Long-Awaited Desire (11)

Rurin hadn’t realized.

That this world was bright.

Because all that existed in Rurin’s world was darkness.

And not just any darkness.

What was in Rurin’s heart was always a darkness filled with bubbling anger.

A bright world.

It was a word that didn’t exist in Rurin’s world.

Therefore, words like ‘happiness’ and ‘love’ were the farthest things from Rurin.

Her mother too.

The Elder too.

The Black Dragons who tormented her even more so.

And Rurin herself.

Love and happiness didn’t exist in Rurin’s life.

But a crack formed in that life. Just as many years’ of time piled up to form a large stratum, the crack in Rurin’s heart began to grow little by little.

It took quite a long time for that crack to break down the large barrier in Rurin’s heart.

Originally, Rurin’s heart was filled with great anger, not love. Before meeting El, Rurin’s only components were anger and darkness.

Rurin had lived in solitude after losing her mother.

For quite a long time.

But she hadn’t done anything herself to reach the final destination of that anger—revenge.

She just cursed alone, stewed in her own bitterness, and hid herself in the darkness alone.

Rurin, who couldn’t do anything.

A great change came to Rurin after meeting El.

Even though the thoughts of her ‘mother’ always simmered in her heart.

While with El, she unknowingly started to simmer less. The emotions that had been boiling began to gradually, little by little, cool down as time passed with him.

Her desire for revenge still remained, but the boiling darkness that couldn’t allow her to see even a step ahead of her disappeared, and she began to face reality.

Thanks to that, Rurin could smile.

She laughed while joking with El.

She laughed while eating with El.

She glanced at El and smiled.

She created a being she could never give to anyone else. Rurin smiled for the first time since leaving the old lair.

That smile gave Rurin, who had been consumed by the boiling darkness and could do nothing, a proper chance to face revenge.

Face revenge. Fight against the desire for revenge and find a chance to completely drive out that darkness.

That’s why, in this moment, Rurin was glaring directly at her enemy.

In the past, she wouldn’t have been able to hold back for even a second and would have exploded.

Just like how Medidana had thrown himself at his enemy the moment he recognized them.

Rurin remembered that she had been like that too. If she hadn’t met El, she probably would still be like that now.

But Rurin held back.

Because El had told her to hold back for a proper revenge.

Kwaa-aaang-!

The dragons were still fighting each other.

But Rurin stared indifferently at all the dragons, waiting for the opportunity to come.

When Medidana jumped in, she surprisingly realized something.

Medidana, too, had the same darkness she once had.

Although Medidana wasn’t consumed by the boiling ‘darkness’ since he was an ancient dragon.

He still had enough ‘darkness,’ and because of that darkness, his chest was pierced.

It was her former self.

Rurin felt a deep sense of kinship with her grandfather for the first time.

Because the Elder didn’t have El.

He appeared fine, but he wasn’t fine.

Later, when El explained about the Elder, she realized that the Elder, who seemed strong, was actually in a weaker state than her.

That was the Elder, no, her grandfather.

“Did the Elder also suffer, in the same darkness as me?”

That’s why Rurin thought this.

Blood was flowing.

The blood flowed like a puddle.

‘I am different. I can hold back because of El. Even now, with those enemies right in front of me!’

Rurin blinked and pressed her hand to the Elder’s wound to stop the bleeding. Though a human hand like hers couldn’t help the dragon’s wound, she still put her hand there.

Her resentment and yearning for the Elder didn’t vanish all at once like melting snow.

But in this moment, Rurin felt a clear sense of kinship.

So when El finished explaining about the Elder, Rurin moved up close to him and whispered softly.

“Then… I’ll forgive him.”

Of course, El smiled brightly at those words.

But the Elder and an enemy are different. She had only held back.

She still had to take revenge.

The opportunity soon came.

El led her to that opportunity. It wasn’t just any opportunity. In front of the Black Dragons who had tormented her, El made sure they couldn’t say a single word.

Rurin closed her eyes. Even though her enemy had fallen before her, for some reason, what came out wasn’t anger, but tears.

The tears flowed purely because of El.

Because, from the moment they met, he had always been by her side, and now she found his back incredibly cool.

With that thought, Rurin kicked the ancient dragon Rihaim and unleashed magic.

The more she did, the more the Red Dragon Elder in the sky roared.

“No! No! This can’t be! This is wrong!!”

The meaningless flailing continued.

“This is wrong. So wrong. We’ll go back, go back and reorganize!”

He was screaming things like this while twisting his body in the sky in chaos.

It was a collapse, but not a real collapse.

Rurin was watching the scene clearly.

Because she couldn’t just keep taking it.

She also had to take care of herself.

So, she didn’t take her eyes off the Red Dragon Elder and used her breath just as he was about to flee.

She made sure the mana the Red Dragon Elder had gathered vanished with the pain of his wings being torn.

Watching the fallen enemy.

Rurin bit her lip, thinking about why she had to be trapped in darkness for so long because of these kinds of beings.

She glanced at El.

El was angry at the Red Dragon Elder.

Because of her.

Purely because of her.

So, Rurin finally opened her tightly pressed lips and smiled.

Even in this situation.

No, because of this situation, her heart was pounding violently.

Before her now stood a being who brought her happiness.

