Chapter 43: Journey (1)
After the Anti-demon War Simulation came to an end, Soujiro and Kim Ji-in returned their equipment in exhaustion. Although the past three days were tiring enough that they could have fell dead anytime, all those hard memories seemed to fly off as soon as they saw the rank underneath their team number.
“Good work. You two.”
Hearing Yu Jitae’s words, they lowered their heads.
“Thank you, very much. Mister Guardian.”
“…Thanks for your hard work in the past three days.”
The man merely returned a nod without saying anything. Despite spending a few days together, the man was difficult to approach but the dependable feeling he gave off despite that wouldn’t be easily forgotten.
Without even bidding farewell, Yeorum disappeared along with her guardian.
“Ah, shit, so annoying.”
But after their team was disbanded, a voice of complaint entered their ears. Turning around, they found cadets in the Level 4 society looking back at them with frowns.
“You must have had a fun ride?”
“Eht…?”
“It must have been nice getting carried.”
“…”
Soujiro gave an awkward smile while Kim Ji-in glared at them for some time before turning her head away. Since it was an undeniable fact that they had come first thanks to Yu Yeorum, there wasn’t anything to say.
“Hey, they probably had their own share of troubles right.”
“Huh?”
“Imagine spending two nights and three days with someone having that atrocious personality.”
“Ah. That would be hell indeed.”
“I wouldn’t be able to. Wouldn’t she do whatever the fuck she wants thinking she’s awesome?”
Their giggling sounds were heard.
Even now, Kim Ji-in’s hair was in the messily tied-up state left behind by Yeorum. It was when Kim Ji-in, who felt offended, was about to call them out instinctively.
“Y, Yeorum is nicer than you think…!”
Soujiro shouted with a teary voice but when the nearby cadets glanced towards him, he flinched and lowered his head back down. Perhaps due to a strange sense of connection that arose from the harsh times spent together, Kim Ji-in felt an unidentifiable courage rising up within when she found the cadets staring at Soujiro.
“Look who’s worried about others’ personalities…”
Her self-whisper which was backed off by mana made the cadets frown. Feeling refreshed, Kim Ji-in took her bag and walked out.
She would probably be in a good mood for the next few days.
When they walked out of the lecture room, they found snow falling down from the sky. Perhaps it had been snowing for the past few days that had been spent inside the underground dungeon, but there was lots of snow built up on the ground.
The entire world was white in colour.
“Damn it… To think that I’m watching the first snowfall with you.”
Yeorum complained while glancing at Yu Jitae.
“What about me.”
“You’re not my boyfriend.”
She picked up a bunch of snow and made it into a ball.
“Let’s see who dares to flirt outside. I’ll kill them.”
“With that snow?”
“I pushed it all in. Will it be too weak? Hmm.”
After some contemplation, she picked up a piece of stone and placed it inside the snowball. Yu Jitae made a faint smile. No matter what, he judged that that should be stopped from being thrown.
And when they were on their way back to the residential area.
‘Let me give you an interim report, my lord.’
The clone’s voice flashed past Yu Jitae’s head. It had been a few days since it entered undetectables, the organisation of demons, and it seemed to have heard a few things.
‘Let me send you the memories.’
He allowed it and the usable memories that had been felt and seen by the clone were elected and sent to Yu Jitae’s head.
For the past three days, the clone busily moved around the underworld. As the researcher ‘Vera’, the clone had to meet demons conspiring in the shadows, and ask them questions. Asking questions and giving advice to demons while being surrounded by demons must have been a tough task.
‘It was in fact tougher for me to pretend like a woman.’
The clone gave a short complaint. Its hands that found the brassiere uncomfortable popped up in a corner of his brain. It must have been because the personality of the clone had been living for hundreds of years as a male persona.
In any case, the clone had also attended a conference of the demons. Instead of the individual called ‘Vera’, the position of a head researcher of a research facility was deemed more important in this conference.
Yu Jitae opened up the memories of the conference that had been attended by the clone.
– Does this make any sense!
Inside the conference room, there were dozens of demons sitting around a round table. On the highest seat, a man with a large build shouted in a voice loud enough to shake the large building.
– Thirty-three were killed. Not three; not thirteen, but thirty-three! That many of our colleagues had been killed, and yet there’s not a single small clue about the enemy? You think such a thing could be called a report right now?
One word from him filled the room with an evil aura, while other demons lowered their heads from the terrifying shout.
He was one of the four selected Seats.
Seat of Punishment.
