After deciding to slowly talk it out over time, her emotions seemed to have settled.
Bom changed after that. Although it was hard to specify how she changed, she definitely did. It was based on the same logic as how he could sometimes differentiate Bom’s indifferent expression without being able to explain why.
It wasn’t difficult to make time for him to spend regularly with her. From the three ‘Yu Jitaes’, he was in charge of daily lives and thus had a lot of free time.
He could be alone with her especially when they were out to buy food.
Today, they were out to buy dinner.
“That looks delicious.”
He came to a large supermarket with Bom. There were several free samples available as always, but for some reason, she was more interested in them than usual and zealously tried each sample.
“What is it.”
“A dumpling. Do you like dumplings?”
“Just whatever.”
“Try it.”
She picked up a dumpling with a toothpick and tried it, before choosing another dumpling for Yu Jitae. He had gotten used to it now and ate it without using his own hands.
“How is it?”
“It’s nice.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“…Well. It’s well seasoned. Slightly spicy so Yeorum would like it.”
Bom nodded and took a pack of dumplings.
Next up was a long biscuit in the shape of a stick. Bom ate half of it before giving the rest to Yu Jitae, and he ate it without thinking too much about it.
“How is this one?”
“It’s fine. This should be for Gyeoul.”
“Right?”
She took the biscuits as well.
The next one she found was yoghurt in a paper cup. She dipped her spoon inside, scooped it up and placed it into her mouth. Then, she looked at other flavours for a bit before scooping another spoonful for Yu Jitae.
Didn’t she use the spoon just then? Thinking that, he refused to eat the yoghurt.
“Nn?”
When he pulled his head back, Bom came even closer. He still pulled his head away, so Bom stood on her toes and brought the spoon to his mouth.
That was when something blocked Yu Jitae from the back – he happened to be near a pillar. Although he indifferently stood still on the spot, the yoghurt came and touched his lips so he had no choice but to eat it.
“Nn? Why did you do that just then?”
“No… don’t worry about it.”
“Is it because you thought it was the one I used?”
“…”
Seeing that he was silent, Bom seemingly found his reaction cute and giggled quietly with a brighter look on her face.
She then pointed at the sample section.
“I threw it away after using it. This is a new one for ahjussi.”
“…I wasn’t even thinking about that.”
“Ohh, really?”
Squinting her eyes, she gave a faint smile without saying anything else. Feeling like he was being played, Yu Jitae ate the entire yoghurt that was placed on the shopping trolley while Bom was at the sample section again. She returned carrying another yoghurt and soon widened her eyes.
“Huh? Did you finish it?”
“Didn’t you say it was mine.”
“I did.”
But seeing her smile left him with an uncomfortable feeling.
Regardless, they continued shopping.
Thousands of cadets were again admitted into Lair this year.
There was a grandiose graduation ceremony, and there was a small incident where this year’s declaration speaker was compared to last year’s speaker, Kaeul. Since the entrance ceremony was held at the same time, thousands of cadets were both leaving and entering Lair, and the academy district was thus crowded for a very long time.
And today finally marked the start of a new semester.
That was why the kids were wearing their cadet uniforms.
“Ahh, this feels like shit.”
Yeorum complained while lifting her skirt.
“Nn? Why?”
“Like, why the heck did I grow taller?”
Her original height was 170 centimetres, but after the ‘standing practice’ she did throughout the holiday with Yu Jitae, she understood a very important concept which came at the cost of her height growing significantly. She grew taller by 6 centimetres.
Because of that, her skirt which was already short was now way too short. She had to be concerned about it even when she was walking.
“Oi, Yu Kaeul. Look at me.”
“Gosh… why are you pointing your butt out?”
“How is it.”
“What do you mean, how is it? Of course, it’s disgusting…!”
After being put in a headlock, she cried “Uhh, uaaang…!” Wondering what it was about, Gyeoul sneakily peeked out from Bom’s room.
“Look again. Can you see my asshole?”
“Uhh… no? But I do think it’s a bit too short…! Do you want me to lend you my safety shorts?”
