Episode 48: Resting Place of Rusted Swords (5)
Huu. Huuuk…
A boy gasped for breath. The lack of air made him dizzy and caused his chin to drop. Kneeling down, the boy drooled as is.
He was Yu Jitae’s second [Shadow of an Archduke (SS)].
“How pathetic… are you that tired already?”
Clone 1 was displeased with Clone 2.
The boy (Clone 2) was weak and couldn’t use all the authorities of his lord that were laying dormant inside his body. He could barely use 1% of it.
At least that was understandable. He was just born and the ingredient used for his creation was a low quality item for a Level 5 artifact.
His lord had 2 spare Level 5 artifacts previously, and because herself (Clone 1) had eaten the better one of the two, it was inevitable for the second to be born like this.
“I’m not that tired…”
He was all talk.
“Are you even trying?”
“I am. Why are you asking that every time…”
His loyalty was decent, but that was something unconditionally held by a [Shadow of an Archduke (SS)] regardless of the clone’s individuality. Thus, in order to distinguish if the clone was outstanding or not, he had to be graded according to his ability and willpower.
Ability-wise? As mentioned above, he was close to trash to the point that it was hard to believe that he was a clone of their lord.
And the same was for his willpower.
“Stand up then.”
“Just one second…”
“Get up.”
“Let me take a breather okay?”
Clone 1 walked up with a serious look on her face and kicked the young boy on his chest.
They were in the junkyard of a fallen country without anyone nearby. It was a light kick but it resulted in a great jolt as if he had been bashed by a truck going full speed. With a thud, the boy flew all the way across and bounced several times before being buried in the pile of car scraps.
Dust covered the area.
With relaxed steps, Clone 1 approached the boy.
“I gave you enough time to breathe. Get up.”
“Haa, haa…”
Whilst staggering and stumbling, the boy barely raised his body. His body tilted forward heavily like he was about to vomit. The boy swayed several times before finally throwing up a mouthful of blood that stained the ground in red.
“If you’re having trouble with a simple training session, how will you work for the Great Plan? If you were our lord, would you even think about using you?”
“Haa…”
“Make your back straight. Before I break it.”
A brutal voice struck his eardrums and the boy finally stood up straight as his hand wiped the blood off his lips. One of his eyes was swollen and his ripped cheeks were bleeding.
“Use your authorities properly.”
“Ah, I will. I’m doing it right now…”
He grumbled and closed his eyes as the wounds started to close.
“I’ll say it one more time. You,”
“Have to be strong. Have to be loyal to the lord. The happiness of the dragons is the top priority and we have to protect it. I know. I remember everything already.”
“…”
The boy was about to wipe the blood with his fingers but had to stop. His thumb and index finger had disappeared and the rest of his fingers were folded into strange angles. They had been broken from something just then.
“Ahhkk…”
As the pain slowly caught up to his sight, the boy clenched his teeth and used his blessings.
It was a blessing related to ‘Body Recovery’ that his lord possessed. When the twisted fingers returned to normal, the boy gave yet another scream and when new fingers sprouted out, tears dropped from the eyes of the boy who couldn’t even breathe properly.
“Are you done.”
“…Yes.”
“Raise your weapon then.”
But the woman was heartless, and the boy raised his sword without talking back.
.
.
.
By the time they were done with the training, Clone 2 was in a mess, and Clone 1 applied medicine on the boy who was lying down. Because of several restrictions, her lord had been unable to learn an ability that healed others, so this was all Clone 1 could do.
“…”
Clone 2 lifted his arm and covered his eyes.
As a clone, they both had no personal feelings. But just like how she occasionally held doubts about her lord’s thoughts, Clone 2 appeared to have felt doubtful about her actions.
“Training is fine. It’s good, but does it have to be to this degree?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“No umm… that ‘why’ isn’t asking about why I’m needed when our lord is protecting the dragons already.”
“Then what.”
“Like, isn’t it fine to get stronger slowly?”
“We can’t do that.”
Clone 1 was clear-cut with her words.
“When, where, what and how. We can foresee but we can’t be certain. That is the case for any thinking mortal and our lord is not an exception.”
“…”
“That’s why you and I must be prepared at all times. We must be ready as soon as possible and that’s why this is also necessary.”
The boy remained silent.
