Ch.77. The Dragon’s Priestess (1)

“Mmm…?”

Choi Yu-na was finally able to experience a comfortable rest after so long.

During her time at the survivor camp, she could never sleep properly due to zombie hordes that attacked regardless of day or night.

On top of that, to treat the increasing number of injured people, Yu-na herself had minimized her meals and sleep to focus on providing medical care.

With the constant influx of patients, Yu-na had always suffered from severe overwork, forcing her to function in a perpetually exhausted state.

If Yu-na hadn’t been an Awakened with a Status Window, she would have died from overwork long ago given how much she had been pushed… but today was different.

“…I feel refreshed.”

Perhaps it was because she had slept as much as she wanted and gotten sufficient rest, but her mind, which hadn’t been functioning properly, seemed to be working again.

As Yu-na sat up, she noticed something strange about her body.

“Huh? My hair?”

Her hair had definitely been turning stark white due to excessive stress.

But now it was different.

Her long hair wasn’t bleached white anymore, but shining beautifully with a platinum color.

“Mirror. Yes. Mirror…”

Sensing something unusual, Yu-na took out the mirror she had stored in her backpack and examined her reflection.

In the mirror was a beautiful girl with platinum hair and striking blue eyes, smiling awkwardly.

While her face was still Yu-na’s, she could tell her appearance had changed dramatically due to the different hair and eye colors.

“What’s happening?”

Why had her hair and eye color suddenly changed?

As Yu-na pondered this unexpected situation in confusion, she soon realized that she had made a contract with a dragon in this place.

“Dragon!? Dragon!?”

As soon as that thought occurred to her, Yu-na snapped to full awareness and immediately got up.

Come to think of it, after meeting the dragon and declaring a contract with it, Yu-na had reached her limit and fainted.

With the anxious thought that perhaps all of this had been a dream, Yu-na looked around and only after confirming that the majestic dragon statue from her memory was still well-decorated nearby…

Could she be certain that everything she had experienced until now wasn’t a dream.

“You’ve finally awakened.”

“Ah, you are…”

“I am your contractor. Bahamut.”

Yu-na instinctively shrank at the dragon’s deep, majestic voice, but since she could only sense goodwill from the dragon, she was able to shake off her fear and converse with it.

She herself had chosen to contract directly with this dragon.

Though she still wasn’t sure what the contract meant, Yu-na had clearly told Bahamut that she wanted to borrow the dragon’s power to restore her normal daily life, and had sworn a contract with the dragon.

“The contract!?”

In response to Yu-na mentioning the contract, the dragon beyond the transparent wall smiled slightly and said:

“You already know about that.”

“I know about it?”

What did it mean that she already knew?

Then Yu-na suddenly remembered one thing.

“S-Status Window!”

The Status Window that showed her body’s condition in numerical values.

She checked her Status Window, which she hadn’t properly examined since leaving the survivor camp.

【 Name: Choi Yu-na 】

【 Race: Human 】 【 Gender: Female 】 【 Age: 16 】 【 Alignment: Neutral Good 】

【 Level: 9 -> 15 】

【 Trait: Attendant Who Serves the Dragon 】

【 Class: Dragon’s Priestess 】

【 Strength: 11 -> 21 】 【 Vitality: 12 -> 22 】 【 Agility: 14 -> 24 】 【 Wisdom: 32 -> 42 】 【 Mana: 32 -> 132 】 【 Luck: 9 -> ? 】

【 Skills: Divine Arts (Lower Level 7), Concentrate (Lower Level) 1, Elemental Mastery (Lower Level) 1, Instant Casting (Lower Level) 1, Summoning – Bahamut (Unknown Rank) 】

“Wow…”

The stats were overwhelming.

Just by completing the contract, Yu-na’s level had instantly increased by 6, all her abilities except mana had increased by 10, and her mana had risen by a whopping 100.

Her skills had also expanded from just Divine Arts to surpassing the skill coefficient of an Awakened mage, and she had even gained a skill to summon Bahamut, with whom she had contracted.

Her previously empty job and traits had changed to indicate a connection with the dragon beyond the wall, and Yu-na could now properly recognize that she had contracted with that dragon… no, with Bahamut.

“Ah, hahahahaha…”

She had become stronger.

That fact alone filled her with joy.

Until now, she had been nothing more than a powerless healer, but now she had gained the strength to fight.

