Why am I feeling uncomfortable.
What is it that’s making me feel uncomfortable.
He found a clue to the bizarre emotion that had been harassing him these past few days.
A long time ago, ever since the first time he met Yeorum, he had been vaguely assuming that ‘that day’ would some time come. And if ‘that day’ was to come, he knew he would have to utilise all his violence to rectify Yeorum.
He had never doubted the need to do so because it was a natural thing to do. Those entities called red dragons were meant to be treated that way.
That should have been the case but now that he actually needed to do it, he noticed there were a fair amount of things that were outside his initial plan.
The unpleasant mood gradually grew bigger.
That was when he found a pair of grass-coloured eyes looking straight at his face.
– Why do you look so sorry?
Her voice brushed past his ears.
There were four pairs of eyes looking at him. He needed time to censor his own expression.
Turning his eyes, the man glanced around.
What expression do I have right now?
Despite looking around, he found nothing that could serve as a replacement to a mirror so his gaze soon landed on his spoon.
He looked at the reflection of his face through the spoon and looked at the dim eyes that were looking back into his eyes through the distorted worldview. It looked indifferent and inorganic as usual. Those eyes did not feel like his own and felt like someone else’s, thus the addition to the number of gazes that were on him.
A subtle shift in emotions had a tendency to be revealed from the gaze rather than muscular movements of the face. He had already confirmed the standard of a ‘sorry look’ through Gyeoul.
Comparing his look to that standard, it looked okay. He came to the conclusion that his face was quite normal.
With that certainty in mind, he opened his mouth.
“It’s nothing incredible. Just pushing you to situations that might cause you to be emotional, and helping you withstand it.”
“Ehng? Is that it?”
“There’s nothing much to say. That is everything.”
“That was unexpected… So it’s easier than I thought. Well I guess the solution is always simple no matter how difficult the problem looks.”
“It’s not going to be that easy.”
Yeorum giggled in response.
“You’re right. Fuck, who could have guessed finding a flag underwater would be something like that…”
Shaking a piece of thick bacon with her fork, Yeorum entered deep thought.
“Anyway, I was quite surprised,” said Yu Jitae.
“Huh?”
“It seemed you were controlling your emotions better than I thought.”
“You are the one that told me to control it to win in a fight. I’m just doing what I’m told.”
“Do you do some training for it?”
“Uhh, well yeah…”
Bom, Kaeul and Gyeoul listened on from the side with blinking eyes.
The kids did not know much about the intensity of Yeorum’s training sessions. They could only guess from seeing some fragments how it would probably be very difficult.
Would those kids be able to understand Yu Jitae personally using violence for education?
Probably not. If they were to start the anger management training, it was best for the kids to not know about the content of the training.
“Let me see your training tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll go with you and have a look. I’m just curious what you do by yourself.”
“No. Don’t worry.”
Yeorum waved her hands trying to stop him.
“What is it that you’re doing,” he asked.
“Aye, it’s obvious what someone training how to control their emotions will do by themselves right. Meditating, image training, and stuff like that.”
“But you can’t meditate when using a core can you?”
“No… Anyway, it’s fine. Don’t come.”
He just wanted to create room for the two of them but Yeorum constantly tried to change the topic. And that seemed slightly suspicious.
“Do not come.”
“See you tomorrow morning.”
“Don’t come okay?”
Unfortunately for Yeorum, Yu Jitae was slightly more stubborn than her.
*
Next morning.
Yeorum tried to sneak outside without telling him but saw Yu Jitae leave the room immediately after her as if he had read her mind, and said with a frown.
“…Are you really gonna come?”
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t come?”
“What if I just don’t want to show it to you?”
“Am I not your teacher?”
“Well yeah. If you were going to teach me something, I would gladly learn but why the heck are you trying to watch me train by myself?”
“It’s all part of the necessary process.”
She had indeed succeeded in somewhat controlling her actions and emotions which had been impossible in the previous iterations. He needed to know the principle behind it.
“But like… Ah fuck.”
Yeorum scratched her head. She looked at him with a dissatisfied gaze before wearing her runners and leaving Unit 301. He followed her from behind.
Running down the road, she sprinted out of the academy district. Due to being a graduate, she could no longer use the services at Lair but as a high ranker, she could use the facilities at Hayting as a VVIP.
The place she arrived at was a personalised dimensional training room. Going into the small room and activating the dimensions opened up a white cubical room with the width of 100 metres. There were also various training equipment inside.
Doing this and that, she stretched her body and loosened her muscles before starting her personal training session. Pulsation, breathing, walking… Most of them were a continuation of what she had learned from Yu Jitae.
After a while, she gradually began throwing more glances his way and soon, she irritatedly dropped her water bottle with a deep sigh.
She walked up to one of the equipment. It was a machine that punched out but the unique characteristic of it was that it had 12 arms.
Infusing the machine with her mana, Yeorum activated it.
In that instant, the machine began throwing an array of fists and Yeorum twisted her body to dodge them as much as possible without creating a gap. However, there were just too many hands.
One strike to her stomach messed up her pace, and another strike to her knee pushed her feet back. Screech! The smooth floor shrieked after being rubbed by the bottom of her shoes.
Each of those landed strikes ruined her pace more and more and before long, her entire body became a sandbag for the fists. It instinctively made her irritated.
Clenching her chin, Yeorum held it in.
No, she wasn’t holding in…
Yu Jitae gave a frown. She was raising her teeth to bite on the inside of her mouth. The soft inside of her cheeks and her tongue were either torn or smushed.
