Episode 93: First Experience (1)
<Head of Isolation Chambers. Thimithi: The isolation target B-12 has woken up. [14:48]>
“…”
It was a weekday. Yeorum went to North Europe to spar with a European ranker; Bom and Kaeul went outside and Gyeoul was at school so there was no-one else in the dormitory.
<Head of Isolation Chambers. Thimithi: The isolation target B-12 has refused to follow the restraints. [14:51]>
<Head of Isolation Chambers. Thimithi: The isolation target B-12 started going on a rampage against the Grade 0 agents. We will now raise the security grade of the target and implement further measures to control it. [14:59]>
She seemed to have come to herself 11 minutes after waking up but because of the half-broken heart, she shouldn’t have been able to use much of her original powers.
On the cold winter afternoon, Yu Jitae changed his clothes and left Unit 301.
***
But why was she here.
“Nn? Season?”
Her white and soft one-piece dress revealed her shoulder lines. A light brown cardigan was draped over it but looked as if it could slip off anytime. And on her head was a flower pin that Yu Jitae had bought for her.
Bom was chatting with Kang Ahjin at the Association.
It was a bizarre combination.
“Haru. Did you not mention that you were meeting someone.”
“Yes, that’s right. I came to talk with Ahjin-unni…”
Ahjin-unni?
That was when Kang Ahjin, who was standing next to her, explained with a bright smile.
“Ah, the thing is Season, it’s going to be ‘that menu’ today at the cafeteria.”
“That menu?”
“Yes yes. I heard Miss Haru saying that she liked it in the past so how could I be the only one having it? That’s why I contacted her.”
“Soft and delicate!”
“Right. Soft and delicate. And spicy sweet!”
“I would have been sad if you didn’t call me.”
They laughed out loud together.
Yu Jitae found it strange.
Were they always this close? Rather, it was his first time seeing Bom smile like that in front of a person other than the dragons.
“Were you always this close?”
“Auh, of course not. At the start, she gave off a very distant feeling. Like, she’s too pretty and has something like an aura? That suggests that you shouldn’t go near her too much, right?”
Covering her mouth, she then carefully whispered, ‘You know, she looks like a noble princess right?’
“But I realised Miss Haru’s personality was nothing like that. One day she started treating me comfortably and I was able to get closer to her thanks to that.”
He gave a nod but that was when Bom followed up with another question.
“What brings you here, Season?”
“I came for some errands.”
Bom naturally walked closer and at a distance that was too close for his comfort, she gazed up into his eyes and softly asked.
“Would you, like to have a meal together?”
It was such a pretty voice but he wasn’t here for a carefree lunch.
“I would have to refuse. Because of work.”
“What kind of work is it?”
“It is related to the postwar adjustments. Please enjoy your time.”
When Season treated her with utmost respect, the ones that were working at the office realised once again how respect-worthy Bom was.
On the other hand, Bom was also nice to other female workers other than Kang Ahjin and constantly smiled at them. For Yu Jitae who had occasionally doubted her social skills, it was a good thing to see.
He remembered her saying that she was uninterested in forming relationships but it seemed that she at least had the social skills to make them.
After seeing that much, Yu Jitae walked away.
*
The moment he entered the underground isolation rooms, a young woman wearing extremely thick glasses walked up.
“Welcome, Season. It’s great weather today.”
Pattahirra Thimithi.
She was the head director of the underground isolation chambers and was the only human that could call [Oscar Brzenk] for work-related matters. This right to summon the sovereign was something even Chaliovan didn’t have, so she had a unique role in the Association.
“Seems you’re interested in outside weather even though you’re underground all day.”
“Of course.”
The characteristics of Director Thimithi was that she stayed holed up underground to reduce the odds of leaking confidential information and that she slightly lacked social skills as a result.
And,
“Because there is nothing to talk about when I meet people, I tend to watch the news very often. I heard there’s an infectious disease going around these days but have you been taking care of your body Prophet? You might be fine but if you wash your hands often and make that a habit, you can escape roughly 4,000 types of illnesses and stop the increase of harmful bacteria…”
That she was very talkative.
“Stop. You’re noisy.”
“My apologies.”
