“All the hard part is over right?”
“Yeah.”
“For real? You mean it right? Like, like it was really freaking hard. You know that?”
“I do.”
“No you don’t. I really wanted to smack your face as hard as I can in the middle, you know?”
“Why didn’t you.”
“Can I punch you now then?”
“Yeah.”
“Actually, can I save it?”
“Save?”
“I’ll hit you later when I don’t like what you’re doing.”
“Do whatever you want.”
On the way back to Unit 301 with the child,
Unlike Yeorum who was hopping around the whole time, his feet were heavy.
At the start he needed a place to bind the baby dragons in after gathering them and the house just happened to be the one he decided on. It was like a substitute for the underground labyrinth.
But before he even realised it, Unit 301 became a peaceful resting place. He felt peace seeing Gyeoul dashing up to him when he returned exhausted from the battle against Noah. When he fell into a sense of crisis by himself for holding romantic feelings for Bom, the children consoled him and pacified his heart.
There were always greens in the flowerbed and the house had Kaeul’s plushies here and there. Rubbish left behind by Yeorum, glanced at by the protector who recently became lazy and who thus turned away from it, and Gyeoul who scolds them for not removing it in time going into her room made by modifying the storeroom and enjoying her time gazing blankly at the fishtank.
Peace.
But today was different. Yu Jitae felt uncomfortable heading to Unit 301.
The kids would welcome him.
Bom was quite daring now and would try to link arms with him. Like what she did last time, she might caress his belly again when the kids are preoccupied by something else.
Yeorum would go through her watch with sparkling eyes and talk about the next training or the next sparring opponent.
Kaeul would chuckle with a banana on her head, saying it’s for when she gets hungry. And when it’s time to eat the banana, she would halve it and give him a piece.
Gyeoul would follow behind him with her own feet nagging him for a hug. Going into his arms, she would slowly talk about the events of the day.
When it’s time for a meal together, the kids will endlessly speak to his quiet self and share conversations about interesting topics.
They will seek to spend fun times together.
Without a second doubt, they will each share their concerns with him.
One would whisper words of love,
While another would see him as a father.
…Not knowing what kind of person he was.
***
His mind was in a rush.
The sweetness given from peace started to encroach like poison.
He decided to distance himself from Unit 301 for the time being and fortunately, he had a lot of things to do around then.
“I am Valentine, the Witch.”
A large woman walked forth and gazed down at Yu Jitae. Her enormous body reaching 2 metres in height and her overwhelming capacity of mana resonated across the area.
“Grade 5 agent, Season.”
“Are you that owner who that boy follows without a question?”
Firstly, the Witch fully returned to the Association. While everyone at the Association were looking at the last generation’s guardian deity of the Association in shock, Yu Jitae led her to the guest room and had a conversation.
“So, did you say there will be a large war?”
“What is the rush for? Have some tea first.”
“I hope you understand. When you get this old, you start to feel exhausted from the human way of having meaningless banter before the main topic.”
“…”
“So what is it that I have to do?”
“At least hundreds and thousands of fissures will break out all around internationally. They will cover the entire globe. I need your power to twist the dimensions and contort the coordinates of the fissures.”
“Are you planning to bind the fissures into one place to cast a net over them?”
“Similar.”
As the Prophet, as a transcendent and as a Grade 5 agent, Yu Jitae shared everything he knew with her. The Witch knew the Association just as much as Yu Jitae knew it, so she immediately had a clear idea of her role and her position after a detailed explanation.
“By the way, I heard there was this girl who foresaw this amazing future…”
Thus, Yu Jitae introduced Bom to the Witch the next day.
“It is an honour to see the great mage.”
“Are you the one who can see the future?”
“Yes.”
The Witch was relatively surprised after seeing Bom. To be exact, she appeared astonished after sensing the attributes of Bom’s mana. After scrutinising the mana for a long time, the Witch let out a remark with a smile.
“…Seriously, what a shock after all these years.”
*
There were plenty of other reasons why he wouldn’t go back to Unit 301. One of them was the experiment on Myu’s heart after she had fully recovered herself. Yu Jitae once again began cutting into Myu’s naked chest using various tools without even tranquilising the muscles.
Out of his authorities, Yu Jitae had one called [Conceptualisation (SS)] which he had earned from a black dragon.
It was the power to replace an incomprehensible concept into something familiar and understandable. Using that, Yu Jitae substituted all the flow of mana flowing inside her chest into a visible element like a wire.
