Chapter 434 – Results (1)
“Peace, wait, wait a second!”
Don’t pounce on me, not right now! At my urgent shout, Peace stopped short in the middle of leaping toward me. Kkiang, he tilted his head. Yeah, nothing would seem strange to your eyes. But still.
…It’s really all gone. Only the boots were left. Other than that, the earrings and the blessing. …That just makes it feel even weirder. I wrapped the coat around myself as tightly as I could. It was long, but since it didn’t button all the way shut, gaps kept opening near the bottom.
What the hell kind of sight is this. Even after rummaging through my inventory, the only clothes left were the jacket and the yarn set. I had no bottoms, no bottoms. The lower half was the most important part.
“Hyung!”
Yoohyun called out to me. I turned my head just in case, and sure enough, everyone looked perfectly fine, fully dressed and everything.
Except for Chief Song.
Unlike me, Chief Song at least still had his pants on, with only a coat thrown over them. Apparently, he hadn’t wanted to waste reward value on a shirt that wasn’t even an item. Though I suppose there was nothing to be done about the pants.
Anyway, it looked like Newbie had taken care of everyone else. Right, it was a relief that everyone except me was fine. I was dying of embarrassment.
“Hyung, maybe your clothes—”
“Ah, yeah. Yerim, you don’t come over here!”
“I can’t see anything~ You wrapped yourself up too well!”
“Even so, no!”
Between my shouts, the dokkaebis’ whispering mixed in.
What’s going on, what happened, why’s Kim-seobang like that, the puppy got smaller! It’s the Great King! and so on.
It was enough to make my head spin.
“First, first of all! How long has it been since we disappeared? I mean time-wise.”
“One hour!”
“No, five hours!”
“One hundred ninety-nine hours! Exactly!”
“Kim-seobang, I’m hungry!”
“I’m sleepy!”
…Anyway, it didn’t seem like a full day had passed. It wasn’t daylight yet either. Judging by the position of the moon, maybe three or four hours had gone by. It felt like dawn wasn’t far off.
“Should I take off my clothes and give them to you?”
“And what would you do? They wouldn’t fit me anyway.”
I appreciated my brother’s heart, but it would only turn into an absurd sight.
“There’s still yarn left, so underwear—”
“No thanks! I refuse!”
Had he lost his mind? Hot-pink knitted underwear? And why did that damned yarn never run out?
“If you’re going to give me anything, you’d be better off taking yours off.”
“To think you’d demand not only Silekia, but even my very last layer. My partner is quite greedy.”
Sung Hyunjae spouted nonsense, saying that if it came to giving me that too, he would need some time to prepare himself mentally. Honestly, he looked like the sort who would shamelessly stroll around naked in broad daylight if he felt like it. Though the instant he took a single step, Chief Song would arrest him.
Chief Song also looked like he was about to say something, so I quickly shook my head and declined. No, it’s fine. It’s not fine, but it’s fine.
“Yoohyun, turn around and block me for a second. Mr. Sung Hyunjae, would you stop looking.”
First, I pulled out a long cardigan and wrapped it around my lower half. Once my lower body was fully covered, I felt a small measure of peace return.
Ah, seriously. There should’ve been a million things to say and do now that I was out, but my mind had gone completely blank.
“No dokkaebis missing, right! Is everyone here?”
Yoon Yoon shouted loudly while checking the dokkaebis.
“All the dokkaebis who were supposed to come here are here!”
“The dokkaebis who are with the baby monsters aren’t here!”
The dokkaebis answered while shooting their hands up brightly. Right, I had to look after the baby monsters too. We had to take all of them back to Korea.
“Since we have safely recovered Mr. Han Yoojin, our highest priority must be returning home.”
Chief Song said stiffly, as if making it clear that I was not to get any more stupid ideas. Right. I needed to go home.
‘Bak Hayul still seems fine for now.’
Maybe because the island had been destroyed and I had no idea where he was, fortunately I didn’t feel any urge to go looking for that bastard. Once I got back to Korea and made it known that I was here, he could contact me if he wanted or not. It would be better for both sides to return home than to linger in China like this.
“There are no nearby airports still intact, so we’ll have to move overland first.”
—Kkiang!
As if he understood the words, Peace, who had been circling around my feet, enlarged his body. Ah, but the problem was me riding you right now…
—Grrr.
“Thanks, Peace. Um, if I sit sideways with both legs together… no, that’s too unstable.”
It wasn’t like I could ride him with my legs spread. I needed underwear. Pants too, while I was at it.
“Should I go get the kids?”
Yerim said as she floated lightly upward.
“Not by yourself!”
“I’ll go too. I know the area well now that we’ve finished investigating around here.”
