Chapter 706: I’ll Make It for You
The Chairman looked no less startled.
Not only did he have the keen eye of an S-rank, he was also a sovereign himself, so he must have felt the change in me even more clearly.
“Truly, your stature has risen to a startling degree.”
“Has he grown stronger, then? Myeongwang wasn’t mistaken?”
At Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter’s question, the Chairman nodded.
“It’s only natural to be confused, but there’s no doubt it rose. In less than half a year, at that.”
“I have lived long years, yet the potential of humans never ceases to amaze me.”
At that, I smiled faintly and played humble.
“You flatter me. My stature may have risen, but my actual ability is still far behind.”
“I doubt it will take you very long to close that gap either.”
“At this point, I can’t really say.”
Of course, just as he guessed, it probably wouldn’t take me long to push past A-rank and reach S.
Still, there was no need to show off or ramble on about my plans, so I let it pass.
The Chairman seemed to have come to a similar conclusion. He nodded once, then shifted his gaze to the side.
And the moment he saw Seo Ye-in, his face changed into that of an utterly besotted grandfather.
“Ye-in, you’re here!”
“.......”
“It’s been a while, so let me give you an airplane ride. You liked airplane rides, didn’t you?”
Without even waiting for an answer, Grandpa Chairman scooped up his granddaughter and lifted her high.
Then he started bouncing her around with an airplane ride.
Seo Ye-in, for her part, neither reacted nor resisted in any particular way. She just let herself be carried, but her expressionless face somehow made her inner thoughts feel readable.
I shall let this slide today, as a special exception....But if he tries the airplane thing again next time....I’ll let him experience the hardness of the pot....Whether he knew that or not, the Chairman kept right on doing it with a smile plastered across his face.
Only after quite a while did he finally set his granddaughter back down, then return to his usual dignified expression.
“......Ahem. You’ve probably already guessed, but this one is Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter.”
“My apologies for the late greeting. I’m Kim Ho.”
Then Seo Ye-in added a word of her own.
“Godfather.”
“This gentleman is your godfather too?”
“Godfather No. 2.”
“Is there a No. 3 too?”
Shake shake.“Godmother.”
Meaning the third guardian, and dragon, was female.
Of course, even if all three had turned out to be godfathers, that still wouldn’t have been especially strange.
The world was wide, and there were people out there with Father-in-law and Mother-in-law No. 4 and No. 5.
Soon, Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter’s gaze turned toward the two of us.
“The reason I came here was to guide you to Meteor Dragon. Though at present, he is in no state to receive anyone.”
“Did something happen?”
“He is observing the stars.”
Not literally staring up at the sky, but performing astrology, most likely.
In any case, it was true that he couldn’t be disturbed.
I nodded and asked another question.
“How long do you think it will take?”
“A few days at most. I heard you came here for more than one reason, so it would be best if you handled that first.”
“That’s what I’ll do. I also have something to receive from Dark Dragon Lord.”
“As far as I know, Myeongwang is at the workshop.”
He added, sounding displeased, “Wasting time on amusements.”
More accurately, I suspected it wasn’t the wasting time part that bothered him, but what he was doing.
Dark Dragon Lord had great interest in human novelties and trends, and he’d also taught Seo Ye-in all kinds of bad phrases.
Naturally, I didn’t feel the need to bring that up.
“I’ll go see him. Before that, would it be possible for you to take a look at this?”
As I pulled out [Starmascus(??)] and showed it to him, Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter inspected it from every angle, half astonished and half curious.
“......You surprise me again and again. Being a sovereign at your age wasn’t enough—now you possess a metal imbued with such powerful force.”
“I happened to acquire it through a fortunate opportunity.”
“I can feel the power of the crows in it as well.”
“They help me out from time to time.”
Needless to say, getting help from the dimensional crows was never supposed to be easy.
Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter seemed to know that too, because he looked at me with an expression that practically said, What exactly are you?
He even shot the Chairman a questioning glance, but the Chairman clearly didn’t know either.
In the end, he shelved his questions about me and turned the conversation back to Starmascus.
“It greatly piques my interest, but even I would not dare handle it.”
A case where even a dragon hesitated to touch it.
Then again, even the crow seamstress had struggled while casting [Weaving], so it wasn’t exactly an absurd thing to say.
Sky-Healing Dragon Jupiter added,
“If it is Meteor Dragon, he should know a way. To be safe, show it to Myeongwang as well.”
“Understood.”
*****
Soon, we left Hyeseong Group headquarters and, just as when we arrived, rode out in a luxurious sedan.
Not long after, we reached the workshop-slash-research lab.
Following Ahn Jeongmi’s lead, we stepped inside, took the elevator, and walked down a corridor that was starting to look fairly familiar.
Then we arrived at a large room.
Ahn Jeongmi knocked lightly.
Knock, knock.“Excuse us.”
As they slowly opened the door, a flashing blue light dazzled my eyes.
It was the effect of [Magic Engineering(A)] being activated.
Sure enough, standing at the workbench was Father Seo, completely absorbed in crafting with what looked like a welding helmet pulled over his face.
FWAASH!And sprawled out in one corner of the room like some idle loafer was Dark Dragon Lord.
Maybe he sensed our presence, because he turned his head this way, slowly got up, and walked over.
“You’ve come, nephew. Little Sovere—”
He was probably about to say “Little Sovereign too,” but he cut himself off halfway and peered at me with intrigued eyes.
“......Have you grown?”
“I have.”
“In so short a time. Truly astonishing. I suppose I can no longer call you little.”
