Chapter 28: Betty Barosi
Western Dragon, and Eastern Dragon.
If you asked the people of this city to name what they feared the most, everyone would point to those two.
Those two legendary beings, which had appeared in both Eastern and Western myths since ancient times, differed so much in appearance and temperament that they could be considered entirely separate species.
The Western Dragon, shaped like a winged lizard, was ferocious, evil, and greedy.
The Eastern Dragon, shaped like a long serpent, was gentle, righteous, and incorruptible.
But the two races shared one thing in common.
That was.
‘They never forget.’
Western Dragons and Eastern Dragons never forgot.
In particular, Western Dragons never forgot an ill fate that had befallen them.
And Eastern Dragons never forgot a good fate that had come to them.
“Y-you, you bastards! What are you standing around for! Move and subdue her, now!”
As the flustered bear roared urgently, the agents standing near the entrance stepped forward.
But the red-skinned demon blocked their path and shouted.
“Don’t move!”
“Wagner! What the hell are you doing right—!”
“This is an order. Absolutely do not attack!”
He swallowed dryly and muttered.
“If you so much as damage a single hair on that Half-dragon, we’re all finished.”
‘That demon bastard actually knows how to think.’
Unlike Western Dragons, who usually preferred to act alone once they left childhood, Eastern Dragons formed groups and maintained close family bonds until death.
Injuring a member of an Eastern Dragon’s family?
On top of that, the daughter of the Lightning Dragon, infamous for its fiery temper?
No matter how big a Megacorporation was, bearing that wrath would not be easy.
Moreover, Betty Barosi was an extremely young individual who had only just reached adulthood.
As the demon said, if even a single hair were damaged, not only her mother, the Lightning Dragon, but also her aunts, uncles, and grandparents would surely step in.
“First, we apologize for our insufficient attitude.”
“An apology?”
At the demon’s words, Betty frowned.
“Why are you doing that?”
As she said that, she looked down at the bear.
“I-I’ll apologize. My regrets.”
“You’ve never begged for forgiveness even once in your life, have you? Judging by what you think passes for an apology. Right?”
Betty drove her sharp claws deep into the thick, fatty back of his neck.
“Since it’s come to this, I’ll teach you properly.”
“Aaaagh! Don’t do this!”
“Stand up straight and bend your head below your waist. Easy, right? Now, politely apologize to my friend over there. With proper words of remorse.”
Friend?
They had already become that close?
Diesel found himself being rather cautious about whether he should take this positively or not.
‘If Betty was a Half-dragon, then my original form…….’
As he turned the thought over in his head.
The bear’s next words, spoken abruptly, shattered his train of thought.
“T-this……! You half-baked reptile bastard!”
“Michya, Director! No!”
Unable to hold back, the bear thrust forward the handgun he had been hiding, aiming it at Betty.
But in that fleeting instant.
“Tsk, you’re hopeless.”
The Half-dragon drew in a short breath, huffing.
Then exhaled toward the bear charging at her.
Along with that.
An overwhelming light poured out, impossible to look at directly.
‘……!’
It was something completely different from the surreal realm of magic.
An energy that only transcendent beings could forcibly spew into the world.
A unique power possessed only by Eastern Dragons and Western Dragons.
‘Dragon’s breath…….’
An innate authority that no one could ever imitate.
A power that made one understand why everyone feared the race known as dragons.
Who could possibly dare resist in front of that overwhelming force?
Along with the destructive lightning-type breath fired from the Half-dragon’s mouth.
The massive skyscraper shook as if an earthquake had struck.
“This is insane……!”
“My god…….”
A building wall that wouldn’t have taken a single scratch even if high-explosive shells were poured onto it collapsed with absurd ease.
Where reinforced glass windows had once been installed, a hole shaped exactly like the Half-dragon’s breath now gaped open.
And after the storm passed once.
As the smoke slowly cleared, the figure of the bear beastman who had just tried to attack Betty was revealed.
