Side Story 52. Dragon Slayer (1)  

My name is Denburg Blade. Besides the fact that I remember my past life a little, go by Young Master, can catch an ogre with one hand now, I’m an extremely ordinary 12-year-old kid.

Actually, I'm starting to be honestly confused about whether I can call it normal. Isn't this normal? I'm getting confused about my values.

"Den, what are you doing alone in that weird posture?”

I was posing like a bowtie-wearing grim reaper and giving a self-introduction in an altered voice when Lancelot, my childhood friend, asked.

"What am I doing? I’m imitating a grim reaper."

Lancelot was unable to understand, so he tilted his head and asked, "What's a grim reaper?"

"In a peaceful neighborhood where people die almost every two days, the grim reaper refers to a man who never dies,” I said.

Lancelot was terrified. "People die every other day?!"

"That’s right. Our village is peaceful."

Lancelot nodded fiercely. "Our village is peaceful!"

That's right. Today, an ogre was bitten and killed by a deer, and yet I was living in a peaceful Olympus Forest where the cries of anguish demons never cease. Although now, I'm not sure if I could call it peaceful.

It’s probably… peaceful. Probably.

"But why are you imitating such a scary person?" he asked.

Why am I imitating? Because it was time for me to be thrown in front of a dragon as my brothers had been at the age of 12.

Ah, ah! Grim Reaper, give me strength!

There's no way he'll give it to me.

"... I just wanted to try it."

After that brief escape from reality, I couldn’t help but be discouraged.

"What about your younger brother? You always bring him with you,” I said.

Lancelot grumbled, annoyed, "I don’t bring him because I want to. He clings to me wanting to play."

He didn’t like his younger brother clinging to him because he's older now. It's a common sibling fight.

"But still, take good care of him. He’s your brother."

Of course, I'd also be annoyed if he were to keep clinging to me, but it didn’t matter because I didn't have a younger brother.

"Yeah... If Den says so.” Lancelot reluctantly nodded.

"Ahhhhhhh~!"

At that time, Mac hyung grabbed a vine entangled in a tree up there and did aerial acrobatics between the vines like Tarzan.

"Ahahaha! Hi! Dennn! And Den’s friend!”

He hung upside down with his leg wrapped on a vine and waved at me.

"Are you finally crazy? I suppose what happened a few days ago was shocking… Uep!”

Even before I finished, Mac hyung jumped down the vines, blocked my mouth, and whispered so that only I could hear it using martial arts.

"Hey, hey, that’s supposed to be a secret. Right?”

He asked with a voice full of killing intent that indicated he would kill me if I spoke out.

"Well, is there anything you want to eat? I'll buy you anything at the next monthly market.”

With a smile disguised as kindness, I spoke cheerily using martial arts so only Mac hyung could hear just like he had before.

"Now that I think about it, I do have something I want."

"I, I see."

It was such fun to see Mac hyung grit his teeth and smile forcefully.

Not long ago, since he became an adult, he confessed to Third Sister but got rejected. I don't know what's the big deal that he needs to hide it to this extent. It wasn’t like Mac hyung was the only one who got rejected anyway.

Mac hyung whispered quietly in my ear from between his teeth clenched.

"But didn't you say you’d keep it a secret?"

"Come to think of it, there was no particular reason to keep it a secret. There’s no benefit to me either," I said and smiled at Mac.

"Hahaha, do you want to get hit?" he returned the smile and threatened in a small voice.

"Oh! Noona~!”

When I looked behind him and waved my hand, Mac smiled broadly and put his arms around my shoulders as if he had never frowned. Then, he looked in the direction I waved my hand.

Fourth Sister was walking down the street. She waved lightly and went her way as if uninterested.

"Haha, Denburg?"

"What? I didn't say Third Sister. Oh, of course, I'll see Third Sister when I get home," I said casually.

Mac hyung frowned as if he had a headache and said, "Ah, why did I have to get caught by such a devilish fellow?"

"Uh, what's wrong with liking someone so much that you’re trying to hide it to this extent? Be confident like Grandfather," I advised.

Mac scrunched his face. "Are you kidding me? How can I hold my head up in the future? No, if you get caught by Chief-nim, you'll die." He pretended to draw a line across his neck with his thumb.

My father did especially care for Hestia noona. I don't know what it was related to, but it was said he had completely obliterated the curse magic society. Regardless of the results, the ones who confessed to Third Sister were forced to participate in our training, so they’d all asked for it to be kept a secret. And yet, the training they received as punishment was a daily routine for me and my brothers.

"Hyung, you look handsome. Why did you get rejected? Did noona say she doesn’t like idiots?"

"No!"

He got angry, but couldn't deny it when I said that he was an idiot. Well, going by Third Sister’s standards, there were probably less than 30 people in the village who were not idiots.

"Then why?" I pressed on.

Mac hyung avoided my gaze with a face that looked like he was about to cry as he let it all out.

"She said she didn’t like that I looked like a playboy."

"Puhahahaha!" I burst into laughter; the reason for rejection was indeed amazing.

