking, telling Kim Rok Soo what had happened since he saw her last. Things had gone as expected up until the point of reaching the village of the Blue Wolf Tribe. Instead of finding a traumatized and hidden Lark amid the ruins and the rest of the tribe dead, Rosalyn and the others had come in time to prevent some of the children from being kidnapped. Lark had not stayed hidden as the novel had indicated he would, but had tried to prevent the kidnapping himself as the last of the adult wolves was killed.

"He's the oldest Wolf left," Rosalyn said. Kim Rok Soo had expected him to be the only Wolf left and wondered how things had gone off track, but more survivors wasn't necessarily a bad thing. "We had another party member, and he's with the rest of the children now. He's Beacrox's father."

While he had noted the absence of the scary old man, Kim Rok Soo hadn't really thought about where he might be before that moment. He nodded and Rosalyn continued her tale. Beacrox returned, bringing food for everyone, but Rosalyn and Choi Han stayed focused on Kim Rok Soo, continuing their stories.

Eventually Rosalyn wrapped up her story with the explanation of how she had teleported the remaining Wolves and the merchants to the capital in her worry over Lark's condition. So much for hiding her magic. Kim Rok Soo had prevented her from needing to show off her abilities previously, but she had still done so less than a week later.

Choi Han finally spoke up, mentioning the assassins' uniform. Kim Rok Soo had expected them to be wearing unmarked uniforms, but apparently one of the leaders had come in a marked uniform and Choi Han had recognized the stars from one of the bodies of the men he'd killed in Harris Village. That detail had been different from the novel, because both hits had been carried out by nameless unmarked assassins in the books. It was only later that Choi Han had been able to connect the two incidents to the organization who wore the stars.

Once again Kim Rok Soo wondered why some of the details from the novel had changed. He hadn't really changed that much of the story and was trying to let it more or less progress as written, but things kept going off track anyway.

"I tried to kill him, but I wasn't able to capture or kill any of them." Choi Han said. "The leader was a mage and used teleportation magic to escape, and all the survivors were taken with him. Those who I had captured committed suicide." He sounded frustrated, which Kim Rok Soo understood. Choi Han had finally though that he found a clue about the murderers from Harris Village, but he had come away empty handed once again anyway.

"I can tell you where he's going to be later. I don't know everything, but I know where he will be on the day of the King's birthday celebration." Choi Han's eyes went dark and Kim Rok Soo felt a shiver creep down his spine. The protagonist certainly was not someone he wanted to cross, so he needed to reassure the swordsman that he had no connection to the blood-drinking mage that he had seen in the village of the Wolves.

"Now it's my turn to tell you two some things," he said. He started telling them what he knew about the coming event and the bombs that would be placed. Choi Han's eyes darkened even further. He didn't want to see innocent people being killed again.

Kim Rok Soo laid out the details that he knew and the plan to take care of the bombs. As a dragon, he was highly sensitive to mana and would be able to find the bombs if he went to the plaza, but he wasn't planning to be involved that far. This was a problem for the humans to solve, and he was just giving them the tools to solve it. Rosalyn and Choi Han had found and dealt with some of the bombs in the novel even without any information ahead of time. He was just making sure they would find all of them instead of only a few.

"Lord Dragon, will you not be going with us?" Rosalyn asked, realizing near the end of his explanation that Kim Rok Soo hadn't included himself in the plan that he had provided.

"No. I have kids to look after." He gestured to the two Cat children. "Dragons shouldn't meddle in human affairs. I'll give you information, but that's it."

Rosalyn looked somewhat disappointed, as if she had been hoping for the chance to work side by side with him, but she said nothing. Kim Rok Soo told her that he had some additional information to provide to her alone later, deciding that it was not worth discussing the Crown Prince and the reward while Choi Han was listening.

Because she was a mage, Rosalyn respected him highly and would likely agree to turn over some or all of the reward money that he wanted her to ask for, but Choi Han and Beacrox probably wouldn't understand him asking for a reward while stating he wasn't going to help directly. He doubted that either of them trusted him, particularly with him knowing things about the very organization they were trying to track down.

Kim Rok Soo wondered if he should bind Choi Han to himself with a Vow of Death to convince the swordsman that he spoke the truth, but dismissed the notion. If Choi Han questioned him more, he would revisit that notion later, but for now he seemed reluctantly willing to cooperate despite his mistrust. Perhaps his faith in Rosalyn was stronger than Kim Rok Soo had guessed.

He assured Choi Han that this would be a good chance to take down that mage, since the novel had described exactly where the mage had gone after the event. Like Rosalyn, Choi Han seemed slightly disappointed that Kim Rok Soo was not intending to get involved directly, though his disappointment seemed to stem more from distrust. Kim Rok Soo couldn't read Beacrox's expression, and the silent man kept his thoughts to himself.

