Chapter 21: Gyeoul / Winter (1) (2/2)
Around the time he oddly began feeling worried, Kaeul received the flower from Bom and walked up to Yu Jitae before placing the flower behind his ear. Then, she started laughing out loud like a baby chicken while Bom and Yeorum both seemed to be laughing as well.
Yu Jitae’s dark expression despite having a beautiful pink flower was like a painting.
“I’ll take the photo then!”
“…”
Click!
Taking a few more pictures, they showed it to each other and laughed. Meanwhile Yu Jitae remained still while hugging Gyeoul.
Soon, the Blue Dragon’s eyes quivered before being carefully lifted up.
It stared at Yu Jitae.
And Yu Jitae stared back.
*
It was late at night.
Since Bom volunteered to take care of the child, Yeorum returned to her room and Kaeul went back to her room with the declaration script and a regretful expression.
He heated the milk until it was warm and poured it into the baby bottle. When he asked ‘what do baby dragons eat?’ Bom replied by saying they don’t need to. But when they do eat something delicious, they would enjoy that feeling, it seemed.
In curiosity, he tried tasting the powdered milk and realised that it tasted like a plain version of milk. He wasn’t sure if it would suit the baby’s taste.
“Ah, I’ll do it.”
Bom received the bottle from him.
Gulping the milk down her throat, Gyeoul stared back and forth between Bom and Yu Jitae. Although he had no talent in reading the expression of dragons, the dragon’s favourability when checked through [Eyes of Equilibrium] was a continuation of ‘like’, ‘like’ and ‘like’.
It meant that Gyeoul enjoyed it.
Late at night, when he was about to return to his own room, Bom asked if he could stay a bit longer.
“Why.”
“It will start getting busy after the semester begins, but we have some free time now right? I was thinking of doing a magic transference for Gyeoul.”
“Magic transference?”
“Yes. She will get bigger and bigger as time goes and she can’t stay in this form for a few years so I wanted to teach her how to polymorph.”
He asked not because he didn’t know what it was.
[Magic Transference] proceeds with the life force of the caster as a mortgage and uses a tremendous amount of mana. It could be compared to the process of cutting up one’s own flesh and having someone else eat it.
It wasn’t as extreme as sacrificing half of their remaining lifespan or something but those he knew of would stay in bed for a few months with a weak body after completing magic transference.
“Will you be alright?”
“Yes. I think it would be better for this child as well if she could gain interesting experiences together with us as fast as possible.”
“Got it.”
Although she would be safe as long as she stayed in the dorm, she was asking him to stay nearby regardless because she would be in a completely defenceless state during the process of a magic transference.
He sat on the sofa.
“Gyeoul. You can’t move from now on okay.”
Perhaps having felt Bom’s feelings, Gyeoul straightened her body stiffly.
After hugging Gyeoul, she placed her forehead on the Blue Dragon’s forehead. Since the ritual and the communication of emotions occurred from a brain to another, it was a required contact.
Soon, mana started flowing through from Bom’s forehead over to Gyeoul’s. Without a word, Yu Jitae kept his seat until the transfer ended.
Magic Transference didn’t end with just once. It lasted around six hours a day, for two days, before continuing on to the third day. Meanwhile, Yu Jitae helped Kaeul prepare for the declaration audition, while waiting for the polymorph to work.
On the fourth day, Bom’s face drastically turned muddled in exhaustion. With a sunken face and a pair of unfocused eyes, she blankly ate the sushi Yu Jitae bought, a tiny bit at a time.
“Are you okay, unni? You almost look like a zombie.”
“Yeah, a bit tired.”
“Is there still a lot left?”
“I think today will be the last.”
“…That sounds like a lot of trouble. But at the same time, I’m a bit jealous. I want to touch Gyeoul as well.”
Kaeul found it regrettable. Gyeoul slept for over ten and a few hours a day and received magic from Bom whenever she was awake. Due to that, there was no room for Kaeul or Yu Jitae to approach her.
Fortunately, Bom’s hard work wasn’t betrayed. By the end of the night on the fourth day, right before dawn, Bom drove her head in the wooden tile like a fermented spring onion kimchi after having completed the magic transference.
“Are you done?”
“…”
The back of the head placed on the wooden floor gave a faint nod. She used up all her power to the point she couldn’t take care of her own body. Raising her up, Yu Jitae brought her to her bed.
“Take a good sleep.”
“I won’t be sleeping for that long.”
“Why.”
“Kaeul still has her audition so… I’ll sleep just a few days… and wake…”
Her voice stopped in the middle of a speech as she started dozing off while snoring. Yu Jitae placed a blanket over her and left the room but the moment he did, something he was seeing for the first time entered his sight.
A back of a head and hair resembling the colour of the ocean could be seen. The curly long hair was in an unkempt, messy state.
Other than that, a small body, a small head, and an even smaller shoulder, as well as a diaper he bought was seen beneath the tiny back. Bom seemed to have made the child wear it despite there being no need to.
That was the appearance of Gyeoul in her polymorphed state.
The child that took the form of a human was sitting on the floor tilting its head in every direction. Yu Jitae quietly approached the child and crouched down before calling it.
“Hi.”
Gyeoul turned around.
There seemed to be exhaustion and sleepiness hanging on her large, clear, blue eyes but the moment they found Yu Jitae’s eyes, a smile instantaneously flooded her expression. Making a bright smile, Gyeoul moved her lips but stuttered, perhaps because she didn’t know how to speak yet.
Yu Jitae raised the child up on her two feet. She already appeared like a three year-old human child and could stand on her own feet. Dragons in their polymorphed state grew extremely rapidly and kept their youth for thousands of years. Thinking back on the previous rounds, the Blue Dragon was ought to grow up and be like others before long.
When he raised her up, he realised that she should wear something so borrowing a shirt from Kaeul, who had a shorter height than others, he put it on the child.
Feeling the lower ends of the shirt reaching her legs, she seemed intrigued. But it was late at night, and Gyeoul appeared exhausted from the aftermath of the magic transference.
“Let’s go to sleep now.”
As Yu Jitae was about to raise Gyeoul up for a hug, she threw her arms wide open towards Yu Jitae. When he remained still, she leaned forward and held Yu Jitae’s two cheeks before pulling him towards herself.
Thinking that it might be thinking of a peck on the mouth, he attempted to turn his head away when a small forehead reached and touched his forehead.
In that small distance with touching foreheads, the pair of blue eyes blinked and looked directly at Yu Jitae.
He made a faint smile.
It seemed that the child thought of this as a way of expressing affection.