Chapter 7 — Oppa, How Did You Do That?

[7] Oppa, How Did You Do That?

After finishing a simple lunch, we arrived at the D-rank Gate we would be clearing today.

The recommended number of people for clearing it was two.

It was an ordinary D-rank Gate known to be inhabited by Lizardmen.

“Sia, do you happen to have any equipment?”

“Yeah! I have plenty in my subspace. Why? Did you forget to bring your equipment, Oppa?”

“I brought mine. I just asked in case you didn't have any.”

Unlike me, who hadn't changed much compared to a year ago, the equipment in my subspace should still have been there.

But Sia was different.

She had probably lost both the subspace she had used in her previous life and all the equipment inside it when she went through reincarnation.

That was why I thought she wouldn't have any equipment.

Yet, Sia was already prepared as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

But then...

“.........?”

The first piece of equipment Sia took out was none other than a sword.

It was a sword whose appearance alone was enough to tell me that it was extraordinary.

I didn't even need to hold it to know.

I could tell just how absurdly overwhelming this thing was.

Still, I looked at her with a slight sense of confusion.

The fact that Sia, a Dragon, was taking out a weapon for a mere D-rank Gate was already nonsensical enough.

But more importantly, if Sia was pretending to be a mage, shouldn't she be using a wand rather than a sword?

Especially if she intended to pretend to be a D-rank mage.

Just as I was wondering about that, Sia held the sword out to me.

“Here, Oppa. Use this.”

“...... Huh?”

“It’s my present. I thought it would suit you.”

Sia's unexpected action caught me off guard for a moment.

“Do you not like it? Should I give you something else?”

“No, no, of course not. If it's something Sia gives me, I'd be happy even if it were a toothpick. I was just a little flustered. Thank you. I'll put it to good use.”

“There’s still more, Oppa.”

“Hm? There’s ...... more?”

“Yeah. Just wait a moment.”

As if the sword had merely been the beginning, Sia began taking out armor, a helmet, a cloak, accessories, and all kinds of other equipment from her subspace.

Judging by the class of the sword Sia had just given me, I suspected that those pieces of equipment weren't ordinary either.

And my prediction was correct.

Once I put them on, the aura emanating from each and every piece of equipment was extraordinary.

“Thank you, Sia. I'll put them to good use.”

“Wait a moment, Oppa. There’s still a lot left.”

After that, Sia continued taking artifacts out of her subspace.

I had heard that Dragons usually piled their lairs high with treasures, but this was truly beyond anything I had imagined.

“Sia, does this sword ...... have a name?”

In the middle of all this, I asked Sia about the identity of the sword.

The other pieces of equipment were impressive as well, but when I held this sword, I felt as though it and I were connected by some invisible thread.

How should I put it?

Even though I was holding this sword for the first time today, it felt strangely familiar, as if I had been wielding it for a very long time.

Sia then spoke with a slightly surprised expression.

“That is ...... the Dragon Bone Sword.”

The Dragon Bone Sword.

It wasn't simply because it was a good weapon.

There was something more to it. Something about it just felt right.

But having someone like me, who was carrying all these ridiculous items, fight nothing but Lizardmen...

There was something rather strange about that too.

Anyway.

After finishing all our preparations, Sia and I stood at the entrance of the Gate with our hearts pounding.

Perhaps because it had been so long since I had cleared a Gate, I was nervous.

At the same time, though, memories of how we used to be came flooding back, filling my heart with emotion.

And then.

‘Is Sia... okay?’

I suddenly checked Sia's condition.

I had briefly forgotten, but the Gate was the terrible place where Sia had once died.

Even though 2,500 years had passed for Sia, weren't Dragons said to be beings who never forgot?

Just as I had suffered from trauma over the past year, perhaps Sia too had some trauma related to Gates, even if she didn't say anything about it.

“Are you okay?”

But the moment I asked Sia if she was okay,

Sia asked me the exact same thing.

We had both asked each other the same question at the same time, and soon we smiled pleasantly at one another.

