Chi-Woo felt confused and flustered at the same time. He could swear that he had never wanted the breath of a young girl who hadn’t even lost her baby fat yet. However, when he thought about it carefully, her words felt familiar. After searching through his memory, he soon recalled his conversation with La Bella and the material she had told him to collect for the reliquia. And among them…
“Breath of a dragon,” Chi-Woo muttered to himself and stared blankly at the girl with pigtails. This freckled waitress really was the central figure of the Cassiubia League, the Last Dragon? For real? He was baffled at a completely different level than before. This situation was equivalent to Chi-Hyun suddenly popping out of nowhere on the human side. Why did she suddenly appear in front of him?
“Because I was curious,” the girl—no, the Last Dragon in the form of a girl, answered without even being asked. “You’re his family, and not a distant family, but someone from the direct family line.”
She came to see him because he was the legend’s brother. It was a more realistic reason than he’d expected, but he still couldn’t completely understand it either. She came all the way here for just that reason…?
“That isn’t the only reason.” She shook her head in disagreement and continued, “You must not know much about the blood running through your body, but…ah?” Then she seemed surprised mid-sentence and stared intently at Chi-Woo. “Oh my. You really grew up as an ordinary person without knowing anything. This is slightly surprising?”
Chi-Woo’s eyes became big as saucers. He hadn’t revealed it to anyone. How did she know information that only Philip and his brother knew?
“I want to dive in a little deeper, but…then he’ll get angry, right? That’s a little scary, so I’ll stop for now.”
Chi-Woo was puzzled by what had happened just now; at the same time, he felt an unknown sense of danger. It was hard to describe it, but it felt foreign and increased his wariness.
The girl seemed pleased by his reaction as she smiled broadly. “By the way, when are you going to go in?” It seemed she really didn’t plan to delve deeper into this matter as she immediately changed the topic. “I was expecting a lot…aha, you’re looking for a guide. Yeah, a guide is important.” Chi-Woo couldn’t help but be surprised again. Did the Last Dragon know everything?
“Don’t worry too much.”
What did she mean by this?
“Hmm—” Then the girl suddenly looked back toward the direction the expedition members had gone earlier. Was he imagining things that she seemed to be looking beyond the gate and towards the Hala Forest? “Even at the latest, you can probably depart the day after tomorrow. Of course, the choice is up to you.”
Chi-Woo clutched his forehead with his hand. His head was spinning, and it felt like he was talking to a shaman who had reached the peak of her power. Frankly, he had wanted to meet the Last Dragon at least once to get the dragon’s breath. Currently, there was only one existence on Liber who could be called a dragon; after all, she was called the Last Dragon for a reason. If he could, he wanted to ask her about the dragon’s breath and all kinds of other topics. However, he had never imagined that he would meet her like this.
“Okay.”
Chi-Woo stared at the smiling girl. ‘Okay?’
“I’m talking about the dragon’s breath. But I have one condition. It won’t be fun if I just give it to you.”
‘No. It would be just as fun if you give it to me…’
“Even if it’s fun for you, it’s not fun for me.”
Chi-Woo, who had been protesting inside his mind, was startled.
“And also, isn’t it up to the giver to decide what to do?”
Although it was regretful, he had no choice but to accept her condition since she was right. Then the girl looked at Chi-Woo with a curious gaze for a bit and suddenly chuckled. “I was a bit nervous because he’s Chi-Hyun’s brother, but he’s cute,” she murmured to herself and cleared her throat. “Hmm, it’s simple. Well, it’s not a simple task, but the condition is to subjugate the Hala Forest. Then I’ll give you a small thing like my breath…no, it’s not trivial at all, but anyway, I’ll give it to you.”
Chi-Woo received a task to subjugate the Hala Forest. Since she came all the way here herself to set forth this condition, it seemed she was very interested in this matter as well.
“By the way, goddess La Bella is too much, really. She’s being too greedy. Why is she trying to take everything good?” The girl laughed and shook her head, saying no one could stop the goddess.
