Chapter 51: Underground Labyrinth (1)
It was midnight when he returned to the dormitory. In a distance, he could see a pair of green eyes sitting on the windowsill of the veranda. Gyeoul was sitting on top of Bom’s legs, and was leaning on Bom’s body, seemingly in deep sleep.
Bom had the same indifferent expression as usual but her gaze from a distance stayed on Ha Saetbyul for a long time. She appeared curious.
After walking into the house, Yu Jitae laid the injured Ha Saetbyul down on the sofa and was about to enter his room, but that was when Bom quietly approached him. Stopping his feet, he looked back at Bom who appeared hesitant.
“Why.”
“…”
“Is there something you need to say?”
“Yes. You see actually…”
Staring at the floor, she hesitated on what to say. Wondering what it was about, Yu Jitae decided to wait for her to finish thinking first.
“Actually…”
She then stopped her words again. With her bangs covering half of her eyes, she opened and closed her lips. She thought about something, pondered and decided.
“Un…”
“Un?”
When she raised her head back up, she had returned to her usual expression.
“Actually, Yeorum entered ahjussi’s room while you weren’t here.”
“What?”
Those were some unexpected words, but now that heard that, he realised that he could sense the aura of the dragons from inside his room.
“She was happy that there were six bottles of alcohol remaining. Of course, I told her that she shouldn’t drink them, you know?”
“…Okay.”
“But as you know, Yeorum doesn’t listen to me. She kept on saying that she would just have a little taste.”
Kwang!
That was when someone kicked his room’s door open. It was supported by a tremendous strength that could break the door and in fact, one of the hinges were broken and was dangling.
Yeorum was standing there. Her crimson bob hair was messy while her cheeks were deeply flushed. Her unfocused eyes were each staring at different places as they rolled around.
In an instant, he looked past Yeorum, at the floor of his room. From the ten bottles of whiskey he had bought two days ago, he had only drunk four, but currently all the bottles were scattered on the floor.
So much for a ‘little taste’.
Her unfocused pair of eyes wandered around before being fixated on Yu Jitae, and despite her hiccups, the two did not share a single conversation for a long time.
Within that odd state of tension,
After the silence passed,
Yeorum giggled, “Hihi” and slowly opened her mouth.
“Oppaa.”
Oh no.
“Oppaaa… why were you so late?”
Yeorum mumbled with a loosened tongue. Because he did not know how to deal with a drunk dragon, Yu Jitae looked back at Bom.
“Yeorum. You should go back to your room now.”
“Whyy? I’m going to sleep with my oppa…”
“You’re drunk.”
“What do you mean? I’m not drunk… hicc.”
Bom facepalmed.
“You, come here. Uh? Uh?”
Yeorum fell powerlessly and Bom walked up to support her. That was when she rubbed her head inside Bom’s embrace and muttered.
“Hngg… so soft…”
That wasn’t the end of the whole ordeal and in the first place, there had been two presences that could be felt from inside the room. While Bom was dealing with the drunkard, Yu Jitae walked into his room.
“…”
From the floor on the other side of the bed, Kaeul barely raised her body up while shaking. Maybe Yeorum had forced her to drink, but the drunk baby chicken slovenly waved her hand after seeing Yu Jitae.
“Yooo, Mister Yu~”
She then fully showcased her drunkenness.
“How many days has it been? Hard to see your damn mug~”
“…”
“You can’t do thatt. Dear mother said that a man wandering outside should be slapped on their butt…”
“…”
“Do you know what that kind of guy is…?”
After murmuring to herself, she faced her blank stare at the wall and gave a frown. Soon, tears started forming on her eyes.
“Dear. Who’s that bitch?”
What’s happening.
“I knew it… How come you never mature up after all those damn years…? Whaat? You met her just thenn? Don’t freakin’ lie through your sharp teeth…”
“…”
“You said you would treat me well forever. Oh my, I was deceived like a fool. Do you think I’m into old dotards like you–? Back in my dayss, I carried around twenty carriages of younger and more handsome men–”
“…”
“It’s in the blood, ey? One thousand years ago when your father was drooling over me, I should have known it…”
Listening to her speak, it became apparent that she had a strange household history. In the middle of her speech, Kaeul suddenly flicked her head to the side and formed a ferocious look on her face.
“Wh, what do you think you’re looking at? Is it interesting? Can you not read the mood at all…? Come here. Oi, did you not hear me speak…!”
She reached her hand out mid-air as if she was grabbing onto someone’s hair. Her extreme immersion was as if she had been possessed by something. Yu Jitae felt as if he could clearly see Kaeul’s mother dragon, whom he had never seen before, pulling at someone’s hair.
