Next morning, Yu Jitae took out the pocket watch from his pocket.
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] alerts of the current time, [9 am].>
This time, it was faster.
But, you’re wrong.
<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: ?>
Right now, it was 8:59 am.
<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: …>
There was still one minute to go until 9 am, and this one minute was very important. The assignments of the day were refreshed at 9 am everyday.
As always, Yu Jitae opened the app, [School Competition] and checked the assignment of the day.
+++ Today’s Assignment Performance +++
– 1. Rift of Anguish C+ Dungeon Clear (5 People)
Points: 10
– 2. Exploring 5 regions north of Haytling (2 People)
Points: 8
– 3. Producing a Level 1 Artifact (1 Person)
Points: 80
…
++++++++++++++++
There weren’t any assignments with a high number of points.
The only high one was the artifact production but let alone the fact that this took more than a few days, it wasn’t suited for Yeorum in the first place. At this rate, it was just better off winning at the individual spars instead of going for the assignments.
Yu Jitae turned off the watch and turned to the other side of the sofa. Bom had sneaked up before he could say anything and was blankly lying down.
“Are you seriously not gonna go?”
“You mean class? I don’t have any today.”
“Yes you do.”
“Hehe.”
Lying had become a part of her daily routine but it wasn’t spiteful enough for him to say anything about it.
That day, Kaeul had no class in the morning. “Unni unni unni!” shouted Kaeul as she ran up while hugging Gyeoul in her arms. Gyeoul was smiling while hugging tightly onto the now basketball-sized baby chicken.
“Unni. What’s that picture?”
She pointed at the wall. The painting drawn by Yu Jitae and Bom was hanging next to one drawn by Gyeoul (Big-headed Prince and the Yu Household). The name given to the painting was ‘Salvation’. It was a name abruptly thrown out by Bom as she complained about the name ‘Apocalypse’ that Yu Jitae tried to give.
“It’s something I drew with ahjussi yesterday.”
“Ehng? You drew with just the two of you?”
“Nn.”
“Ahjussi, what about us?”
“…”
“Draw with us as well please.”
“…!”
When Kaeul protested, Gyeoul likewise wore a serious look on her face and rapidly nodded. Without even really understanding why, the baby chicken followed her and nodded.
Seeing that, Bom laughed.
“You guys are funny. What are you three doing?”
“Nn, this? It’s Doonga Doonga! Do you want to try too?”
Soon, Bom joined them by hugging Kaeul on her waist and lifting her up from the ground. Kaeul was still hugging Gyeoul and Gyeoul was still holding onto the baby chicken in a row.
Bom walked around the living room like that and groaned. Rather than the weight, she appeared to be more troubled by the posture and balance. Kaeul and Gyeoul who were being raised up from behind chuckled.
“Ahjussi.”
“Yeah.”
“You come as well!”
“…What?”
“Do Doonga Doonga for us!”
“…!”
Gyeoul waved her hands. It seemed that they wanted him to raise that strange sideway human pagoda by another level.
Left with no other choice, Yu Jitae stood up and walked towards them. He was planning to hold Bom by the waist.
That was when his eyes met with Bom who slightly turned her head back. Her usual, indifferent pout was long gone as she faced a slightly nervous gaze at Yu Jitae.
When he brought his hands closer to her waist, the nervousness hanging in her gaze turned even bigger by a slight margin. Her powerless gaze soon shifted its focus away from his eyes.
What’s wrong with her.
Inside the Regressor’s head were two analysers. They were ‘Bom Analyser’ and ‘Gyeoul Analyser’. Yu Jitae inserted the current situation into the Bom Analyser in his head.
Were they close? They were, and were closer than necessary.
Was it quiet and gloomy? Not really, since Kaeul and Gyeoul were singing an enigmatic song like drunkards.
Thus coming to the conclusion that he might be seeing things, he placed his fingers on her waist but saw her lips slightly twitch. She seemed to dislike it.
