Chapter 133: Negotiation Skills (1) (1/2)
‘Once addicted to sweet stuff, you cannot find enjoyment from anything not sweet.’
Gyeoul these days was always eating lollies.
Staring at the leftover food, the Regressor thought to himself.
On the plate were vegetables, meats, a block of cheese and fruits with no signs of Gyeoul having even touched them. But if she felt happiness from eating sweet stuff, isn’t that more than enough? The Regressor therefore wasn’t going to intervene.
However, the dragons seemed to think otherwise.
“Ehng? Gyeoul! Why did you leave these behind? Wait, you didn’t even touch them… My mum said you shouldn’t leave any food behind.”
Kaeul raised the problem;
“A little kid is already this picky. Oi Gyeoul you kid, don’t you know how important it is to eat during the Amusement?”
Yeorum criticised her;
“You’re not allowed to eat lollies for now.”
And Bom made a special arrangement for the problem.
Gyeoul stared at her two hands that were now empty after the container of lollies had been confiscated.
Those soft yet chewy lollies that tasted sweet,
Those sweet yet savoury lollies with an exhilaratingly soury kick,
Those gem-like lollies of vibrant colours that were always in her hands…
They were no longer there…
“…How, could, this be…”
She became depressed.
On a certain weekend, Yu Jitae took Bom and Kaeul out of Unit 301.
“Why just us two? What about Gyeoul?”
“I want to ask a few questions about shedding skin.”
“Shedding skin?”
Kaeul widened her eyes. Shedding skin referred to how dragons shed their old skin as their bodies grew in size. They walked into a cafe near the residential area as Bom ordered Yu Jitae’s drink today as well.
“Nn? Why are you choosing ahjussi’s drink, unni?”
“Because he only drinks coffee.”
She squinted her eyes and smiled.
“Is that soo? Hmmm~”
“Why. Is it weird?”
“Hehe.”
They sat on a table after receiving their drinks. Both in the fifth and the sixth iterations, the Blue Dragon had gone through two skin-shedding processes according to his knowledge.
Every time it happened, the Regressor was not inside the underground labyrinth so he didn’t exactly know the type of situation she was in. The only thing he checked back then was that there were no threats to her life and health.
By the time he arrived there after the Blue Dragon shed skin, he was met with the old shell of a dragon, body fluids and blood. Due to the effects of [Fragment of Paradise], the whole place was in a mess. He had faint memories of how the Green Dragon was sluggishly cleaning up the mess.
Looking back to it, that was when the Blue Dragon began acting weird. Despite being under the influence of the paradise, she trembled anxiously or injured herself by biting on the skin.
He thought it was weird but didn’t think it was very serious, because something similar happened everywhere in the battlefield.
But now, it was something that had to be asked.
“You guys went through it as well, right?”
“Yes yes. I went through it twice.”
Kaeul, who was now 11, said with a smile.
“But mine came quite fast!”
“Fast?”
“Yes yes. Shedding skin depends a lot on the situation. My mum was very very loving so mine was a bit earlier.”
Love.
It was a tough topic.
“Right. The environment is very important.”
Bom added more.
“It’s more the environment than love. What’s important is whether the situation needs them to grow or not, and that’s why the thoughts of the hatchling are significantly important.”
“The thoughts of the hatchling?”
“You see, dragons can grow as much as they want, to the form they want to grow in.”
“Right right! I wanted to become an adult as soon as possible!”
“Why?”
“My mum was the guardian deity of Kirido Dukedom.”
Kirido Dukedom was probably the name of a country back in Askalifa.
“My mum being loved by the citizens looked very cool and I became jealous, so I wanted to look after my mum. That’s why I’m really similar to my mum, like, appearance and stuff.”
“I see. Then what do you think of our unit as an environment.”
“Hmm…!”
Both Kaeul and Bom pondered for a bit before replying.
“It feels like our house.”
“Me too. It’s comfortable and snuggish.”
“Un un. First, I love how ahjussi always buys us delicious breakfast in the morning. What about you unni?”
“I…”
While they were chattering about what they loved about Unit 301, he thought to himself.
Both the underground labyrinth that forcibly injected happiness and Unit 301 that contained peaceful daily lives weren’t environments that required one to grow rapidly.
He sent a message with his watch.
[Me: Yeorum]
[Yu Yeorum: ??]
[Yu Yeorum: What’s up lol]
[Me: When did you shed skin]
[Yu Yeorum: When I was super young]
[Yu Yeorum: Like 3 times yeah]
3 times at the age of 16, and when she was young.
Since she had to become stronger, she had to become an adult as soon as possible. That’s why she went through the process multiple times at a young age.
It made sense according to what they were saying.
[Me: K]
[Yu Yeorum: -.-]
[Yu Yeorum: What’s up? Is that all? -.-]
Yu Jitae turned the messenger off. The alarm rang a few more times after that but he nonchalantly ignored them.
There was a time when he had taken Bom to the underground labyrinth. He therefore decided to ask her.
“If Gyeoul sheds skin at the underground labyrinth, what would it be like.”
“What? You definitely can’t do that.”
Bom’s response came immediately after his words.
“Why.”
“We become really sensitive when shedding skin. It’s the time when dragons become the most sensitive. At a young age, it’s hard to control mana properly and the body hasn’t grown enough so both the body and the mind are extremely fragile. The light from the labyrinth will have a negative impact for sure.”
The Regressor didn’t know what to say. It was rare for Bom to say something in such a clear-cut manner.
“Hukk. Really? Where is the underground labyrinth? What’s it like!?”
Kaeul, the only one that hadn’t visited the labyrinth yet, widened her eyes.
“It’s like a mental hospital, where happiness is forcefully injected into you.”
“Ahah…! Then if I shed skin there, would I like, die or something?”
“You won’t die, but wouldn’t it feel like you’d rather die?”
“Wow… that’s even scarier… but why?”
“We become sensitive when shedding skin right. We can’t take in irrational and unreasonable things when that happens, so what would it feel like to have happiness injected into us?”
“Nn? Nn? I see… right, I also heard my mum swearing about my dad when I was shedding skin…”
The two of them chatted, going through a simulation of how it would be like in such a situation.
Meanwhile, the Regressor gazed at the blue lemonade that Bom ordered with a hazy gaze.