“Kyahaha! Ahh I’m so happy!”
Hehehe! Me too me too!
“6 in a row on an onion core? That’s nuts!”
300 dollars in 10 minutes…!
“Ah, sorry but I don’t think I can give you 300 dollars.”
??,,
“Because I’ll be giving you 400 dollars instead! Kyahahaha!”
Aha…
“But seriously, you freaking money-addict. I saw that straight face you made just then alright? Don’t you have anything to say to me, who’s being so nice to you?”
“…I love you.” 400 dollars!
“Ahak! You crazy little kid. ‘I love you’, lol. Kyahahahaha–!”
Ehehehehe–!
Doonga doonga~. Gyeoul was carried by Yeorum and was moved left and right.
While that was happening, Gyeoul saw something behind Yeorum’s back.
Yu Jitae was looking at her. Usually she would have given a bright smile as soon as their eyes met but this time, she didn’t. Instead, her gaze headed towards Bom who was half-lying-down, and leaning on Yu Jitae’s arms.
Bom had created a gap between the fingers that were covering her eyes and was looking up at Yu Jitae’s face. With her anxiously crooked eyes, she gazed at his face for a few seconds.
When Bom suddenly began ripping out the layers of the onion core, her breathing had been very deep and coarse. That still seemed to be the case, as the tight t-shirt revealed her stomach moving up and down.
However, the pace of her breath gradually slowed down as she deeply gazed at Yu Jitae’s face. Even her crooked eyes returned to normal at a visible rate, which Gyeoul found to be quite intriguing.
Bom tended to face Yu Jitae with such eyes very often. It was similar to the gaze Myung Yongha had been facing his wife with; also similar to his wife’s gaze towards her sons at the vacation in the past.
Right as Yu Jitae was about to lower his gaze, Bom moved her fingers to cover her eyes again. Then, she lifted her body up from his embrace with a normal look on her face.
That was also when Yeorum returned to her senses.
“Oh right, so. Bom-unni.”
“Nn?”
“Are you alright?”
“Ah… Nn. Sorry for acting strange for a bit. I became a bit emotional. It’s fine now.”
“Weren’t you like, going to talk about something that happened when you were young?”
“Just something unlucky that happened with gacha.”
“Is that seriously just it? To be honest, your eyes just then were on the same insane level as the laptop incident.”
Bom smiled in response.
“It’s too embarrassing to talk about…”
At that point, it was difficult to ask any more questions.
In any case, what was important was that the 6th seal of the core had been lifted, and that it could now give off close to 3 times the output of the original core. In truth, the [Release Output Amplification Core] was only a second-grade item out of supplementary cores and there were tons of better ones out there.
However, things were different as soon as it reached 3 seals where it would give off 1.7 times its original output. Even a slight difference in output mattered tremendously for supplementary cores, meaning that onion cores had vastly superior potential.
And that was why onion cores above 5 lifted seals were usually shared to the public by broadcasting companies.
In addition, Yeorum’s quick research about the number of onion cores with 6 opened seals told her that there were only 4 of them in the entire world.
And yet that has now become 5…
So which [Release Output Amplification Core] has the most number of cracked seals and who has it?
It was none other than the Witch, Valentine, who possessed the onion core with 7 opened layers. It was well-known for being used by Valentine whenever she was using dimensional spells and even had the name, ‘Lucky Onion’.
With a gulp, Yeorum looked down at her two hands; at the core that was one level below the one possessed by that renowned ‘Witch’.
If I have this…
Reflecting on the things that had happened in the past few weeks, Yeorum clenched her teeth.
***
[(Breaking News) ‘Super fresh superhuman’ Yu Yeorum visits France.]
[Yu Yeorum defeats Rank 103 Sephrine, famous for her strong 1:1 duels as she aims for 1 digit rankers!?]
[A fierce battle with Rank 83, Laurent Clauviere. Yu Yeorum comes out victorious after a 2-hour duel. However there are criticisms that she is masking intentional defamation behind the mask of duels…]
[The next target is Rank 72, Sim Lung. A duel against the firm defence-oriented superhuman. But shockingly enough… “The experienced veteran could not defeat the passionate youngster”]
He checked the current affairs section of the international superhuman news. Since a cadet that had just graduated from Lair had become Rank 93 in an instant, everything Yeorum did was shared as a news article. And besides, her insane obsession for duels was one that was extremely eye-catching.