After saying that, Kaeul asked curiously.
“But what’s wrong with your height? Can’t you just reduce it back to before?”
“Haven’t you tried it yet? Changing your body with polymorph?” Yeorum asked back.
“Nn! I haven’t.”
“Try it. It’s the fuc*ing worst thing to do.”
“I heard it was uncomfortable.”
“It’s not just that. It’s seriously hella uncomfortable. Until you get used to the new connection between your mind and the body, your body moves on its own and stuff.”
Kaeul widened her eyes.
“Really? But you suddenly got so tall that it’s weird…”
“Is that so? Hmm…”
The skirt wasn’t a problem if she wore safety shorts underneath but there was a bigger problem. Her shirt which was a perfect fit for her body was now too small.
Yeorum did all the buttons, stood up and looked at the mirror and found her belly button showing under her shirt.
“How is it. Does it look like a crop top?”
“Can I be honest?”
“Is it super sexy?”
“Looks super retarded. Who wears a uniform like that?”
Gyeoul nodded while listening from the side.
Soon, Kaeul shouted “Kuaanng… It’s sexy…! Super sexy…!” while her arm was bent behind her back. She was on the ground but Gyeoul had escaped already.
The next morning, Yeorum changed her polymorph with a grumble and returned to her original height and body. On the way back after the lecture, she found a ball in the middle of the road and kicked it, but her unmatching leg length caused an error in the magic pulses and her leg ended up kicking way too far. Her leg landed on the car that was parked next to her and one of the doors was crushed along with a thud.
“Ah, shit. I fu*ked it…”
After looking around, she sneaked away in secret but it was all recorded by the car’s black box. She was caught before long and had to pay the reparation. The sentries also gave her detention in the form of 3 hours of campus community service.
On the way out from the sentries building, Yeorum laughed awkwardly.
“Dear. It was an accident…”
Yu Jitae didn’t reply.
“Dear? It was an accident, okay?”
“…”
“Ungg? I’m sorry, oppa ♥”
“…”
“Why aren’t you saying anything honey ♥?”
“Stop–. I know it was an accident, so just do the community service properly without complaining about it.”
“Okay.”
He didn’t tell her off for running away after breaking something. That was the kind of child she was, and he didn’t plan on bothering to change her.
However, he did find it slightly annoying because the guardian had to accompany the cadet during their community service. But that was when he remembered that he himself had 3 more hours of campus community service to finish. He was delaying it on and on and it was already a different year, while the sentries were probably disinclined from reminding him about it.
Therefore, Yu Jitae decided to finish his own community service together with Yeorum.
“Ah! Guardian Yu Jitae! Welcome…!”
The hard-stuck manager of the community service department of the sentries, Ichimon, welcomed the two of them while rubbing his hands. Yu Jitae felt the same thing whenever he was seeing this Asian person, but he really knew how to smile serviently.
“Haigo. You didn’t have to do it straight away. We could give you more leeway sir.”
“We need to finish what we have to do, right. What are the services available?”
“Hmm… the things is, I actually looked for some long services when I heard you were on your way but…”
– Volunteer for Environmental Sanitation (Cleaning, 3 hours)
– Helping Cadets with a Disability (3 hours)
– Cleaning the feces of the 4th cage (Must wait till the Afternoon Checkup, 3 hours)
“Since it’s still the start of the semester, there aren’t that many 3-hour services you see…”
“Is this all of them?”
“Yes. Those are all the doable ones for the time being…”
They all required a full 3 hours of work. Although he didn’t mind doing any of them, he didn’t want to spend too much time on something like this.
“What is this.”
Yu Jitae looked at a different service that was located at the bottom of the list.
– Catching mice at the 8th Warehouse (3 hours)
“Ahh, I think it would be better for you to ignore this one.”
“Why.”
“It’s been like 3 months but… there are some random mice there that break wires and steal stuff at night. It was very annoying for us. They come out quite often but the warehouse is too big and it’s thus not easy for us, sentries, to catch them.”