However…

“What should I do now?”

Despite gaining power, she wasn’t the type of person to take initiative.

Even at the survivor camp, she had only followed others’ opinions, and even when she resisted, she maintained a timid attitude.

Now that she had gained power, could she really take the initiative to do something?

She had no idea what to do with this power from now on.

That was her current state of mind.

“The contractor told me. That you would normalize the world. And that you wanted to live again.”

Bahamut, seemingly unaware of Yu-na’s feelings, simply stated her wishes in a calm voice.

“Normalize… hahaha. I said that without thinking. How could an ordinary person like me… What power do I have to normalize the world?”

But Yu-na responded with a voice full of despair, saying it was impossible.

This could be seen as depression or lethargy.

At the facility in the survivor camp, they had been able to live without despair despite numerous hardships because there was hope of being rescued by the government.

“Even our hope—our country, our military—ultimately gave no response.”

But despite holding out for so long, neither the government nor the military that was supposed to save citizens ever responded.

The camp where Yu-na had been living collapsed after being divided by an attack from mutant zombies, and the people who were scattered helplessly after the camp fell were either eaten by zombies or became zombies themselves.

Knowing the end of the collapsed survivor camp, Yu-na grabbed her arms with a fearful expression and trembled in terror that engulfed her entire body.

“What has happened to the outside world? Why do you speak so pessimistically?”

The dragon asked her about the situation outside the temple, as if to comfort Yu-na who was trembling in fear.

Yu-na wanted to cry from the dragon’s comfort, but to gain a little more reassurance, she slowly explained the outside situation to the dragon beyond the transparent wall in a sobbing voice.

“Two months ago. Zombies appeared in the city. People living in the city turned into zombies, and when someone bitten by a zombie bites another person, they immediately become a zombie too.”

“The situation commonly referred to as a zombie apocalypse?”

“Yes. Everyone turned into zombies, and those who became zombies showed murderous intent to kill us. My father was eaten by my mother who had become a zombie… and turned into a zombie himself. At least with the emergence of Awakened beings, we had a means to fight against zombies, but…”

Yu-na felt nothing strange about the dragon’s response.

If Yu-na had been a little more level-headed, she might have detected something suspicious about the dragon’s example being commonly mentioned in subculture, but unfortunately, she was suffering from sudden lethargy and depression.

Without a hint of doubt about the dragon’s words, Yu-na slowly began to lament her situation in a mentally weakened state.

“I joined the survivor camp to survive… but in the end, the camp collapsed due to internal conflict, and only those with power survived that disaster. The powerless just die.”

But that didn’t mean she was pathetic.

In the extreme situation of a zombie apocalypse, she had tried her best to survive through numerous hardships, joined a survivor camp, and proved her necessity by treating many survivors.

However, as time passed, the government and military forces that Yu-na and the survivors believed in never appeared, the survivor camp split due to differences of opinion between Awakened and ordinary people, and after great sacrifices due to the appearance of mutant zombies, it eventually collapsed.

“Despite trying so hard to survive… there was no reward for us.”

From Yu-na’s perspective, she was suffering from lethargy and depression, despairing at a reality that hadn’t changed despite all her efforts due to numerous hardships.

“And yet. Without knowing my place, I said I would normalize the world… Isn’t that ridiculous?”

So one couldn’t blame Yu-na for being pathetic or weak.

From her perspective, numerous disasters and misfortunes had piled up, and she had simply turned pessimistic after being unable to endure.

Rather, the worst and most pathetic one here was… the foolish dragon in front of Yu-na who was trying to take advantage of her mentally weakened state.

‘Zombie apocalypse? What on earth is this?’

Of course, this foolish dragon’s inner thoughts were half in panic at Yu-na’s mention of a zombie apocalypse.

‘From what I hear, this apocalyptic disaster happened… about two months ago. Does that mean I’ve achieved doing absolutely nothing all this time?’

This pathetic dragon only now realized that everything it had been doing was essentially a grand waste of time.

Ah! How pitiful and wretched this dragon is!

‘B-but what I’ve been doing isn’t pointless! I got a contractor like this!’

Somehow trying to convince itself that its actions weren’t pointless by forcing a mental victory, its mental state was quite messed up.

‘For now, what we need to do is exterminate the zombies and rebuild the collapsed cities, I guess?’

At least its situation assessment wasn’t misjudged and was rather accurate.

