He sank into his inner world. Things incomprehensible by a human brain flooded in like a wave forming an image in his mind.
For him, it was no different from a ‘sealed box’.
[Conceptualisation (EX)]
The activated transcendent authority analysed all of them as the foreign data was turned into things that could be understood by a human.
Something resembling a belt appeared in front of his eyes. It was long and thick, and was stretching out into the distance.
He instinctively understood that this was [Providence of Time] itself.
The strange part was that the belt had dozens of smaller strips reaching out of it with a few of them being snapped. The innumerable small strips going along the large one all represented parallel world lines.
Three out of those strips were coloured in ash. Everything ashen that was interpreted by [Conceptualisation], meant it was linked to Yu Jitae.
One of the ends of the first strip was linked to 5 years ago and was the point of Yu Jitae’s regression. This was the turning point decided by [Vintage Clock].
The second strip was connected to 500 years ago, at the Non-Providential World of [Primal Time]. This was the turning point created by an existence that was born with unprecedented talent who could observe the Time Providence, having come out of the Non-Providential World into the Providential World.
In other words, it was the moment Bom returned to the Providential World to stand in front of her mother’s corpse.
The last strip was connected all the way to the future. One of the ends of the strip was buried by the white background and he couldn’t exactly tell how far this was in the future.
The other end of that strip was connected to the time that was a little ahead of the first strip.
Even though he didn’t know what exactly it was, that was not important for Yu Jitae.
His plan was to head towards the Non-Providential World of [Primal Time]. There, he would stop the sin he had committed with his own hands.
.
.
.
A world without a reigning sovereign did not have a name.
This was one of the many ‘nameless worlds’.
Right now it was daytime but there was no atmosphere and the sky was therefore dark. In the distance was a source of light similar to the sun so the surroundings were quite bright but the sky remained black which was quite different from Earth.
The ground was covered in gravel. There were tall walls on all sides but they were transparent and were made from mana, so at a glance, it looked like it was nothing but gravel all the way to the horizon.
This was not an actual world. Like how he interpreted Myu’s [Origin Fragment] and the transcendent authority, [Vintage Clock], it was a world substituted into a concept for a better comprehension.
In that place, Yu Jitae appeared similar to a human – a human that was a fair amount stronger than others.
Here, even the dragons would also look like humans because [Conceptualisation] tended to lower the overall power balance.
When he turned his eyes to one corner of the vast wasteland, he found a building that did not fit into the background. It had ash-coloured walls, ash-coloured pillars and was overall a palace of achromatic colours.
The uniquely formed palace reflected the ambient light coming from the light source as it gleamed within the dry and gray desert.
That place was [Lugiathan’s Palace]. The place where Bom, Bom’s mother and the black dragons lived – a dragon’s nest interpreted by [Conceptualisation].
Yu Jitae now had to head to that place.
He was standing still when someone appeared from the other side of the desert at just the right timing, with the clinking sound of metal.
It was a protector; one of the dragon’s pawns.
While observing its appearance with care, Yu Jitae twitched his eyes.
This guy looked familiar. It was the same guy that lived at Unit 301 with him.
“Seems like you are the next private tutor.”
It spoke to him.
Four days went by ever since he was led by the restrictive transcendent authority, [Turning Point Regression (EX)] to this place. Thanks to the arrangement of the Vintage Clock, he was able to enter the palace.
Entering the palace was simple.
Around this point in time, the black dragons had been taking in various mages from the outer dimension to have them become tutors for Bom. That was one of the pedagogies set in place for the accomplishment of the Grand Schema.
In the past four days, Yu Jitae looked for that original mage and sent him back to where he came from to replace his position. This was what he had been waiting for.
“Do you have proof of your identification?”
“It’s here.”
That was something he had created as an imitation during the past four days. After checking the mana embedded inside the small jewellery of the necklace Yu Jitae showed him, the Protector gave a nod.
“Let’s go.”
