“I was holding myself back already.”
Yeorum grumbled.
“You didn’t have to help me. I know how to read the atmosphere at least.”
Yu Jitae remained quiet without saying anything.
“Do you think I’m a kid that causes problems left and right?”
Yeorum added excuses on top of excuses.
“I had it all planned out.”
And she did not look like a typical red dragon.
“You got that? Even if you didn’t chime in, nothing would have happened. Do you understand?”
“…”
“…Why aren’t you saying anything? Or what, don’t tell me you think I acted like a child?”
“…”
“Ah, why are you silent! If you’re treating me like a child and ignoring me, I’m really going to get angry okay?”
“Got it.”
Hearing the sudden response, her energy that went up along with her voice was immediately cut in half.
Yeorum lowered her head.
“You could’ve… said that earlier…”
She then murmured as if there was a candy in her mouth.
“…I’ll let you off this time.”
“You know.”
“Yeah.”
“You wanna kiss?”
Yu Jitae did not respond.
“How boring… I wasn’t gonna anyway.”
Huu– the smoke dispersed from her mouth.
They were at a dark alleyway with not a single person nearby due to the current school holidays, next to an empty parking lot. The red-haired girl was crouching down and hugging her knees while leaning on the outer wall of a building. She slowly let smoke flow out of her mouth and because there was nowhere else to be at, the man was crouching down next to her.
Yeorum sucked air in deeply through the cigarette before breathing it back out.
“You know, it kinda feels like I’m becoming weird staying here.”
“Why.”
“You should know what kind of race the red dragons are. To be honest, I really hate living in a box like this.”
–.
Smoke gushed out from her mouth.
“Who would lock you inside a box.”
“Who wouldn’t? Even you’re doing it right now. And dragons aren’t gods either and when I was young, I was locked up in a very small place.”
She raised her hand up and touched her cap. Was it a story about her time at her mother’s lair?
“I could hear others clamouring and moving outside. I want to go out, talk and move my body but something’s just blocking me from all around. I can’t speak, and because something sticky was holding my body back, I couldn’t move either.”
No. This was probably a story from even before that.
“If I leave this place, I’ll be free – I remember thinking that and when I did come out…”
“Was it bad?”
“It was the best. Feels great to do whatever the fuck I want.”
She seemed excited, as she fluttered her legs left and right while spewing smoke from her nose.
“So when I was caught by you, I thought about running away every single second. If I didn’t get the sword as a gift, I probably would’ve ran straight away.”
“…”
She probably would have, because that’s how she had always acted in the previous iterations.
Therefore, Yu Jitae was slightly surprised by Bom who had kept Yeorum nearby at the start of the seventh iteration because he had been unable to have her stay no matter what he did without relying on force.
“You can’t adapt to it?”
“No? It’s doable. At the start, it felt shit but now that I see it, it’s a good shit.”
‘So like, large and aesthetic…’ she murmured before heaving out a deep sigh.
“Anyways, and now I just feel slightly confused.”
“Really?”
“Nn. Well, it’s like this. Ahhh fuck am I doing the right thing. Does it make sense that I’m living in a place like this. But then, it doesn’t feel too bad and I feel like holding myself back isn’t so bad as time goes. But then what would happen to my identity? Hey, hey wake up~ You’re a red dragon you retard, be like you~ Ahht, like me huh~? Sex sex~~.
“But then that makes me wonder.”
After murmuring with a soft voice, she took a deep breath through the cigarette.
“What does it mean to be like me?”
Yeorum muttered to herself before turning to Yu Jitae. Her blurry and unfocused eyes were facing Yu Jitae and she nonchalantly opened her mouth.
“You know what.”
“Yeah.”
“If you don’t want a kiss, can I hit you once?”
Then, she slowly raised the cigarette which was still burning up.
“Or can I use this to burn your face a little?”
“Why.”
“Well, you have nothing to lose right. You’re not good-looking and you already look like a murderer so what difference would a little scar make?”
