“Uhh, i, it’s not what you think!”
Kaeul flusteredly shook her hands. He could spot traces of anxiety, confusion and fear from her golden eyes, but her eyes overall had enough vitality, like her eyes that he was used to seeing.
“I, I, I wasn’t doing like, something strange or anything!”
“What were you doing then.”
“I was just trying to practise healing magic a bit…! L, look here!”
While saying that, she lifted the towel and disinfectant that were placed near her legs.
It seemed that he was overreacting in vain. Yu Jitae breathed out a deep sigh. His head cooled down as his blood began racing back out of his head.
Oblivious to his thoughts or not, Kaeul continued gazing at him with anxious eyes whilst flapping her arms. He slowly approached the child, sat in front of her and held her by the wrist as Kaeul flinched and lowered her head.
The wound was on her palm, not her wrist and was shallow. In order to make a wound on her body that was being protected by all sorts of blessings, Kaeul had to use quite a bit of mana.
“Why would you practise healing magic on your body.”
“It’s nothing big but, umm, uhh, just, uhh, I needed some time to practise alone, umm… and there has to be a wound to heal it right?”
“Why not do it during lesson or at a training centre.”
“That’s… uhh, umm…”
Kaeul hesitated. Meanwhile, Yu Jitae used a gauze to wipe the blood flowing down from her small palm.
“Heal your hand first.”
“Ah, yes.”
She gathered mana on her other hand. After Kaeul concentrated for a bit, the delicate attribute of healing magic was casted. [Heal (C)] – the most basic spell and yet the one with the highest difficulty stopped the wound from bleeding, disinfected it and began healing it at a rapid speed. In an instant, the wound began to quickly close.
“…”
Meanwhile, Yu Jitae stared at Kaeul’s face. Whenever ‘she’ was focusing on something, there was always an undisguisable phenomenon.
Human conviction and thoughts stemmed from their eyes which they used when looking at the world around them. There was no way that the world in Yu Jitae’s eyes was the same as Kaeul’s perception of the world.
As if to prove his doubt, Kaeul’s gaze appeared like an indifferent pout.
“Bom.”
“Nn?”
Slowly, her face returned to ‘Kaeul’.
“Nn!? W, w, why?! Why are you suddenly looking for Bom-unni?”
…She was immersing herself in Bom when using healing magic.
Yu Jitae thought for a bit – what would be the best way to lead a conversation in times like this?
In his memories, Bom had always tried to slowly and calmly start a conversation. Instead of jumping straight to the trunk, he had to start from the branches of the roots.
“How unexpected.”
“Sorry?”
“Didn’t it hurt?”
“Uhh, umm…”
“Don’t you usually whinge for an hour when you bump your toe on something?”
“…No I don’t! Maybe for about five minutes, only because it surprises me.”
“Anyway, did it hurt?” He asked again.
“Uhh… it did.”
“A lot?”
“Yes, a lot, so I was very surprised… I could feel it entering my flesh. It was like, really terrifying and gave me goosebumps. I, I, I was almost about to cry…!”
So why did you do it then.
She seemed to have read what he was trying to say from his gaze. Kaeul laughed awkwardly before lowering her gaze.
The wound was still in the middle of being closed.
“Something happened, right. In school. Or when you were learning magic from Bom,” guessed Yu Jitae.
“Umm, no…?”
Judging from how she was rolling her eyes around, there definitely was something. Soon, he silently began touching his watch so Kaeul asked with an anxious voice.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for the phone number of your healing magic teacher.”
“Why?!”
“To ask him something.”
“Uh, uh, please wait!”
Regardless, he continued operating the watch so Kaeul clung to his arm and tried to pull it away.
“No you can’t. Please wait…! No, stop! Don’t press it! Ahh– waittt!”
When it still didn’t work, she used her small hands to hold his index and middle finger.
“Kaeul.”
“I’ll say it…! No, no like, it’s nothing that crazy okay?”
“What is it then.”
“It’s nothing. It just seemed that I wasn’t talented at healing magic…” She murmured.
What was this about?
