He followed the Protector out of the banquet hall. Walking down a narrow and dark corridor, they soon came across a room with a faint light.
Even though the palace was small, wasn’t this still too close? While thinking that, he stopped in his tracks for a bit. He tidied up his clothes and organised his hair again.
“You seem quite concerned about your appearance for a mage.”
“…”
“Stay here. I will come back after asking Young Miss her opinion.”
It knocked on the door as a voice echoed from the inside. The Protector walked into the room, talked with someone, and soon peeked out of the room with its helmet.
“She has given her permission. Come in.”
He closed his eyes.
Staying still, he took a deep breath out through his nose. Moving his feet that were stubbornly stuck to the ground, he entered the room through the open door.
He saw a bed.
On the bed, he also saw a girl,
And he also saw innumerable chains going out of the girl’s body. One end of the chains was connected into other dimensions while the other ends were locking her body. There were handcuffs on her wrists, shackles on her feet and chains around her thin neck. Even an elephant wouldn’t be able to escape from all those chains.
She appeared to be about Gyeoul’s age. Her body was small and her head even smaller…
Her entire body was covered with blood and wounds. Underneath the black hair was a powerless expression and black exhausted eyes.
Lifting his gaze, he looked into the eyes of the child, as baby Bom similarly looked back at him.
The things binding her hands and feet were [Chains of Hell].
Mana was the manifestation of will, and those chains snapped everything including both the body and the mind like a heavy piece of lead.
Her restricted limbs were flushed in red as if they had gone through several repetitions of being chafed and recovered. Some of them were even bleeding, and the fact that her wounds weren’t healed yet meant that baby Bom had been taking a ‘lesson’ until just then.
A lesson.
He squinted his eyes.
It would have been a lesson that tore through her skin and made her bleed…
“…”
The young Bom did not look very good. Perhaps because of the exhausting lesson, her fidgety hands appeared unstable as her powerless gaze faintly wavered.
Yu Jitae thought for a while.
This part henceforth was the most important part, because he had to leave a favourable impression of himself on baby Bom.
“Are you the new tutor?”
The same voice as Bom, but one that was a bit more childish lethargically left her mouth.
“Yes.”
“Okay. You can leave now.”
Things were going south already.
“…I’m a bit tired today.”
After finishing her words, the young Bom grabbed onto her blanket as that slight movement rocked the chains.
She was clearly telling him to go away.
“A moment will do.”
“…A moment?”
“Let’s talk a little bit. It is our first time seeing each other.”
He didn’t know how to make someone fond of himself. Even in the 7th iteration, he had never tried to get close to someone.
However, it was a different story if the opponent was Bom. Taking a natural step forward, he headed deeper into her room.
“My name is Yu Jitae. Nice to meet you.”
Without replying to his words, Bom simply showed her discomfort by gesturing at the Protector with her gaze. It was fortunate that the Protector was bad at reading the mood.
Thanks to that, he was able to add a few more sentences.
“What is your name?”
“Nothing. I don’t have one.”
“Isn’t it suffocating? Those chains? Looking at your face, you look like someone who doesn’t like being tied up.”
“I’m used to it…”
She gave a curt reply while sending another gaze towards the Protector. A sliver of irritation appeared on her exhausted expression.
“Oi. If you’re done greeting her, then…”
“–In the past.”
When the Protector tried to pull him out, he stopped it with his hands and continued his words.
“I had a friend that looked exactly the same as you. She travelled anywhere she wanted to go, met new people and had delicious food.”
“…What?”
“She said it was more boring and meaningless than what she expected. However, the reason travelling is fun is because you come across events that are totally out of your expectation. That was the same for her. She coincidentally met someone.”
“Oi, mage. Don’t you hear me telling you to come out?”
The Protector strengthened its grip and this time, it was fairly threatening.
Since it would seem strange to hold his ground here, he obediently let it pull him.
It was then.
“…And then?”
Good.
She took the bait.
What Bom wanted the most was freedom. She wanted freedom so much so that she had gone across the globe by herself despite the strong brainwash of loving Yu Jitae.
It was the same for baby Bom in front of his eyes.
Flicking off the Protector’s hand, he said to her.
“It’s quite a long story.”
Baby Bom wasn’t fully into it yet. She touched the blanket above her knees with the same lethargic look on her face.
“…I’ll chase you out if it’s boring.”
She said while sending a gaze at the Protector.
Krrk? Being someone that was bad at reading the mood, the Protector did not understand what she meant so the young Bom voiced out her command.
“You can stay outside.”
***
He didn’t have much time.
There was around 5 to 6 hours left until Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration would show himself. He had to fully gain her favour by then.
Something that he definitely had to admit, was that he was slightly weaker than Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration.
If ‘his’ strength was 100 and if that was the limit of an existence, then he would currently be at around 99.
It was because through the events like the fight against Myu and his massacre of the Judges, he had permanently used up a portion of the killing intent he had gathered. The difference of 1 was definitely nothing to scoff at because there were no variables in a fight among transcendent powers.
However, he did have an upper hand in one aspect, and that was the difference in information.
He knew exactly who Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration was, as well as how he went into a fight.
So to keep that advantage, he had to make sure Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration wouldn’t be able to identify him perfectly at one glance. In order to do so, he needed a great artifact that could deceive Yu Jitae by allowing him to hide the attributes of his mana and change his external appearance.
Fortunately, there was a treasure among the black dragon race that perfectly fit the description.
[Nigh Perfect Truth]
It was a laughable name.
A ‘nigh perfect truth’, in the end still meant it was false.
