“What’s going on?”

The guild adventurers approached us.

The Master asked the question on behalf of everyone.

Levinas, not me, was the one who answered.

“It’s a bad person! We all caught her together!”

“A bad person?”

“Yeah! She’s totally a snake!”

“Snake.”

The Master and guild members looked at the restrained female researcher.

They didn’t show any sharp reactions yet, perhaps not entirely convinced she was truly bad.

“This person is…”

Jung Yu-na looked the bound woman up and down.

Seeing her wary gaze, Yeoreum questioned her.

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“Well…”

Was it because the situation wasn’t fully confirmed that she was bad?

Jung Yu-na hesitated to speak.

Come to think of it, we didn’t have any evidence either.

As fear of something going wrong started to creep in,

“…I am a bad person.”

The woman answered in a weak voice.

A sudden confession.

My eyes widened at this unexpected turn of events.

“What bad things did you do?”

Yeoreum asked, looking as surprised as I was.

The woman looked down at the floor, seeming to have given up on everything.

“I did things no human should do. I…”

The woman trailed off and squeezed her eyes shut.

Her clenched fists trembled, then she let out a deep sigh.

“…I worked for an organization that conducted human experiments.”

“What?”

Encia’s face, which had maintained politeness, contorted.

She looked like she might rush over and grab the woman’s collar at any moment.

“Encia, wait.”

“But…”

“She came to confess, right? Let’s wait a bit.”

Yeoreum’s voice was fierce as she held Encia back, telling her to be patient.

It was an expression I’d never seen before, making me and the children shrink back.

Except for the children, everyone in the guild knew about Saebyeok’s connection to human experiments.

It was understandable that they’d be angry.

“So, what kind of experiments did you do?”

“Stop. Let’s talk inside first. The kids are here.”

“Ah… okay…”

The guild members took the woman into the guild building.

The woman seemed to have given up, her steps lacking energy.

Looking to the side, I saw Saebyeok watching the woman’s retreating figure with empty eyes.

“Dark King, are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“……”

She doesn’t seem fine at all.

Levinas must have felt the same, as she silently watched Saebyeok’s reactions.

Seeing Saebyeok, who was always so reliable, looking so powerless made my heart feel complicated.

Is there a way to cheer Saebyeok up?

I entered the house, lost in these thoughts.

The children seemed to have similar concerns, as they didn’t say a word on the way home.

**

“You’re back.”

As we entered the house, Sophia greeted us.

Seeing our gloomy mood, Sophia furrowed her brow.

“Did something happen?”

“Ah, well…”

I told Sophia about everything that had happened.

After hearing the explanation, Sophia nodded without showing any reaction.

“You must be troubled.”

“Yes… Everyone’s in a difficult situation. I wonder if there’s a way to solve this?”

“Well, it’s hard to say there’s a clear solution that will fix everything in this situation.”

“I see…”

So there’s no clear method?

I clicked my tongue in disappointment.

Sophia, with her arms crossed, continued speaking.

“There are various ways. Time might solve it, or you might need to confront the person who caused the pain.”

“What should we do if we confront her?”

“You could seek revenge, forgive, or ignore her to her face. There are many methods, but none of them might be the right solution.”

“Hmm…”

This is difficult.

That’s how the human heart is, I suppose.

But I understood what Sophia meant.

‘The heart is that complex.’

Should I do something for Saebyeok?

Or should I do nothing at all?

As I was wavering, Levinas approached me.

“King! Levinas has a good idea!”

“A good idea?”

“Yeah! We can turn the scary person into a not-scary person! Then she won’t be bothersome or scary anymore!”

It wasn’t wrong, but the problem was how.

I didn’t know how to make the lab employee not scary.

“That’s a good idea, but how do we make her not scary?”

“Just trust Levinas!”

Bang bang.

Levinas confidently pounded her chest.

Seeing this, Gaeul patted her own belly.

“Hmm…”

With no other options, should we try what Levinas suggests?

Just feeling that family is helping might improve the mood.

I nodded to Levinas.

“Okay. Let’s try to make her not scary.”

“Yeah!”

Levinas ran towards the treasure chest.

I decided to wait until she finished her preparations.

**

We took a few tools and went to find the lab employee.