Left with no other choice, Yu Jitae straightened his hand and struck the back of her neck.
[Knifehand Strike (D)]
“Kuang!”
The baby chicken fainted.
***
Early next morning.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Pairs of eyes, each coloured in olive, red and gold, gathered at Yu Jitae. Without a word, they quietly stared at him.
“…”
Gyeoul was glaring at Ha Saetbyul, who fell on the floor from the sofa after rolling in her sleep. Her small arms were in a cross. [Displeased] – that word seemed to be hanging on her face.
He had been thinking of telling them to refrain from drinking when they woke up in the morning, but the atmosphere was for some reason like an interview with himself as the interviewee.
Staring at Yu Jitae, their eyes seemed to be requesting an explanation. Who is that woman? What relationship do you have with her? Why did you bring her here? Those were what their gazes appeared to be asking.
The Regressor contemplated for a bit from several options.
Choice 1. Ex-girlfriend.
This most likely wouldn’t be a good explanation. Although Ha Saetbyul had been covered with Yu Jitae’s coat, she had been naked until this morning when Bom put clothes on her, and the signs of battle were still on her body.
Choice 2. An ex-demon soldier.
With this explanation, the reason for him bringing her here would be unclear. The children were currently undertaking a high-level education, and therefore held animosity against demons. Thus, Yeorum might run up and kick her head if he said that.
Choice 3. Hostility flying here from the other side of the Horizon of Providence and entering the body of an ex-lover blah blah blah…
…Of course, this was dismissed.
“Who is that person?”
Bom asked with the same expression as always, and her tone as well as expression seemed to be suggesting that this wasn’t anything significant.
“I saw her during the night, and she was naked.”
Yeorum started her sentence.
“Hehh, I didn’t think you were that type of person but… even you are nothing but a male, huh? Un? It’s that, right? The…”
She repeatedly smacked her fist into her palm, before letting out a snigger.
“My mum said to not let unfamiliar women into the house…”
Kaeul’s voice was filled with worry.
That’s probably because your father…
In any case, he couldn’t stay silent about it forever, and unable to come up with a good solution, Yu Jitae spoke of whatever that came into mind.
“Someone I know.”
The expressions of the three changed, each to their own.
“Right. You know, that’s how things are. An acquaintance becomes a close friend after taking off the coat, and takes off the shirt to become a girlfriend, and after removing her under…”
“W, w, wait! Wait! If she’s just someone you know, why did you bring her in here?!”
Kaeul asked once again.
“There’s something, right? Right?”
She then threw a glance to the side, as Yu Jitae shook his head in response.
“There’s nothing.”
The baby chicken remained doubtful, and for some reason, the top of her hair was in a ‘?’ shape.
“Stop with the misunderstandings. She’s just someone I know myself. We’re not that close, and she doesn’t even know me either.”
It was true.
If ‘Hostility’ had indeed disappeared, Ha Saetbyul would have lost the memories that had deviated from this timeline. In other words after waking up, she would see Yu Jitae as a complete stranger.
“Then why did you bring her here, when she doesn’t even know who you are?”
“It’s because it was necessary.”
“Is it because of money?!”
“No…”
Kaeul apparently was mistaking him as a kidnapper or something, but well, it wasn’t wrong.
After some thought, Yu Jitae opened his mouth.
“There’s a bad guy somewhere. He hid himself at a very secretive place, and this woman knows where that guy is. Because of that, I need to take her around for some time and ask her questions.”
“Really? What about after you finish asking her what you need to ask?”
“I’ll send her on her way.”
Yu Jitae glanced at the status message of Vintage Clock.
[[Hostility]’s Trace Fragment gathered: 9.8%…]
[Vintage Clock (EX)] was working hard on it. It had gathered up to 5% in the blink of an eye, but the speed started getting slower after passing 7%. The process would probably stop at around 15% or so, and that meant that this alone wouldn’t allow him to locate that guy immediately.
“You see, I don’t really mind but…”
“I do mind it a bit!”
Cutting off Yeorum’s words, the baby chicken opened her mouth.
“Why.”
“Here, is our lair. And I would like to keep it that way.”
Kaeul spoke with a careful tone.
Lair? School?
But after some thinking, he realised that she was referring to a dragon’s lair, and while stealing another glance to the side, Kaeul continued her words.
“I like our lair a lot. If I return here from outside, I feel at ease, and just being in here is enjoyable. This is the first time I’m feeling this ever since I left my mum’s lair, and having another human apart from ahjussi in a place like this is uncomfortable…”
“What about the cleaner?”
“He’s not a human… and there are similar protectors in our own lair as well.”
It seemed that Kaeul’s words weren’t just limited to her own opinion, as Yeorum was also looking at Ha Saetbyul with a fairly discontent gaze, which was the same for Gyeoul who had her arms crossed.