He quietly looked into her eyes for a bit.
“Do you think you’ll know what it means to be you then?”
“Nn… Our race is all like that. Hit, fight, gamble, do drugs, sex, steal others’ stuff and drink. That’s our entertainment.”
Yeorum snickered.
“Whatever. It’s just something trivial – don’t worry about what I said.”
He did nothing but listen to Yeorum’s words of concern. She might be waiting for his advice but the Regressor remained silent.
What does it mean to be like oneself.
In the end, one had to define it themselves.
The Regressor had no plans to interfere with the process of this young red dragon’s self-definition. If there was a red dragon who adapted decently into the human world without resulting in some sort of a problem, he would just watch on from the sidelines.
However, he did know that she was in an extremely anxious state, though she was pretending to be normal.
For them, this was probably an unwanted Amusement. It began with the twist of the dimension and when they fell on a foreign land, a random man suddenly kidnapped and locked them up into a place.
Since their surrounding environment had suddenly changed, it was their time to adapt to the environment.
Yeorum had to find the answer herself, and what the Regressor had to do was to maintain his attention on her by keeping an eye out so that she didn’t go astray.
“You know, I’m actually on the docile side for kids from my race. I don’t live everyday addicted to sex and drugs like others, and I’m not a gamble addict crazy about money either. I’m not interested in harassing others or being a dictator of a territory.”
Those were the definitions of a red race.
“I just know how to fight, and that’s all I like. So when I lost to that Javier or whatever, I really wanted to kill myself.”
There was only one thing remaining in her.
“This is all I got. If I give up on being a dragon here as well, then I really don’t know what I am.”
This was her last resort in order to not lose her sense of identity as a dragon.
“That’s why I didn’t want to learn from you. In the end, you’re also a human right?”
“…”
“So it’s fine now. Just stop following me.”
After finishing her words, Yeorum rubbed the cigarette bud and turned the fire off.
“Right. I thought that might be what was on your mind.”
He already knew what she was thinking about but teaching her how to fight was a different problem. Whatever the case, she had a definite goal and in order to enjoy this Amusement and become stronger, she had to learn how to fight.
“That’s why I’m telling you to do it with me. You won’t be able to learn it from any other human.”
When Yu Jitae broke his silence, Yeorum gave a frown.
“What?”
“I heard you lost. To the kids under Professor Ha Yoon.”
“I didn’t though?”
“Then, did you win?”
“No? I just, just…”
Thinking back on something, she frowned as if she was about to cry but then suddenly vented her anger.
“No! More importantly, did you hear my words with your asshole? I clearly told you that I can’t learn to fight from a human!”
“…”
“Or what, do you have a secret to your birth or something. Are you actually a dragon?’
“Well, I’m not.”
She stood up with anger.
“And yet what’s with this teaching and stuff? You can’t! As long as you’re a human, you can’t teach me! Fuck, even after I say all this shit about my situation…!”
Her breaths were rough and she appeared to be really angry. It might be because she thought she was being ignored.
However, the Regressor wasn’t saying everything without a plan either. He thought this was the time to show it.
“Did you think I was saying that without knowing your circumstances.”
Yu Jitae closed his eyes.
He closed his eyes and thought back on the starting words of the blessing. Then, his heart which always imitated the heart of a human, began to resonate louder and louder.
Thump.
In an instant, waves of mana fluctuated across the silent parking lot and expanded.
Thump.
The frown on Yeorum’s face slowly disappeared.
Thump.
A heartbeat different to a human’s continued with its unique rhythm.
Thump.
And soon Yeorum’s eyes widened into circles.
Thump–.
“…How did you do that? That’s…”
Yeorum couldn’t continue her words due to astonishment.
“If you’ve seen it, let’s go back. It’s too late now.”
“What was that? How did you do it?”
“Just think of it as me having the right to teach you at least.”
“No, but what was that?!”