Turning his attention back to Lark, he saw that the Wolf boy had finally regained consciousness. Kim Rok Soo suggested that he might be more comfortable with his siblings, and asked Choi Han and Beacrox to escort him back to the other inn where the merchants and Ron were with the Wolf children. He asked Rosalyn to stay behind, and she agreed, since he had yet to give her the information she was most interested in. When they had met in the forest, he had promised to tell her more about the assassins that had come after her.

Kim Rok Soo explained that he wanted to take the disarmed magic bombs after the incident. There was no reason to destroy them when disarming them, and he had a better use for them than the King was likely to suggest if Rosalyn and the others left them in the city after the crisis was averted.

Despite saying that he was only going to give them information, Kim Rok Soo told Rosalyn that did plan to provide them with a mana disruption tool as well. It was one of the items that he had rented from Billos and it wasn't cheap, but it was vital to ensuring that the bombs didn't go off too soon. Without the mana to actually trigger the detonation, Choi Han and Rosalyn would have a safe window of time to find the bombs that had been disguised as items worn or carried by members of the crowd.

Once Rosalyn heard that he was financing the pricey items needed to pull off this plan, she was completely on board with sharing the reward money with him, although she had already agreed to do so even before he told her the rest of the plan. He also warned her about the Crown Prince and how to handle his smooth tongue, advising that Alberu was the type to try and coax people into working for him while disguising his intentions behind sweet words.

Rosalyn was not only royalty herself, but she had the personality to turn the prince's tricks back on him. Unlike Choi Han, who would fall for the prince's schemes all too easily, Rosalyn would be able to meet him on a level playing field. Kim Rok Soo was looking forward to seeing what she could wring out of the royal treasury.

He also planted the idea in her mind of a future visit to the Whipper Kingdom to take possession of the Magic Tower. While they hated mages and would not deal with Rosalyn directly, they never needed to know who the buyer truly was if she sent Billos as an intermediary. Even if she did visit in person, they would respect Choi Han's strength as a warrior and leave her alone as a member of his party.

Kim Rok Soo wanted to set things in motion for future stability of this kingdom, since this was where his valley home was located. The Crown Prince wasn't stupid, and as much as Kim Rok Soo hated to admit it, their personalities were similar to one another. He could easily guess at how Alberu might react to information fed to him, so he planned to use Rosalyn to supply the right information at the right time.

Alberu would recognize the value of the displaced mages from the Magic Tower immediately, and in the future when Rosalyn built her own tower, she was going to need subordinates. Not to mention there was considerable treasure in the tower that Kim Rok Soo only knew the location of because of the novel. He wasn't fully decided yet on if he would just explain to Rosalyn how to retrieve it or if he would make a trip there himself at some point.

There was also the matter of Mueller, who was much too useful to allow him to simply die as he was slated to per the novel. The half Dwarf, half Rat man would be a valuable asset to the Rowoon kingdom, but Kim Rok Soo wasn't sure Rosalyn would be able to find him. It seemed he might need to make a trip to the Whipper Kingdom in the future after all. As a dragon, he could avoid detection by the non-mage faction led by Toonka and retrieve the little architect.

He did have a villa to build in his valley, so maybe he should have Mueller design it.

Kim Rok Soo continued to speak with Rosalyn for several hours, providing her with information and making plans for the future. He knew that she was going to return to her own kingdom after preventing the plaza incident, taking Choi Han and Lark with her to protect herself against further assassination attempts from the Grand Duke, but he also knew that the plot dictated she would return to Rowoon again afterward once she renounced her claim to the throne. Rosalyn would much rather be simply a mage than a princess.

Eventually Rosalyn stood to leave, planning to go back to meet with Choi Han and the others. After bidding her farewell, Kim Rok Soo mentally reviewed what else he needed to do before the plaza celebration arrived. The next few days were going to busy, but at least once this event was behind him and the swamp in the Forest of Darkness was dealt with he could relax at home with the children for the foreseeable future.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Kim Rok Soo found a message from Taylor and Kage waiting for him at the front desk. He had not seen them on the roads when coming into the city, so he assumed that they had made it safely, but now he had confirmation of that fact. Kim Rok Soo sent a return message to arrange a meeting with the pair so that he could collect the magic items that he had lent them in able to return them to Billos.

Originally Kim Rok Soo had not intended to meet with the pair in person, but there was no guarantee that he could safely retrieve the items otherwise. Leaving them somewhere isolated was not an option here as it had been in Puzzle City and there was risk of someone else picking the things up. He had also considered connecting them directly with Billos, but that would have required additional effort on his part.

In the end, he had simply included directions on how to contact him once the pair reached the city in his original instruction letter for the two of them. He arranged to meet them for lunch, where Taylor told him about the plan to meet with the Crown Prince after the feast that he had scheduled to meet with the young nobles of the kingdom. While Taylor did not have an invitation directly, the invitation had not specified that his brother should be the one to attend either, and he was going to take advantage of that.