“You were worried that I might have trauma too, weren't you, Oppa?”

I nodded.

Perhaps she was touched by that small gesture, because Sia suddenly planted a kiss on my cheek.

“I’m really fine, so you don't have to worry at all. More importantly... are you okay, Oppa? About what happened back then......”

“Yeah. I'm fine too. I was worried, but I didn't expect myself to be this okay.”

To be honest, I had been a little tense before entering the Gate.

But immediately after entering the Gate, strangely enough, I wasn't nervous at all.

Rather than suffering from something like trauma, I actually felt excited.

“That's a relief. Let's finish quickly and go eat mala spicy rice cakes for dinner!”

Just hearing that made it sound as though we had come out for a walk around the neighborhood rather than to clear a Gate.

Well, Sia was beside me, too.

With all the artifacts Sia had given me in my possession, I felt absolutely no tension.

In fact, it felt almost like a date.

We walked slowly through the Gate, waiting for the monsters to attack us.

And then, after a while,

Several Lizardmen appeared from the ten o'clock direction.

The Lizardmen let out their distinctive cries as they cautiously watched us.

“Oppa, over there.”

“I spotted them too!”

“I’ll watch from here. You can handle those guys by yourself, right, Oppa?”

“Of course. I'll be right back.”

Sia wished me luck, saying that although it probably wouldn't happen, she would help if things ever became dangerous.

Well, I didn't think I would need Sia's help anyway.

The difference in ranks was just too absurd.

Unlike us, who were completely relaxed, the Lizardmen seemed to sense the danger and shifted into a combat stance.

“Kieeeek!”

When they had come close enough,

Feeling the pleasant resonance coming from the sword, I swung it at the Lizardmen without hesitation.

Slash—!

Before one of the Lizardmen could even react, its neck was cleanly severed.

I had thought that my practical combat sense would have deteriorated considerably because of the long break.

But perhaps thanks to the rank reassessment I had undergone that morning, I had absolutely no trouble wielding the sword.

No.

Maybe it was because of the equipment, but I actually felt as though my skills were even better than before.

Not only the movements involved in swinging the sword, but the Lizardmen's movements were also much easier to see.

Their strides.

The trajectories of the crude weapons they wielded.

I could see everything.

I continued swinging the sword like a fish that had found water.

If it had been the old me, I wouldn't have been able to finish them off in a single strike.

But right now, I had the absurdly powerful weapon Sia had given me in my hands.

The Lizardmen fell one after another without even having a chance to resist a single blow.

“Phew.”

I had expected things to be somewhat easy because I was wearing such incredible equipment.

But I never imagined they would be this easy.

I turned my head toward Sia.

Of course, there was nothing particularly impressive about killing a few Lizardmen with such an incredible weapon.

But Sia was staring at me with an expression of genuine surprise.

“Oppa, that was absolutely ...... amazing.”

“No, it's nothing special.”

To Sia, a Dragon, what was so impressive about killing a few D-rank monsters?

So I assumed she was simply saying that to encourage me.

But—

“I’m not just saying that, Oppa. I really mean it.”

Judging from the tone of her voice, Sia was genuinely, sincerely,

impressed by what I had just done.

‘What? Is she serious?’

***

The sword Sia had given Minjun wasn't an ordinary sword.

It was the Dragon Bone Sword, made from the bones of a Dragon.

Since the weapon itself was exceptionally powerful, Sia had naturally expected Minjun to perform well.

But that wasn't what surprised her.

‘He drew out the sword's power.’

Although he hadn't intended to do so, Minjun had clearly awakened and utilized the power sleeping within the sword.

The power he had awakened was weak, but the fact that he had awakened it at all was tremendously significant.

That was because those who had managed to draw out the potential of the Dragon Bone Sword had never been ordinary beings.

‘Dragon Bone Swords... discern the potential of their owners.’

Before Sia came to this modern world,

in her world, the Dragon Bone Sword had been known among swordsmen as the ‘sword that seeks its owner.’

