Chapter 51: Underground Labyrinth (1) (2/2)
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.