He hated dragons.
If a dragon earned a precious baby after working desperately for 3,000 years, he would slash that baby to pieces in front of the very eyes of the adult dragon if he had the chance.
That was how much Yu Jitae hated dragons.
In the 6th iteration, when the blue hatchling stopped its own heart by itself; hearing the green hatchling screaming gibberish in tears inside the crumbling world,
Yu Jitae thought to himself that life truly was very unpredictable.
The first experience was intense for everyone but it was more so for the unforgetting dragons. They would remember the feelings and emotions of their first experiences all the way until their death.
That was why dragons left for Amusements to experience joyous first experiences, and fulfilling those objectives would distance them from death, because no matter how misfortunate their life may be, they could think back to their first experiences and ruminate on their happiness.
However, Earth was not a suitable environment for baby dragons. Humans were more greedy here than in any other world; there were abnormal mental patients called demons; a communication medium for unspecified people to convey words of hatred from a long distance called the Internet was widely used, and the intentions of adult dragons that should be protecting the baby dragons were too far to reach.
So what else could he do, other than stepping up to take the baby dragons, and making them happy himself?
It truly was peculiar.
It really was way beyond what he could predict…
But with his emotions at the end of the 6th iteration, he just could not live with the baby dragons with a smile so Yu Jitae wanted to tie up a portion of his memories.
Only then did the Vintage Clock step up to help Yu Jitae. It said it will tie up his hatred against the baby dragons, which was delightful news in his ears.
After tying a knot to his memories, he headed to Firenze, Italy.
On the road filled with buildings that seemed to be from the renaissance period – in that place where musicians performed beautiful music on the streets, Yu Jitae faced a girl.
Deceiving one person was hard,
Deceiving a crowd was even harder,
And deceiving oneself was impossible.
However, he had to deceive himself from then on.
– Hi.
And his attempt might have been a success.
“I love you.”
Perhaps, to an excessive extent.
“I love you…”
The blurry reality felt a little closer. The fast pulses of his heart settled down onto his ribs and the impulsive outburst of emotions had all vanished.
But the words that had already been poured out were unable to be picked back up, and Bom was sobbing in front of him.
“I love you……”
Even though he hated the baby dragons, it was still true that he had already become fond of the kids of Unit 301. This undeniable emotion and the bond between them had become a stake piercing into a corner of his heart.
And just like Yeorum’s blind trust in him and Kaeul’s empathy with liars, every action that was for him and treasured him were all pushing him into agony.
“I love you… oppa…”
In that sense,
Bom’s love was no different from poison.
***
Bom was trying to become his accomplice in crime.
Following her suggestion might be the most reliable way to resolve this situation. That was if he went with her words and made her his accomplice…
However, that was only if her words were true.
He just could not comprehend why, so Bom’s ‘love’ was a considerable shock for him. But looking back, Bom was a child who shook him the most, and it was as if she clearly knew which words would allow her to control his emotions the best.
Similar to the boy who cried the wolf, he could not trust Bom anymore.
He had to test her.
“Bom.”
“Yes.”
“You want to be with me?”
“Yes.”
“But I wonder why your words sound like a lie to me.”
She did not reply back.
According to her, Bom loved him even more than her own life. So his words should be absolute for Bom.
If her words were true, she should be able to withstand anything no matter what he did with her.
Thinking that, he raised his hand again and slapped her by the cheek.
Slapp–!
Her head turned to the side in a flash as if her neck snapped, but she could not move away due to his body pressing down on her.
Slappp–!
Again, he slapped her cheek. “Ugh,” she let out a faint groan but did not retaliate. This clever child might have realised already that she was standing on the testing platform.
Slapppp–!
Even though he slapped her again, Bom stayed still. Like a stringless puppet, she didn’t even straighten her neck and remained still after being slapped.
“Look at me.”
He commanded and Bom finally turned towards him.
Her cheeks returned to being red. Her lips were torn again despite just being healed and blood was falling from around her eyes.
She had a sorrowful frown seemingly from pain.
But even then, he couldn’t trust Bom. She was too suspicious to be kept as an accomplice so he asked after she stopped her tears.
“You tempted the Witch, didn’t you.”
“Yes.”
“What did you give in return?”
“My life. 500 years.”
“That is a lot. Why did you do that.”
“To know you better…”
“Is knowing me more valuable than 500 years of your life?”
“Yes.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t need a long life…”
“Why.”
“…Because it will be a life without you.”
He closed his eyes.
Each and every word of Bom was dragging him further down, wrapping him with distorted tentacles and fifty thousand suckers.
“What if you had to live by yourself without me?”
Bom shook her head without a word.
“What if I tell you to live like that.”
“Then I will.”
“Why.”
“Because that is what you said.”
Bom’s ‘love’ was something he couldn’t possibly dare try to comprehend.
“…You truly are crazy.”
Uncanny, uncannily sublime and twisted as sublime as it was. Delving deeper in, the extreme and critical distortion was trying to dig up his emotions.
“I think so too…”
Unpredictable.
A human heart truly was unpredictable…
If her words weren’t false, he would be forced to live the present while embracing the sin that managed to reach the present, which could thus no longer be disregarded as a past sin. Even though he was already standing on top of countless guilt, he was nonetheless afraid of the upcoming dark clouds.
That was why, Bom’s words and her feelings had to be false.
