Chapters 26: Those who protect (4)

Only two existences remained inside the Black Gaze and no signs of other protectors could be seen.

"…"

Until everything ended, the protector of Green Dragon lowered its gaze and held its words in.

They, who had lived for over hundreds of years, came to their ends in a split second and the sole remaining protector slowly opened its mouth.

"Are you not going to take my life?"

It didn't receive a response.

The killing intent covering the entirety of Black Gaze dissipated and Yu Jitae stood before the protector. He then asked.

"Don't you miss freedom?"

"…Saying I don't miss it, will be me telling a lie. However, this body was formed due to the work of the demon world, and the one that saved me from an unwanted life was my current lord."

"…"

"Since I gave my loyalty to the green race with all my heart, I do not plan to defect even at the cost of my life."

Even though its conduct was like a gangster, it talked about knighthood. After some thought, Yu Jitae walked closer and crouched down to match his line of sight with the protector.

"The purpose of your life is to protect the Green Dragon."

"…That is the case."

"But since I will be protecting the Green Dragon, your life will be meaningless, right?"

"…!"

It's crimson eyes ominously flickered.

That was true. If the dragon was being protected by a being this strong, who would dare say that they needed another guardian? Even then, the protector could not walk off on its own path.

"Aren't you a being, closer to evil?"

Well, that was true but it seemed to Yu Jitae, that the protector had completely misunderstood something.

"If there is a meaning in keeping my life, please do tell me. As long as it can provide more support in protecting the green race, I will do whatever it may be."

"'Whatever'?"

"…As long as it doesn't cause harm to the safety of Green Dragon, that will be the case."

Although he wasn't completely fond of that sentence, they had reached a decent compromise. After a bit more thought, Yu Jitae opened his mouth.

"Until the dragons finish their Amusements, act as my servant."

"Servant as in, do you mean a full obedience? Even when that does not comply with my will?"

He thought that its words were a bit stiff but he ignored it.

"Similar."

When Yu Jitae gave a response, the protector lowered its gaze.

"…However, the seal drawn on this humble body belongs to that of a count of the demon world."

"And?"

"Though I'm not sure who you might be, I do understand that you are a being that has exceeded past a certain boundary. However, now that the Magic of Servitude cast by the dragons has been undone, there is still the stamp of the demon world remaining on this body. That will become an obstacle against full obedience."

That wouldn't be a problem.

"Do not look away from my eyes."

In response to his words, Green's protector raised its head up and in that instant, a blue aura appeared in Yu Jitae's eyes.

One of the three authorities stolen from the Archduke of the demon world, and a power that had only been used to discern the nature of good and evil, authenticity and favourability up until now.

[Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)]

But in the essence of that ability, was the demonic mana of the Demon Archduke embedded within.

"…!"

When Archduke's mana started flowing out, the protector turned stiff like a statue.

A demonic aura this thick.

Don't tell me, that this man is someone on the same level as the Archduke of the demon world? The protector, who had left the demon world hundreds of years ago, was startled and baffled by the situation that then unfolded.

A curse of the Demon Count that had settled down on its body for a long time, was being chiseled away by Yu Jitae's mana. On top of that, a stamp of the Demon Archduke began replacing it.

At the same time, the protector's body that had been recreated by the count's mana started changing yet again. Despite that, since it had originally been a living armour, its appearance after the change was still a full-plated armour.

"…"

Kneeling down on one of its knees, the protector showed respect on the outside, but it felt doubt against the man in front rising from within.

Considering that thick demonic mana, the man was definitely not a good person. Maybe 'protecting' the dragons was a mere hypocrisy and the dragons were being held hostage?

'…'

A dangerous being, thought the protector.

According to what it's instinctive senses alerted, the man was more wicked than the beings of the demon world. Perhaps he was the demon lord of this world.

'…That can't be.'

The Green Dragon was captured by a man like that and judging from his words, it seemed that all the other dragons were also caught.

In the protector's head, Yu Jitae had become a complete devil. A demon lord, a kidnapper, and whatever he was, the man was the worst being in this world, keeping dragons as hostages. And that man was standing right before itself.

As a protector, it judged that it must escape with the dragons and have the Green Dragon escape at the very least.

But observing the man's strength, it did not see a single hope of possibility.

Despair painted the protector from within.

"Are you ready?"

The protector replied with a wretched heart.

"...Yes."

After hearing that response, Yu Jitae ripped through the Black Gaze and walked out.

Bom's room had become a mess. The wardrobe was lying on the ground and a few flower pots had been broken. A small portion of the shock that happened inside the Black Gaze had oozed out and had affected the room.

That was obvious considering that a Final Form had also been used.

From within the mass of dirt flowing out of a broken flower pot, a worm crawled past and Yu Jitae heaved out a small sigh.

In that instant, Kaeul, who felt a human presence opened the door and came in.

"…Ahjussi?"

It seemed that the baby chicken had not sensed through the pure Black Gaze.

"I, finished, counting and… where in the…"

Her eyes that had been drooping low had liveliness overflowing out once again. Throwing away the script, Kaeul approached them.

"Where did you go! Like, it was suddenly getting windy and we looked for you because we were worried you might have gotten hurt! Gyeoul was like whimpering and… nn…?"

In the middle of her speech, she found a black full-plated armour standing behind Yu Jitae and tilted her head. It wasn't the protector she knew of.

"Who is this? Your friend?"

Yu Jitae made a hazy smile seeing the innocent light in her eyes.

Around that point in time, the protector had received a fairly large shock. It naturally thought that the dragons would be feeling reluctant against Yu Jitae. He was an evil man which the protector was made certain of a few moments ago. It was worried that the dragons might have gone through a dirty experience…

And yet what was this reaction? The voice filled with worry coming out of the young gold dragon, was that of a child that found its parents in the midst of anxiety.

