“Hello…?”
Yeorum welcomed Yu Jitae with an awkward smile on her face. She was underneath one of the bridges that were in the restricted area of Lair. There was an enormous amount of mana surging into all sides and the source of all that mana was on Yeorum’s waist.
According to the protector, it seemed that Yeorum had abruptly left the house after having a sudden quarrel with Bom and she had already hidden her presence by the time he began looking for her. It was different from her usual outing but that didn’t mean she could hide herself from him.
“What are you doing here.”
“Nn? Nothing. That was quick though. It’s only been half a day since I ran away.”
She gave it away with her own mouth. ‘Ran away’?
“Why did you run away.”
“Just puberty stuff, you know.”
Yu Jitae twitched his fingers.
“Stop talking gibberish and come here.”
“Okayy.”
It was time to return home.
As soon as Yeorum came and stood next to him, he threw his gaze towards her waist. No matter what he thought, it was strange. Why was that core so much stronger now?
In response, she slightly curved her body and hid it while stealing a glance at his face. She seemed very conscious of it so he asked her.
“What is that.”
“Little Yeowum’s bott ♥”
“Bott?”
“Butt.”
“No, not that. I mean what’s with the core on your waist.”
“What about the core?”
Why was she pretending to be clueless?
“Why’s the output so high? It feels a lot different. Did you remove more layers or something?”
“…”
Yeorum looked at him with a pout before scratching her hair.
“Can’t hide anything. Fucking hell…”
“What?”
“N, nothing. Nn. It is the same core. Did a few more gacha and they actually all went well.”
“Why are you hiding it then.”
“Why not? It’s a treasure so why wouldn’t I hide it. Anyway, what is Yu Bom doing right now?”
“Don’t change the topic. Why did you run away all of a sudden, and why did you fight with Bom.”
“Ehng? Is that what she said?”
“No. She’s just staying holed up in her room.”
“She’s not like, angry or anything right?”
“Why; did you hit her?”
She refuted.
“No I did not…! So how is Yu Bom? Is she mad?”
“She didn’t look particularly upset.”
“Really? Ah, and we didn’t fight or anything. We just drank a lot and ran a few more gachas… but they worked unexpectedly well so I wanted to sneak away with the core while keeping it a secret from Bom-unni.”
“What a nice personality.”
“Just an average red dragon, thank you very much.”
His feet came to a stop. Yu Jitae pondered for a bit, before throwing her a question.
The output he was feeling from the core was impressive even by his standards, and was not just one or two stages above the 6-unsealed core she had before. It was either 9 or even beyond that…
Of course, it was nothing useful for him. Adding a water tank filled with water into the ocean wouldn’t result in much but it was definitely significant for hatchlings and he also realised that Yeorum was trying to hide something.
Should he intervene or should he trust them?
He asked at the end of a long contemplation.
“Is that something I don’t need to know about?”
Since it was something he wasn’t supposed to know about, Yeorum gave a nod.
“Nn…”
And Yu Jitae decided to trust her.
“Alright.”
On the other hand, Yeorum was slightly curious about Bom’s state because she seemed to be fine according to Yu Jitae. It was surprising enough that she had become sober so fast after all that but it was even more mysterious that she didn’t make an uproar after waking up from the intoxication.
How would she be feeling right now? Yeorum could not even begin to comprehend her emotions.
It might be because she was drunk that things had ended with her simply fainting. Bom wasn’t in a good state before, so much so that she could have killed herself upon seeing the 10th success if she had been doing it with a sober mind.
However, it seemed that she was now meekly staying in her own room according to Yu Jitae, so Yeorum was curious about her condition throughout their way back home.
Opening the door of Unit 301 was as intimidating as opening the pandora’s box. If Yu Jitae wasn’t waiting behind her with a doubtful look in his eyes, Yeorum would have spent a few more minutes hesitating in front of the door.
After opening the door, Yeorum stared at her own room and Unit 301 that had now been cleaned, before heading towards Bom’s room.
“Onnii…”
She stealthily pushed the door open and found Bom sitting on the windowsill gazing outside. She seemed completely sober.
Bom was indifferently staring outside at the sunset and her calm composure was soon transmitted to Yeorum.
“Bom-unni.”
When Yeorum called her once again with a calmer voice this time, Bom turned around.
“Are you alright?”
“Nn.”
Bom came down from the windowsill. After making sure the door was closed behind her, Yeorum walked towards her.
She didn’t run away from home for no reason.
“You remember everything, yeah?”
“Nn.”
“What are you gonna do now. The core has finished upgrading already.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you going to give up on Yu Jitae?”
“Who knows…”
“Yeah fuck it. Is Yu Jitae the only male in the world? There are tons of dicks out there.”
“…”
“Right? Take it easy. We are not going to be spending time here forever and we have to go back anyway once it’s all done. We’re destined to part ways in the first place, right?”
“Yes.”
“Or you can do it with me when you’re bored.”
Yeorum grinned while tapping her own crotch but Bom did not smile in return. In fact, she had a blank look on her face let alone a smile, as if she was completely detached from the current situation.
The smile soon vanished from Yeorum’s face.
“Yu Bom. Give me your hand.”
“…”
“I’ll lend you this.”
Saying that, she took out something that was on her waist. The weapon resembling a revolver gleamed beneath the sunset and showed off its golden lustre.
[Dragon Slayer]
A top Level 2 revolver artifact, that had the best performance out of magic guns. Yeorum used up all her funds that she had earned by working as a superhuman to buy the revolver after leaving home.
Naturally, it had not actually killed a dragon before and it was just a name, but it was a fairly powerful name regardless.
