Chapter 15 : You Didn’t Come, So I Came (1)

Yesterday was a day filled with all sorts of events.

To summarize briefly:

A kidnapped and imprisoned princess returned after brainwashing the Demon King —> The Demon King applied for asylum —> Nonsense —> Prison.

It was roughly like that.

Also, as a result of my persistent pestering, Void was falsely accused of regicide but, at the same time, got her asylum application positively reviewed.

This is all because dragons have a severe lack of safety awareness.

Their high self-esteem, thinking they can solve anything on their own, is what leads to their lack of safety awareness.

I woke up, clicked my tongue, and shook my head a couple of times.

Then, I heard a small burst of laughter from the side.

“Minho, what are you doing?”

It was my mom, rubbing her eyes with messy hair.

Really, every time I see her, I think, my mom is so beautiful.

“Mom, you’re so pretty!”

“Really? Is it just because I’m the only woman you’ve ever seen?”

“No! You’re way prettier than the elders!”

Mom is 1,200 years old, so comparing her to those grandmas might be a bit unfair.

But the only beautiful dragons I’ve ever seen are those grandmas.

From my perspective, it’s the highest praise.

Mom seemed to understand that, smiling brightly and genuinely delighted.

“Thank you~”

“Hehe.”

I don’t want to leave Mom’s arms all day long.

But I know very well that I shouldn’t. After all, I’m a proper adult at 30 years old.

I’ve heard that giving birth to a dragon child consumes an incredible amount of magical power.

And on top of that, my mom gave birth to someone as strange as me—how hard it must have been.

I opened the status window to check Mom’s stats, but as expected, she hadn’t recovered yet.

So I need to let her rest a bit.

“Mom! I’m going to visit Void today! She didn’t seem to eat yesterday.”

“…You’re going to her again?”

“Yes!”

Mom’s expression darkened for a moment.

“…Well, she seems to be nice to my daughter, at least.”

“Haah… to think someone would become more important to you than your mom.”

She muttered to herself and lay back down on the bed, looking exhausted.

“Take care, then. Mom is tired~”

Because I had done something terrible to Mom yesterday, her actions hit me like a dagger to the heart.

I can’t help it.

Normally, I wouldn’t have done this, but since Mom is struggling, I have to use my last resort.

“M-Minho loves Mom the most in the whole world!”

“W-What?!”

“I love you!!”

Saying that, I made a heart with my hands and sent it to Mom.

My face burned with embarrassment.

Hang in there, Han Minho. You ungrateful child—this is your karma.

“Kyaa~~~”

Mom seemed energized again, waving at me with a bright smile.

“Of course, of course, Mom is the best, right?!”

“Yes!”

“Good~ Have fun, my daughter!”

“Yes!”

Now that I had Mom’s permission, no one in this castle could stop me.

This is what power feels like.

Besides, Dad always listens to Mom when it’s not work-related.

He’s that much of a romantic, yet he knows how to separate work from personal matters—something I truly respect.

Anyway, I started scurrying through the grand castle’s corridors.

Running always feels so good.

Maybe it’s because I lost my legs so tragically in my past life, but I constantly feel like running now.

Run! My legs!

“Shwoooosh!”

-Oh my, how adorable.

-Kyaa~

-Princess!

-Wow!

Everyone seemed to be thrilled.

Run, run!

To the underground prison.

Inside the chilly iron bars, Void was savoring the cold bread and soup as if it were the finest delicacy while sitting on a pile of straw.

Then, someone began walking toward the underground prison with heavy steps.

“…This soup is pretty good.”

“Seems like you couldn’t even eat properly in the Demon Realm. Poor thing, how pitiful.”

“W-What are you talking about?!”

Void, who had just complimented the food after seeing a familiar face, turned red with irritation as Hader looked at her pitifully and made a provocative remark.

Of course, Hader didn’t intend it as provocation; it was simply his honest observation.

‘I was grateful for what you did yesterday, so I tried to say something nice, and now he’s picking a fight.’

Void flushed, embarrassed, and quickly shoved the rest of the soup into her mouth.

“Are you that hungry?”

“Shut up!”

What on earth were those feelings Void had experienced yesterday?

The more she thought about it, the hotter her face grew.

“Haah… I should’ve just stayed in the Demon Realm.”

“Don’t go back.”

Hader muttered in a low voice.

“You’re an important person to me.”

‘You’re my toy, so don’t even think about running away.’

“I’ll be on your side.”

‘At least until you become a citizen. After that, we can settle this in a fight.’

The meaning behind his words was entirely different from how they sounded, but Void didn’t dare lift her head from the straw pile after hearing them.

‘What, what, what, what, what, what, what?!’

Void’s face turned as red as the bread she had accidentally crushed in her hand earlier.

Meanwhile, Hader’s thoughts upon watching her were simple yet profound.

‘She’s really entertaining.’

Short but impactful.

Thud, thud, thud.

“Shwoooosh!”

Maybe it was because I had a younger body, but if I didn’t add sound effects like shwoooosh while running, it felt strangely incomplete.

