Yu Jitae stared at the powerless Red Dragon.
It wasn’t in a good state. Due to the aftermath of its manifestation, its skins had been torn apart with scales pointing out from within and the body was filled with wounds. Although the cuts near its forehead, cheeks and neck were shallow, a wound starting from its chest connecting to the shoulder was considerably deep.
Besides, due to being oppressed by the opponent’s mana, it wasn’t being healed smoothly.
A complete defeat.
The Red Dragon must have received quite the shock, just like how it did in the previous rounds. However, losing a wing and an arm was avoided, and one of the elements hastening the approach of the Apocalypse had vanished.
“You… what are you.”
Javier who had quietly distanced himself frowned and slowly approached again.
“I asked what you were! What relationship do you have with that monster girl?”
“…Who knows. A guardian perhaps?”
He opened his lips at a slow pace.
“Guardian? Did you just say that? You don’t look blood-related though.”
“That’s how things turned out to be. It’s a bit complicated so I can’t tell you everything. How about we just get over it?”
“This isn’t a simple matter. That monster girl crossed the line.”
The Regressor did not like the current situation. It was this guy that broke the Red Dragon’s pride and later would become a goal for the Red Dragon. Thus, he could not be killed.
“This child will no longer appear here. Is that still not good?”
“This is within the area of SAN’s investigation’s influence. As of today, I will enact my duties as an investigator of SAN and arrest the monster girl, as well as you who proclaim to be its guardian.”
“Your ears must be clogged.”
“Surrender. If you obediently surrender, your four limbs will be intact.”
He stared at the skies for a short time. The things that would be happening hereafter, would not be to his liking.
In that instant, Yu Jitae’s body became hazy. Becoming tense, Javier put strength into his hands holding the sword but the moment he realised that the man in front of him had disappeared, a strong force struck his chest.
His body bounced back by itself.
Clenching his teeth, Javier raised the Sword of Ra again and attempted to counterattack.
Kaang!
However, the sword stopped midair.
‘This…’
Javier doubted his own eyes.
It was the ignited version of Sword of Ra that contained a tremendous amount of the sun’s essence. The weapon that could rip apart a S-grade monster’s leather and crush its skull was currently being blocked by something invisible and could not be pushed. It felt like he was pushing a rock with a wooden sword.
Inside the man’s hand, there was an invisible sword and when he swung it, the Sword of Ra bounced out of his hand.
Next, a rough kick followed suit. Javier fell on the ground after being kicked and he attempted to hurry himself back up but the man stepped on his chest.
Javier could not move a single inch.
“…! W, what in the…!”
He had fought with countless rankers containing the fiercest strengths. As time passed, he no longer tasted defeats and yet even including the past battles he had, never was he this powerless.
The gravity seemed to have increased ten thousand-fold. Facing a situation that far surpassed his comprehension, his heart beated like it had been bombed.
Javier looked into the Regressor’s eyes and in that instant, his breath ceased. The hazy gaze of the man was seen approaching him, so clearly that it appeared out of place. It resembled the gaze of a beast that naturally stiffened others’ bodies.
The beast slowly opened its mouth.
“Listen carefully.”
Yu Jitae added more power into his hand. Although there was neither a hilt nor a blade, he was definitely holding a cold weapon.
[Shapeless Sword (SS)]
That, was the intent to kill people.
“Today was the unluckiest day of your life.”
The killing intent without a shape or form had an edge like a knife and touched Javier’s eyes.
“While you were carrying out your duty as an investigator alone, you happened to encounter an unknown monster.”
Then, he started cutting Javier’s eyes.
“…Unfortunately, you couldn’t cope with its initial attack, due to which you lost your eyes.”
A killing intent that slashed one of his eyes carried over and slashed past the bridge of the nose and headed towards the other eye.
“…The monster escaped and in the end, you did not feel or see anything.”
Soon, the other eye was also destroyed but despite the acute pain, the ranker did not open his mouth. He could not say a single word.
“You understand?”
Fear kept a tight seal on his mouth.