Noah spread his wings and flew up as well. The two of them left to bring back the kids, and the rest of us, except for Yoon Yoon, sorted out the situation.
“It’s not as though you came here without an escape route.”
If they had planned to destroy all the airports, then of course they must have prepared another way out. Surely they hadn’t gone through all this without even that much of a plan.
“We were going to send you back first.”
As Yoohyun lifted me up and set me onto Peace’s back, he spoke. As naturally as anything, the hem of my coat fell open and revealed the hot-pink cardigan, which was deeply embarrassing. I quickly pulled the coat shut again to cover it. There was no need for a separate fashion terrorist. Bare legs, bare feet, and boots on top of that.
“Because Peace is here.”
“And the rest of you are all S-ranks, so you’d just make your own way back? Swim across the Yellow Sea?”
“I would have gone with you, Hyung, and Hunter Bak Yerim and Hunter Noah both have flight skills.”
So they were just going to dump Sung Hyunjae and Chief Song somewhere? Then again, those two—especially Sung Hyunjae—would probably make their way back just fine no matter where you threw them.
“You can’t do that anymore. There are too many kids now. Yoon Yoon, do you think the dokkaebis could cross the sea?”
“They’d go plop, plop, plop into the water before they even got halfway!”
As expected, we needed a plane or a ship or something to get across.
“Since communication itself is impossible here, we’ll head to Hefei first.”
Sung Hyunjae said. Chief Song followed.
“There are military vehicles parked by the lakeshore over there. If they’re old enough, they probably won’t have immobilizers.”
“Chief Song, sounds like you’ve stolen a few cars before. You sound awfully used to saying that.”
I tossed it out as a joke, but a slight shadow crossed Chief Song’s face.
Was that for real.
“Was it Colombia? Or Egypt?”
So Sung Hyunjae was the culprit. Just how far had he dragged Chief Song into things?
Anyway, we decided to head to Hefei, make contact, and find out what was going on. It was suspicious enough that things were still quiet even though several hours had passed since all this chaos began.
Not long after, Yerim and Noah returned.
“Ahjussi! The kids are all safe!”
Yerim shouted while holding the baby Pegasus in her arms. Beside her, inside a droplet of water, was the baby sea serpent. The sea serpent poked its head out and flapped its fins as though greeting us.
—Kkeureureung!
In Noah’s arms was a baby buffalo wandering sound asleep through dreamland. Sleeping well, I see. Leafnil fluttered in, and the baby fox and the egg were brought by the dokkaebis.
—Krrr.
At the sight, Peace growled unhappily. Leafnil, who had been about to come closer to me, startled and began circling in midair.
“Don’t be like that, Peace.”
—Kkeuung.
“No matter how many baby monsters come, our Peace is still the best.”
Let’s see, we’d need at least three cars. Since the lake had already melted away by then, Sung Hyunjae got onto Peace with me, partly to help keep me steady in place. Because of that, I had to soothe Peace, who was radiating displeasure.
Yoohyun had Willow Leaves, and Noah gave Chief Song a ride.
The area around the lake was quiet as well, without the slightest sign of anyone. There wasn’t even anyone guarding the cars.
“All right, everyone, split up and get in. Dokkaebis, you have to stay quiet! There are four people here who can drive, right?”
“Ahjussi, I can too!”
“Yerim, let’s not today. There are low-rank dokkaebis and baby monsters with us.”
She had a license, but I still felt uneasy.
“Instead, want to try putting water in the keyhole, shaping it, and freezing it? I wonder if that would work.”
“I’ll try.”
If it was an old car, picking the lock should be possible too.
“If you press the pins into the exact right positions, it should turn.”
Yerim pushed tiny shards of ice into the keyhole in the car door. Not long after—
Click.
The door opened.
“It worked! Over here!”
“Nice work! Of course, you shouldn’t do this under normal circumstances. It wouldn’t work on modern cars anyway.”
“Don’t worry.”
That was how four ice keys were made. The dokkaebis transformed into little balls of fire and swarmed into the vehicles, and the rest of us split up and got in as well. Since Yoon Yoon’s stealth skill rank was high, they decided to stay outside and keep watch on the surroundings.
“Don’t leave me alone until we get back to Korea.”
I turned off Fear Resistance and spoke quietly to Yoohyun, who was driving.
“It’s dangerous because Bak Hayul’s skill hasn’t worn off yet. I’m fine as long as Fear Resistance isn’t active, though.”
“Should I find him and kill him?”
“I’m uneasy about what that would do. It would be great if the skill just came undone, but it might end up applying strangely instead. He might try to avenge Bak Hayul, or take some other kind of mental shock.”
“Then I shouldn’t touch him carelessly. Tell Bak Yerim too.”
“Yeah. Once we get back to Korea, we can just live normally without Fear Resistance most of the time.”
