Who Stole It? (3)

“Nom! Nom! Nom! Nom!”

A girl was sitting at a snack shop in front of the school.

The two horns sprouting from her head looked quite unusual, but her silky red hair and eyes like red crystals were mesmerizing enough.

Yet aside from her looks, the girl was shoveling food into her mouth like crazy.

“Do you have a black hole in your stomach or something?”

Seongjin, sitting across from her, watched her devouring food and let out an exclamation.

The girl had a body that should be full after eating just one piece of bread, yet tteokbokki, soondae, fritters, ramen, curry, and kimbap all disappeared into her stomach evenly.

Could that really be the belly of a girl about to enter her second year of middle school?

Gazing at Sang-ah with suspicion, Seongjin spoke.

“I’ve gotta admit, this is seriously odd.”

“Huh? What is?”

Sang-ah, busy swallowing her food, responded a bit blankly as if she hadn’t heard him.

Just how starved had she been to be so distracted by eating?

“What do you think? Doesn’t it seem piggish to you, too?”

“Wh-Who’re you calling a pig?”

“You.”

Seongjin nodded at the stack of empty dishes.

As Sang-ah realized that she had emptied them all, she fell silent.

“Ah…”

“See? Isn’t that actually weird?”

“Yeah…”

After taking a sip of water, Seongjin pondered for a moment.

Having spent over 50 years in Mewzealand, he seemed likely to know a few things.

“I know a few things about the dragonkin… that they go out of control when they get too excited, are really good at recovering…”

“Yeah.”

“But other than that, I don’t know anything else.”

“…”

All Seongjin knew was what he had learned just to survive.

Besides, since the dragonkin had mostly gone extinct after opposing the Empire—over ninety percent wiped out—it was nearly impossible to get information.

“Besides, there’s nobody on Earth right now who knows anything about my race.”

Sang-ah hung her head, looking disappointed.

Binge-eating wasn’t something you could see as good.

She’d even heard that before, Sang-ah had just scarfed down sushi that Yunhee meant to eat for herself.

It meant she binged uncontrollably, regardless of her own will.

“And that’s not all. Do you know what’s been happening every night lately?”

Sang-ah sighed heavily as she explained.

Recently, she’d been waking up to find herself sleeping at the door or in clothes other than her pajamas.

“Is it sleepwalking?”

“When I woke up yesterday, I even had a bloody nose for some reason.”

It felt like someone else was using her body without permission.

Sang-ah started to grow afraid of herself moving around every night.

She wondered if another danger had appeared besides just losing control.

“You said earlier that there’s nobody on Earth who knows about the dragonkin, right?”

“Isn’t that true?”

Seongjin shook his head and pulled out his phone.

He called a church that operated under the Hwasan Guild’s protection.

It was the same church he’d helped rescue from the Sura Guild.

“Hello? Pastor? Sorry for calling out of the blue, but are you busy?”

Since they were also from Mewzealand, maybe they knew something.

But even in Mewzealand, how many ‘humans’ knew about the dragonkin?

“This isn’t really a big deal—I just wanted to ask something.”

-…

“It’s about Sang-ah lately…”

The church folks introduced themselves as a noble family who once served the chieftain of the dragonkin.

Thanks to that, it didn’t take long to figure out what Sang-ah’s symptoms meant.

“Ah… Thank you very much.”

-…

“I’ll come visit during winter break.”

Finishing the call, Seongjin set down his phone.

“Congrats, Sang-ah.”

“Huh?”

Looking at the baffled girl, Seongjin smiled warmly.

“You’re going to molt.”

****

Somewhere in Gyeonggi Province stood the headquarters of the Hwasan Guild.

From atop the building came a knock at the guildmaster’s office.

The guildmaster, reading a book, looked up.

“Come in.”

At Kwon Yongha’s reply, the door opened.

The guest was his wife, Kang Minji, a member of the National Assembly.

Usually, she entered with confidence, tossing her shoulders back, but today she came in looking oddly nervous.

