“Clean, is it?”
It was when Yu Jitae was in the middle of explaining the cleaning plan to his clone.
From Bom’s room, Gyeoul woke up. She would spend the day at Kaeul’s room and sleep at Bom’s room at night. Since she was still a baby dragon, a long sleep was needed at night.
She was inside Bom’s embrace when she woke up. Wriggling her way out, Gyeoul checked that the blue teddy bear was healthy today as well and got out of the bed while hugging the bear.
As the door was gently pushed open, the blue hair and a pair of circular eyes peeked past the small gap between the door and the wall.
There was Yu Jitae in the living room.
And there, was another Yu Jitae.
With widened eyes, Gyeoul looked back and forth between the two men.
This here was Yu Jitae and that one over there… was also Yu Jitae.
She would be hesitant to approach even with just one and yet there were as many as two Yu Jitaes in front, and her nervousness thus doubled. Due to that, Gyeoul hid behind the door for a long time as she observed the Yu Jitaes.
But soon, her feet unconsciously led herself forward. While cautiously walking on the corridor, Gyeoul hesitated about which direction she was to head for.
“Your wish is my command. My lord.”
A Yu Jitae with a lowered head ignored Gyeoul and walked off to Yeorum’s room. Blankly, Gyeoul stared at his back before sensing something and turning her head back to the front. Then, she walked towards the remaining Yu Jitae.
The small baby carefully confronted the man as a hazy gaze travelled down and met the pair of blue eyes.
“…”
She tried to open her mouth with a mumble, but words didn’t leave her mouth. Seeing the hesitant child, Yu Jitae gave a greeting.
“Did you sleep well.”
A rather powerless, dried-up voice left his mouth.
Unable to give a response, Gyeoul hesitated for a long time before raising the doll up and covering her face. Soon after, a pair of big and strong arms approached her and lifted her up. When she removed the bear from her vision, she realised that she was in Yu Jitae’s arms.
“…”
Gyeoul, who ended up in his embrace, stared deeply at his face,
And those eyes stayed on him for a long period of time.
Meanwhile, [Shadow of an Archduke (SS)] that entered Yeorum’s room, was faced with a startling scene. It was unknown exactly when she bought them, but there were hundreds of comic books, gaming consoles, empty packets of crackers, cans, half-eaten boxes of chicken, some swords and unidentifiable objects with countless sword marks.
In front of all that, was a full-plated armour wearing an apron in the middle of a cleaning session – it was the protector.
The protector, who had been standing in the corner of a room like a statue throughout the night, only started moving again from morning due to Yu Jitae’s command to clean.
Apparently, it had become a housekeeper.
The protector thought as it pondered about its own identity, when Yu Jitae’s clone came nearby and bent his back.
“That’s not it. That’s a food waste.”
“…!”
“Place it in that yellow bag over there. Do you not even know that?”
Due to Yu Jitae’s sudden appearance, the protector stood up in a hurry, but soon, it realised that the one in front of itself was the duplicate which had been seen last night. With a stiff back, the clone shoved the trash to a side with his feet.
That was perhaps how Yu Jitae himself would look, if he were to clean another person’s room.
“…Does he think he’s the true body or something.”
The protector whispered to itself under its breath and the clone did not respond. For a long time, the two cleaned Yeorum’s room without saying another word but when some plastic and cans entered a bag for general waste, the clone opened his mouth.
“I’m curious about how uncivilised Askalifa is.”
“…”
“Seems that there’s not even a proper recycling system so…”
Obediently, the protector listened to the clone’s words and separated the cans and plastic. But when the clone still effortlessly pushed and shoved the wastes around with his feet, the protector let out a murmur.
“A succubus riding on a count’s back…”
It was a proverb of the demon world used to denounce a powerless person that believed in their background to carry out irresponsible acts.
However, as an SS-rated authority of a Demon Archduke, who had lived for over hundreds of years, the clone had its own personality.
His feet came to a stop.
