How to Survive as a terminally-ill Dragon

Chapter 12. Khan & Kani (1)

The words that followed Genelocer’s pregnant pause were truly unexpected.

“…Your father might not be able to come home for a while.”

“Huh? For how long?”

Typically, dragons raising hatchlings do not stray from their young for an extended period, as dangers can arise at any time and place.

Facing his son’s direct gaze, Genelocer spoke as if making excuses.

“Parents raising hatchlings are usually exempt from external duties, but this time your father had no choice. There is no other dark attribute dragon as capable as I am… Normally, the handover process takes a very long time, but I’ve managed to shorten it considerably!”

“So, how long will it take?”

As soon as Genelocer finished speaking, a flicker of surprise on Lois’s face quickly settled into nonchalance.

“Eh, that’s nothing. For a moment, I thought you’d be gone for a few hundred years. 10 years is a blink of an eye.”

Lois’s concept of time had completely aligned with that of dragons. For a dragon that lived for ten thousand years, ten years was as brief as a month to a human.

At 250 years old, post first-sleep period, such a span of time alone was not a significant burden for Lois. In fact, it was something he had increasingly desired.

‘This is good timing. I’ll take some time for myself!’

Lois’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

A home left by the parents was nothing short of a playground for the children.

On the other hand, had he not reacted as expected?

It was Genelocer who seemed disconcerted.

“That’s right, it’ll be quick, right?”

“Recently, I’ve started on martial law theory. I should have it down by the time you return.”

“…?”

Genelocer looked even more disheartened by his son’s nonchalant response.

Observing this, Lois’s eyes narrowed once again.

“What’s with that face?”

“…”

“Don’t tell me you were expecting me to beg you not to leave, crying and clinging to your leg?”

“Do you want anything more to eat?”

“…I’m full.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.”

At Lois’s question, Genelocer gave a forced laugh.

Despite saying he was full, Genelocer insisted on finding something more for him to eat and vanished to do so.

Lois smirked as he left.

“I’m not a kid anymore…”

Objectively, Lois was indeed still a child. But he himself didn’t see it that way.

Leaving Genelocer behind, Lois struggled to get down from the high dining table.

He grunted as he glanced at his hands, as white as rice cakes, and muttered to himself.

“But seriously… why won’t my height increase?”

The topic of being a child had led his thoughts to his own stature.

Dragon transformation was a blessed power, but it wasn’t all-powerful.

Even when transformed, the size adjusted to match the original body.

“Gosh… I eat so much, why don’t I grow?”

Now, he was just a 7-year-old child in terms of his body.

His physical development required more energy than other children his age, so naturally, his growth was slower than that of his peers.

“Sigh… I might as well train. Finn!”

“Yes!”

Accepting that he couldn’t control the growth of his body, Lois quickly resigned himself and called for Finn to begin training.

He scampered off to train, and two days passed.

* * *

On a bright morning, with the red sun rising.

“The elixir is in the fridge, so take it and don’t skip meals during your training. Emergency medicine is in the third drawer of your room, in case you feel unwell – I’ve written what each one is for on the bottles.”

“…Yeah.”

“Take whatever you need from my treasury, and feel free to use the library as much as you like!”

“…I got it. I got it, so please go already. I’ve been listening to the same lecture for an hour!”

“But I’m worried…”

“I’m not a kid, and it’s just 10 years apart, you don’t need to worry so much!”

“You are a child… And just 10 years? That’s a whole decade!”

“Please, just go! The elders must be waiting for you!”

On the morning of his departure to Silver Lotus Castle, Genelocer was giving Lois various instructions and advice.

However, as time dragged on, Lois, growing increasingly frustrated, pushed his father towards the door.

“Okay, okay, I’m going! Going now!”

Being pushed by his son, Genelocer resisted with all his might and fished something out of his pocket.

It was a clear gemstone that looked like pure crystal.

Genelocer extended it towards Lois.

“Take this.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s a communication stone. Quite a precious thing.”

Nature sometimes produces inexplicable wonders, and the communication stone was one such marvel.

“If you infuse attribute power into a matched pair of communication stones, you can talk to each other no matter the distance!”

“Ah! So this is an artifact!”

“Right. It’s a natural artifact.”

Lois’s eyes shone upon seeing the transparent stone.

‘An artifact!’

A magical item from the novels he had read in his previous life.

Here, such items were called artifacts, and they were divided into man-made and natural ones.

Among them, the value of a natural artifact was beyond common understanding.

‘So this is a natural artifact, huh?’

Aware of its value, Lois handled the communication stone with utmost care.

Seeing Lois accept the stone, Genelocer then took out his own and infused it with attribute power, causing it to darken.

Correspondingly, Lois’s stone also took on a black hue.

“Whoa! This is kind of cool!”

Lois, fascinated, turned the darkened stone over in his hands and then infused his own stone with attribute power.

Lois’s attribute power was a mix of white, black, red, and blue.

Soon, the voices carried between the two stones, each now swirling with four colors.

-Lois, can you hear me?

“Whoa?!”

Surprised by the voice resonating in his head, Lois responded eagerly.

-I can hear you.