Indeed, Mac hyung’s face was certainly like that of a rare Casanova. He was one of the most handsome men in the world, including the world from my previous life. But to think that would be the reason for getting rejected.

"Aren't you a little too amused? Tch, you had the eyes of a dying deer that blamed the world until you were 6. But now that you’re a little older, you find me funny, huh?”

Mac hyung put me in a headlock and flicked me on the head.

"Ow! Owwww! I'll tell on you to noona?" I threatened.

Mac released the headlock and coughed dryly.

Certainly, when I was just born, I thought, "Oh, shoot, I’m born." I didn't particularly want to live. Of course, I changed my mind after being thrown in front of an ogre when I was five.

As expected, being alive was a good thing. It was difficult to become serious because of the family custom of practicing the motto — the world was good even if you fell into a field of dog poop. Well, unlike in my previous life, I was satisfied with having a pleasant family.

"Sigh-! What's the problem I wonder? It’s not like I was planning on cheating."

"What can you do about the face you are born with? You can't change your face. If it's Hyung’s face, you'll look handsome unless you grow a weird beard.”

"Weird beard?" Mac hyung stroked his chin as if he was enticed by the idea.

I thought it would be fun, so I talked on. "And I think it'd be good if the way you talked was weird. Hyung’s voice is like a playboy too."

"The way I talk... All right! Thanks. I think I get the hint! I'm going first!" Mac hyung said bye with a bright face and went away.

Until then, I never thought I would die of laughter a few days later because of Mac hyung. I didn't know my prank would take away the happiness of all the young women in the village. In the first place, rejecting a playboy meant he should prove that he is committed to her, but foolish Mac hyung tried to solve it by physically damaging his appearance. It was natural that neither Hestia nor I said anything about it because it was funny.

"What were you talking about in a manner I couldn’t hear you?" Lancelot asked sulkily.

I smiled and shrugged lightly. "You can tell me if you want to be dragged to Mac hyung's training."

Lancelot shook his head fiercely with a tired face. "I don't like Elder-nim’s training!"

Jeez, how can this guy who occasionally follows me to my father's training to play with me hate Old Man Weger's training? The intensities of both trainings were formidable, but my father's was more aggressive. Well, in the first place, Lancelot couldn’t receive training even if he wanted to because he had failed Old Man Weger’s test.

"I have something to do, so I'm going. Play with your younger brother today.”

"What~? Just hang out with me!"

Lancelot caught me, but I ditched him and secretly headed to my father's office.

Playing was something you could do at any time, but wasn't that something you have to be alive to do?

It would be my birthday soon. With my older brothers as precedence, it was now my turn.

First Brother was thrown in front of the dragon at the age of 12 and had to survive for two months. After seeing his case, Second Brother said he had prepared for it in his own way, but he had to spend a month in bed after.

I couldn’t do that too.

I became a madosa not long ago, so I had a chance of winning. Of course, I knew that it was common sense that it was impossible to catch a dragon as a madosa. My goal was to finish it without getting hurt. That was the only goal.

I looked at the signboard of my father's office that had ‘Village Head’s Office’ written on it. Oh, the name was changed to the head of the village at the suggestion of Third Sister.

By the way, isn't the village too large for a title of village head?

Anyway, considering my father's schedule today, he would be out of the village by now. Even if it was my father, he would have to find a dragon’s location to be able to toss me to it. The goal was to find out the location and prepare for my safety as much as possible.

I gingerly stepped into the office only to find Third Sister immersed in the documents.

"You're here? You came earlier than I thought.” Hestia noona smiled as if she had already anticipated my arrival.

Unlike Fourth Sister, my 14-year-old Third Sister was working hard on administrative things rather than playing. Well, the main reason was probably that she naturally had a weak body and couldn’t keep up with her peers.

"It's better to finish things like this quickly," I said.

Hestia noona took out a map from the drawer. "You're here to find this, aren't you?"

"Oh! That's right. That's it. That's it.”

I thought I would have to search for quite a while, but it saved me time since she had already found it.

"It was just in the drawer. He probably didn't think about hiding it this time because our brothers are too dense to even think about looking for it, but you’re not like them, are you?”

"Of course. Chance of victory is increased by information."

Third Sister was amused. "You're smart. But don't you think it's cowardly when your brothers dealt with a dragon head-on without looking at this?"

"Of course not. I'm much weaker than our brothers, so of course, I'll cheat since I don't want to get hurt," I answered proudly.

I'm weak. According to the words of Elder Mirpa, my teacher, if I went out of the forest, I could easily beat my brothers, but that was bullsh*t. If I had sought power, I wouldn't have looked at magic. There was a reason magic was called tricks.

Magic, for a bidet and for convenience.

Well, I’d continued to learn because I found it was fun. Why, wasn't it a man's dream to fly without any equipment or flying tools?

These days, I was interested in something called the Reverse World and was studying it. Of course, the first priority was to survive, so I had stopped research and was looking at curses that could kill dragons for now.