He opened the pocket watch and checked the time.
It was 7:35 am, about time to leave.
“Let’s go.”
“…”
Yeorum walked out with powerless steps.
Although he quietly stared at her face, she didn’t look back at him. She didn’t seem to be in a good mood today.
Regardless, Yu Jitae left the house with her.
There was close to no traffic In the residential area, in front of the dormitory buildings lining up. Yeorum, who would always babble on about what she learned, was keeping her mouth shut with a pout so the road felt quieter than usual.
Why was she like this.
The Regressor carefully contemplated. What could have caused the baby dragon to be unhappy, when nothing much had happened both yesterday and today?
He suddenly remembered something which had happened yesterday, about her question on whether she had gotten stronger or not. He wasn’t able to reply easily because Yeorum’s achievement was lacking.
Then should he have given her a false praise? Maybe she would have been in a better mood if that was the case.
Before teaching Yeorum, he had read ten or so books about education and some of those books told him to compliment the action itself rather than the result: instead of praising a child for drawing a pretty picture, praise them for drawing instead.
But did a false compliment like that have meaning? He didn’t know. Could something so lacking in sincerity really be called a compliment? And if he praised every single time, wouldn’t that dilute the actual meaning of the compliment when they do get it right?
It was a soft and tender contemplation. He, who had always been pondering about the Apocalypse and killing demons, wasn’t used to such worries.
In any case, a topic like this would result in a different take for everyone without an ideal answer, which the Regressor wasn’t fond of. He instead decided to do what he could.
In the Central Training Room of Lair, Yu Jitae and Yeorum entered an ‘Alternate Dimension Training Room’. He didn’t set the environment, so a translucent wall and floor of white welcomed them.
“From today, we will start training while using some restricting tools.”
“…”
Yeorum didn’t even give a nod. She didn’t look eager.
She was sitting down on the floor on her bum, so he walked up to her and crouched down to match the line of sight.
“What’s wrong.”
“…”
“You don’t want to do it?”
“…”
“We can rest for today if you want.”
When he was about to raise his body after not getting any response, Yeorum opened her mouth with a depressed voice.
“…You can scold if you want.”
He had a hard time understanding her words.
“What do you mean.”
“You can scold me if I can’t match your standards.”
“Why would I?”
“Then I would get slightly better right. It will be embarrassing, but I would at least be upset enough to try harder.”
“…”
“Instead of saying well done when I succeed in something, why didn’t you tell me, that it wasn’t time for me to be happy.”
“You were doing a good job on your part.”
With a slightly angry look, she lifted her head.
“Because you’re saying that, I thought I was actually doing a good job. When I was jumping around thinking I did well, how laughable would that have been for you? I didn’t even know that and…”
“Yeorum.”
“It’s just, hurting my pride. Tell me if I’m doing bad; swear at me if I make a mistake; call me a retard. If I can’t follow your standard you can hit me to make me better. I put down most of my pride against you, so you can do whatever you want.”
In the middle of her speech, she bit her red lips.
“My cheeks and my butt are okay.”
“…”
“A bat or a cane… un, I think I’ll be fine.”
“What…?’
“But, you can’t use a knife or a whip. I can’t think straight if I see blood.”
He slowly began understanding her words.
Her words which made her appear to be on top despite the topic of punishment, somehow did fit the image of the red race.
Yu Jitae shook his head. She was being overly anxious for no reason.
“Yu Yeorum.”
“Why.”
“I’m not going to hit you.”
“That’s better than me being thought of as a retard.”
“Let’s just stop. We have to start today’s training. You wanted to become stronger. Don’t you find it wasteful to sit down like this and talk nonsense?”
“No, but I’m not talking nonsense…”
“Let’s stop here. If you’re going to repeat the same thing, just shut your mouth and get up.”
Her mouth closed to a pout.
She stood up from the floor and dusted her butt. There was the look of discontent on her face, but that was probably at her own self.
Suddenly, he felt slightly doubtful. The red race always seeked to become stronger but it wasn’t to this degree according to his knowledge.
“But how do we restrict the dragon heart?”
“I have the tool so you don’t have to worry about that.”
When Yu Jitae took out three small strings, Yeorum gave a doubtful look.
