Because of the innate ability of detoxification, BY’s drugs were countless times more intense than normal ones, and sometimes she couldn’t control the amount she took in.
That day was another similar day.
Perhaps feeling lustful, BY licked her lips with her tongue as her golden eyebrows twitched. Her hands that didn’t know where to go mindlessly swept through her body.
There was a smile on her face.
That smile was like a drop of black paint on a white canvas.
“What are you doing. Hurry…”
Yu Jitae didn’t pat her head.
“Think of me as your daughter…”
Back then, he just didn’t want to anything like that.
“Something bad happened to your daughter today…”
Although he was protecting her, he wasn’t doing it because he liked the Gold Dragon. Never was he here because he wanted to.
“Hurry… Nn…?”
Her acting cocky made him irritated and he felt like pulling her up by the hair and chucking her onto the living room floor. But he hid that urge in a deep corner of his heart.
Time passed, and BY slowly fell asleep.
“…”
After her restless breaths calmed down, her face was finally devoid of the lecherous appearance it contained. Sleeping there was the young BY whom he had met 5 years ago, who smiled without any signs of falsehood.
Yu Jitae carefully raised her up. After heading to her room, she placed the child on the bed that could only be described as a princess’s bed.
Carefully, he lifted the blanket and covered her body with it.
“Where are you…?”
He was leaving the room when BY muttered.
“Nn…? Where…?”
She seemed to be looking for someone in her sleep.
*
Something like that didn’t happen very often. It was an impulsive thing that happened once every few months or so.
“Sorry about yesterday. I’m really sorry…”
The next morning, she apologised with a deep sigh. Saying that she didn’t know why she was like this, and that he could change the frontline guards if he was discontent with the work, she apologised throughout breakfast with a fluster.
“It’s alright. Don’t worry about it.”
He was already no longer irritated, and didn’t think much of it.
After that, BY would suddenly wreak havoc once a year or two. Things like that only happened when no-one else was watching, like when she was resting alone at home after a long overnight schedule.
Because of that, no-one apart from Yu Jitae, who was in charge of the security 24/7, knew about it.
BY’s deviated behaviour was a secret only he knew of.
Usually, BY loved people. She sincerely treasured the people that loved her, and even teared up after receiving a surprise gift from her fans.
The media even referred to Baby Yellow as the personification of a perfect top star.
She appeared content from being loved by others. Since his objective in the fourth iteration was mainly to observe the daily life of the Gold Dragon, Yu Jitae watched on.
Another 5 years passed by.
When BY was 30 years old, she appeared in a famous variety show. Another guest invited to the show was a famous psychologist / consultor.
She carried out a psychology consultation with BY while other guests joked around, saying BY didn’t need any. But after a short art counselling session, the psychologist gave a different answer.
“…Hmm. This is very ambiguous.”
Seeing the painting drawn by BY, the counsellor tilted her head.
“It might be that a dormant ‘intense fear’ is somewhere inside your heart.”
Other guests reacted exaggeratedly.
“WHAT THE…. Baby Yellow, is that for real?”
“No? I’m fine.”
She laughed. Other celebrities seemed to be agreeing with her instead of the psychologist, but without going back on her words, the counsellor recommended her to keep a pet or something.
The next day, Baby Yellow took in a parrot. It was a white, clean and pretty parrot.
During that time, BY was unable to sleep properly. She kicked around trying to go to sleep before temperamentally throwing the pillow. Or, she would rip the blanket for no reason and cause white duck furs to flutter around the room.
Fortunately, the parrot was helpful. Whenever BY covered her face and heaved deep and coarse breaths unable to control herself, the parrot came flying and acted cute.
Then, BY would close her eyes again.
Despite the struggle, she would then force her way to sleep.
***
“Nnnnnng!”
After the nap, Kaeul stretched her arms out. Her face was blooming with a smile.
She flinched after seeing the clock.
“Aht. I slept too much…!”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yess ahjussii…!”
But still, she was in a good mood and smiled.
Near her head was the baby chicken, Chirpy. The chicken also woke up from its nap, and was blinking its black eyes, with its head buried into the pillow.
Since they wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if they slept too much now, Kaeul caressed the baby chicken’s fur.
“Wake up Chirpy! We have to go on a walk…!”
“Chirp…”
‘Why doth a baby chicken go on a walk…’ it grumbled but Kaeul, who still didn’t understand its words, raised Chirpy up in a flash.
“Walk walk~♪”
Using the rope she got from Yeorum, she wrapped loosely around the baby chicken’s neck and wings, and prepared to go on a walk. When it was time to go out, even the baby chicken was excited as it chirped out loud.
“Would you like to go together?”
“Alright.”
Today, Yu Jitae decided to follow the two out on a walk. With the cold having completely dissipated, the walk alongside the two baby chickens was warm.
When they came across a dirty road, Kaeul raised the baby chicken, while Yu Jitae raised Kaeul by the calves and thighs before placing her on his shoulders.
“Uwaahh–!”
It was an alternative to Doonga Doonga.
…
Meanwhile, Gyeoul in Unit 301 peeked out of Bom’s room.
Was it just the protector?
Indeed.
For some reason, he was reading a fairy tale but she wasn’t interested in something like that.
“…I’m, going outside.”
“Ahh, yes, young lady. Please take care.”
Gyeoul carried a bag of feed for spirit beasts and ran outside with short steps. Then, she flew to the sky. As always, she headed to the mountain behind the dormitory and found the cat spirit beasts gathered around, waiting for her.