There's no way.

There was no way…

It was when a disharmony of its thoughts and reality caused the protector to be dumbfounded, when a baby dragon with blue hair carefully peeked its head past the door.

A deep aura of water was felt. It was the Blue Dragon.

The moment it saw Yu Jitae, the Blue Dragon formed an expression that seemed to be moments away from crying, as it began toddling towards Yu Jitae. Then, the dragon reached out its arms at Yu Jitae, as if asking for a hug.

Yu Jitae casually hugged the Blue Dragon up. His movements did not seem to carry any deep emotion and yet the instant it was hugged by Yu Jitae, the Blue Dragon stopped whimpering and calmed down.

A shock was added on top of another shock.

What, in the world, was happening in front of itself?

Did something violent invert the minds of the dragons? Or were they brainwashed? No. Even the brainwashing magic of demon lords did not work on dragons.

Then what in the world…?

"Anyways! What happened, and why is the room in a state like this? Bom-unni could have gotten hurt!"

"It wasn't me."

"Then?"

With large, sharp eyes, Kaeul asked with a tone that seemed to be saying, 'what excuse do you have?'.

"This guy did it."

When Yu Jitae gestured with his hands, Kaeul's sharp eyes turned towards the protector.

"Why did you do that? Our ahjussi and Bom-unni could have gotten hurt! And who in the world is this person? Why did he come into our house all of a sudden?!"

The baby chicken continued pecking on. The protector, that had suddenly turned into a sinner didn't know what to do. Even though it should have introduced itself while letting them know that it was here to protect them, the situation was turning strange and the protector missed the opportunity.

"Say hi."

It seemed that the saving grace was unexpectedly coming from Yu Jitae.

"He's a new cleaner I hired."

No, it wasn't a saving grace.

The situation continued flowing in a manner outside its control.

*

An hour later.

Wearing an apron (because Gyeoul was scared of the pattern drawn on its chestplate), and a pair of rubber gloves (because it couldn't pick up the shattered fragments of the flower pots with a gauntlet), the protector had to clean Bom's room all alone.

After a long cleaning session, it was finally reaching the end.

The protector crouched down and tried to digest everything that had happened up to the current point in time. Gold and Blue Dragon, who followed Yu Jitae just like a family member – since brainwash wouldn't work on them, it must be an honest action coming from their hearts.

"…Ahjussi."

That was when the Green Dragon murmured in its sleep.

"…Is my cooking… delicious?"

It seemed to be feeding something in its sleep, perhaps to that devilish man.

"...you liar."

During the sleep talk, Bom made a soft smile.

This too, came as a shock. The protector did not see the young lady of the green race smiling like this, for around twenty years.

Although it couldn't understand, it had to take it in.

Outside its expectations, the man did not do anything bad to the dragons and that wasn't the end. It was a step further and their relationship seemed to have formed a fairly decent structure.

There was a need to watch on for a bit more.

At that moment, the door of the dorm was pushed wide open.

"Huu."

It was Yeorum returning home after an exercise, showered in sweat like a protagonist of a drama. After glancing around the house, she found the protector and asked with a displeased expression.

"What is that?"

"A cleaner, apparently."

Kaeul replied.

No, that's not it though…

"A cleaner? Someone that cleans? Then why is it standing still without cleaning? Something that's not even a human."

"Hmm, I don't know, but ahjussi said it was the cleaner!"

"That human did? Hmm…"

Feeling intrigued, Yeorum walked up and tapped the rubbish bin placed in front of the protector with her foot. The rubbish that was painfully gathered came crumbling down.

"Work. Don't play around."

***

Residential District.

The third floor of a dormitory in the form of an 80-square-metre officetel.

Weekend arrived at Unit 301.

Normally, dragons were said to summon spirits that would organise their lairs and that seemed to be a common sense in their world. However, there were no spirits on Earth and the dragons thus apparently did not know how to clean.

Despite that, he wasn't particularly interested in whether they lived in a pile of trash or not… at least he was, until seeing what Yeorum's room was like.

While Yeorum had gone out for an exercise in the middle of the day and the protector was cleaning the shocking room belonging to Yeorum, Yu Jitae walked towards Kaeul's room.

Kaeul, who had been blankly staring at the script in the living room startledly ran towards Yu Jitae.

"N, no you can't! How can you go into a girl's room without consent!"

She held onto Yu Jitae's arm and tried to drag him away.

"It must be dirty."

"N, no?! It's not that dirty! These days I didn't clean much because I was practising the script… a, anyways you can't!"

Without a stop, Yu Jitae headed to the door of the room and Kaeul was dragged there herself. The strength she used with a shout, "Uang!" was meagre in comparison.

"N, nooooon!"

Yes.

Yu Jitae opened the door. It was unknown where she got them from, but dolls, mirrors and photos of people were stuck on one side of the walls. The number reached almost a hundred.

And she seemed to have consumed a lot of chocolates as foils and paper boxes formed mountains on the floor.

It was a manifestation of untidiness itself.

"I can't believe it! My mum said you shouldn't enter others' lairs without permission okay?"

"…Those dolls, are they replacements for the audience?"

He remembered hearing her voice as she practised the declaration alone in her room. Did she have those dolls as an audience throughout her practices?

"That's not the important bit! Leave, please…! I'm dying from embarrassment."

Kaeul pushed him out with all her strength. Yu Jitae, who was shoved out onto the corridor, called his copy. Since it was a weekend, the copy was on a break as well.

"Your command, my lord."

Yu Jitae who looked exactly the same as Yu Jitae, stood before him.

"Let's clean the house today."