*(TL: The ending of where the crow crashed into the window is more of a ‘bump’ than a ‘thud’ implying that it flew powerlessly on its own. Sorry about the mistranslation.)
It struggled to take a few steps forward. Every time it moved, blood flowed out of its half-crushed neck.
The crow lost its balance after a few seconds and collapsed after crashing its head into a table. After stopping once, the spirit beast was unable to stand back up on its own feet.
What did this mean?
“…”
Jean-Luc Wenger raised his trembling hand to pull out a glasses case and took out his glasses artifact.
Fortunately, no-one was inside the office. Simon was out on a personal matter with his attendants and Jean-Luc was the only one remaining inside the office as Simon’s representative.
“…”
He decided to think about it.
1. The other side is on the outskirts of Haytling. Haytling was currently floating above the Pacific Ocean, so it was on the other side of the globe.
2. The crow spirit beast had its neck half-snapped but relied on the intense survivability of a spirit beast to fly all the way here.
In other words, the opponent had snapped the neck of the crow to a point right before its death, so that it would die the moment it arrived at this place. The reason they would do that was probably to warn them along with the return of the letter, telling them to know their own place.
But what? Snap the neck of a spirit beast so that it would die at a given time? Does that even make sense? If someone told him that, Jean-Luc wouldn’t have believed it.
There was something fishy about it. The old man decided to stop there for the time being.
3. [Little Red Door, 60 Rue Charlot, 75003 Paris, France]
The office Simon and Jean-Luc were in, was different from the address written on the letter. Little Red Door was a cafe where a different superhuman was currently positioned at. Simon would only leave for that place after that person contacted them.
The reason was simple – it was because they wanted to hide the location of the office.
When ‘Crow’ was being educated, it was taught to head to the closest base whenever it was flying. So theoretically, Crow should have gone to the cafe which was closer to Haytling than here, before flying over to this place.
And if the crow had gone to the cafe, he should’ve been reported regarding it.
However, there had been no reports.
And Crow was here.
“…”
He gazed outside. The old man felt a prickling sense on his fingers. A hypothesis of an outrageous situation appeared on his head.
Immediately, he called someone with his watch.
After some time, the other party picked up.
“Arthur?”
– Yes, Arthur speaking.
“…”
– Sir Wenger? Your order please.
“…No. It’s nothing. Don’t worry.”
Jean-Luc placed his glasses back into the container with shivering hands.
He recomposed the situation.
The conclusion was this: the opponent knew where Simon’s office was from the very start. Crow flew to the office because its neck was snapped at a place that was closer to the office than the cafe. In other words, the opponent was nearby.
Perhaps… they were watching him right now somewhere beyond the window.
“This damned…”
The old man heaved out a profanity before pulling the curtains to a close.
His wrinkled fingers moved and took out the letter, etched deeply into the crow’s mouth. It was wetted with Crow’s blood.
After opening the letter, the wrinkle on Jean-Luc’s face became a level deeper.
There were three circles and the first one had a red cross on it.
Who would be the remaining two?
“…”
The old soldier intuitively realised it.
Every time they handed the letter back, a cross would be added. However, if Simon didn’t see this letter, the unnecessary strife would vanish and he definitely had to stop it from accelerating.
But, how?
The old soldier closed his eyes.
This was all because his senses had aged after the war ended. Back in the days…
Damn it, the old age was getting to him.
Now was not the time for excuses.
He felt like bashing his young master on his face today. What was fortunate was that Simon wasn’t next to him right now. Persuasion would have been near impossible if he had seen the dead body of Crow.
So he had to hide Crow but Simon would be back in 20 minutes. What excuse should he give to explain the disappearance of a well-trained spirit beast…
It was then.
Thinking back, Crow tended to act selfishly once a year.
When was his mating season last year again…?
The old soldier opened his eyes.
Although he finally saw a path out of this, a myriad of emotions came flooding in at the same time.