“You are an existence our lord wished to create. That is the same as saying that your non-existence will affect the happiness of the dragons. So all the blood and tears you shed will add to the safety and joy of the dragons.”
“I won’t shed tears though.”
“Then let’s say blood and sweat.”
“So blood will be shed no matter what, I see.”
“What. Do you think this is cruel? That you have to shed blood because of someone else’s happiness? And the fact that you had to be the one?”
“No? You’re great, ahjumma, but you have this tendency to look down on me too much. I’m a Shadow of an Archduke myself.”
“You mean someone like you is still a small phoenix?”
“The same as ahjumma, I guess. So why would I think about things like that when that’s my reason of existence?”
Despite that, he couldn’t hide the melancholy behind his voice. Clone 1 inwardly heaved a sigh as she was suddenly made to look after a kid somehow.
But there were times when he was cute.
“We’ll start it again later. Rest for an hour.”
“30 minutes is more than enough.”
He acted big. But after saying that, the boy apparently thought it was too short and opened his mouth yet again.
“No wait, maybe 35 minutes…”
She scoffed.
Was her lord also this daring in his first iteration?
After having an insolent thought for a second, Clone 1 shook her head.
***
Bom quietly waited until Yu Jitae finished writing the record.
She would one day drink by herself even if they didn’t drink today, so he decided to teach her how to drink. If she felt happy from drinking, then alcohol might become a good friend for her as well.
“Here.”
“Yes.”
There was a seed that resembled the shape of a cup.
“Cheers~”
Tap- Yu Jitae and Bom bumped their seeds. As the strong crimson wine with 80% alcohol travelled down their throats, a flowery scent struck their noses like a bomb.
“…Cough.”
After drinking it in one go, she coughed. Her eyes turned into circles.
“This, it’s really hot…”
“Hot?”
“Yes. I can feel the alcohol moving down.”
She then carried her finger down from her neck, to her chest and her stomach.
Bom prepared some dungeon fruits that were similar to mango as a side dish. While having those, they emptied several shots in silence.
With a slight pout, Bom opened her mouth.
“I think I’m tipsy.”
“Is that so.”
“I turn around and the world moves slowly. This is what tipsy is, right?”
“It is.”
“But this is unfair.”
“Why.”
“Why am I the only one getting drunk.”
“What do you mean.”
“Ahjussi’s not drunk, right?”
“I am.”
The Regressor had already lowered his body’s metabolism rate to that of a human’s. That was in respect of how precious this alcohol was.
“Then why do you look so normal?”
“Because I’m heavyweight.”
“Can I feel your feelings for a bit?”
Dragons can synchronise their emotions and thoughts to the person they touch. She apparently thought he was lying. The Regressor could obviously hide it if he wanted to but still allowed her to do what she wanted to do.
Bom placed her index finger on the back of his hand.
“You’re right…”
Her pouty eyes turned into a strange curve.
It must be because he was drunk. Her finger, and the touch on the back of his hand felt more vivid than usual.
The Regressor wasn’t that satisfied with the current situation. He found it slightly troubling for his hand to touch her’s.
He thus tried to pull it away but she somehow knew what he was up to, and suddenly grabbed his finger.
“Where are you running.”
She giggled.
Therefore, he closed his senses as well.
At this point, his body felt quite awkward. In order to get drunk, he lowered his metabolism rate, closed his senses to decrease the vividness of the hand touching his skin, and killed his false presence since she wanted honesty.
The Regressor became the same as a normal person for the first time ever since the start of the seventh iteration.
“But why did you suddenly want to drink.”
“Ah, I actually wanted to drink from a while back.”
“From a while back?”
“Yes. I can’t remember it properly, but I think my mother used to drink a lot. Something red like blood…”
Bom stared at the mandrake wine and reminisced in her memories, as if the red colour was similar to the past.
“I wanted to drink by myself later, but I didn’t have the chance to…”
“And you’re saying right now is the chance?”
“It is. I’m also curious about how you are when you’re drunk, ahjussi.”
She then laughed, ‘Huhu…’, and seemed drunk indeed. It was his first time seeing the slanted eyes and the blank smile on her face.
“Do you do something special when you’re drunk?”
“I do.”
“What is it?”
“Becoming calm.”