There had been one person who became a Sword Master after starting out as an ordinary soldier with nothing but a single sword.

Another had been the king of a small nation who unified the entire continent with nothing but a sword in his hand.

And there had been many other great figures whose names alone were enough for anyone to recognize them.

‘Could our Oppa become like that too?’

Imagining Minjun leaving his mark on a page of Hunter history, Sia smiled faintly.

But there was one thing she didn't know.

In her world, the being who had once made the greatest use of the power hidden within the Dragon Bone Sword......

was a being whose very name had once been forbidden to be spoken in Dragon society long ago.

***

As they gathered the spoils, Sia told Minjun about the secret of the sword.

She explained that Minjun had managed to draw out, albeit weakly, the power hidden within the sword.

She also told him about the achievements accomplished by the beings who had drawn out that power in the past.

It was an astonishing story for Minjun.

“So what you're saying is that the sword you gave me isn't just an ordinary sword, but an extremely special one...... and that I managed to draw out the power hidden inside it?”

“That's right, Oppa.”

But even after hearing the story, Minjun still looked dazed.

“I had that kind of talent...?”

There was a natural question hidden within Minjun's mutter.

‘If I really had such talent, then why have I only made it this far?’

It hadn't been discovered during the rank assessment process.

And in the first place, in a world without Dragons, why had he been born with such a strange talent?

Having talent was certainly a good thing, but Minjun still felt somewhat bewildered.

“Could our Oppa become a Ranker in less than a year at this rate?”

Sia said it jokingly.

But despite her playful tone, she was actually taking the possibility quite seriously.

Originally, as long as she fully supported Minjun, it was entirely possible for him to become a Ranker.

In fact, she already had plans to make that happen.

But what if Minjun himself possessed this level of potential?

Perhaps Minjun could accomplish such a feat without needing her help at all.

Of course, it wouldn't be easy.

“If Sia says so...... then I should give it a try.”

“How dependable our Oppa is.”

He certainly looked dependable.

But because that appearance was also so cute and endearing, Sia ruffled Minjun's hair.

“Sia, you're messing up my hair.”

“It gives you a different kind of charm.”

Minjun covered his face with one hand in embarrassment and used the other to push her hand away.

But Sia actually enjoyed his reaction, smiling at him with a mother's gentle smile.

“Then, let's go!”

It was time to start moving again and hunt down some more Lizardmen.

And so Sia and Minjun wandered slowly through the Gate, feeling as though they were on a date.

Then, after some time had passed,

the two spotted a group of Lizardmen moving somewhere.

Watching them, Minjun prepared for an ambush.

‘If the sword really has that kind of power... let's get used to it quickly while fighting these guys.’

He hadn't known when he first swung the sword.

But now that he knew he could utilize the sword's potential, he couldn't simply swing it thoughtlessly anymore.

‘Don't think about anything else. Just draw out that potential.’

Of course, merely deciding to do so wouldn't suddenly allow him to draw out more of the power residing within the sword.

He still didn't understand exactly what sensation he was using to draw out the power, nor had he even determined precisely what that power was.

But—

‘Visualization training is important for things like this.’

Now that he had discovered this possibility, he had to develop it by any means necessary.

Minjun toyed with the hilt of the sword.

When the timing was right, he immediately leaped toward the group.

“Kieek!?”

While they were thrown into confusion by the sudden ambush, Minjun quickly swung his sword at the Lizardman at the front.

His body felt light, and the Lizardman's movements were incredibly easy to see.

However, he couldn't feel the power Sia had mentioned.

‘I don't know.’

Again.

This time, too, Minjun's sword accurately pierced the Lizardman's chest.

‘What exactly was Sia talking about?’

Minjun still couldn't understand what kind of energy within the sword he had supposedly drawn out, or how he had done it.

Even as he swung the sword in various ways,

even as the Lizardmen fell helplessly before that sword,

still.

From Sia's perspective, Minjun was unquestionably drawing out the potential contained within the sword.

Just in a slightly different way from the other users of Dragon Bone Swords.