“Oi.”
In response to Yu Jitae’s voice, the purple pair of eyes turned towards him.
“About your vacation, how about you go a week after.”
“Why is that?”
“Your body is currently in a relatively bad state. This experiment was long and strenuous. It must have been quite a burden on your body and your dragon heart hasn’t fully recovered yet, meaning you practically can’t use any mana.”
“Are you saying I might get injured if I leave on a vacation now?”
“That probably won’t happen, but your body is no different from a human body right now. There is a small possibility of a problem.”
Myu raised her middle finger in response.
“I will be going out.”
He was feeling bitter on the inner side of his tongue when Myu suddenly began to laugh.
“What’s so funny.”
“My Nemesis, you were the very one that personally used those hands of yours to shred my heart with a knife and yet you are pretending to be worried now? Do you have the right to be worried?”
“…”
“Your detestable words were so disgusting they made me laugh.”
Yu Jitae turned and observed the room. Unfortunately, there was no hammer or anything like that.
“Leave this room now. There are plenty of things I must prepare.”
“Prepare for what.”
“It has been several months since I’ve been locked in this place and this will be my first time going outside for an extended period of time. The mere thought excites me.”
Finishing her words, Myu turned around and gave several commands to the Grade 0 agents that were waiting silently in a corner of the isolation chamber. Seeing Yu Jitae who was still waiting in the room, she scoffed at him and said, “Are you not leaving? But then again, there is no way you would understand how it feels to be locked up.”
He knew far too well how it felt.
After having the Grade 0 agents leave the room, Myu looked back at Yu Jitae with her hands carrying a dress. It was the one-piece dress she had bought in her second outing, which she found interesting, because she had not seen similar clothing in other dimensions.
Yu Jitae was still inside the room when Myu suddenly began to lower the gown. She stopped for a little before asking,
“Are you planning to watch?”
Her clothes started to drop again so Yu Jitae turned around and walked out of the room.
*
He didn’t tell the kids about the 4-day holiday because Bom didn’t seem to be in a good shape. Yu Jitae knew she was in an unstable state right now.
To be exact, he noticed something was off by observing Yeorum – Yeorum tended to look at Bom with anxious eyes from time to time. It must be related to the onion core, meaning that Bom was probably worried about him leaving.
How would she react if he were to spend 4 days outside with a female (which Bom would be concerned about) dragon? She would probably be put in a very bad mood.
‘There is one problem however, my lord.’
What is it.
‘Gyeoul seems to be able to distinguish us two.’
Oh no.
Right – when he was at the Tranquil Sea with Yeorum, Gyeoul was able to tell that Clone 1 was a fake. Bom was considerably more quick-witted than other dragons so something Gyeoul noticed would not be able to escape her eyes.
Yu Jitae had to make Clone 1 more like Yu Jitae.
That was why he modified the clone a few days ago.
[Shadow of an Archduke (SS) – Second Form]
[Complete Imitation]
By killing more of the personality that each of the clones had, it would make them act and think more like Yu Jitae. The downside would be that the transmission of memories and a voice communication would be impossible with the complete imitation form on, but Earth was a world with a generalised real time electronic communication method.
Yu Jitae notified the clone with his watch.
“I’m going.”
– Yes sir.
“Call me anytime when there’s a problem.”
– Understood.
***
“What I would like to do now is observe humans.”
Like how she had been curious about the history of scientific development, Myu again showed interest in something that was similarly strange at a glance.
“I have been alone for a very long time and am curious to see how the relationships of humans living on Earth function. Let me see them in action.”
It was a difficult request. Trying to see the relationships of humans out of curiosity? It made him wonder if Earth was but a large zoo in the eyes of dragons.
To observe humans, it had to be an urban area and tourist attractions were the places with the most number of people. Therefore, Yu Jitae took her and headed to Paris, France – the centre of Europe’s tourism.
Yu Jitae dropped her there.
“I’ll warn you ahead of time. If you cause a fuss, bewitch people, kill, or do anything of that sort, your holiday will immediately come to an end regardless of the remaining time. I will take you back to the isolation chamber and lock you up again.”
“Regardless of the remaining time?”
“Yeah.”
“Does that mean it is fine to kill people 1 minute before going back?”
Yu Jitae frowned after hearing her words. She then slowly poked her tongue out and showed off her red tongue in a seemingly teasing manner.
“My amusement is none of your business.”
Then, she began to calmly walk down the street and even though he was discontent, he nonetheless followed from behind with a step in between them.
Myu’s tour was similar to everyone else’s tour, but unlike other tourists, the target of her observation were humans.
Her eyes were on the tourists even when walking between the tall and antique buildings,
She watched the artists and spectators in streets filled with beautiful artworks,
And even when buying an ice cream at a street stall, Myu gazed deeply at the stall keeper.
As they blankly looked into each other’s eyes, the white man working at the stall suddenly started absent-mindedly staring at her face after handing the ice-cream. He seemed bewitched.
Slam!
Something suddenly struck Myu on the back of her head and she almost dropped the entire ice cream.
Myu, who had been smacked on the back of her head, slowly raised her head and turned towards him.
“…What are you doing?”
“That is my question. What are you doing.”
“What did I do?”
“I told you to not bewitch humans.”
“I have not done such a thing.”
“Then why was the man looking at you like that.”
“Because I’m a dragon.”
Yu Jitae hurriedly cut off the sound as Myu blabbered without any restraint.
“Male dragons are handsome while females are beautiful and that is why merely looking at our faces is a bewitching experience. That is what polymorph is intended to be like.”
“Are you saying the stall keeper was staring at you because you were pretty?”
“Yes.”
A dragon’s authority and their ability to convey memories was extremely secretive and difficult to sense.