He followed him into the palace; to the location where the event that shook his life from the core would occur at.
“Hmm, hmm. I’m sure you would have heard from the other protectors already, but you better stay quiet about everything that you see inside as well as the princess.”
Silently Yu Jitae returned a nod while the red lights flickered brightly behind the metal helmet.
“In addition, you need to realise how big of an honour this is. The one you will be teaching henceforth is an unprecedented genius throughout history.”
“…”
“Do you know how great her talents are? She has had 35 tutors over the past 10 years. Was it because they were incompetent? Or were they bad teachers? That’s not it. Two months and there was no longer anything to learn for our Young Miss. You teach her one thing and she realises twelve.”
Krrrk. Kerrrk. It laughed with the sound of screeching metal.
“So, should I give you some advice on that?”
“…”
“Don’t try to needlessly get too friendly because Young Miss will find it uncomfortable. She gets fatigued from relationships.”
“…”
“Since you must have been a worldly mage in your own world, you would be interested in such an unprecedented genius. But keep that to yourself. Although she would be a genius you’ll never see again in your lifetime, for her, you are just one of the many passing tutors.”
“…”
“But if you teach with all your heart, then you don’t have to worry a single thing about the reward we have promis–”
“Very talkative as always.”
The red eyes of the Protector blinked as tiny dots.
“What?”
Yu Jitae shook his head.
“No… nothing.”
“Hmm.”
“Rather than that, I want to hear a little bit more about that Young Miss.”
“Ahh, back when I first saw Young Miss at the primeval forest–”
At least the stories were bearable to listen to.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the enormous [Palace]. The building looked extremely unique close-up. There were no pillars anywhere on the ground and yet the thing that was at the rooftop looked very heavy.
After arriving at the entrance of the palace, Yu Jitae halted for a bit to tidy up his clothes and organised his hair.
The Protector waited for him to finish.
Closing his eyes, Yu Jitae heaved a deep breath.
The black-haired girl who died in front of his eyes,
Was inside this place, living and breathing.
.
.
.
He walked into [Lugiathan’s Palace].
The palace interpreted by his authority looked exactly the same as a human palace. There was a high ceiling, and everything was very wide. Tall pillars were supporting the structure while the bright light emanating out of the light source outside was scattered by the stained glasses to brighten up the castle.
It was very quiet inside the palace. Walking silently, he could even hear the thumping rhythm of his feet.
Soon, four extra protectors walked outside to surround Yu Jitae and the Protector.
“First, we will be greeting Her Majesty of our race. You don’t know our etiquette and that is okay, but just do not behave rashly.”
He nodded back.
After walking down the quiet corridor for a while, the protectors soon stopped in front of a large red gate. The moment they opened the doors, a noisy commotion suddenly reached his ears.
The chatting voices of male and female, stepping sounds of those dancing and the musics being played by musicians echoed across the room with the heavy thud of percussion being the loudest of them all.
It was a banquet hall – the largest room of the palace.
“Stay here for a while.”
Left with just the Protector at the hall, Yu Jitae pulled out a chair and sat on it before leisurely intertwining his legs.
Everyone at the banquet appeared like a black dragon. Due to being interpreted by Conceptualisation, they looked more human than how they would look with polymorph.
A pair of male and female were sharing glasses of alcohol whereas an old lady was dancing in front of the musician. He could also see young kids that were running around. They were probably hatchlings.
Out of them, Yu Jitae found a familiar person. She had black hair and purple eyes.
She looked back at him. The temperament shown in her eyes was definitely not that of a normal person – after glaring at him, she opened her mouth.
“What are you looking at?”
“…”
“What. Say something.”
“…”
“Hmph.”
Seeing that he remained silent, the child turned around with a flick before walking into other adults.
It was interesting.
Surprisingly, she was ‘Myu’.
“Hah.”
He was standing still when a maid walked over and handed him a glass of alcohol that was interpreted into a wine. While swirling the wine, he gazed at the scenery of the banquet hall.
