The Foreigner on the Periphery

When asked to describe a dragon’s personality traits in one word, many would respond: avarice. Their tenacious desire for gold and silver treasures was well known, but their desire for wealth was only an incidental aspect.  

The most powerful motive that drove dragons was the desire for power. Wealth was only a means for them to gain power. Even after spawning and spending a long time in the egg, dragons had a clear intelligence and high intelligence that cannot be compared with embryos of other races.  

Before hatching, parents whispered Taedam (胎談) about how great a dragon was, almost close to inoculation education. About their superior magic power, solid body, excellent intelligence, and overwhelming position. Thanks to this, the dragon, who was waiting for hatching while drawing an infinitely positive image of himself, broke the shell and bumped into the wall of reality.  

The result of the complete innocence imagined in the egg was because he looked at himself from a distance. Fluffy scales, weak magical powers, and yet not-so-excellent intelligence. Encounters with finiteness that were different from what they imagined evoked a sense of helplessness.  

Therefore, many dragons grew up jealous of their parents. The happy imagining that he too would be superior to the elders over time was not enough to comfort them. Because as he grew older and gained strength, his parents had become stronger.  

Therefore, the psychological growth process of a dragon was defined as an endless battle between jealousy and inferiority. In addition to this, many dragon tribes solved the problem by projecting the shadows of their hearts on other races.  

This was because the joy of having complete control over the inferior race gave them a feeling of comfort. Personalities formed in infancy affect long periods of life, and many dragons found satisfaction in overpowering and dominating other races as they aged.  

There were no universal statistics, but a dragon with such a tendency would be more than 60%. Jenkinson was among those in the 60%. “What? Hey, what did you say to me now?"  

A man in a suit with well-groomed blonde hair stared at his subordinate with a cold eye. The elf caught his gaze, and his body trembled. Now pouring cold flames from his pupils, he looked young by both human and elf standards, but in fact, he was an ancient dragon that lived over a thousand years.  

To add a little more description, the old dragon was so tight that he had considered reorganization and layoffs several times over the past few days. The elf thought in despair, ‘On this business trip, the chief of staff should have followed instead of me!’  

"Why is the dimensional leap ship that used to be fine all of a sudden breaks down?"  

After receiving a report that a warehouse made in North Korea had been robbed, Jenkinson and his party immediately departed from the committee.  

It took six dimensional leaps to get to Earth, and they had just finished their fifth yesterday. If one were to take just one more leap from the dimension where they were currently staying as a stopover, they would eventually enter Earth.  

However, at such a decisive moment, a problem suddenly arose and he received a report that the departure had been delayed.  

"Where is the breakdown? What’s the matter?!"  

"Well, that's… you know… we're fine…"  

In a rush to return, Jenkinson had rented an entire hop-on from the committee, and now the committee’s possessions are in trouble!  

"How long will the repairs take?"  

"Earth time . . . about three days . . ."  

“What?!” Jenkinson couldn't control his anger and was ready to return to his dragon form at any moment. The dear elf was on the verge of fainting.  

The dragon barely calmed his anger. The reason why his anger suddenly boiled up and the reason it subsided again was all because of an anxious feeling.  

‘It’s really dangerous if this happens!’  

He left Minjun to work, but he had a lot of work to get back to Earth as quickly as he could and get things sorted out. His area, namely Korea, had a small territory and few populations, but it was ultimately an economic powerhouse that accounted for 5% of the world’s GDP.  

In the modern era where traditional energy, food, mineral, and medical industries had collapsed, magic was a very important industry, and Korea was one of the top ten developed countries in that field.  

The fact that, due to the nature of magic, it was possible to extract superior output ‘the more people are devastated,' contributed to the propaganda of this country. In other words, there were many dragons who were looking for his position in charge of such an important area.  

At this rate, the power he held may be shaken. "Any other leapfrog? Isn’t there a single jump ship that the committee has been permitted to use?! Find it quickly!"  

It was like catching straw, but the possibility was not all that high. As a result of Jenkinson’s cooperation with the committee, it did not prevent jumps into Earth, but all jumps out of Earth were blocked.  

That was one of the reasons for the rush. He thought that it would be difficult to find a trading ship or a passenger ship that dared to go to Earth without knowing when it would come out again.  

Common sense, if they had come and looked for another ship now, there would be no way they could get out immediately…  

"I, actually, I already looked for it…!" The secretary held out the papers with trembling hands.  

Jenkinson’s expression distorted as he read them. There was one jump ship that reported that it was entering Earth today and even got permission from the committee. However…

"Damn, this place is too far!" The dimension from which the ship departed was too far from the world where Jenkinson and his party were now. They caught another passenger ship and after a few leaps, they would arrive.  

‘This is also a charter ship. Well, in this situation, this is the only way to enter Earth… umm?!’  

He felt puzzled even in his anger. This was because he had read information about only one passenger on the charter ship. The list officially reported to the committee did not include names, but contained other matters.  

‘Why is this race heading to Earth alone in this situation?'  

At that moment. Beep! The elf looked at something and grunted.  

"Ah, I… President! Communication from Chief of Staff Campbell in the present district…"  

The dragon shook off his thoughts and responded to it. In the midst of a series of terrible misfortunes, he hoped for good news this time.  

And a few seconds later, the Elder Dragon, receiving the report, nearly destroyed the communicator.  

