Chapter 190: Discussion Topic: Compliments (1) (1/2)
The extracted heart still had its vitality and wriggled, trying to escape from BM. But it couldn’t go far and was soon stopped by Yu Jitae’s foot. Despite being under his foot, the heart continued struggling but not for long.
As is always the case, the life of a parasite after leaving its host was as precarious as a candlelight in the midst of a storm. Before long, the heart stopped completely.
That day,
BM buried his head into the small shoulders of the limp child and wept out loud. Without even moving an inch, he cried in that spot overnight so Yu Jitae left the inner room after dealing with the heart. Until BM came to himself, he stayed in the labyrinth.
Since Yu Jitae was obviously not in a good mood either, the special force agents didn’t disturb him. The next day, Yeorum came through the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)], which he had left open inside the study, and asked.
“Where’s that person?”
Yu Jitae gestured at the workshop with his chin.
“Is he still like that?”
“Yeah.”
“…”
She sat right next to him. Just like him, she remained silent for a long time but later opened her mouth as if she suddenly came up with something.
“You know what,”
“Yeah.”
“If BM thought of that chimera as his child, that means he’s already given that child affection right.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think he can still give affection to the child that will be born later?”
“That will depend on the person.”
“What if you were in his shoes? What do you think?”
“What about you,” he asked her back.
“But I asked you first?”
“So why don’t you give the answer first as well then.”
“…”
Yeorum gave him a slight glare. Then, she tilted her head before clicking her tongue.
“Why,” he asked.
“I feel like the way you speak these days is hella cheeky. I wonder why?”
“…”
“It was better when you were boring.”
“…”
“Anyways, for me… hmm… Fu*k, I don’t know. How would I know. I didn’t have a kid or have pets before.”
She grumbled before glancing his way.
“So like, what do you think.”
“I don’t really know either.”
“Ah, what the hell, for real…”
Yu Jitae thought to himself.
He never had a child before and he wasn’t even interested in having a child in the first place. After realising the world was repeating itself, he went almost mental and even though such opportunities did come across from time to time, he avoided them altogether.
However, even he had farewells and new encounters.
One example was these baby dragons. There were times when there was an affectionate connection between them, although it might have been extremely shallow. And although that connection was long gone,
Even now, Yu Jitae was giving affection to the dragons.
…While he was thinking along the lines of that, he suddenly felt strange.
Giving them affection?
No.
He had never given them affection.
Then why was it that he found it so natural and relaxing even when Yeorum was slapping him on his arm and grumbling like a boar?
It was strange.
He had never planned to give anyone affection. This was the same for all 4 hatchlings. Never had he tried to become closer with one of the kids and his only wish was to spend normal lives with them. Was it normal for bonds and connections to be formed abruptly like this?
Did I give them affection?
…After thinking endlessly, the Regressor realised that it was a wrong choice of words. Affection wasn’t something that was given – it was something that was formed and deepened by itself.
To express it in clearer words; it seemed that the Regressor had become fond of the dragons without even realising it.
“Nn? What?”
Yeorum looked at him but he remained silent.
Back when Bom said that she could ‘tell Yu Jitae’s expressions apart’, Yeorum thought to herself that Bom must be hella talented to pull that off. But now, even Yeorum could tell that Yu Jitae’s expression had changed.
“What’s wrong?’
His gaze, which was always hazy, appeared as if it was almost about to disperse.
“Hey. What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“No…”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Creak–
That was when BM opened the door of the workshop and walked out in tatters. He walked up to Yu Jitae with staggering steps before lowering his head a little.
Standing up from the seat, Yu Jitae headed to the workshop. Yeorum tried to follow but he stopped her with his hands. Begrudgingly, she stayed behind on the spot.
Lying down in the workshop was a child without a heart. His skin still looked healthy, and it would stay like that for a fairly long time because the body itself was also a chimera. However, unlike the heart, this chimera was the ‘real’ one which was formed with the ‘hair’, following Yu Jitae’s recipe.
Yu Jitae opened the [Shallows of the Abyss (S)]. This particular alternate dimension was unique. It was extremely wide and contained a lot of special places that can be used to serve various purposes.
“Take the child and stabilise him.”
Following his command, white translucent hands reached forth and embraced Jung Taebaek’s body, before pulling it inside the dark alternate dimension. In the slightly deeper areas of that dimension, there was a place where time flowed extremely slowly. It was a place he often treated like a fridge and the child would be kept in that area.
However, more things had to be done instead of simply keeping the child in that area. To place a new heart inside the body that lost its perfectly fitting heart, he needed to remove all the mana attributes that had already spread to all corners of the body.
Flipping the ‘will’ of an existence was different from changing that of an object. Easier put, it was the same as the process of changing a person to a completely different person. Since it was an extremely inefficient and unnecessary task, no-one even gave it a try in the past.
Even if they did give it a try, they probably wouldn’t have succeeded.
However, for some reason, Yu Jitae had undergone such experiments before. Although his memories of the 4th+ iterations were hazy, the data gained from those researches and experiments were still vivid in his head.
As long as BM wished for it, he was ready to start anytime.
“I need some time,”
After the silence, BM opened his mouth while sitting powerlessly on the chair of the workshop.
“I need a little bit of rest… Let me contact you again later.”
Crumbled and exhausted, the wasted man powerlessly smiled. Yu Jitae looked into his eyes, before throwing him a question.
“Do you have any intention of making an extreme decision like suicide or concealing yourself?”
“No. I do not.”
“Don’t reply to the Association during your rest then.”
“Sorry?”
“You won’t be able to catch him anyway.”
“… …I see.”
Yu Jitae stood up from his seat. He then disappeared from the underground labyrinth without bidding him farewell.
Time was the best medicine – to anyone, so long as they were a human.