When he stood up, Yeorum hurriedly blocked him from the front. There was excitement and astonishment in her eyes.
Just then, Yu Jitae’s heart had beated with the same sound, at the same rhythm and the same quality as a red dragon’s ‘dragon heart’.
“Tell me! Were you a dragon!?”
Yu Jitae shook his head. He was a human.
There were lots of stories behind it, but it wasn’t a topic he wanted to chat about with her.
“It’s late today so let’s start from tomorrow.”
***
Around the time a dragon born from the red race was able to polymorph, they would learn a mixed martial art from their parents.
In a distant past, where dragons had yet to create magic.
There was a tribe living in an enormous forest called the Ancient Forest, that fought with and survived against fierce monsters that were several times larger than themselves. It was their combat-focused martial art.
[Karl-Gullakwa Stand-up Martial Art]
“…Where did you hear that from? You’re not even a dragon.”
Inside an alternate dimension for training purposes, resembling a vast grassland, Yeorum stood still as she glared at Yu Jitae with skeptical eyes.
“Is that correct?”
“…It is. And when the first Amusement comes to an end, we get tested on that. In front of all the dotards of our race, we need to use that martial art to defeat someone, for our Amusement to be recognised as a good one.”
Being acknowledged by their race was extremely important for a dragon. Thus, mastering the martial art to a decent level was the goal of her Amusement, while simultaneously being her last sense of identity as a red dragon that had to be held onto.
“So, how is it. Are you doing fine?”
“…No.”
“What’s the issue.”
“…Just, everything from the start.”
When a slightly more detailed conversation began, Yeorum who was embarrassed about her achievement, heaved out a deep sigh.
“By start, you mean the way you get your heart to beat. Right?”
“…”
She slowly nodded her head.
“My dragon heart doesn’t even beat properly yet. I could force it to beat if I wanted to, but…”
It was as he had expected.
It most likely was around 1 year into her life of imprisonment that the Red Dragon was able to pass the first hurdle into Karl-Gullakwa Stand-up Martial Art. In other words, it would take her half a year from now at the very least even if things went the way it did.
“You didn’t learn it from your parents?”
“…Every individual has its own rhythm and the dragon heart doesn’t resonate if we don’t match that rhythm. So mine’s different from my mum or dad’s. It should be really easy once you get the hang of it, but I haven’t found my own rhythm yet.”
Is that so.
Yu Jitae thought back on the fifth iteration.
The Dragon continued her own training session even after being detained in the underground labyrinth. Back then, she was always full of dissatisfaction and although she would act obscenely or violently at times, the dragon never stopped training.
And everything that Yu Jitae would be teaching from now was what he had learned watching the Red Dragon of the fifth iteration.
“Hold my hand.”
When Yu Jitae reached forward with his hand, Yeorum awkwardly extended hers but the doubt remained in her gaze.
“Close your eyes.”
“What are you trying to do?”
“Just close it. Sync with my consciousness and emotion, and just do what I tell you to.”
“…Hmm, can I just not do it? You are kinda suspicious.”
Seeing that she was hesitant about grabbing his hand, he reached his own hand further out and held onto her small hand. Unlike the normal hand of a young girl, hers was coarse with calluses.
“…It should be pointless though. Like I said, even if you imitate the resonance of a dragon heart, every individual has their own rhythm, okay?”
But when Yeorum continued babbling on, Yu Jitae irritatedly opened his mouth.
“I got it so shut your mouth and close your eyes.”
“Aye okayy ♥”
She tried to move on from the grumbles with a cute act but the look of distrust was still on her face and murmured, “But…”
The discontentment and doubt remained in her gaze but Yeorum nonetheless closed her eyes.
“How many times do I have to say it’s not that easy…”
Yeorum complained till the very end.
And after around 10 hours, when the sky of the alternate dimension was about to be coloured in orange,
Thump–.
“What the fuck…”
At last, Yeorum’s dragon heart began resonantly beating itself.