Not doing it made me anxious, so I just decided to keep doing it.

‘Minho, do you need to go to the bathroom?’

‘N-No.’

‘Then why are you running around like you do?’

Mom had teased me like that yesterday.

Hearing such words from her at thirty years old had been quite shocking.

So, if I was going to run around nervously like a kid who couldn’t hold it in, I figured it was less embarrassing to just make sound effects.

…It’s less humiliating this way.

Anyway, as I kept running…

“Shwoooosh—Gah!”

I collided with someone’s knee.

“Oh dear, Princess. Are you alright?”

“Ughhh…”

It was an unnamed old man. Void had told me his name before, but…

Ha…Ha-something, wasn’t it?

“I-I’m fine!”

“That’s a relief.”

It was a lie—I was in so much pain.

Drip.

“…Huh?”

“Oh my.”

Blood started dripping from my nose.

D-Did I hit too hard?

As panic set in…

Sniff.

“…Princess?”

And then—

“Waaaaaah!”

I burst into tears.

This cursed, younger body of mine—it couldn’t hold back tears.

“R-Right now, healing magic, please.”

“…Sniff.”

Fwoosh!

A green light wrapped around my nose, and the bleeding stopped.

My nose isn’t crushed, right? It can’t be! I really like my appearance, and I don’t want it ruined!

“My nose isn’t crushed, is it?”

“Hmm, it’s crushed.”

“…Excuse me?”

For real?!

“N-No way!”

Despair instantly washed over me.

Damn it, an ugly princess?! My prospects for marriage are gone. Even the elder grandparents won’t find me cute anymore!

“What… should I do?”

Pfft.

“…Huh?”

“Lying.”

“?!”

“I’m just kidding, Princess.”

This crazy old man!

“I hate you, Grandpa!!!”

“Watch your step on the stairs.”

“Yes!!”

“Good girl.”

“I hate you!!”

Expressing my full frustration with the old man, I descended to the underground prison.

“Our dear princess is so adorable.”

No wonder Void kidnapped her.

Teasing her only makes her puff up her soft cheeks and cry, which is just so cute.

I bet Void teased her a lot too. If they end up living together, things are going to get very entertaining.

“Maybe I should prepare a clown costume for her.”

As long as Void isn’t sentenced to execution in the trial, she’ll definitely be able to seek asylum here.

With those thoughts in mind, I climbed the stairs with light steps.

From the dark, cold underground, I stepped into the bright sunlight of the surface.

Spreading my wings wide, I basked in the warm rays.

“Advisor!”

“What’s the matter?”

From the distance, a soldier I was quite friendly with came running toward me.

“Huff, huff.”

“Did something fun happen?”

“No! It’s serious! Were you just relaxing?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t bother denying it.

Everyone in the castle already knew that I pushed all my work onto Anuket and spent my time slacking off.

“The hero and the archmage’s apprentice have applied for asylum!!”

“…What?”

My expression darkened instantly.

“This morning, they suddenly appeared at the castle gates and requested asylum from the guards.”

The soldier kept talking, but I could barely hear him.

“The king and the other advisors are in a meeting, so you’re the only one available to handle this!”

“The hero has gotten stronger! Those filthy humans—what tricks have they pulled?”

“I’m telling you, they must have used some dirty scheme!”

I glared at the soldier, seething with anger. Betrayal boiled in my veins.

How could you lie to me? That was the look I gave him.

But the soldier shamelessly kept pulling at my arm, urging me to hurry.

“I trusted you.”

“Huh?”

“…Never mind. Let’s go.”

“This isn’t the time for jokes!!”

“It’s interesting, isn’t it? Let’s go!”

I decided to deal with the lie later.

The hero and the archmage’s apprentice?

You should’ve come to get me earlier!

Feeling my heart pounding, I rushed to the castle gates.

“Stand down immediately!!!”

Dragons were fiercely guarding the gate, shoving us back with their spears and swords.

“Hero, let’s step back for now.”

“Y-Yes!”

Taking on this many dragons would be suicide. Even the archmage looked reluctant, so I knew this was no joke.

“Let us meet the king!!”

“You humans are shameless! What tricks are you pulling now?”

The archmage passionately explained the situation, but the dragons responded as if they couldn’t trust a word.

“…Weren’t they supposed to accept us no matter what?”

“I thought so too, but this is way worse than I imagined.”

Then, suddenly—

Boom!!!!

A massive black dragon appeared before us.

“A-A mineral dragon?!”

The archmage’s eyes widened in shock.

Is that really so impressive? I mean, don’t all dragons look like that?

Amidst the confusion, the dragon was engulfed in radiant mana, transforming into a humanoid figure.

Flap.

Black wings, gleaming horns, and a white suit—a strikingly handsome man smiled and greeted us.

“My apologies. Since the princess was kidnapped recently, the others are on edge.”

His smile looked like he was staring at bugs.

“Come in. You know the consequences if you try anything funny, right? Not that you’d succeed.”

This was exactly the kind of dragon I had imagined.

“L-Let’s go inside.”

“Y-Yes!”

It seemed like asylum might just be possible after all.