“If the sentries can’t catch them, isn’t it something that should be assigned to another company? Why is it on the list of community services.”
“Yes yes. Uhh, the thing is, there were several reasons that made it come to us… In fact, the damage done is very little and it’s a bit doubtful whether we should even hire a company or not… We are planning to take it down from the list very shortly though.”
“Isn’t the 8th Warehouse a storehouse for munitions?”
“Yes, it, it is.”
A storage for munitions and yet they were leaving it because of the cost?
“You don’t have to worry about it, hahat…!” said Ichimon with a smile that showed off his white teeth.
All across society, there were those that worked just for the sake of working, and Yu Jitae realised that Ichimon was one of those people.
“Will it count as 3 hours if we catch the mice?”
“Sorry? Uhh, yes but… if you don’t catch them, we can’t count the hours no matter how long you stay there so…”
“We’ll go with this then.”
“Ahh, if you choose the environment cleaning one instead, you don’t have to do anything sir, and we’ll count the hours for you.”
It was a good offer but it meant that he still had to stand up for 3 hours, which was a waste of time.
Yu Jitae first requested some information about the 8th Warehouse and checked the inner structure, as well as the supplies that were inside it. After looking through them, he decided.
“We’ll go with this one.”
***
“Are we really just going to catch some little rats?”
In the southernmost region of the academy district, there was a large warehouse that was the same size as four football fields placed together. Although she was obediently walking behind him, Yeorum didn’t look too keen.
“Yeah.”
“Why? Is it because you can catch them easily?”
“Yes.”
“But the sentries didn’t catch them for months right?”
The Regressor thought for a bit before asking her.
“You’re learning military science right.”
“Yeah.”
“Have you heard about the worldwide standards for munitions?”
Yeorum apathetically picked her ears before closing her eyes, and revisited her memories of the past.
“Yeah. I did. There was a standard set by the Association…”
“And do you know the structure of a warehouse that’s made following the standards?”
“Hmm, not sure about the warehouse. I only saw a gist of it but it did look very complicated…”
Only then did Yeorum realise that something was off. She stared at the distant warehouse with her head tilted.
“Public munition warehouses for organisations under the Association are all monopolised and can only be built by a company that belongs to the Association.”
“Huh? Okay.”
“And the building standards are extremely strict. Small beasts and even rats can’t enter it from outside.”
“Ehng? Then, isn’t this community service pretty strange?”
“It is.”
“What the heck. Besides, if the standards are so strict, then why didn’t the sentries know about it?”
Normally, problems like this occurred when there was a lack of clear communication between the manufacturer and the manager. Since Lair was a complex organisation with a myriad of connections to all sorts of organisations and countries worldwide, conflicts were also common and so were such problems.
When the Regressor finished his explanation, Yeorum closed her mouth and thought deeply to herself. There was a different element that she soon became doubtful of.
“But it’s true that there are rats inside right? We also have a picture here.”
“Right. But did you have a look at the items they stole?”
Yeorum opened the document and read through it.
The stolen items ranged from horns of monsters and soft clots of milk to powders, plant roots, medical solutions and the likes. Some of them were strange for a rat to steal, while some looked normal.
“Hmm… they’re small? And there’s a lot of organic stuff? But apart from that… I can’t see any similarities.”
Yu Jitae gave a nod. That was probably what the sentry investigators thought as well, which delayed the investigation, ultimately making it a community service which no-one even looked at.
“When you say that, do you mean that there is a similarity between these stolen items?”
“There is.”
“What is it?”
“It’s that they’re all ingredients for a chimera.”
Yeorum widened her eyes.
“Ehng?!”
Chimera.
Last time when she saw BM making them, Yeorum didn’t think much about his skills.
However, her thoughts changed as she continued learning at Lair. Chimera was one of the [3 Taboos of Magic Engineering] outlined by the International Superhuman Association. Publicly, it was hard to find any information about it and even the sentries wouldn’t know about it, except for the top officers of the department.
“A chimera?”