Chapter 221
Chapter 221
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 221
Chapter Title: 73. Power and Conviction (3)
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“Unni’s a genius, isn’t she?”
Maybe she’d decided to rebel properly while she was at it. Unable to meet her eyes, Gaeul blurted it out in a surge of emotion.
“What?”
“Uh, you’re a genius, right? You’re amazing at magic. I’ve heard about it. So doesn’t that mean your standards are just really high? Someone like me learning magic like they’re dying... D-don’t get mad. It’s scary...”
Yoo Bom fell silent for a moment.
Up until now, she’d scolded with a straight face, but now her expression seemed a little downcast.
When she got irritated, Yoo Bom would run her hand through her hair repeatedly. Just like now.
“My parents live separately.”
After a long hesitation, the words slipped out. Yoo Bom’s voice was heavy, like cotton soaked in water.
Gaeul’s eyes widened.
“Parents not living together is like a human divorce. The concept’s a bit different, but... anyway, on the day I was born, I was in Mom’s nest. She told me I had a ‘grand plan’ ahead of me.”
Unlike Gaeul, who constantly sought out her mom, Yoo Bom’s past was something you rarely heard about. Gaeul perked up her ears but grew even more afraid of her at the same time.
Yoo Bom’s expression said it all.
“From the day I was born, I learned magic. For that grand plan. Mom was strict. Her standards were high, so I got hit a lot. Was it because I was worse than others? No. Among green dragons, I had exceptional magical talent. And yet she wasn’t satisfied.”
“For me to be useful in that ‘grand plan,’ I needed to become a far better mage. For nearly 20 years with my eyes open. Not a single day off. Not even a few minutes. I studied and researched magic.”
“But she still wasn’t pleased. One day, Mom kidnapped 200 mages from a nearby dimension. I was three then. Right after my first molt, around wintertime. She told me, ‘If you don’t shape up, I’ll grind these 200 up and feed them to you as nutrients.’”
“And those 200 happened to be living, breathing humans. Back then, killing something terrified me. Even if it was lowly humans. Seeing something alive just moments ago get cut off... it was really scary. So I tried to ‘shape up’ to meet Mom’s standards.”
“Did I resent that reality? Did I resent my mom?”
Yoo Bom asked with misty eyes. Gaeul couldn’t answer.
“No. Logically, I understood. Hatchlings and adult dragons are different, after all. After living a thousand years, your heart gets worn down completely. You become something that aligns more with the clan’s identity than your own thoughts and values. So maybe we’d do the same to our kids?”
“But it was my mom. It was happening to me. It was really tough. Still, thanks to that, I became good at magic.”
Yoo Bom approached Gaeul with slow steps.
Then she knelt down and squatted in front of Gaeul, who was staring up at her blankly. And met her eyes.
“Gaeul. The ‘dragon’s playtime’ is for finding your identity. Having fun. Building happy memories that last forever.”
“...”
“We got pushed into our playtime a bit early, but this time right now is something we can’t find again in our parents’ nests. It’s the first and the last. It’s precious time, so once you find your identity, you should run toward it—not sit and rest.”
“...”
“Get up.”
So Gaeul brushed off her legs and stood.
The child looked shocked by Yoo Bom’s words. Even indirectly.
“Those 200?”
“...”
“What happened to those 200 mages?”
Yoo Bom just looked at Gaeul and shook her head.
“...”
Gaeul felt something crumble inside Yoo Bom.
At the same time, she started feeling ashamed.
Young children are emotional and get swept up easily. Swallowing her complicated thoughts, Gaeul decided to try harder once more.
The training over the next few days became even more hellish for Gaeul.
“Protection is a very realistic issue.”
Yoo Bom nagged every time Gaeul nearly collapsed.
“Look properly. How many incoming targets?”
“Ten. Say one of them is an arrow heading for Pp’yung-i.”
“If you don’t intercept it with a ‘mana bullet,’ it’ll pierce Pp’yung-i’s head.”
“See that? You missed. That means Pp’yung-i’s dead. Did the enemy kill her with magic? No. You missed, so you killed her. You’re the guardian. It’s on you.”
“Stay focused until the end. Until the mana forms at your fingertips and fires. Keep your aim locked.”
Yoo Bom’s words cut like knives into the heart. For days, Gaeul couldn’t hold back tears, sobbing with tears streaming down during training.
Her already rock-bottom self-esteem was now drilling underground.
But maybe she was getting used to it. At some point, even when crying, Gaeul stopped collapsing. She just stood there, casting magic, biting her lip, tears dripping.
Even that didn’t satisfy Yoo Bom.
“Gaeul. Don’t cry. Has ajusshi ever cried in front of you? Guardians don’t cry. Worst case, in battle, your charge is only looking at you. If you cry out of fear or fright? How scared will that kid be, staring only at you?”
The nagging didn’t stop even after Gaeul’s first successful intercept.
“What good is just intercepting? You need to take out the enemy with ‘magic arrows.’”
Even when she pierced farther targets.
“You have to block your charge from getting swept by currents.”
And even when she blocked with a barrier while firing at enemies.
“Something unstoppable comes flying in. Think a barrier can handle it? Worst case, if Yeoreum swings her fist for real, could you protect Pp’yung-i with a barrier?”
But finally, when she blocked with a barrier, attacked the enemy, and succeeded in Blink at the same time.
The nagging ended.
It was a triumph after ten days.
“It... it worked...”