Chi-Woo recalled that he also had to find the crazy moon’s fang and core of solitude…uh? Solitude? [1]
“What are you so worried about?” The girl grinned. “With that condition just now, you have no choice but to gather my breath as the very last ingredient.” Among the various materials for reliquia, the dragon’s breath was the last one he would obtain by conquering the Hala Forest. Thus, this meant only one thing.
“Of course, that’s only the case if you conquer the Hala Forest and come back safely.” The girl’s smile deepened. “Anyway, it would be best for you to not go too late.” She said one more incomprehensible sentence and turned around. Then she looked over her shoulder at Chi-Woo. “I think the candidate has already been decided to some extent. If you’re too late…it could all be taken away?”
Chi-Woo’s eyes narrowed; these weren’t words that he could easily overlook.
“Well then, I’ll be waiting for you here, okay?” She quickly left as if she had finished all her business.
Chi-Woo did not immediately move. It felt as if he had been bewitched. Then suddenly, he identified the strange and wary feeling he had been having sometimes during the conversation—Chi-Woo had never spoken a single word out loud.
* * *
The next day, Chi-Woo and the other expedition members began to search for a guide as soon as the sun rose. After inquiring here and there, they were able to talk to quite a few people. However, most of them refused, and some even broke out into cold sweat. Of course, ‘most of them’ didn’t mean ‘every one’, and there were some Cassiubia League members who gave a favorable response.
The problem was that their offer was conditional, and in short, they all asked for money. They asked for advance payment in return for serving as a guide, or they asked for a daily wage. The price they put forth was thousands of royals at the lowest and tens of thousands of royals at the highest. Considering the expedition members’ financial situation, it was a condition that was impossible for them to accept.
At first, Chi-Woo couldn’t understand it. It would have been more understandable if they acted like Mangil did at their last expedition and set a special condition that in exchange for royals, they were to relinquish rights over all goods obtained during the expedition. Normally, it was common to participate in expeditions with the expectation that they would receive goods rather than money. Furthermore, subjugating the Hala Forest was for the public good rather than personal gain. They needed to stabilize the area even a second earlier for Liber’s future.
However, after looking for a guide all day long, Chi-Woo suddenly realized why everyone was asking for money. Currently, the remaining Cassiubia League members at the Hala outpost were those who had entered the Hala Forest once and barely survived. Most of them had no intentions of ever going back in. Why? It was because they had already tasted hell, and they had no intention of going back there to die. Then why were they still here? It was to remediate the loss caused by this expedition.
At first, they invested heavily in the expedition dreaming of gaining money or fame, but dust was the only thing left in their pockets. Thus, they wanted money to make up for the loss even by a little bit. Even if Chi-Woo gave them money, they would never go into the center of the Hala Forest. They would at most go back to the relatively safe entrance area of the Hala Forest as the guide and return after sucking out as much money as they could. Moreover, the guides he met today had to risk their lives to go even that far. The few really talented members had already died in the Hala Forest, or had failed to conquer it and left the outpost immediately because like Ismile, they realized that this was a place they shouldn’t mess with.
Given the circumstances, Chi-Woo had no choice but to return to the tavern at sunset. Judging by how the other expedition members returned with crest-fallen faces, they all seemed to have gone through the same experience. Chi-Woo fell into thought. There were only two methods left—to find a competent guide somehow, or wait until new members arrived. He suddenly thought of Hawa, but Chi-Woo shook his head. Even if he had to cancel the expedition, he couldn’t put forward just anyone as a guide.
While everyone had their mouths shut and stared at the table, the buzz inside the tavern suddenly intensified. It seemed there was some kind of disturbance outside.
“What? What’s going on?”
“What’s happening?”
A couple of members of the Cassiubia League went outside the tavern and returned shortly after. “Ah geez, in the end, that team also…”
“Yeah, why did they go during this period…but at least a few of them came back alive…” They all clicked their tongues with a bitter expression.
Chi-Woo tilted his head, but that was the extent of his reaction. In the end, the day ended without much gain.