What was truly fortunate for Yu-na was that this foolish dragon took the current situation seriously.

“So you’re saying that all order in the country collapsed in an instant?”

“Yes. All common sense that existed before collapsed in an instant.”

“Then, what’s ridiculous about resolving to normalize that common sense again? It means setting right the collapsed order. I don’t think others’ feelings would be much different.”

So it didn’t deny Yu-na’s statement about normalizing the country’s order, but rather affirmed it.

‘She must have suffered tremendous stress at such a young age.’

The dragon… no, Bahamut seemed to understand why Yu-na’s hair had bleached white when they first met.

It was a symptom commonly known as Marie Antoinette syndrome.

The extreme stress from the harsh situation of a zombie apocalypse had broken down her physical condition, resulting in her hair turning stark white.

“But…! For a weak person like me to claim that…! Don’t you think it’s arrogant?”

With her self-esteem depleted due to despair from disaster, Yu-na cried out her frustration toward the world to Bahamut in a helpless manner.

How could someone powerless like her call for the restoration of order?

But Bahamut before her spoke with a firm voice, showing that it believed and trusted Yu-na more than anyone.

“Arrogant? No. Claiming something itself has nothing to do with strength or good and evil—anyone can do it. And achieving that wish with strong will is not wrong. It’s not a bad thing.”

“It’s not wrong?”

It’s not a bad thing.

That one statement, which seriously affirmed Yu-na’s words when she had no one to depend on or hope to believe in… how would someone like Yu-na, who had lost everything, receive it?

‘I… I… I wasn’t wrong. This thought wasn’t wrong…!’

Her helpless heart, which had been standing precariously alone, gradually regained comfort and vitality.

Because she was given the assurance that she wasn’t wrong, Yu-na was able to find hope to live.

“Yes. What’s wrong with setting order right, establishing proper laws, and restoring peace? Rather, many people would share the same wish as you. They all want to return to their ordinary daily lives.”

“Ah. Ahhh…”

Following that, Bahamut passionately argued that Yu-na’s ideology was not wrong at all, and that many others would share her sentiments.

‘I wasn’t wrong!’

The hope she had cherished was absolutely not wrong.

That was the statement she most wanted to hear, the aspect she most wanted to be affirmed.

“People should pursue happiness. That’s a natural duty, especially for someone young like you.”

“Happiness? You say?”

To Yu-na, Bahamut’s words were salvation.

Yu-na felt that she had been saved by Bahamut with those words.

“Is that possible in this situation?”

“If everything has collapsed, then we simply rise anew from the ruins.”

Bahamut showed Yu-na the way.

If things have collapsed, then just stand up again.

“I don’t have that kind of power.”

“True. The voice of the powerless is rather hollow. So cultivate power that others cannot ignore. The strong can change the rules of the world, and with that power, you can defeat the enemies who destroyed your daily life. And in the cities that have become ruins, new cities will be born. That is the new world you desire.”

The reason everything collapsed was because she lacked power.

Because she was powerless, her ordinary daily life was taken by zombies, and she was threatened and chased by monsters.

But even now as she conversed with Bahamut, was she still as powerless as before?

‘I have power. I have… a god who believes in me.’

No, now she was completely different from the previous Choi Yu-na.

The current Yu-na was someone with power.

“You’re not wrong. No! You’re right! That’s the truth of the world now!”

The Bahamut before her eyes… no, the dragon god told her.

To cultivate power.

To gain power and use it to defeat the abominable enemies who destroyed her daily life.

And if she builds the new city she wants in the ruined city, wouldn’t that be the new world that she and her god desire!

“Yes. A new city will be born from the ruined city! That city… will be the new world I want!”

She had gained hope, and proportionally, she was able to engrave the existence of a god in her heart.

Now, as long as there is a god, she will move forward without bending.

“I, Choi Yu-na! For the world I want. I will rise again as my god has said!”

For the new world she desires.

“Um. Yeah. Right. …Was the effect too strong?”

In fact, her god was looking at her with a worried expression due to Yu-na’s sudden change, but this was completely invisible to her, already captivated by faith and passion.

After all, to her eyes, armed with untainted faith and fanaticism, Bahamut was a benevolent dragon god.

Surely it would infinitely affirm her current state as well.

‘This will be okay… right?’

This is the contractor you chose.

Just endure it with sheer willpower.