Surprisingly, Bom seemed to be the one who felt the least concerned about it.
He knew that dragons liked to keep to themselves, but this reminded him once again. It was possible for him to ignore their opinions and keep her here, and that’s what he probably would have done if it had been in the past.
But looking back on the memories of the daily lives that had been experienced by his clone, this sort of discord tended to increase in seriousness as time went. Besides, the dragons were more important to him than Ha Saetbyul.
Thinking that there was no other option, he was thinking of a substitute location when a status message floated up.
[10% of [Hostility]’s Trace Fragment has been gathered.]
[From the fragments that had been gathered, the Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] discovered new information.]
[A target that has been directly possessed by the [Hostility] enters the abnormal state, [Mental Contamination]. Until [Mental Contamination] is lifted, the target’s personality, actions and vocabulary are negatively affected.]
Abnormal state: [Mental Contamination]
This was a phenomenon that was commonly found in other dimensions. As if the person became a totally different being, someone that has been mentally contaminated would repeat disrespectful and violent actions.
Ha Saetbyul would become like that?
That doubt was answered after a few hours.
That day was a normal weekday. Excluding Yeorum who had no classes on that day, Bom and Kaeul had headed to the school district. Yu Jitae was lying down in his room, while Yeorum was watching drama in the living room.
Slowly, Ha Saetbyul’s eyes opened up. She was looking around with a face that resembled a cat and realised that she was at an unfamiliar place, when her eyes met with Yeorum’s.
“Kyaak!” she screamed.
“W, where is this place!?”
“Who knows. Definitely not your house though.”
Ha Saetbyul checked her own clothes. She was wearing a shirt she was seeing for the first time, and her underwear were gone. After realising that, she was frightened.
“Who are you? What did you do to me?”
Since Yeorum had heard about the mental contamination from Yu Jitae already, she tried her best to word things nicely.
“Well, I was curious whether you guys mated or not, but according to him, you didn’t. So shut your mouth please. You’re too noisy.”
This was her best attempt at it.
“M, mated? Freakin’… you guys made a mistake.”
Wearing an indifferent expression, Ha Saetbyul stood up and picked up a glass vase that was next to her. Following her, Yeorum stood up with a frown while murmuring, “Uh? This crazy bitch?”
She raised the vase and bashed the wall with it. As the vase shattered with a clink, a sharp chip of glass was inside her hand like a sword.
“Move to the side! So that I can leave!”
“…”
“Maybe I don’t look like it, but I’m a superhuman too, okay? Step aside if you don’t want to get hurt!”
That was when Yu Jitae slowly walked out of his room. According to his knowledge, people with mental contamination had disgusting personalities that resembled psychopaths and yet Ha Saetbyul was acting fairly nicely despite the contamination.
It must be because her original personality was like an angel’s.
Around that point in time, Yeorum glanced back at Yu Jitae.
Her gaze asked, ‘Can I punch her?’
He gave a nod, and gestured that a light oppression would be fine.
“Old lady, drop that thing.”
“Who’s an old lady?! I’m twenty-six years old!”
She became angry at a weird place. In fact, she disliked the fact that she appeared slightly more mature than her actual age.
“I’ll say it one more time. Drop that, before I do something to you.”
When Yeorum walked up, Ha Saetbyul frowned and attacked her. Ha Saetbyul’s original world rank of 871, was achieved thanks to the power of Lakshata, the lord of the abyss, and after losing her powers as a demon, she was a lot weaker than what one might expect.
Facing the glass fragment that came flying in, Yeorum crunched on it and stopped it with her teeth.
“Uh… huh!?”
Despite her effort, the glass didn’t go any further. Before long, Yeorum bit harder onto the glass, which broke once again into several smaller fragments.
Ha Saetbyul was yet again flustered.
“I warned you already.”
Yeorum started using her wrestling skills which had been honed after various experiences, and with her head facing down on the floor, Ha Saetbyul screamed in agony.
Meanwhile, Yu Jitae who had been quietly watching the situation unfold from a distance, felt another gaze.
Jing…
A pair of eyes flickered in a crimson light. Turning around, he found the protector glaring at him.
“Give me my sword back…”
Due to the aftermath of the mental contamination, the protector too was in a strange state.
“Didn’t you take it? Answer me, Yu Jitae!”
What a mess.
Yu Jitae pressed his temples.
But it was okay because he had just thought of a place where he could place the two of them. That place was very deep and secretive, and was a place which was hard for others to reach. At the same time, it was a place where the Regressor had locked the dragons up in the previous iterations.
[Underground Labyrinth]
That place would be quite decent.