In any case, he had to befriend baby Bom and obtain the ‘Nigh Perfect Truth’ which would probably be at the treasury of the black dragons. That was why he was talking to her about this and that for almost 20 minutes.
“A novel almost became a movie? What’s a ‘movie’?”
“It’s something similar to a memory crystal. It shows dreamy images that are exactly the same as reality to a lot of people.”
“Do they watch it a lot?”
“They do. Tens of millions of people around the whole world watch them.”
“…”
Millions? Baby Bom tried to envision it in her head but ended up shaking her head.
“I don’t know. That’s too big of a number…”
He then talked about the events that had happened to Bom, which had shaken Bom’s heart the most. To the young Bom who was locked in the palace and constantly educated ever since her birth, freedom was like sugar.
Her eyes were glistening throughout the story.
“It’s probably not the same here, but usually there are seasons in a dimension. Spring (Bom) is a season of warm breezes, and blooming flowers.”
“I know what a flower is.”
Saying that, baby Bom took out a black flower from somewhere and showed it to him.
He recognised the flower – it was a Wyvernip.
“What flower is that,” he asked.
“It’s the sleeping assistant of our race.”
“A sleeping assistant?”
“When it hurts a lot, you can take a deep breath of this and go to sleep at once.”
Wyvernip had been especially more effective against Bom compared to Kaeul and Yeorum. That was why unlike the two kids that constantly tried to smell the flower, Bom refused to smell it after doing it once because of how potent it was.
That seemed to have been another sign that showed Bom was a black dragon…
“But that flower is only black. It is different from what I’m trying to explain.”
“What do you mean. Flowers are black.”
“I don’t think so.”
This was an opportunity. Thinking that, Yu Jitae stretched his hand out to the young Bom. Her tiny eyes deeply stared at his hand as if she was still somewhat disinclined.
“Hold it. I’ll show you the types of flowers I saw.”
“…”
After a short hesitation, the young Bom carefully took her index finger and placed it gently above his middle finger.
Yu Jitae recalled the garden of flowers that he saw on a certain trip with the baby dragons – the place where he considered himself as a horrendous sculpture that did not suit the scenery…
Flowers of all sorts of colours seeped into the head of baby Bom. This time, the sugar was a little sweeter – it should be as fragrant as a candy.
“You’re right. That’s interesting.”
However, the young Bom’s reaction was different from what he expected. Even though it didn’t seem like she was being sarcastic, she didn’t seem too interested either.
He wondered if this was the wrong choice.
“Thank you. I want to rest a little now,” she said while pulling her hand back.
Yu Jitae pondered for a bit before standing up from the ground. Unfortunately, he seemed to have ruined it.
It was a shame. Although he was a bad talker, he had organised memories that the young Bom would like after contemplating for four days but…
There was nothing else he could do at this point. It wasn’t like this was the only opportunity, and he simply had to find the next chance.
Thinking that, he lifted the blanket that was around her calves and covered her body. It was an act of habit – because that was what he had always done for Gyeoul.
“…?”
But it was then. A slight fluster appeared in the eyes of the young Bom.
“Huh?”
“Why.”
“What did you do just then?”
“I pulled the blanket over you.”
“…Why?”
“What do you mean why.”
“It’s my blanket though…? Why would you do that for me?”
How distant was she from such normal things? He still wasn’t used to it.
But that was when he suddenly had this line of thought.
When designing her revenge plan, the young Bom had prepared several tools to shake the heart of the enemy. She said there was something she had constantly told herself with a sigh during that process. ‘I had never even contemplated how to appeal to someone before so I’m probably bad at it…’ was what she had been telling herself.
Then what about those excessive and proactive approaches Bom had shown him?
Maybe that was how she herself would open her heart to someone else?
At a glance, it seemed a little over-the-top but after lingering on that thought, he realised that it was quite plausible. It was similar to how a child would give a candy to an adult as a present.
Thus, he decided to conduct a little experiment.
“Why. You said you were going to rest. You look tired anyway so you better take some sleep.”
What would Bom have done in a situation like this.
Bom would…
“But why aren’t you using cleanse on yourself before going to sleep.”
Saying that, Yu Jitae rested his hand on her small face that turned slightly more perplexed.
“Come here.”
Bom stayed still without avoiding his touch so he placed his hand near her eyes.
Her head was tiny. When her eyes that were even smaller than that quivered to a close, he softly whispered into her ears while remembering Bom’s past voice.
“It’s dirty.”
At the same time, he gently wiped the clots of blood with his hand. It was a voice that did not suit him, and he felt very repulsed by his own greasy action.
He even questioned himself, whether he was doing the right thing or not.
“…”
What was the young Bom doing in response?
Looking at her eyes, he found perplexity still filling her eyes. This was enough for pulling a move on a kid.
What came next? What did Bom used to do after this?
Bom tended to check his reaction after teasing him. ‘Did you fall for me?’ was her general question because it was a continuation of her tease.
However, that was something he just couldn’t make himself do. The instinctive repulsion he felt towards it was ridiculous, and was just as big as how he felt when Yeorum was trying to make him wear a bunny boy uniform in the past.
That was why he thought about her next action. Like how Bom used to run away after teasing him, he was going to leave as if nothing happened.
“Rest up.”
Yu Jitae stood up and was about to leave the room.
“Wait.”
But the voice of the young Bom halted him in his tracks. Slowly, he turned back to the child as her anxious eyes directly looked into his eyes.
“…Do you want to talk a bit more?”
It was clearly a sign of curiosity. He felt a faint firework bursting out in his head.
The first process of getting close to her was a success.