Side Story - I am a Pet (5)

"Let's go together."

"Will it be alright?"

"It's not a public event, but a private appointment. It's the day an old friend of mine dies," Matt answered and prepared to go out. Of course, she, as a powerful superpower user and a Great Wizard, wasn’t actually preparing various things. She could summon a suit that stuck to her almost naked body with nothing more than a simple gesture, after all.

Needless to say, Dong-min directly took out the necessary clothes from the wardrobe that Matt had prepared for him. "By the way, that's a weird thing to say. What do you mean ‘the day an old friend of mine dies’? Is your friend sick or something?"

"It's nothing of that sort. My friend is of the Kendler tribe."

"The Kendler tribe is..." Dong-min had seen the Kendler tribe before, if that was the case. Nathan, the Tech Division Chief of the Albatross ship, was from the Kendler tribe. That species looked like a ball of light that was similar to a goblin fire.

"That's right. They're a Noblesse, just like us dragons. Some of the other dragons ignore them because they are a species with very few transcendents. However, that's an extremely foolish thought. The dragons all enjoy the high-tech civilizations, but for them to not know the terror of it..."

Shiiiiingg! While Matt and Dong-min were conversing, they teleported and moved to the front part of Dragonian. It was the Star Gate, a result of the apex of a Technological Civilization and a Magic Civilization.

'The dragon people, they really love buildings, huh,' Dong-min thought. The panoramic view of Dragonian could be defined with just one phrase: a forest of buildings. That's right. Dragonian was a city full of skyscrapers.

Of course, Dragonian was slightly different from the human cities. Each building accommodated only a single dragon, so the number of buildings that existed translated to the number of dragons living in Dragonian. When a dragon became an adult and declared their independence from their parents, they would create a building and make it their Lair. The size of each Lair started out at about 10 floors, though it varied according to the dragon's Mana or magical capacity. However, as the dragon grew older and developed further, the number of floors also increased proportionally.

The Star Gate, at the front part of Dragonian, made moving to the various Outer Realms possible.

Groarrrrr---

"How many floors is this..." Dong-min asked curiously.

"They grew about two to five floors this year, so I guess it's about 1,800 floors?"

"They're not some sort of bean sprout, so what do you mean they grew…?" Dong-min let out a bitter smile as he was dumbfounded.

Just then… Boom! Boom! The door of the Star Gate opened and Bo-ram appeared from within. There was a Golden Dragon the size of a palm rolling around, and sitting, on both sides of her shoulders. Her heavy footsteps seemed to be due to the small dragons. "Huff... huff... Aigooo, this is tiring. Hmmm? Dong-min sunbae?"

"Yes, Bo-ram. It's been a long time. It's great to see you."

"Huh?" Bo-ram's eyes widened at the sight of Dong-min greeting her delightfully.

However, Dong-min disregarded her reaction and continued distastefully, "Is the training doable? Nothing too hard, right?"

"Eckk? Huh? What?" Bo-ram was thrown into confusion, thinking that Dong-min’s manner of speaking was too social and outgoing.

Dong-min was not the kind of person to ask after a person’s wellbeing. Not because he had no interest in others, but because he was still the boss of Prestige, a world-renowned organization of superpower users. He obviously had to look after his subordinates to run the organization, but regardless of that, his current way of speech was extremely foreign.

"Sunbae, are you affected with some kind of mental magic?"

"Hmm, as expected, is it weird?" Dong-min smiled bitterly and shook his head. Ironically, his eyes were clearer and livelier than ever. "I'm doing well, so there's nothing to worry about."

"...?!" Bo-ram looked at Dong-min with a dazed expression. She would have been less surprised if he had put a knife to her neck, instead of smiling.

"Hey Dong-min! Let's get going!"

"I'll be right there." Dong-min turned his head to reply to Matt's call, before looking back at Bo-ram again. "Keep up the good work."

"Ah...yes."

Dong-min followed Matt into the Star Gate, leaving a dazed Bo-ram behind. Even though he and Matt clearly entered the building, the place they arrived at after passing through the gate was a wide plain. It was vast enough to reveal the entire horizon.

Dong-min frowned. "Although it's natural due to teleportation… Why did we come to the plains, and not the universe?" Star Gates were objects that were used to cross over to nearby clusters of stars or nebulae, or to groups of galaxies (comprising dozens of galaxies) and clusters of galaxies (comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies). Therefore, the users tend to be ships and not individuals. This was a reason why Dong-min questioned why they would come to a plain upon using a Star Gate that had such functions. Moreover, there weren't any facilities in their surroundings.

"Tsk, tsk, what do you think of when you hear the term ‘Star Gate’?"

"I'm not sure. A round Door of Dimension?"

"What you're talking about is the results. Its foundation is a Magic Equipment that is capable of calling forth a massive-dimensional tremor. Here, in this 1,800-story building, almost 400 floors are dedicated to that. Well, then traveling to a nearby intergalactic travel would be possible with just one to two percent of total output. However, the place I need to go to right now is a little far away. Also, three isn't an Arrival Point, so it would take about eighty percent of total output," Matt, who explained all that, waved as if waiting for a moment. Then, she strode out and kicked the ground.

Shiiiiinggg!! In the blink of an eye, Matt reformed into her 400-meter-tall true body. She raised her head and shouted, Elder-nim!

Whoooosh---!

"Ughhh."

While Dong-min covered his ears, shielding himself from the loud roar that made his head ring, Matt roared again, PLEASE-! OPEN-! A PATHHHHH------! I AM---

I'm awake, so don't scream! Sighh! I was wondering why the Gates were suddenly overloaded, but seeing that even you are here, it seems that it's the Kendler tribe's big event.

