In the past,
After Yu Jitae cancelled the Will of the Ancient One from Myu’s Conceptual World.
There was a small incident at the Association’s underground isolation chambers.
Listening to the commotion outside, the black-haired black dragon, Myu, was blankly sitting there gazing at the wall as if waiting for someone.
‘It’s about time…’ while she was thinking that, someone opened the door and came inside.
Myu saw the green-haired baby dragon that she detested and was put in a bad mood…
…But that was only for a split moment.
When the [Black Wall] inside her heart fully cracked open, Myu realised everything. She realised who the one in front of her was, as well as the content of her given mission – ‘who’ it was that she was supposed to help.
“It’s been a while. We meet again.”
That was why Myu greeted her with a welcome heart and a bright smile on her face.
“Hello–”
Back then Bom did not understand Myu’s next words.
“–My dear sister.”
His mind heavily sank to the bottom.
He scrutinised the opponent. It was definitely Bom.
There was something like a fingerprint in mana and surprisingly, the existence in front of him had one that was 100% the same as Yu Bom’s.
He calculated the distance.
11 metres.
Being a superhuman among superhumans, he could go 15 laps around that distance in the blink of an eye, but he did not move rashly.
He observed the surroundings.
This place was completely encroached by Bom’s mana. It was filled with the most intricate formula out of every mana attribute, [Alteration], that distorted one’s sense of distance and diverged one’s sight from looking straight.
He knew Bom was unbelievably gifted when it came to magic, but he hadn’t expected her to use [Alteration] to such an extent which only the Witch would probably be capable of.
Of course, 0.2 seconds was enough for Yu Jitae to crush through this, but in a situation like this, 0.2 seconds was just too long.
He looked at the children and confirmed their states.
All three of them were still breathing. Even though their limbs were locked by tentacles, there weren’t any irrecoverable wounds.
He checked their injuries. Kaeul had fainted from a strike to the back of her head, while Gyeoul appeared to have fainted from suffocation. Yeorum on the other hand seemed to have fainted due to an injury to her heart, but fortunately, it wasn’t too serious.
The blood splattered all over the ship must have been Yeorum’s, left behind during her retaliation.
Her retaliation had probably started after reaching the world of Arunril. The dry firewood covering the world must have been scorched down because of her breath.
At the same time, that was probably when the cruise ship lost a part of its structure.
Next, he discerned the power of the opponent.
The [Magic Ballista] in Bom’s hand was strong enough to rip through a dragon’s flesh. It must have taken a lot of time to make, and judging from its appearance, that must have been the one Bom used when killing Myu at the isolation chamber.
Meanwhile, the tentacles spread across the room were the ones black dragons used all the time that had poison inside. Normal poison would not be very effective against the hatchlings, but it was a different story if the user of those tentacles was a mage that could manipulate [Alteration].
After finishing all those calculations in one breath,
He tried shifting his body a little bit, and the very moment he did, the dimensions distorted again as Bom pointed the ballista at the back of Gyeoul’s head.
“Don’t move.”
The ballista was just there for a show. Yu Jitae sensed the venom moving inside the tentacle as it tightened its grip on Gyeoul’s neck, which made her stiffen even more despite her unconsciousness.
“Yu Bom.”
“Stay there.”
Even then, Yu Jitae moved a little bit and in response, the [Magic Arrow] installed at the tip of Bom’s ballista scraped a wound on Gyeoul’s neck. It slowly drew a line and was thus very clear in his eyes. The child’s skin as white as tofu was sliced open as a drop of blood travelled down.
He frowned.
Right now, Gyeoul was bleeding in front of his eyes.
“…Calm down. I won’t move anymore.”
Bom replied, ‘Good,’ with a powerless smile that looked very forced. Inside the opened lips, he could see the broken fang that she still hadn’t recovered yet.
“Honestly, it is a bit of a shock.”
“What. The fact that I’m doing this?”
“Yeah. I never imagined it.”
With a powerless gaze, a powerless movement and with one of her arms wrapping around her legs as she sat crouching down next to the hot spring,
Bom slowly lowered the ballista.
