While gasping for breath, the two of them leaned on the rock staring at each other.
The training had been extremely strenuous – even more so to Yu Jitae than the months he spent locked in Noah’s dream. Even then, it wasn’t his first time experiencing such things so he paid little regard to it but that wasn’t the case for Yeorum. With a blank look on her face, she began doing strange things.
“…”
Lifting her hands, she touched all over her body. She touched her nose and pinched her soft cheeks.
“…”
She brushed past the wound on her ankle and wetted her finger with blood. Then, she rubbed it with her thumb and index finger before bringing it to her nose for a smell.
“…”
After that, she brought it to her lips. As if having sweet honey, she tasted her own blood and savoured the flavour even though it should have a rusty flavour to it.
“…”
Yeorum then turned her gaze towards the world. It was early morning near the end of dawn. Sun of this dimension was starting to rise from the horizon with its ambience covering the entirety of this tranquil ocean. With not a single bird or organism interrupting the scenery, the surface of the water near the horizon reflected the shape of the Sun like a mirror, making the Sun look like a crumpled rugby ball.
“Ah.”
And lastly,
She opened her lips and made a sound.
“Ah. Mhmm. Hmm…”
She seemed to find her own voice awkward.
“Ah…”
But her last sound was slightly different – Yeorum groaned as her body crumbled down. Yu Jitae hurriedly threw his arms forward and supported her body before she could collapse from the accumulated fatigue. She had been holding on with her willpower alone and her body was the first to react when she relaxed her mind.
“…”
Yeorum gazed at him with half-closed eyes. The two of them did not say anything in particular.
A smile was hanging on her exhausted face as she stared at him.
Yu Jitae, however, did not smile back. He simply took the strands of hair that had gotten into her mouth out with his fingers.
That was when Yeorum raised her trembling hand to grab a handful of hair to place into her mouth. She looked just like a rebel with that sneer on her face.
Therefore, Yu Jitae grabbed more strands of hair and inserted them into her nostrils for her.
“Ukk, kng, hmph…”
“Have some more, why don’t you huh? Eat more.”
“What are you doing…?”
That was the first conversation they had in a long while.
How difficult it was; how long they had to wait; what they had gone through and what pain they endured – none of that was the first words they shared. Everything was over already and Yeorum didn’t feel like listening or talking about it so the two of them stayed quiet without sharing any other conversation.
“It’s cold…”
Hearing her mumble, Yu Jitae took her jacket out of the alternate dimension and handed it over.
“Ah, right.”
Yeorum took a cigarette out of that jacket and gave it to him.
“…”
He received it and placed it in his mouth.
Using the mana of the red dragons, he tried to light it on fire but his fingers failed to create any ember… Although he pretended otherwise, he had also used up a lot of his power. Slowly, he began to bring the authorities and blessings back to his body.
“…”
That was when Yeorum lifted her finger to light her own cigarette on fire. She then tried to bring the fire over to Yu Jitae’s cigarette, but the ember did not last long since she had also used a large proportion of her power. By the time her trembling finger reached his cigarette, the fire was already long gone.
“Nn? It’s gone…”
“Wait a second. I’m bringing my blessings back.”
It was then.
Yeorum lifted her body and gradually approached him.
With little distance between them, her hazy eyes landed on Yu Jitae’s eyes before travelling down towards his cigarette.
Yeorum’s cigarette touched his cigarette. She breathed in and the ember ticking on the end of her cigarette was soon transmitted over to Yu Jitae’s cigarette.
He slowly inhaled and received the fire.
“…”
They could hear the scorching sound of dried leaves. As the smoke scattered above the tranquil ocean, Yeorum opened her mouth.
“You know,”
“Yeah.”
“For a little bit, I saw my youngest unni below.”
“Youngest unni?”
“Yeah. Like a hallucination… She told me to come with her to the utopia built for red dragons. But I rejected it.”
That was the hallucination sprinkled by the turtle sovereign to render existences powerless which aimed to break the desire sitting in people’s mind from its foundation. For example, it would show an illusion of their legs being torn apart to runners and show an illusion of crushing fingers to pianists.
“And I suddenly got curious…”
Exhaling a mouthful of smoke, Yeorum looked up into his eyes and carefully asked.
“What did… you see?”
Yu Jitae exhaled back.
