Chapter 02

Employee can't wait to leave work

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Employee can't wait to leave work

Drip, drip, drip...

As I tilt the kettle, a golden-brown liquid pours out, filling the teacup with steam rising.

'Haa, please, let me leave work already.'

At the same time, hot steam rose in my chest. It was the anger of someone who had long past leaving work on time.

"Alright, I'll enjoy this then."

As I served the tea, slender and delicate hands gracefully lifted the teacup.

Just before closing the door, the hand... no, the customer who knocked on the door of the lounge gave me a smile. Then, she brought the teacup to her nose and savored the aroma.

 "Hmmm, such a delicate smell......."

"Please sip it slowly since it's hot."

You can't spit on a smiling face, so I replied with a forced business smile.

Though I spoke kindly on the surface, deep down, I was wishing she would drink quickly and leave.

"Oh, by the way, Mr. Breeder? How long has it been since you came to Valkyrie Island?"

However, the girl wasn't taking it lightly. Just when I thought she would simply sip her tea and leave, she suddenly threw a question at me.

"I've been on this academy island for... exactly one month now."

The Dragon Academy Island, Valkyrie Island. The size of the island is roughly the size of Jeju Island. As the name suggests, this place is an academy covering the entire island.

And it's exclusively an educational institution for hatchlings. To put it simply, it's an academy responsible for the higher education of young dragons.

The average lifespan of dragons is about 8,000 years. 

With such a long lifespan, the hatchling stage also lasts a long time. 

While humans become adults in just 20 years, the childhood of dragons is unusually long.

From what I've heard, it seems like they need to be over 800 years old to be considered no longer hatchlings. And around the age of 750, they usually finish all their educational courses.

In other words, graduating from the academy is typically done around the age of 750.

The period of study consists of four grades, from 200 years including 150 years of vacation time, to 750 years, divided into 100-year units per grade.

In short, it takes a total of 550 years to graduate.

To put it simply, it's like a 400-year university.

These were the pieces of information I had gathered over the past month.

It may not seem like much, but obtaining this information was incredibly difficult. 

I had to serve coffee to the staff and coax the information out of them with great effort.

Was it because of my coffee? It was difficult to earn their favor. The academy staff seemed reluctant to even utter the word "dragon."

Whenever I mentioned dragons, they would glance around nervously, as if they were prey animals terrified out of their wits.

Because of this, information was scarce. I even tried to visit the academy's ancient library, but as a mere slave, I was denied entry.

Because of this, the quality of the information I collected over the month was inevitably poor. 

Furthermore, since the island was entirely surrounded by the sea, escape was nothing but a distant dream.

"I should have looked into the original work instead of just focusing on the gacha..."

 I was a newbie among newbies who had not even read the original novel of ⟪Destiny Dragons.⟫

All I knew were the background settings I acquired from the internet. I had no idea about the exact story or settings.

However, one thing I knew for sure was the ranking of the heroines. 

I memorized the characters listed on the official website to make in-game purchases. Of course, I focused mainly on SSR-grade characters.

But what was the use of knowing such information? I was just a regular user. 

Despite having the title of dorm supervisor, but it was just a title.

How could a mere human like me manage and supervise dragons?

Perhaps the academy staff, despite their fancy titles, were not much different from me. 

They were just personnel needed to manage the academy facilities while the dragons graduated.

Oh, right, speaking of facilities management.......

Sip

Right in front of me, the head of facility management for the academy is savoring her tea.

"Hmm, this has a really deep flavor. It's the first time I've experienced such a scent in my 600 years of life."

 I just served her a regular green tea,

yet the elf woman utters words of admiration as she sips it slowly.

'But what brings her here in the middle of the night? Surely she didn't come just to drink tea...'

With yellow-gold hair cascading down to her shoulders and long, pointed ears on either side, the woman is quite striking. And despite being 600 years old, she looks like she's in her early thirties.

This elf's name is Erdin.

As I mentioned earlier, she's the head of facility management. All the equipment and landscaping at the academy fall under Erdin's jurisdiction.

Oh, and unbelievably, she's not only the oldest among the managerial staff but also the only woman.'

"Mr. Breeder? Can you tell me the name of this tea?"

"It's just ordinary green tea... nothing special. I'm glad you like it."

"Green tea? That's a new name to me. It's been a while since I've tasted a tea with such a sweet aroma."

"Really? I thought Erdin, being knowledgeable about plants, would be familiar with quite common leaves. Surprising."

"...Common?"

Erdin's eyes suddenly light up with curiosity, her sparkling yellow eyes directed at me, so clear that they reflect my face.

It seemed like she was asking me to share any additional knowledge I had about green tea.

Perhaps in this world, green tea wasn't as common as I had thought.