However, he could sense the truth behind her words so Yu Jitae opened his mouth with a sigh.
“Let me apologise.”
“No. I do not need apologies.”
“What?”
Myu suddenly walked up to him. He stayed still trying to see what she was trying to do as Myu began to rub the soft serve ice cream onto his shirt. It dyed his black coat into white.
“Because I will not apologise either.”
Without stopping there, Myu threw the ice cream cone up towards his chin so he tilted his head to avoid it. In that instant, he looked around. A hammer, a brick, fire extinguisher, steel chair – whatever it is, he needed some tool that wouldn’t kill her.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t find such a tool so he had to suppress that urge and endure it.
However, he could still move his foot to trip Myu as she was about to walk past him.
Startled, Myu thrashed her arms around while falling down. Her head was the first to hit the ground and it resulted in a louder and heavier thud than he had expected.
He had overlooked how her body was pretty much broken and couldn’t use mana. The issue was that she did not know how to react when falling down because dragons in general would never fall down in their lives.
“…”
For a long time, Myu stayed lying down with her face buried on the ground. She slowly raised her body and shook her head left and right to drop the dust.
She looked back at him with blood flowing from both of her nostrils.
“… This will warrant an apology.”
There was imminent killing intent gleaming in her eyes. Something was bound to happen considering the temperament of the black race.
Even though a being at her level creating a problem wasn’t anything to be bothered about, he still apologised following the boundary of daily lives.
“I do apologise.”
Only then did Myu point at the fountain nearby with a slightly more composed expression.
“Go drive your nose into the lake and kill yourself.”
Her nose did not recover by itself since she still couldn’t operate her mana.
Yu Jitae made her sit next to the fountain and took out the guardian’s first-aid set from his dimensional storage before handing it over to Myu.
However, Myu merely blinked her purple eyes with the ointment and bandage in her hands.
She did not know how to use an ointment nor a bandage.
“Do you not even know how to use this?”
“Because I’ve never needed them.”
“At least you should know how to use an ointment.”
“How do you open it; do I rip it apart?”
Myu grabbed the ointment with both of her hands and began to twist it but there was no mana to support her strength. She naturally had insufficient power to break the case of the ointment that was made with metal.
“Oi. Are you really stupid or something? Do you not see the lid on top?”
“I do. But it does not open.”
This time, she tried to pull the cap open.
“Why are you pulling that.”
“Then what?”
“Twist to open it. You fool.”
When he irritatedly heaved a sigh, Myu stopped her hands. She looked at him with a stern look on her face and with eyes dripping with hatred.
Soon, she lifted the ointment into the air and threw it into the water.
Splash!
“What are you doing.”
“Whose fault is this to begin with?”
“Pick it up. Before I get mad.”
“Will you harass me again if you get mad? Try it. Try it. Why do I have to be called a fool because of someone and this damn lid, ub ubb.”
She could not continue her words anymore.
Myu seemed extremely upset. Due to her rising blood pressure, her nosebleed intensified and flowed into her mouth.
She began spitting the blood onto the bright beige-coloured road, causing the passersby to glance at them.
There was no other option.
Left with no other choice, he picked up the ointment from the lake, twisted the cap open and put a heap of cream onto a cotton swab and brought it closer to her face.
“Stay still.”
“What are you trying to do.”
Myu slightly pulled herself back.
“You need to put this ointment on to heal yourself.”
“Will that really close the wound?”
“Yes. So just stay still.”
“Wait, it has a very different smell to the one I know.”
Myu, who had been calm even when there was a knife cutting her chest, twisted her head and avoided the white ointment that had a peculiar scent to it. She appeared to be repulsed by the unknown substance.
“…”
He felt irritated once again. It would be so much easier if he grabbed her by the hair and applied the ointment but that would cause her blood pressure to rise again and make her nostrils into broken faucets.
Yu Jitae pondered for a bit. How do you make people do things they do not like? After ruminating on the topic, he soon remembered what happened with Yeorum in the past.
He lifted his killing intent to shape it into a dagger and slashed at his own hand. It slashed the skin open as blood oozed out.
Myu’s gaze appeared to be questioning what he was doing as he applied the ointment onto his hand. The wound quickly began to close.
“…”
Seeing that, she finally turned quiet.
Moving his extremely reluctant hand, he applied the ointment on the bridge of her nose which had a large scratch and covered it with a bandage. Myu had her eyes closed tightly and appeared to be holding in her displeasure. He was the same – he wasn’t doing this because he wanted to.
But after all that, as he was about to retrieve the first-aid kit, Myu reached out.
“That thing, give it to me.”
“What?”
“Give me that thing with the strange smell.”
Yu Jitae gave her the ointment.
Twist twist…
No matter how much she twisted it, the cap did not open.
“Why is this not opening?”
“You have to press it.”
“The cap? Why do I have to press on the cap?”
“So that kids don’t open it.”
“Why?”
“It’s flammable, dangerous and expensive.”
“What a mysterious design.”
At that moment, Yu Jitae felt strange.
Why was he kindly explaining all these things?
It seemed to be a habit he earned due to answering the questions of Kaeul and Gyeoul all the time.
In any case, this time Myu pressed on the cap while twisting it at the same time and something remarkable happened – the lid which had remained firm regardless of everything she had done opened all too easily.
Her purple eyes widened a little.
He was about to take it back from her but that was when she suddenly stood up.
“Follow me.”
“…”
“But not too closely.”
Myu faced Yu Jitae with the same disgusted gaze but she seemed to have taken a liking to the ointment. Her one-piece dress did not have any pockets and she couldn’t use mana to open the dimensional storage, so Myu walked with her hand tightly holding onto the ointment;
All the way until they found a place to sleep in at night.