Second Life of a Dragon Raising Hunter

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Chapter 33

Shar was watching Yeon-woo as he clashed swords with Yuri.

It wasn’t through actual eyes, though. Even just days before hatching, the dragon’s body was weak. Like how the skin of a human could be easily torn by the claws of monsters, a single blade could easily take down the current Shar.

There was no solution. Accelerating the birth of life was simply impossible without a vast and powerful infusion of vitality. Absorbing mana gained from hunting monsters may work, but it wasn’t exactly a commendable act.

In truth, Shar had no intention of using such methods. The mana possessed by monsters was generally murky, dirty, and without flavor.

The mana from the Doppleganger had a distinct dark attribute and a pretty unique taste, but most of it was not like that.

She was simply feeling impatient.

Of course, her father, Yeon-woo, rarely found himself truly in danger. He had adeptly resolved challenges with his keen senses, sharp observations, and the experience that came from years of practice.

However, that was only the perspective he held.

From Shar’s view, every time a blade embedded itself into his body, she nearly screamed without realizing it. When it narrowly brushed past her ear, chills would shoot down her spine, and as blood began to flow, she couldn’t bear it without tightly closing her eyes.

Training didn’t differ much. Questions like “Why am I doing this?” flickered through her mind every moment.

When she remembered it was all for herself and her mother, it felt positive, but when considering it wasn’t just that, anxiety would creep in.

…Could it be that it’s all my fault?

Maybe Dad wanted to go out through the Gate to gain power and live by improving his rank.

Was everything warped because of his selfishness? Such unsettling thoughts occasionally crossed her mind.

Even while thinking that it couldn’t be true for Dad… the anxiety was like waves, pushing her into a vast ocean filled with fear.

That’s why she felt antsy.

If only she could hatch quickly and help her father, then this anxiety would disappear.

That was her thought.

*

At the Harmony Academy, numerous professors were employed. Hunter department, Magic department, Support department. Even though only the Hunter department used the name Hunter, most of the thousand students, even if not admitted to the Hunter department, dreamt of becoming a Hunter.

According to such demands and needs, countless lectures were opened, and while the number of professors might decrease accordingly, on average, the graph showed an upward trend. Yet, they were indeed very busy.

Because of that, it was quite rare for this ‘Grand Conference Room’ to gather so many professors.

Park Giant sat uncomfortably in the Grand Conference Room. Professors who had seen the duel earlier entered, as well as others who had no direct relation to the event.

The invited professor, Kim Hyun-soo, who possessed the highest rank, presided over the meeting, while many people filled the chairs in the front. Some even stood behind due to lack of space.

The conference room was already buzzing. Especially the Magic department. While aura users might mistake it for defensive magic, the wizards had noticed that the structure was clearly akin to a barrier.

But the reason they were heated wasn’t just because a freshman who had been enrolled for three weeks used a mana heart for a shadowless spell.

“I mean, after just three weeks, a new student is employing a shadowless spell with a mana heart? That’s understandable. Having both a mana core and mana heart at the same time? Sure, I can let that pass. But isn’t it strange?”

No one raised their voice to ask, “What are you talking about?”

The voice of the strikingly red-haired woman was starting to heat up. Alyssa Valdia, associated with the red division of the Magic Tower, the Witch of Flame Night, was someone who was openly forbidden to receive interjections.

“Skipping spell configuration?”

Alyssa took a deep breath. Park Giant and the surrounding professors seemed accustomed to this and covered their ears. An old man with thinning white hair sitting next to her sighed and constructed a spell.

“Does that even make sense—!!!!!!!”

The Witch of Flame Night was a quintessential magic pervert. When interjections were granted, she was known to get overly excited and derail the conversation.

This wasn’t inherently a problem, but the more excited she became, the higher the room’s temperature skyrocketed. Hence, the Witch of the Hot Night, who couldn’t sleep.

The temperature in the conference room soared abruptly, climbing so high that heat waves started to appear. It eventually began to decrease at some point again, though it wasn’t due to the activation of sprinklers.

“Didn’t I tell you to fix that habit of getting overly excited? As much as I’m curious too…”

Alex Carrier, a magician from the white division of the Magic Tower. He happened to stick around as Alyssa’s suppressor. Everyone knew he was there, which allowed Alyssa to voice her opinions in this Grand Conference Room.