[Conceptualisation]
Soon, approximately 2.8 million wires appeared in his mind. They were entangled in complex shapes and looked like the wires of a large mechanical device.
Out of those, 2.45 million wires had already been analysed.
He continued testing out various things with the remaining 350 thousand.
It was when he was immersed in touching all the different sorts of structures and mana that a clear voice reached his ears.
“My Nemesis. There seems to be something odd today.”
He raised his face. The purple pair of eyes looked down at Yu Jitae within that close distance with a faint frown.
“What.”
“Aren’t you, in more of a rush than usual?”
“Rush?”
“Yes. In a rush.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“What is difficult about my words? You are in a rush.”
“Do you mean it hurts? If you’re trying to exaggerate the pain, I will put the anaesthesia…”
“No no.”
Myu reached her hand out and grabbed onto his wrist. He flicked it off but this time she pulled his hair with both of her hands. “Just listen to me.” Her irritated voice made him pause.
“This isn’t my first time getting sliced apart by you, but you are slightly in a rush. Usually you would slowly pull them out one by one but now you are pulling the whole thing out for no reason; neglecting the vessels that you used to glue back and… most importantly, it hurts more than usual.”
“…”
“Think about it. Do you still not understand?”
Yu Jitae looked back at his actions a little. Was he in a rush? Looking back, it seemed that he was.
Like what Myu was saying, the small things that he had done in consideration in the usual experiments had been glossed over just then. However, he had no idea he was in a rush until he heard it.
“So I ask you to be more considerate of me.”
‘…Like always.’ Myu added those words of request as Yu Jitae woke up from the sense of being buried in reality. Doing all the things that had to be done like a machine had unknowingly pushed his consciousness into the distance.
The reason why he was buried in his goals was obvious. While intentionally getting rid of those thoughts from his mind, Yu Jitae replied.
“Alright.”
*
It was only the two of them at the vacation after the experiment. He let Myu play around by herself for two days and nothing particular happened this time.
But on the way back, she asked Yu Jitae to buy a gift for the large dog, ‘Season’, which was being raised in the isolation chamber, and Yu Jitae suggested a chest leash for the dog since it always had a leash around its neck. It was a thing called a harness that was wrapped around the chest and the arms.
“Why does it need something like this?”
“A neck leash is going to be stuffy. Using that will make it feel more free.”
“But Season is a beast. So what if it feels a little stuffy or not. Why do I have to care about that?”
“…”
Despite those words, Myu looked quite content as she raised the chest leash and observed every corner of it when he actually bought it for her.
“Hmm. But it does not change the fact that it is still stuffy.”
“……What are you doing?”
“What?”
“Why are you putting that on yourself.”
After restricting her own self, Myu blinked her eyes.
“Did you not say using this will make someone more free?”
“Sometimes you are so stupid beyond comprehension.”
“..Stupid?”
Myu frowned.
“As a common sense, would using that make you more free? I meant it would be better than a neck leash for a dog.”
“Then you should have said that from the start, you damned human. I thought there was some scientific thing happening inside.”
He had to stop Myu who irritatedly tried to rip the harness into pieces.
That was how the vacation went.
*
[I’ll see you soon. There is something I have to say.]
He also got a message from the Rank 1, Sovereign Oscar Brzenk. It seemed he had found a trace of the disappeared Vintage Clock.
Like that, time outside Unit 301 flew by.
***
It was on a peaceful morning.
Yeorum had left for morning training while Gyeoul had gone to school. Even the protector was outside for its new hobby, hiking, so it was only Bom inside the living room.
With the passing of spring, it was about time for summer. Bom went to the door of the veranda and opened it wide for the sunlight to enter. The clouds were high up in the sky and the refreshing breeze made for good weather.
Today was a day to let the insectivorous plant have some sunlight. The plant with sharp teeth like a piranha that shook its head left and right with an open mouth to eat mosquitoes was a plant from Askalifa.
Its name was [Sariepta].
But Gyeoul called it, ‘Nom Nom’.
Bom placed the flowerpot of Nom Nom on the tabletop. In a good mood she was writing a few things down in her diary when her watch rang.
“Sorry? Delivery?
“Yes yes.
“Oh my… One second please.”
After the call, Bom hurriedly took a long-sleeved jacket before leaving the house. She was in a very big rush unlike her usual self and had a bright look on her face.