Kim Rok Soo advised him to make connections with the Northeastern nobles as well, suspecting that Alberu would seat Taylor at that table due to it being the least confrontational option. He suggested that if Taylor could manage it, he should plant the notion of a naval base in the Ubarr territory in Amiru's mind, or at least Alberu's. The Crown Prince would make arrangements with the Ubarr family on his own if the notion of building naval power was presented to him.

While he did not know how much information there was in the world currently to suggest the coming war, Kim Rok Soo was certain that Alberu would be one of the first to connect the dots even without the extra information that Rosalyn or Taylor would have for him. He was a shrewd man and would know that the Rowoon kingdom could not simply coast by with nothing special aside from their long history indefinitely. The current peaceful stability of the world would not last forever.

Taylor and Kage had both expressed their thanks for Kim Rok Soo's assistance in getting them into the capital repeatedly, but he turned down any notion of further meetings with them.

"He has had a lot to say about you," Kage commented. "Wouldn't shut up the whole way here." Her tone of voice indicated she was not talking about Taylor, and Kim Rok Soo found himself even more determined to avoid them in the future. He didn't need to get involved with a God.

Kim Rok Soo requested that the two of them agree to a Vow of Death and keep everything that they had discussed to themselves. He had sealed off sound in the area with magic as soon as he sat down to keep anyone else from overhearing them, which had caused Kage to look at him with an admiring expression. Now he glanced around to see how many people might see Kage using the power of the God of Death. While he had requested a private seating area, there was still a chance that people might be nearby.

The black smoke would be quite noticeable, and might make people nosy, but if needed he could always make people forget what they had seen. No one was watching their table directly, but Kim Rok Soo made note of the faces of everyone nearby just in case. He tasked Raon, who had followed him while invisible as usual, to help him keep an eye out for anyone who looked over at them while Kage was enacting the Vow, black smoke rising from her fingertips to spiral around the table, swirling around her and Taylor primarily. It circled Kim Rok Soo as well, as he was the witness to their Vow.

He could feel the power of the Vow once it had been completed, and it was an odd sensation, somewhat similar to the feeling of the ancient powers. Raon confirmed that no one had noticed the Vow, since he had used some magic to distract people so that they were all looking away when it happened. Kim Rok Soo left the sound-proof barrier in place so that the group could finish eating in peace, sharing a drink with the other two.

Kage had inexplicably been carrying shot glasses in her sleeves, but he wasn't going to turn down good liquor. When he told her it wasn't any of his business if a priestess was drinking, she laughed and said she liked him. She asked if he wanted to get to know her better, which he quickly declined. Taylor suggested that Kim Rok Soo could get to know him better instead, if he preferred, and Kim Rok Soo turned that down as well. Neither of them seemed particularly put out by his flat refusal, laughing instead of being disappointed.

While he would still respond if they contacted him again during his stay in the capital city, Kim Rok Soo did not advise the pair how to reach him in the future. He had no intention of keeping in touch and the Vow of Death would prevent them from talking to anyone about what they had discussed. Taylor's future was in his own hands now.

Now that he had safely collected Billos' rented items, Kim Rok Soo simply needed to wait for the merchant to arrive and contact him so that he could return them. The only one that wouldn't be returned right now was the mana disturbance tool, which would be critical in preventing the tragedy that had been written for the plaza celebration. Rosalyn sent a message that Lark had recovered and wanted to see him, so Kim Rok Soo went to meet the young Wolf.

Ohn and Hong accompanied him, wanting another change to observe the older boy and consider ways that they could overcome dangerous foes. Lark thanked Kim Rok Soo fervently, and he told the boy that he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. After a moment of nervous hesitation, Lark also expressed his concerns for his siblings, wondering what they should do now that their village had been destroyed. He asked for help, and Kim Rok Soo wondered why the boy had come to him instead of Rosalyn.

As a princess, Rosalyn certainly had the wealth to make arrangements for the eleven remaining Wolves, although it would likely mean they would need to go to Breck. Lark was supposed to accompany Rosalyn to Breck anyway according to the story, but he would not want to take his siblings along until the danger of assassins attacking again had been taken care of. He was also supposed to travel around with Rosalyn and Choi Han as a primary member of the protagonist's party, but in the original novel he hadn't had the extra concern of ten younger siblings to look after.

"I'm not interested in helping you, but we can make a deal," Kim Rok Soo suggested. "Think about what exactly it is you need help with, and what you can do for me in return." He was looking after Ohn and Hong, but they had promised to make themselves useful when they attached themselves to him, and they had already proven their worth with the poisonous fog when he had gone to save Rosalyn. Technically he was also looking after Raon, but the Black Dragon was more than capable of looking after himself if he ever decided he wanted to go find his own lair instead of sticking around.

"Come back when you have the answers and we'll talk again," Kim Rok Soo told Lark, who nodded, looking thoughtful. He dismissed the Wolf boy and started checking through his mental list of what he was going to need to take back to his valley.

The kittens already had full wardrobes now, and he had also bought Hong a small vial of poison from the black market, since that was what the young boy had asked for when Kim Rok Soo asked what he wanted. He would take Hong back into the Forest of Darkness to eat more poisonous plants when he went to destroy the swamp. Kim Rok Soo had been in contact with various artisans as well, discussing the construction of furniture and other things that he would need for a comfortable life in his secluded valley.

