Kidnapped Dragons

Episode 98: Difference in Height (3)

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“What is it.
Are you also from the Association?”

“Name is One.
A Grade 5 agent.”

Grade 5 agent – ‘One’.

Yu Jitae used the fake identity of Clone 1.

He didn’t need to verify himself.
He revealed his ability by instead killing his presence to that of a civilian in front of rankers.
A crack appeared on Simon’s expression.

“Right… One, huh.
I’ve heard that name before.
So what is it?”

“Why don’t we have another fight with different gear this time.”

Simon twitched his eyes.

“Nothing changes even if we were to use different weapons.
I think the problem is with the Association’s way of dealing things.”

“It is a misunderstanding.
The output of the duel exceeding the standard of a duel and doubting the intention of the Association is all in the weapon, so let us change them to sparring weapons.
Please give the Association a chance to wash off the misunderstanding.”

He had been claiming that the new weapon of the Association was the thing that was making the situation disadvantageous.
In other words, he was saying it was due to the difference in gear so changing the weapon would remove any possible excuse he could come up with.

Fortunately, Simon eased his expression and agreed.
It seemed that he really thought the weapon was the cause.

“Sounds good.”

But his composure didn’t last long.

The bell rang.

Vuung–

Her heart flooded out with mana.
At the same time, the core embedded into the longsword was filled with mana, and like an organism it twitched while gushing forth a stream of mana.

[Ember]

Yeorum activated the Karl-Gullakwa stand-up martial art.
The air exploded beneath her feet and the tremendous force pushed her body forward.
Like an arrow, her body flew forward and travelled through 30 metres in the blink of an eye.

Using every bit of mana through the core, she embedded mana into the sparring longsword.

Her plan was to demonstrate her power with one strike.
Flames erupted around the sword with more intensity than what she expected.

The amplification multiplier of 6.2, which was two or three times greater than other prominent supplementary cores allowed an absurd amount of mana flow that supported the movement of her sword.

Yeorum felt her blood racing towards her head.
A warning bell rang inside her brain.

Her hand shivered as fury reared its head.

However, her attack had already been executed and it was no longer stoppable.
Reporters and civilians of the audience had yet to even sense anything, and only the powerful superhumans could sense the incomprehensibly ridiculous output.

As a sword aura of flame reaching 5 metres in height reached out from the tip of her sword;

The blade after being accelerated by the explosion flashed, drawing an afterimage in its path.

Soon, the entire crowd widened their eyes in shock as if their eyeballs would burst out, and Simon likewise watched the approaching sword with his eyes forming circles.

He was astonished,

And before long,

Flash—

An intense burst of light covered the arena.

*

[(Breaking News) Yu Yeorum defeats Simon Abkarian in a duel]

[Yu Yeorum.
From the top of Lair to the top of the world? A shocking result to the duel! Simon Abkarian defeated.]

[The wall of a ‘Hero’ broken by a 20-year old.
A newborn superhuman that will drive the world into shock!]

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[Another look into the critic Petrovic’s “Finding the Rank 1 candidate of the future” from 3 years ago… “The rebutters should all go die.”]

[The buzzing A&R Industry… The head of M&D Headhunting Firm, Maree Yuska, “Yu Yeorum’s net worth expected to reach 150 billion dollars.
Should be considered to be on the same level as the young Oscar Brzenk…” (Shocking News)]

[The Association raises another ‘monster’ after the Witch, Valentine, and the Returnee, BM.]

[(Top News, Image) The Saviour of Gallia on the ground with a trampled head.
What goes around comes around…]

[Yu Yeorum after the victory, “Weaker than expected.” Completely outside the common realm of etiquette.]

[French civilians in shock and dejection…]

[The question of a reporter from the Public TV France, ‘F6’, “Something you have learned from the duel against him?” receives a stunning reply, “Shouldn’t you ask that to the loser?”]

[French soldiers after the defeat of the hero.
A mass desertion of soldiers from the helplessness…]

[International Press, Yu Yeorum’s next opponent, ‘Javier Karma’]

***

The world was in a mess, but it was normal for the world to be chaotic whenever Yeorum did something.

However, the scale of the fuss was a lot greater this time.
Even though it was a friendly duel with the victor decided by a judge, a world ranker at Rank 29 one-sidedly defeated by a twenty-year old girl was nonetheless shocking news.

The Association and the SWB appealed to the media,

Yu Jitae made sure Yeorum was careful with her words,

And Simon Abkarian uploaded some random congratulatory message, ‘Happy to see the new era being led by the great Association with my own eyes~’ to decorate himself as a generous man.
It would be unseemly to say he had been careless but he also didn’t want to raise Yeorum up, so he was praising the Association instead. 

