< A Date First of All (2) >

“It is too burdensome to supplement with more people just for me. I do not want to needlessly cause an inconvenience.”

Before that, I wanted even less to meet the Seseong Guild Leader Sung Hyunjae. That person himself was unpleasant, but more than anything, my current state was the problem. Yoohyun also said ‘hyung you’re a little weird’, so the possibility of Sung Hyunjae feeling something else was big.

It would be just that if I used Wall Lizard a bit and played innocent, but there was no reason for me to walk right up to him with my own feet.

“A burden! It is not at all.”

Kang Soyoung looked straight at me with her two eyes filled with sincerity. The big eyes were really pretty, too. It really was a face that seemed to embody the word lovableness. Continuing, she yelled in a voice filled with, as expected, sincerity.

“It is something for the person who will raise my child!”

……There was a time just a while ago when I heard that nonsense. I didn’t know I would hear it again.

“…It is a little not right to speak that way. If other people hear, they could misunderstand.”

“It is okay. Everyone is speaking that way.”

Wow crap, what……

“Everyone, you say…?”

Kang Soyoung nodded cutely.

“Yes. Hyuna unni, that is, the Breaker Guild Leader, spoke that way several times, and in no time, it spread everywhere.”

Shit, Moon Hyuna! It spread everywhere, just what are you doing! I told you not to speak behind my brother’s back so you’re going around speaking behind mine! It wasn’t completely wrong, so it made me even more mad.

“Still, rather than ‘child’, wouldn’t something like ‘familiar’ or ‘monster’ or ‘magic beast’ be better?”

“Those do not show enough affection. More than anything, if they are highest rank familiars, they are hard-to-find partners who you will be with for life. I will really pile on love and look after it like my own child. My heart is starting to beat fast already. How lovable would my young dragon be.”

And so even her cheeks became slightly red. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand those feelings, but still… still……

“So there is completely no reason to be burdened! Rather, it is alright for you to demand more! Do you happen to have anything you need? Even if I look like this, I have quite a lot of money collected.”

Since she was a giant guild affiliated A-Rank hunter, of course she would have a lot, but if I really demanded more, it felt like I would become a bad guy bullying money from a young kid. She was eleven years younger, no six years younger. At any rate, she was a kid who hadn’t even hit twenty. And I didn’t have anything I really needed.

“No, that is fine. I do not have anything I need.”

“Then, I will help you with the walk in the garden, for now.”

“No, but I cannot bother you with something like this.”

“Please do not worry. Far from being bothered, everyone will welcome you. If you still worry, I will certainly get permission from Guild Leader.”

And then she took out her cell phone right away. Ugh… well anyways, Yoohyun wouldn’t give permission so it didn’t matter.

‘…Though I do want to go to a park with Peace.’

It really was dangerous to meet with Sung Hyunjae right now. Let’s go next time, Peace.

“Yes, Guild Leader! Yes, yes.”

In the meantime, Kang Soyoung was calling Sung Hyunjae. It was more of an amicable mood than I had thought it would be.

“Guild Leader said that you could come over any time! He said he would also send over people right away.”

Ah, yes. But there was still one more hurdle. I smiled back at Kang Soyoung and took out my cell phone.

“Then I will try to get permission from the Haeyeon Guild Leader. Since I cannot stray from here on my own just because I want to.”

“Yes, of course do so.”

I became a little sorry seeing her smile widely. There was no reason my little brother would give permission. When I called, Yoohyun answered soon. I concisely explained the whole story and then asked.

“As expected, it’s too soon to go out, right? It’s okay if you say I can’t. I’ll understand.”

Now, quickly say that I can’t.

[I do think it’s early, but if hyung is okay with it, then you can go.]

……Excuse me? Just wait a moment.

“I mean, even though it’s visiting a different guild? I can go?”

[MKC is impossible of course, and it would be a little uneasy too if it was Breaker or Hanshin, but Seseong is okay.]

That little brother said again that it was okay. What, it wasn’t the Yoohyun I knew. Did I call the wrong person?

[Anyways, I was worried because I felt like I was confining you inside too much, so go there sometimes to get some fresh air. They decorated it really well.]

…As expected, it didn’t seem like he was my brother. He wasn’t like this. Why did this person suddenly change? I had only trusted you. Shit, now that I was here, I couldn’t say I didn’t want to go.

When I glanced at Kang Soyoung, I saw an innocent smile that was asking, even with just the shape of her mouth, ‘he is saying it is okay, right?’. Ughh.

“……You wouldn’t be feeling uneasy or worried or anything?”