-Great! If anything comes up, make sure to contact me with this stone!

-By the way, does this work all the way out in space?

-…

-Well, does it or doesn’t it?

-Come to think of it… it does not.

At Genelocer’s vacant reply, Lois mentally rolled his eyes.

‘Normally so clever, but he always has these moments…’

A dragon could not be foolish, nor could a dragon who had reached the zero tier be foolish.

Yet on occasion, Genelocer would show this scatterbrained side, often related to Lois.

With a soft sigh, Lois shoved the stone into his pocket.

“They say no news is good news. You focus on your work, don’t worry about me.”

“Ah, okay. Sob.”

Disheartened by his thoughtfully prepared gift becoming redundant, Genelocer let out a mournful groan.

Lois, fearing his father might never leave if this continued, pushed him once more.

“Go on, Father. I’ll be fine here, so don’t fret and go. I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay at home and train! And if you come back halfway because you miss me, I’ll really be upset.”

“Choke!”

“I’m trusting you, Father!”

“Alright, I’ll be back!”

After a lengthy struggle and one more call of ‘Father,’ Genelocer finally left with a smile, heading towards space.

Lois released a sigh of relief after sending off his overprotective father, allowing himself a slight smile.

He was fully aware that Genelocer’s actions were all out of love.

‘He guarded me for a hundred years during my sleep.’

Having secretly read his father’s parenting diary in Genelocer’s study, Lois finally understood how he had safely made it through a century.

‘After not sleeping for a hundred years to guard me, no wonder his face was so haggard…’

The diary had revealed that Genelocer was somewhat aware of the situation, making Lois understand his father’s overprotectiveness.

‘But this time, it was a bit too much…’

Disturbed by the thought of being apart for ten years, Genelocer had taken extraordinary precautions for Lois’s safety, fortifying the lair and increasing the guardians several fold, and even inspecting the barriers for days on end.

Thanks to Genelocer’s efforts, the lair had become a veritable fortress for Lois.

With a grateful smile for his father’s efforts, Lois stretched out fully.

“So, I’ll be on my own for a while?”

After 150 years of being inseparable, save for the sleep period, the sudden solitude felt empty.

However, that feeling was fleeting.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been alone…”

Now at an age where he preferred his own company to being cared for, Lois was eager to enjoy his solitude.

He grinned at the thought of how he would spend the next ten fatherless years.

“Now that I have permission, I might as well raid Father’s treasure vault and read some books…”

Had Genelocer heard, he might have felt slighted by Lois’s casual remark.

Lois, excited about his upcoming single life, shouted with glee,

“Now I own the world!”

* * *

“…Or so I thought.”

One week after Genelocer’s departure.

Lois’s dream of a peaceful single life had lasted precisely one week.

“Sigh…”

Lois exhaled a heavy sigh full of exasperation.

In front of him, a boy and a girl, each one head taller than him, were running amok.

“Finn, Finn!”

“Gyahahaha!”

The twins, chasing after the flying Finn, were a whirlwind of activity.

The silver hair and teal eyes that Lois had grown tired of seeing over the decades caught his sight.

Along with the boisterous noise that followed.

“Lo, Lois, sir! Save me!”

“Gyahahaha!”

“Gotcha!”

“Gweeh! Lois, sir! Gweeeh!”

Finn, inevitably caught by the twins, had regressed to a toy’s life once again.

Watching Finn return to his doll-like existence, Lois shook his head.

“Gwack! Gweeek!”

Unable to bear the sight of Finn’s screams, Lois stepped in.

He retrieved Finn from the twins’ grasp.

Rescued, Finn quickly hid behind Lois, shivering with fear.

Feeling the trembling from behind him, Lois let out a sigh and asked,

“…What brings you two here?”

“Loi, Lois!”

“I wanna tell!”

With their bright eyes fixed on Lois, who was smaller than either of them, the twins spoke over each other.

“Haah…”

Genelocer settled in a basin next door to the dragon who also had hatchlings around the same time.

Twins born once in ten millennia—a fraternal set.

Kani, the sister born one second earlier.

Khan, the brother born one second later.

Different in gender but true twins, they were strikingly similar in appearance.

The sudden visit from the nuisance twins deepened Lois’s sigh.

“Either one of you just talk…”

Both twins rushed to answer Lois’s weary prompt.

“Dad went to Silver Lotus Castle!”

“Left us behind!”

“Going to be there for 10 years!”

“Said Lois is in the same boat!”

“So we came to play because we thought you might be lonely!”

“Not us, we thought Lois might be lonely!”

The back-and-forth between the twins caused Lois’s veins to bulge.

“These little…”

Facing the horde that had disturbed his peace, Lois’s demeanor was calm.

“Could you… leave, please?”

“Ah! Lois said a mean thing!”

“Lois, Lois! You can’t say that!”

“Right, right! We even brought toys so Lois wouldn’t get bored!”

“Sigh…”

Swallowing his rising irritation, Lois clutched his forehead.

Regardless of his reaction, the twins started treating Lois’s home as if it were their own.

‘Oh heavens, why this trial…’

Lois sensed it.

The peaceful single life he had anticipated for the next decade was about to be stormed by rough seas.