“…”
Bom widened her eyes.
“Go home, and don’t come out. Until I tell you to.”
Her expression rapidly changed. The widened eyes of shock became narrower as the opened mouth gradually came to a close.
At the same time, Clone 1’s voice resonated in his mind.
– My lord. Yu Bom has been waiting at the Association for a week after the event waiting for your arrival.
And what about it, huh?
It was when he was about to rebuke the clone.
“…Where have you been?”
“Don’t ask and just go.”
“Can you please tell me? I’ve been waiting for a while.”
“I’ll tell you later, so go.”
“…Where you had been, and what you were doing – please just tell me that.”
Bom said with a pout. She refused to listen to his intent.
He was telling her to go, so why wasn’t she going.
This was an outcome outside his prediction. Perhaps because of his extremely temperamental mood, even this felt like a type of uncertainty.
“Go.”
“I’m not going.”
“Leave.”
“I don’t want to.”
His facial muscles twitched as Bom clenched her lips. Her shoulders shrunk in nervousness.
Maybe she was scared of him like the first day they met.
Everything might go back to how it was at the start, but that was still better than her becoming a variable that ruins the 7th iteration.
“Are you not going to listen? Behave like you normally do.”
“Why…”
“Yu Bom. I’m in a very bad mood right now, and I don’t feel like messing around.”
“So, why is that…?”
“What can you do after knowing about it huh? Just leave.”
He growled and Bom closed her mouth.
“Do what I tell you to do. If you do not listen to me, I would have to make you listen by force. I’m in a disgusting mood right now so don’t be an addition to it.”
“…Why? …Why are you in a bad mood? Can you please just tell me that…?”
“It’s not something to talk to you about. You just stay still. Do not needlessly step up and go home. Go and wait for me to come back.”
“…”
“That is all you need to do. Do not make things any more tedious for me. I’m close to getting tired of you.”
Bom fiercely bit on her lower lips, as her front white teeth became wet with blood.
Shock filled her circular eyes.
So what if she had been waiting for him at the Association for a week? That failed to ring his heart in any way. It would instead be better for her to sob like how she did in the past because with a crumbled heart, Bom would go back home and stop being a nuisance.
Bom licked her lips with her tongue. She slowly wiped the blood before asking him a question.
“…Do you even find me pretty?”
It was a question trying to test his affection and absurdly enough, even in a situation like this, Bom still looked pretty.
He had no idea what meaning there was to this garbage romantic emotion at this point. This too was an element he had never wished for – it was another uncertainty.
However, this alone was something he couldn’t tell the truth for. He opened his mouth.
“.”
Bom silently looked into his eyes.
She then walked up to him and rested her head on his chest. He decided against pushing her away, because the rugged sound of her exhale was way too coarse for comfort.
“You know. Ever since the first day we met…”
Bom said with a lump in her throat.
“I thought there was no reason for me to know everything about you… Because you didn’t seem to want that… I thought living in ignorance would make us happy…”
What in the world was she blabbering about, he wondered.
“…But not anymore.”
It was an alarming set of words.
Because she was leaning on his chest, he could not see her expression. After that, she immediately turned around and hurriedly began to distance herself.
“Oi. Yu Bom.”
He tried to grab her but Bom disappeared in the middle by traversing through the dimension. He did not bother breaching the spell.
An odd emotion urged him on, telling him to chase after her to ask what she meant.
But he thought about it after suppressing his hasty emotions. Even if Bom were to hear something from someone on Earth, would that serve to cause any problems?
He went through the list by the process of elimination. Ha Saetbyul lost her memories; the clones were loyal to Yu Jitae; Chaliovan was in deep sleep and the Witch knew nothing. There was no information in the underground labyrinth; Yeorum, Kaeul and Gyeoul were completely oblivious and the most problematic Myu had her personality gone.
Therefore, Bom would not be able to discover anything.
After becoming certain, he moved his feet.
***
His feet were headed to the central building of the Association – at the unique room reaching 5 metres in both length, width and height, located at the 9th floor, the highest floor of the building.
It was a distinctive prison-shaped artifact aimed at imprisoning extraordinary criminals. This Level 4 artifact was the only place that could even confine an adult dragon despite having to meet a few conditions.
Room 27 of the central building.