Perhaps Bom didn’t like making physical contact like this. Maybe she was okay with herself touching but disliked others touching herself.
In any case, he, who only wanted the dragons to keep good memories, pulled his hands away and turned around before walking back to the sofa. Because of that, he didn’t see Bom staring deeply at his back and how her gaze lowered to the ground as he distanced himself.
Meanwhile, the protector threw several glances at them.
What you looking at.
*
In the afternoon, Kaeul headed to her class while Gyeoul was having a nap. Yu Jitae asked Bom, who had skipped the class today as well.
“Do you think drawing suits you?”
Bom shook her head in response.
“It was so-so. It was fun, but there wasn’t any sense of satisfaction from finishing the drawing.”
“What do you think was the problem.”
“Hmm…” she pondered before shaking her head. “I just think it’s not for me, and I’m not talented at it either.”
“Talented?”
“Actually, I think I’ll be able to draw better if I precisely drew the image inside my head.”
“…?”
Since her paintings in the previous iterations had always been a mess, it was a questionable statement for the Regressor. Mistaking his gaze as suspicion, Bom widened her eyes into circles.
“What? I really can draw better.”
She began drawing on a notebook in pencil. The subject was the protector who was sleeping like a statue near the wall of the living room.
“Mhmm… if I go like this, and this…”
Surprisingly, she was right. When she began drawing a still life drawing, the complex and ornamented helmet of the living armour was copied onto the book like a photo.
“What do you think?”
“Looks good. Why didn’t you do this yesterday.”
“I don’t know. I just, didn’t want to draw it like this…”
Because she had a complicated look on her face, Yu Jitae did not bother delving any deeper into it.
In any case, one thing became clear. Out of the three things that she tried and failed – drawing, sculpting and writing, the reason for her failure in drawing was because ‘she didn’t want to draw it nicely’.
“What are we going to do today?”
Next up was sculpting.
***
The spring breeze was warm and there weren’t any clouds hindering the spring sun.
Lair’s production district allowed residents of the academy city to use all sorts of manufacturing and performing art facilities like cooking, metallurgy, drawing, fishing, alchemy, sculpting, music and others. There, Yu Jitae purchased blocks of wood for sculpting and chisels.
“Have you sculpted before?”
“No.”
“I haven’t done it either, but why sculpting?”
“What do you mean.”
“It’s not something common.”
That was also something he wanted to ask. Why were you sculpting in Europe? It was a question that could never be answered at this point.
Whenever he was trying to buy one product at the shop, Bom added another. Her brazen expression didn’t change even slightly and she was adamant about how she would never be the only one doing it.
The two of them returned home and headed to the terrace.
“What do you want to make.”
“Hmm… what about you, ahjussi?”
The textbook they bought recommended fish and rabbits for low difficulty.
“How about we listen to what they say since we’re not sure? Ahjussi, you try the fish, and me the rabbit.”
“Alright.”
Yu Jitae and Bom blankly sat down on the terrace and began following the instructions written in the textbook. After marking where they wanted to cut on the block of wood, they just had to cut until that point. Since the two of them were both able to add mana into objects, the rigid piece of wood was chiseled away like tofu.
Shieek. Shieek.
The block of wood began being chiseled into an oval lump. Before long, it began resembling the shape of a fish. It’s streamlined body was soon revealed beneath the head as circular eyes, fins and gills also formed a shape. It wasn’t too difficult after copying the instructions.
Shieek. Shieek.
Meanwhile, he occasionally glanced at Bom’s rabbit. The head was revealed beneath the ears, with a bent neck and a chubby body, as well as an adorable spherical tail. Being absorbed into sculpting, she appeared to have found her hair to be in the way and tucked her grass-coloured hair behind her ear.
Shieek. Shieek.
After the silence continued for about an hour, Bom opened her mouth.
“It’s very quiet.”
“It is class time.”
The residential area was eerily quiet so their sculpting sounds echoed noisily.
“I like it when it’s quiet.”
“Is that so.”
