38. Princess Run (13)
***
If asked to describe a dragon’s personality traits in one word, many would answer like this:
avarice.
Their obsessive desire for gold and silver is well known, but their greed for wealth is only a secondary aspect. The most powerful motivation that moves dragons is their desire for power. Money is also just a means to gain power for them.
Even after spending a long time in the egg after hatching, dragons have a clear sense of reason and high intelligence that is incomparable to that of other species’ embryos. Before hatching, the parents whisper to the dragons, almost like indoctrination, how great a species they are. About their superior magical power, strong body, outstanding intelligence, and overwhelming status.
Thanks to this, the dragon that had been waiting to hatch while drawing an infinitely positive image of itself, breaks its shell and runs into the wall of reality. This is because it is faced with a self that is far from the perfection it had imagined inside the egg.
With its flimsy scales, weak magic, and not-so-great intelligence, the encounter with a finite being that is different from what one had imagined even brings about a sense of helplessness.
Therefore, many dragons grow up jealous of their parents. The happy thought that they too will become superior to their elders in time is not enough to appease them, because as he grows older and gains strength, his parents become even stronger.
Therefore, the dragon’s psychological growth process is defined as an endless battle with jealousy and inferiority complex.
And many dragons solve this problem by projecting their mental shadow onto other races, because the joy of controlling an inferior race perfectly gives them a sense of comfort.
Personality formed in infancy has long-lasting effects on life, and many dragons have found satisfaction in dominating and dominating other species even in old age. There are no universal statistics, but if we were to look closely, it would be more than 60% of dragons who have such tendencies.
Jenkins was one of those 60 percent.
“What? What did you just say to me?”
A man in a suit with neatly-tied blond hair glared at his subordinate with cold eyes. The elf shivered as he received his gaze.
He currently pours out cold flames from his pupils, and although he appears young by human or elf standards, his true identity is that of an ancient dragon who has lived for over a thousand years.
To elaborate a bit more, Goryong is so upset that he has considered a food-related reorganization and layoffs several times over the past few days.
The elf thought in despair, ‘The chief secretary should have come with me on this business trip!’
“Sorry… sorry… sorry… I’m sorry!”
“Why did the dimensional jump ship that was working fine suddenly break down!”
After receiving reports of a raid on the North Korean warehouse, Jenkins and his crew set off straight from the committee. They needed six dimension jumps to get to Earth, and they had just completed the fifth yesterday. They only needed one more jump from the dimension they were currently in as a stopover before they could enter Earth.
However, at this crucial moment, we suddenly received a report that a problem had arisen and the departure had been postponed.
“Where is the problem? What the heck is the problem?!”
“That, that… you know… we too…”
In his hasty return, Jenkinson had leased an entire jumpship from the committee, and now there’s trouble on their property!
“How long will it take to repair it?”
“In Earth time… about 3 days….”
“what?!”
Jenkins couldn’t control his anger and was about to turn back into a dragon at any moment. The poor elf was on the verge of fainting. The dragon barely managed to calm down.
The reason why my anger suddenly boiled over and the reason why it subsided again were both due to my feelings of anxiety.
‘This is really dangerous!’
Although he left the work to Minjun, he had a lot of work to do and needed to get to Earth as quickly as possible.
The area he was in charge of, Korea, is small in territory and has a small population, but it is an economic powerhouse accounting for 5% of the world’s GDP.
In the modern era when traditional energy, food, mineral, and medical industries have collapsed, magic has become a very important industry, and Korea has been one of the top ten advanced countries in this field. The fact that magic can produce excellent output ‘the more people are divided’ has played a part in this country’s propaganda.
In other words, there were many dragons who were eyeing his position in charge of such an important area.
If things continue like this, the power he holds could be shaken.
“What about other jump ships? Are there any other jump ships approved by the committee?! Find one quickly!”
I was desperate, but the odds weren’t high.
Jenkinson’s cooperation with the committee resulted in the fact that all jumps into Earth were not blocked, but all jumps out of Earth were blocked. That was one of the reasons for the hasty charter. It was thought that it would be difficult to find trade ships or passenger ships that were trying to go to Earth, since once they entered, they did not know when they would be able to come out.
Common sense would tell me that even if I came now and looked for another ship, there was no way I would find one right away…
“I, actually, have already looked it up···!”
The secretary hands over the documents with trembling hands. Jenkinson’s expression distorted as he read them. There was a jump ship that had reported to enter Earth today and had even received permission from the committee.
but.
“Damn, this is too far!”
The dimension from which the ship departed was too far from the world Jenkins and his party were currently in. They would have already reached Earth by the time they caught another passenger ship and made a few jumps.
‘This is also a world line. Well, in this situation, this is the only way to enter Earth… Hmm?!’
He felt a sense of wonder, even in his irritation, because he had read the information about the only passenger on board the ship. The list officially reported to the committee had no name, but there was something else written.
‘······Why is this species heading to Earth alone in this situation?’
That moment.
Beep!
The elf checked something and then spoke with a huff.
“Ah, I… Chairman! There’s a communication from Secretary Campbell on Earth right now….”
The dragon shook off his thoughts and responded, hoping that this time, amidst the string of terrible misfortunes, it would be good news.
And a few seconds later, the elder dragon receiving the report almost broke the communicator.
***
After confirming the gruesome body in the underground parking lot, Blair immediately tried to communicate with Jenkinson and relayed Minjun’s opinion that it would be best for the princess to return home immediately.