“Well, perhaps she was trying to disguise it as defensive magic.”

As they spoke, Kim Hyun-soo casually dispersed aura. It formed a thin, delicate dome in front of him. His neat and sophisticated technique was detailed enough to be mistaken for a barrier.

“It seems like the Magic department is being looked down upon.”

Though she held her tongue, Alyssa’s biting of her lips revealed what she was thinking. Did he really think they wouldn’t notice? The heat radiating from her and the old man, Alex, who was hunched over, provided ample evidence of this.

“Then could you bring that student here, Park Giant?”

“I must decline.”

“…Huh?”

In response to Alyssa, Park Giant answered without hesitation.

“He needs to rest after that duel.”

“Is that really the most important thing right now…!!”

“Then what else is important apart from the student’s health? After all, aren’t you just planning to call him officially to discuss things later? You can let him rest now.”

That was a reasonable stance. No matter how much they talked about the advancement of magic, the academy was ultimately an educational institution aimed at nurturing proper Hunters. Alyssa had no choice but to silence herself.

However, it didn’t sit well with Park Giant to leave it at that. If this continued, it would only fuel the resentment the Magic department held against Yeon-woo.

“If you’re really curious, as a dorm supervisor, I’ll ask one question. Please bear with that until the official summon.”

Fortunately, many professors present nodded at that suggestion.

*

After finishing today’s “training” with Yuri, I returned to my dorm room to wash off the sweat. Upon scanning the room with my card key, a curry smell wafted through. As I took off my shoes, I noticed Claire’s shoes alongside an unfamiliar pair.

“Oh, you’re back, Yeon-woo?”

“P-please come in quickly, Choi Yeon-woo!”

Whose voice was that? Yeon-woo dragged his exhausted body to the kitchen to find the source of the quivering voice of the mysterious visitor.

There stood Park Giant, shivering while barely perched on a chair much too small for his size.

“…Ah, Dorm Supervisor.”

“I thought I’d treat you to dinner since you came by. Is that alright, Yeon-woo?”

“Yes, that’s fine. What brings you here, Giant Teacher?”

Yeon-woo had a hunch about the topic of the visit. It was probably about the defensive magic (fake). Although the remark made to Seong-ryong about “a time will come when you’ll find out” took longer than expected, it seemed that the time had eventually come.

What puzzled Yeon-woo was why Park Giant was trembling so much.

Giant Teacher leaned in and whispered urgently, “W-what’s going on with that person!? Wasn’t she just a nun!? Where did that monster come from…!?”

“Hmm? Did you call for me?”

“N-no!!”

Aha.

Yeon-woo seemed to have an idea now.

“Nun, I can see you had a splendid time earlier, but you need to contain it a bit.”

“Oh my.”

As if she had forgotten, the green mana swirling around Claire was suddenly absorbed back into her body at an astonishing speed.

Both Yuri and Claire usually kept their mana to a normal human level, but it seemed Claire had lost her control after the long duel.

Finally able to stop her slight spasms, Park Giant let out a sigh of relief.

“Who exactly is she… no, no. There have always been sayings by the wise that trying to know the unnecessary can lead to harm. I won’t bother asking.”

“Umm… Thank you…?”

Honestly, it didn’t seem like revealing the information would cause much trouble. Yeon-woo thought as he sat down at the table, the rich curry smell filling the room. It wouldn’t fade anytime soon.

By the way, where did the ingredients come from?

“Where did you get the curry ingredients?”

“Well, while you were training with Yuri, I went shopping. I’ve prepared a variety of side dishes too, so don’t just eat convenience store food all the time. Understood?”

It was an atmosphere where Yeon-woo couldn’t honestly say the cafeteria food tasted better than Claire’s home-cooked meals. While it was true that cafeteria food was delicious, Claire’s cooking wasn’t lacking either.

“Then why did you come, Giant Teacher?”

It was likely as he suspected, but he decided to ask out of courtesy. For a mere student to act too knowledgeable would be awkward, and if he were to ask, “Did I get caught doing something?” he would only find himself in a pickle.

“This guy, pretending not to know… you used your aura while fighting, combining it with magic.”

While it was easy to pretend not to know, there really was no reason to keep it up. It was indeed time to lay down the groundwork.

