Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: Episode 61. Life Force (3)
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Forgiveness.
Forgiveness...
Muttering the word, it brushed past his tongue like a passing breeze, unfamiliar and fleeting.
The time he had slapped the face of Lun from the Erpan Guild. He hadn't forgiven him then. In other words, forgiveness had been possible at that moment. Lun had wronged him.
But not this time.
The Regressor was simply irritated by the desperate man's lack of desperation, his slack attitude. BM hadn't wronged him. So he had no right or position to forgive.
"What a waste of good liquor."
The Regressor poured the drink from the glass back into the bottle and sealed it.
"I'm being serious here. I've never laid out my circumstances like this before."
"I'm not joking around either."
"Then."
"If the kid grows up well. And ends up going to school. We'll have that drink then."
At Yoo Ji-tae's response, BM fell silent.
Behind the cracked sunglasses, his eyes were closed. After a long moment of thought, he finally spoke.
"What meaning is there in a kid going to school?"
The casual remark drew a question in return.
He couldn't quite explain the vague feeling, so he muddled his words.
"It just felt that way."
He had sensed something while watching Winter return from school. But he couldn't put it into words.
"I see."
BM seemed to accept it readily enough.
"Take the liquor with you. It brought back too many old memories—I couldn't drink it."
"You sure?"
"No lingering regrets anymore."
Yoo Ji-tae pocketed the bottle into his subspace.
Arandot's liquor thus returned to the embrace of the one who had gifted it.
Up until then, Yeoreum had been dazedly listening to BM. She seemed lost in thought. The kid kept trying to cling to her if she stayed still, so she turned and placed him on her lap.
When the awkward silence dragged on, Yeoreum set the kid down. Then she began teaching him words.
"Hey. Repeat after me. Yoo Yeoreum."
"Yoo... Yeo... Reum."
"Yeah. That's my name. What do you say?"
"Yoo... Yeo... Reum..."
"Good job. Now add 'Unni' after it. Unni."
"Un... Ni..."
"Put it together. What is it?"
"What... All...?"
"No, you little punk. Yoo. Yeo. Reum. Un. Ni."
Tae-baek looked stunned. He met Yeoreum's eyes. With her aura dispersed, the kid stared into his big sister's eyes for a long while before opening his mouth.
"Yoo... Yeo... Reum... Un... Ni."
Only then did Yeoreum nod in satisfaction.
Around that time, BM stood up. Perhaps out of some guardian instinct, Tae-baek blinked his red eyes and toddled over to BM, clinging to his leg.
"Not now."
"Ah... Ni... Ya...?"
"Yeah. Hold my hand. Let's go for now."
With those cryptic words, BM lightly bowed toward Yoo Ji-tae.
"Thanks for the ride."
BM staggered out with the kid in tow.
Once they were gone.
"We're back!"
A couple of hours later, the kids returned, chattering about the movie. It grew late, bedtime.
That was when Yeoreum knocked on Yoo Ji-tae's study door.
"What is it?"
"Um."
The girl entering the room wore a slightly sullen expression. She avoided his eyes. Her voice was subdued.
"Is that kid gonna be okay?"
He knew what her question meant.
It acted so human. Adorably so. But it was a chimera. Just like the chimera horde he'd seen days ago. The kid's heart was a bizarre purple mass.
Yeoreum waited for Yoo Ji-tae to say it was fine.
For a brief moment, her heart had gone out to the kid. Probably because of those damn red eyes and hair. That's how she convinced herself.
But Yoo Ji-tae didn't answer.
The silence stretched.
And stretched further.
Yeoreum's eyes widened as she asked.
"Why? Why won't you answer?"
"..."
"Is the kid gonna be okay or not?"
"For now."
"For now?"
"To be precise, I don't know."
"Huh? What do you mean? Aren't you supposed to know everything?"
"I don't know everything. There's only one way I know to make a humanoid chimera heart, and BM's method isn't it."
It was the lifelong achievement of an engineer devoted to chimeras, born from losing something precious. No wonder Yoo Ji-tae didn't know it.
"Does that matter?"
"It does. The heart determines a humanoid chimera's identity. And humanoid chimeras... are extremely dangerous."
It was the humanoid chimeras that had pushed the otherworld Arandot, where BM had stayed, to the brink of apocalypse.
"Then? Is that heart wrong?"
"I don't know that either."
She must have picked up on a hint from Yoo Ji-tae's words.
