Forgive.
Forgive, huh…
A foreign word travelled past his tongue with a breeze.
When he punched Lyun from Erfan Guild on his face, he didn’t forgive him. In other words, he could have forgiven him because Lyun had done something wrong to him.
But this one was different.
The Regressor was simply irritated by the unearnest and loose attitude of someone who should be more earnest than anyone else. BM didn’t necessarily do anything wrong to him, so he wasn’t in the position to forgive him nor did he have the right to do so.
“You shouldn’t waste such a precious wine.”
The Regressor poured the alcohol back into the bottle and sealed it.
“I’m in fact being quite serious. I have never blabbered to anyone about my circumstances,” said BM.
“I’m not trying to joke around either.”
“Then,”
“If the child grows up well and starts going to school, we’ll drink then.”
BM remained silent in response. His eyes behind the broken sunglasses were closed. After thinking for a long time, he opened his mouth.
“Is there some kind of meaning behind the child going to a school?”
He replied to the words randomly thrown out. Yu Jitae couldn’t really explain the vague thoughts in his mind, so he gave an uncertain response.
“It seems like it.”
He felt something when seeing Gyeoul come back from school, but had trouble explaining what that exactly was.
“I see.”
But BM seemed to have understood it.
“Please take the alcohol for yourself. I just couldn’t drink because it brings back memories of old days.”
“You sure?”
“I don’t have any attachment to it now.”
Yu Jitae took the bottle and placed it in his storage. Arandot’s alcohol thus returned to the arms of the one who gave it.
Meanwhile, Yeorum, who had been blankly listening to the story, was seemingly thinking about something. If she stayed still, the child would constantly try to cuddle, so she had turned him around and had sat him on her lap.
When the room awkwardly turned silent for a long time, Yeourm placed him down in front of her and started teaching him words.
“Oi. Say it after me. Yu Yeorum.”
“Yu, Yeo, rum.”
“Yeah. That’s my name. What was it again?”
“Yu, Yeo, rum…”
“Good. You’re doing well. But you have to add noonim at the end. Noonim.”
“Noo, nim…”
“So what happens when you add them together?”
“Toge, ther…?”
“No you idiot. Yu Yeo rum noo nim.”
Taebaek vacantly looked into her eyes. Since Yeorum had hidden her different status as a dragon, the child stared blankly at her eyes for a long time before opening his mouth.
“Yu, Yeo, rum, noo, nim.”
Yeorum finally returned a nod in satisfaction.
That was when BM raised his body. It seemed that the child still knew that BM was his guardian. Taebaek blinked his red eyes before hurrying over to BM, and cuddling his arm.
“Not now.”
“Not, now…?”
“Yeah. Hold my hand. First let’s go back.”
After sharing a conversation that was hard to decipher, BM gave a small bow to Yu Jitae.
“Thanks for your tea.”
BM went out with the child with unsteady steps.
Around 2 hours after they left, the kids came back.
“We’re back!”
They chatted about the movie for a while and soon it was late into the night, and it was time to sleep. But that was when Yeorum knocked on the door of his study.
“What’s wrong.”
“You know,”
She entered the room with a slight pout and couldn’t look into his eyes. Even her voice was slightly sunken.
“Is he, alright?”
He understood what she was trying to ask.
Although it acted like a human and was cute, it was still a chimera. Like the colony of chimeras they had seen a few days ago, a strange purplish flesh was attached to the child’s heart.
Yeorum waited until Yu Jitae told her that it was fine.
Despite the short interaction, she had already become affectionate of the child. It must be because of those stupid red eyes and red hair. Yeorum persuaded herself like that.
However, Yu Jitae didn’t reply.
The silence continued for a long time.
When it went on for too long.
Yeorum widened her eyes and asked.
“Why, why aren’t you saying anything?”
“…”
“Is he alright or what?”
“For now.”
“For now?”
“To be exact, I don’t know either.”
“Huh? What’s that. Don’t you know everything?”
“I don’t know everything. I only know of one way to make the heart of a human-type chimera and BM didn’t make it the way I know it.”
It was the achievement of an engineer who dedicated his whole life to chimera, who even sacrificed his precious things. It was natural for even Yu Jitae to be uncertain.
“Is that important?” she asked.
“It is. The heart is what decides the identity of a human-type chimera and human-type chimeras… are especially dangerous.”
The one that pushed the alternate dimension Arandot into the apocalypse, was none other than that human-type chimera.
“Then what? Was that heart wrong?”
“That’s the part I do not know.”
BM seemed to have used his words as a hint.
The base ingredients were all perfect. All the ingredients he said including 425mL of ATTN essence, 45.3g of glyacen carbon and other ingredients were also correct. It could be seen from how the child’s body was almost entirely the same as a human’s.