“Yes.”

“…Using aura and magically using it are two different things. This means you’re simultaneously possessing a mana heart and a mana core.”

“That’s right.”

Yeon-woo calmly nodded. The expression on Giant Teacher’s face twisted as if to say, “What kind of brat is this?!”

“However, usually when one possesses both a mana heart and a mana core, it means the heart might explode and kill you.”

“Apparently so. Strange things exist, huh?”

The reasoning behind it was simple.

While the mana heart, by strict definition, didn’t store mana in the heart itself, it created a separate organ around the heart for utilizing mana, linking it through a route constructed via mana.

As a result, mana would flow from the mana heart to the heart.

On the flip side, a mana core is usually referred to as the lower dantian, where a nucleus of mana is created. From that point, mana flows through blood vessels, in essence the veins.

Ultimately, where does the mana that circulated the body go? To the heart.

Either one is bearable for the heart pressure, but one applies pressure from the outside directly to the heart while the other bears it from inside, causing the heart to burst under pressure.

“…So what? How did you do that? Don’t make it troublesome. You wouldn’t want to be summoned to the professors for a forced attendance during the meeting, right? I’ll relay it for you.”

“Please tell them I contracted with a dragon.”

Park Giant’s jaw dropped in disbelief, hitting the table in the process, which was a rather expected reaction.

With his mouth hanging open like a hippo, Park Giant stubbornly refused Claire’s insistence to have some curry before leaving.

Honestly, if it were him, he would have said, “Ah, I’d better eat before taking off~” and plopped himself down at the table.

Declining a meal with Sister Claire was remarkable indeed, Park Giant…!!

Though he spoke calmly, it was evident there would be a huge fallout for him later. The responsibility of dropping a bomb would inevitably fall on his future self.

Sister Claire’s curry tasted nostalgically familiar. While the meat was sparse, driven mostly by instant curry powder, it still carried the essence of care. It reminded him of the meals back at the orphanage.

“So, did the duel with Yuri help a bit?”

“I can’t say anything concrete right now, but I got to see various things.”

“…Oh my, that’s rare to hear. You caught a good show, didn’t you? I wish I had watched it too.”

Sister Claire’s eyes widened with sincere surprise as she added a piece of kimchi atop Yeon-woo’s bowl.

“Every sword fights against every sword, mastering all blades. In truth, Yuri has the ability to wield any sword style he’s encountered. Yet even in life-or-death scenarios, he won’t show his technique, even if the wielder asks him to. He only swings his own sword.”

“R-really?”

Thinking back on it, that seemed to hold true. Even in his past life, that was Yuri’s approach. When a disciple of a certain sword style requested to see his interpretation, he outright refused.

“There was a time when I asked Yuri to show me the sword style he had seen from me, but I got turned down. When I questioned why he wouldn’t, he replied like this.”

– I cannot know what feelings you had when you swung your sword. I can only barely imitate your form, not express the essence contained within your sword. If I swing your sword like a puppet, it would only be an insult to your blade.

Yuri had returned such an answer to Sister Claire, with an expression that was too serious.

“When that serious kid responded like that, I had no words to say.”

“…He showed me something like that? Why would he?”

Yeon-woo had to ask, genuinely confused. That idea… wasn’t it the essence of that man’s belief?

For a person, one of the most sensitive and cherished beliefs, he couldn’t find a reason to break it for himself.

“Even a hedgehog cares for its young, so it may be his way of cherishing his disciple in his own way.”

“But what did I do…?”

“You’ll understand if you ask Yuri for some old stories later. He has his own circumstances too.”

He felt it could be alright to just tell him. But then again, just because they were friendly didn’t mean everything about a person could be openly disclosed. Yeon-woo simply nodded quietly.

As Yeon-woo lost himself in thought for a moment, Claire gazed at him with warm eyes before hesitating to ask.

“Yeon-woo, do you remember?”

“Hmm? Remember what?”

“That day you said you wanted to become a Hunter. Do you remember?”

“I remember. It even appeared in my dreams recently.”

At Yeon-woo’s words, a radiant smile spread across Claire’s face. Wasn’t she a bit too happy? Feeling like a bad child, Yeon-woo awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

(Continue in the next episode)