“Director!”
“Uh…… ah…….”
The bear, with nearly half his body blown away, staggered on the spot.
It was astonishing that he was even still alive, given his miserable condition.
Betty snorted at him dismissively.
Then she grabbed the Electrosphere blocker that had been embedded beneath her ear and applied a bit of force.
With crackling sparks, the machine—which normally required a separate device to remove—was torn off like a sheet of paper.
“Hey, red demon over there.”
“…….”
“Fail me in this interview and pass my friend instead. Otherwise, you’ll see my face again. Got it?”
Having returned to her original soft voice, she spoke while looking at the horn-broken demon.
The demon adjusted his glasses and slowly nodded.
“Phew…….”
Betty glanced sideways at Diesel and said.
“Nice meeting you. Yuri.”
Then she slowly walked toward the hole in the window.
‘Hmm…….’
Diesel hesitated briefly over what he should do.
Then he threw out a new gamble.
[It’s Diesel.]
“……?”
Hearing the unfamiliar voice through the closed channel, Betty turned around.
[My name. It’s Diesel.]
“…….”
As if she finally realized what that meant, her expression changed.
An innocent smile she always wore rose onto her face.
[Let’s meet again later. If we get the chance.]
At Diesel’s words, Betty gave a small nod.
Then, spreading dragon wings from her back, she threw herself out the window.
“What are you doing? Call the First Aid team right now! Director! Pull yourself together! Director!”
‘Was this a good thing, or not…….’
Muttering like that, Diesel turned around.
He passed by Kang Da-hee, who was standing there absentmindedly, and left the chaotic interview hall.
---
〈Master……!〉
〈Yeah. Ar.〉
Several hours later, in a shabby parking lot somewhere beyond the reach of corporate surveillance.
The sky had already grown dim.
〈Master…… are you okay?〉
Having moved the motorcycle to a quiet place in advance according to his master’s orders, Ar tilted its head as it read his heavily disordered mental state.
After checking his surroundings to confirm it was safe, Diesel put the red pill Isabel had made into his mouth.
〈I’m fine.〉
When Diesel returned to his original face and produced electricity for Ar, the spirit glanced around cautiously, then soon began to munch it down with its tongue.
〈Ar was faithfully carrying out the master’s orders.〉
〈Really?〉
〈Everything the master said, Ar kept.〉
〈Good job.〉
Watching Ar enjoy its brief snack like that soothed his exhausted mind and body.
‘Those damn corporations…….’
To state the conclusion first, Diesel passed the interview.
However, because of the incident that occurred during it, Podvig’s agents detained him and grilled him with questions for several hours, as if interrogating him.
What was his relationship with that Half-dragon?
Betty Barosi had called him a ‘friend’—what did that mean?
Why had they been together from the very start of the interview, and so on.
Since there truly was no relationship at all, they were questions he could refute easily, but a Megacorporation’s suspicion was remarkably persistent.
‘Why did a Half-dragon even come to take an interview? That’s what I want to ask.’
Betty Barosi’s appearance caused massive aftershocks.
Not only for Podvig as a corporation, but for Diesel as well.
‘Betty definitely saw my real face.’
Beings of high rank like Eastern Dragons or Western Dragons possessed a special vision that pierced through the essence of their target.
Because of that, most magical disguises did not work on them.
Betty had probably sensed that strange aura from Diesel, grown interested, and approached him.
Dragons at a young age were extremely curious, after all.
At that moment, sensing something, Diesel turned around.
“Yuri…… no, Diesel.”
There stood the blue-haired Half-dragon, Betty Barosi.
“…….”
“How did it go? You didn’t fail, right?”
“I passed. Thanks to you.”
That was sincere.
If Betty hadn’t caused that unexpected incident, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to fail.
“That’s a relief! I was really worried you might not pass because of me.”
She then lowered her head toward the ground.
“……You were surprised, right? A Half-dragon suddenly showing up.”