She gave them food.
Hyap hyap hyap…
The quiet hill was filled with diligent eating sounds.
Watching them eat, Gyeoul tilted her head. There were a lot less cats than usual, to the point that the large bag of feed appeared way too over the top.
“…Uing?”
Her head was tilted, and a question mark was above her head.
Recently, there indeed were less and less cats. She thought it was because she was prohibited from going outside by the protector, that they came less frequently.
But now, their numbers didn’t increase even when she was back to coming here frequently.
“…Where, did they go.”
And the three remaining ones also looked injured. It wasn’t rare for spirit beasts to fight for territories, but their furs were messier and they had more injuries than usual.
“…”
Gyeoul carefully reached her hand forward. She was going to create curative water and apply it to the cats.
But the moment they saw her reach out, the cats distanced themselves in fright and discarded their leftover food. Kyaak–! Let alone that, one of the cats even growled menacingly at her.
Surprised, Gyeoul carefully stood up and took a few steps back.
“…”
These ungrateful bas…
Feeling betrayed, she frowned but had no idea why they were suddenly acting like this. When she closed her eyes and forcefully felt their emotions…
What she felt was fear.
***
Time passed.
Yeorum fought and won against Yong Danbi at an individual spar, and also defeated a prominent ranker candidate of Noblesse School. Plus, she also got high scores on her assignment performances and was at the lead of the second quarter of the competition.
Even without looking at the ranks, everyone was acknowledging the fact that she would probably be in the top three.
It was convenient because no-one created a fuss like the first quarter.
Gyeoul was eating well. She was still a child and wasn’t at an age that required her to have a life goal so she was focused on eating and enjoying her life every single day.
Bom started uploading her horror novel to Lair’s community website.
There were only a few people writing horror novels excluding Bom, and because it was a novel that was prepared after going through several rewrites, it finally gained traction once it was shared. A hundred or so read her novel.
One day, gloomy Asian cadets came looking for her after the lesson.
“Hello… I read your novel… Do you want to join our horror society…?”
They appeared somewhat gloomy and despondent. Bom told them she’ll think about it and postponed her response.
These days, the protector was addicted to the internet. His large hand grabbing onto the tiny mouse looked like a quail egg to Gyeoul.
What the protector was interested in the most recently, was ‘dishwasher’.
“…Not bad. To think there was something like this.”
Was he looking for a more efficient working method that could finally get him out of the dishwashing hell?
No, he wasn’t.
“But it has less adaptability than myself.”
It was to boost his ego. Non-commercial dishwashers were unable to wash large deep-frying pots.
“You are ‘disqualified’…”
The protector accumulated another win today against modern products.
“…”
And Yu Jitae was the same old Yu Jitae. Nothing changed much for him.
Time passed without a problem at Unit 301, until a change hit them at once.
“Walk walk~♫”
“Chirp chirp~ ♫”
The baby chicken, who was now too big to hug, was running alongside Kaeul. They were enjoying yet another walk today breathing in the fresh air of the spring forest.
That was when a change struck them.
Adults wearing hazmat suits stood in front of them and blocked the road.
“Excuse me, Cadet.”
There were 2 men and 1 female, wearing name badges that displayed their official duty under Lair.
Surprised, Kaeul stopped her feet. They also appeared surprised when they saw her and it probably was because of her different ‘class’ as a dragon, but they didn’t recognise her.
“Yes? Why? Who are you?”
“We’re here from the Spirit Beast Management Department.”
Those adults in hazmat suits gestured at one another, before carefully walking up to her.
“It’s nothing to worry about. That baby chicken spirit beast. Is it registered by any chance?”
“Sorry? Registered…?”
Her tone of voice that suggested her cluelessness caused the staff members’ expressions to stiffen.
“Are you… keeping a spirit beast that hasn’t even been registered? So you don’t know whether it’s been disinfected or sick?”
“W, what’s register. And Chirpy is clean…”
Frightened, Kaeul asked carefully. An ominous feeling crept up like a black shadow, rearing its head.
Kaeul thought to herself. Thinking back, the baby chicken, Chirpy, was a spirit beast that had escaped from the breeding centre. She was mindful of taking it around for the first few months but thought it was fine these days to go around.
“’What’s registering?’ So you haven’t heard anything about the process of registering spirit beast pets at all?”
“Umm, yes…”
They clicked their tongues. The careful attitudes of the staff members slowly disappeared as doubt appeared in their eyes.
“Haa. To keep a spirit beast inside Lair, you must register it as a spirit beast pet. But you don’t have it. Can I ask where you got the spirit beast from?”
“Umm so, why…? What’s wrong…?”
“We’re in charge of collecting the escaped spirit beasts. About half a year ago, the breeding centre was destroyed and we still haven’t found a portion of the spirit beasts that have escaped from that place. Two days ago, they formed a group to attack the Spirit Beast Management Department.”
“Ahh… uhh… I haven’t heard anything about that…”
“Of course you haven’t. How would a cadet know what happened to a management team? So unregistered spirit beasts could be those that escaped the breeding centre. So…”
Kaeul twitched her lips before biting them. She didn’t know what to say, and her head turned blank. Her eyes caught sight of some large cages that were being held by the man on the side. He was carrying two cages coloured in bluish black, and one of them was being shook left and right.
The woman took a step forward. Her eyes glancing back and forth between the baby chicken and Kaeul gradually had a deep look of doubt.
“That spirit beast. Where did you obtain it?”