A catastrophe-level demon – Lim Chul-o.
He was the canine of undetectables. His role was to crunch and destroy enemies that had been identified and being a demon at a catastrophe level himself, he was someone who preserved countless safety devices to keep his life.
– …There’s a small hint we found, and it is that there is a leftover trace of a killing intent.
– Killing intent? Did you just say that? Is that what you call a hint? You useless trash!
Silence befell the room yet again and the demons kept their heads lowered like children being scolded by an adult.
Soon, Lim Chul-o, the middle-aged man, heaved out a deep sigh.
– Start the operation of Prototype X as soon as possible. Connect the minds of high-ranked officials first, so that we can get some data even if they die.
– Yes sir!
– Find him no matter what. Find out which impertinent guy dares to point a sword at us. And increase the protection level of Wei Yan that bastard. Judging from how the demons connected with Wei Yan are all dying in succession, the enemy might come finding him.
Lim Chul-o commanded them to be careful. From the demons that had been killed by Yu Jitae, there were also demons of the ‘disaster’ rank, that was right beneath catastrophes.
Even such demons were killed without leaving a trace behind.
– The enemy is strong. Don’t let your guard down.
Finally, the activation time and location of Prototype X was decided, as the clone summarised it.
‘The target is a seventy-man raid team of the International Hunter Association.’
‘Their objective is most likely a test run of Prototype X. It is assumed that X will be in the front killing seventy members of the raid team.’
‘As the identity of Prototype X has changed, it is a different course of events from the previous iterations. I believe it is required for my lord to personally move during the said time.’
Got it.
After completely reading through the memories, Yu Jitae cracked his neck. Just like what he had thought, the ones that had been moving by themselves started being cautious.
That was still fine. It was because he moved every night to the point it made him feel exhausted while delicately avoiding the core members of the organisation. Although the cockroaches would be trembling from anxiety, they wouldn’t scatter in front of the leftover food waste.
Just like the previous regressions.
‘Then, I will remain watching them for a bit longer.’
He praised the clone for his work and turned around.
“Ah, I need to go in and heal myself up with Kaeul.”
Yeorum whispered to herself with an exhausted expression.
After three days, they could finally see the dormitory with their eyes.
***
From the other side of the corridor, the protector glared at Gyeoul. With the help of Kaeul, it had finished disguising itself as a character from a cartoon. The protector was wearing the clothes of a stuffed animal with long ears and a tail and red circles were drawn on its cheeks.
It’s crimson eyes flickered.
The past three days were truly horrendous.
“Let me read you a fairy tale.”
Shake, shake.
“Would you like to play with paper airplanes?”
Shake, shake.
“I will give you some delicious snacks.”
Shake, shake.
Because the protector had been commanded by Yu Jitae to take good care of Gyeoul, it tried everything possible but was rejected every single time. Gyeoul seemed uninterested no matter what the protector wanted to do.
“You can’t read fairy tales like that, Mister Cleaner.”
“Sorry? What is the issue?”
“There are way too many useless words being added. Please focus more on the story so that Gyeoul can imagine more by herself.”
Albeit late, the protector tried its hardest while also asking Bom for her advice. Maybe that had come to fruition but recently, there was one thing which Gyeoul showed interest in.
“My lady. Would you like to draw together?”
Nod, nod.
And last night, the protector and Gyeoul drew something each on their sketchbooks with crayon.
This was a positive sign, and the protector drew a scenery of the demon world in a good mood. A dark world all around, with the demon lord’s castle standing in the middle, as well as the eye of a great demon gazing down at the world from above!
Of course, Gyeoul stared at the protector’s drawing with a sour look but so what?
‘My lady is opening her heart towards me…!’
Thinking that it couldn’t miss out on this opportunity, the protector decided to make the decisive move today, by appearing as a cartoon character which children loved!
Since Kaeul said it was cute, it was bound to succeed by even a little.
Finishing its trail of thought, the protector was about to walk forward along the corridor, when Bom left her room while stretching her arms and met the protector. A pair of crimson eyes flickered, while the green eyes also blinked.
“What is that?”
“M, my lady. This is, you see…”
When the protector explained everything in detail, Bom shook her head with a faint smile.
“An electric mouse huh… It is cute, but Gyeoul will be scared away by it.”
“Sorry? Why is that…?”
“She didn’t watch that animation, and doesn’t know it. You should go and wash your face.”
“Ahh…”
The protector walked into the toilet in disappointment, while Bom turned towards Gyeoul.