“Of course. With all the effort that went into this plan.”
Her eyes that used to be green were now shining in faint purple.
Life was very mysterious.
He was hoping to live just before, but now, the one who he had shared love with, was pointing a weapon at his most precious kids. His heart sank like wet cotton and it felt like several bullets had been shot at the back of his head. A deep sense of despair was filling his heart.
This thing called life really was very mysterious.
“Seeing how you haven’t killed them or done anything serious yet, there seems to be something you are planning.”
“Yes. Because my objective is you.”
“What do you want to do. Kill me?”
Bom slowly shook her head.
“This is not as simple as that,” she replied.
Yu Jitae opened his mouth after pondering for a bit.
“There seems to be someone behind your back.”
“What does that mean?”
“The black race can edit memories, manipulate and send them. They are the only ones from the dragon race that can do it. I know that much.”
“…”
“So there must be a black dragon that made Myu send memories over to you. Someone from the other side of the Horizon of Providence that hates me.”
“And who is that.”
“What?”
“Who do you think that person is.”
“So there really is someone behind you.”
Even though he tried to induce a reply from her, Bom shook her head.
“There’s no-one. I was just curious who you were thinking of.”
“How can there be no-one?”
“Why does there have to be someone?”
“Aren’t you Yu Bom? You are a green dragon.”
“Look at me. Do you still think so?”
Bom said while touching her black hair.
“No. Something must have gone wrong.”
“How?”
“Don’t you know it yourself? This is not the first time I’m seeing you. I opened your heart several times and spent a fair bit of time with you. You were never acting this strange throughout all those lives and all that time.”
While twirling her hair, Bom added.
“Go on.”
“So you must be being mentally controlled by someone. And Myu – that mutant black dragon was probably the deliverer.”
“…”
“The objective must be killing me. Because I was one of the reasons that the Providence of Time kept going back – and because it hates me.”
Yu Jitae suddenly questioned himself in the midst of his talk.
What was he even talking about?
It wasn’t something he could be certain about, because there were several missing parts that were difficult to explain according to that hypothesis. Despite that, the reason he was saying this was probably because that was what he wished for himself.
Bom had no sin, and was just shouldering the sin of the black race… By forcing himself to think like that.
Disgustingly enough,
Even at this point in time,
He found Bom precious, and pretty.
“So what you are saying is this. Someone sent something bad through Myu to colour my hair into black and control my mind, right?”
However, that hypothesis of his was disproved by the intense hatred hanging in Bom’s eyes.
“You’re wrong.”
Her favourability was reaching the level of extreme hatred that could not get any worse, and the authenticity was also being displayed as an undisguisable truth.
“Those eyes were the biggest problem…” she muttered.
“…!”
Yu Jitae frowned.
Was she able to tell the activation of [Eyes of Equilibrium]?
While observing and staring at his face, Bom went on.
“To be precise, I’m not a green dragon. From the beginning I have always been half-black, half-green.
“I’m not a hatchling either, because I’m about 700 years old.
“My name is also not Yu Bom. I have a different name.”
When the cracked fang revealed itself from the slight gap of her lips, Yu Jitae’s mind came back with a shatter.
Cold beads of sweat travelled down his spine like sin.
“Do you want to hear my story?
“You need to know them anyway…”
.
.
.
Bom started her story with a soft voice.
“In the distant past, around hundreds of thousands of years ago in Earth’s time.”
The ups and downs of her voice made it sound as if she was reading Gyeoul a fairy tale.
“Us, black dragons, were expelled from Askalifa. The total amount of mana inside the world increased and so did our longevity, and as a result, dragons that used to live for around 3,000 years started to triple their age. That was the problem.
“The number of hatchlings being born was being controlled by the authority of the first dragon, but their deaths weren’t being regulated. There was not enough place for dragons to live in at Askalifa and because of the restriction of our authorities, we could not move to a different place.
“Askalifa is a very broad world. In that world, green dragons judge the future by seeing Providence and mediate between dragons. The red race defends the Southern battlefront through combat. Gold dragons communicate with the other races, blue dragons protect the Northern battlefront, and black dragons inherit the records of the distant past. That was the role given to each race.”