He sincerely apologised to the spirit beast that suffered for more than ten years for them. He had flown back to his owner even at the last breath but the owner would never find out about his death.
“This is all my fault for being virtueless…”
Jean-Luc chose to hide the body of the crow.
“I’m sorry.”
There was no way out except for this.
***
“…I got it.”
After saying that, Myung Yongha quickly returned from his tense expression and smiled.
“Hahat, sorry. I pretended to be serious for no reason.”
Yu Jitae shook his head. The reaction he showed just then was in fact on the milder side as a soldier.
“That doesn’t change the fact that you’re my benefactor. I’ll give you my business card. Please contact me if you need help for anything, whatever it may be.”
It was a white card with only the name and phone number written on it. Myung Yongha gave a wink.
“It’s my number, not the manager’s.”
Their private conversation came to an end.
Once they returned to the table, they found Professor Myung Jong, Bom, Gyeoul, Myung Yongha’s big son and Myung Yongha’s wife, Jung Hawon, chatting around.
Myung Yongha carried seven bowls of ice cream and placed one in front of each person. The flavours were vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, and the one in front of Gyeoul was a strawberry-flavoured one. Seeing that, Myung Jun-il shook his head at his father.
“Why why. My son.”
Seemingly at a shy age, Myung Jun-il was unable to clearly state what he wanted and instead sent his father a gaze. Then, Myung Yongha gave a faint grin before changing the ice cream with his son. Myung Jun-il was therefore able to eat strawberry-flavoured ice cream.
“Didn’t you not like strawberry?”
“I, I like it now.”
“Ohh, reallllyyy? Hmmm?”
Wahahat! Myung Yongha heartily laughed after glancing at Gyeoul.
Even after that, Myung Jun-il vaguely nodded or shook his head but Myung Yongha seemed to know exactly what his son wanted every single time like a detective.
The Regressor found that to be intriguing. How did he know his son so well.
Sitting on his seat, he looked back at Gyeoul. She, who had been mindlessly digging into the sticky gelato ice cream, felt his gaze and faced him.
Why don’t I know what you’re thinking, Yu Jitae asked inwardly.
Then, Gyeoul widened her eyes into circles, hesitated for a bit, before scooping a spoonful of the strawberry ice cream and handing it over to Yu Jitae.
“…?”
“I’m fine.”
Shake, shake.
She shook her head.
Why?
“I’m fine. You should eat it.”
Shake, shake.
He still didn’t really understand what the child wanted.
*
Gyeoul blankly stared at Myung Yongha and his wife. The eyes they had when looking at one another, was special.
Was she seeing things? Gyeoul tilted her head.
No. She wasn’t. While the wife was feeding ice cream to the older son, Myung Yongha’s eyes as he looked back and forth between the wife and the son appeared to be shooting something out.
“…!”
Gyeoul wanted to know what that special gaze was about.
Myung Yongha hummed and smiled as he leaned his chin on his wife’s shoulder. He then exclaimed, “What about me?” in a charming manner. His wife grumbled and said, “Auuh, what are you doing?” Her words were clearly that of a refusal but the gaze she faced her husband with, also seemed to emanate something.
The wife’s gaze was still the same when she looked at the son, as well as the little baby.
“…”
For some reason, Gyeoul thought it looked very good.
“…”
She felt the little boy looking at her for some reason, but regardless, Gyeoul was curious.
So, she scooped up some strawberry ice cream with her small hand and looked back at Yu Jitae. Then, she gently pushed her hand forward like what she had seen just then.
*
“You want me to eat it?”
“…Nn.”
She appeared expectant.
When Yu Jitae extended his hand and tried to grab the spoon, Gyeoul stealthily dodged his hand and pushed it again once he lowered his hand.
In other words, she was trying to feed him directly.
He didn’t know what meaning there could be behind feeding him, but Gyeoul was staring at him with extremely expectant eyes so Yu Jitae had no choice but to swallow the strawberry ice cream from Gyeoul’s spoon.