*
Although Javier had lost his eyes, they were fixable, as SAN had lots of outstanding healer-type superhumans. However, they could not erase the fear deeply embedded into his brain.
Just like that, fear was usually an efficient method.
Yu Jitae carried the Red Dragon in his arms and walked back into Bom’s alternate dimension.
There, Bom activated the healing powers of mother nature and cured the Red Dragon. When Javier’s ominous mana disappeared, the wounds started closing at a rapid speed.
While that was happening, the Red Dragon slowly opened its eyes. However, different from the speed of the body healing, the mind that had been shaken due to mana required more time to fully recover.
“Red. You don’t have to force your eyes open.”
“…”
One of its hazy eyes opened while the other barely even moved. Soon, the Red Dragon’s gaze travelled from Bom to Yu Jitae, before going back to Bom and closing.
Then, a murmur escaped along with a sigh.
“F*ck…”
It was a powerless profanity but in any case, Yu Jitae had to say what he needed to.
“From now, you will be living with me in my house, and you must stay under my protection.”
“…”
“I’ll tell you again after you recover but just to let you know. You have no right to choose and it’s fine to think of it as being confined. However, you will have enough freedom for yourself and as long as you wish for something, I will support you as much as I can.”
“…”
“And from now, your name is Yeorum. Remember that well.”
The Red Dragon did not respond. It barely managed to turn its body away and remained silent with its back facing them. When it laid down in silence like that, it reminded others of how small its back was.
Soon, its small shoulders could be seen trembling. Was it crying because of the one-sided defeat?
The Regressor feigned ignorance.
Around the time Yeorum’s wounds closed down, Bom separated her hand from her and faced Yu Jitae.
“I think it’s okay for the time being. She’ll get better.”
“Well done.”
“You too as well, ahjussi.”
“After this, you know what to do right?”
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
Remembering the discussed strategy, Bom gave a nod.
In any case, this cumbersome situation was finally over. Yu Jitae closed his eyes, and raised a finger to his temple.
‘I’m letting you know that the situation has been taken care of. My lord.’
Then, he shared his memories with his true body that would be quite a large distance away from himself.
*
Memories flooded into his head. Closing his eyes, Yu Jitae did a quick scan of those memories.
His copy must have suffered a lot. Well, it was to be expected since bringing a ruffian from the middle of a dusty desert wouldn’t be easy. It appeared troublesome from the start, and thus he had sent his copy there.
“Nn? What’s the matter, ahjussi?”
Because he suddenly closed his eyes, the little girl facing him asked.
She had a bright blonde hair resembling that of a little chick, and a beaming smile on her face. If Bom appeared to be in her late teens, this girl would be around 2 years younger than her in terms of appearance.
And similarly, her face contained a beauty that was difficult to be seen from a human.
It was the Gold Dragon.
After sending his copy to the Red Dragon, Yu Jitae left for the Amazon rainforests at the same time and searched for the baby dragon that could not even hide its aura. But outside of his expectations, it greatly welcomed Yu Jitae while saying “I smell a familiar scent from you”.
It probably was Bom’s smell.
“Why, why? Did something happen?”
“No. More importantly, return that please if you’re done.”
“What? Already?”
Its yellow eyeballs swayed left and right as its hands held onto Yu Jitae’s most recent smartwatch. In the middle of their simple conversation, the Gold Dragon became curious about it and Yu Jitae had thus untied it before handing it over.
“Can I play around with it for a bit more?”
“No.”
“Hnnnggg. It’s really interesting though. Like, there’s a screen in the air and like…”
Despite apparently having lived out in the society before, it found the watch more interesting than it should. Perhaps it was because the watch was the most recent type.
“Give it back.”
“Uinggg…”
Slowly, the watch in its hands was pushed forward. It was at an extremely, exceedingly slow speed and meanwhile, its golden eyes were glancing at Yu Jitae, reading his mood. Even when Yu Jitae grabbed the watch, the baby chicken did not let go of the watch and held onto it with its meagre grip.
“Do you like it that much?”