An average Level 2 revolver wouldn’t be that much stronger than Bom’s magic but what was important was the ambient golden glow around the gun. Embedded on the gun was the onion core.
“I thought about it, but looking at you right now, you’re probably going to do it with Yu Jitae in the near future.”
“…”
“But the problem is what comes next right? If that black dragon really is that black-haired woman, and if that bitch tries to steal Yu Jitae away from you…”
Yeorum slowly gripped her hands and placed the gun above her palm.
“Shoot it.”
However, Bom shook her head in response.
“It’s fine.”
“…”
“You don’t need to give me this. Did you buy it at a Swiss armoury? Let’s take the core out and quickly refund it.”
“Oi.”
“I seriously don’t need this. More importantly, this is too dangerous.”
Yeorum felt mysteriously uncomfortable with Bom’s current voice, and her unfocused eyes were even more unpleasant.
She felt a chill going down her spine. She had been thinking that Bom was mysteriously calm but that was wrong – Bom was by no means calm.
Her eyes were the eyes of a dead person.
“Before, I had a really bad urge for a bit.”
“…What? Dude, are you sure you’re fine?”
“Nn. I did become better after seeing ahjussi’s face so I’m fine now. But, ahjussi won’t be near me all the time and if I have this in my hand, I don’t know what will happen.”
Yeorum gulped.
They really were alike.
That face.
It was the same expression that she sometimes saw on Yu Jitae’s face…
“What do you mean? It’s simple. Just shoot.”
“No. It’s more complicated than that.”
“What?”
“I don’t know who I might end up shooting.”
“Like I said, what do you mean?”
“Something like this?”
Bom said while pointing the gun at her own temple.
“Oi, you freaking…!” In a fright, Yeorum pushed her away and hurriedly snatched the gun away from her hands. Bom fell back like a stringless puppet and sat down on the bed.
“Yu Bom. I’m warning you. Don’t you dare do anything strange, unless you want to get bashed up. Do you get that?”
“Nn.”
“What are you gonna do without this though?”
“I don’t even need that. I’m a lot better at using magic than you think. I can use a decent spell as long as I prepare beforehand even without a gun like that.”
Bom appeared extremely unfamiliar. Yeorum had no idea what the reason was, but she appeared very different.
“…Are you okay in the head right now? Fuck, what in the hell is wrong with you?”
“Why are you so mad? Am I that scary?”
“Scary? You’re freaking creepy right now. Don’t you know?”
“Ah.”
Bom vacantly gazed at the stern look on Yeorum’s face before slowly lying down on the bed.
“I see.”
Rumpled pyjamas and dishevelled green hair. With a gaze that was difficult to read, she stared at the dream catcher on the ceiling as it shook from the spring breeze and let out a ringing noise.
“I’m also quite scared.”
“…What are you scared about?”
Bom slowly continued with a voice dry enough to resemble a dusty ground.
“I have no idea what I might do.”
***
After that however, Bom was mystifyingly normal.
In the morning, she would return home with Yu Jitae carrying food or sometimes cook food at home, play outside with Kaeul and accompany Gyeoul to her school as her guardian.
Yeorum, the only one that knew everything, observed her from time to time but could not find anything strange. She had an indifferent look on her face and sometimes smiled but that was all.
“Oi, Yu Kaeul.”
“Uun?”
“Does she look okay in your opinion?”
“Uum…”
Kaeul nodded.
“Uun! Whyy?”
“Doesn’t she look strange at all?”
“No?”
Even Gyeoul, who was next to them, tilted her head wondering what that was about. It was expected for the dense Goldie to be clueless but the blue kid was quite sensitive to people’s expressions and it meant that Bom’s facade was extremely natural to the point that even the kid couldn’t catch it.
What did it mean for her to look normal in a situation that was far from normal…?
‘Fucking hell.’
Yeorum was slightly frustrated since there was no-one to share the secret with.
But regardless, daily life continued as per normal.
Looking at Kaeul and Gyeoul who were sitting right at the front entrance, Yeorum suddenly felt odd. Weren’t they sitting there the whole time ever since morning?
“By the way, what are you guys doing there?”
“Un un. We are waiting for Gyeoul’s delivery.”
“Delivery? For what?”
“It’s a super suuuper important delivery. Right?”
‘…Nn nn!’ Kaeul and Gyeoul looked into each other’s eyes and shared an inside conversation that only the two of them knew about.
“What is this about, you idiots.”
“You see, Gyeoul ordered something second-hand for ahjussi…”
That was when Gyeoul brought her fingers to her lips and went, ‘Shhhh!’ as they then chuckled out loud among themselves.
“Far out…”
Second-hand?
It seemed that the fools were doing something foolish again. She was about to ignore it and walk away but that was when she started to hear the ringing footsteps of the courier outside.
Yeorum usually did not understand the world of fools nor did she feel the need to, but she had never seen Yu Gyeoul anticipating a delivery this much so she became slightly curious.
Crossing her arms, she waited with them wondering what it was.
“It’s here, it’s here…!”
“…!”
The idiots giggled, “Hihi” and stood up from the ground as they waited for the courier like puppies wagging their tails.
– Delivery~
“Yess!”
After receiving the box,
Gyeoul nervously raised a cutter knife. With an empty cough, “Khmm,” Yeorum stood behind them and curiously watched them open the box. Kaeul soon cracked the protective spell that was cast on the post as the box began to open by itself.
Revealed inside was…
“…Nn?”
“Unn?”
“Huh?”
Gyeoul, Kaeul and Yeorum all raised a question mark above their heads. Gyeoul lifted the thing that was inside the box in surprise.
It was rectangular, hard, orange and had three holes on it.
“……Nnnn!?”
It was a brick.