When he stopped his hands, Kaeul regained her composure and finished her sentence.
“That’s all.”
He realised that she was trying to gloss over the topic like a sly snake. Thus, he began moving his fingers again as undisguisable nervousness rose once again on her expression. Soon, she started grabbing his fingers and whining again.
“Ahhh! Ahhnnnn–! Don’t do it…!”
“Be honest.”
“My healing went bad…!”
“What?”
“It was during school…!”
Huu… Kaeul breathed out a deep sigh. She glanced at his face and slowly opened her mouth.
“I casted healing magic as I was taught, but it didn’t go well. The chimera that we were healing got even more hurt.”
“That’s strange. Didn’t you heal your own wound just then?”
“Hmm, I don’t know what’s wrong either.”
“Have you tried talking to Bom?”
“No… I don’t want to tell her.”
“Why.”
“Bom-unni is teaching very well. And I can also heal properly when I’m copying Bom-unni, but…”
“But?”
“But that’s, only when I’m copying Bom-unni.”
“How is that a problem.”
“That’s simply imitating Bom-unni. It was the same just then… That’s not my healing magic. That’s just Bom-unni…”
Yu Jitae turned silent for a bit and thought to himself.
Dragons had a strong sense of independence and were generally closed off from other races. The case with Unit 301 was only because Yu Jitae gathered the kids and forced them into one place. Originally, Bom, Yeorum, Kaeul and Gyeoul should never have been able to gather together and be this friendly with each other.
It was the same as how Yeorum had initially refused to learn under him. Back then, she had been speaking of the identity of herself as a red dragon. Fortunately he was able to manipulate mana and fight using the martial arts of red dragons and was able to convince her.
However, that wasn’t the case for healing magic.
“What happened to the chimera then.”
Kaeul hesitated before letting out words like a sigh.
“Well, it just wasn’t healed…”
Her expression rapidly turned dark.
It was strange.
A chimera that had to be healed was healed by the magic of a dragon itself, and yet it wasn’t healed?
Why?
Kaeul was a dragon. She was from the race of magic.
Of course, she might have made a mistake considering that she was in her early teens, because the uniqueness of a dragon was formulated over the long histories of their life.
But even then, she was from the race of magic; the ones that created magic. Even if she wasn’t gifted, it did not make sense for a mere healing magic to drag her behind.
He saw the need to look into it himself. By gathering his killing intent to his fingertip, he sharpened it like a small blade and immediately slashed his palm without a second thought.
His palm, with the blessings and authorities cancelled, screamed in pain as his skin revealed the flesh beneath it. Blood started flowing out as Kaeul startledly looked up at his face.
“W, what are you doing!?”
“Can you heal it?”
“N, no…! You might get hurt…!”
After saying that, Kaeul seemingly belatedly remembered what type of person Yu Jitae was. Even now, blood was dripping from Yu Jitae’s palm onto the living room floor.
Kaeul cautiously opened her mouth.
“You can’t get hurt… okay…?”
“I won’t. Don’t worry mate.”
“Ah, okay…”
Before long, Kaeul began unfolding her healing spell.
Mana gathered to his hand. Mana molecules with the healing attribute gathered and started healing his hand.
He observed the properties inside the mana. [Induce], [Disinfect], [Settle], [Stabilise] and [Recovery]… it was the same as a normal healing spell.
Everything was fine.
It wasn’t bad at all.
So why was it that the chimera wasn’t healed properly? After receiving her spell for some time, Yu Jitae realised what the problem was.
“…”
An empty smile left his mouth.
There was a ‘big problem’ with her healing magic.
“Nn?! Why? Does it, hurt…?”
“No it’s fine.”
There was an absurdly large amount of mana in her healing magic. Plus, her ability to output mana was ridiculously big.
Healing magic normally did require a lot of mana but there was a limit to how much it would use. She was like a broken dam when the spell only required a water hose so there was no way that it would go well.
Besides, her control was another problem. If she were manipulating a water hose, it would be easy to control the direction of the flow. However, changing the direction of the water flow in a broken dam was easier said than done.