Since Yu Jitae was a figure with authority inside the Association, there was no comment or any restriction on Yeorum’s behaviour or her affiliation.
There were only rumours being spread on the internet and the media.

On the other hand, Yu Jitae when he returned to Unit 301 after finishing his work did not have a very bright look on his face.
He did not miss the small stop in the child’s movement when she was using the core at its highest capability. 

That was despite his warning.

In the end, Yeorum was able to hold her anger in and there were no issues until the very end.
Yeorum was improving on her own.
She had probably thought of ways to suppress her fury beforehand and had most likely gone through several practices to make it work.

Even then, his face didn’t look very good.

A strange emotion that he started having quite recently was weighing his heart down.

Emotions were always automated.
He had to find the cause after feeling one, but he had no idea what the cause was no matter how much he contemplated.

There was nothing wrong with Yeorum.

So why was it that his heart was feeling so uncomfortable…?

“Hey hey.
You guys, watch this.”

It was during dinner.

Yeorum wasn’t the type to brag about her duel regardless of the opponent, whether she won or lost.

This too was something that originated from Yu Jitae’s advice.
No-one brags about the fact they are walking on their two feet down a path, so Yeorum tried not to be too happy or too sad over each and every accomplishment.

That was why her showing off today was an extremely rare exception.

Using the hologram option of her watch, she floated her duel against Simon Abkarian and shared the clip with the kids.

“Uwah, uwah…!”

“…Awh.”

“Wow.”

Kaeul, Gyeoul and even Bom watched the video in surprise.
Flickering embers of flame and Simon retaliating with his blue mana – despite using weapons that limited their ability to 20%, the fight between the two rankers were stunning and mind-blowing. 

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One would disappear from the screen before reappearing dozens of metres away on the other side of the large platform.
Each of their strikes would explode the surrounding air and shake the dimensions.
It truly was an intense battle.

Is this how it would look if the god of flame was to flip a large cauldron upside down and pour out flames? Yeorum’s use of Karl-Gullakwa martial skills enveloped the arena and overflowed.

“Unni.
You are actually super cool…”

“Oh yah?”

“I heard you lost 3 times, but you actually managed to beat him.
That’s amazing.”

“Right?”

“…”

“Pretty cool yeah?”

Even Gyeoul gave a little nod despite having a displeased look on her face, and the baby dragon that was born with the smallest body twitched its shoulders.
“Kuhahahak!” She laughed in a very good mood.

Yu Jitae, however, still felt uncomfortable.
He could not look at the innocently rejoicing child with a comfortable gaze.
It’s not like the burden was immense to an unbearable degree, but there was something that constantly irritated him like a piece of pebble stuck in the shoes.

What is it? Is there a problem with Yeorum?

He contemplated deeply, looking for an answer.

“By the way, Yeorum.”

“Hung?”

“Is this okay?”

“Which?”

Bom stopped the video, and went through Yeorum’s abnormal actions.

“Your hands were shivering here.
And… here.
You lifted your foot after Simon collapsed and… ah, here as well.
Ahjussi was in front of you but you were still clenching on your sword.”

“Huhh? Uh… Yeah?”

“Isn’t this, because you were angry?”

“Hmm… Yeah.”

“It is?”

Yeorum awkwardly scratched her head.

“Umm, like, a side effect of the core? Something like that…”

“What?”

She glanced at the kids and scratched her cheeks before opening her mouth as if it was nothing serious.

“It’s nothing much.
Apparently when using a high quality onion core, it’s difficult to control your emotions.”

“…Is that okay? That sounds extremely dangerous.”

“How is it any dangerous? It’s just getting a little heated up.”

Is that so? Kaeul tilted her head, but Bom had a different perspective despite hearing the same words.

“That sounds way too dangerous…”

“Uun? Why why?”

“There’s no limit to the action or magic but it’s affecting your emotions instead.
What’s the point in getting stronger, if you can’t control your mood and do something wrong?”

“Uun? I, is that so?”

“Kaeul.
Think of it as a mind-related magic.”

“Aht, oh wow…”

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Any magic that directly touched the ‘mind’ was immediately seen as an S-grade spell.
It was the most difficult and the most dangerous out of every magic so it was deemed an international taboo alongside ‘human-type chimera production’ by the Association.

A dark cloud appeared on Kaeul’s expression after realising the seriousness of the matter but Yeorum scoffed instead.

“Aye.
You guys are overreacting.
There is zero problem.”

“Why, why? Why do you think so?”

“Yu Jitae said it, okay? He said he knows how to deal with all~ of that.”

The kids turned their eyes to Yu Jitae.

“Right? Teacher?”