If things went the way that Kim Rok Soo expected them to with Lark, he was going to end up keeping an eye on the Wolf children as well, so the villa would need a lot of space. While he was still somewhat hopeful that Lark would turn to Rosalyn instead, the Wolf boy seemed to have latched onto Kim Rok Soo instead despite Rosalyn, Beacrox, and Choi Han doing all the real work to bring him here and get him through his first transformation. Perhaps, like the kittens, he sensed that Kim Rok Soo was not human and was seeking some sort of bond of kinship in that.

Kim Rok Soo was definitely going to take Witira up on her offer of the use of the sea route and manage it through Billos. With so many children to look after, he would need some sort of income to ensure they had a good childhood. His valley was secluded, but that did not make it untouchable. He was going to need to make sure that the Rowoon kingdom wasn't going to crumble around him if he wanted to ensure that he and the children would have comfortable and quiet lives.

The merchant arrived the day after Kim Rok Soo had met with Taylor and Kage, and he sent Kim Rok Soo a message to left him know that he had arrived. When he arrived at the inn where Billos was staying, he realized that it was also the place where Choi Han and the others were staying, which meant that he could also meet Billos' uncle. More connections to the merchant world wouldn't hurt, nor would a connection to the underworld. Of course, he wouldn't admit to knowing about Odeus Flynn's double identity.

Billos seemed somewhat stressed when Kim Rok Soo came into the room. He had to navigate through the eager and grateful Wolf children to meet the merchant, and he noted that they all appeared to be between 10 and 13. It looked as if Raon and Hong were still the youngest children he would have to worry about.

Rather than pouring a drink for both of them once Kim Rok Soo had dismissed the Wolf children and the two of them had retired to a private area to speak, Billos poured himself a shot and gulped it down. Kim Rok Soo simply watched for a moment, but he spoke up after Billos had filled and drained his cup twice more.

"I'm not sure what's going on here, but you can't just keep drinking by yourself like that," he told the merchant, taking the bottle from him. He did refill the other man's glass, but he also filled a glass for himself.

"Forgive my rudeness Young Master Kim," Billos said apologetically. He explained his connection to Odeus Flynn, stating that he hadn't anticipated meeting his Uncle here. None of what he said was new information to Kim Rok Soo, since all of this had been included in 'The Birth of a Hero.' The two of them spoke a bit more, and Billos eventually revealed his ambitions, which Kim Rok Soo had also expected.

Eventually he turned over the items that he had come to return, setting expectations that the mana disruption device would be returned the day after the King's Birthday celebration. He also made preliminary arrangements for using Billos as the middle-man when it came to managing the sea route that Witira had promised him. All he would need to ensure was that there was a way to clearly identify the ships that were affiliated with him, since the Whales had only promised to leave his transports alone.

"Young Master Kim," Billos said as Kim Rok Soo stood to leave. "Where was it you said that you were from?" As Kim Rok Soo had expected, Billos had tried to look into his family, but there was nothing to find. The only family ties that he had in this world had not been firmly established until after he had first met Billos.

"Somewhere far away," he told the merchant. Billos frowned slightly, but did not press the issue.

He met Rosalyn as he was leaving and she quietly reported that she had not yet located any of the bombs. That did not surprise him, because there were still several days until the event, so he told her to keep searching. His next few days would be spent meeting with additional artisans and shopping, but he told her that if he or Raon sensed any mana concentrations that might indicate one of the bombs around the city he would let her know.

Of course, if things were going as they had in the novel, he did already know where the bombs were going to be placed. There was no guarantee that things would run exactly as he had read though, because some things had already changed from the initial plot, such as the survival of extra Wolf children and Paseton.

The rest of the week seemed to pass in the blink of an eye and the morning of the King's Birthday celebration arrived. Kim Rok Soo had told the children to go to bed early the previous evening, intending to teleport them back to the valley before things got hectic in the city. He had reserved the room in the inn for an extra day past the celebration to give himself a quiet spot to teleport back into the city without any risk of running into anyone.

Of course, since he needed to return the mana disruption device to Billos the following day anyway, he had a valid reason to come back to the city even if he hadn't been planning to keep an eye on things. Ohn and Hong had complained a bit about the fact that he was taking them out of the city just before all the action, but Kim Rok Soo told them that he wanted to ensure that they were safe. Ideally Raon would also remain in the valley with the two Cat children, but Kim Rok Soo knew that there was nothing he could do to stop the younger dragon from teleporting back after him. He just hoped that Raon would leave the kittens behind if he did follow.

While Rosalyn and Choi Han had located four bombs exactly where Kim Rok Soo had expected them to be per the novel, there should have been six planted around the area and he was concerned by the discrepancy. It could just mean that there would be more bombs planted on people, but it could also mean that there were two unaccounted for. He didn't know if this was another ripple of the butterfly effect from the changes he had made to the plot, but he didn't want to worry about the whereabouts of the children once things got chaotic. The crowds were sure to start getting rowdy when the mage and other terrorists appeared.