The base materials were spot on. 425ml ATTN essence, 45.3g gliacin-extracted carbon, and so on—the quantities he'd mentioned were followed precisely. The kid's body being nearly identical to a human's proved it.
But the final piece.
'Chimera Heart'
That was the issue.
Normally, it required 'the seed that makes the dead breathe.'
But BM seemed to have used 'a material that keeps people from dying' for the kid's heart. Yoo Ji-tae didn't know that ingredient. So now, they had to watch and see.
"Then, what the hell..."
Yeoreum bit her lower lip as she trailed off.
"What are you gonna do now?"
"Check in occasionally. See if it's growing properly."
And if not?
Yeoreum realized it was a terribly naive question.
She knew what kind of man he was. Yoo Ji-tae was endlessly generous only to dragons.
After pondering what she should do, Yeoreum spoke.
"Then I'll go with you."
"Why you?"
"Just wanna go. Can't I?"
"Not stopping you. But you might see something unpleasant."
"I'm fine. Just take me along."
The Regressor thought. Yeoreum was stubborn, but this felt different from her usual stubbornness.
Whatever awaited, mental preparation would make it okay.
Life isn't a greenhouse.
Pain matures the soul.
"Got it."
But his response didn't satisfy her. Yeoreum looked even more glum as she said.
"Why are you like that?"
"Like what?"
"Why make people anxious, acting all serious alone?"
"..."
"Say it brighter."
The Regressor let out a hollow chuckle.
His next response was just a tad brighter.
"Got it."
Only then did Yeoreum nod and leave the study.
After that, Yoo Ji-tae headed to the underground labyrinth once or twice a week. Via his inner subspace, Shallowest Abyss (S).
Where pale, translucent hands welcomed them, Yeoreum quietly followed behind him.
The underground labyrinth had developed further.
The vast inner chamber had only held containers before. Now, the 30-man airborne special forces had gathered materials and built themselves a house.
"Ahh, Doctor! Come on in...!"
He exchanged brief greetings with them. Ha Saet-byeol was among them. The woman with her usual dazed eyes waved brightly at Yoo Ji-tae.
He waved back.
Yeoreum wore the Level 2 artifact necklace, Ugly Truth, around her neck. The claw-shaped pendant protected her from 'Paradise's Light'.
The labyrinth's 'workshop' had all the incubators and glass tubes cleared out.
Strangely, it was now fitted out like a playroom for the kid. Colorful mats covered the floor and walls, with a small slide, picture books, and play blocks scattered about.
There, BM was playing with the kid.
The bedraggled look was gone. BM's face bloomed with smiles.
"Ah. You're here."
Yoo Ji-tae nodded.
Yeoreum approached and spoke to the kid.
"I'm here."
"Eye... Na..."
In the time apart, the kid had grown a bit more. Enough to hold simple conversations. It showed how diligently BM was educating him.
"What's with this ugly building?"
"Dino... Saur..."
"What dinosaur is this? Make it again."
When it crumbled with a clatter, the kid's eyes went wide in surprise, but as they rebuilt it together, a smile slowly spread across his face.
Lately, Jeong Tae-baek was bringing a bright atmosphere to the entire underground labyrinth.
"Hee hee... Tae-baekie's so cute today too..."
"Really... Makes me think of my son at home..."
"Heh heh..."
The 30-man airborne special forces, whose days were spent lying around or training stamina, often peeked near the workshop. To catch a glimpse of the adorable boy.
Sometimes, when Jeong Tae-baek cried inexplicably or whined from not speaking properly, Ha Saet-byeol would step in to care for him.
"Oogu oogu. It's okay... Hee hee... Wanna play with teacher?"
This young woman, a longtime daycare teacher, instinctively knew what the kid wanted and how to handle him, even in her drugged stupor. The kid stopped crying and hummed nursery rhymes with her.
Such were the days.
Thus, Yeoreum observed the kid and BM.
"Unni. Hello?"
The kid grew smarter by the day. By two weeks in, he could speak like a ten-year-old.
So Yeoreum started making him exercise.
"Ugh... Tired..."
"Climb higher. You're not quitting already?"
"Kuh... Do I have to...?"
"Of course! Gotta exercise to grow right!"
From then on, the kid began avoiding Yeoreum slyly.
Around that time, BM was busy day and night.
Already skinny, his lanky frame made him look like a chopstick—and he was visibly wasting away more each day.
