This was an extremely foreign phrase for the Regressor.
“Thank you.”
After leaving the detention centre, Yu Jitae met the two of them.
In the end, the most efficient method of describing the power level of the non-existent Yu household was to borrow the fame of these two.
Myung Yongha had come in secret but BM didn’t. Lair was in an uproar when he appeared and rumours spread quickly that BM had come to stand for Yu Jitae.
Two names that could be used anywhere around the globe etched the virtual organisation of Yu household into the brains of the education department staff. And at the same time, the name of Yu Jitae, who had driven Sillardo Leo into the ground, also spread like wildfire.
As time passes, the name value of the Yu household will gradually increase.
“…By the way.”
Myung Yongha spoke to Yu Jitae with a fairly serious expression.
“You know that assistant principal. The Korean with the last name, ‘Ma’.”
It seemed that this sharp-witted superhuman had felt something.
“You mean Ma Namjoon.”
“Ah, yes.”
His usual amicable smile was long gone. With a serious and grave look on his face, Myung Yongha looked into the eyes of Yu Jitae.
“There’s this feeling I get sometimes. It’s my first time seeing him and I don’t know him well, but he feels like a demon.”
“…”
“It had never been wrong before. Well, it was wrong once recently so it’s hard for me to say with certainty but…”
His gaze was still on Yu Jitae.
“That Assistant Principal Ma Namjoon, had a dirty odour around him.”
“Hmm…”
“Did you know already? It should’ve been uncomfortable living at the academy with someone like that around though.”
When Yu Jitae returned a nod, Myung Yongha once again opened his mouth.
“I don’t know how strong of a demon he is, but is it okay for me to deal with him?”
“No. It’s fine.”
“…It’s fine?”
The druid’s eyes turned sharper. He was still unable to fully trust Yu Jitae, and it was a fitting attitude for a soldier. Since there was no need to make him doubtful, Yu Jitae gave a succinct explanation.
“We can’t thoughtlessly kill him.”
“What do you mean we can’t kill him?”
Demons were all clingy with their lives, and it was more so for catastrophe-ranked demons. It wasn’t just Noah who desperately struggled to stay alive. They usually borrowed the power of their lords of the abyss to add several protective insurances to their lives.
“A war will break out if Ma Namjoon dies.”
“…!”
In response to his words, both Myung Yongha and BM turned stiff.
War.
It had only been 20 years since the Great War, and the weight behind the word, ‘war’, was significantly heavy.
“…Can I ask why?”
Yu Jitae didn’t reply.
It was better not to disclose any information hereafter.
In the first place, Ma Namjoon had pretty much lost all his limbs. Like all demons who loved staying under the radar for a long time, Ma Namjoon would also try to build his power up over an extended period of time, even after the Amusements were over for the dragons.
Therefore, he was only planning to observe Ma Namjoon from nearby.
“I’ll take care of it myself.”
The Regressor ended the topic with those words.
For some time, the two of them were silent as they organised their thoughts.
“…Ah, right. Mister Yu Jitae.”
When Myung Yongha opened his mouth again, he sounded slightly brighter.
“Yes.”
“It’s nothing too serious, but, was it Gyeoul? Jun-il really wanted to meet that little blue-haired girl again.”
By Jun-il, he was talking about his biggest son.
“Would you like to go on a trip together when you’re free?”
“I’m a little bit busy right now. Is that okay?”
“It is. I’m also a bit packed on schedule, so I think we’ll have to talk about it in more detail later on.” Myung Yongha then laughed, “You know, I actually sneaked out in the middle of my patrolling session today. Uhahat!”
A trip, a trip…
It sounded okay. The water that had been taken from the Lake of Life was still sitting in a corner of Bom’s room. He could vividly remember the back of a blue-haired child blankly staring at the water bottle.
“Then let’s try organising the time later on. I know a few places that are insanely beautiful.”
Indeed, thinking back on the previous iterations, the Grand Natural Society was an organisation gathered for the purpose of killing demons, but they spent more time playing around and visiting places.
Since he had been uninterested in going on trips back then, Yu Jitae wasn’t able to fit in.
“Anyways, I’ll see you later then. Wish you all the best.”
After Myung Yongha left first, the intertwined long and thin legs were undone as BM pushed his sunglasses up.
“Jung Bongman.”
“Oh please. I wish you would stop calling me that.”
“…I was thinking of adding some rent fee for the 30 tenants.”
“…”
BM’s expression turned serious behind the pair of sunglasses.
“Were you for real?”
“About what.”
“You know, heart. It’s a lot more difficult than what words could express.”
“…”
“Making it similar in terms of shape isn’t even an ordeal, nor is making a similar organ that does similar things. Creating the internal elements of an organ that big is also a piece of cake but the problem is that we have to add all three of those and make it function in a human body, not a superhuman one.”