Thanks to the pheromones I’d left, we could find her quickly.

“Huh…?”

In front of the room where the lab employee was held.

Yeoreum was standing guard there.

Yeoreum’s pupils trembled very slightly when she saw us.

“Oh, w-what brings the little ones here?”

“We want to talk to that person from earlier.”

“That might be a bit difficult…”

Yeoreum trailed off.

I decided to be a bit firm here.

“We really need to meet her for Saebyeok’s sake.”

“For Saebyeok?”

“Yes. We want to show her that she’s not a scary person anymore.”

“Uh… hmm…”

Yeoreum looked back at the closed door.

She chewed her lip, then finally nodded.

“Alright, but your sister is coming in with you, okay?”

“Okay.”

We entered the room with Yeoreum.

A barrier covered the entire room, seemingly to keep the woman confined.

The handcuffs I had put on the woman were still there.

“A-ahem.”

I deliberately cleared my throat to get the woman’s attention.

As the woman’s empty eyes turned to us, Levinas took out the prepared tools from her bag.

“Um, excuse me, you’re a bad person, right…?”

“…Yes.”

“So we’re going to punish you.”

“Punish…?”

At the woman’s question, Levinas held up the tools she had taken out.

They were Levinas’s drawing supplies and stickers.

“It’s time for Mr. Sketchbook!”

Levinas approached the woman holding a black pen.

She wrote ‘Bad Snake’ on one side of the woman’s face.

“This won’t wash off for life!”

Levinas said this, but the pen in her hand was water-soluble.

It was a pen that would wash off very easily with just water.

The researcher’s gaze fixed on the word ‘water-soluble’ written on the pen.

“Gaeul do too.”

Gaeul approached the woman holding a red pen.

She drew a wobbly heart on the other cheek.

“Gaeul puppy! Isn’t a heart too pretty?!”

“Huh…?”

Gaeul stuck out her tongue, thinking Levinas’s words, then took out a yellow pen.

She diligently drew stars on the woman’s forehead.

It felt more cute than punishing, but that was okay.

Treating the woman playfully like this could also be a way to erase fear.

Only the woman and Yeoreum, who didn’t know the situation, expressed confusion.

“…?”

“What are the little ones doing?”

“She’s a scary person, so we’re making her not scary.”

I approached the woman holding stickers.

I stuck a pink circular sticker on the woman’s cheek.

“Wha! King, isn’t that too cute?!”

“Yeah. If it’s cute, it’s not scary anymore, right?”

“Oh! You’re right!”

And so we drew on the woman’s body and stuck stickers on her.

I wondered if this was effective?

Seeing the woman covered in colorful drawings, the corners of Saebyeok’s mouth turned up slightly.

“Ah! Dark King smiled!”

“Smiled!”

I didn’t expect it to work this quickly.

My tail, which had stopped moving when the lab employee appeared, started to sway gently.

“Dark King, are you not scared anymore?”

“Yeah. With everyone doing this, I’m not scared at all.”

“Really?!”

Everyone giggled, saying it was a relief.

Yeoreum also looked relieved, but only the colorful woman maintained her blank stare.

“…This is how it should be.”

“W-what should be like this…?”

“Children should be like this…”

The woman’s words brought down the mood in the room.

Does she mean we should be cheerful like this?

I wonder why she seems so drained.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked the woman.

“If this is how it should be, have you seen many children who weren’t like this?”

“…I’ve seen many.”

The woman answered all my questions.

She was like a broken doll.

Gulp, I swallowed unconsciously.

“What kind of children were they?”

“Despairing… No, you don’t need to know. You wouldn’t understand anyway.”

The person she said wouldn’t understand included Saebyeok.

Because Saebyeok’s appearance had changed.

She didn’t seem to realize that the ‘despairing child’ she mentioned was Saebyeok.

“We’ve been through many desperate situations too.”

“…I don’t want to belittle your past experiences, but what I saw was… No, it’s nothing.”

The woman clamped her mouth shut.

Her already pale face grew even paler.

“Um… okay…”

Is she regretting her past?

I decided not to mention Saebyeok’s story until she told the truth herself.

For today, I was satisfied with having erased Saebyeok’s fear.

—

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep