I Raised A Black Dragon

The bus ran for a long time. Only when the number of people getting on and off gradually decreased and more people were getting off than people getting on did Noah’s sister prepare to get off. Around that time, Noah was able to know where she was going.

She’d already left Seoul a long time ago. The place where the bus had stopped was some memorial park in Paju.

That’s when a fact suddenly crossed Noah’s mind. She pondered on today’s date again. August 17th.

Oh… Come to think of it, this is the anniversary of my death.

She didn’t know because it was an unfamiliar date to her. The day she’d died in this world only to wake up and completely vanish into thin air may as well have been her death day.

Then don’t tell me I’m buried here, she thought. As there’d been no corpse, there was no way she could have even been cremated. Her death here, which she had decided, had only been described as “Died suddenly at the hospital where she passed out and was taken away”, and there was no way to know how the funeral had been held after that.

Noah had brainwashed her, so someone would have reported her death even if there was a body. She guessed her sister had put some of her belongings in the casket instead of skeletal remains.

Noah followed behind her sister, who was still walking forward idly. With her earbuds in her ears, she had no clue that her older sister was trailing her.

Things happen in this scary world if you walk like that without checking your surroundings.

Now she decided to get rid of the strange worries that had suddenly appeared in her. Instead, she waited five minutes after her sister entered the tomb to sneak her way in behind her.

The inside of the tomb was still. Her footsteps echoed louder than she’d expected. Just in case her sister caught her in the act she hid behind a corner and took Largo’s eyes from her pocket.

After rolling one on the floor, she took out the other and sat against the wall of the hallway. A transparent screen appeared when she poked the surface of the eye.

The view beyond the corner seen through Largo’s eye was as she’d expected. Among the hundreds of glass-covered compartments, the third one from the bottom contained a pile of white chrysanthemum flowers and a recognizable photo.

It’s my high school graduation photo.

Noah felt a bit weird.

Still, she was alive and breathing, but how could she be looking at her own tomb? Despite knowing the results of her brainwashing procedure, an unfamiliar feeling lingered.

Her sister stopped for a second, then opened her bag and pulled something out. It was a messy photo that looked like it’d been taken on a smartphone and printed out. It was a headshot from when Noah’d been looking for a job.

“…hey, Sister.”

Noah’s sister said those words with an awkward look on her face. Clearly, she was not used to calling Noah ‘sister’.

Her lips quivered like she was trying to say some more, but she couldn’t find her voice. Tension and depression were smeared on the face of the young girl, who had been sticking to an expressionless face the whole time.

Noah wanted to hear what she wanted to say but at the same time didn’t want to. Whatever she said anyway would be the result of Noah’s brainwashing. Because she had brainwashed them to suffer from guilt for life. It's not like she was bowing down, and now that she regretted it, it didn't sound that sincere…

“I just thought it would be better if there’s a recent photo.”

Noah’s sister’s meek voice was heard through the door, not the screen. Noah’s thoughts stopped when she heard the voice.

“I just suddenly thought about you. That’s why I came again.. I’ll be going now.”

She hesitated for a long time even though she’d said she would be going now.

“Uh…”

Noah heard the voice that continued, hesitatingly holding her breath.

“It is okay if I come again next year?”

On the screen, Hee-yeon couldn't keep her hands still, and Noah could see her collecting and fumbling them over and over.

Noah really didn’t know now if she was supposed to feel some kind of emotion.