Yeorum asked with a bright smile on her face.

Closing his mouth, he pondered for a bit.
There was not a sliver of doubt in her words.
She was trusting him because of the bond that had been built up over a long period of time through bickering and working together.

However, he felt slightly more uncomfortable at this moment for some reason and still could not clearly tell what the reason was, so he fell deeper into thought.

“Huh? Wait, can you not?”

“…”

“Ehng? Didn’t you say you can? I thought there was a way to deal with anger problems.”

“…Yeah.
There is.”

“Are you sure it will work? You’re looking quite dubious.”

“It’ll definitely work.”

That much was certain, because it was the method he came up with in the 5+ iterations through experiments.

“Really? I’m curious.
How do you teach how to deal with anger management?”

“Rightt! For none other than the… uhh… red dragon… race’s…”

Kaeul slurred her words, pondering how much she should say to make sure it wouldn’t be a racist comment. 

Meanwhile, Yu Jitae slowly began to realise the identity of this emotion that was making him feel uncomfortable.

His chin turned tense.

Bom asked Yeorum.

“Do you know the method?”

“Nope.”

“What’s with that? Why did you say it wouldn’t be a problem when you don’t even know how to fix it?”

“C’mon~ fuck it.
What about it? Whatever it is, Yu Jitae will do something.
He always comes up with the right answer whenever there’s a problem.”

“Is that so…?”

“Of course it is.
Don’t you think so? It’s not the first time this has happened.”

Yeorum said with a grin.

“I don’t doubt anymore.”

Again, it was a voice overflowing with infinite trust.

“Hmm.
But it does make me quite curious.
Even though I look like this, I have a fairly dirty personality.
How do you even fix this? I asked before and it looked like my parents didn’t even fix theirs.”

Turning towards him, she asked.

“So, how does it work?”

*

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5th iteration.

At the end of a long imprisonment.

It happened while the man was away.

A poor hatchling of the red dragon burned its own heart as fuel for power.

The entity broke out of the underground labyrinth that had kept it locked for close to 20 years, and unable to control its fury, it flew around destroying everything.
It breathed out flames by sacrificing its own life.
Through fury, it expressed its frustration and pain.

The entity caused wars and endlessly wreaked havoc to later become the enemy of all of humanity.
By the time he returned after belatedly hearing the news to stop it, the hatchling’s body was already ripped to pieces, broken and crushed beyond repair. 

That entity, who had never once complained about pain during imprisonment, looked at the Regressor with one remaining eye,

– It hurts.

– My chest, hurts.

It moved its broken chin to ask him for a favour.

– Please, kill me…

Back then, the man thought this red entity would continue holding him back in the future.
Unlike the gold entity that caused trouble due to dying from every trivial stuff like an ocean sunfish, the red entity could not control its own anger.

Even though it first became a problem in the 5th iteration, similar problems would inevitably be brought to surface with more iterations.

Until then, there was an unwritten principle that he had applied to himself.

It was that he should not kill the entities.

– It hurts.
It hurts…

But seeing those tears mixed with blood travelling down the cheeks, he changed his mind.

The Regressor snapped the entity by its neck.

For the first and last time, he had killed a baby dragon with his own hands.
Afterwards, he immediately killed himself to preserve the information inside the Vintage Clock.

Thus, information on the red entity became a fragment that resided within the extensive history of the Regressor.

Thus, the Regressor learned the red race’s way of breathing, their martial arts and their mana pulsation.

And due to that, in the following 5+ iterations, the Regressor experimented on how to restrict the red dragon.

27 experiments.

The process of the red entity’s fury had a fundamental difference to that of a human’s.
Their anger was a reflex action to outside pressure, and happened even in their unconsciousness.
Rather than some sort of emotion, he realised that it was a reflex action that was similar to a hereditary disease.

For example, they could have fun slapping each other on the back of their hand but then suddenly hurl a fist if the shock was to exceed a certain level.
It was a fury beyond their control so the end result did resemble a human with an intermittent explosive disorder.

However, there was a difference.
Upon a close inspection to the dragon’s mana composition, funnily enough he discovered a formula for ‘submission’ alongside others and this meant that repetitive training could significantly lower the chance of a reflex action.

That was why he experimented and at the end of several failures, he finally found the answer.
He was certain after 27 experiments.

The method was rather simple.

It was something like this:

“Nn? What is it?”

Wedge it down so that it can’t move a single inch.

“What’s wrong huh? And what’s with that look on your face?”

Make the entity recognise its powerlessness,

“Why do you suddenly look so serious?”

And hitting it.

“Ahh c’mon, why aren’t you saying anything~!”

Until the ‘anger reflex action’ disappears from the entity.