“Did you eat something bad or something?”

“…”

“So? What brings you here out of the blue?”

In contrast, yongha greeted her as usual.

Kang Minji took a deep breath and spoke.

“Did you hear the news about the Poison Guild?”

“I did. Didn’t one of their S-rank executives go missing inside Golden Gate?”

“…”

“And that executive’s squad was in bed with the Holy Church, too.”

The news about Golden Gate spread like wildfire.

Kang Hyun-seok, the Poison Guild executive, and the news that his squad had betrayed the other hunters were no doubt known nationwide.

“Come to think of it, wasn’t your father the Poison Guild’s leader?”

“Yeah. That’s why the Poison Guild and the Hwasan Guild ended up so closely linked, right?”

The daughter of one guildmaster marrying another guildmaster—it was like a political marriage in Europe.

Normally, the weaker group gets absorbed by the bigger one, but the Poison Guild and Hwasan Guild were too equally matched for that to happen.

But they couldn’t stay distant, either.

“The Poison Guild is in danger now. Their reputation has hit rock bottom, and they’re asking our Hwasan Guild for help.”

“I know. I was actually planning on listening to their request.”

“Phew…”

Kang Minji breathed a sigh of relief at Kwon Yongha’s answer.

She’d been nervous at first because he could be so unpredictable.

Thank goodness he was willing to help out of loyalty between organizations.

“And you know, the reason I married you was the Poison Guild.”

Hwasan and Poison.

Their alliance was for the sake of combining two powerful guilds, but that wasn’t his only reason.

“And that Poison Guild had techniques that shouldn’t even exist on Earth.”

“…”

“No, should I call it technology? Or magic?”

Once, Kwon Yongha had gotten a tour of one of the Poison Guild’s hidden facilities.

They were interested in him and took him to a facility hidden somewhere in the countryside.

Inside were magic circles for long-distance teleportation, and machines that could manifest souls and apply them to objects.

But that wasn’t what caught his eye.

“The most beautiful thing was that skeleton.”

A massive skeleton strapped with all kinds of machinery.

The Poison Guild had been secretly extracting genetic material from the skeleton to make equipment and enhancers.

“Yeah, if it were restored to its living form, it’d look exactly like this.”

He showed the book he’d just been reading earlier.

On the cover was a drawing of a dragon.

“At first I thought it was a monster skeleton, but now I’m not so sure.”

Monsters never leave skeletons behind.

As soon as they’re defeated, they vanish, leaving behind only loot.

The skeleton was too huge to be considered loot.

“That’s when I thought, maybe there’s another world besides Earth.”

“See? What you want is in the Poison Guild. So…”

“I know. That’s why I can’t just let them go to waste.”

Seeing he intended to help the Poison Guild, Kang Minji’s expression brightened.

“What’s that book you’re reading now?”

“This? It’s a book I got from the church folks.”

“From the church?”

Kang Minji knew about them.

That was the church permitting stay in Hwasan Guild territory at the petition of a certain boy.

She’d heard they were residents of another world.

“Why bother reading something from those people?”

Kang Minji wasn’t fond of the church.

To be precise, she had an issue with the boy named Ma Seongjin who’d asked for the church’s help.

How he looked after that girl Kwon Sang-ah, and how he left a mark on her husband’s neck—he was an ominous presence, despite his age.

“It’s a book about the dragonkin.”

“Dragonkin?”

“They shed their skin when they push past a certain limit. Doesn’t that sound interesting?”

“Don’t tell me, you’re thinking about that brat Sang-ah?”

Kang Minji snorted and turned away.

“Even if that brat does some shedding or molting or whatever, she couldn’t compare to our Yongjun’s little toe.”

“But the book says if you completely molt, you surpass all biological limits.”

“Big deal! Don’t you know how well our Yongjun is doing lately?”

She lifted her shoulders proudly, showing off her son as she manipulated her phone to display an article.

There, it described the impressive winning streak Kwon Yongjun had had in the Hunter League.