Kim Rok Soo collected the kittens and the magic bags loaded with a week's worth of purchases.

"Let's go home," he said. Ohn and Hong made a few more small grumbling noises of discontent, but a few seconds later they were all in the grassy meadow and a light breeze stirred his hair. Witira and Paseton appeared to have kept themselves busy by organizing things in the lair while the group had been gone.

They had made a huge sleeping area out of cut grass from the meadow, large enough that Kim Rok Soo was probably going to be able to lie there as a dragon if he preferred that to the coin pile. Of course, if he wanted to sleep on grass, he would probably just go outside into the meadow. The two of them had also kept an eye on his garden for him, and he greeted them both, handing over the kittens to the bemused Whales. He handed over the magic bags as well, explaining that they could start unpacking stuff if they liked, but he didn't have much time to stick around this morning.

"Raon, keep an eye on things here for me, OK? I'll bring back some chicken skewers for you guys after everything is sorted out." The younger dragon had developed a fondness for chicken skewers after trying them a few days prior, and he brightened momentarily at the mention of them before frowning.

"Red Dragon, I can look after myself, you know," he said. "I should just come back with you."

Kim Rok Soo knew there was a high chance of the little dragon spotting Venion Stan if he went back to the city, since all the nobles would be gathered together in the plaza. The young dragon's trauma was still quite fresh and running into his tormentor before he was fully equipped to take his revenge was not ideal, but if Raon insisted on following him he wouldn't stop the other dragon. He asked if Raon was prepared to come face to face with Venion, particularly since he wouldn't be able to kill him in such a public place.

"I am a great and mighty dragon!" Raon said, but his eyes shook briefly at the mention of Venion.

"You know that we're going to live here together now, right?" Kim Rok Soo asked. Raon nodded uncertainly and Kim Rok Soo continued. "Why don't you start setting things up the way you want them to be? Your magic is strong, and so are the Whales. You guys can start moving the construction materials to where they need to be so that we can build ourselves a nice house."

He glanced at Witira and Paseton as he spoke, and they nodded amicably at being drafted to help carry things. Raon hesitated a moment more and then agreed to supervise things in the valley.

"I will find the best spot for a house!" he declared. Ohn and Hong jumped down from Witira and Paseton's arms.

"We'll help!" they said, excited by the idea of a place to call home.

"Good. I'll be back by this afternoon," Kim Rok Soo told them. He teleported back to his room in the inn and turned himself invisible before heading down into the streets. Most of the shops were closed today, because everyone was trying to crowd around the plaza for a glimpse of the royal family and hoping for handouts, even the shopkeepers. It was easy to maneuver at first, but the area got more crowded the closer he got to the plaza.

Maneuvering through the crowd, Kim Rok Soo heard the loud alarm of the mana disruption device beeping. He was the only person going toward the plaza, and he had to wrap himself in a protective layer of mana because people kept knocking into him. They seemed confused to run into something where there was seemingly nothing but air, but the pushing crowds would quickly redirect their attention.

He reached the edge of the area covered by the mana disruption tool just as the royal mages managed to disable it and stabilize the area. It wouldn't have mattered if it had still been active when he got that close, since it wouldn't affect the magic of a dragon. Rosalyn's hair and eyes had been dyed by him to disguise her in preparation for today's events, and they had remained brown despite the mana disruption tool.

Several items abruptly shot skyward as the mana in the area stabilized, propelled by Rosalyn's magic. The mages were enclosing the area in a shield, but Rosalyn was faster than the other mages and the bombs cleared the area before the barrier closed. Quickly counting the items, Kim Rok Soo was satisfied to see that she and the others had been successful in locating all the items detailed in the book as being carried by people in the plaza. Unless they had simply overlooked two items, the overall count of the bombs was still off though.

Kim Rok Soo watched the miscellaneous items fly off into the distance, balls of mana streaking after them. People were trying to figure out what was going on and the King was directing soldiers to go up the tower to where the mage was perched, but everyone's attention was abruptly drawn to the distant explosion as the mana finally caught up and connected with the bombs.

Chaos erupted in the plaza as people realized what they had just witnessed. If those bombs had gone off among them as planned, the death toll would be astronomical. On the tower, the mage made an idle comment about how they had gone off in the wrong area, sounding as relaxed as if he were commenting on the weather.

Making his way through the crowd, Kim Rok Soo found Rosalyn, who turned as she sensed him approaching before he even reached out to let her know he was there. She really was an impressive mage, able to detect him even though his magic was such a high level. Above them, the mage called two subordinates forward and Kim Rok Soo realized why the count of the bombs had seemed off. It wasn't that there were more items on people in the crowd. That maniac had prepared suicide bombers.

"Pretend this is your magic," Kim Rok Soo instructed Rosalyn as the two men tore scrolls to ignite themselves and dove toward the screaming crowd below. He expanded the barrier that had been protecting him so that no one would jostle him and called on the power of the silver shield.

Rosalyn obligingly stretched her own hands to pretend that the silver light was coming from her. Layered with his own magic to strengthen the shield and her magic on top of that, it did actually look like Rosalyn was the one controlling the silver wings that wrapped around one of the diving bombers to protect the crowd from the explosion.

A moment later the air was ringing from the sound of the bombs exploding. The royal mages had managed to more or less protect most of the area targeted by the other bomber, but the cries of the injured filled the air. Kim Rok Soo glanced around, trying to take stock of the damage. He saw that Taylor Stan had successfully negotiated with the Crown Prince and regained use of his legs, as Kim Rok Soo had hoped he would. He was trying to help some of the other people in the area, which fit right in with what Kim Rok Soo had read about his personality.

Overhead, the mage expressed his disappointment that things had not gotten as bloody as he had wanted. He had come down to observe Rosalyn and appeared to recognize her from the Blue Wolf Tribe's village, because he commented on how her hair was the wrong color. A moment later, before anyone could really recover enough from the bombing to react to him, he vanished, teleporting away with all the remaining terrorists.

Kim Rok Soo's palms were stinging. Even with the extra layering from his innate magic, that explosion had been somewhat painful to contain. At least he was invisible so Rosalyn wouldn't see him shaking the annoying prickle away. He coughed and it was wet. His hand barely made it to his mouth in time to keep the blood from getting all over his clothes.

"…Gross." He felt much better now and recognized that the Vitality of the Heart must have kicked in, but coughing blood was an unexpected side effect. Taylor had never lived long enough to experience that in the novel, so it hadn't been mentioned. Now his chin was covered in blood and his hand was too.

Once again he was glad that he was invisible, especially when people started to converge on Rosalyn.

"I'll leave this to you," he told her, preparing to head back to his valley. "I recommend pretending that injured you," he added, thinking that it would be easier to scam the crown of money if she played up an act that she had sacrificed herself to save people. "You can act, right?"

Rosalyn nodded subtly to confirm his suggestion. Kim Rok Soo placed the non-bloody hand on her shoulder and transmitted a memory of what it felt like to use the shield, along with a clear image of it in case she needed to summon an illusion of it for some reason as part of her cover story.

"I'd also recommend telling them this ancient power has limitations," he suggested. She nodded her head again, a barely perceptible motion.

This cover story might serve her well on her return trip to Breck also, because the Grand Duke would underestimate Rosalyn's condition if she pretended to be in recovery from over-using an ancient power. She was already planning to take Choi Han and Lark along as extra insurance, but the less of a threat that he thought she was, the better. It would be easier to catch him off guard.

Kim Rok Soo eyed the approaching Crown Prince, who appeared to be taking charge of the situation despite the event ostensibly being under his father's jurisdiction. There was something off about Alberu Crossman, and it took him a moment to register what it was. For some reason, the prince was using magic to disguise himself. Kim Rok Soo was able to see through the dye and noted that the prince's hair and eyes were actually dark brown, not the well known blue and blond that were the hallmarks of the Crossman lineage. He could also sense that the prince was not human, which he hadn't expected.

The novel seemed to have left a lot of things out, but this was something he didn't need to think about too deeply. As long as Rosalyn was rewarded for saving everyone, that was all that mattered. Kim Rok Soo made his way out of the plaza as Rosalyn and Alberu awkwardly greeted one another. It was clear that he had recognized who she really was, but now it was time for the two royals to sort things out between themselves.

Choi Han was nowhere in sight, but Kim Rok Soo had expected that. The swordsman was most likely at the location the mage had headed to, since Kim Rok Soo had told him where to go. It was highly likely that one or both of the Molans had gone with him, although he had heard that Ron Molan had mentioned something about hunting foxes and simply disappeared a few days prior, leaving his son behind.

Kim Rok Soo abandoned the notion of walking in the chaotic crowds and took to the air, making use of the Sound of the Wind. The faint breeze it caused went unnoticed by the jostling people below him. He made a quick circuit of the plaza, retrieving the four inert magic bombs that Rosalyn had found and disarmed.

Once he had obtained what he would need to destroy the swamp, Kim Rok Soo returned to the inn and removed his invisibility after he reached his room. He looked around to find something to wipe the remnants of blood off his hand and face. Before he teleported home, he needed to make sure there was no trace of blood on himself, particularly since he still needed to go back down into the street for some chicken skewers.

It didn't take him as long as he had expected to find a vendor selling chicken skewers, her stall still open despite the chaos in other parts of the city. She told him stoically that gossip would make its way to her in good time and there was no reason to abandon her shop in search of it. In her opinion, money was more important, and Kim Rok Soo could respect that. Money was the best.

Skewers in hand, he teleported back to his quiet valley. The three children came racing over as soon as they spotted him, with the Whales following at a more sedate pace.