You’ve earned the qualification, Dark Dragon Lord added.
It was pretty much the same conversation I’d just had in the Chairman’s office.
Which was probably why Father Seo wrapped up whatever he’d been working on and pulled off what looked like a welding helmet.
He looked at Seo Ye-in first.
“Daughter.”
“Dad.”
That was the extent of their reunion: a light ruffle of the hair.
Some people might think, You haven’t seen each other in months and that’s it? But considering both their personalities, this was perfectly normal.
The atmosphere was warm enough in its own way.
Then Father-in-law No. 1’s gaze shifted to me, and his gray eyes lit up intensely.
“So you’ve finally come.”
“It’s good to see you again.”
I bowed politely, and Father Seo acknowledged it with a nod.
Then he pulled out something like a remote control.
“It is ready.”
The moment he pressed the button, a mechanical whirring sound came from one side of the workshop, and a table large enough for three or four people to sit around slid into place.
He set a minigame device down on top of it.
“I am ready for a rematch.”
“Looks like you’ve practiced a lot.”
“Sharpened and honed.”
Every time we’d talked through a crystal orb, he’d always made sure to say, “Next time I’ll get one win,” so it seemed he’d been steadily refining his skills for this very moment.
Dark Dragon Lord threw in a comment from the side.
“He really did make a nuisance of himself over it. All that fuss over a game. Still, his skills improved quite a bit, so you may look forward to it.”
“Understood. I’ll give it a shot.”
It was a little sudden, but there was no real reason to avoid a challenge that had been thrown down.
So, as the undisputed king of minigames, I fulfilled my duty and mercilessly crushed Father Seo, Dark Dragon Lord when he joined midway through, and even Seo Ye-in as well.
Father Seo spoke with startled eyes.
“A formidable foe...!”
“You’ve definitely improved a lot. If I’d made even one small mistake, I might have lost.”
To be honest, he was nowhere near capable of beating me, and there was no chance I’d make a mistake in the first place.
Still, a little lip service was the least I could do.
As expected, there wasn’t anyone alive who disliked praise. Father Seo looked quietly pleased.
“I still have a long way to go.”
“I think it’d be good if you kept playing whenever you have the time.”
“Tonight.”
He left the rest unsaid, but the meaning was obvious—he’d be coming to our lodging.
In any case, the minigame business seemed to be over for now, so I turned to Dark Dragon Lord and brought up the real topic.
“May I see the [Golden Minute Hand]?”
“Of course.”
That was the reason I’d been called here in the first place.
Dark Dragon Lord rummaged around inside his robes, then pulled out and opened a small box like a ring case.
Inside it, an extremely thin golden hand radiated an overwhelming presence.
[Golden Minute Hand(S)]
“Thank you. It couldn’t have been easy to make.”
“If anything, it still feels insufficient compared to what you did for my niece.”
Dark Dragon Lord answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
He’d made the minute hand as repayment for me taking Seo Ye-in to the Great Sage of the Crows and helping her learn Space Fold.
Back then, I’d even paid for all the statue fees myself.
With a mild smile, I said,
“I’ll continue doing my best to help. She’s my [Bond] partner, after all.”
“Yes. And what do you intend to do with the minute hand?”
“If possible, I’d like to attempt the crafting.”
I had all the main materials, after all.
As I said that, I took out the remaining items and showed them.
[Golden Gear], [Golden Second Hand], [Hand of Regret], and even [Movement of Eternity(S)], which I’d exchanged for through [Greedy Choice].
At that, Dark Dragon Lord looked overwhelmed in a way that didn’t suit a dragon at all.
“To think there would be someone who could gather all of these.”
“If you set your mind to it, couldn’t you craft it yourself?”
“I am not all-powerful either.”
One of his main specialties was time, so yes, crafting it itself was possible for him.
The problem was the lower-tier materials.
There were plenty that only appeared from dungeons and quest rewards, which meant even an S-rank dragon couldn’t acquire them easily.
Compared to the others, the [Golden Minute Hand] had been one of the easier ones—but even then, he’d had to go around beating boss monsters for materials, then bury himself in the crafting process for months before finally completing it.
In any case, the end result was that all the materials had now been gathered in one place, and the fact that I’d laid them out so plainly meant only one thing.
“You’re asking me to assemble the pocket watch.”
“There was no one else I could ask.”
“It won’t be easy. As I just said, I am not all-powerful.”
Dark Dragon Lord slowly shook his head, but it didn’t sound like a complete refusal.
He gestured at Father Seo with his eyes and added,
“But if that fellow lends a hand, we might be able to imitate it well enough.”
He was deeply versed in magic engineering, and his rank sat somewhere between A+ and S.
In other words, he satisfied the minimum conditions needed to craft the watch.
Handling high-tier materials at S-rank and above might still be too much for him, but Dark Dragon Lord could simply flood the process with magic to compensate.
That was exactly how they’d made the Immortal Pot using S-rank adamantite.
Father Seo stared at me for a while, then opened his mouth.
“It will be very difficult.”
“I know.”
“But I will try. On one condition.”
“What would you like me to do?”
I could already guess the demand, but in times like this, pretending not to know was the smarter move.
Sure enough, he pointed to the table where we’d just had our match.
“A match every day.”
“Of course.”
I answered without even one second of hesitation.
A pocket watch was on the line here.
World peace was on the line here.
At that, Father Seo gave a satisfied nod and exchanged a glance with Dark Dragon Lord.
Then the two of them spoke, one after the other, in resolute tones.
“A challenge.”
“I’ll make it for you.”