Kung–. The door closed behind her.
That was when Kaeul walked out of her room. She had skipped breakfast today and had taken a long sleep all the way till 10 o’clock in the morning.
In her pyjamas, Kaeul did a long stretch before glancing around. On the living room table, she could see the diary that Bom always carried around with her.
“Unn?”
That diary.
It was the one Bom-unni used all the time. She asked about it in the past but Bom-unni simply called it a diary and that was it.
“…”
Actually, Bom’s diary was one of the biggest mysteries of Unit 301. She always writes on it and always carries it around as if extremely precious. Recently when Yeorum-unni asked if she wanted to sneak a peek at it together, Kaeul didn’t join because she was scared of the trouble she would be in if Bom was to find out about it.
“…”
In that instant, Kaeul carefully glanced around the house.
No-one was inside.
“…”
She wasn’t that curious actually.
It’s obvious what would be inside a diary right?
“…”
She was really really not curious in the slightest.
It would probably be some story about the flowers she raised right? There should be nothing important inside so why would she be curious?
“…”
Kaeul once again glanced around.
No one was inside.
Aye, there’s probably nothing important inside so…
‘…It shouldn’t hurt to look at it once right~?’
Kaeul sent her senses out so that she would immediately be able to tell if Bom-unni was to come nearby. She then sneaked her way towards the table.
In nervousness, she carefully flipped the diary that was laid upside-down and looked at the front page. The front page was covered with signs of something being written and erased multiple times. Remaining there was a single heart.
[♥]
What?
A heart…?
Oh wow.
Wow wow wow.
Is this perhaps…? That’s insane…!
She vaguely knew about Yu Jitae and Bom’s relationship and observed them like how she would for the protagonists of a romance manga, because the gaze that was sometimes shared by a male lead and a female lead made her heart thump. That was the only thing she thought of as she looked at the two of them.
Then, maybe this notebook was filled with their thoughts?
Kaeul felt her face turning red.
What exactly was Bom-unni thinking? In front of her was like the plot book of her favourite romance novel that would explain exactly that!
Feeling extremely nervous, Kaeul carefully opened the diary with trembling hands,
But that was when Yu Jitae walked out of his room.
As she was going ‘Uhh uhh?’ in surprise, Kaeul accidentally tapped the glass of water that was next to the notebook.
“Aht!”
She grabbed the glass before it fell thanks to her reflex skills but half of it had already been poured out.
“M, mommy…!”
Kaeul froze stiff.
The ink must have been water-based. The moment it touched the water, the heart at the cover page started to wrinkle.
The cover of the book was made of a thin material. Fortunately, it was being protected by a [Humidity Protection] spell but the issue was that there had been too much water. Some of the water had managed to seep into the diary before the defensive spell activated.
In shock, Kaeul didn’t know whether she should open or close the diary and her mind froze with a tissue in her hand. She then turned towards Yu Jitae and found his hazy eyes looking back at her.
“What are you doing.”
“Uh uhh, s, sorry…! I was trying to sneak a peek at Bom-unni’s diary and…!”
“Why did you do that.”
“Auuuaan, t, the thing is… I, I wasn’t curious at all okay? I wasn’t but…!”
“No. Don’t worry about the reason. What are you going to do with that. The ink must have been smudged from the water right.”
“Uhh, uum. Uuh. If, if I wipe it clean…”
In the meantime, a small fly came from nowhere and passed by the table and in a flash, the insectivorous plant, Nom Nom immediately shook its head and went ‘Nom!’ as it swallowed the fly in one go.
Kaeul saw it, and so did Yu Jitae.
Blankly gazing at that made Kaeul feel a solace of hope coming down her way.
T, that should do…!
“…?”
It was then.
She sensed Bom’s aura from nearby.
Bom seemed to have used teleport to blink through the distance and Yu Jitae appeared to have sensed it as well, judging from how he suddenly looked at the front entrance.
In that pressing situation, Kaeul spoke to Yu Jitae.
“N, Nom Nom spilled the waterrr…!”
“What? What do you…”
Kaeul suddenly grabbed him by the collar. With a tremendous vigour and a sharp glare, she looked straight into his eyes.
“Righttt?!”
She looked like she would cry if he said no.
“Yea, yeah. You’re right,” he said and it brightened her face a little.
No it didn’t.
Soon when the door opened with a ‘di-ring’, her face returned to its former darkness.
Bom walked into Unit 301.