The extracted heart still had its vitality and wriggled, trying to escape from BM. But it couldn’t go far and was soon stopped by Yu Jitae’s foot. Despite being under his foot, the heart continued struggling but not for long.
As is always the case, the life of a parasite after leaving its host was as precarious as a candlelight in the midst of a storm. Before long, the heart stopped completely.
That day,
BM buried his head into the small shoulders of the limp child and wept out loud. Without even moving an inch, he cried in that spot overnight so Yu Jitae left the inner room after dealing with the heart. Until BM came to himself, he stayed in the labyrinth.
Since Yu Jitae was obviously not in a good mood either, the special force agents didn’t disturb him. The next day, Yeorum came through the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)], which he had left open inside the study, and asked.
“Where’s that person?”
Yu Jitae gestured at the workshop with his chin.
“Is he still like that?”
“Yeah.”
“…”
She sat right next to him. Just like him, she remained silent for a long time but later opened her mouth as if she suddenly came up with something.
“You know what,”
“Yeah.”
“If BM thought of that chimera as his child, that means he’s already given that child affection right.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think he can still give affection to the child that will be born later?”
“That will depend on the person.”
“What if you were in his shoes? What do you think?”
“What about you,” he asked her back.
“But I asked you first?”
“So why don’t you give the answer first as well then.”
“…”
Yeorum gave him a slight glare. Then, she tilted her head before clicking her tongue.
“Why,” he asked.
“I feel like the way you speak these days is hella cheeky. I wonder why?”
“…”
“It was better when you were boring.”
“…”
“Anyways, for me… hmm… Fu*k, I don’t know. How would I know. I didn’t have a kid or have pets before.”
She grumbled before glancing his way.
“So like, what do you think.”
“I don’t really know either.”
“Ah, what the hell, for real…”
Yu Jitae thought to himself.
He never had a child before and he wasn’t even interested in having a child in the first place. After realising the world was repeating itself, he went almost mental and even though such opportunities did come across from time to time, he avoided them altogether.
However, even he had farewells and new encounters.
One example was these baby dragons. There were times when there was an affectionate connection between them, although it might have been extremely shallow. And although that connection was long gone,
Even now, Yu Jitae was giving affection to the dragons.
…While he was thinking along the lines of that, he suddenly felt strange.
Giving them affection?
No.
He had never given them affection.
Then why was it that he found it so natural and relaxing even when Yeorum was slapping him on his arm and grumbling like a boar?
It was strange.
He had never planned to give anyone affection. This was the same for all 4 hatchlings. Never had he tried to become closer with one of the kids and his only wish was to spend normal lives with them. Was it normal for bonds and connections to be formed abruptly like this?
Did I give them affection?
…After thinking endlessly, the Regressor realised that it was a wrong choice of words. Affection wasn’t something that was given – it was something that was formed and deepened by itself.
To express it in clearer words; it seemed that the Regressor had become fond of the dragons without even realising it.
“Nn? What?”
Yeorum looked at him but he remained silent.
Back when Bom said that she could ‘tell Yu Jitae’s expressions apart’, Yeorum thought to herself that Bom must be hella talented to pull that off. But now, even Yeorum could tell that Yu Jitae’s expression had changed.
“What’s wrong?’
His gaze, which was always hazy, appeared as if it was almost about to disperse.
“Hey. What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“No…”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Creak–
That was when BM opened the door of the workshop and walked out in tatters. He walked up to Yu Jitae with staggering steps before lowering his head a little.
Standing up from the seat, Yu Jitae headed to the workshop. Yeorum tried to follow but he stopped her with his hands. Begrudgingly, she stayed behind on the spot.
Lying down in the workshop was a child without a heart. His skin still looked healthy, and it would stay like that for a fairly long time because the body itself was also a chimera. However, unlike the heart, this chimera was the ‘real’ one which was formed with the ‘hair’, following Yu Jitae’s recipe.
Yu Jitae opened the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)]. This particular alternate dimension was unique. It was extremely wide and contained a lot of special places that can be used to serve various purposes.
“Take the child and stabilise him.”
Following his command, white translucent hands reached forth and embraced Jung Taebaek’s body, before pulling it inside the dark alternate dimension. In the slightly deeper areas of that dimension, there was a place where time flowed extremely slowly. It was a place he often treated like a fridge and the child would be kept in that area.
However, more things had to be done instead of simply keeping the child in that area. To place a new heart inside the body that lost its perfectly fitting heart, he needed to remove all the mana attributes that had already spread to all corners of the body.
Flipping the ‘will’ of an existence was different from changing that of an object. Easier put, it was the same as the process of changing a person to a completely different person. Since it was an extremely inefficient and unnecessary task, no-one even gave it a try in the past.
Even if they did give it a try, they probably wouldn’t have succeeded.
However, for some reason, Yu Jitae had undergone such experiments before. Although his memories of the 4th+ iterations were hazy, the data gained from those researches and experiments were still vivid in his head.
As long as BM wished for it, he was ready to start anytime.
“I need some time,”
After the silence, BM opened his mouth while sitting powerlessly on the chair of the workshop.
“I need a little bit of rest… Let me contact you again later.”
Crumbled and exhausted, the wasted man powerlessly smiled. Yu Jitae looked into his eyes, before throwing him a question.
“Do you have any intention of making an extreme decision like suicide or concealing yourself?”
“No. I do not.”
“Don’t reply to the Association during your rest then.”
“Sorry?”
“You won’t be able to catch him anyway.”
“… …I see.”
Yu Jitae stood up from his seat. He then disappeared from the underground labyrinth without bidding him farewell.
Time was the best medicine – to anyone, so long as they were a human.
***
Weekend,
After the rain, the paved roads were still somewhat dark.