However, there were agents of the Association gathered two floors beneath on the 7th floor. Each of them were whispering to each other with their uneasy gazes looking up the staircase.
When Yu Jitae appeared behind them, those that recognised him quickly saluted him.
“Respect to the Chief!”
He continued walking without saluting them back when someone voiced out their concern in surprise.
“Ah, Season…! Please wait one moment.”
He stopped his feet.
“Currently, the 8th floor is packed with the Brzenk Family, and we cannot reach the 9th floor. They are standing firmly there.”
“…And,”
“For now, they are insisting that we cannot even visit him without getting permission from the Chairman…”
“Alright. Move aside.”
“Ah, please wait one second! We are currently in contact with the command centre. This is an issue that warrants a more cautious approach…”
He closed his eyes.
What was the cause of all these problems, he wondered. Now, some random thing was going against his intent trying to create an uncertainty.
Tension was added to the trigger – his impulse was numbing his finger.
“Oi.”
“Yes sir?”
“Oscar is currently a rebel, a terrorist and a prisoner is he not.”
“Ah, yes. That is correct sir…”
“And what is my job.”
“G, giving advice on the Association’s military movement, planning operations and dealing with emergency situations…, …sir.”
“Yes. Dealing with military emergency situations is the role given to a chief advisor. And that chief advisor is here trying to meet an anti-Association terrorist. The chief advisor will be carrying out an inquisition; interrogate the problem and find the source of the issue.”
“…”
“Yet you are stopping me, and telling me that a ‘visit’ with a terrorist, requires Chaliovan’s ‘permission’. Is that correct?”
“I, I, I was…”
Barely suppressing his impulse, Yu Jitae asked.
“Who do you think you are.”
It seemed as if he would kill him depending on the response.
“Ah, uhh…”
The guy began to tremble as if his spine was caught on fire.
“I’m asking.”
“…”
“What are you.”
The agent fainted on the spot. His body fell back as the ones in the surroundings startledly supported the falling agent. It then revealed a path in front of him.
He closed his eyes, and pulled the impulse to trap it inside.
Without a word, he headed to the 8th floor.
*
The 8th floor was truly a sight to see. More than 10 superhumans blocking the staircase heading to the 9th floor and standing firmly really was an absurd sight.
Carmaella the agent was fighting them out. This black woman was the deputy minister of the Association’s administration, a Grade 5 agent and a high executive.
“How many times do I have to say it? Chairman Chaliovan is in a slumber because of his illness, and the administration has the authority to deal with postwar adjustments in the case of the Chairman’s absence!”
“Well, but that’s only during a war! Do you think I don’t know the regulations of the Association or something?”
The ones blocking them were of the ‘Brzenk Family’, an organisation of high rankers personally selected by Oscar Brzenk to be granted the name, ‘Brzenk’.
They were a transnational mercenary group of rankers.
“How can you treat this the same way as a war? No-one knows what was going inside Sir Oscar’s mind when he did this!”
“What kind of cow poo is that? He, attacked, the Association! God damn it, he attacked the Association. Is he still the same sovereign we know?”
“What do you even know about the works of a sovereign?!”
“Then why don’t you tell me if you know it so well? For what reason did he attack the Association which yearns for the peace of the world and humanity?”
“Who can dare represent the will of the sovereign! We are only requesting for some time of recovery for him so that we do not get misinformed about his will!”
“Whether he is given time for recovery or not, will be decided by the Association!”
There was a sharp edge to their conversations, enough so for them to burst out at any given moment.
It was then. The vice leader of Brzenk Family, Rank 26, the ‘Robust’ Redwood Brzenk stood in front of Carmaella. He was two heads taller than the short Carmaella, and she flinched before taking a few steps back.
The superhumans of the Association nervously stood in front of Carmaella to protect her. One of them was Myung Yongha taking a step further to confront Redwood.
“What are you trying to do.”
Myung Yongha’s words kindled a fire to the tension.
“And what do you think I’m trying to do, hmm?”
“Step back. It’s your last warning.”
Everyone stared at the two whilst holding their breath. This could mark the start of a tremendously large strife.
But none of them could step up to settle the situation or instigate it, so every second felt like an eternity.
Clomp.
The heavy sound of dress shoes echoed across the quiet corridor.