Looking over his memories, it seemed that Bom could deceive [Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)]. For some unfathomable reason, she was able to perfectly deceive even herself.
He thus couldn’t use Eyes of Equilibrium. He needed to use a more realistic method.
Going through his memories of the past and skimming through the four hundred experiments he had conducted with her body, he recalled the thing that agonised her the most.
– Please kill me…
– Please, just kill me…
He had no idea why but there was something that frightened her more than the destruction of her heart.
Yu Jitae opened his dimensional storage to take out a dagger. Although it wasn’t an impressive dagger, it could crush a dragon’s bone let alone reinforced steel as long as he was the one swinging it.
Taking that to her mouth, he aimed it at her teeth.
“Do not turn away.”
“Ah, ah…”
In that instant, fear surged into Bom’s eyes.
“I will now crush your teeth with this knife.”
“…”
“You are especially more afraid of this, is that correct?”
Bom slowly gave a nod.
“Why are you scared of this?”
“…”
“Answer me.”
“M, my mother…”
Her breath turned rapid as concern and agitation intensified on her expression.
“What about your mother.”
“…That’s… h, how she died.”
She gulped with a hurried breath.
Her father left,
Her sister died,
And her mother was also dead on top of that.
Bom’s life was also quite pitiful the more he heard about it.
“Bom.”
He called her name as if he normally would. To Bom, it would sound like the sweet voice of a loving man.
“…Yes.”
In the midst of her fear, Bom replied.
“Please be honest to me from now on.”
“…”
“If you lie to me, I will give you every type of pain I can give until you and I part ways.”
“…”
“But if you are honest to me, I will tell you about me and answer all of your curiosities.”
Trepidation filled her eyes. Yu Jitae had shoved the dagger and was pointing it at her fang as the cold and sharp blade touched her tooth.
“Uht… uhk…”
“Tell me it was a lie.”
He had tested it on every tooth, and the one that instigated the most drastic reaction out of the green hatchling was the 13th tooth, the fang on the upper right hand side.
“…”
“Say to me, that everything you just said was a lie.”
The crushed fang of her mother must have been around that place.
“…”
“And that you actually had a different plan in mind.”
Bom closed her eyes again with tears endlessly flowing down her cheeks. Soon, a crack appeared on her tooth.
“…”
“Say it–!”
Shrinking her body, she shivered like crazy.
Bom, who had been withstanding till the very end without dying in any of the heartless experiments of the distant past had begged for death for the first time when a knife was pointing at her fang.
Even though she was put in the same situation as that, she was still persisting that it wasn’t a lie.
“…”
She persisted.
On and on.
Crack–
Until the tooth at last shattered into pieces.
“Uhk, huhk…”
Bom cried.
Without weeping out loud and while holding her breath, she quietly sobbed.
Falling deeper and deeper without the bottom in sight, frost settled down on his skin.
Was there seriously not a single lie in any of the words she had just said?
Once again, a sense of guilt that was indescribably difficult to bear started encroaching his heart.
No, this can’t be – he tried to deny everything. His body was frozen just like his heart; his knife was frozen stiff and the frost was threatening to explode his mind.
And what Bom did next completely crushed his heart.
With her eyes fixed on him; with tears still falling down her cheeks.
Bom licked the blade–
As a red liquid started to drop from the feline tongue, Bom was proving herself.
This was her proof that she was his accomplice.
***
He removed the knife.
Raising Bom up, he helped her sit on the bed.
Bom was carefully nibbling on the cracked pieces of the tooth inside her mouth, so he placed his hand underneath her mouth. After glancing at him, she slowly dropped the pieces onto his hand.
She had been too nervous and had been shivering too much. Even though she was a dragon, she began having a fever after soothing her tension so he straightened up her gown before covering her body with a blanket.
Yu Jitae sat next to Bom who was shivering as if she had the flu.
Turning away from the chaos inside him, Yu Jitae opened his mouth with a powerless voice.
“What is it about me that you are so curious about.”
“…”
“Ask me. I will tell you anything.”
“…”
“Don’t worry. I will be honest now.”
She was now his accomplice with no room for doubt. There was nothing more for him to hide and Bom had the right to understand him.
He had an idea of what she would ask – it would probably be about his objective or the future of the baby dragons.
However, what left her mouth were words that squeezed his dented heart even more.
“I was scared…”
Turning around, he looked at Bom who was crying with both of her hands covering her eyes.
That was when he realised it.
Thinking she was simply crazy would not be a full understanding of Bom. Until about three months ago, Bom was a child who had been living a daily life without a problem.
So Bom wasn’t crazy.
“…Please give me a hug.”
Looking at it from that perspective finally cleared up some of the hazy understanding he had about Bom.
Because he had always been thinking that there was something strange about Bom, or perhaps because there were several absurd examples stuck in his mind – that might be why there had been a difference in their perspectives. But now, he could say with certainty. Even though it might just be a repetition of what she had already said…
Bom was not a person creating uncertainties.
Bom had no thoughts of going against him.
Bom was not a strange child.
Bom was not selfish.
Bom was not crazy.
Bom was normal.
“Huhk… Nn…”
She was such a normal and young child. The only reason she was acting this crazy despite that was because…
“Huuk, kuhk…”
The thing called ‘love’ was driving her crazy.
“Hugkk…”
And it was driving him crazy as well.