At the same time, the protector’s rubber gloved hands also came to a stop. Its crimson eyes flickered as it lifted up its head.
“…”
“…”
Their gazes collided in midair.
***
Despite it being a weekend, there had been a contact from the directing team. It was a detailed guide about the declaration audition that would be held in two days. Amongst roughly 300 cadets, only 13 made it through the first audition and from those candidates, the final audition will be held, where three final members will be chosen.
The three will consist of one main declarer and two supporting declarers.
The name, ‘Yu Kaeul’ was at the very end of those 13 names. Yu Jitae, who had been glancing through the list of the audition participants discovered a name he knew of.
[Gong Juhee]
This name – he remembered it.
She was one of the members of the Azure Dragon study group, under a heavy support of the demon, Wei Yan.
He was a demon that was a lot more concerned about the media and the masses compared to other demons. Thus, it was perhaps natural that a member of the Azure Dragon study group was mixed within the list of declaration readers of the entrance ceremony.
Wei Yan, Wei Yan…
It was a disturbing name, like a sore on the tongue.
Yu Jitae left the house and headed for the education department within Lair. It was to look into the ‘event held at the end of the year’, which Wei Yan talked about when revealing his aspirations. Also, that perhaps wasn’t just an event for Wei Yan – it must be an event which the whole demon organisation he was a part of was looking forward to.
Since it was an end-of-the-year plan which hadn’t been revealed yet, it was a secret from outsiders and there was no way for a normal person to get informed about it. However, it served no problem for the Regressor.
Thanks to the Eyes of Equilibrium and several other tools, he discovered the answer rather safely and easily.
“We will be conquering an S+ dungeon. Cadets of Lair that have been selected through competitions will also be participating.”
On the emergency stairs heading to the basement, a staff member of Lair opened his mouth with a dull expression.
Hearing that, Yu Jitae remembered something from the past, as he reflected on a certain round of regression.
[Melissia Masquerade]
Melissia Masquerade was a huge incident that happened in the Melissia ballroom where more than a 100 demons were born.
To the human race, this was one of the elements that were of great threats.
In a certain round of regression, he had been to the Melissia ballroom as a part of the group of soldiers that were dispatched there to protect the cadets and that was now coming into play in this round.
It was a good thing for him. Since all the demons that were carefully raised by Wei Yan will all be mobilised, it would be a great opportunity to massacre all of Wei Yan’s underlings that were spread out like dots.
Some might ask, ‘After regressing, isn’t it possible to just massacre all the demons from other rounds?’
That would be impossible.
Wei Yan had always been a demon in all rounds, and had died in Yu Jitae’s hands every round. There were no exceptions there.
However, there were beings that were demons in some rounds, while being humans in others. On the other hand, there were also those that hadn’t been demons, who suddenly became a demon in one certain round.
Killing innocent humans due to mistaking them as demons was not a problem. That didn’t result in him feeling anything in particular.
The problem was in fact the opposite. A birth of an unknown demon was something that must be prevented to the best of his abilities, in order to extinguish even the slightest of the threatening embers. It was a form of a compulsiveness that was created inside him over the long years.
He imagined the future of this round. He wouldn’t interfere with the flow of the world and just like what he had always been doing, he would let the wave flow, as it was a good idea to ride it along.
There was nothing he could do about the grains of sand scattered beneath where the waves had hit. But that was fine. In the flow of the world, there were destined to be tornados and the scattered sands will always gather at one place.
Thus, all he had to do was to wait it out and discern the right timing. For the Regressor, who had lived as a predator for a long time, it wasn’t a difficult task.
*
On the way back from the education department, Yu Jitae sensed a familiar aura.
There was a local park nearby, where a large fountain stood tall. He carried his feet over to that place.
A large tree was reaching out at the skies while cadets travelled around in groups of three to five. There, Yu Jitae found a green-haired girl sitting on a bench.
Although it was unknown how she noticed him, the head turned towards him as the pair of green eyes blinked.
It was Bom.
“Huh? Ahjussi.”