However, there was one last element.
The heart of a chimera.
This was what weighed on his mind. The ingredient that should have been here was the ‘seed that allowed the dead to breathe’.
However, BM seemed to have used the ‘ingredient that allowed a human to not die’ for the heart of the child. Even Yu Jitae didn’t know about it and he needed to observe them for the time being.
“Then, why, why…”
Yeorum stopped her question and bit her lips.
“Then what are you going to do now?”
“I need to go there often and check whether he’s normally growing up or not.”
What if he wasn’t normal?
Yeorum also knew that it was a very naive question. She knew what type of human he was. Yu Jitae was only exceptionally generous to the dragons.
What should she do in a situation like this? Yeorum pondered before opening her mouth.
“Then, I want to go as well.”
“Why.”
“Nothing. I just want to go. Can’t I?”
“I won’t stop you. But you might have to see something you don’t like.”
“I’m fine. Please just take me along.”
The Regressor thought to himself. Although Yeorum had always been stubborn, she was all the more stubborn today.
Whatever it was that the future had in plan for them, it would be okay as long as she was mentally prepared for it.
Life wasn’t a greenhouse and pain made existences more mature.
“Got it.”
However, it seemed that she wasn’t fond of his response. Yeorum opened her mouth with a slightly gloomy look on her face.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Doing what.”
“Why are you being so serious by yourself. You’re worrying me.”
“…”
“Can you be brighter.”
The Regressor gave an empty laugh.
What continued from his mouth was slightly brighter than before.
“Got it.”
Only then did Yeorum nod and leave his study.
***
From that point on, Yu Jitae headed to the underground labyrinth once or twice a week, through his internal alternate dimension, [Shallows of the Abyss (S)].
While translucent and pale hands welcomed him, Yeorum quietly followed from behind.
The underground labyrinth developed even more. Previously, there were only containers inside the inner room but now the special force agents each had built a proper house using some material.
“Ahh, mister doctor! Welcome…!”
He greeted them for a bit. Among them were also Ha Saetbyul, who brightly smiled with her usual loosened gaze, as she waved her hand towards him. He thus waved back.
Yeorum was wearing the Level 2 necklace artifact, [Unsightly Truth], and the claw-shaped necklace protected her from the Light of Paradise.
The workshop no longer had any incubators or glass containers and surprisingly, those had been replaced by a bunch of toys that were for kids. Bright colours filled the room, with a small slide for a kid, lego blocks and picture books on the floor.
There, BM was playing with the child. His filthy appearance was long gone and a smile was blooming on his face.
“Ah, you’re here already?”
Yu Jitae nodded while Yeorum walked up and talked to the child.
“I’m here.”
“Noo, na…”
The child learned a lot during that small time span and was able to hold a conversation. It gave insight into how earnest BM was with educating the boy.
“What’s this ugly looking building?”
“It’s, a, dino, saur…”
“How is this a dinosaur. Make it again.”
Seeing it crumble down caused the child to widen his eyes, but when Yeorum helped him build it again from scratch, a smile slowly appeared on his face.
Recently, Jung Taebaek was brightening up the mood of the entire underground labyrinth.
“Huhut… Taebaek is cute as always…”
“He really is… he reminds me of my son who’s back at home…”
“Huhu…”
The 30-man special force agents who only trained or laid down, came to take a glance at the workshop from time to time to look at the cute boy. When Jung Taebaek sometimes cried for some reason and mumbled for words, Ha Saetbyul voluntarily took care of the child.
“Oguogu. It’s okay… Hihi… Do you want to do it together…?”
The young lady who had worked as a teacher at an orphanage for a long time, instinctively knew what the child wanted despite acting like a drunkard. Whenever she took charge, the child would immediately stop crying and sing a song with her.
Time passed just like that.
Yeorum observed the child and BM.
“Hello, noona?”
The boy got increasingly smarter as time passed and after around 2 weeks, he was able to speak like a normal 10-year old child. Therefore, Yeorum took him along and started exercising with him.
“Uhh… I’m tired…”
“Come up. How dare you try to lie down already?”
“Knnngg…! Do I have to do this…?”
“Of course! You need to exercise to grow properly!”
After that, the boy started avoiding Yeorum a little bit.
Meanwhile, BM was busy both day and night.
He was already a thin person who appeared like a chopstick because of his uselessly tall height, but he was visibly getting increasingly thinner over time.
“These days, I’m so busy that I might die.”
In the third week, BM muttered that along with a sigh.
“Why.”
“There was a big incident that happened at the Association.”
“What incident?”
“I can’t tell you the details but… there’s a person we need to track.”
He seemed to have his hands full due to taking care of both work and the child. Sometimes, he wobbled but claimed that he was fine since he wasn’t having any alcohol these days.