“How are things going with B-12?”
On the way down to Myu’s isolation room with Thimithi, he asked.
“She didn’t look like she was in a very good mental state. One of the Grade 0 agents was killed while the other one had his neck twisted and is barely alive.”
“Did B-12 twist it?”
“No. He did it himself. Would you like to watch the footage?”
Yu Jitae watched the recording.
After waking from a deep sleep, Myu touched her hair. She soon looked around the surroundings to confirm where she was at, and tried to break the walls and the chains using her mana. However, her mana output was insufficient and the use of mana was obstructed by her chains. She then punched the wall with her fist and shouted.
Two Grade 0 agents entered the room after that as Myu shouted at them and pointed with her fingers, commanding them to do stuff.
“Would you like the sound on?”
“Other than a request to let her leave and the request to bring the one that confined her, were there any other requests?”
“It was exactly those two. You know everything. As expected of the Prophet. As for the order, she asked for the one that confined her first and then requested to leave but from the perspective of non-verbal communication, she didn’t actually show signs of actively wanting to leave…”
Yu Jitae turned his gaze to the screen and brought his index finger to his lips. In response, Thimithi shut her mouth.
Inside the screen, the Grade 0 agents who were all criminals glared at Myu with a disrespectful posture. That was when Myu’s eyes began to glow in purple as the Grade 0 agents wrapped their arms around their heads in pain.
One of them drove his own head into the wall and killed himself, while the other grabbed his own chin and head to twist it.
“It is assumed to be a brainwashing ability.”
“Have you heard some details of that entity from Zhuge Haiyan?”
“Yes.”
Then this shouldn’t be anything surprising to Thimithi.
“How did you handle it.”
“We have released sleeping gas and have activated four types of chains but B-12 still hasn’t fainted. But we did confirm the activation of the [Chains of Ekmer] that are placed around her neck. She fainted for a few seconds at the time of its activation and has now calmed down a lot more.”
“Alright. Can I go in?”
“Ah, there are Grade 0 agents inside trying to clean the mess. Should we make them come out?”
“It’s fine. I will go in when they come out.”
“Would you like to listen to an interesting joke while you’re waiting?”
“…”
“No, my apologies. That was inappropriate.”
They were currently 17 floors underground at the [Isolation Area of Immense Risk Factors].
Yu Jitae went straight to the isolation room of B-12 and Grade 2 agents followed from behind as soon as he entered the corridor.
This long corridor had three doors. Each of them were crafted with heavy lead, black steel and coated mithril which obstructed all sorts of mana and electric signals as well as a physical escape.
While the agents were cleaning the inside of the room, the woman’s grumpy voice could be heard from the corridor.
– How many times must I say it?
– I’m telling you to bring him here. The one that locked me in this place.
– How come none of you can understand what I’m saying? I’m personally speaking in your lowly language for you.
It was a voice carrying mana that inflicted pain in the ears of the Grade 0 agents.
– ‘You will’? That’s what the other guys said. They told me to wait.
– How weak do I look to you for you to try to deceive me in such an arrogant manner?
– This won’t do. One of you can go outside and convey my words but the other has to remain here.
The agents startledly replied that they could not do so. Immediately after that, a bowl flew to his face and pushed the agent all the way back until he crashed into the wall.
Drenched in porridge and frightened, he lowered his head.
– Are you still not going to stay?
– …
– I should call someone else then. What? You guys are in charge? I don’t even have to talk to them though.
– Won’t more people come to clean up when there’s a corpse?
They were so terrified that they couldn’t continue cleaning so there was no longer any reason to wait for them to finish.
He pushed open the mithril door and walked inside as three pairs of eyes turned towards him.
“Come out.”
“Ah, yess…!”
In response to one of the Grade 2 agent’s words, the Grade 0 agents hurriedly left the room. The camera and the mic of the room soon turned off.
“Hoh, you’re finally here.”
Yu Jitae slowly walked up to Myu.
“I was looking for you. Firstly, the facility here is quite uncomfortable, you see.”
He then raised his hand.
“I just woke up and…”
Slap!
Air burst forth as her head turned to the side. The shock that was powerful enough to momentarily daze even a polymorphed adult dragon made her widen her eyes in surprise.
