Yu Jitae continued teaching Yeorum on how to make the best use of a core, and how to safely handle the increased output.
It was always the three of them whenever they were training thanks to the addition of Bom. Her spells were very handy because most of the training required specific set-ups so he involved her in the process.
But on the other hand, he found it strange.
Bom had been busy going around meeting her acquaintances at the Association but these days, she was following him so often that she had stopped attending those meetings.
âAh, I told them Iâll be busy for a while.â
Why was she suddenly following him around? He asked her in case she was being jealous of Yeorum but she did not say anything meaningful in return.
âThere is nothing for you to worry aboutâŠâ
And she always did the same thing. Crouching in a corner of the training room, Bom always quietly watched them train as if she wasnât there and stayed there until the end unless he called her.
âYouâre really great at this. Yeorum.â
âHuh? Oh, really?â
Yeorum became less concerned by it after having it happen over and over again but Yu Jitae thought otherwise while looking at Bom.
As always,
Bom never did anything unnecessary.
So then, why was she following them around?
âCan I go with you today as well?â
âYeah. Letâs go.â
Even though he didnât know the reason, he supposed this at least wouldnât be that big of a problem. The only reason he could guess was that she was being jealous of the relationship between Yeorum and himself but that was highly unlikely.
Even if the unlikely cause behind her bizarre actions really was jealousy, that wasnât anything to be greatly concerned by. Bom had always been quite sensitive about the approach of opposite genders and plus, he always drew a clear line and Yeorum too was being considerate of Bom and drawing a boundary herself.
ââŠâ
That was why he let her be but she did other strange things on top. Floating a flower above her hand with magic, she glared at it with an anxious look on her face.
It was a flower he knew about.
[Stardrop]
This was used as a substitute for a torch by spirits living inside dark caves because plucking a petal of the flower resulted in a fluorescent light. The spirits tended to use that to light the path in front of them.
In addition, the spirits plucked the petals in times of difficulty to guess their future, since every flower had a different number of petals.
It will be a problem. It wonât be a problem. Will be. Wonât beâŠ
Bom mumbled while plucking the petals one by one with a worried expression. After removing all the petals, her eyebrows turned crooked, making her look even more depressed.
âWhat are you doing, Bom. Why are you pulling the flower apart all of a sudden.â
âHmmâŠâ
âIs there something youâre worried about?â
âNnnnâŠâ
Would this be how a puppy would look when it was itching to take a dump only to find out there was no toilet nearby?
With such an expression on her face, Bom shook her head and floated another flower. She took a deep breath in before plucking the petals again.
He couldnât understand the reason behind her actions. Her eccentric actions continued without an end and lasted almost three months.
For those three months, he continued teaching Yeorum.
âDonât be in too much of a rush when youâre increasing your output.â
âYah. Understood.â
While teaching Yeorum,
âI want a dog. A large one with jet-black fur.â
He met Myu to conduct an experiment. He successfully analysed which parts of the Origin Fragment corresponded to which [Authority].
Myu began to act like a queen after moving to a wider isolation room. The director of the isolation chambers, Thimithi, expressed her concerns but Yu Jitae permitted it. Not because Myu was pretty but because the black race had a tendency to attach more meaning to their own territories and it could therefore be used as a good carrot. He would immediately move her out if she became disobedient.
âHello, dear Association.
âYou have all become old. 10 years have done much to your appearances.â
The Witch left the deep depths of the dungeon and revealed herself at the Association as Clone 2 escorted her with a flushed face.
âUun? When did you comee?â
And Kaeul, who sometimes left the house without saying anything, was found crouching at a park near the residential area. It was the place where they had first fed the baby chicken.
âHe should be healthy right?
âHe sometimes comes out in my dreams, and there, he was living happilyâŠ
ââŠCan you please pat my head.â
Time passed.
Yeorum planned for another duel with Rank 29 of the Association and demonstrated a natural manipulation over the output to finally succeed in defeating him. He used to be an unsurpassable wall a few months ago and it was thanks to her gaining immaculate control over the 6-unsealed core.
âYesss! Die, dieâ!â
She was about to step on the head of the guy that was still on the ground so he had to stop her.
âMy onion core really is the bestâ!
âBom-unni, I love you â„â
Bom congratulated her with a bright smile but could not control her eyes from twitching outside her vision.
Yu Jitae realised that she was feeling extremely agitated.
***
It was immediately after her victory against Rank 29 of the Association.
Yeorum was overage already. She wanted to drink after winning the duel so Yu Jitae took her alongside Bom to a bar that had a decent ambience.
âCheers, for I, Yu Yeorum!â
âCheersâŠ!â
Bom raised her voice and clinked her bottle with hers. The kids cancelled the detoxification blessing in their bodies and poured alcohol into their mouths to get drunk as Yeorum began listing her heroic stories.
But right when their tipsiness was about to hit the limit, Bom suddenly grabbed a spirit with 50% alcohol and chugged the bottle.
âHuhh? Youâre drinking the whole thing?â
Yeorum giggled and followed suit but felt a sudden nausea hitting her head so she had to stealthily use mana to push the intoxication away. It was quite an embarrassing thing to do, so she did so while giving out empty coughs.
However, on the other hand, Bom continued chugging the spirit without forcing the intoxication out with mana, as Yeorum asked in a fluster.
âUnni. Calm down. Why are you drinking so much?â
âItâs fineeâŠâ
âYouâre pretty much gone already. What do you mean fine?â
âI just feel like getting drunk todayyâŠâ
âTake it slow. Or sober up a little at least. Your whole face is red right now, you know that. And plus your eyes donât look sane.â
Bom did not stop. Only when she was so drunk that the entire world was revolving in her vision did she finally release her glass.