The owner of this banquet was the chief of the black dragon race, Lugiathan. Here, she was treated like a king.
This was not a simple banquet hall either. At the end of the room was a large throne, so it was probably similar to an audience chamber.
It seemed that this banquet was planned to promote friendship among the scattered black dragons. Black dragons of this time frame were targeted by many sovereigns and were always at risk, so this banquet appeared to be the gathering place for them.
And that was what Yu Jitae had been targeting during the 6th iteration.
“Ehehe! It’s this way. Here!”
It was then. A girl who had been running while looking behind bashed Yu Jitae’s leg with her elbow.
“Aht, sorry…”
“…”
Yu Jitae nodded. The girl started running again with a boy chasing after her. They too were probably hatchlings.
It was nothing but peaceful, but this would be where everything takes place.
Yu Jitae calculated the time. In about a few hours, this banquet hall would probably be soaked in blood.
Since the conceptual world had been interpreted as a palace, all the important devices must have been also interpreted as unique objects.
He didn’t have any memories of the time he attacked the palace in the past.
Therefore, his job now was to predict how ‘Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration’ would attempt to attack this place…
*
How would ‘he’ move?
He looked around with the eyes of a hunter as he scrutinised everything across the banquet hall.
Firstly, he looked at Lugiathan’s throne. The one sitting on that seat would be the [Chief of the Dragon Race] and would be the first one to gather ‘his’ attention.
The next thing Yu Jitae turned to were the enormous pillars arranged in a + sign that supported this unique building. There was one pillar on each of the four corners of this banquet hall that were distanced by approximately 20 metres. Since these were the pillars that supported the entirety of this palace, ‘he’ would be actively making use of them, by for example destroying a pillar and escaping this place if ‘he’ happened to fail an ambush.
Lastly, he searched for the entrance of the Non-Providential World called [Primal Time] that should be linked to this palace.
Yu Jitae’s gaze reached the veil located behind the throne. Because this was a conceptual world, he couldn’t really feel the fluctuation of mana properly, but he assumed there would be a path leading to the Non-Providential World on the other side of the veil.
Bom said she saw her mother’s death in front of her own eyes. In terms of the structure of this building, it was highly likely for there to be something like a tiny room behind that veil.
In addition to that, he also observed the holes on the floor, locations of the chandeliers as well as where the windows were. He predicted where ‘he’ would come out from and imagined several situations in his mind.
His heart felt slightly stifled.
Yu Jitae had been intentionally turning away from his actions because he knew how sinful they were. But now that he was going to atone for it, he couldn’t disregard them anymore. He had to see the sin he had committed with his own eyes.
And that was a very painful thing to do.
“Come here.”
The protectors called him as he followed them towards a small door at the side of the banquet hall.
There, Yu Jitae finally met Lugiathan.
She looked the same as other black dragons. She wasn’t wearing a crown because she was the king or anything, and was a lady with black hair wearing plain clothes. One interesting thing was that her face looked extremely similar to Bom’s.
However, the red gem at where her fang should be when she smiled was different from other dragons.
That was ‘his’ objective.
“I look forward to your cooperation with the education of my child, o mage of Badra-Hoom.”
Yu Jitae lowered his head a little without saying anything in response.
“You may enjoy today’s banquet as well. Though I am not sure whether it would be as enjoyable for a human.”
That was the end of the audience.
After once again returning to the banquet hall, Yu Jitae slowly bit into a piece of meat. He pondered about this and that until one doubt appeared in his mind.
“Oi. Metal plates.”
He called the Protector who was furtively dancing before the musicians.
“What is wrong?”
“Is the ‘Young Miss’ you were talking about not here?”
“Ahh, Young Miss does not like banquets a whole lot. She would still have to come once it does start, but it hasn’t begun yet. She is probably resting because of the tiring lessons until now.”
“Is that so?”
There was not a single reason to hesitate.
“I’d like to meet her beforehand if possible.”