Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Episode 66. Closing the Door (1)
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From the morning, an excited face was visible.
Bom gazed warmly at the child and asked,
"Winter."
"……!"
Yes yes! Winter clenched her fists tightly and nodded.
"What day is today?"
"…The day… we make my room."
"How do you feel?"
"…Good."
"How good?"
Winter spread her arms wide to show it was as big as the world.
Bom asked playfully,
"Hey, is that all?"
"…No?"
"Then?"
"…This much?"
"That's still just your arm span?"
"…This… this… this much? This… this……."
Winter kept repeating "this… this much" until she ran out of breath and panted, stopping. She'd talked until her lungs gave out, leaving her dizzy. When Winter groaned like an old lady, "…Aigoo," Bom, who had been watching, chuckled. Then, as a man approached the door, both their heads turned toward him.
Hello. Bom waved, and Yoo Ji-tae waved back.
"When do we start?"
"After breakfast."
It was the morning of some weekend.
Today, they planned to make a room for Winter.
"Whoa! Winter's getting her own room?!"
"…Yeah!"
"My my, our little Winter's all grown up!"
"…Hehe."
"Come here, you little rascal!"
It was twirling time.
The Chick naturally ran over and hugged Winter, then Gaeul scooped Winter up and swung her side to side: whoosh, whoosh. "Kyaa—!" Even Winter, who rarely showed how much she enjoyed something, had a smile plastered on her face today that never faded.
"Oh, me too, me too."
Bom ran down to the base of the three-story stone tower and hoisted Gaeul up. Awkward in her stance, or maybe because she was heavy, she grunted but still swung her side to side: whoosh, whoosh. Gaeul, Winter, and the Chick laughed like sunshine.
"The janitor ajusshi too!"
"Pardon? Oh, no, I'm good. I'm too tall; my head would hit the ceiling."
"Then do that thing… that thing!"
"That thing, you say?"
"That thing!"
Something was going on between Gaeul and the Guardian.
Soon, the Guardian got down on all fours, stuck out his butt, and shook side to side to a beat: twerk, twerk. It looked like twerking. The sight was so ridiculous that laughter erupted again.
They sure seemed to be having fun among themselves.
"Jeez… When the hell is that pack of idiots gonna finish that four-story stone tower."
Yeoreum, unable to understand them, shook her head.
The regressor watched the kids.
Gaeul had her usual smiling face. But since she hid her emotions so tightly, Yoo Ji-tae didn't take her watchfulness lightly.
"I'll be back!"
"Pip!"
After breakfast, Gaeul headed out for a walk with the Chick, who was gradually turning into a chicken. Normally, they'd walk for about an hour, but lately, Gaeul had been spending much more time with the Chick.
He'd assumed it was the Chick's farewell, but everyone in 301 knew it wasn't just an assumption anymore since it came from his mouth. He wasn't one for empty talk.
So, it seemed the guy was preparing for his own kind of goodbye.
It was purely his own affair. Yoo Ji-tae decided just to watch over the child.
"I'm heading out too."
Yeoreum left for personal training.
Now, only Yoo Ji-tae, Bom, Winter, and the Guardian remained in the living room.
"Let's start making the room."
Yay! Winter beamed.
"Bom. Take the kid and go play."
"Okay. Call me when it's done."
"Got it."
"Come here, my baby. Let's go play outside with unni."
"…Okay."
Bom nodded, took Winter's hand, and left the house.
"Need any help?"
"Nah. I'll handle it."
Once he set his mind to it, making the room was incredibly straightforward.
First, he opened Shallowest Abyss (S) and directed the hands. Clear out the storage items. The hands emerged in an instant and removed the unnecessary junk. They were things like Gaeul's and Winter's old dolls or the standard-issue dorm fan that weren't needed anymore anyway.
He expanded the storage space into a subsace. Bom had an unusually large amount of mana for a hatchling, more than enough to semi-permanently expand a single room. That morning, at Yoo Ji-tae's request, she'd used Heavenly Principle (S) to create a slightly more expansive virtual space inside the storage.
After that, he could call in a contractor, but Yoo Ji-tae decided to make Winter's living space himself. Winter seemed to want it that way.
So that afternoon, he bought flooring and wallpaper, applied the paste, and papered the walls. Having done similar work a few times through his regressions, he knew the methods.
Since it was a dorm, he needed permission from the residential affairs office, which was said to be complicated. But the moment they heard "1705 Building, Room 301," the staffer approved it immediately upon realizing it was Yoo Ji-tae on the phone.
He wasn't professional, but he was more precise than a pro. With plenty of time invested, it turned out quite decent.
Of course, it took a long time. In the meantime, Yoo Ji-tae recalled the conversation he'd had with Bom earlier that day.
'A nest is, for some dragons, the space they live in their entire lives.'
Dragons were inherently oviparous spirits. Though viviparous in some cases, most hatched from eggs and lived in the nest with their parent dragons for centuries.
Aside from the time they went out to play, dragons spent a long time in their nests. For such dragons, the nest was no different from a small world.
'When they become adults, they leave their parents' nest and get their own.'
'The parents' nest is tailored to the parents' tastes. But the hatchling who returns from play has developed new preferences.'
'They fill their own nest with those.'
'Hmm, like a metaphor for my own little world.'
Listening to Bom, he'd looked at Winter.
Yoo Ji-tae felt an inexplicable mood. "My own little world…" Bom's words echoed in his ears. It was strange. To him, such words didn't suit Winter.