“That’s so like you, ahjussi…”
Tap- The seed cups clinked.
“Huu… Why do you become calm?”
“I don’t really remember why. Probably because I made a mistake when I was drunk before. I think it’s ever since that happened.”
“Do people make mistakes when drunk?”
“They do.”
Tap-
“Ah. I spilled some…”
“What a waste.”
Bom placed her lips near the alcohol spilled on top of the wooden table. She then slurped it.
“What are you doing.”
“Didn’t you say it was a waste…?”
“But even then.”
“Hmm… Now that I think about it, it is a bit dirty… Why did I do that…?”
She gave another foolish smile.
Tap–
“Uuhh… this is a really strong alcohol right…?”
“It is.”
“I think I know what getting drunk means… it feels good.”
“Don’t drink too much, and get rid of the intoxication before the kids come back.”
“Okay…”
Tap–
“Huuh… Oh right. Let me give you the sides. Here. Ahh–”
“…”
“Good boy.”
After pouring strong alcohol down his throat over and over again, it seemed that he had also become quite drunk. While eating the fruit Bom gave him, he asked something which he usually wouldn’t have asked.
“Why are you trying to make me eat every time.”
“But if I don’t, you don’t eat…”
“I don’t have to eat.”
“That makes me want to feed you even more, you know…?”
Tap-
Tap-
Tap-
“Look. You’re not eating them now…”
“…”
Hnn hnn hnn. She laughed like a fool.
The alcohol was close to being emptied and he was quite drunk himself as well. Bom’s face and her eyes that had become normal ever since it had become a part of his daily life, stayed in his vision longer than usual.
And Bom found out about it.
“Am I pretty…?”
The green-haired girl who knew she was pretty, pouted her lips out when his gaze remained on her face for a long time. She soon gave an awkward smile, before smiling like a fox again while poking her cheeks with her fingers. She was acting cute.
As if he was watching TV, he blankly stared at her face. He gradually started feeling more perplexed as Bom was still holding his finger.
He could see her fingers and her nails. The veins contrasting against her white skin entered his sight.
He decided that he had to stop the drinking session here.
“Let’s make this the last cup.”
“Okay…”
But there was a problem. Bom, who was heavily drunk, had trouble holding the cup properly. It was slightly different from how a human got drunk, and it was her synchronisation with the polymorphed body that was being affected.
She thought she grabbed it but it was just her hand that came up. After missing the cup several times on repeat, she frowned and glared at the innocent cup.
“Whhy, can’t I grab it…”
“…”
So Yu Jitae grabbed the cup for her and poured alcohol into it, and she somehow received it with both hands.
The last drop of alcohol went down her throat. Gulp, gulp. After slowly finishing it, she heaved a powerless sigh, which spread the flowery scent of the alcohol across.
Blankly, Bom stared at the remaining last piece of fruit, before opening her mouth.
“This. I want to eat this…”
“Huh?”
“But I can’t grab it…”
The Regressor pondered for a second, thinking that it might be her asking him to feed her.
“I want to eat it… but I can’t pick it up…”
Reaching her hand forward, she seemingly grabbed the fruit, but it remained on the spot when she lifted her hand back up. She became even more depressed.
“I want to eat it… I want to but….”
“…”
Her loosened gaze blankly turned towards Yu Jitae, so he gave a sigh before grabbing the fruit and handing it over to her. Bom gazed up at him with the same gloomy expression and soon opened her mouth.
The fruit entered her mouth.
But because she was drunk, she couldn’t control her mouth and chin.
So,
She ended up biting on Yu Jitae’s fingers along with the fruit.
“…?”
Her vacant gaze slowly went back and forth between his eyes and hand.
After feeling the warmth inside her mouth, he pulled his finger out. His hazy senses ignored his command and vividly returned to him.
For an instant, an extremely large sense of perplexity rose up from a corner of his heart.
“What are you doing.”
That was when Bom bursted into laughter ever so slowly. Ahaha, she laughed as she waved her hand.
“No… I wasn’t trying to do that…”
“…”
“It was an accident. An accident…”
***
“…”
Kaeul blankly stared through the window.
She had found a beautiful baby chicken in the middle of the mountain. She had to take a picture to show Chirpy, but realised that she had left the watch behind.
That was why she had come back for a bit.
But when she came near the house, there was a strong scent of flowers surrounding the area. Curious about the source of the smell, she sneaked to the window and stole a glance inside.
Her unni and ahjussi were drinking inside.
Uwah, they’re drinking…! She thought.
That’s what she thought, until she saw Bom’s expression.
“…”
Yu Jitae had his back towards the window, and she couldn’t see his face. Bom suddenly laughed out loud, saying it was an accident, but Kaeul couldn’t see what the accident was either.
But what she did see clearly, were Bom’s eyes that were staring at Yu Jitae.
“…”
From the expression and gaze of the drunk Bom, Kaeul felt something mysterious and wondrous that made her feel dizzy.
Her heart started racing.
“…”
Unlike usual where she had trouble focusing on something for a long time, Kaeul couldn’t look away from the two for a long period of time.
Around the time they started packing up, she came back to her senses and quickly escaped but even after she went back to the mountain, her heart didn’t stop racing.
Thump thump…
Kaeul finally asked herself.
What did I just see…?
thanks for chap
now did bom or did she not do this on purpose??!
and what did kaeul feel? jealousy? love? or maybe some power bom was using that ending up acting on her as well? or did she recover memories from previous iteration?
lol imagine that awkward situation kaeul is in XD, wait a baby chick in the wild??
Hmm so the most important question is did she lick his hand?
She felt Bom’s love, since a gold dragon can take feelings from others.
Bc kaeul can immerse herself in the emotions of others, I think she felt Bom’s emotions, so maybe love yea
Kaeul has the ability to empathize with others, that’s why yu jitae did not want to expose her to the public. So what she’s feeling is what bom is feeling I think
Golden Dragons have the power to sync with others’ emotions so what basically happened is that when kaeul looked at bom she managed to feel what bom was feeling
Golden Dragons can sync with the emotions of others so basically kaul just felt was bom was feeling when she looked at her
i thought it only applied when the target is human
I think Kaeul passively use her power to sympathize with Bom’s feeling.. she felt perplexed with the unfamiliar feeling of ‘love’ because of it..
Remember the specialty of gold dragons, they can feel the emotion of others.
most likely on purpose. if i remember correctly bom has some kind of prediction ability, thus she may purposely did that.
Kaeul felt the way she did becuase she ‘synced’ with Bom. She felt how Bom was in that moment. The slowmance marches on!
Did you remermber Kaeul had trace like skill she can trace other emotion. Maybe Kaeul just feel what bom feeling.
Thx for the chapter
I think she felt the emotions of Bom, so yea, maybe love?
Hohohoho thanks for the chapter!
I wonder if the author write footpages writing more details about things like these….
I doubt it I think we will find out in the next chapters
thanks for the chapter
Bom is having fun. Thanks for the chapter
Now I’m really confused… as more and more chapters pass I think Kauel is going to be the female lead(or romantic partner(?) whatever the term) and Bom is using her Megamind 200 IQ to make this possible. And when I think about it, Kauel as the female lead makes more and more sense.
If you consider her previous point of view chapter, everything was at least 80% planned by Bom.
You know, I originally thought that Bom, the “mom”, might be the only love interest, with the other girls staying in the “daughter” role. However considering this chapter and how flirty she was in the 4th iteration, Kaeul might be an option too. Of course in the 4th iteration, she was much older when she first met him.
I wonder how the MCs new younger clone will affect things. Perhaps Kaeul interest will be redirected to him since they are closer in ages.
I mean, I don’t really expect the romance to go anywhere good, this novel probably won’t have a happy ending for the MC.
” this novel probably won’t have a happy ending for the MC.” wait what? why not?? i feel the whole point of the novel will be to make mc human and happy with them.
on that note yeorum and gyeoul are equally possible love interests, yeorum her race is practically attracted to strength and sex , and i recall yeorum called mc hot when he changed clothes. gyeoul’s case the ancestral mission given to her is to protect mc and she’s the only one incredibly clingy to him,even exchanging hair necklaces.
Well, a happy ending isn’t impossible. I hope it does have one but I’m not going to keep my hopes up.
The novel has had a family feeling, with Bom wanting to be a mom and the other girls being daughters. Thus you could see Yeorum as something like a rebellious daughter. However, since Kaeul has been bumped up to a potential love interest (she was treated as rather childish before the last story of the 4th iteration) then Yeorum being one too is an obvious thing.