Sitting in front of the front entrance, she was hugging the teddy bears and staring at the door. Although she wouldn’t be like that for the entire day, she would wake up from her afternoon nap and keep her spot when it was time for lessons to end.
“Gyeoul.”
A pair of blue eyes turned around and faced Bom.
“Ahjussi will be coming soon. Do you want to go outside and wait for him?”
Gyeoul’s expression turned bright. Raising her up into her arms, Bom opened the doors of the dormitory and walked outside.
What she found was a fully white world, but this wasn’t normal snow. This was in fact a snow which started to fall ever since Gyeoul started waiting for Yu Jitae. The emotions of a blue race affected the climate of the surroundings and it was currently snowing because Gyeoul was feeling down.
“Coming, soon?”
That was when Gyeoul carefully opened her mouth to speak.
Bom opened her eyes wide in response.
Gyeoul had just spoken, and it was also Bom’s first time hearing her voice. After getting rid of the surprise from her face, Bom gave a gentle smile.
“Ahjussi will be back soon. With Yeorum.”
Gyeoul gave a nod and before long, they could see Yeorum and Yu Jitae walking from far away.
“Ahjussi–!”
When Bom waved her hand, Gyeoul followed suit and waved her’s.
“Why are you outside. It’s snowing.”
“Gyeoul really wanted to see ahjussi, you see.”
Walking up nearby, Yu Jitae lowered his back and stared at Gyeoul who was being hugged by Bom. Gyeoul threw a glance at Bom, before carefully extending her arms out towards Yu Jitae, who then raised the child up into his embrace.
When he did, Gyeoul instead turned nervous. She had been smiling when he was further away but was now frozen stiff as she pushed her head into his chest and hid there.
Bom smiled when she saw the cute Gyeoul.
“Wahh, ahjussi! Yeorum-unni! It’s been so long!”
Kaeul welcomed them when they walked into the house.
“Uh? Unni. What is that ball of snow you have?”
“What do you think?”
In an instant, Yeorum smiled, and Kaeul turned stiff.
When Yeorum ran forward, Kaeul escaped to her room and tried to close the door but couldn’t, as Yeorum’s foot was caught between the door and the frame. The door only came to a close after Yeorum entered Kaeul’s room. “Colddd!, “N, not there!” Her screams were the only things leaving the room.
Meanwhile, Gyeoul pointed at a certain place with her finger.
What is it.
Hugging the child, Yu Jitae walked towards the place she was pointing at. On the other side of the corridor, there was a sketchbook placed underneath the fat cushion of the sofa where Yu Jitae always spent time lying down on.
“…”
After walking down from his embrace, Gyeoul carefully held the sketchbook forward at him, with an extremely nervous expression.
He quietly received the sketchbook, and opened it up, while expecting the scribble of a child.
Despite being a dragon, a child was still a child.
Inside the painting that had been drawn in an irregular manner, he could spot several characters which could be differentiated by their hair colour.
There was Bom with her smile, Kaeul on the ground (with her eyes in a ].[ shape), and Yeorum who was on top of her (the details were amazing). And in a corner, there was a full metal armour plate, as well as a man who seemed to be the clone.
The question was the identity of the man wearing a crown on top of his large head, standing in the middle. The man was wearing a smile, and there was a gem on the crown above his head – it was evident that it took more time and effort compared to the other drawings.
Thus, Yu Jitae had no idea who this man was, no matter how he stared at it.
“Who is this.”
When the Regressor bent down and asked Gyeoul, she flinched in surprise and avoided eye contact.
“I think it’s you ahjussi.”
“This?”
“You’re hugging Gyeoul.”
Hearing Bom’s words, Yu Jitae turned back to the drawing yet again.
Ahh.
He was wondering what the blue seaweed was, but it seemed that Gyeoul had drawn the back of her head. Making a hazy smile, he hugged Gyeoul in the same posture that was inside the drawing and only then did Gyeoul hug him back with an embarrassed smile.
Thinking back, it seemed that he had been quite negligent with the child. Since it would be a weekend from tomorrow, it would be okay to leave outside and play together for a bit.
After finishing his trail of thought, Yu Jitae asked Bom.
“Should we go play somewhere during the weekends, for two days?”
“Ah, that’s a good idea. I’m down.”
He gave a nod, and headed off to Kaeul’s room, in order to call Yeorum and Kaeul.
Around that point in time, Bom looked outside the window.
As if the previous downfall had been an illusion, the snow had long stopped.