“…!”
Then, she suddenly widened her eyes.
Excited, Gyeoul continued scooping up ice cream for Yu Jitae to eat. He didn’t know how much he had to eat for the child to be satisfied, so the Regressor ate everything she was giving him.
After repeating that for a long time, when the bowl of ice cream was about to be completely emptied out, he found Bom laughing under her breath.
Why.
“Nn? It’s nothing.”
She continued laughing after that.
It seemed that he had eaten too much. Gyeoul’s bowl was now empty.
“…Ah.”
When she came to her senses and realised that the bowl was empty, Gyeoul formed a depressed expression. She was so absorbed in giving the food away that she didn’t even see the state her own bowl was in.
After noticing her expression, Bom whispered into Yu Jitae’s ears.
‘Please feed Gyeoul ice cream as well, ahjussi.’
What?
‘Hurry. Gyeoul will be happy.’
Bom displayed a smile full of certainty.
He didn’t do it often, but it’s not like this would be his first time feeding Gyeoul something. Nonetheless, the Regressor raised her up and placed her on top of his lap before giving her his chocolate ice cream. Even then, he was doubtful.
He wasn’t giving a great gift, nor were they staring at a beautiful scenery. It was nothing but feeding ice cream.
Would something like this, make you happy.
While thinking that, the Regressor brought his spoon to her mouth. Since he was staring at the back of her head, he couldn’t look at her expression as she carefully closed her mouth over the spoon.
Her head swayed back and forth. She chewed after wiping the spoon clean as her cheeks twitched up.
Before long, she finished swallowing the ice cream and gazed back at Yu Jitae. She was staring straight at his eyes, clearer than ever before.
The Regressor didn’t avoid her eyes.
“…”
A few seconds passed as they blankly stared at each other. Soon, Gyeoul took in a deep breath and nodded her head. What was making her so satisfied…? He didn’t know.
But there was a bright smile of satisfaction hanging on her mouth.
That was when Bom once again whispered into his ears.
‘How was it? She liked it, right?”
‘She did. Thanks.’
‘Then… whose turn is it now?’
What?
He turned to Bom and saw her opening her mouth, going ‘Ahh–’.
Yu Jitae felt perplexed as Bom bursted out in laughter and giggled.
*
After parting ways with Myung Yongha’s family, he was going around the amusement park with Bom and Gyeoul.
“How about we go to the haunted house?”
“…Haunted house?”
“Nn. I think it’ll be fun.”
The Regressor thought for a bit.
Haunted house, haunted house…
It would be a different story for him and Bom, but Gyeoul might like it.
On the way there, people wearing full costumes of Lair mascots welcomed people and handed out candies.
There were costumes of a cat, a dog, a zebra, a deer, a baby chicken, a tiger and others.
But from them, there was one extremely unique animal costume. With a blue face and a body resembling a reptile, it had a horn and beard on the head.
It was the mythical creature, dragon.
Gyeoul, who was in Yu Jitae’s arms, flashed her eyes and gestured to go towards the dragon mascot.
When he did go there, Gyeoul began touching the animal costume on the face. Perhaps because of her careful touches or because the child was pretty, the person wearing the costume did not turn away from Gyeoul’s fingers.
After touching the beard for a long time, Gyeoul looked back at Yu Jitae. Then, she began pointing at other animals.
“…Cat.”
He gave a nod.
“…Dog.”
He nodded.
After saying a zebra, a deer, Chirpy, a tiger and others, Gyeoul finally pointed at the dragon costume and asked.
“…What’s, this?”
The Regressor gave an empty smile. He was slightly baffled.
That was when a female voice was heard from inside the costume.
– It’s a dragon, cute little friend!
“…Dragon?”
Gyeoul looked back with a bright smile.
She asked Yu Jitae.
“…What is, a dragon?”