“Don’t you? My voice is pretty soft, and my voice doesn’t go through very easily when it’s noisy.”
“…”
“What about you, ahjussi?”
“I… don’t really care whether it’s quiet or noisy.”
“Even if what you say doesn’t get heard?”
“Just don’t say anything then.”
“That’s an easy solution.”
“Are all green dragons poised like you?”
“No. They actually all speak a lot.”
“Really?”
“Except for the blue race, dragons of Askalifa all speak a lot. I’m just on the quieter side.”
A chatterbox green dragon. He couldn’t really imagine it, because the green dragons in his head had always been quiet.
“And, I’m asking this just because it’s quiet but…”
“Yeah.”
“Just then…”
“Yeah.”
“Why did you suddenly decide not to Doonga Doonga?”
She was still using her small hand to meticulously move the chisel across. It seemed that she was trying to express the furry texture.
He began composing the details of the fins.
“Why. It was because you appeared to dislike it.”
“Why did you think that?”
“I can see from your face.”
They continued talking in a diminished voice.
“Do you know how to read my expression, ahjussi?”
“It’s been about half a year since we lived together.”
“Nn.”
“It’s a given after that much time.”
“…”
Bom suddenly turned blank, as if she was pondering about something.
“What’s wrong.”
“Is half a year short for relationships?”
“Who knows. I wouldn’t say it’s short.”
Spending that much time together in one house could be considered quite long.
“Then why don’t you know, ahjussi?”
“Know what.”
“I didn’t hate it back then.”
His hands came to a stop.
Slowly raising his head up, he found a pair of grass-coloured eyes staring at him. It was the same expression, that made it hard for him to read what in the world was going through her head.
“…”
“…”
Shieek…
Right when Yu Jitae began moving the chisel again and thus broke the silence, Bom’s voice reached his ears.
“Isn’t it ahjussi that found it uncomfortable instead?”
“What does that even mean.”
“Why? You get embarrassed easily.”
Bom was saying that because she was clueless.
He had lost a large portion of sexual interest throughout the repetitive regressions. Even in the first and second iterations, he had a lot of experiences with women and unhesitantly abused them when later oppressing others with fear.
However, there was no reason to explain all that so he stopped replying to her.
Then, Bom opened her mouth.
“Right.”
“No.”
“Rightt?”
“No.”
“I know I’m right.”
“…”
“If I’m not, then try proving it right now.”
“…What?”
“Do Doonga Doonga on me.”
She was still wearing an indifferent look on her face. He applied the current situation into the Bom Analyser inside his brain. Considering the environment, her expression, the distance between the two and the results that tended to show after a discussion like this, this was most certainly another prank of hers.
It seemed that she was expecting him to be perplexed after placing his hands on her waist. Within that expressionless look, she must be fully prepared to break out into laughter whenever possible.
He didn’t hate pranks, but he became doubtful on whether it was correct for him to play along or not.
“Bom.”
At the end of his complex thoughts, he decided to draw a line.
“Because I always listen to what you want and protect you, you seem to be thinking of me as a nice person.”
“Nn.”
“Do you remember what I said at the very start.”
“…How you are not a good person?”
“Yeah. I’ll say it again. I’m not a very good person.”
“…”
“I could be a lot worse than you think. You seem to be clueless about this despite being a green dragon.”
“No.”
“Stop. You’re a smart kid so you should understand what I’m saying. Just because someone treats you nicely doesn’t mean you should think of them as nice people. No matter where you go and who you meet. You understand?”
“…”
Although he wanted them to only have good memories, he also wanted there to be a barrier – a line between them.
Was she disheartened? Perhaps. However, the disappointment wouldn’t be big enough to shake her life from its foundation. Bom was very stable even in situations that were harsher than this.
“No. It doesn’t matter whether ahjussi is bad or not. So what if others think of ahjussi as a bad person?”
Turning all of his worries into needless jokes, Bom opened her mouth with a nonchalant expression.
“As long as you’re a good person to me, that’s all that matters.”