* * *
The next day, Chi-Woo decided to call everyone in the morning and have a meeting. Just as he was about to start, the tavern door slammed open. Someone gasped and struggled to breathe while looking around in a hurry. He had a pair of bright yellow feathers sprouting from the top of his head like horns, an elongated beak instead of a mouth, and sharp eyes like those of a hawk. He didn’t have wings, but it seemed he was a birdman. However, the birdman didn’t appear to be in good condition.
There were dark, red marks all over his leather jacket and pants, and he looked like he just escaped from a battlefield. The birdman looked around in all directions, and after seeing the expedition members sitting at a table, he widened his eyes. The birdman approached them and immediately asked the blonde human, “Are you Ru Amuh?”
Ru Amuh looked slightly surprised. When he didn’t reply, the birdman asked again, “Are you the human expedition team from Shalyh that is currently looking for a guide to enter the Hala Forest?”
Several expedition members nodded this time.
“I see.” The birdman let out a long breath and quickly said, “If you don’t mind, I want you to take me as your guide. As soon as possible, come on!”
The expedition members, who had been staring at him in bafflement, looked at each other. It was great that someone volunteered to be their guide, but why so suddenly?
“Would you sit down first?” Evelyn pointed to an empty chair and suggested.
The birdman looked extremely urgent, but he sat down with a look of forced patience. Then he hastily began to explain. The expedition members could roughly guess what had happened to him, and their prediction was correct. To summarize, the expedition team led by the birdman went to subjugate the Hala Forest and failed, and during this process, several of his comrades were killed or captured. Still, it was certainly surprising that his team was able to get past the entry and move further inside.
The birdman wasn’t able to suppress his anger and cried out while banging on the table, “That fucking bastard! What did they say? We’re no fun? So they need to at least toy with us like this? If I want to save her, I need to bring stronger ones…?!” By his explanation, it seemed his team had encountered a powerful enemy who had made considerable progress in evolution on their way to the heart of the forest.
Apoline, who had been listening silently, asked, “Then what happened to your expedition team?”
The birdman gritted his teeth and shouted, “Not all of them are dead. However, when I asked them to form a team again to save our comrade, they all refused and ran away. Cowards!”
Apoline let out a short snort and glanced sideways at Ru Amuh. “That’s why you want to join a new team…but how did you know his name?”
“I heard from Dalgil,” the birdman replied in an indignant tone as his anger had yet to subside.
Chi-Woo’s eyes widened. “Mr. Dalgil? From the Buhguhbu tribe?”
“Yeah. And for your information, Dalgil led an expedition team before me to conquer the Hala Forest.”
‘So that’s what happened.’ Chi-Woo had been wondering why he didn’t see Mr. Dalgil. Muttering inside his mind, he was about to ask what had happened, but promptly decided against it. On second thought, he didn’t even need to ask.
“Dalgil also barely managed to survive, but half of his expedition team died or were severely injured.”
As expected, Dalgil also failed. Chi-Woo closed his eyes and thought it was a relief that at least Dalgil hadn’t died.
“Dalgil told me that we can’t leave the Hala Forest like this and gave me information.” The birdman huffed and said, “But after he said everything…he seemed extremely regretful.” Then the birdman suddenly continued with a slightly calmer tone, “He told me that if he had gathered an expedition team with the same members as when he went on the Narsha Haram expedition, he wouldn’t have met such a disastrous outcome.” His hawk eyes glowed sharply as he looked back at the expedition members. “What he said went over my head back then, but after experiencing the same thing as Dalgil, I recalled what he said. And just in time, I heard that a human expedition team had arrived and ran here to check in case you were the ones he was talking about.”
The birdman seemed to be running out of breath by just talking. He continued, “I’ve heard the name Ru Amuh before with the success of the Narsha Haram expedition but…Dalgil mentioned one more person besides him. Let me think… He said there was a person who clearly looked like a priest but claimed that he was a warrior… Is that human here too, perhaps?”
Chi-Woo smiled dryly and said, “He’s talking about me. I’m Chi-Woo.”
“Chi-Woo…? From what I heard, it was Chichi… Never mind. Whatever is fine.”
Chi-Woo sighed in relief.