“It’s fine. I’ve been through worse.”
At Diesel’s words, Betty gave a small smile.
“Honestly, saying I applied to the Podvig interview just for fun was partly true. It was my first time coming out into the outside world, so everything felt fascinating. But when I thought you might fail because of me, Diesel, my heart just dropped all of a sudden…….”
Her voice trailed off as she slowly nodded.
“I didn’t think it through. I didn’t even consider that, because of a frivolous application like mine, someone else who worked hard could fail……. Stupid Betty.”
“Really?”
“Huh?”
“That you applied just for fun.”
Had it hit the mark?
Betty flinched slightly.
“Um…….”
Then she fidgeted with something beneath her clothes.
“You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to.”
“…….”
Instead of answering, she looked up at the pitch-black night sky.
“Sorry.”
There had to be some kind of story behind it.
The fact that she kept touching the area around her neck also seemed to carry some meaning.
“Hey……. Can I ask you something?”
As if changing the subject, Betty asked.
“What?”
“It’s something I’ve wanted to ask ever since I first saw you…….”
Twisting her hair around her thin fingers, she asked shyly.
“Are you…… by any chance a Ghostcatcher?”
“…….”
“I’m really interested in Ghostcatchers. Free spirits who roam the dark side of this city……! Isn’t that so cool? Hehe…….”
So that was it.
From the beginning, this Half-dragon had been following Diesel around because she thought he was a Ghostcatcher.
She had probably noticed that Diesel was infiltrating the corporation to work.
When his answer came a bit late as he fell into thought, Betty hurriedly added.
“I absolutely keep secrets! I’m super tight-lipped—an elf…… no, a Half-dragon! You know how sensitive dragons are about promises, right?”
At that, Diesel let out a small chuckle and told the truth.
“Yeah, that’s right. I’m a Ghostcatcher.”
“Wow……! No way……!”
With her face flushed in excitement, Betty stepped closer to Diesel.
“I-I……! This is my first time ever meeting a real Ghostcatcher!”
Perhaps too excited, a faint puff of dragon breath escaped her nose.
“I really love Ghostcatcher stories! You know! Have you heard of a novel called ‘Night of the Starless City’? It was written by a half-android author, and it’s my absolute favorite!”
“No.”
“Then what about ‘Detective of the Data Backstreets’? That one’s a novel too, and it even got adapted into a drama, so it’s super famous. You know that one, right?”
“I’m not really interested in that sort of thing.”
“Oh my god……. Even if you’re not interested, you have to watch Detective of the Data Backstreets! It’s a true masterpiece! Oh, right, right! There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask if I ever met a Ghostcatcher…….”
Eyes wide, Betty asked.
“Have you ever been to the Underground Great Hall?”
At that question, Diesel replied as if it were no big deal.
“It’s a place I go in and out of like home.”
Betty looked like she was about to faint from shock.
“Seriously……?”
Wondering what the media even said about the Underground Great Hall to provoke that reaction, Diesel looked at her, and she began rattling off words rapidly.
“It’s disguised as an ordinary teahouse, but underneath the ground are all kinds of vast facilities……! On basement level one there’s a tavern called Count Zero, from floors two to seven there are all sorts of shops for Ghostcatchers’ work, from the eighth floor onward there’s a hotel, and even deeper there are surreal spaces like the VIP floor lined up everywhere! A mysterious place where hardly anyone knows how many floors the very bottom has—the Underground Great Hall……!”
“……”
“Is all of that really true?”
“Yeah. You’re detailed enough that it sounds like you’ve been there yourself.”
“……!”
If he told her that he was currently working together with Madam Isabel, the owner of that Underground Great Hall, she might actually die of a heart attack.
‘Hmm…… do dragons even get heart attacks?’
“Then! Then, you know! Maybe…….”
Eyes sparkling, Betty finally got to the point.
“Could I, I…… also become a Ghostcatcher……!”