"I'm swamped lately."
On a certain day in the third week, BM sighed the words.
"Why?"
"Big incident at the Federation."
"What kind?"
"Can't say details, but... gotta track someone down."
Child-rearing plus work.
Striving not to drop either, no doubt.
He often staggered, but defended himself by saying he wasn't drinking anymore, so it was fine.
"Must be tough."
"Life's always like that. But these days, it feels worth living."
BM smiled faintly at Jeong Tae-baek.
"This is life..."
It was the smile of the weary finding rest.
"That happy?"
Yeoreum asked.
"Yeah. Feels like I own the world. You'll get it when you have kids..."
BM replied meaningfully.
One day, she brought jelly for the kid, taking extra care.
"Why jelly of all things?"
"Winter loved it. Kids are all the same."
Tae-baek ate the jelly well.
She made him roll twice the usual as 'exercise for the calories'—that was extra.
After that, Tae-baek avoided jelly.
Another day, Yeoreum brought a doll.
Stuff Gaeul had bought before, now banished to storage. She'd been dusting it off since morning.
"What doll?"
"Kid keeps hugging wood blocks for naps."
"Doll might help."
But Tae-baek didn't like the doll. He'd drop it and run.
"Hey. Treating my gift like this? Wanna die?"
"Hweeng..."
Next visit, the doll was gone. BM had tossed it, he said.
Another day, Yeoreum brought a book.
"Now books? Why?"
"Kid's about ten. Time for school."
"And?"
"Gotta read. Or get ignored."
"You're spoiling him."
"Hate seeing people I know treated like idiots."
Tae-baek took to the book. From that day, he learned letters from Ha Saet-byeol.
His first writing: "Jeong Bong-man."
"Ooh... What's Jeong Bong-man...?"
"Heh heh... Korean name? Kinda hickish..."
BM cleared his throat awkwardly.
Time passed like that.
Occasionally, Yeoreum observed Yoo Ji-tae.
He said little. No odd glint in his eyes watching BM or the kid.
So Yeoreum relaxed a bit.
Ultimately, a chimera's danger stemmed from its life force. Like when life begat life to evade death, grafting it onto itself, growing by shedding rot.
But with the red-haired boy 'Jeong Tae-baek', no such thing happened. After workouts, when BM changed the sweat-soaked clothes, Yeoreum saw the cleanly healing heart.
The kid was growing healthily, with bright smiles.
"Hey."
One evening in the third week, returning to the dorm via Shallowest Abyss (S) with Yoo Ji-tae.
Yeoreum spoke up.
"Even if born unlucky. Seems you can be happy depending on how you live."
"Hm?"
"Y'know. Being born isn't always into a good home."
"True."
"Even from a shitty gutter. Can't a flower bloom in sunlight?"
Yoo Ji-tae halted mid-stride in the pitch-black subspace. He turned to Yeoreum.
"Why."
"Where'd you learn to say stuff like that?"
"Huh?"
She looked flustered for a moment.
"Think I'm just some trash-talking bitch?"
"Aren't you?"
"I got feelings too, y'know?"
She bristled pointlessly, and Yoo Ji-tae turned away.
But the Regressor didn't grasp her metaphorical expression. He stayed silent, just walking forward.
Meanwhile, Yeoreum thought something over and spoke again.
"Anyway. Think we've seen enough?"
"What."
"The kid. Feels like we don't need to come anymore."
"Yeah."
"He'll be fine now..."
Yeoreum stopped walking.
For a second, she thought she'd misheard.
An ominous feeling surged. Instinct. Puzzled, she replayed the exchange.
Yoo Ji-tae rarely misspoke.
She'd said 'don't need to come anymore.'
He'd replied 'Yeah.'
"What did you just say?"
Yeoreum asked calmly.
"You can't come here anymore."
Yoo Ji-tae's response was even more ominous.
The rising dread clung stickily, weighing her down like sinking into a swamp.
"What are you talking about?"
"I was unsure, but today I finally confirmed it."
"Confirmed what exactly."
"That chimera's a failure."
Chimera?
Yeoreum thought she'd misheard. Maybe a slip. But meeting his eyes, she knew it wasn't.
"Failure? You mean it's defective?"
"Yes."
"Then...?"
"We dispose of it."
A chill crawled up Yeoreum's spine.
Over the past three weeks, Yoo Ji-tae had never once seen Jeong Tae-baek as human.