“…Ehng? You’re going to restrict a dragon heart with this?”
She held onto the black strings and waved it around. Like a strand of hair, it powerlessly fluttered in the wind.
“I thought you were bringing an awesome device or something. What is this.”
“You shouldn’t look down on it.”
“Eyy, who would be nervous after seeing this. It’s just someone’s pubic hair.”
Her depression vanished after a second and she laughed.
Well, it would be good for her to not look down on it though.
Yu Jitae quietly placed the fragment on her hand before repeating the ignition keyword. Then, the fragments of the [Chains of Hell] entered through her fingers and restricted the dragon heart.
“Hmm, I don’t feel anything though?”
And,
After exactly 5 minutes, her composure disappeared.
*
“Ur…gh…”
She grumbled. Feeling a strange sensation for the first time in her life, Yeorum widened her eyes and looked up at Yu Jitae.
“How is it. Is it bearable.”
“Huh… uh?”
“Tell me whenever if you can’t endure it.”
It was natural for her to be flustered. A dragon having their mana, supernatural senses, resistances and blessings restricted wasn’t commonplace. She asked while pressing her chest in confusion.
“…Like, how does this work? I thought it was just restricting the mana?”
“It’s more complicated than that. You can think of it as a device that crushes the body to the point it can’t be moved. From now, your body will feel heavier and it will be harder to breathe. The mana that had been naturally following you will now rebel against you.”
“Why. Why do we have to go that far?”
“Fighting power tends to develop the more you break through the limit. A restricting device like this will push you to that limit.”
Of course, being pushed to the limit was extremely painful. Like how someone had said in the distant past, ‘The Chains of Hell got its name because it made the restricted one feel like they were at hell’.
“Ah, uhh…”
Yeorum clutched the clothes around her chest and wriggled her body.
“Isn’t that, limit of whatever, dangerous? I, it feels like my heart is burning up.”
“It’s normal. Perhaps more than usual because you’re a red dragon.”
“It, it feels super stuffy… like really, really.”
Yu Jitae looked into her eyes.
“Let me say it again, Yeorum. You can give up whenever you want to.”
“No. Who would give up? I’m not giving up. I won’t but… how long do I have to endure this for?”
“Until you give up.”
“Whaat?”
When she was startled, the mana within her heart gently fluttered as pain flooded in.
Alongside a groan, Yeorum closed her eyes tightly. Soon, when most of the pain dispersed, she settled herself down with consecutive short breaths.
She turned towards him and powerlessly smiled.
“You know,”
“Yeah.”
“I’m, not gonna die, am I?”
She wasn’t exaggerating it because that really was the first thought to come to mind when people used the chains for the first time. It was the same with Yu Jitae.
However, he shook his head. She would never ever die.
“Then, let’s start the training.”
Yeorum hurriedly refuted his words.
“Start what? I’m doing it right now though?”
“Do you call it a training after just carrying a sandbag? Moving while in that situation is what training is.”
Hukk… she gasped before murmuring to herself.
“That’s fucked, for real…”
***
Applying the ‘Chains’ was a training method that would induce her [Pulsations] to reach a stable condition. It was a process that took somewhere around 24 to 30 months in the past iterations.
Yu Jitae was planning on perfecting that within just one month.
“I’m not exaggerating anything.”
“I know.”
“It’s really, really hard to breathe…”
She wore a frown the whole time while beating her chest.
From now on, Yeorum had to force her body which had reached its limit, back to its original state. She had to breathe, walk and move.
The first training session was on ‘breathing’.
“Now you have to breathe properly.”
“Ye, yeah… hu, huu…”
Closing her eyes, she began breathing in and out. Her fire attribute mana gathered near the dragon heart that had lost its mana affinity. Right now, she would properly feel like her heart was on fire.
Due to that, her breaths were short and irregular.
“Hu, huuu…”
Every time the blazing pain soared up inside her, her chin and those lips could be seen faintly trembling.
“You have to breathe properly.”
“Ye, yeahh…!”
“Breathe. Properly.”
“Yeah… I got it…”
Wearing a frown, she started slowly breathing out and her shivering breaths reached his ears. It was not at a regular pace at all.
