In the 4 lives he could remember,
Over hundreds of elapsed iterations,
The Regressor had never killed a baby dragon with his own hands.
Yu Jitae submitted an application for the ‘Five Transcendent Cadets of Ha Sukmoo Selection Exam’ with Kaeul’s name written on it. Fortunately, she was given an earlier spot and she was able to take the test the next day.
Because of her nervousness, Kaeul wasn’t in a good state. She started trembling from noon of the day before, fidgeted endlessly throughout the night and stayed holed up in her room on the morning of the next day without at all showing her face for a few hours.
It was a good thing that she was immediately taking the test. Nothing would change even if she were to prepare for it for several days.
Yu Jitae knocked on the door of her room.
“Kaeul. Are you in the room.”
– Yes.
“Start preparing yourself. We will leave straight after having breakfast.”
– Okay.
“Kaeul.”
– Yes.
Her voice sounded powerless. Although she didn’t sound nervous, the place she was forced to stand in was too foreign a place to be in.
Like the campus ranking competition, events that compared the ranks of cadets tended to gather a lot of attention. And Lair, which knew how to portray the superhuman cadets as ‘heroes’, knew exactly how to use the attention of the crowd.
Therefore, this event was also quite bustling with people like the competition. There were a lot of eyes as well as an audience seat for them to cheer from.
He called Bom.
“Start preparing yourself and bring Yeorum. We will head straight to the venue and will cheer for her together.”
“Should I wake Gyeoul up as well?”
“Yeah. I will prepare the meal.”
Their breakfast menu today was bread. One by one he took the bread out from the paper bag. A well-balanced sandwich with ham, all sorts of vegetables and a lot of cheese. Kaeul’s favourite donut with a small crust of sugary glaze. And cold macarons of various colours.
When having bread, Kaeul often asked.
– Where is milk?
Thus, the last one he took out from the bag was milk. It was a breakfast menu that Kaeul could literally faint after seeing.
“Ah, like I said, I’m not interested in transcendent cadets or whatever.”
Despite the complaint, Yeorum walked outside after being pushed by Bom.
“Why. Let’s go cheer for Kaeul together.”
“But you know, even though it’s a fake dungeon and a test, isn’t it too cruel to make Yu Kaeul go into a dungeon?”
“Hnn? Why?”
“Don’t you know how much of a coward she is? She will probably tremble like crazy and it will be great if she doesn’t piss herself. I don’t want to see that with my eyes.”
Bom looked at her with a smile.
“You don’t know anything, Yeorum.”
“What.”
“You’re saying that because you haven’t seen how much Kaeul has changed now. Kaeul is very good. Right, ahjussi?”
Yu Jitae turned towards Yeorum in response.
Yeorum was staring at him. Unlike the usual frowns she wore these days whenever she was staring at his face, there was slight tension in her expression. His following words created a crack in her tranquil expression.
“Of course. She’s good.”
***
Kaeul was quiet throughout breakfast. She silently ate the sandwich, drank milk and took a bite of the macaron. She appeared normal, different from how she was trembling the day before.
“You’re not shaking anymore. Are you okay Kaeul?”
“Nn? Ah. Un.”
Yeorum glanced at her before opening her mouth.
“You’re alright my ass. Do you want some relaxing pills or something? Like anxiety pills?”
“No no. I’m good…”
Yeorum frowned after hearing her response. She thought it was strange.
‘…?’
Was she always this calm? She didn’t think much about it when Bom was talking about how much Kaeul had changed, but Yeorum started feeling slightly curious after seeing how she was acting.
After the meal, the Yu household headed to Colosseo Lair where competitive events started and ended at Lair. Near the large cylindrical building were bustling crowds of cadets in summer uniform, guardians and staff members. Although each had their own goals, a few of the cadets got on an elevator to head to the basement which was the same for the Yu household.
4th basement level, the ‘virtual dungeon training ground’.
The difference between this virtual dungeon to others was that this dungeon was under the influence of the Level 4 artifact, [Statue of Competition]. Therefore, the dungeons here were more natural allowing for a more realistic training.
Because of that, the ‘virtual dungeon training ground’ was usually reserved for 4th and 5th grade cadets but today, it served as the venue for the selection exam of five transcendent cadets of Ha Sukmoo.