“Yes. A lot!”
Yu Jitae loosened his grip.
“Uwah. Thank you ahjussi!”
In fact, there was a thing he had brought to dissolve the dragon’s heart, and its wariness. Thinking back on the previous rounds’ Gold Dragons, it always carried around something to eat and so Yu Jitae had gone to a bakery to buy all sorts of bread and cookies.
And yet it seemed those had been unnecessary.
“Wahh, wahh, this tiny thing can do that…?” fidgeting with the watch, it started taking pictures.
Click!
On the hologram display, the dragon’s face surfaced up. Those shots were randomly taken, and yet still appeared like a painting.
“Wah, ahjussi. This thing has an awesome quality.”
That’s because it’s an expensive one.
With a pair of sparkling eyes, it started taking pictures of everything, including the tree, a mushroom, a snake passing by as well as the dull Regressor. Seeing Yu Jitae’s face on the hologram, the baby chicken started chuckling, in a voice resembling a rolling crystal.
Yu Jitae reflected back on the previous rounds.
This dragon had become a celebrity 3 times out of the 6 rounds. In the first place, the gold race loved getting attention and in the Askalifan continent, some became guardian deities of kingdoms. It could be considered a future perfect for their characteristics.
On the other hand, this dragon had also been the very existence that caused the most number of Apocalypses. It was because although love and attention appeared splendid on the outside, there would always be poison mixed within.
Suddenly, he had a doubt.
“You.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you here?”
Its golden eyes widened.
“Sorryy?”
“If you’re out on an Amusement, you need to live with humans. There are only beasts and insects here.”
“Uh, uh, uh? H, h, how did you know?”
The dragon became startled.
“I heard from the Green Dragon.”
“Ah…”
Then, the baby chicken pointed its nose out towards Yu Jitae and started smelling him, before suddenly slapping her hands.
“That’s why!”
“So, why are you here.”
“Ah, the thing is. I tried living with humans once you see? That… umm, was a bit scary and I did something called a vlog back then, and, ah, I signed a contract? with some company? but it was hard to earn money and, um…”
The baby chicken started talking gibberish. There appeared to be some circumstances but he couldn’t understand what they were.
“I got it.”
“In any case, that’s how things turned out. I was a bit afraid…”
“Right, it’s fine.”
The excitement within the atmosphere died down a little but that wasn’t what he desired. So, Yu Jitae clicked his fingers and sunk into the alternate dimension within himself. From the darkness, dozens of arms floated out and stopped right before him, before simultaneously lowering their wrists.
[Shallows of the Abyss (S)]
That huge alternate dimension that could swallow an entire city was currently being used as a bag for Yu Jitae.
“Bring me the bread.”
One of the arms gave a nod with its wrist. Then, it returned back to the darkness before coming back while holding a small bag of bread.
Returning back to reality, Yu Jitae pulled out a bag of bread from thin air as a sweet scent immediately spread across. The golden eyes staring at the camera were led by the smell onto Yu Jitae’s hands.
“Smells nice.”
“It’s a gift.”
“Wah, really? What bread is it?”
What was it? He didn’t really know either because he had just asked for some bread that children liked. Ah, there was something he remembered – there was a thing called macaron that was especially expensive.
The Gold Dragon received the bread, cookie and macaron from Yu Jitae and started eating through them.
Everytime it took a bite, it went “Mhmm, mmmm…!” and jumped up and down on the spot. Sweets were the best for children as expected.
In an instant, the bag became empty. While saying “Thank you ahjussi, it was the best”, the dragon faced a gloomy gaze at the bag so the Regressor opened his mouth after biding his time.
“Instead of staying here like this, won’t you come along with ahjussi?”
“Sorry?”
“I’ll buy you more bread.”
Hearing Yu Jitae’s words, the Gold Dragon contemplated.
“Uh, umm… I would love to but…”
“But?”
“My mum told me to be careful of strangers…”
Since it continued throwing a glance, the kidnapper added a condition.
“I’ll buy you a macaron as well.”
The baby chicken widened its eyes.