Chapter 279
Chapter 279
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 279
Chapter Title: 89. Partner (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
He sat down next to Yeoreum.
He decided to stay right there, silently, until the child stopped crying.
He had known a day like this would come eventually.
In truth, it should have come much sooner.
Yeoreum couldn't stop her tears easily. She wiped at them with her wounded hands.
"Hic..."
Dragons aren't special. Their 'uniqueness' comes from the long time and experiences of living.
So Yeoreum's mind wasn't much different from that of an 18-year-old human. And the training she had endured up until now was far too harsh for an 18-year-old young human to bear continuously.
"Ugh, huhup... Eut..."
The regressor pondered.
To break through the limit of her firmly sealed mana circuit, she must, at least once, live through a time of agony near death without fleeing. But the problem was that Yeoreum was a 'dragon,' of all things.
"Ugh, euk..."
For a being with good memory, failure is terrifying.
Yeoreum now perfectly remembered the emotions she felt when she first faced failure.
That memory would shackle her ankle like a chain. Just like an elephant tied with a rope around its ankle since childhood, even as an adult with strength, unable to untie it.
"Heu-euk... Ugh..."
For a dragon with good memory, any 'failure' gains inertia and becomes a habit of sorts.
But one failure is fine. The depth of failure is still shallow.
"Eu-ng... Hic..."
As failures accumulate, experiences grow rich. Sadly, failure experience is experience too. Such experiences will dig into Yeoreum's ankles as various kinds of shackles. Becoming harder and harder to reverse.
So Yeoreum must succeed now. If she doesn't now, she might never succeed.
At the end of this play, Yeoreum would die.
"Heu-euk... Euk..."
So when the child's tears finally subsided.
He opened his mouth.
"If emotions take over, you can misjudge."
"......"
"Once you're calm. Let's think about it again."
It was such a crude thing to say.
When the crying stops, the sea returns to calm.
"When we were playing there..."
Yeoreum opened her mouth as if mumbling.
"...I was so happy."
"Las Vegas?"
"Yeah. Really... so, so happy. If it can be that fun, I thought even living another 20 years and dying would be fine."
"......"
"Hey... that's why I wanted to say..."
The aftermath of the first failure was already rearing its head.
"...Is there any good to living long?"
"......"
"Even if you live short, if you just enjoy that time... wouldn't that be a good life?"
Yeoreum was on the verge of mental collapse.
"Once I started thinking that way, there was no need to struggle down there anymore. So I came up."
"......"
"Now, I'm done crying my eyes out. I'm not being emotional. So, I'm saying, let's stop and go back. Like I said, I'm really tired. I want to rest now."
He didn't answer.
Humans can conquer Everest if they want. But some can't even get out of bed in the morning. It's a difference in will.
A being whose will is broken can't do anything, and that was Yeoreum's situation now.
A difficult problem.
How do you make a bird whose wings are broken from falling, now afraid to fly, take to the skies again...
After much deliberation, he spoke.
"Yeah. You're right. There's no good in living long."
"......"
"But you're not getting stronger to survive, right?"
"Huh...?"
"Didn't you say there were words you couldn't deliver? To your big sister and the little sister who died. You said you had things to say."
"......"
"You have to go deliver those words."
The reason Yeoreum strives to grow stronger isn't survival.
It's vengeance.
"Good memory, you bastard..."
Yeoreum grumbled but couldn't refute.
"Let's go one more time. This time, I'll watch from behind. I never thought you'd break through the deep sea alone anyway. There's a limit to doing it by yourself."
"Didn't you understand what I said...? I didn't come up because the ordeal was hard. I came up because it hurt."
"It's mental training. Can't be helped. You get stronger the more it hurts."
"You..."
Her throat tightened, and Yeoreum bit her lip.
"How can you say it so easily when you don't know how I feel...?"
"What's unsayable about it."
"You're already strong... Breaking similar ordeals must be old history for you. Of course you were better than me back then too... You wouldn't know how much it hurt and tormented me down there..."
With a powerless voice, but clearly, Yeoreum was rejecting Yoo Ji-tae's approach.
Now, Yoo Ji-tae was once again stopped before the 'line' in Yeoreum's heart.
"How much it hurt me. You can't know..."
Like a rich person giving a coin as charity.
The strong can't understand the weak's plight. That seemed to be Yeoreum's thinking.
"So, let's go back... Yeah...? I don't want to show this ugly side anymore..."
Even repeating regressions, he had no such experience. In a world without precedent, Yoo Ji-tae had no history to reference.
So what was about to begin now was,
a challenge even for the regressor.