“I, I’ll be on my way then.”
The kids either waved their hands or shouted, ‘…Good luck’. With a stiff look on her face Kaeul nodded before walking somewhere else under the instructions of the staff.
The Yu household headed to the guardian waiting room. The large room resembling a movie theatre already had three hundred or so of people, who were either guardians or friends of the cadets.
“Ima sit at the front.”
Yeorum who was still uncomfortable with Yu Jitae sat away from him which he didn’t at all mind. After finding a seat, he met someone familiar. The man had a tall height and a large body, hair short enough to be called a skinhead and a vicious scar underneath.
“It has been a while. Mihailov.”
“Nn? Ah. You’re here too, Mister Yu Jitae.”
Next to him were cadets of Russia’s RIL sitting in a straight line. Seeing Yu Jitae, they hurriedly stood up but didn’t know what to do. They didn’t dare greet him but still looked at him with gazes of admiration.
“What are you all doing? Hurry up and sit down.”
Despite the words of Mihailov, the cadets hesitated and didn’t sit. Half of their gazes were on Yu Jitae while the other half were trying to catch a glimpse of the dragons.
It was something he was already used to. Even now, there were dozens of gazes all across the waiting room gathered on the dragons. As always.
“Look at you bunch. Should I pluck your rolling eye candies out and throw them into your mouth or will you sit down now?”
“Ah, sorry sir…”
Only when he shouted did the cadets of RIL hurriedly sit back down. This was what the usual relationship between guardians and cadets were for soldiers.
“Ah, sorry about that. The kids were being very rude.”
“That’s alright.”
“By the way, Jitae. What brings you here.”
“What else. Of course I came because one of my kids are taking the exam. Are you here because of Sophia?”
“No. Sophia is on the last day and today is the exam for a different child. Aigooh, if Cadet Yu Yeorum is in the group, I guess we will only have 4 positions to contest for,” said Mihailov.
“Ah, Yeorum is over there actually.” Bom interjected.
Hearing her words, Mihailov looked at the red-haired girl sitting near the very front of the room. He touched his plump forehead around the scar with his thick fingers.
“Nnn? What. Why is Cadet Yeorum there?”
“Yeorum isn’t the one taking the test.”
“Whut?! Then who…”
He then murmured, green, red, blue… to himself before widening his eyes.
“Yellow isn’t here…! Kaeul. Right. So the child that read the declaration is taking the exam?”
“That is the case.”
‘Hooh…?’ A curious voice escaped Mihailov’s mouth.
Meanwhile, although it was the two guardians talking to each other, there were a lot of ears in the waiting room.
The story quickly spread. Firstly, it was the group of guardians near them that picked up the said topic for their conversation.
“What? So it’s Cadet Yu Kaeul that’s taking the test?”
“That blonde haired cadet?”
“Hoh. Interesting. Now that’s new. Cadet Yu Yeorum really is here.”
Only at Unit 301 was Yeorum a run-of-the-mill hatchling. At Lair, wherever it may be, there would be gazes of awe and admiration on Yeorum as if she was a celebrity. Besides, the story about the ‘Yu household’ that was known to have BM and Myung Yongha as its sponsors was an even bigger topic.
It seemed that the third daughter of that household had suddenly become a combat-oriented superhuman. By nature, the question of ‘Who’s stronger?’ was one of the most interesting conversation topics.
“That is interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Cadet Kaeul fight.”
“Don’t think she has. She did look like a very feeble and fragile cadet… She was quite different from Cadet Yeorum.”
“Well I did hear that Cadet Yu Bom was also quite deeply talented at magic.”
“But talent when it comes to magic isn’t always hereditary, is it. Will she really be that strong?”
“I don’t really think so… even though they may be sisters, does it make sense for both of them to be geniuses?”
“Aye, but I’m sure the household has their unique curriculum of some sort. It is the Yu household after all.”
“Right. The Yu household…”
After the chatter, the eyes of the guardians simultaneously headed straight towards Yeorum. The representative of their group carefully walked up and called Yeorum.
“Excuse me, Cadet Yeorum.”