Mostly, I am assuming that it isn’t going to be a harem. This is also part of not keeping my hope up.
For Gyeoul, I dunno I’ve been seeing her as the daughter all this time. Everyone in the story has been treating her like that though and she is acting like a child all this time. Her being clingy wouldn’t be out of place for an overly attached daughter.
I think Gyeoul turning in a love interest when she grows up is a pretty “Usagi Drop”.
Sorry but no harem whatsoever if I remember during the last time I read the raws. Bom is the closest one you can call a love interest.
“I wonder how the MCs new younger clone will affect things. Perhaps Kaeul interest will be redirected to him since they are closer in ages.”
A line from this chapter:
“Clone 2 lifted his arm and covered his eyes. As a clone, they both had no personal feelings.”
Thankfully, I don’t think clone romance will be a thing.
Thanks for the chapter
TBH, I don’t understand about Bom at all, the only thing in this novel that bugs me.
The thing that bugs me the most in any novel in the world is romance, idk why but i dont like romance(there’s only one exception where i kinda liked it cuz the fml was funny and original) and to put romance genre while being a father figure is not nice… But dispite that i wont drop it
He was never really a father figure to Bom. I’ve always had her pegged as the “mom” so to say of the household. Her interest in the MC isn’t strange at all, if you would recall that Bom was the only dragon who has never been dedicated to any specific thing in any of the incarnations. Even when he kidnapped them she was the only one who spoke to him. He’s an interesting guy and she probably just wants to figure him out, and that mysteriousness probably makes him attractive to Bom. Not that hard to understand her.
That’s pretty reasonable since Green Dragons are dragons of providence and can see the future/past to a certain degree and even tangle with fate. So to Bom, someone who’s as mysterious as mc is very attractive
Author used tease.
It’s super effective!
author-san y u do this? I’ve been missing alcohol since pandemic started and u got one whole chap with it T-T
ahn the tipsy feeling, then the feelgood liberating feeling…noo..
aww thats cute!
no, kaeul just got overly immersed in bom’s emotions nothing more nothing less.
even in the previous iteration she only had a familial bond towards jitae, if you used a percent of your brain you wouldn’t come to your conclusion.
stop being a pain @eternal, if you read completed KNs then you should know korean mcs, have tragic endings
Stop being a pain @Riverbead, if you read enough completed KNs then you should know korean mcs, have sometimes tragic endings, sometimes happy endings
I have read more KN with happy endings than with tragic ones.
Lol @ this comment section. Like 8 people saying “kaeul empathizing with bins emotions!”
This is disgusting. No matter how much you love someone, a desire to develop relationship into romance nor awaken lustfully horny feelings between different species won’t ever born unless they have ailment such humanility(for dragon) or sexually frustrated. If it the case then would they swing into birdility if they somehow polymorphed to bird race society? Bruh the more I read bom’s behavior the more I feel disgust how horny and deceptive dragons are….. I know it’s not the place but, dear author, this is 🤮
149 chapters in and… enough! It’s a pity, because this novel had some interesting and promising ideas in the beginning. The writing style is quite readable. The translation is clumsy at times, apparently done by non-native speakers, but still easy to understand. The biggest problem of this novel is the romantic story line. It is just irritating, nothing more.
The author puts huge (and, honestly, excessive) amount of effort in figuring out the “joy of every day life” and misses the mark most of the time. But it can be forgiven, considering we are talking about the every-day joy of reptiles, which understandably can appear surreal from the human point of view. However, the “romance” part just cannot be ignored in that way, because one of those involved is still a human. And if we look at it from an adult human point of view… It is just that — stupid! Romance is not about stealthy glances, unprovoked touches and giggles, and being constantly “perplexed”. Well, it is not, unless your development is stuck at the level of an 11 year old bashful boy.
Thus, 149 chapters are enough, and even too many, to understand that the main focus of the novel is irredeemably shifted from fantasy (it’s strong side), to every-day life (it’s week plot line), to romance (it’s unbearably unreadable plot line). Alas, rest in peace another promising fantasy plot that got buried by the author’s “excessive greed :)” :(.
I’ve no idea why people keep complaining (nitpicking) about the romance. For me it’s quite good