So, she would put an end to this final tragedy and only smile from now on.

Rurin, while making a vow to her mother in the sky, launched a flying kick.

The moment the Red Dragon Elder became dust with a scream.

Rurin’s heart turned as white as a lie.

For some reason, Rurin felt like her mother was smiling down at her from the sky.

The Black Dragons.

Unlike when they tormented her with disgrace, the Black Dragons now couldn’t even look her in the eye. But she felt no particular emotion.

‘They’re fools. It doesn’t matter anymore.’

Rurin thought this and looked at El.

Red sky.

The sunset at dusk.

The Black Dragon’s sanctuary, which was almost stained red with blood, was peaceful, and the evening glow seemed unusually more beautiful than usual.

For a moment, hidden behind a pile of meteors, the sun, which had not been able to shine its light fully, pushed forward in its final effort.

In front of that, Rurin urged El. She had held back earlier because there were too many dragons, but now, she couldn’t wait any longer.

Not anymore.

Only the two of them remained.

So, with puffed cheeks, she shouted.

She didn’t like how El had been dodging the topic since earlier.

It was understandable since she had clearly heard the word “marriage”!

“You! The noisy ones are all gone now! So, about earlier, that thing! That!”

“That?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know!”

“Shall I?”

“Huh?”

At Rurin’s shout, El suddenly changed his attitude.

Rurin, in turn, was taken aback.

But El was direct.

He lifted Rurin’s hand and, while she was stunned, quickly took off the pink ring.

Rurin, caught off guard, shouted in surprise.

“Wh-what…what… What is this! You?”

He took back the ring he gave her?

Unable to understand the situation for a moment, Rurin started stuttering like a broken robot.

“Give it back! You said it was a symbol of our love, so why did you take it?!”

“Rurin.”

“What?!”

The more Rurin reacted, the less El cared about the ring. He began to get serious, and Rurin couldn’t help but flinch at his serious expression.

“You’ve avenged the enemy you wanted to, right? The heaviest burden in your heart is gone now, isn’t it?”

“That’s true. It feels like my heart has been cleansed!”

“Right?”

She nodded eagerly.

She couldn’t forgive him for taking the ring, but since it was the right thing to say, Rurin nodded strongly.

“Then it’s time for you to start afresh too, with a new heart.”

Not liking El’s words, Rurin furrowed her brows and asked again.

“What do you mean by starting afresh?”

“Forget about the ring, forget the enemy, forget the grudges, and let’s start everything anew.”

“…What?”

Rurin didn’t understand El’s words. No, there was no need to understand them.

“That means the ring is confiscated.”

Rurin exploded at El’s ridiculous statement.

“You? What are you saying…?”

Ughhh!

Why confiscate the ring?

The symbol of love!

Rurin couldn’t hold back and launched a flying kick at El.

Pwooooosh-!

When Rurin’s signature move exploded, El was sent rolling on the ground.

“Hey!”

El shouted, but Rurin ignored him, climbing on top of the fallen El and grabbing him by the collar.

“If the ring is confiscated, what about our engagement? You, I’m really mad now! I won’t forgive you!”

Rurin’s face turned red, but it wasn’t from embarrassment.

It was a red hue from her blood pressure rising, as if she were about to explode.

At Rurin’s words of not forgiving, El started laughing beneath her.

“It’s just this ring. Just this one. There’s something else.”

“Huh?”

The mood was different from when he took the ring and became serious earlier. Rurin felt confused and blank.

She didn’t understand fully, but she could clearly tell that something was off.

“Ughhh!”

With that thought, she puffed her cheeks again.

“Don’t puff your cheeks. You’ll pop. And go down a little, lower! Let me sit up.”

At those words, Rurin unknowingly moved her rear toward El’s thighs.

Then El sat up and grabbed Rurin’s hand.

“Rurin, stretch your hand this way.”

Rurin, still with puffed cheeks, stretched her hand out like she was magnetically drawn to El’s words.

“You know, that ring earlier was an engagement ring.”

“The symbol of love!”

“Yes, but the true symbol is this one.”

“What are you talking about?!”

Rurin tilted her head. El had been acting so strange from the start.

In front of Rurin, El took a ring out from inside his clothes.

It wasn’t pink.

The ring itself was rough. There was no time to craft it properly, but the black gem inside was mysteriously shining.

“Rurin. This is a Black Dragon’s orb. It was used by them, and it provided many excuses, but it wasn’t the orb itself that was wrong, it was the dragons’ desires. If you really think about it, this is the only memento your mother left behind. I heard from the Elder that your mother wanted to offer the orb to be kept in the sanctuary and, dividing it, pass half of it to you.”

The one who finds the orb is its owner. Offering it to the sanctuary is purely voluntary.

“I made it quickly, so it’s not beautiful, but I made it round out of what the Red Dragon elder destroyed. So, this is essentially your mother’s.”

El said that as he slid the ring with the glowing black orb onto Rurin’s finger.

“This orb is filled with your mother’s thoughts for you, so it’s just like your mother. So, I’ll say this in front of it.”

El said up to that point, then lifted Rurin, standing her up before standing himself and brushing off the dust, then kneeling once more.

“I will serve you for a lifetime, so stop making that foolish face and marry me, Rurin.”