The chief of staff reported the current situation as calmly as possible. They had not yet been able to extract information on the high-ranking members of the Human Rights Solidarity, the whereabouts of Jang Tae-jun’s research materials and samples stolen from the Bukhansan warehouse were also unknown, Princess Vermi was attacked in broad daylight on the street, and the fact was widely reported in the media, and many of the agents invited from overseas were brutally murdered.
After all these reports, the chief secretary lost Jenkinson from the magic image for a moment. For a moment, all she could see was the red color filling the screen. Only after Jenkinson adjusted the resolution of the image recorder did she see the dragon spitting fire from its nostrils.
After many twists and turns, Minjun asked her after she finished communicating.
“Did you get permission?”
The chief secretary said with a haggard face.
“Yes. The chairman spoke directly to the committee. As for the dimensional leap ship that Princess Vermi came on… it is possible to depart today.”
Although outbound was completely blocked by the dimensional barrier, the committee made an exception and re-set it so that only her ship could pass through.
Since it was no longer a situation where they could leisurely ride around in a vehicle, they used the power of the mobilized magicians to teleport the princess, her attendants, and agents all together. The destination was Yeongjong Island.
A while later, they were sitting in the VIP waiting room at the departure terminal in Incheon Airport.
Woof! Woof!
The princess was having an unintelligible conversation with the frying pan she had brought for interpretation. Watching her, Minjun thought about his old colleague.
‘Non-contact mental communication.’
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A degraded version of Bradley’s powers is embedded in the frying pan. Not a common power, by any means.
This kind of interpretation is not a transcendent miracle that accesses a database that stores all languages in the universe, but rather a principle of reading the speaker’s verbalized surface consciousness at the moment of utterance. In other words, it is a limited mind-reading technique.
Few people had the ability to do so without contact, and Minjun only knew of one person, Bradley. He used his ability to read and track residual thoughts rather than interpret them.
Minjun’s thoughts wandered around, returning to the frying pan the princess was holding.
‘You transplanted such a rare ability into a cooking utensil? ······That’s strange, really.’
Jenkins seemed unaware of this fact. According to the product description distributed externally, that model was not originally equipped with such a feature.
Furthermore, I heard through the immigration office that most of the models in question have been recalled and disposed of due to the lawsuit. Perhaps the one the princess is holding now is the only one left in the entire universe.
Minjun, who had been thinking about the frying pan for a while, turned his thoughts back to remembering and mourning Bradley.
And I felt truly sorry.
‘If he had such a rare ability… he would have lived a life that was the envy of others even after leaving the facility. But to die so meaninglessly!’
He felt anger and sadness of unknown depth. It seemed that his feelings were expressed in his expression. The princess who was watching him said something and the frying pan vibrated differently than before. It was asking him to reach out to her.
Normally, I would have ignored it, but now it meant that the princess had something to say. The two talked through Frypan’s interpretation.
“I heard that your friend recently lost his life.”
I didn’t know that they were fellow inmates, but I explained that we knew each other through some means.
It seems that Frying Pan heard and relayed the conversation between other agents.
“I feel uneasy because it seems like it happened because of me.”
Her eyes were deeply filled with guilt and concern. Minjun shook his head silently.
“It’s not your fault, princess.”
Princess Vermi seemed to know the identities of those who were after her.
“I’ve heard the story too. I heard that this world has an unusually severe conflict between races.”
“······It is very rare to have seven mass migrations in just a few decades. It was an expected outcome.”
“It’s instinctive to feel anxious when a strange creature wanders into your territory. It’s completely understandable. It’s a primal defense mechanism that arises from not being able to predict the future.”
She said, making a gesture that would be the equivalent of a sigh in humans.
“Our world has had to fight several race wars despite the fact that mass migration has been slow and steady over hundreds of years. The only way to ease the anxiety is to show that neither the natives nor the immigrants will be considered ‘foreigners’, but the Council failed in this regard. Of course, we were the biggest victims. The Shutan were the race that lived there from the beginning.”
Minjun made a surprised expression. This was because what he had heard before did not match the context of what was being said.
“Didn’t you say that the history before the Race War was almost completely lost?”
“······Some of them have been handed down.”
Blair approached, interrupting their conversation.
“I think we’ll have to wait a few more hours until the jump. The jump ship’s cargo weight has changed a lot since it came to Earth, so I’ll do some additional testing to see if there’s a group of stowaways hiding there, and submit the report to the committee. Of course, since there were no signs of life, it should be approved right away.”
Then the princess looked blatantly shy.
“I’m sorry for causing trouble. ······I bought some jewels while I was out in space after a long time.”
Minjun thought as he looked at the gorgeous scale art she wore. For that race, jewels replace the concept of clothing. For humans, it would be like going on a shopping spree while abroad. Of course, she herself had only stayed at the hotel until yesterday, so the people below would have taken care of sweeping up the items on the list and transporting them directly to the jump ship.
‘Well, money will rot away.’
Anyway, the final stage of this escort mission was at hand. ‘Delivering’ the princess safely to her home dimension. The transport itself would be handled by the jump ship, so his responsibility was to stay here for a few hours and see her off safely. After that, he would track down the culprit who made Bradley like this and finally bring him down properly this time…
“Eww!”
“?!”
A desperate scream was heard, breaking Minjun’s thoughts.
It was the rooftop where the agents who came together were standing guard.