It would only need to be turned on when meeting high-rank Hunters. By then I wouldn’t be alone, so even if he tried to run, it would be easy enough to catch him, and we could always keep him under surveillance.
“Still, we can’t just leave a danger factor lying around forever, so we do have to find Bak Hayul eventually. Should we put out a wanted notice or something?”
“If we do that without proper justification, it’ll only be dangerous. Especially if we start publicly searching for Bak Hayul right now, it would be easy to infer that he was connected to your kidnapping.”
“Anyone under the table probably already knows roughly what happened.”
“They still don’t know that it was a mental-type skill, or that the effect is still lingering on you. For now, it’s probably better if the kidnapping appears to have been resolved completely.”
“Yeah, that makes sense. I should stay quiet for a while too. I suddenly have way more kids to raise, after all.”
I glanced toward the back seat. The baby magical beasts were sleeping quietly despite the shaking of the car. In the middle of them, Peace stared back at me unhappily. I had left him there to protect the kids in case anything happened, but still.
“Want to come here, Peace?”
—Kkiuung.
As if he had been waiting for those words, Peace came over to the passenger seat. He rubbed his whole body against me with little rumbling sounds, and I petted him all over.
“Our Peace really is such a good boy. I heard you even took good care of the dokkaebis?”
—Gyarreung.
“You’re such a good boy, a complete grown-up now! You’ve really gotten big!”
—Kkeung.
Peace abruptly whipped his head away and thumped his tail down in displeasure. Hm?
“What’s wrong?”
“A brat who deliberately turns himself intangible wouldn’t enjoy being treated like an adult.”
“Is that so? He’s such a baby.”
Cute little guy. I wonder if the others are doing well back home.
After driving for quite a while down empty roads, we finally entered the city. A checkpoint had been set up by the roadside, but maybe because we were in military vehicles, they let us through immediately. Had word about the chaos on Nosan Island not spread yet?
We stopped at a reasonably conspicuous shop, and Sung Hyunjae placed a call somewhere. In the meantime, Yoohyun went and bought me clothes to wear. I never would’ve guessed ordinary clothes could feel this welcome. In the end, food, clothing, and shelter really were essential to life.
It wasn’t long before people from Seseong showed up. It seemed they had been waiting in advance in Hefei, near Nosan Island.
The place they guided us to was a large mansion that looked like a villa. It was surrounded by a high wall, with Chinese and Western styles mixed together. There had been places like this in Hong Kong too, but still—this wasn’t even a neighborhood whose name I recognized. Had they rented it or bought it in a hurry? It must be nice having so much money.
“It is not yet confirmed information, but…”
One of Seseong’s information agents spoke cautiously.
“We have reports that among the Hunters belonging to military units throughout China, there are those who do not die—undead.”
If it was undead, then surely—
“…Would that be the same phenomenon as what happened to the soldiers on the island?”
“It may be that those who had already been contracted became undead even outside Nosan Island.”
“It must be absolute chaos.”
I thought of Hwang Rim, who had taken Cho Hwayoon. No matter how I looked at it, that bastard seemed to be one of the central figures. Just what was he planning?
…Could it be that he had been aiming to overturn the military from the beginning? Or was there some other objective?
“And the Martial Arts Alliance has sent a request asking for a meeting.”
“Now, of all times?”
“They said they would send a helicopter in the morning.”
Then it seemed that, at least until morning, we might be able to rest.
As for the route back to Korea, they said there was a boat departing from Shanghai and also the option of taking a flight from an intact airport. Since there would be a helicopter, it would probably be better to go via airport.
Yoohyun and Chief Song each left to contact Haeyeon and the Awakened Management Office.
“Ugh, I don’t even know whether I’ll be able to sleep.”
I stretched both arms out and gave a long stretch. The time difference has completely hit me all at once. Still, maybe it would be best to catch a little sleep, even just briefly. I was tired, after all.
“I’m not sleepy at all. Can I go out into the garden for a bit?”
“Just don’t climb over the wall.”
“I want to look around too! There was a pond!”
Yoon Yoon, just as lively as ever, went out after Yerim, but all the other dokkaebis had completely conked out.
“Mr. Noah, have you ever thought about going to medical school?”
Lying sprawled out on the living room sofa, I spoke to Noah.
“…What?”
“I feel like using your skill would be more effective if you understood the human body really well. Then again, you wouldn’t necessarily have to go all the way to medical school. You could just study separately. Or ask a doctor at Seseong Hospital.”
A Hunter doctor would probably know the body of a Hunter better than an ordinary physician would.
At that moment, Sung Hyunjae rose from his seat and looked at me.
“Would you spare me a little time?”
What could it be about? I had plenty of things I needed to say separately too.