In other words, Kaeul’s healing magic was like a rock placed above a fine sieve.
There was no way that a chimera would be able to handle this mountainous amount of mana. It was fortunate that she wasn’t using this on a human.
But Yu Jitae had no problem taking in her mana, so the wound began to close.
“Uh…? Nn…?”
In any case, healing magic wasn’t appropriate for the child while she was on her Amusement. It would take hundreds of years at the very least for her to gain delicate control over her mana.
Thus, he came to a conclusion.
“Let’s stop this.”
“Sorry?”
“I don’t think healing magic is for you.”
“…”
Surprised, Kaeul carefully asked.
“Why…?”
Yu Jitae sincerely explained everything, from the principle of healing magic to how healing spells operated and the reason why healing magic wasn’t appropriate for her.
After hearing his words, a shadow was cast on her face as her eyes gazed at the ground.
“Is that okay?”
“Yes…”
“Don’t learn it at school anymore, and give up on learning it from Bom.”
Kaeul was silent. She simply gave a small nod in response.
Her response had to be perceived with care.
[Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)]
“Why. Do you really want to do it?”
When he asked again, Kaeul shook her head. She was saying that she didn’t want to do it, and the authenticity on the Eyes of Equilibrium was ‘true’, meaning that she was okay with not learning it.
“Do you not like what I’m saying?”
Kaeul shook her head again, and this too was true. Kaeul did not dislike what Yu Jitae was saying.
“Then, is there something else you would like to say?”
“No. I think you’re right, ahjussi. I am not suited for healing magic.”
“Sorry to tell you that.”
“It’s fine. That’s the truth after all. I know it too. That’s just the type of person I am…”
Yet again, her response was true and her favourability towards him was heavily leaning towards ‘like’. Kaeul was being honest and she did not hate him.
And yet for some reason, Yu Jitae didn’t feel comfortable at heart.
‘It’s fine’
Her final words mysteriously remained vividly in his ears.
It’s fine, huh…
Although she might have been being honest, it still unknowingly touched a corner of his emotions.
It was a thought stemming from the 4th iteration. BY always said she was fine even when she wasn’t fine. BY, who was a lot better than the current Kaeul at hiding her emotions, really did seem fine whenever she was saying that.
So was BY fine?
No.
She was not fine.
Over the period of repeating the same words that she was fine like a parrot, BY had been building up something in her heart. Things that built up and eventually exploded…
Until now, Yu Jitae had always believed in the Eyes of Equilibrium. He had always been a man forming plans, and there had yet to be an error with the Eyes of Equilibrium.
However, he got the feeling that he shouldn’t trust the Eyes of Equilibrium, at least for this occasion. As for the reason, he had no idea.
It might be that over the daily lives he had spent with Kaeul, he started understanding Kaeul deeper than the likes of a mere authority that could identify the authenticity behind her words.
His senses rose up sharp.
This wasn’t something that he could simply ignore.
“I will go to my room and rest now.” Kaeul said.
“Rest up.”
After sending her away, Yu Jitae walked out of the dormitory and called the professor.
– Hello. Kim Chulgon, the professor of healing magic studies speaking.
“Hello, this is Guardian Yu Jitae.”
– Yes yes. Ah! Hello sir? Guardian Yu Jitae. I have heard many good stories about you.”
The professor who was aware of the Yu household acted humble. He might have decided against giving him a call even after the problem, because Kaeul was from the Yu household.
“I’m calling because I was curious about what happened with Cadet Yu Kaeul.”
– Ah I see. It’s nothing much. Nothing really happened. Haha.
“No. I have heard from the cadet that something had occurred. Please be honest without any falsehood. There won’t be any disadvantages on your side.”
– Ahh. Actually, the thing is…
Before long, the professor revealed the truth behind the matter, and only then did Yu Jitae understand a portion of what Kaeul had been feeling just then.
It was the reason Kaeul was flustered when he made her heal him, and was also why she created a wound on her own hand.
The chimera wasn’t simply not healed.
“You mean it died?”
– Yes…
The chimera Kaeul healed had died.