There were no demons there. Only the Gold Dragon was gazing down at Yu Jitae.
The abduction was just an act scripted by BY.
It finally all made sense. If she were showcasing all the dignity and class of a dragon, the Sky Race would’ve made way without daring to fight back. There would’ve been nothing stopping her and she would have been able to fly in the sky, away from the eyes of others.
After understanding everything, he sheathed his sword.
“What is all this about.”
With an indifferent expression and an apathetic voice, he spoke.
“Go back to human form.”
The large body of the gold hatchling decreased in size and was soon replaced by her human form, but BY wasn’t wearing any clothes. As her bright and untainted golden hair fluttered, BY opened her mouth with a wry voice, sitting collapsed on the ground.
“…Not surprised at all?”
“What.”
“Since when did you know? That I was a dragon.”
“You don’t need to know.”
Without even bothering to cover her body, she blankly stared at Yu Jitae.
Following the rules of a security officer, he took off his jacket and tried to hand it over to her. The jacket was muddled in blood, with countless holes and was tattered like a rag.
But BY didn’t receive it.
Still vacantly sitting on the ground, she merely gazed up at Yu Jitae with sunken eyes.
“Wear it.”
“…”
“Wear. It.”
“…”
Since she still didn’t receive it, Yu Jitae walked up and threw the jacket over her shoulders. His feet weren’t stable – he was staggering.
The jacket was full of blood. When it touched her body, it left a red trace behind on her white skin.
BY, who had been blankly staring up at him, finally lowered her head and gazed at the jacket covering her body and sniffed it.
“Why did you come?” she opened her mouth.
“To save you from dying.”
“As always. Seriously.”
“Get up. You’ll hear a mouthful once we go back.”
“You’re not doing it here?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? Why are you that relaxed? Aren’t you mad?”
“Not much.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re not dead.”
“…”
BY glared at him with a crooked gaze and opened her mouth.
“Who do you think you are?”
It was a sharp voice. His eyes twitched.
“What am I.”
“You’re just a hired bodyguard. It’s just a simple contracted relationship between an employer and an employee.”
“And.”
“What ‘and’? Put another way, I’m the boss of your company and you’re just an employee. If I fire you, you become someone that’s totally unrelated to me.”
“And.”
“But what are you trying to do. Your boss is slightly mental and wanted to take some rest. Who are you to come and stop me from doing so.”
The wound on his forehead that was about to close up reopened as blood flowed down. He rubbed his eyes to clear his vision.
“And.”
“You’re not someone special to me. I’m serious. There’s nothing special about you and you have nothing to brag about either. All you did during the past 10 years is just bash a few paparazzis.”
“And.”
“And, and, and! What’s with these ‘and’s! Don’t you have anything you want to say? Talk back or get angry. Or if you wanted to make me hear a mouthful, then do it. Say something!”
“…”
Postponing the response, he thought to himself.
The Gold Dragon didn’t think of him as someone special? Something like that didn’t matter a single bit.
So what…
The important thing here was that she didn’t die. Apart from that, nothing was able to arouse any feelings inside him.
“Don’t you have anything to say? Just say it!”
And yet BY was telling him to say something back. BY carrying out a scripted abduction drama was fine and the fact that he had to cross countless hazards in order to save her was also fine. Those didn’t matter.
However, her voice that urged him to speak was slightly irritating.
Thus, he walked up and crouched before BY.
Despite the close distance between them, she didn’t look away nor did she turn around. For some reason, she was angry and was glaring at him with heavy pants.
“What. You want me to be angry?”
“Aren’t you mad? This doesn’t make you angry? Are you like an enlightened hermit?”
“No. But it does annoy me a bit.”
“Why don’t you do something then!”
Listening to her request, Yu Jitae slapped her on the cheek.
With the slap, her small head was turned to the side.
It wasn’t a powerful slap, and she probably knew that too.
“Never have I wanted to be your special person. So even if you get angry and even if you think of me as someone under you, I don’t really care.”
“…”
“You just have to not die. As for the other things, I honestly don’t really understand what you’re trying to say.”
Looking back now that he had earned daily lives in the seventh iteration:
He was ignorant, abnormal and didn’t have the ability to tell what was correct and wrong as a guardian. So until the end of the fourth iteration, he didn’t regret the attitude he took against BY.
What he did think however, was that the method itself was wrong so without caring about celebrities and whatnot, he locked her up in the underground labyrinth.
But there was one thing, which he had done right.
“This is what the company made for you. It was boiling hot, but now it’s gone cold.”
He took out the soup which was inside a plastic container, in his dimensional storage.
It was ‘Offering for Eternal Peace’.
Due to the chilling spell of the alternate dimensional storage that was casted for preservation purposes, the soup went back to being like a jelly and didn’t fall even when he carried it upside down.
“It’s irritating that this cools down like this. I have to guard you and I can’t afford to leave the area for something like this but there wasn’t anyone that could do this in the morning. What should I do if you end up in a life-or-death situation when I leave for a little bit. Huh?”
Blood dripped down from his chin onto the solid soup.
“You said ‘do something’?”
He threw the soup at the ground in front of BY. The plastic container was crunched as the solid soup scattered across the floor.
“You happy now?”
But that was the end. Yu Jitae walked up and reached out with his hand, which was filled with wounds. Blood was still dripping from his fingertips.
“Get up. Let’s go.”
“What. Is that all…?”
“Yeah. I’m done doing something, so hurry and get up. Let’s go back.”