“Must be tough.”
“That’s what life has always been like. But at least these days, I feel alive.”
BM smiled thinly while staring at Jung Taebaek.
“This is life…”
It resembled the smile of an exhausted man going into an eternal sleep.
“Do you like it that much?” asked Yeorum.
“I do. It feels like the entire world is in my hands. You’ll understand if you get yourself a kid later on…” and BM gave a profound reply.
*
One day, she prepared a bunch of gummies to give to the child.
“Why gummies.”
“Stupid Gyeoul liked it, right. Kids are all the same.”
Taebaek ate a lot of gummies but he was made to exercise twice as much to burn off all that energy.
After that, Taebaek started avoiding gummies.
*
One day, Yeorum prepared a plushie for him. It was bought for Gyeoul but was now sitting in the storage without seeing light. Early in the morning, she looked for the plushie and dusted it.
“Why a plushie.”
“You know, when he takes a nap, he always tries to hug a block of wood. It should be better if he has a plushie.”
However, Taebaek seemed to have disliked the plushie. Even when he was forced to hold it, he threw it down and ran away.
“Oi. You dare treat my gift like that? You wanna die?”
“Hueeeng…”
The next time they went there, the plushie was no longer there. BM threw it away.
*
One day, Yeorum prepared a book to give to the child.
“What now.”
“The kid’s like 10 years old so he needs to go to school right.”
“And?”
“At least he needs to know how to read, or others are gonna look down on him.”
“You’re taking care of him a lot, aren’t you.”
“For some reason, I just hate people I know getting treated like retards.”
Taebaek showed interest in the book and started learning letters from Ha Saetbyul. The first word he wrote was ‘Jung Bongman’.
“Ouhh… What’s Jung Bongman…?”
“Hehe… is it a Korean name…? What an old name…”
BM coughed.
*
Time passed.
Yeorum sometimes observed Yu Jitae as well. He didn’t say anything strange and his eyes that gazed at both BM and the child were also normal.
Because of that, she was slightly relieved at heart.
In the end, the dangerousness of a chimera laid in its vitality. Like that one chimera that added life onto life and increased its size while discarding its dead bodies.
However, the red-haired boy, Jung Taebaek didn’t show any strange signs. Whenever BM helped the boy change his drenched clothes after an exercise, Yeorum found the wound on his heart slowly closing up.
The boy was growing nicely with a bright smile.
*
“You know what.”
On one of the days of the third week, on the way back from the underground labyrinth, Yeorum opened her mouth while going back to the dormitory with Yu Jitae via the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)].
“Even if someone has an unfortunate birth, I think they can be happy depending on the way they live.”
“Hmm?”
“You know, people aren’t always born in the best household right.”
“Yeah.”
“Even if they were born in a retarded gutter, maybe they can bloom into flowers as long as there’s sunlight?”
Yu Jitae stopped his feet while walking down the dark alternate dimension, and turned towards Yeorum.
“What’s up,” she asked.
“Where did you learn words like that?”
“Huh?”
She appeared to be in a bit of a fluster.
“What, do you think of me as a bitc* that always swears or something?”
“Aren’t you?”
“I can also get quite emotional, okay?”
Yu Jitae turned back to the front. The Regressor couldn’t understand what Yeorum was trying to express with her analogy and thus continued walking forward.
Meanwhile, Yeorum thought a bit more and opened her mouth once again.
“But well, I think we’ve seen enough?”
“Of what.”
“You know, the kid. I don’t think there’s a reason for us to come here again.”
“There shouldn’t be.”
“He’ll be fine no…”
In the middle of her speech, Yeorum stopped her feet.
For a moment, she thought she heard it wrong. She felt increasingly ominous. It was just an instinctive feeling, but Yeorum reflected back on the conversation she just had with Yu Jitae.
Just then, she said, ‘There’s no reason to come here again’, and he replied, ‘There shouldn’t be’.
“What did you just say?”
Yeorum asked with a calm voice.
“You can’t come here again.”
But Yu Jitae’s voice was even more bizarre. The ominous feeling rose up and enveloped her emotions like a thick liquid, making her feel as if she was being drawn into a thick quagmire.
“What are you saying?”
“I wasn’t sure, but now I am certain.”
“Like I said, what are you trying to say.”
“That chimera is a failure.”
Chimera?
She thought she was hearing things. Or maybe he chose the wrong word. However, the moment she looked into his eyes, she realised that it was by no means a mistake.
“A failure? You mean he was made wrong?”
“Yeah.”
“Then…”
“It needs to be disposed of.”
Yeorum felt goosebumps travelling all the way down her spine.
During the last three weeks, Yu Jitae had never considered Jung Taebaek a human.