"Red Dragon, what is that smell?" Raon asked, eyes sharp and alert. It was obvious that he didn't mean the scent of the chicken.

"Smoke, probably," Kim Rok Soo said. "I was just checking that everything went smoothly in the city. Everything's fine."

Ohn eyed him with a distrustful look and he knew that she had correctly identified the lingering copper tang of blood, but since he was not visibly injured and it was only a trace scent, she said nothing. Kim Rok Soo handed out skewers to everyone and bit into his own.

"We can go destroy the swamp this afternoon," he told the Whales.

"You don't need any time to rest?" Witira asked. Kim Rok Soo shook his head.

"I didn't really do much in the city," he said. The Vitality of the Heart had made him feel more energized than even a full night of sleep, so he was fine to fly back to the swamp carrying them. Besides, he planned to let Raon run wild once they got there. He had taken a moment to read the memories of the bombs to figure out how to reactivate them, and had figured out how to make them even more powerful when doing so. Once they were ready to use, he would let Raon be the one to actually use them.

The others agreed that they were ready to go back to the Forest of Darkness, so Kim Rok Soo changed into his dragon form and let the four of them climb onto his back. Raon would fly on his own, as usual. They teleported back to the edge of the treeline and flew over the trees, making their way back to the swamp. Raon had a moment of disorientation due to the magic that Kim Rok Soo had laid over the area despite having been to the swamp previously, but he was able to simply follow the older dragon and the group arrived safely.

Kim Rok Soo once again asked Raon to lower the two Cat children to the ground, and then the two Whales jumped down so that he could change forms and land himself. Hong immediately changed into kitten form ran off to chew on a new type of poisonous plant, delighted at the opportunity to learn more about the toxins it contained.

"We'll need to stay back a bit," Kim Rok Soo suggested to the two Whales and Ohn, leading them to an area that he deemed to be a safe distance from where Raon was going to be given free reign to blow things up. He pulled two of the four bombs from his pocket, tucking some of his own mana into them before handing them over.

"OK Raon, have fun," he said with a smile. The younger dragon was practically vibrating with excitement at being in charge of the demolition. Kim Rok Soo pointed at the swamp. "Destroy it."

Raon took to the sky, mana fluctuating all around him as he flew higher to get a better view of the area. Kim Rok Soo withdrew his mana that had been keeping the area concealed and layered several shields in front of himself and the others. For extra protection, he also summoned the silver shield, drawing gasps of admiration from the two Whales. Now that he had a better idea of how strong it was, Kim Rok Soo intended to let the ancient power take the brunt of the blast and he would absorb anything else with his own mana.

A violent and ominous aura warped the air around them, multiple strands of mana crashing against one another as they gathered around Raon. Kim Rok Soo felt a small shiver go down his spine looking at the display. Dragons really were on a whole other level. He might be a dragon himself, but he certainly wouldn't want to fight another dragon.

The sounds of animals and monsters screeching in terror came from all around them, and Kim Rok Soo layered another bubble of mana around himself and the other four to sound-proof their secure area. He had no interest in listening to those creatures screaming.

"Dragons really are strong," Witira murmured in awe as she observed the still growing mass of mana.

"It's so loud," Raon complained in his mind, and Kim Rok Soo suppressed a smirk.

"Then finish it," he responded. Even the ground beneath his feet was starting to vibrate now and the orb of mana around the other dragon had changed from black to a brilliant light that rivaled the sun. Kim Rok Soo wondered if the dragon corpse in the swamp was even going to be there for him to investigate once Raon was through. That level of power was going to simply obliterate the entire area.

A pitch black pillar shot into the sky and the orb of light started to crack. Kim Rok Soo felt Ohn and Hong huddling against his legs, clearly freaking out a little at the overwhelming power that Raon was displaying. There was a massive blow against his silver shield and Kim Rok Soo flinched as the ancient power absorbed as much as it could before breaking. Everything was over in a matter of seconds and his layers of shielding crumbled away.

He felt the sensation in his throat that indicated he was about to cough blood again and swore mentally. Once again he barely managed to cover his mouth and he stifled the sound as best as he could before spitting the blood surreptitiously at the ground. He had hoped that after using the power once, it would be easier to control this reaction, but he had underestimated how heavy the blow from Raon's magic and the bombs would be. It would have been better to let the ancient power be the inner shield instead.

"Red dragon, did you see that?" Raon crowed excitedly. He noted the blood on Kim Rok Soo's lips and quickly zipped down to investigate the older dragon. "Red Dragon, what's this? What happened?"

"I'm fine," Kim Rok Soo assured him. He wished that he had covered his mouth with a mask like the Whales and Ohn, but since he could purify the air that he breathed, he hadn't needed to protect against the poison like they did. His gaze flickered to the poisonous plants that Hong had been chewing on and he debated pretending one of them had affected him.

"You're bleeding!" Raon and Ohn both protested.

"I'm not," Kim Rok Soo told them, wiping the bloody residue from his lips.