Clomp.
A few of them turned their heads from the unusually noisy footsteps.
Clomp.
Their gazes were contagious. Slowly, more and more people turned their heads towards the source of the sound, and every high executive of the Association within this place froze on the spot.
Clomp.
On the other hand, neither his face nor his data were well-known outside the Association, so the members of the Brzenk Family had confusion written on their faces as they looked at the man, wondering who this guy was that was causing so much fuss.
Clomp.
At last, after walking up to them, Yu Jitae looked around with a slow gaze. He looked at the chairs for the dozen of Brzenk Family members, their tables and protective artifacts. On top of that, they were in full armours.
“Are you carrying out a riot here?”
The man asked.
“What? What kind of…”
“You must be out of your mind. Standing in front of a terrorist’s prison, causing a fuss, stopping the admistration executives from coming in. Why not use a placard to justify your cause or something.”
“T, this treacherous fool! It looks like you have some title to your name or something, but fuck off when I’m being nice!”
Yu Jitae closed his eyes once again.
The uncertainty brought about by Oscar Brzenk was now making things tedious for him in such a form.
Some trivial random nothing, was stopping his path trying to throw in variables at his face; like how the entire world used to sabotage him in the distant past.
It was easy for things to go south. The world was organic, and butterflies flapped their wings everywhere.
One human who was locked in such a life for over thousands of times, pledged to himself after around two thousand iterations.
If the flapping wings of a butterfly was the problem,
Then might as well cut off every wing of a butterfly in sight.
Kwaang!
Yu Jitae kicked the table. The high-end wooden table flew off like a cannonball as one of the members of the Brzenk Family crashed into the wall.
“You dare!”
One of the other members stepped forward after a shout but his sight was immediately replaced with a flash. When the man came to himself, he was already flying through the air after an intense crash – it was from the chair Yu Jitae had thrown.
“You are asking for death!!”
In that instant, someone unsheathed their sword and ran in. At the same time, the Association’s superhumans also nervously dashed forward.
Yu Jitae smacked the face of the one at the front. With a thud, the man’s face dented in. His upper body was flung off like a human in a car crash and rotated in the air and his head exploded the moment it touched the ground.
The man immediately died on the spot.
“Impossible…!”
“H, he’s dead!”
One of them shouted.
“Y, you fucker!”
Controlled by fury, the humans came sprinting in. It was more so because they were recently being heavily pressured mentally due to Oscar Brzenk’s actions.
Their wings had to be cut off. A transparent aura gathered at Yu Jitae’s fingertips before soon forging into the shape of a blade.
[Shapeless Sword (SS)]
He gripped killing intent.
An unprecedented killing intent; waving mana; astonished eyes.
Desperate bodies; lips trying to scream; scattering blood.
Crushed armours; revealed necks; hiding arteries.
Piercing blade; heads struggling from pain. Lips, tongues, eyes. Lives coming to an end.
That day, Yu Jitae killed all the mercenaries of that place. The humans who had been breathing alive just a moment ago, were now on the floor as gruesome corpses.
It was an unexplainable event. Not a single scream was heard during the fight.
None of the present ones could dare try to stop him. He moved his feet as the soldiers cowered back and created a path.
However, Yu Jitae had to feel a burning emotion in his mind again after reaching the 9th floor.
Oscar Brzenk was nowhere to be seen in [Room 27]. To be exact, only the trails of his blood could be found inside the room.
The walls of Room 27 weren’t broken or anything. The back door was simply wide open.
After coming back down to the 8th floor, he said to the ones who couldn’t voice a single word due to their astonishment.
“Oscar Brzenk is gone. He is not there.”
Every one of them meeting his gaze froze stiff. Something was different about him today – they could all feel it.
“Looking at the traces, it seems to have been four days since he disappeared. Looks like none of you has checked the internal state of Room 27 during their riot. It is extremely disappointing.”
An existence transcending the threshold was talking to them. No-one could reply to the words falling from above the sky so they could only rigidly listen to his words.
“…What are you doing. I’m telling you a prisoner has escaped.”
There was only tension and still no words coming back.
Seeing that, he scowled ferociously.
He had to hold back his impulse and thus, he roared like a beast.
“GO FIND HIM–!!”