"Sorry, but I can't do that."
"......"
"You have to go in one more time."
"You're making me a fool to the end..."
"Yoo Yeoreum."
Yoo Ji-tae called the child.
Tear-streaked cheeks and bloodshot eyes turned to him.
Yoo Ji-tae reached into the air and pulled out a monocle.
"What's that?"
"Let's try one last time. Just once."
"......"
"Just once. If it doesn't work, we stop."
"What? Try dunking me in water again...? And you'll tell me things from behind?"
"That was the original plan. But not anymore."
"What's not. That's what a master teaching a disciple is, right? And when I say I can't, I suck, you'll say something..."
"......"
"You've always been like that... Of course, since I never said it hurt, never said I was scared..."
He looked at the child's body.
Sensing his gaze, Yeoreum hugged her wound-covered body with both arms. But she didn't seem to realize her hugging arms were also full of wounds.
"Right. That's how it usually was."
Can I fully understand you?
Yoo Ji-tae wasn't certain.
But without trying, he couldn't know.
"This time, let's try a different way."
With those words, Yoo Ji-tae closed his eyes.
"No, wait. What the hell is that even..."
As Yeoreum tried to retort, unable to endure the frustration.
Something extraordinary happened.
"Meaningful..."
Yeoreum trailed off and widened her eyes.
"Huh...?"
Inside the monocle.
Something she had never seen before appeared.
Under the ink-blue sky of dawn. Something as tall as a building and enormous began to reveal itself.
"Wha, what...?"
It felt unreal.
What the hell is that?
Yeoreum thought. In the monocle's view. The blessings and protections guarding her flesh were things like tights or leather armor.
But what she saw now was different.
Turbid mana took on an enormously complex form, tangled like a massive machine.
She realized that was the blessing and protection enveloping Yoo Ji-tae's body, guarding his flesh. Before that violent, overwhelming, utterly incomprehensible power. Yeoreum freaked out and backed away while sitting.
"What are you trying to do...? Showing off your body...?"
Overwhelmed, Yeoreum spat out.
"I-I told you, if you're gonna do that, take off your pants...!"
But Yoo Ji-tae didn't respond.
With eyes closed. He sank into meditation.
Then, something amazing began to happen.
The enormous, complex, machine-like thing started to unravel.
Pipe-like things detached. Plate armor-like things fell off. As they dropped one by one, dispersing into the air. The overall size of the machine shrank.
When the machine mass was nearly undone. Yoo Ji-tae looked massive, as if clad in thick black full-body armor.
But he didn't stop. The helmet came off. The chest plate detached. Gauntlets and greaves vanished. Nearly all blessings and protections around him were released.
"What do you see."
Yoo Ji-tae said with eyes still closed.
By then, what remained on Yoo Ji-tae's body.
Yeoreum looked at her own body. It was similar in blessings protecting her, in size and form.
"......"
Soon, the area near Yoo Ji-tae's heart began to glow red.
Even in her daze, Yeoreum recognized it.
It was the Red Dragon mana that rose from Yoo Ji-tae's body when he trained her or gave massages.
"......"
But Yoo Ji-tae didn't stop there.
"Now, I'm going to convince you."
"Convince...?"
He thrust his hand into the air. Then pulled out a sharp dagger. What was he going to do with that? As Yeoreum rolled her eyes, Yoo Ji-tae unhesitatingly stabbed his arm.
Puk―
Fresh blood spurted.
Yeoreum jumped in shock and yelled.
"Are you crazy? What are you doing!"
Yeoreum checked Yoo Ji-tae's expression.
Very slightly. His brow furrowed.
In the place where protections were released, his body was no longer much different from Yeoreum's flesh. It had been a while. The feeling of skin tearing, muscles damaged, bones catching on the blade.
"What are you doing!"
"Let's go one more time."
"What? Is that what you meant by convincing? Blackmail with self-harm or something?!"
Yoo Ji-tae casually stabbed his abdomen with the knife. This time it wasn't shallow; the skin tore open, blood flowed, and part of the peritoneum ruptured.
"You're insane...! What the hell!"
The acts repeated.
Puk― Stabbed the back of his hand.
Kreuk― Pierced the deltoid, wounding it.
Puk... Slashed the trapezius, tearing skin.
Jujuk... Slit the throat.
Kwang! Smashed his knee with a fist, cracking part of the joint.
"Stop! Stop it! I don't know why you're doing this, but you seem crazy!"
Yeoreum rushed over and grabbed Yoo Ji-tae's body. At that moment, something surprising happened. Yoo Ji-tae was caught by Yeoreum's arms.