In the standards of normal superhumans living on Earth, it was a rather unfavourable thing to do. Ever since the New Era, superhumans had become a portion of the economy and served as a type of brand. Superhumans that indiscriminately caused fights not only ruined their own public image but were also ostracised by other superhumans in the long run due to the same reason.
If Yeorum were to win, the opponent’s brand image would fall, and if she were to lose, her brand image would deteriorate.
Because of that, Yeorum was like fire to the current era and her constant victories added oil to the flame.
[Summer, a season of humiliation]
[A red mad bulldozer on the run! Who’s Yu Yeorum’s next opponent?]
[Rankers constantly suffering a loss from a young 20-year-old superhuman… Superhumans that have become complacent after the Great War – “Remember why the red light is a warning sign,” criticises Petrovic.]
Eventually, the rankers became not only alarmed but also hostile. The rankers of France who had been the constant targets of Yeorum openly declared a reproachful comment against Yeorum.
[Rank 29, Saviour of Gallia, Simon Abkarian, condemns the young and disrespectful child.]
[Yu Yeorum replies, ‘Eat shit’. A raw message in return.]
After that, Yu Yeorum went to fight the strongest ranker of France, Simon Abkarian, and…
[Finally, a stop. Yu Yeorum loses in a duel against Simon Abkarian in just 15 seconds.]
She crumbled before the wall called Rank 29.
[The end of an immature act – the wall of a true hero was unable to be overcome]
[Yu Yeorum suffers another defeat. This time, the victor was decided in just 12 seconds.]
[Yet another defeat for Yu Yeorum. A short 9-second duel decided in one blow.]
[Endless criticisms against Petrovic on the SNS]
[Simon states, “A fearless fool that rushes in will die before angels,” as a warning to stop the indiscriminate duels]
[Yu Yeorum gets her additional duel requests ignored by Simon Abkarian… A shameful return.]
That was why Yeorum had been quite sensitive these days.
Simon Abkarian…
It had been a while since he last heard his name. He was the representative of the organisation, Superhuman Without Borders, and at the same time was one of the members of the Grand Natural Society, who had been trying to contain Yu Jitae in the past. Since he was quite annoying, Yu Jitae had pondered whether he should kill him off in the 7th iteration or not but an old and wise assistant had helped save his life.
The man had big ambitions, condescendingly looked down at the world and lowered others to raise himself up. Even in his 1 on 1 duel against Yeorum, at the end of the fight, he intentionally put his foot above her head as she was lying down. That was exposed to the media by reporters and became the number 1 embarrassing photo for Yeorum.
Yu Jitae was checking the news on his watch when Gyeoul, who was cuddling right next to him, gave a frown.
“Why,” he asked.
“…It’s, annoying.”
“What is.”
“… Like… why is she getting bashed up? …Like that…”
In truth, Yu Jitae didn’t really think much about Yeorum’s embarrassing photo because it was a fight with their pride on the line in the first place. Besides, doesn’t Yeorum do something similar herself when she comes out on top?
“You don’t like seeing Yeorum get bashed up?”
“…Yes.”
“I thought you guys weren’t on good terms.”
“… Like… It doesn’t matter, if I’m doing it… Why does she do that outside”
Was this what it was like to have a relationship of both love and hatred? Yu Jitae, who did not have an actual family before, could not really understand Gyeoul’s feelings.
In fact, fights like this that were known to the public were just the tip of an iceberg because rankers tended to have duels in secret. Articles like this being made once every 2 weeks was only because both parties had agreed to making it a public fight.
In other words, she probably would have fought someone between Rank 72 and Rank 29 in the meantime, and considering how she had lost to Simon in 15 seconds, she probably would have lost to others from that range as well.
Yu Jitae’s opinion was that Yeorum was especially strong at interpersonal 1 on 1 fights rather than group fights and fights against monsters, and he assumed her rank to be around 50.
She was still considerably weaker than her final goal, ‘Javier Karma’.
That was when Gyeoul asked with a worried look on her face.
“…Can you please, help her?”