Yu Jitae listened with a frown.
“But… things changed when they started living for more than 10,000 years. The role of black dragons started to become less important over time.
“There was always a strife between all the races, and at one point when they were deemed useless, the black dragons were expelled from Askalifa after being attacked by all the other races.”
Tilting her head, Bom looked at the baby dragons.
“These are the kids of those dragons.”
Yu Jitae was using Eyes of Equilibrium throughout her speech. There was not a single deceit in her words.
“So, is that why you wanted revenge?”
Bom shook her head in response.
“No… You told me before, right? That there are things in the world that are just unfortunate. It’s exactly as you said. To be frank, no-one was in the wrong in that situation. We just fell behind in the cycle of natural selection.”
She constantly ran her fingers through her black hair. Under her white forehead, her exhausted gaze was staring off into a distance.
“Like that, we were discarded into the outer dimension.
“Part of the leaders of the race considered this a natural process like me,
“But most of the black dragons couldn’t accept it. They were stupid. They constantly breathed out fury and hatred, which was endlessly conveyed to each other to later create a resonance. Their anger and hatred were multiplied until it changed the characteristic itself of the entire race.
“The black dragons scattered to all parts of the outer dimension and like what you said, they were treated like dimensional trash. Looking for shelters to stay in, and rivers to rest by, they viciously travelled everywhere.
“I’m not asking you for an understanding. I also think they’re pathetic.
“I’m just telling you, that’s how it was.”
As if she was dreaming, Bom continued while blankly gazing at the thin air.
“Back then, my mother thought this. If we truly want to reestablish ourselves, then we must go back to Askalifa. We must kick the other dragons out and find our home again…”
Her idea was different from a normal revenge. It was a competition within natural selection.
“She always said the same thing.
“Let’s become great dragons.
“Let’s become a great race.
“One of the dragons that misinterpreted her intention headed to the Northern front and had a big fight with the blue dragons.
“Maybe that was when this child lost her parents?”
Bom caressed Gyeoul who still had a tentacle coiling around her body.
“All of our attempts were useless,
“And we were slowly dying.
“There were many restrictions that kept us from returning to Askalifa. Those dragons always kept to themselves and they didn’t consider us as the same race.
“That was why my mother came up with a big plan.”
In that instant, Yu Jitae remembered the words Bom had said in the past.
Bom had grown for a certain objective ever since her youth. And her mother used to tell her, that there was a [Grand Schema] in plan for her…
“Did you figure it out?”
She gave a powerless smile. Then, the lethargic voice of a dragon began to leave her mouth as an adult Dragon’s Voice.
〚Since we inherit the memories of the past, let us gather all the treasures leading up from the past into one.〛
〚Let us accept the countless seeds of other races to select the best dragon.〛
〚And at last, when the best seed is born among us,〛
〚Let’s make that child into the Dragon Lord.〛
〚So that that child may follow up on me to take responsibility of our race.〛
His eyes widened with a flash.
He knew who the chief of the black dragon race was. In fact, it was none other than the original owner of his [Conceptualisation (SS)].
As he slowly started to perceive where the start of all that hatred was from.
The baby dragon that was born from the ‘best seed’ opened its mouth.
“When you heard the name, Myu, did your authority not try to ‘interpret’ it?”
Bom tightened her arms around her legs as an even gloomier voice left her mouth.
“My mother Lugiathan gave birth to 31 children over thousands of years, and assigned a number according to their order of birth. The first would be Alpha, the second Beta, and the third Gamma… that would be the interpretation in Earth. So the ‘12th entity’ that you met must have been interpreted to Myu (M, μ).
“And I was the eighth daughter of my mother Lugiathan. She got the seed by bewitching a male green dragon. If you interpret my name using the same method, my name would be Theta (Θ, θ).
“Not Bom…”
However, this was only the start of her story.
At last, the root of all her hatred started leaving her mouth.
“…It was when that child just turned ten.”