"Don't use that shield again!" Raon said urgently, correctly identifying the source of the supposed 'injury.' "I think that magic isn't for dragons! Don't worry, I'll protect you instead!"

"I'm fine," Kim Rok Soo assured the children again. He noted that both of the Whales were alternating between concern for his condition and fear of Raon's precise and extreme power. The precision required to destroy just the swamp while leaving the surroundings untouched was incredible.

"You did well," he added, praising Raon. The younger dragon preened.

"It was so refreshing," he said. Kim Rok Soo made a mental note never to anger the little dragon. Even if he was older, he felt that there was a bit of a gap in their power levels. Perhaps it was because Raon was a natural-born dragon, while Kim Rok Soo was merely a human who had become a dragon, or maybe Raon had been stronger from birth. All the novel had really said about dragons was that they were the strongest beings in the world. He thought that a fight between two dragons would be incredibly destructive.

Perhaps that was part of why dragons were loners and kept to themselves. Maybe they naturally recognized that if they quarreled with one another, the world around them would pay the price.

Kim Rok Soo looked at the space where the swamp had been. There was a lump of what looked like black mud in the approximate shape of a dragon that was larger than he was when he was in his dragon form. He wondered how old it had been when it died and if dragons continued to grow throughout their lives. There was a white crown visible where dragon's head would have been and Kim Rok Soo assumed it was the ancient power that he and Raon had sensed.

"I'm going to go have a look at that," he told the others. As he approached it, he activated the sound of the wind to cut through the black mud, carving it away from the dragon bones beneath. He heard a voice in his mind, as he had when he approached all the other ancient powers, speaking about the power of fear.

"Bullshit," he muttered at the notion that fear was the easiest way to take away an enemy's breath. Humans already lived a life full of dread and fear about the mysterious world. He had overcome all sorts of fears in his life.

The ancient voice started to laugh and agreed that it was bullshit. Kim Rok Soo was close enough to touch the crown now and he reached out to touch the jewel embedded in it. The voice urged him to use the power well as a bright light shot out of the crown and he felt the familiar sensation of power wrapping around his heart.

"Sometimes even bluffing can save your life, even when you're already strong," the voice of the ancient power said. Kim Rok Soo pulled his hand away from the crown, which had felt as if it were trying to draw him in and drain his energy. Something told him that he should not follow the lead of the dead dragon and try to wear it.

"Red Dragon, why do you feel so much stronger all the sudden?" Raon asked, flying over to investigate Kim Rok Soo and the white bones of the dead dragon. He ignored the other dragon, dismissing the aura of his new power and calling Ohn over instead.

"Put your hand close to the crown, but don't touch it," he instructed her. "Does anything feel weird?"

"No," she said, confirming his suspicions that the crown only reacted to dragons. Kim Rok Soo opened a magic bag and held it out to her.

"Put that crown in here." Ohn did as she was told, looking slightly perplexed as to why Kim Rok Soo hadn't simply done it himself.

"I think this crown has some kind of power that is meant to be used against dragons," Kim Rok Soo explained, closing the bag. He would put that somewhere secure and ensure that Raon did not get anywhere near it. "It may have even been what killed this dragon." He rested his palm on the enormous skull of the dead dragon.

Witira and Paseton were still lingering in the area outside what had formerly been the swamp. Kim Rok Soo supposed he probably should have checked their condition sooner, but he had been eager to lay claim to the dragon skeleton. He used magic to tuck the bones away and called up to the siblings.

"Are you two all right?"

"We're fine," Paseton said, though he still sounded a bit shaken.

"The stagnant mana has cleared up," Kim Rok Soo observed. He offered the siblings a smile. "As promised, the swamp has been destroyed."

"…yes, it has," Witira agreed.

"I'll take you two back to the islands now then," Kim Rok Soo suggested. They both nodded and Kim Rok Soo collected the kittens, calling Raon over to follow him. Moments later they were on the sandy beach of the island in the Ubarr territory, the late afternoon sunlight glittering on the ocean water in front of them.

"We'll keep in touch," Witira promised. Kim Rok Soo nodded, intending to call on the pair some day in the future. He had yet to actually introduce them to Choi Han and Rosalyn, but he knew they would work together eventually. Details of the sea route would also need to be discussed in depth with Billos present, though Kim Rok Soo assumed the Whales would be in disguise for that meeting rather than revealing their identities to the merchant.

The siblings slipped into the water and shifted back into their whale forms, disappearing into the depths. Kim Rok Soo turned his attention to the three children.

"Shall we go home?" he asked.

"Yes!" three enthusiastic voices chorused. Kim Rok Soo teleported back to the valley and glanced around at the peaceful meadow, watching the flowers and grass ripple with the breeze. He had grown used to the solitude in this valley, but despite how recent and quick the changes had been, he was already growing used to the new normal. There may be a war looming in the future, but he couldn't help thinking that the future looked bright ahead despite what trials may come. Whatever came his way, he wouldn't need to face it alone.

He had a family again.