“He’s already at ten straight wins. Do you really think that beastly little Sang-ah could manage that?”

“…”

“Our Yongjun has never been defeated. That’s the difference between him and that girl!”

Kang Minji rattled off her speech, shoving the article’s screen toward him.

Yongha just smiled at her wild-eyed, unfocused boasting.

“Well, of course he’s undefeated.”

“Exactly!”

“Because he only fought people weaker than himself.”

“Wha…?”

All the excitement drained from Kang Minji’s face.

The article listed the names of the 10 opponents Yongjun had beaten in the league.

They were all weaker than her son.

“But… still…! Doesn’t that mean nobody in the league is stronger than our Yongjun?”

She wanted to defend her child, but heard only laughter in reply.

“Heh… did you forget why Yongjun entered the league in the first place?”

“Well…”

“It was to train, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then do you think fighting only weaklings counts as training?”

“…”

Kang Minji had nothing to say.

Yongha’s point was irrefutable.

“I wasn’t strong from the start either. I rose to this position through countless defeats and scars.”

Failure is the mother of success.

People learn more from failure than from victories.

Even for someone like Kwon Yongha, who always chased power, it was something he’d lived through and understood.

Training was the same.

“Is he so eager to grow strong, but hates to lose or get hurt?”

“Are you mad at Yongjun now?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious? He ‘disappointed’ me.”

A shadow fell over Kwon Yongjun’s smiling face.

Feeling the pressure, Kang Minji unconsciously tensed up.

He felt less like a husband and more like a force of nature.

“Everyone hates getting hurt. But if you’re desperate to get stronger, you can’t say things like that.”

“…”

“Otherwise, how will you ever ‘molt’ to the next stage?”

He read the passage from the book.

[Accumulating nothing but battle isn’t everything. Only those who bear the weight of anger, sorrow, and bonds can overcome molting.]

– Dragon God Regilis.

****

That night. Middle School 2’s female dormitory.

Sang-ah sunk deep into thought as she lay in bed.

Would she end up sleepwalking again while sleeping tonight?

According to Seongjin, her appetite and sleepwalking were all signs of impending molting.

‘What am I, a caterpillar?’

Molting was supposedly pretty painful.

It would probably happen during winter break, and as soon as it began, she would have to go to that church for assistance.

‘How bad could it be?’

Was it pain on the level of a first period or pregnancy?

Dragons were reptiles, but why did they have to undergo a molt like an insect?

Did her mother go through this, too?

“Ugh… I can’t sleep.”

Then, she suddenly recalled what happened that morning.

Seongjin had gone berserk, ranting that he’d lost three pairs of underwear.

It was both scary and ridiculous.

Luckily his rage had simmered down, but he remained determined to send the thief to the moon if caught.

“Who the heck stole them?”

But something about her pillow kept nagging at her—the lump pressed against her face.

She hadn’t noticed this morning in her rush to get up, but now it was bothering her.

What was inside?

Sang-ah unzipped the pillowcase and slipped it out.

“Huh?”

There were clothes inside the pillow.

Underwear.

Trunks.

The kind boys wear.

Five pairs, at that.

“Wait a sec…”

Could this be…?

Sang-ah’s hand began to tremble as she held them.

Luckily, her roommates were all asleep.

“No way…”

She honestly had no idea how this happened.

What kind of idiot would steal boys’ underwear, stuff them inside her pillow, and rub her face on them?

That was the kind of crime only someone in prison would do.

There was utterly no reason for her to do such a thing.

No, the victim was Ma Seongjin.

‘How could I ever do that to Seongjin? I’d sooner doodle a Mona Lisa on a sleeping Godzilla’s face!’

Telling herself it couldn’t be, Sang-ah checked the inside label of the underwear.

There it was…

[1-4 MSJ]

“Ah…”

All three pairs were from the same class and with the same name.

In that moment, Sang-ah’s mind went blank.

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

Apparently, my guess was wrong, I thought it was Ah-rin…

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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