He too had experienced both visual and auditory hallucinations while fighting the monsters in the darkness. He had also seen things that threatened to crush his dream.
“You guys.”
In two words, Yu Jitae summarised the illusion he saw.
Yeorum could not fully understand what he was saying so she playfully asked.
“Us? Was I there as well?”
“Yeah. You were.”
“How was she?”
“She had long hair.”
“What? I hate long hair. ‘Cuz it’s annoying.”
“It went all the way down to the waist.”
“Tch tch. They should stop acting at this point. Their script’s trash and their research is trash. Not the right way to approach acting.”
“Is that so.”
“And what did I say? Did I like, swing around a sword saying I’ll leave home?”
“No…”
He didn’t have a very pleased look on his face. It was rare for him to show such an expression so Yeorum stopped asking.
Yu Jitae asked back.
“Was it very hard?”
“Easy as.”
“It’s fine to be honest. I know bad memories last long for you guys.”
Hearing his awkward question and concern, Yeorum replied while exhaling smoke as if it was nothing.
“Should we jump in again then?”
Only then did Yu Jitae give a faint smile.
Not a single breeze was there above the tranquil sea, so their breath and smoke intertwined and lasted for long.
“I knew you’d come back…”
Yeorum closed her mouth after saying that. Even though the two of them didn’t say much after that, they felt a strange sense of consolation.
Their mere existence was a solace to one another.
***
On the way back to their original campsite with Yeorum, he entered deep contemplation for a while.
In fact, over the course of half a year, there were 3 different occasions when Yu Jitae pondered whether he should stop the training and leave with Yeorum or not.
Whenever that happened, he would momentarily return the blessings to his eyes to look at Yeorum and every time, he saw her attempting to withstand the great mental shock.
Back then, he thought while staring at her.
A little bit more.
Endure it a bit more.
Just a little bit more…
He knew how difficult and miserable the training would be and sincerely wished for the child to withstand it without falling apart. That was when a large earthquake was felt within the world of darkness followed by a bizarre message.
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] has confirmed the met requirements of emotion.>
<Filled Emotion: Greed>
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] states that the [Obelisk of Greed] located in the [Basement of Vintage Clock] has been cast with light.>
Basement of Vintage Clock.
The basement and unknown obelisks that suddenly appeared one day. There were 11 obelisks in total with 6 of them lit up, and it seemed that one of the remaining five had also been lit up.
This was a pleasant occurrence because he, who could no longer become stronger in Providence due to the long repetition of iterations, had finally taken a step towards a new growth.
Joy. Pleasure. Hatred. Anger. Concern. Affection.
And the recent Greed on top of that…
Then what were the four remaining emotions?
***
The moment Gyeoul was about to grab his hand, the clone stood up from the floor and lifted her up, before having her sit on his lap.
“…Are you, going to be like this?”
When Gyeoul turned her head back and glared daggers at him, the clone explained himself after a sigh.
“Yes. You are right.”
“…”
“I am his younger brother. A different person.”
“…Why, did you lie?”
“Sorry. I wasn’t deceiving you out of a bad intention or anything.”
“…”
The discontent look on her face lasted for only a little and Gyeoul soon curiously raised a question.
“…But… Why are you so identical?”
“Who knows. Probably because we are born of the same root.”
“…Twins?”
“Similar.”
“…”
Gyeoul appeared to be in deep thought. After a while, she asked with a cautious tone of voice.
“…Do you know him well?”
“Who. My lor… I mean, my brother?”
“…Yes.”
“I do.”
“…Are you close?”
“We are.”
“…Then, I have a question.”
“What is it.”
She threw a glance across the surroundings, before bringing her mouth closer towards the clone’s ear as the clone let her do whatever she wanted to do.
Gyeoul whispered a question, ‘…What does, ahjussi like?’ The question was so abrupt that the clone asked back in doubt.
“Why do you want to know that,”
“…Just because.”
“I don’t know. He probably likes you.”
The words that suddenly came flying in made her heart beat in a pleasant mood so she smiled with a nod.
“…But, besides that.”
“That is a tough question to answer.”
Gyeoul added another question, to which the clone replied by whispering into her ear after some thought. Hearing his answer, Gyeoul rejoiced with widened eyes.
“…I see.”