Her head slowly turned back towards him, and touching her reddened cheek, Myu sneered.
She silently glared at Yu Jitae and after seemingly chewing something inside her mouth, she spit it out onto the floor underneath the bed. It was a white, cracked tooth.
“What is this supposed to mean?”
Myu asked, with the condescending gaze of an adult dragon looking down on a human.
“You better know your own place.”
“My place?”
“Do you not understand your position?”
“My position? My place? Those are some strange words you are using. What is wrong with my position? Why wouldn’t I say or do whatever I want?”
“Is that supposed to be a question when you’re locked up in a place like this?”
“Yeah. I have no idea so you tell me. Why should I stay still like you are telling me to?”
“…”
Yu Jitae quietly gazed into her eyes for a bit before opening his mouth.
“You give off a very different feeling to other adult dragons. Very immature and naive. You are probably stronger than the average 5,000 year old dragon and yet your actions make you appear less than a thousand year old.”
“Are you not going to tell me anything about my position?”
“Shut your mouth.”
Myu’s purple gaze gleamed with a brutal aura. Her gaze alone gave off a tremendous sense of presence and status and it seemed as if the true body of a dragon was looking down at a feeble human.
But naturally, it failed to impact him in any way because Yu Jitae’s presence was far greater than hers.
After opening his internal alternate dimension, he pulled out a large cubical bag.
“Myu. You must cooperate with me from now on.”
She seemed to have found his words laughable and asked back with a smile.
“A cooperation huh… So why does it sound like a command to me. Is that related to my ‘position’ that you were talking about before?”
“Last warning. Shut your mouth.”
It was a black dragon that he already detested, and was one that he would love to immediately tear into pieces. A black dragon like that not knowing the situation and constantly defying him irritated his mood.
“Hohh…?”
But Myu did not step down.
“So it seems that ‘my position’ that you have arbitrarily labelled me with, is somewhere underneath your feet. Like how you’re acting as if my head’s under your feet. That’s why you can easily slap me on my cheeks and command me as such. Am I wrong?”
“…”
“How ridiculous. Although I was defeated by a human…”
In the blink of an eye, it happened.
Yu Jitae dashed forward like lightning and pushed forth his coarse hand. His hand was wrapped around her tiny neck as the entire bed sunk and crumbled down. Getting on top of Myu, Yu Jitae used both of his hands to strangle and suppress her by the neck.
“Kuhk…”
As if she couldn’t believe it, her widened yet frowning eyes glared back at Yu Jitae. Looking down into such eyes, he opened his mouth.
“Oi.”
It was a heavy and dense voice.
“I’ve told you, to shut your mouth.”
“Kuhk, ukk…”
Myu closed her eyes and couldn’t reply back. Her body resembling that of a human stopped breathing as the blood flow also came to a stop, turning her pale face into red.
Suppressing his desire to immediately twist his hand and kill it, Yu Jitae opened his mouth.
“Should I tell you your position?”
“Kukk…”
“It’s nothing much. This is your position.”
“Kaukk…”
“With one grip I can break your neck. That is your position and it’s no different from snapping a weed that I do not like. Think about it yourself. How strong would your weakened body be compared to a random weed.”
Through their touching skin, the mana of the black dragon tried to seep into his body but Yu Jitae shut it down before it could.
“I will now do a simple dissection of your body and experiment with it. You must cooperate with me.”
“Uhkk…”
“Your life and death is in my hands. If you obediently cooperate with me, there will be no meaningless strife. Depending on how things go, I may release you within 20 years and let you go.”
“Hut, kuhk…”
“But if you constantly defy me like this, I can’t let you lead a comfortable life either. I need to make things easy to control but I’m not proficient at soothing and pleasing people.”
“…”
“But I do have plenty of experience in torture. Would you like a try.”
Only after saying everything did he release his grip by a little. Due to the tight pressure, there were beads of tears in her eyes.
Her breath slowly returned and her eyes hazily opened back up. When her purple eyes looked back at his eyes, it formed a ferocious frown.
Myu pursed her lips and;
“Ptui.”
She spit at his cheeks.