“Well. I don’t think that would be a good idea. In the end, if I help her beat Rank 29, she would stop again at around Rank 25, and even if I do help her again, she won’t make it past Rank 20.”
“…But what if, you help her again, and again?”
“She wouldn’t like it though.”
“…But, …what if.”
Gyeoul raised an extremely sensitive question. From hereon was in fact Yu Jitae’s greed – a greedy hope that the dragons would lead a good life even after their Amusements. That ‘greed’ was actually changing his initial plan of how the 7th iteration would look.
That greed was why Yu Jitae had gone through unnecessary acts to help Kaeul stand firmly on her two feet. And that hope was also why he was supporting Yeorum from a step back so that she would not become overly dependent.
All the above was in fact something that interfered with the Regressor’s dream.
He decided to give a sincere response to that sensitive question because he did not consider her a baby anymore.
“If I did help now and if Yeorum were to overcome all these problems with my help, she would not learn how to deal with problems by herself.”
“…”
“You guys have to go back and there will be hardships when you’re back. Those problems will continue all the way until you become adults and I won’t be by your side then, will I.”
“…”
Gyeoul nodded.
But that was when something outside his expectations occurred – Gyeoul suddenly started wiping her tears with the back of her hand.
He immediately realised that he had been too specific when referring to the farewell.
Fortunately at least, he now knew how to console crying children. He reached his arms out as Gyeoul naturally reached her arms forward in return. Hugging the child, he slowly tapped her on her back.
“…Will you help, if she asks for help?”
“Who, Yeorum?”
“…Yes.”
“I don’t think I would. Firstly, she probably wouldn’t ask for my help and secondly, I still stand by what I said. She needs to learn how to solve problems with her own power.”
The Regressor considered Yeorum to now be a perfect exemplar of how a hatchling should be like. There was only one thing at this point, that he might teach Yeorum.
It was her anger management problem that she still could not properly control.
Even though Yeorum was currently using all sorts of expedients to go around the problem of being swept by her emotions, that instead further proved how she wasn’t able to control her temper even now.
Yu Jitae would provide help if that were to become a problem in the future, but he had no plans of helping her aside from that.
“…Can you please, help her?”
“Why. I told you. Don’t you understand what I’m saying?”
“…Nnnn.”
Gyeoul raised her head from his chest.
“…If unni asks for help… please help her.”
“Why.”
“…Because, she needs to learn.”
The child looked into his eyes for a bit, before burying her head back into his chest.
“I told you, it’s time for her to learn how to solve problems by herself.”
“…That’s, something she does by herself.”
“Yes.”
“…That means, she can do it after we go back.”
Her following words struck Yu Jitae in the back of his head.
“…But, if we go back… she can’t learn from ahjussi… anymore.”
When the words of the child seeped into his ears, it caused a ripple in his emotions.
Can’t learn from me after they go back?
Those words put more emphasis on himself than the act of learning.
It was strange.
He had never desired to be loved before. Never had he wanted to remain as a meaningful or special existence in the minds of the kids and that was also the fundamental reason why he had put a distance between himself and Bom.
The reason he forced these kids into one place was because he wanted them to live happily without dying. That was the only wish Yu Jitae had for the hatchlings.
Do not die. Be happy. That was it.
What they thought of him as in that process was something he wasn’t interested about.
<The Authority, [Key (EX)] gazes at you.>
Since that had always been the thought in his mind, Gyeoul’s words surged a strange emotion in his mind.
But how is that important? Everything would be in the past already anyway. You guys would live for thousands of years and the time you’ve spent with me would be less than 1% of that time, would it not?
That was what he wanted to ask.
However, he knew those questions weren’t suited for the current situation so he buried those questions in his mind. Judging from the context, Gyeoul would probably be sad if he were to return such questions.
In the end, he had no choice but to console the kid because the child’s mood was the most important in the world.
“Got it.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. If Yeorum asks for help, I will help her.”
Gyeoul finally looked a lot better as she looked at him and gave him a nod.
After sending the child off, he noticed his shirt was wet around the chest and looking at a mirror, he realised his gray shirt had turned darker around that area.
It was a lot despite her small eyes.
Perhaps because she was a blue dragon.
*
“Dear. Are you sleeping?”
That same dawn was when Yeorum came looking for Yu Jitae.