Why?
Why didn't "my own little world" suit Winter?
The regressor continued working while pondering this.
He neatly cut out one wall and installed a window frame and glass he'd bought from the commercial district. Double curtains too.
For now, the empty room was complete.
It was already evening. The kids trickled back to the dorm one by one.
Bom and Winter too.
It was spacious, no different in size from the other sisters' rooms. The moment she saw the clean floor and white walls, Winter's eyes went wide, and she froze stiff.
"What do you think? Like it, Winter?"
Bom crouched to eye level and asked.
Winter nodded slowly with a dazed look. Then she stepped inside, bent down to touch the floor, approached the wall and felt the wallpaper. To open and close the window, she had to stand on tiptoes because she was short.
Yoo Ji-tae and Bom silently watched as Winter poked around the room. Nothing special, yet she looked at everything like it was wondrous. "She must find it all so new," Bom said, finding Winter adorable. "It's her first time, after all. Getting her own room." Only after inspecting every corner of the small room did Winter finally look at Yoo Ji-tae.
"……."
The child beamed.
"…This is my room?"
'Yeah.' The labor hadn't been tiring, but seeing her so happy filled him with satisfaction.
"Ooh. What the heck. You really whipped it up in one day!"
"Oh."
Gaeul and Yeoreum came in, amazed, to tour the room.
Then Winter blocked Yeoreum's path.
"What're you doing?"
"…No entry for unni."
"Jeez, what a blockhead. Move it, you blue freak. Let me see too."
But Yeoreum strode right in anyway, and Winter, trying to block her, got pushed and tumbled over.
A Red Clan invading the Blue Clan's personal space. They rarely entered each other's rooms otherwise, so Winter was displeased with the situation.
She crossed her arms and glared at Yeoreum, but Yeoreum ignored her and flopped down in the middle.
"What're you staring at, you appetite-killing blue?"
"…Hmph. Chili powder dragon."
"What."
"Get out of my room."
"Nah? Annoying?"
"…This is my territory."
"Yeah? Then piss on it to mark it. Will you admit it's yours then?"
With that, she yanked down her jeans zipper. Winter panicked and tried to stop her, making Yeoreum cackle.
By then, Yoo Ji-tae called the child.
"Come here, Winter."
"…Y-yes."
At Yoo Ji-tae's call, she scurried over.
"It's kinda empty, huh."
Nod nod.
"From now on, you and I are gonna fill this room."
"…Fill it?"
"Look at it now—nothing's here."
"…Yeah."
"Your room needs a bed. Wardrobe. Drawers and stuff."
"…Oh."
Maybe she'd been so thrilled by the space itself. Winter nodded with a belated shocked expression. Room-making was just beginning…!
"What kind of bed do you like?"
He showed her order menus from famous furniture places on his watch.
The child stuck out her tongue, rubbed her chin thoughtfully, then carefully picked the one she wanted to sleep in.
Bom chuckled at Winter's pick.
"What is that, Winter?"
"…Bed."
"I mean, why a bunk bed."
"…Why not?"
Two beds, so it'd be great, right?
Still, that was fine. Yoo Ji-tae decided to let it go.
Until he saw the rest of Winter's furniture picks.
"Huh? Why are you trying to buy a vanity!?"
Gaeul asked. Winter grinned sheepishly and tilted her head. Like her room had one too, probably.
"Winter, you planning to do makeup!?"
"…Not?"
"You don't need to!"
"…Why?"
"You're still a baby. You're pretty without it…!"
I see. Winter reluctantly removed the vanity.
But the bunk bed and vanity were just the start. Among the items Winter added to the cart, there were tons of useless furniture.
"Look at this greedy little punk."
"…What."
"What's this?"
Yeoreum pointed to a cat tower. A structure perfect for cats to climb and play.
"…Kitty playground."
"Why add that."
"…Saw it on TV."
"You got a cat?"
"…No?"
"Then why buy it, dummy."
Yeoreum unni was mean, but she was right. She'd just added it because she wanted it… Winter looked disappointed but nodded reluctantly.
So the cat tower was removed too.
Next, the air purifier and mini-fridge got axed. And a ridiculously ornate golden toilet—why had she even added that? Removed.
Winter must have had some fantasy about her room. A desire to fill it with all sorts of pretty things, maybe.
All rejected.
"Winter, you don't even care about toys."
"……."
Finally, even the prize toy display shelf was removed, and Winter glared at Yoo Ji-tae, Bom, Yeoreum, Gaeul, and everyone with bulging eyes.
'Hoo—' She let out a big sigh, then took off the cap she'd been wearing.
And tossed it—thud—onto the floor.
A protest that she wasn't happy. She shot sulky looks at her sisters, who burst out laughing.
"For now, let's just get the essentials. If you want more later, we can buy them one by one slowly."
"……."
"If we add all this, honestly, even you'd agree it's useless stuff. And no space left in the room."
"……."
Disappointed, she didn't reply.
But the regressor had one last ace up his sleeve to blow away the Blue Dragon hatchling's disappointment in one shot.
"No room for the fish tank then, huh."
Winter's eyes widened.
"…F-fish… tank."
"What? Forgot?"
"…Yeah. So now, we go buy the tank?"
"Yep. And what goes inside it."
Her gloomy face brightened like the sky.
'Let's go.' At Yoo Ji-tae's words, she picked up her cap and put it on.