The clone had no idea why Gyeoul was so happy.
“…It’s, a secret.”
“What?”
“…You cann’t tell, ahjussi.”
“No. I must say everything to my brother.”
Gyeoul was so shocked after hearing that answer that her eyes widened into circles.
“…You cann’t, say it.”
“No. I must.”
“…You can’t.”
“I have to.”
“…No.”
Both the clone and Gyeoul glared at each other.
“Why can’t I tell him.”
“…Why, do you have to tell him?”
“Because obviously he needs to know everything.”
“…Doesn’t, make any sense.”
“Anyway, no. I will tell him.”
She had a fairly shocked look on her face. The ends of her eyes then stooped low as if she was about to cry.
Gyeoul resentfully glared at the clone before turning around with a flick. She then wept out loud.
“…”
The clone was relatively startled.
He was here to make Gyeoul happy. This was a command given by Yu Jitae and there was no hierarchy in priority between this command and the command to stop the Second Night. The two commands were equally important.
Therefore, Gyeoul crying was a great crisis.
The clone thus hurriedly closed his eyes and asked his lord. Gyeoul asked a certain question about milord but does not want to let you know about the details of the shared conversation. What was right thing to do then?
Yu Jitae rather easily gave him the reply, ‘Do as she says.’
“Alright. I won’t tell him.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. I won’t so don’t cry.”
“…”
Gyeoul turned around.
Although it sounded like she was crying, there were no tears around her eyes.
“…”
She immediately began giggling, ‘Hihi’ and only then did the clone realise that it was being played.
For the remainder of the time, Gyeoul made the clone do various things – things that she wanted the normal Yu Jitae to do but couldn’t ask him to do because she didn’t want to appear childish and troublesome for asking such trivial things. But it was easier to do it to his brother, who was a spitting image of Yu Jitae.
Therefore, the clone had to cook instant noodles five times a day, and with that unique tone of voice had to repeat the likes of ‘Here you go’ or ‘I am Gyeoul’s father’ for an hour straight.
It was such a pleasant thing to watch that Gyeoul chuckled out loud while the clone occasionally had to question his own actions.
On top of that, Gyeoul asked for a hug, and asked for his socks everyday. They fished together and took hundreds of selfies.
She also made him make stupid expressions which resulted in roughly 120 humiliating pictures of Yu Jitae in her watch, and the clone also had to listen to hours of her bad-mouthing Yeorum.
Due to everything she did, Gyeoul was fully satisfied although Yu Jitae wasn’t with her for the last 3 days. On the day before going back home, she filled a bottle with the water from the ocean.
Thus ended the week at Tranquil Sea.
***
After that, Yeorum returned to the newborn superhuman competition and the remaining month went by in a flash.
Since her mana pool had increased by approximately 8.5 times the one she had before the training, Yeorum now had even more mana than Kaeul.
Some people doubted how she had become so much stronger in the span of a few days but it was kept a secret which only Yu Jitae and Yeorum knew the answer of.
Yeorum achieved outcomes that were unthinkable for a newborn superhuman in the remainder of the competition and in the last 40 days, their team completed twice the amount of missions they had done in the previous 90 days and began gaining an explosive burst in popularity and fame worldwide.
By the end of the competition, 250 letters were sent to Unit 301, while roughly 5,000 messages were sent to Yu Jitae’s watch.
There were dozens of people everyday calling the PR team of Lair, looking for Yu Jitae, which was partly because he had yet to announce Yeorum’s affiliation.
Almost every renowned guild worldwide tried to pull Yeorum into their arms and Yu Jitae became so tired of their calls that he decided to officially register the virtual ‘Yu household’ at the Association. Only after he registered both Yeorum and Kaeul under the household did everything settle down.
At last when the competition came to an end, Yeorum’s official rank was decided by the Association.
Although numerous people and the press were estimating her to be in the top 200’s as an unprecedented newborn superhuman, the actual given rank exceeded their expectations and shocked the world.
[Yu Yeorum (KR, 18, MZZ): Rank 93]
Kaeul ended at Rank 498 but since she had no interest in her rank in the first place, she was whole-heartedly happy for Yeorum.
*
Like that, the ranking competition came to an end and in the middle of a snowy winter day.
“We’re backkkkk!”
“Ah, sex.”
The kids returned to the dormitory.