That wasn’t enough to calm her down. Her hands began to tremble as a sharp glare appeared in her eyes. Soon, she left the punching range of the machine and shrunk her body after interlocking her fingers and going down on her knees as if in a prayer.
She seemed to be suppressing her urge to immediately rush out and crush something.
But even that wasn’t enough, it seemed. Yeorum suddenly sat up straight before punching her own thigh with her fists.
Slam! Slam!
He could see her muscles being torn from each punch and her thighs being bruised. It was quite an astonishing scene but he watched on without leaving the room.
He could finally understand how Yeorum was controlling her anger and the method she used to train herself. It was calming herself down by expressing that explosive urge in a different direction, and the conclusion she came to after pondering about that direction appeared to be ruining her own body.
“Haak, haa… haa…”
As her mood finally settled, Yeorum crouched while gasping for breath but even then could not stop raising her fingernails and scratching her arms.
That was why Yu Jitae identified the belligerence of the red race as a hereditary disease.
In other words, the red race’s aggressiveness was a type of functional disorder.
*
Unfortunately, the method Yeorum had been using by herself to train her emotions was wrong.
Not different to the one he had, but wrong – it was an incorrect way to relieve the urge.
Shifting the target of her explosive urge to her own body was by itself already a proof that she could not control the impulse. Even though the result may be different, the amount of stress she gets will be the same and it will no longer be helpful if the situation were to become more extreme.
She couldn’t kill herself because of that could she?
“You saw that?”
After recovering her body she opened her mouth with a blunt voice.
“I look retarded don’t I? But this does help me control my temper.”
“…”
“Tch. This is why I didn’t want to show it to you…”
Yeorum asked once again after cutting her words short.
“…Did I look super retarded?”
“No.”
“Fuck.”
“But let’s not do that anymore.”
“Why.”
“It doesn’t really help.”
“…”
She nodded with a slightly frustrated look on her face.
“Then what? Like you said, when I try to increase the output with the 10-unsealed core in hand, it makes me even more agitated. What should I do?”
He thought to himself for a bit.
What should she do? She had to go through the training that would allow her to control her anger management issue.
However, thinking about doing that training soon made him feel stuffy. The thing that had constantly been nagging at his heart appeared to have increased in size, and now filled his heart up to the brim.
“Yeorum.”
“Yah.”
“How about you give up on the core.”
“You crazy? No. This is my number 1 treasure.”
An onion core with 10 lifted seals.
A core with an output multiplier had 0.1 as the unit for its function and value. It was because the output was multiplied proportional to the user’s capability.
The most powerful core in this current era was the Witch’s ‘Lucky Onion’. The core with 3.5 times as its multiplier was twice more expensive than a core that amplified the user’s ability by 3.3 times.
And yet Yeorum’s core with 10 lifted seals had a shocking multiplier of 6.2 times. This was what made Yeorum overwhelm Simon, who would have required her to put in 10 years of strenuous effort to barely reach a similar level.
“Definitely not. Never! Don’t even say that as a possibility. This is a lucky item that will never appear in my life again.”
Yeorum was stubborn. She already had a thick layer of affection for it and it meant that she would have to deal with using the core.
“We can just train if there is a way to, right? Get rid of mine since you’re saying it was wrong, and, you know, can’t you just teach me the one you mentioned?”
“…”
Strangely enough, he felt repulsed by simply thinking of that method.
“You said all I have to do is withstand right? How does it work? Tell me. I’ll try my freaking best.”
“It won’t be easy.”
“Ayo, far out. You’re looking down on me again.”
“This one has a slightly different nature to it.”
“Come on. I’m the one that picked up a transparent flag and crawled up from that hellish water. I’m that cockroach of a bitch… And you know what? I haven’t fapped in three months. There is nothing impossible for me.”
He couldn’t easily open his mouth.
A disgusting, murky and sticky cluster was stuck in his throat like a lump. The nature of the emotion that was suffocating him was laid in front.
However, he tried his best to suppress it.
In any case, it was an experiment that was necessary for Yeorum. He had done it several times so he was used to it, and its effectiveness had already been proven. It would allow her to become stronger faster than any other method so there was no reason not to do it.
With that in mind, he explained the details to Yeorum as her eyes widened little by little. In the end, she even had her mouth open.
“…You serious?”
As if she couldn’t believe it, a frown appeared on her face.
“I am serious.”
“But you’ve never hit me before.”
“I haven’t.”
“…And yet you’re saying that’s the only training method? Binding me when I lose control over my body, hitting me to instil powerlessness and reducing the aggressiveness that way?”
There had been numerous experiments and that was the most perfected one. Even though it couldn’t be called the best, it was still the most optimal method.
However, he couldn’t say that to her.
There was a frown on her face.
Are you scared?
If you’re scared, tell me you won’t do it.
Because then, I won’t.
That was what Yu Jitae was hoping for before he even realised it.
“But like, fuck…”
Yeorum appeared confused.
“From what it sounds like, it’s not even like a punishment is it?”
“No. It’s not.”
“So you mean you’ll just bash me up like there’s no tomorrow. Beating all the dust out. Like, smacking my head, my stomach and like… Yeah? Is that what the training is?”
“…”
“My word. For farrk’s sake… Even though I am good at withstanding pain…”
Throwing her hand into her pocket, she took out a cigarette and placed it in her mouth. She lit it up and breathed out a mouthful of smoke, trying to bring her disordered mind back under control.
Before long, she opened her mouth.
“…You know, dear. I’m just a little curious but…”
Yeorum asked after slight hesitation.
“Can you even hit me?”