“…”
She remained silent. BY blankly stared at the fragments of soup scattered on the ground, before lowering her head.
“Turn around. Let me wear this properly.”
Yu Jitae turned around.
“…”
It was then. A different breathing sound suddenly reached his ears and made him look behind. The small shoulders and the long strands of hair covering her shoulders were shivering restlessly.
BY was sobbing.
“What are you doing.”
“Be quiet. You’re seriously annoying… Do you think, you’re like, my guardian deity or something?”
With a voice drenched in sorrow, BY cried under her breath.
“If we’re nothing special… Why would you try so hard to bring me back. Why.”
“…”
“Why did you bleed so much… what’s with that arrow on your knee? What’s with the hole on your chest and why aren’t you saying anything? If you came here after all that effort, why would you hide it and pretend like it’s nothing. Even I would be in pain so why are you…”
BY retched her words out in sorrow.
“You’re nothing special to me… so why are you trying so hard to save me…”
Then, she began picking up the fragments of the broken soup from the ground and pushed them into her mouth.
They were covered in dirt and were dirty but BY ignored that and pushed them into her mouth, again and again. Endlessly.
“Sorry…”
She tearily mumbled.
If he had consoled her back then,
Would the fourth iteration have gone differently?
“I think I’m the problem… I don’t know why I’m like this. Sorry… I’m just so scared of someone hating me…”
Like a broken dam, she endlessly poured out tears. Despite wiping them with both her hands, her teardrops did not stop.
She shoved so many soup fragments that she had to cough and clear her throat in between, but she continued nonetheless while crying.
“It’s just, because I’m so, so weak… I’m sorry… I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”
Until the end, he didn’t say anything.
“Ah. I’m so creepy… Why is it so…”
BY, who had been pushing those cold fragments into her mouth for a long time, once again covered her face and sobbed.
“So damn tasty… I must be crazy. For real…”
Back then, he didn’t have the wisdom of hugging a crying child.
***
“It’s strange…”
Kaeul blankly opened her mouth after having the soup for some time.
“What is.”
“I was thinking ‘there’s no way’ when I first ate this, you know?”
“Yeah.”
“But it’s so strange the more I eat it. This is extremely similar to the one mother used to make for me.”
“Is it.”
“Yes. I love it… How did you make this? To say it’s a coincidence, it’s so so similar…”
With a vacant gaze, she continued bringing the soup into her mouth for a long time.
He stood there without leaving the room, and watched her eat. Kaeul, who usually had large bites, was currently having small amounts of soup at an extremely slow rate.
And suddenly, she opened her mouth as a slightly sunken voice left her mouth.
“Ahjussi.”
“Why.”
“Before, by mistake I… No, I mean, I made a mistake.”
“…”
“Sorry. I will go tomorrow and sincerely apologise to them.”
“Right.”
“I almost killed… someone… Sorry.”
“I know.”
“He, he suddenly came closer and I was super surprised so unconsciously I…… But whatever I say, it’s nothing but an excuse…”
“…”
Sorrow appeared on her face.
“My hands still shiver whenever I think back to what happened…”
“…”
“Our gold race is really close to humans… Maybe that’s also why…”
“…”
“But I really wanted to protect Chirpy. He was like, frightened and was shivering. How can I send him away. Can you do it, ahjussi?”
“…”
“I couldn’t do it… No, actually, I don’t know. Everything is just, my fault…”
Tears were formed beneath her golden eyes.
“I’m this child’s guardian, aren’t I. I’m his guardian deity…”
In Askalifa, gold dragons were worshipped as guardian deities of their respective countries.
“Even if he makes a mistake, a guardian deity shouldn’t make any mistakes right… How can a guardian deity make mistakes…”
He crouched down next to the child sitting on the chair. From below the child, he gazed up at her and opened his mouth.
“You did well.”
“I did well? I almost made a really big mistake…”
“It’s alright. You can make mistakes but you protected the baby chicken.”
“I almost killed a person though…?”
“Yeah. But you didn’t. You just have to be more careful from now on.”
If he had more wisdom on how to treat other people in the fourth iteration, he wouldn’t have made any mistakes. Kaeul’s concerns shared a percentage of the doubt Yu Jitae used to have in the past.
Back then, no-one gave advice to Yu Jitae.
And he ended up repeating those mistakes.
“It’s okay to make mistakes.”
“Yes…”
“I’ll help you.”
“…”
While crying, Kaeul shoved the soup into her mouth. But due to her tears, she was unable to eat properly and was spilling half the soup.
He took several napkins out and handed them over to the child. Kaeul received those napkins and wiped her mouth.
“Thank you…”
She once again became teary-eyed.
“Maybe ahjussi, is my guardian deity…”
***
Kaeul blankly laid down next to the baby chicken. Without leaving her room, he sat down on the bed next to her.
Seemingly in a better mood after crying, she was just blankly staring at the baby chicken. Yu Jitae watched her, before placing his hand over her hair.
Following a strange urge to do so, he patted the child’s head. Following the lines from her forehead, his hand caressed over the gold strands of hair.
While he was awkwardly moving his hand, Kaeul opened her mouth.
“Nnn~ How did you know I liked having my hair caressed? It feels good.”
Without a response, he continued with what he was doing for a long period of time. At some point in time, her eyes slowly came to a close as she mumbled right before going to sleep.
“By the way ahjussi. It feels slightly weird, you know…?”
Feeling his touch, Kaeul mumbled without even thinking.
“It feels like my mum…”