Then, she opened her mouth with a very slow tone of voice.
âUhh, I have something to sayâŠâ
She began talking about the reason behind her anxiety over the past three months.
âI have been unlucky ever since I was very young.â
Her luck had constantly been put to the test at home and she had always been unlucky, to the point that she even wondered whether the world itself hated her or not.
That was why she wasnât as flustered as the other kids even when they had met the dimensional disjoint on their first Amusement.
âAh, is that why you suddenly said sorry to us on that day when our Amusements were fucked?â
âNn⊠because it was probably my faultâŠâ
âI was wondering what the heck you were suddenly about. Isnât that all just a myth?â
ââŠâ
But, although very rare, there were times when she was absurdly lucky and an example was her recent 6 consecutive successes with Yeorumâs core. The problem was that those lucky times were always followed by a âreactionâ.
âWhat kind of reaction.â
âA separationâŠâ
âSeparation?â
âThe first time I became lucky, my father left after a few days. It wasnât âluckâ at allâŠâ
Bom refrained from sharing the details.
âWhat about the second time?â
âI had a younger sister,â said Bom while grabbing the bottle with both of her hands. Her voice was very serene.
âA sister? You never mentioned that before, did youâŠ?â
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âSheâs dead.â
ââŠâŠWhat?â
A father and a sister. They were the beings the young baby Bom had treasured the most in the world.
Memories of the time were too wretched and unfortunate that they could have negatively affected the entire childhood of the young hatchling, so her mother touched her memories to make them hazy. She then told Bom, âItâs not your fault,â so Bom in fact could not remember the exact details.
However, that could not completely erase the memory, so Bom was about to go crazy from anxiety.
Yeorum continued bothering her, asking whether it was true after she was done with her words. It was because Bom appeared so composed despite sharing such a serious past.
Because of that, Bom shared her memories and emotions with her. Yeorum, who had been asking things, widened her eyes in utter shock after receiving her emotions.
âWait, fuckâŠâ
And could not say anything else.
âBut, itâs alright. My memories are hazy thanks to my motherâs help. It feels like it never even happened and like the plot of a drama, itâs not that painful. ButâŠâ
Her father who had been the most precious person in the world.
And her younger sister, who helped her endure after the departure of her father through the hard times when she was learning magic from her mother.
She had already become distant from the two most precious people, and yet now, Bom had one more person that was precious to her.
Bom looked into Yu Jitaeâs eyes.
Soon, tears budded underneath her eyes. Rather than tears of sorrow, they instead resembled the tears of a drunkard.
Yu Jitae nodded after realising the situation.
âAhjussiiiâŠâ
âItâs fine.â
âYouâre not going to die rightâŠ?â
âI wonât. Who in the world would possibly kill me.â
His words were mysteriously persuasive. It was indeed hard to imagine anyone killing Yu Jitae and Bom nodded despite being massively drunk.
âBut, you wonât like, leave us without saying anything, before the end of the Amusement rightâŠ?â
âOf course I wonât. I was the one that forced you guys to come here so why would I leave.â
She didnât seem convinced and shed drops of tears with an indifferent look on her face.
âIâll die if you disappear without saying anything.â
âYou donât have to worry about it.â
Bom was still skeptical so Yu Jitae reached his hand out and shared a portion of his thoughts and emotions. He will not leave the dragons until the end of the Amusement â only after sensing those sincere thoughts and feelings did Bom heave a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the atmosphere wasnât too serene despite the conversation topic due to their intoxication.
But on the other hand, Bom crying with a runny nose was a very amusing sight. She pretended to be normal but her nose was bigger than before. Right when she became relieved, Yeorum giggled and started taking photos of her face.
âStoooppâŠâ
Bom retaliated and tried to snatch the watch, but the struggles of a person too drunk to even properly move their limbs was in vain.
âHeyy. Stop taking picturessâŠâ
âSo ugly lolâŠâ
âStill prettier than you okayâŠ?â
âLetâs see if you can say that after seeing your photoâŠâ
At this point, even Yeorum was quite drunk and was out of her mind. They were stumbling, blabbering about deleting the photos and whatnot when Bom placed a ball of cheese on top of Yeorumâs head.
âWhat is thissâŠâ
âEmergency provisions⊠Eat it if youâre hungry at homeâŠâ
âOhh, thanks. You really are very organisedâŠâ
Yeorum picked up another cheese ball and suddenly pulled Bomâs t-shirt before placing the cheese inside her underwear.
âWhy did you put it hereâŠ?â
âYou have three boobs now⊠Easy tripletsâŠâ
âGood⊠but why triplets? And not twinsâŠ?â
âEhng? What do you meanâŠ? You have three boobs now, you foolâŠâ
Hehe~ Kekek~ They laughed.
None of them were in their right minds.
But fortunately, it seemed that Bom had her fun from it,
Judging from how she tended to drink more often after that.
***
After coming to the Association for the first time in a while, Bom was meeting people and during her coincidental physical contact with Zhuge Haiyan, had a look at a portion of her memories.
Bomâs conversation topic had always been about Prophet Season and they were having a similar chat that day.
From her touch, she realised that Yu Jitae had been frequenting the underground hazard isolation rooms lately.
âBy the way, whatâs inside the underground isolation chamber?â
âOh? Did you not hear from the Prophet, Miss?â
But upon realising that, Zhuge Haiyan refused to talk about it and Bom had to call Yu Jitae on the way back home, asking about the thing inside the isolation room.
Yu Jitae casually returned a reply.
â Just a black dragon.
Bom felt a piece of lead dropping inside her head. Was he talking about the black dragon from before? That monster that was powerful enough to drop the Tower of Mages was still alive?
For a long time, she had trouble voicing out more words and after a few seconds, she finally managed to ask a question.