Matt shook her head at the insincere and distant voice. She said, What do you mean ‘big event’? It's a little too much to talk about someone's funeral like that.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

So what? I didn't give a damn when Father died too. Whoooooooooh---! The plains, where warm sunlight was pouring in, quickly turned into night. As the darkened sky was open, a coal-like pitch-dark Black Dragon appeared. Unlike Matt who looked like a Western Dragon with peculiar horns, the Black Dragon was an Eastern Dragon that assumed the form of a giant snake with antlers. A dragon stone affixed on it.

Matt explained that the form was the difference between the two largest branches of dragon species, the Yongshin clan and the Yonghwang clan. Moreover, unlike the 400-meter-tall Matt, they were only about tens of meters in size.

"Why are you boasting about such immorality, you fool."

Dong-min froze at the sight of a woman riding on the Black Dragon’s head. She held onto its two horns as if they were handles. Her long braided hair was beautifully held in place with a jade-green hairpin. There were unidentifiable black-fabric clothes covering her body. He muttered, "A human?"

"Oh my! So you're the one!" The woman kicked the Black Dragon’s head and jumped down, as light as feathers.

The Black Dragon, from behind the woman, was also surprised by its discovery of Dong-min. It said, Ohhh! So cute!

'Again...' At the voice of the Black Dragon, Dong-min succumbed to a dazed mood in an instant. Then, he thought, 'No, how the hell...' He let out a scoff as he was dumbfounded. 'Where and how the hell do I even look cute?'

Dong-min recalled the appearance of Bo-ram, who came to Dragonian with him. Her hair flowed down her shoulders like a wave, her small physique stirred up a protective instinct, and her celebrity-class beauty made her seem like a character out of a pure-love manhwa. However, none of the dragons in Dragonian had called her cute upon meeting her.

It was only him, Kim Dong-min. The dragons only found the male adult, who was just slightly short of 2 meters tall, with a manly impression, cute! Regardless of male or female, the dragons were all obsessed with him. They actually liked it even more when he frowned or showed a temper. In fact, when he got angry, everyone liked him so much that he turned into a person who showed no temper instead. So, was there any need for any more explanation? It was a view on aesthetics that even Dong-min himself could not understand or accept.

"Yaaappp!" Just then, a little girl hanging behind the woman's back dropped down to the ground. At first glance, she was a little girl who looked about 5 to 6 years old. However, the fog-like darkness that swirled around her, and the antlers on her head, showed that she was not a human being. Her appearance was still very adorable though—black hair, perfect features, innocent big eyes, and an expression that bore no ill will.

Nevertheless, Matt twisted her head upon seeing the girl and her eyes were filled with abhorrence. It was a very subtle movement, but she was in her true body of 400 meters tall, which exceeded the height of the average building. Her act of tilting her head to the side emitted a tremendous amount of pressure, while she said, Draconian, a mixed-breed between a human and a dragon...

Matt, won't you kindly fix your stare? It's so discriminatory that I'm going to want to sue you?

Matt straightened her posture as she was taken by surprise at the keen Noblesse Elder, Hyuncheon's remark. It was because Matt knew that her earlier reflex had been a huge disrespect. Ack, ah, ugh... This, I'm sorry. This really is...

Tch, it's not that I don't understand. The Black Dragon, Hyuncheon, exuded a dense pressure. Not an attack directed to Matt, nor a release of any killing intent, it solely came about from his genuine displeasure.

...I'm sorry.

That's enough. I order you in the name of the Master of Space and Darkness! Clear the way!

Groarrrrr!! The dimension was splitting apart. The human woman, who had descended to the ground, put on a sad expression. “It's been a while since I saw a human in a pure location, so I wanted to converse with you for a bit. What a shame. Take care and have a safe trip."

"...Yes."

"Cute oppa, have a safe trip!"

"Is a kid like you calling me cute too…?"

Matt's huge head lowered down next to Dong-min, who was baffled. The movement of a giant 400-meter-tall creature was enough to instill fear in anyone, but Dong-min simply skilfully climbed on top of her head. He had already gone through numerous battles with Matt, after all.

Open!

Whoooooskk!!! Dong-min instantly realized that the surrounding space was being compressed to an unbelievable level. An average person would only be able to realize that the surrounding backgrounds were wavering, but as a spatial-type superpower user, he knew for a fact that they were crossing the distance of hundreds and thousands… no, perhaps tens of thousands of light years. "Matt, earlier..."

Wahhhh! Isn't the surrounding scenery cool? We are crossing over the distance of 1.5million light years right now!

Dong-min, who was sitting on Matt's nose bridge, awkwardly shut his mouth. He heard Matt's voice cutting him off, realizing that she was uncomfortable with this topic. "..."

…

An uncomfortable silence momentarily passed between the two of them. Then, Dong-min recalled the scornful look Matt had put on when they were at the Dragonian's Star Gate.

'It's not like that.' He denied the speculation in his mind, because having gone through the past seven years with her, he knew just what Matt’s character was like. It was not something that she, brighter and with a mentality more alert than anyone else, would do.

Whooooong! Fortunately, they entered a new universe after only travelling for a short while. And at the same time, Dong-min saw the light.

"Uckk!" Dong-min, who was surprised by the intense light that seemed blinding, closed his eyes and erected a dimension barrier. However, it was not an attack. "The sun?"

Where would anyone be able to find such a small sun?

"What do you mean a small sun..." Dong-min was flabbergasted, but Matt was right. The sun-like light that shone in front of them had a diameter of only about one kilometer at most, and it was too small to even be considered a star. Moreover...the shining presence was the one who invited Matt here.