Hearing the quiet voice, Yeorum turned her head with her arms still crossed.
“What is it.”
“My name is Nguyen. I’m one of the guardians affiliated with the Blue Tail Guild.”
“Yes. And.”
“Sorry? Ah. It’s just that our kids like you a lot.”
“What is that about? Thought you were whispering to each other at the back. And you have a question or something.”
Embarrassed by her straightforward words, the guardian scratched his head.
“Oh no. We were trying to quietly talk to each other but you must have heard it. Sorry if that made you feel unpleasant.”
“It’s alright. Sometimes I do that too.”
“Thanks for your understanding.”
The atmosphere seemingly eased a little.
“So what is it.”
“Ah, so by the way, would it be okay for me to ask how strong Cadet Yu Kaeul is?”
Although only one of the guardians was asking the question, several gazes of curiosity were urging her to reply. “I don’t know either.” When Yeorum cursorily replied with an indifferent voice, they followed it up with more questions. “Does she use magic, or is she a sharpshooter?”, “Have you two sparred before?” Yeorum suddenly showed her temper.
“Like I said, I don’t know.”
“But aren’t you sisters?”
“What. Do I have to know everything if we are sisters? I don’t even know her exact height. I’m curious too, okay!”
“Ahh…”
“If you find out somewhere then please come let me know as well. Alright?”
“Ah, yes. I see…”
He already knew about her personality so the guardian embarrassedly scratched his head before walking away. On the way back to his seat, he glanced at Yu Jitae. However, directly asking Yu Jitae was a bit daunting while Bom was sitting on the other side.
That was when his eyes met with the eyes of the blue-haired girl, but she looked too much like a kid that she probably wouldn’t know much.
But by the way, this blue-haired girl, was too cute…
Does this household pick kids based on their appearance or something…
“…What, are you looking at?”
“Nn? Ah, n, nothing…”
When the child gave a frown, the guardian felt slightly uncomfortable and quietly turned around. Until then, Yu Jitae had simply been silently listening. Bom, who was sitting next to him with her legs crossed, suddenly gave a small chuckle.
“What’s funny.”
He quietly asked.
“Nothing. It’s just interesting.”
“What is.”
“Thinking about how their expressions will change later.”
He thought to himself. It seemed that the daily lives had indeed pervaded in a little bit. Although he wasn’t as expectant as Bom, he could still understand what and why she was expectant.
“… I see.”
They will probably be in an uproar.
“Cadet Kaeul won’t be strong.”
That was when a powerful voice was heard from behind.
“Sorry? Does that make sense? It’s still the Yu household.”
“Aye, there must be the curriculum that perfected Cadet Yeorum. It’s too early to come to a conclusion. We haven’t even seen anything yet right?”
The man with a powerful voice refuted the objective opinions, “I’m sure you would be saying something different if you had ever seen one of Cadet Kaeul’s magic classes before.”
“Our cadet was in the same class but she was as good as other people though?”
“Well, it was really unstable when I saw it last month.”
“What are you even talking about? Mate, Cadet Kaeul took the magic studies class last year.”
“It’s the same guy talking gibberish… just ignore him.”
It seemed that the man was someone who tended to talk gibberish very often and a lot of the listeners appeared extremely discontent. However, the man with a powerful voice asserted even more.
“Whatever. She is weak though okay? Her manipulation over mana is so unstable that she could never be strong.”
His assertion became more forceful seemingly because everyone was disagreeing with him.
Meanwhile, Yu Jitae was still silent. In fact, he didn’t think anything of it.
He did not value the lives of organisms. The only things he acknowledged were the abilities of the individual. Because of that, humans he did not know of were no different from bugs.
If a bug tried to bite him, he would crush it and kill it. If a bunch of bugs tried to bite him, he would disinfect the area and get rid of their habitat altogether.
However, a group of bugs talking to each other about the grades of his daughter was none of his business.
“A damned stupid half-breed. Talking nonsense just because you have an open mouth.”
He was silent but perhaps because of that, it was someone near him that swore instead. The surprised cadets of RIL looked at the speaker while Bom also turned her gaze towards him.
“Should I rip that mouth of yours or something.”
Saying that, Mihailov raised his body.