***  

After confirming the tragic body in the underground parking lot, Blair immediately tried to communicate with Jenkinson and conveyed Minjun’s opinion that it would be good for the princess to return to her hometown immediately.  

The chief of staff reported the current situation as calmly as possible. They had not yet been able to dig up information about the high-ranking officials of the Human Rights Solidarity, the whereabouts of Jang Tae-joon’s research materials and samples stolen from the Bukhansan warehouse were still unknown, Princess Vermi had been attacked on the main street in broad daylight, and the fact was all over the media.  

Many of the agents invited from abroad were horribly murdered. After all these reports, the chief of staff briefly missed Jenkinson in the magic video. For a moment, the only thing that entered her eyes was the red color that filled the screen. It was only after Jenkinson belatedly manipulated the resolution of her video recorder that she saw an ancient dragon breathing fire from her nostrils.  

After her twists and turns, her Minjun asked her to finish her communication. "Have you got permission?"

The sullen expression was apparent. “Yes. The president spoke directly to the committee. Only the dimensional leap ship that Princess Vermi rode on can depart today."  

Outbound was completely blocked by the dimensional barrier, but the committee set up an exception to allow only her ship to pass through. There was no longer a situation where he was able to travel leisurely in a vehicle, so he teleported the princess, her attendants, and her agents with the power of the mobilized wizards.  

The destination was Yeongjongdo. After a while, they were sitting in the VIP waiting room of the Incheon Airport Inner Leap Terminal.  

Whoa! Whoa!

The princess was having an unknown conversation with a frying pan she had brought for her interpreter. Seeing that, Minjun thought about his former colleague.  

‘Non-contact sympathy.’  

A degraded version of Bradley’s ability had been embedded in the frying pan. This was by no means a common skill. That kind of interpretation was not a transcendent miracle of contacting a database storing all languages ​​in the universe, but a principle of reading the verbalized surface consciousness of the speaker at the moment of speech.  

In other words, it was limited mind-reading. It was rare for anyone to exert such an ability without contact, and only one person Minjun knew, Bradley.  

He used his skills to read and track residual thoughts rather than interpreting them. Minjun’s thoughts shifted back to the frying pan the princess was holding, biting his tail.  

‘You just transplanted such a rare ability into a cookware?'

According to the product manual distributed externally, that model was not originally equipped with such a function. Moreover, he heard through the Immigration Office that most of the models were recalled and disposed of because of the old lawsuits.  

Perhaps the one that the princess was holding now was the only one left in the universe. After thinking about the fry pan for a while, Minjun turned his mind again and remembered and paid tribute to Bradley.  

In addition to this, he was truly sorry.  

‘If I had such a rare ability… even after I was discharged, I would have lived like no other. But to die in vain like this!'  

He felt an indescribable anger and sadness. Such a feeling was evident on his face. The princess, who was watching him, said something, and the frying pan vibrated differently than before. It meant to reach out to yourself.  

Normally, he would have ignored it, but now that meant that the princess had something she wanted to say. The two talked through the interpretation of the frying pan.  

"I heard that your close friend has lost his life this time."  

He did not even know that they were fellow prisoners, but he explained that they had known each other for some reason. The frying pan seemed to have listened to the conversation between the other agents.  

"I feel uncomfortable because it seems like it happened because of me."  

Guilt and concern were deep in her eyes. Minjun silently shook his head. "It's not the princess's fault."  

Princess Vermi seemed to know the identities of those who were targeting her.  

"I also heard the story. It is said that the conflict between races is particularly severe in this world."  

"It is very rare that groups of people have been accepted seven times in just a few decades. It was clearly expected."  

"It's instinctive to feel anxious when an unfamiliar creature roams your territory. It goes well enough. It's a primal defense that comes from being unable to predict the future."  

She said with a gesture equivalent to a sigh in human terms. "Our world has been subjected to multiple tribal wars, even though mass migration has progressed slowly over hundreds of years. Anxiety will subside only when we show trust that neither native nor migrant will be reduced to ‘alien', but the committee failed in that regard. Of course, we were the biggest victims. Because Shutan was a race that lived there from the beginning."  

Minjun made a look of surprise. This was because what he had heard before and what he had said did not match. "Didn't you say that the history before the Tribal War was almost lost?"  

"Some of them are passed down."  

After cutting off their conversation, Blair approached. "I think we will have to wait a few more hours to make the leap. Since the weight of the jumper cargo was significantly different from when it came to Earth, we further inspected the cause and whether a group of smugglers was hiding and submitted the report to the committee. Of course, there was no life reaction, so approval will be issued immediately."  

Then the princess made a blatantly shy expression. "You hurt me… I bought some jewels after I came out to outer space after a long time."

Minjun thought about this as he looked at the colorful scale art she was wearing. In that race, jewels replace the concept of clothing.  

As a human being, it was like shopping for clothes after leaving a foreign country. She and of course she herself had only stayed in the hotel until yesterday, so the people under her would take care of sweeping things off her list and she would have moved directly to the jump line.  

‘Well, money is going to rot.'  

Anyway, the last stage of this escort mission was at hand.  

"Delivering" the princess safely to her hometown dimension. The jump ship would take care of the transport itself, so his responsibility was to stay here for a few hours and see him off safely.  

After that, they would track down the culprit who made Bradley that way, and this time they would get it right…  

"Ahhhhhh!"  

"?!"  

A desperate scream was heard that broke Minjun’s thoughts. It was on the roof side where the agents who came with him stood guard.