“I, I can’t breathe. I can’t!”
“Breathe. Just shut up and focus on breathing. It will definitely return soon.”
“Ah, fuck… huk, huk…”
Huu, huu… Yeorum once again closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing. She was so tensed up that her tendons were visible beneath her white cheeks.
“Is it way too difficult to breathe?”
“…”
“Do you want me to help?”
“N, no? It’s fine. All good.”
“There is an easier way to do it. The efficiency will decrease by a bit though.”
“I’m fine. I’m fine.”
Huu, huu… She tried to regulate her short breaths to the best of her ability and heaved deep breaths in and out, but her chest seemed to be filled up with the scorching heat whenever she did so. Then she would groan instead of breathing.
“Even if it’s painful, the breath has to continue. Whether it’s difficult or not, you must never stop breathing.”
“Ye, yeah. Huk…”
But even then, she didn’t breathe properly which meant that her sufferings were being discarded meaninglessly. Thus, Yu Jitae growled with a slightly louder voice.
“Breathe!”
“Yea, yeah. Ukk…”
“Don’t stop. Just breathe.”
“I, I know!”
Yeorum bit her lips and caused her red blood to leak out. But fortunately, her breaths soon began returning to her.
That was how the training went that day. Until the very end, Yeorum did not ask Yu Jitae for help.
Perhaps thanks to that, her breaths were a lot stabler than before by the time they returned home.
However, it wasn’t something to be happy about.
It was just the beginning.
*
After that day, Yu Jitae and Yeorum continued the breath training for several more days. They did not stop even after returning home, let alone when they were at the training room.
Cough, cough!
Staying holed up in her own room, Yeorum coughed like crazy. Even Kaeul worriedly opened her door and asked, “Are you okay, unni?” However, the sensitive Yeorum bursted out in anger.
“Close the door!”
“Mommy…!”
Her shout resembled a sharp blade.
Startled, Kaeul closed the door and looked at Yu Jitae, who gave a nod signalling that it was okay. Bom tried to give her medicine time after time, but Yeorum refused everything altogether.
Due to that, Unit 301 had a delicate atmosphere like walking on eggshells.
It was because Yeorum appeared as if she could die any time.
“Is Yeorum-unni okay?”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
That’s all he said to the other kids.
*
On the fourth night after the breathing training began, Yu Jitae was in the living room when his watch rang. What appeared on the display screen was Yeorum’s number.
It was his first time receiving a call from her.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
– You know, I’m, bleeding. This, isn’t anything weird right?
“How are you bleeding?”
– Just, a nosebleed, and some…
Her capillaries were bleeding, which was normal when training with the chains.
However, Yeorum’s voice contained a different tremble than before. She was anxious so Yu Jitae decided to go inside her room.
Within the darkness with no lights, her crimson eyes gently flickered. Yeorum was crouching down in the corner of the bed and there were tons of bloody tissues.
With tissues placed inside her nose, she breathed heavily with her mouth.
“Are you alright?”
“I don’t know. W, why else would I call you.”
She seemed to be extremely stressed out. Her eyes shivered unstably.
“…Right. Let’s see.”
He slowly laid her down and looked inside her body. Fortunately, her dragon heart was normal and there weren’t any abnormalities in her body.
“I’m, fine. Right?”
Her anxious voice once again reached his ears.
Probably because the blessing that subdued mental stresses was being restricted, she was made to confront her anxiety head on. This baby dragon was trembling severely and it seemed that it was necessary to slightly regulate the power of the chains.
However, the moment his mana entered her body, Yeorum noticed it.
“What are you doing? Don’t do it.”
“It’s not much.”
“You, you’re trying to make it easier for me right? I don’t need it.”
“It’s better to go slightly easier than be anxious about it. There shouldn’t be too much of a difference in terms of the result.”
“I, I’m fine, so don’t do it.”
Until the very end, she was trying to fight against it with her own power. Thinking that there was nothing he could do about it, he was about to leave the room when a hurried voice halted his feet.
“Where you going?”
“What?”
“W, where are you going?”
He turned around.
A voice that couldn’t hide the trembling anxiety flowed out of her mouth.
“Stay here for today…”