The Regressor nonchalantly gave a nod.
“I know, of course.”
Dumbfounded, BM let out an empty laugh.
“…Crazy. There’s no way you’re saying nonsense either. Seriously, what in the world are you? Are you like a god?”
“I’m not.”
Yu Jitae pondered on the answer, but soon changed the topic with a shake of his head.
“When do you want me to help.”
“Right now will be a bit troublesome. I have a few things to do, so I’ll tell your aide when I have free time.”
“Do whatever you want.”
Until now, Yu Jitae had tried to avoid both directly and indirectly impacting other rankers including BM. And he still thought that way.
Yu Jitae did not fully trust humans.
In a book he had read in the seventh iteration, there was a question about whether the noun ‘human’ can come after the adjective, ‘trustworthy’ or not.
Impossible. That was the answer he came to after repeating a series of long iterations.
It didn’t matter for normal humans and there wasn’t much a homeless person could do even if they were given a sword.
However, BM was different. He was part of the strong, and was someone that could directly influence the flow of the world by himself.
The reason Yu Jitae decided to partially help with the creation of the chimera despite that, is because BM had succeeded in creating a heart in a distant future, without showing any strange signs afterward.
“Then, I shall see you later.”
*
After sending BM away, Yu Jitae returned home.
The first one to greet him was Gyeoul. For the first time in a while, she was sitting down near the shoe racks, glaring at the door with a pair of anxious eyes.
“What’s wrong.”
“…”
She didn’t say anything but glanced all over Yu Jitae. Then, she reached her arms out with a teary expression.
He lifted the child up and hugged her.
Her tiny lips moved faintly. She then slowly bit her lower lips and gazed up at him.
Was this an expression of anger, or worry? Whatever it was, he had no idea about the reason, so the Regressor merely returned her gaze back.
It was the same as what she had done during the small conflict with the Yong household.
“…”
Necklace check: Nothing out of place.
Gyeoul checked the necklace and heaved a sigh. The sigh of a small child wasn’t deep because of her short breaths.
“…Don’t be angry,” she muttered.
For an instant, Yu Jitae doubted his ears.
“What?”
“…”
She turned silent after that and did nothing but rest her head on Yu Jitae’s chest.
Around the evening was when Bom and Kaeul came back. Yu Jitae let them know of the things that had happened, because he thought they at least had to know about it.
“Whaaat?!”
In a fluster, Kaeul asked why that happened and whether he was hurt somewhere, before making a fuss about how Yeorum-unni had it rough. Meanwhile, Bom gave a nod with her eyes drooping slightly lower.
Fortunately, no-one became scared or confused because of something like this.
“If someone asks about the household in the future – it shouldn’t happen too often, but tell them you don’t really know.”
Bom asked after thinking for a bit.
“Or how about this?”
“What.”
“Like this…”
She indifferently looked into Yu Jitae’s eyes with her gaze having a trace of Dragon’s Fear. It looked slightly sloppy for him, but it was enough to surprise others away.
“Was that close enough?”
He could tell who she was trying to imitate without her even saying it.
Kaeul nodded.
“Uwah, that’s scary unni…”
“Was it?”
“…Why would you have to do that.”
“Others will be scared by themselves then, right.”
Bom giggled.
“Then what about me? Me me?”
It was Kaeul’s turn. Closing her eyes, she deeply breathed out. The moment her inner golden eyebrows raised itself back up, the air turned oppressive. Her low yet profound gaze was facing the ground but as her eyes began widening itself, she slowly began raising her gaze.
“…”
A pair of eyes, fatigued beyond repair, slowly regained its focus. A closer inspection revealed a reflection of Yu Jitae within.
This, was quite good.
“Kaeul. You’re really scary…”
“…”
However, she didn’t respond.
Damn, he thought to himself. Just like what she had done before, she had immersed herself into Yu Jitae’s emotions.
He pinched her soft cheeks. “Ayayah! It hurrs!” she yelled after coming back to her senses in an instant, as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her.
“Don’t do that too often.”
“Uooh… it hurts… then when should I do it?”
“Only when someone tries to dig deeper into the Yu household, or when someone annoys you.”
“Okkayy.”
It seemed that the kids were accepting the situation without too much of a problem.
Yu Jitae felt doubtful for no reason. Perhaps Bom had already spoken about it before, but when their eyes met, she looked at him for a bit before turning away as if nothing happened.
“Come here, all of you.”
That night, Yu Jitae called them as Bom and Kaeul ran up to sit on his sides. Gyeoul also claimed her position on top of his knees.
The most important thing was about to begin now.
9 pm everyday.
A highlight video of the B+ Underground Fissure Raid will be uploaded on Lair’s official application. [B+ Underground Fissure Raid] was a three-day raid, with the first two days being highlight videos and the last day being a live session of the boss raid.