Finishing training, Gaeul collapsed to the ground. Then, lying there, she started sobbing and groaning. Her dragon heart’s mana was empty, hitting her with incomparable pain wracking her body. Like all her blood drained out. Despite succeeding, Gaeul couldn’t smile and cried for a long time.
By then, Yoo Bom turned and approached her. No—Yoo Ji-tae.
“Ajusshi...”
“Good work. Bom.”
“...”
Yoo Bom had spent days crushing Gaeul’s ego with harsh words.
Her outburst was unexpected, so he’d been surprised. Hearing her past for the first time, he’d come to understand.
Why was this?
Right now, Yoo Bom looked on the verge of tears.
“Did I go too far?”
Only then did Yoo Ji-tae realize.
Some people find it hard to even say mean things.
People who innately hate putting others down.
Yoo Bom was one of them.
For her, crushing someone’s self-esteem and dignity wasn’t easy.
They’d gone back and forth to the dorm together for days, acting casual, so he hadn’t noticed. But yelling at someone for over ten hours a day couldn’t be pleasant.
“No. You did just right.”
He comforted Yoo Bom.
Her gloomy expression strangely tugged at something inside him.
When Yoo Bom approached and bonked her head against his chest, he unconsciously stroked the back of her head.
“You did great. Go rest first.”
“Yeah. Please comfort Gaeul well...”
Yoo Ji-tae sat beside Gaeul, who was groaning from mana exhaustion. The sprawled girl writhed and twisted nonstop. Her eyes welled up with tears, her mouth gasping for breath.
Mana shock. She was a dragon, so this was mild—humans would’ve died hundreds of times over.
Her golden hair splayed messily. Gaeul lay like that, breathing raggedly for a couple hours.
When her breathing calmed.
Gaeul opened her teary eyes and spoke.
“Ajusshi...?”
“Yeah. I’m here.”
“I... I did it...”
“You did great. Good job.”
“Hug me, please...”
Like a child seeking her mom.
The analogy fit. Here, Yoo Ji-tae was Gaeul’s mom. He scooped her up in a hug. As the tiny girl went limp against him, he patted her back.
“You worked hard. For real.”
“Really...?”
“Yeah. You did it.”
If Yoo Bom had crushed Gaeul and made her empathize to push her forward. Yoo Ji-tae filled the void in her self-esteem.
Why is finding a dream so hard?
It had come up at a meal discussion one day.
Yoo Bom had said then: ‘Diving into a dream often starts with simple praise.’
A cool elementary teacher praises, ‘Our OO is great at math.’ A girl who thought nothing of her 80 on a test starts liking math that day. Builds on that good memory, grows up to become a math teacher.
Yoo Ji-tae was in that teacher’s position. It had happened naturally over days. Maybe Yoo Bom orchestrated it.
Her arms around his neck were weak, so he hugged tighter to hold her.
Gaeul, still catching her breath, asked.
“But... I have a question...”
“What?”
“Even doing this, without conviction, isn’t it meaningless?”
“What do you mean?”
“To be a good guardian, you need power and conviction, right? Just building power makes you half-baked.”
True, for now.
“No.”
“Huh...?”
“When conviction forms, power protects it. Without power, even convictions shrink because you can’t uphold them.”
“...”
“The more power you build through this hardship, the bigger conviction you’ll form someday. And protect it. You’ll protect more things.”
“...”
After thinking, Gaeul answered after a while.
“Yeah...”
On the way back.
He piggybacked the girl whose legs gave out. Cadets’ stares from academy district spots didn’t bother him.
Soon, Gaeul on his back fell asleep. Something wet on his nape. Hopefully not drool.
A sudden thought: talent is cruel.
Even starting his 4th life, times he couldn’t reach BM and superhumans came to mind.
If he’d had even BM’s combat talent, his loops would’ve been half or less.
When it was him, he accepted it.
But for Gaeul, it felt cruel.
Ten days with Yoo Bom. If training continued, Gaeul would surpass Yeoreum in three months flat.
Of course, no more like this... but her innate vessel differed.
Gaeul’s talent, suddenly led to grow by someone.
Outshone Yeoreum’s desperate efforts.
A miserable reality for Yeoreum.
To avoid needless conflict, he needed a blueprint ready.
“...Good work, unni.”
Back at the dorm, Winter ran and hugged Gaeul tight, burying her face in her solar plexus.
“Thanks, Winter. But unni’s dirty...!”
“...Yeah.”
Gaeul’s T-shirt was stained dark in spots. All blood she’d vomited from mouth and nose.
Limp Gaeul grinned heheh but staggered to her room. Yoo Ji-tae supported her to keep her from falling. Opening the door, Yoo Yeoreum peeked from the living room.
He met red eyes.
“...”
Yoo Yeoreum glanced at him and frowned.
Like recently, she looked disgusted. He hadn’t taught her much lately because of it.
“What.”
“...”
No reply. Yoo Yeoreum turned and went to her room. He shrugged it off, took Gaeul to bed. Stroked her head, praised until she slept happily.
In her room, Yoo Yeoreum lay on her bed.
Manga wasn’t fun today; she tossed it.
Scratching her head kept her awake. Lying there annoyed her.
Yoo Yeoreum quietly opened her door. In the living room, the guardian was drying sweet potatoes with Winter on a tray. What were those idiots doing?
Peeking through the gap, her eyes hit the shoe rack. Black stains on Yoo Ji-tae’s brown shoes and Gaeul’s white sneakers. Smeared blood.
Yoo Yeoreum stared long, then frowned.