At the place where Bom had previously been staring at, Gyeoul was tilting her head near the fountain while cadets and adults watched her from the surroundings as if they found that cute. Bom had seemingly taken Gyeoul out for a walk.
Yu Jitae stared at them from a distance before slowly walking to the bench and sitting next to her.
“It’s been a while! I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. I’ve gotten better now.”
The Regressor returned a light nod at the dragon’s words. Although they were seeing each other for the first time in a few days, that was the end of their conversation. As both himself and Bom were on the quiet side, this was how their conversation turned out every time.
In silence, the two of them watched Gyeoul surrounded by people.
“Aigo. So pretty.”
“Is her hair dyed? She’s like an angel really…”
They either made blank expressions while looking at her, or would speak up to the child. There were also those that gave Gyeoul lollies and candies.
However Gyeoul, who was hugging the blue bear, did not appear to be in a good mood. She didn’t smile or reply to them and even when they took candies out, she would ignore them after a glance and continue kicking the water with her feet.
“Little friend. Awhhh, howw old are youuu?”
Unable to hold back, one of the cadets asked a question with a lisp. But seeing that, Gyeoul made a frown as if she saw something that was harmful to her eyes and soon flicked her head away.
“Ukk…”
“Oi stop. She’s saying you’re disgusting.”
“No, what? She didn’t say that!”
They laughed.
Some of them, who had been secretly looking forward to Gyeoul’s reaction, were disappointed but since she was too pretty, they started talking to her again.
It was a peaceful moment.
While he was blankly watching that scene, Bom opened her mouth.
“Ahjussi.”
“Yeah.”
“When we are like this, we look like a family.”
Was that the case?
He couldn’t remember what family was like. Ever since he remembered, Yu Jitae had always been alone. But when he pondered about it, he thought that perhaps the emotions sent by the colleagues at his clone in the police station was similar to that of a family’s. Still, there was no way to confirm that guess.
“If that’s how things are, we would be a married couple.”
That was when Bom started talking nonsense.
“Gyeoul would be ahjussi’s daughter.”
He didn’t respond.
“And I will be her mother. How does that sound?”
Bom asked.
When he turned his head around, he found Bom’s eyes staring at himself and returned the gaze with an indifferent expression.
‘How does that sound’?
That was a perplexing question. He couldn’t think of what to say in response, as no suitable words popped up in his head.
Yu Jitae was definitely wearing an indifferent expression but somehow sensing the perplexity hidden within, Bom gently chuckled.
“It’s a joke.”
Meanwhile, some of the people went to a nearby kiosk and bought snacks. They then handed it over to Gyeoul.
“It’s a fairy floss. You tear it apart like this and eat it and, hmm! Aigo, so nice!”
The fairy floss ended up a failure. Gyeoul, who was suddenly made to grab the stick, didn’t hold it tightly enough as it fell inside the fountain. “Noo!” A regretful voice was heard.
“Do you want ice cream?”
Next up in line was ice cream but this too was a failure. The fairy floss looked like a cloud and caught some of her attention but unfortunately, the ice cream did not even get a glance from her. Dejected, the female staff shoved the ice cream into her own mouth.
Seeing that the sun was starting to set, Bom called out to Gyeoul.
“Gyeoul. Let’s go back.”
Hearing that, Gyeoul stopped splashing around with the water and turned around. The moody look on the baby’s face instantly brightened up the moment she saw Yu Jitae.
“Ah, do you want this?”
That was when Bom handed something to Yu Jitae. It was a little chestnut kernel.
“I found it on the way here. How about you give it to Gyeoul?”
Would a child eat something like this?
Thought Yu Jitae, but remembering how the taste buds of dragons were slightly strange, Yu Jitae quietly received it.
Then, while holding the chestnut, he reached his hand out at Gyeoul.
When he did, Gyeoul, who had not moved a foot away from the fountain up until now, quickly ran up with tottering feet and firmly grabbed the chestnut.
Seeing that, the onlookers gasped.
Ah, so the child liked chestnut…!