“Uhh?”
Right when Yu Jitae was about to turn the video on, Kaeul held his arm back in a fluster.
“Uhhhh, I don’t think I can see it.”
“Why.”
“Yeorum-unni is doing a good job right?”
The Regressor pulled his hand away from the display screen.
“I don’t know yet either.”
“Uh, urgh, then how can we watch it…!”
“Why? Why can’t we watch it.”
“Unni really did her best. Like, she didn’t even sleep and vomited in the toilet every time.”
He nodded. Yeorum had adhered to her training frantically, to the point that ‘diligently’ was not enough to express her efforts.
“Unni would do well in spars obviously because she’s strong but, this doesn’t work just because unni is strong by herself, right? She tried super hard and yet if she’s not doing a good job right now…”
Thinking of the worst possible case scenario, Kaeul soon turned depressed. He thought it was just her being overly worried, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Unexpectedly, even Bom who was leaning on the backrest of the sofa, and Gyeoul who was empathising herself with Kaeul, all appeared worried.
Because they had watched on from up close, they wished her hard work wouldn’t betray her.
Thus, the Regressor tried to sneakily check the result, but Kaeul once again jumped in and held him back.
“Ah…! Ahhh! Don’t do it!”
“You’ll find out about it later anyway.”
“Whatever. I don’t want to. We might find out later, but at least for now, I don’t want to know!”
He ignored her and moved his hand. There was no way she could ever stop him, no matter how tightly she held onto.
“No…!”
“Yes.”
“Uaaang!”
With a touch, he pressed on the button. Before the highlights were shown, the scores of the 25 teams were revealed first.
It was right there.
+++Score Board+++
1. Yeorum and the Losties: 20
1. Squad ‘Dragon*’: 20
1. Team Erfan: 20
2. Kimura: 19
…
+++Score Board+++
Above the list of names that revealed the pretentious nature of young kids, was the weirdest name.
“Uwah! She’s first place! But why are there three?”
“According to the rules, the first and the second day scores are given objectively.”
“Ah, really?”
Right.
Everyone was given 20 points for participation.
20 possible extra points on the first day.
20 more points available on the second day.
20 points for arriving at the boss dungeon on the third day.
And the final 20 points were given subjectively during the boss raid. Among the top ranking cadets who risked their lives for merely ‘10 points’, these 20 points were a huge deal.
As soon as Kaeul’s arms fell down, Yu Jitae played the highlight video.
There was no reason to watch other groups so he skipped over them and before long, he found a familiar red-head.
“It’s unni!”
Yeorum and Sophia led the front with their targets being the underground orcs, who had rock-solid physiques. When the orcs tried to block her strike, Yeorum crushed their heads with sheer strength and charged in.
She slashed her sword sideways. As the orc attempted to block it, she chopped its axe in half and drew a horizontal line across the orc’s neck. Her rigid longsword slashed through the rock-like skin of the underground orc, ripped through its flesh and crushed its neck.
Meanwhile, comments were being shown next to the highlight video.
– Like, how is that a cadet? Lolololol.
– She’s doing everything by herself;;
– Underground orcs have super thick skins though… woah… it’s crazy lol.
Sophia also revealed her prowess by piercing the vitals like the throat and the eyes with her rapier. Orcs crumbled in an instant.
– Kuuuh, look how she’s stabbing only their eyes.
– Nice teamwork. Sophia neutralises them and Yeorum kills them.
– Feels good to watch them do everything in sync.
– What are the two losties doing?
– Ehng? The two at the back were quite good too though?
The two cadets, who had each been given a bow and a musket by Yu Jitae, were clenching their teeth tightly as they tried to keep up with Yeorum and Sophia.
Although their weapons were Level 1 artifacts, they were nothing but the most normal weapons for cadets.
– Getting carried irl.
– For real.
However, the comments changed after the camera gave a close-up shot of Kim Ji-in and Soujiro.
Kim Ji-in physically fought against the monsters with teary eyes, but wasn’t being pushed around. Even worse was Soujirou’s condition. Every time he released an arrow, drops of blood splattered, and he was shooting them so desperately that his chubby fingers were all worn out.
Even then, they didn’t give up.
– They’re crazy as well… ;;
– Why does everyone look so vicious;;?
Receiving the aid of those two, Yeorum easily crushed the monsters. Soon appeared the mid-boss of the first day, ‘Underground Twin-Head Orc’, who vomited out poison and filth with its mouth.
Yu Jitae half-squinted his eyes.
Yeorum maximised her [Pulsations]. When that was further complemented by her [Breaths], the first skill of Karl-Gullakwa Stand-up Martial Art was displayed in full.
Her sword divided the Twin-Head Orc vertically into two.
“Wahh!” shouted Kaeul with a closed fist,
And that was the end of the highlight.