Haytling was flying above the Pacific ocean. The large floating island was flying into the thick wet fog covering the high altitudes above the ocean. As if the sky was sprinkled with a bunch of mist, the soothing breeze chased the summer heat away.
It was a very refreshing weekend.
– Clone 1 here. I have succeeded in bringing 3 people in.
Right. Good work.
– Uhh, Clone 2 here! I’ve also found the whereabouts of the witch!
How long did it take?
– 2 months.
– My apologies…! It was such a deep and complicated dungeon that I had trouble finding the entrance.
Got it.
The witch is a very self-centred woman but there’s no-one better than her when it comes to magic. Listen to her as much as you can and give her whatever she wants as long as you can.
– Yes sir!
But, don’t give her your body.
– Sorry? The body?
– Ah, I have just received some memories.
– Uhh… aht…
It was when he was having a conversation and sharing ideas about the current state of the operation with his clones. His watch rang with a notice from the education department.
– Weekend of Compliments.
He read through the document. It seemed that the guardian consultation session this time around would be replaced with this one instead. According to the document, he had to compliment a cadet for something they did well and had to submit the record of the compliment.
Occasionally, Lair would make guardians do incomprehensible things such as this. Why did he have to give compliments and record it down?
However, Yu Jitae was fairly earnest as a guardian and didn’t skip such things.
That day, the kids were all playing a board game in the living room. Going across the world, they had to buy lands and build buildings to take money off of others. It was a game similar to monopoly, called Blue Marble.
Yu Jitae sneaked his way to the kids and sat where there was the biggest gap. It was between Yeorum and Gyeoul.
“Ah, go somewhere else. It’s too crowded here.”
Yeorum pushed him away with her butt so he had to stand up again.
When that happened, Bom gazed up at him and raised a finger. She slowly lowered it and tapped the floor next to her and when he walked towards her, she naturally created some space for him.
She ended up being put further away from the board, but Bom didn’t seem to mind it.
“Uah, I walked into it again!”
“Gotcha. Give me your money you monkey.”
“Ahh, it’s so annoying. Why did it have to be Yeorum-unni’s land?! I should have gotten Seoul for myself…!”
Seemingly in a good mood, Yeorum chortled. She was in a good mood until she went to Tokyo and got thousands of dollars ripped off by Kaeul.
“Aoh fu*k.”
“Uwahh! I knew it! That’s why I built motels and apartments there! Eheheh~~”
“You Soujiro’s girlfriend-looking bastard.”
“What? That’s a bit…”
Yeorum bursted into laughter after seeing her reaction.
Next up was Gyeoul. She nervously gazed at the board. She only had 100 dollars left for herself. However, in front was the ‘Devil’s nest’ where the entire section was bought off by Yeorum and Kaeul. If she landed in any of those lands, she would go bankrupt in one go.
“That blue idiot should be gone now.”
“Gyeoul…! You don’t want to land in Yeorum-unni’s land right?”
“…Nn.”
“Then please come to mine instead!”
“…What.”
“Oi. Stupid Blue. Just throw it quick and go sit next to Cucumber.”
Cucumber?
Now that he thought about it, Bom wasn’t doing anything.
Yu Jitae turned to the side and looked at Bom. She was quieter than usual with a pout on her face, but it seemed that she had gone bankrupt already.
He asked,
“What happened.”
“Yes?”
“Thought you would be good at games like this.”
“Ah, because it’s a game, I tried to play fair and square…”
“And?”
“For some reason, it just didn’t work out. From the beginning…”
That was when Yeorum and Kaeul interjected with a chuckle and teased her. “I took 3000 dollars from her in total! Bom-unni is so bad!”, “Stupid Cucumber lol!”
Bom heaved a sigh with a pout on her face and leaned onto his arm. His arm felt the weight behind her head as the grass-coloured hair came flowing down. He could smell the gentle fragrance of the forest.
“…Umm.”
Meanwhile, Gyeoul was serious. She had to roll 2 dice and if she got any number between 2 to 10, she would be caught for sure. There were only 2 possible ways out for her – 11 and 12.
So one die definitely had to be 6 while the other had to be at least 5. As long as she could get away from this ‘Devil’s nest’… she could get a salary! She would be able to survive…!
“…Huuh.”
After a sigh, she rolled the dice.
The first one that fell…!
Was a 1.
Gyeoul went and sat next to Bom.
Yeorum, who received all of her assets, chuckled and laughed like a witch. When Gyeoul gave a frown, Kaeul spoke from the side.
“Please shake the carrot if you’re angry!”
“…”
There was a carrot-shaped gaming equipment next to her. Gyeoul carried the carrot with two hands and shook it. She shook it over and over again, before abruptly throwing it at Yeorum, who continued giggling without an end.
However, Yeorum dodged it with ease and teased her again. “I thought you were just bad at throwing dice but you can’t even throw carrots.”
Her hands trembled. Gyeoul, who tried to endure her anger with two hardened fists, suddenly stood up and whinged after sitting on Yu Jitae’s lap. She cursed Yeorum through her mumbles so he hugged the child.
After Gyeoul’s anger dissipated a little, Bom naturally carried her over and placed her on her lap to watch the final showdown of the remaining two.
“Ah, fuc*…”
The final winner was Kaeul.
“Uhehehe!”
Yeorum pressed down on her forehead and earnestly suppressed her anger with a reddened face, while Kaeul bragged about coming first to the baby chicken, the protector and Yu Jitae as if she had won the entire world.
There wasn’t even anything on the line, and yet they were playing the game with zeal.
In any case, the board game was over and he realised that it was about time to give compliments.
“Kaeul.”
“Yess?”
The first target for compliments was Kaeul.