“Please let me join you. If you’re the two humans Dalgil acknowledged, I’m sure you must have also picked trustworthy and solid comrades. You’ve even overcome the tower created as a god’s trial…!” The bird man tightly clenched his fists. “I can’t leave like this. I need to find Laksia no matter what… Damn it!” There was an indescribable earnestness in his trembling voice. He seemed to have a very special relationship with Laksia.
“Why don’t you just give up?” One of the Cassiubia League members, who had been listening in on their conversation from afar to see if they could get anything, intervened. “You must already know since you’ve been there once. If she got captured, she’s probably already—"
“Shut up!” the birdman growled at them and glared with his sharp hawk eyes. “I’ll save her somehow! Or I’ll find the one who ate Laksia and rip them apart!”
The Cassiubia League member quietly withdrew at the birdman’s terrifying roar. Chi-Woo stared at the birdman as he repeatedly clenched his fist and opened it. The Last Dragon was right. A guide had come to them on his own the day after tomorrow. Although Chi-Woo could just say ‘okay’, he decided to trust his own judgment rather than blindly follow the last dragon’s words.
“I have a question,” Chi-Woo asked.
“What is it?”
“So what are you trying to do? Are you going to conquer the Hala Forest, or save your comrade?”
The birdman didn’t immediately reply. It would be ridiculous for him to start talking about a noble cause of saving Liber after all this. However, one thing was clear. “…Regardless of my reason, we’re both trying to do the same thing. Isn’t that enough reason for us to act together?”
“And if there comes a time when we have no choice but to return?”
“If it’s really an impossible situation, I’ll accept it. I won’t disagree with the expedition leader’s order for no reason. No matter how urgent my situation is, I’m not an amateur who’ll ignore even the most basic rules.”
“Are you sure?”
“If I act out of line or act too stubborn, you can just leave me. I won’t blame you.”
Chi-Woo became a little bit more confident in his decision since the birdman was going this far. He thought it was worth a try.
The birdman seemed to have read positive signs from Chi-Woo and shouted impatiently,
“Okay. Then is it decided? Let’s go quickly!”
“We can’t leave immediately.” However, Chi-Woo shook his head. The birdman was about to ask why, but he stood up and stopped. Then he scowled a bit. In fact, the smell of blood had been wafting from him for a while. It seemed he had hurriedly treated his injury, but it must have been quite serious considering it hadn’t healed yet. Soon after, Chi-Woo glanced at Evelyn, and Evelyn quietly got up from her seat and approached the birdman. Then she extended her hand, and a white light came out.
“Well, I appreciate the effort, but it probably won’t work. But don’t worry too much. A wound like this is…?” The birdman’s eyes widened mid-sentence because he felt the pain in his rib completely disappear as a warm energy enveloped him. There was no way someone could heal him this fast unless they were a priest at saintess level. The birdman looked at the expedition members again with a slightly different eye. Despite what he had heard from Dalgil, he was merely grasping at straws with doubt. Perhaps they really can…
Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.
“…I understand. I’ll get treated first, rest properly, and reorganize. But even then, I would like to leave at least by the end of the day. Even if it’s a little late.” As the pain went away, his seething emotions seemed to have also subsided a bit, and he said in a calmer tone.
“Yes, let’s do that. I look forward to having you on our team.” Chi-Woo didn’t oppose the suggestion. ‘There’s no time to sit back and relax.’ Chi-Woo had no intention to blindly trust the Last Dragon, but he was going to put it into careful consideration.
“Come to think of it, my introduction is late.” The birdman straightened his posture and strode forward. Perhaps because he was a guide, the birdman noticed that Chi-Woo was the expedition leader and extended his hand toward Chi-Woo. “I’m Lakshasha of the Garula Tribe, who serves the great god Garuda. My tier is Gold I. I look forward to working with you as well.”
Chi-Woo also got up and held Lakshasha’s hands tightly. After finally securing a guide, they received an entry pass from Ismile and left the Hala outpost around afternoon—towards the Hala Forest, where unknown dangers lurked.
1. Godeok also means solitude in Korean. ☜