"Wait and see. I haven't started convincing yet."
"How much more do you have to do? No, what kind of convincing is that even?! I'm not a kid, why―!"
It was then.
Yoo Ji-tae's gaze landed on Yeoreum's body.
"Huh―?"
Then Yoo Ji-tae began scarring his body again.
His gaze was somehow off.
Yeoreum stopped, but Yoo Ji-tae didn't. Realizing the wounded parts under his tracksuit, he gathered killing intent like thumbtacks, placed them on the ground, and lay his body over them.
Tok―
The sound was simple, but the aftermath wasn't. Blood flowed like water, soaking and pooling on the ground.
He stood up and looked at Yeoreum's body again.
Then he struck his side with the knife hilt. Bbang! Deuk... With the sound, ribs cracked.
"......"
Only then did Yeoreum realize Yoo Ji-tae's intent.
And she was horrified.
The bizarre acts up to now were shocking. To the Red tribe that worships the strong, Yoo Ji-tae who was always strong and resilient, whose injury was unimaginable, was breaking in real time. That alone was a massive shock to Yeoreum.
But Yoo Ji-tae's bizarre acts weren't mere self-harm.
Soon his hand stopped. Yeoreum looked closely at his body.
All the wounds on his body were similar to those on hers.
Chills ran down her spine.
The young Red Dragon felt her blood boiling.
The Red tribe worships the strong. And in Yeoreum's memories, no dragon was stronger than Yoo Ji-tae. In other words, Yoo Ji-tae was like a god to Yeoreum.
And right now.
That 'god' had mimicked her wounds exactly.
"Now the conditions are similar. My body condition matches yours now."
"......"
"So let's go together one last time."
"......"
"I'll join the ordeal with you. Not watching from behind. I'll go down beside you. Experience the same pain. Endure it together. And bring back the flag from the deepest place."
"......"
"How about it."
Yeoreum bit her lip.
Maybe because she had been emotional just moments ago.
Strangely, tears welled up.
"Huh? Let's go."
Yeoreum bowed her head deeply.
What he was offering now wasn't a master-disciple relationship.
It was to face together the too painful, too hard, too agonizing event.
He was volunteering to be Yeoreum's partner.
"Hey. Doesn't it hurt?"
"It hurts, sure. But you endure this much too, don't you?"
"......"
Yeoreum still couldn't believe this situation.
It was too shocking to accept as reality.
Yeoreum slowly approached Yoo Ji-tae. Then cautiously scanned his body up and down from below.
"...Don't dodge."
"What?"
Yeoreum clenched her fist.
Then punched his solar plexus with all her might.
Ppeok.
The hit landed. She had punched him before. His belly, which felt like steel back then, shook.
Like a human.
Eup―
She even heard his breath catch.
Like a human...!
Yoo Ji-tae clutched his solar plexus and staggered back a few steps.
"Why'd you hit me."
"Huh...?"
"Why hit me."
"Di-did it hurt...?"
At Yeoreum's question, Yoo Ji-tae's brow furrowed.
"Hurt? After hitting with all your strength?"
"Huh? Yeah..."
"Show me your stomach. I'll show you."
"Ah, no. Sorry... Don't hit me..."
Yoo Ji-tae winced at his own fist.
Only then did this shocking situation feel real to Yeoreum.
Yeoreum shuddered.
Something surged up from beneath her emotions.
Yeoreum closed her eyes and held back her feelings inwardly.
Tears threatened to burst again.
"So, are you going or not. Answer."
Yeoreum bit her lip and nodded.
It felt like she would cry, but suddenly a funny thought struck her.
"But why self-harm...? So stupid..."
Yeoreum laughed through tearful eyes.
"I was going to heal anyway..."
Yoo Ji-tae summoned Clone 1 here and had it watch Winter. He shed his skin and became Yoo Ji-tae, nodding his head.
"Huh? What's that?"
Seeing the clone for the first time, Yeoreum looked startled.
Anyway, by dawn, Yoo Ji-tae and Yeoreum had made their bodies suitable for entering the water again. Even that was matched exactly. Any parts not fully healed inside Yeoreum's body were left similarly damaged in Yoo Ji-tae.
All preparations were complete.
Before throwing themselves into training. He asked.
"No chant?"
"Huh?"
"We have to do that. Yeoreum fish. Dive prep or whatever."
Yeoreum frowned.
"No."
"Why."
"Don't wanna if you're making me."
"Got it... Let's go."
"Yeah."
Pungdeok―
They jumped into the water almost simultaneously.
The final challenge began.