"Oh, as for the benefits of this tea... it's excellent for dieting and anti-aging. And it's also good for fatigue recovery—"

"A-Anti-aging...?! Is that true?"

Erdin, usually calm, interjects abruptly, her tone and expression unusually agitated.

Would the expression of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, upon discovering the elixir of life, be similar?

"W-Well, it's difficult to say it has direct effects, but surely, with regular consumption, it can be beneficial."

"I-I never imagined such a precious tea existed...!"

"Hehe..."

It seems that anti-aging is Erdin's biggest concern these days.

From what I roughly heard, elves here live for about 1000 years, so Erdin's age, exceeding 600 years, is quite old even for an elf.

Due to the mention of anti-aging effects, Erdin hastily gulped down her tea.

'I just blurted out whatever came to mind...'

It's like the phrases you often see in old herbology books or medical texts.

But why did she come here?

Just when I thought I could finally relax after closing time,

she suddenly appeared, sipping her tea...

As soon as Erdin entered, she caught the scent of the drying green tea like a ghost and curiously demanded to know what kind of tea it was.

At first, Erdin seemed to have a purpose for coming to me, but now her eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"Um, Mr. Breeder? Where did you collect this green tea?"

Erdin, who had drained the teapot of green tea in no time, was now touching her skin and her eyes were shining like stars.

Although I wanted to ask her why she came here in the first place, she was one of the few friendly staff members, so I decided to answer her question first.

It wasn't too difficult to respond.

"Oh, I happened to discover it growing behind the barn."

"Behind the barn...?"

Just by answering her question, Erdin seemed to enter into contemplation. Her vibrant expression from moments ago had vanished.

"Uh, behind the barn. Um, Miss Erdin? Is there a problem?"

I didn't know what had caused her sudden change in demeanor, but her eyes widened in surprise.

"My, my, my sanity...! I didn't mean to stop by for a leisurely cup of tea like this......!"

"???"

"Well, actually, I came to deliver a message to Mr. Breeder."

"Oh, I thought so. But what's the matter that made you like this?"

Surprised by my question, Erdin slowly opened her lips to calm her racing heart.

 "Mr. Breeder, do you happen to know what messed up the barn, and isn't it your job to take care of the barn?"

"Huh? Everything seemed fine when I checked this morning. What happened? I couldn't leave the barn during work hours because I was busy with other tasks."

“You didn’t know either… ! The barn's condition is serious. You'd better go quickly! As of now, there will be a lot of girls coming tomorrow, and if they see the lack of management, we will both be reprimanded for sure... … !”

The 'young ladies' are referring to the dragons.

Wait, are you telling me this now?

I mean, do elves get dementia as they get old? Why didn't you tell me straight away.

"Anyway, you should go check it out first! I'll call for assistance..."

"Ah, okay!"

2

Behind the dormitory lounge, there was a small barn.

Well, calling it a barn might be an exaggeration; it housed a few chickens, rabbits, and goats, all of which were used for magical practice.

Technically, it was Erudin's responsibility to manage the barn. However, due to the shortage of manpower, the task naturally fell to me.

'Come to think of it, there was a reason she was kind to me.'

Still, taking care of the animals in the barn at the academy wasn't such a bad job. Watching them munch on hay, even for a short while, eased the loneliness that sometimes crept in.

Oh, and there were unique skills I acquired from managing the barn.

"Skill check."

As I muttered softly, a hologram with a blue background appeared before me. It was the only status window that could be displayed in this world.

"Communication list."

The communication list couldn't be more pathetic.

Being a character of the lowest rank, it's disgraceful to have only these skills...

Beginner level? More like Stone Age level trash character, without a doubt.

The developers must have harbored a grudge from my complaints about the game's aggression system and purposely assigned me such a character.

I haven't even typed 5,700 characters yet, and yet they've treated me so unfairly, despite spending 2 million won.

Squelch, squelch...

With a disappointed feeling swirling within, I shifted my feet. Since it was already dark around, I relied on a small lantern to guide my way as I walked.

The barn wasn't far from the dormitory lounge. As I emerged from the entrance and circled around, there stood a small wooden structure in the back...

"...Haha? What kind of day is today, really?"

Arriving at the barn, I couldn't help but chuckle. It was understandable considering that just this morning, the barn had been in perfect condition, but now it was completely flattened, as if it had been struck by a meteor.

Moreover...

Rustle, rustle...!

'What's that? Is something moving inside?'

Among the rubble of the flattened barn, a pair of green eyes glimmered and stared back at me.

It was unmistakably the gaze of a creature.

I instinctively knew it wasn't one of the animals that had been kept in the barn.

None of the livestock in the barn had eyes that glowed as brightly as those.

'Who could those eyes possibly belong to...?'

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