[That’s…um. No, it’s okay. It should be stifling for hyung too. It’ll be much safer than anywhere else, so don’t worry. I’ll call over about two from our side for the road there and back. Rest well and come back.]

“Uh… yeah……”

The call ended. That little brother had betrayed my trust. My back was all stinging.

‘……Is Seseong that trustable?’

Or, was it possibly because of Kang Soyoung? Did this brat already feel goodwill toward Kang Soyoung? He wouldn’t be selling his hyung in order to look good in front of a woman, right?

“It is really a relief you received permission! I will prepare for us to leave right away.”

Seeing her genuinely happy appearance, I thought it would be enough to for that little brother to be enamored. Even if it wasn’t Yoohyun, what man wouldn’t like her? Of course, I couldn’t know yet if he really had a thing for her, but there was no smoke without fire[1].

That’s right, it’s okay. I just had to be a little careful. Those two seemed to suit each other well. It really did seem like living alone in that large house was lonesome. If it’s like that, just quickly date and marry already. My nibling[2] would probably be cute. They said that for biracial people, there were a lot of cases where they were cute and pretty. It would be good if they looked like Yoohyun.

“Yes, I will entrust it to you.”

My younger brother as well.

“We’ve arrived~.”

Kang Soyoung said animatedly. Seseong’s roof garden was on top of the 15-story 2nd new building connected to the main building. When Kang Soyoung opened the glass door, a breeze mixed with smell of grass flowed toward us.

How long was it since I came to this kind of park?

‘……I don’t even remember that well.’

There were times when a dungeon’s environment was a forest or grasslands, but it was different from that. A walk with a light heart. I definitely didn’t have that kind of leisure.

…No, that was just an excuse; if I was going do it, I could have done it any time. How much time would it have taken to go to a nearby park? And even if I didn’t purposely go find a park, if I wanted to take a walk, I just needed to go outside of my house to do so.

Looking around at the surroundings anew while walking slowly, tilting my head from time to time to look at the sky too. What shapes the clouds were today, how much thicker had the trees along the roads grown now that it was summer – I could read the flyers stuck to the walls, and I could rest my gaze on the ants crawling between the sidewalk blocks.

‘Well, I probably wouldn’t be able to do that now even if I wanted to.’

It became that I couldn’t even dream of going around casually alone. I should just make one of these in my building.

The roof garden was large. It was wide open, but tall trees were densely planted, wrapping around the border, and hid as much as possible the fact that it was on top of a roof. The trail was well made, and at the arranged flowerbeds, there were all kinds of sculptures and fountains, a small greenhouse, etc. – it had everything it should have.

And I couldn’t see a single person.

“It seems like nobody is here.”

“In order for you to use it comfortably, the entrance has been regulated. It is not that there is nobody at all; there are a few people doing surveillance. Someone could invade from the air, you know?”

It wasn’t even a target for localized shooting, so I wondered if there even would be people doing such a thing in broad daylight, but it was thorough.

“Peace, look here. It’s a patch of grass.”

-Kkoooong

I lowered Peace on top of the grass, but far from running and playing, the young Horned Flame Lion immediately stuck to my leg. The weather was nice and the sunlight was nice and the scenery was nice, but why didn’t he seem to have any interest?

“Why are you like this? You don’t like it?”

-Kkiing

“There’s a butterfly flying around there.”

He pretended not to see the flutteringly dancing yellow butterfly. Seeing how it was like this, I started to worry. Was the trauma more severe than I had thought? Were there psychologists specialized in animals?

“What should we do, our Peace?”

When I squatted down and stretched my hand to pet his neck, he tightly grabbed my arm with his front paws. It felt like he was particularly clinging – did he not want to part from me?

‘Could it possibly be because he was made to be suddenly apart from me, not because he was kidnapped?’

He was suddenly snatched out of nowhere and was shut in a cage for a long time alone. Since he was sensitive enough to sense an appraisal skill, he could have felt the surrounding situation to a certain extent even if he was asleep.

“That kind of thing won’t happen now.”

I didn’t know how much of my words he would understand, but I first tried to soothe him.

“Look, see the noona next to us? You can tell how strong she is, right? This noona is protecting us.”

“That’s right, Peace. I’m here, so it’s okay.”

Kang Soyoung chimed in on cue. Then she bent down and pulled me into her arms a little. At the same time, Peace tensed and his fur stood on end.

-Keuheung!

“It’s okay, Peace. This noona is a good person. She’s not trying to harm me.”

“That’s right, we get along well. See this.”

And then, smack, she pressed her lips to my cheek. Uh, something like this was a little awkward… Maybe because she was a foreigner, she was too touchy-feely[3].

-Geureung?

Peace looked at us stuck close together and tilted his head.

“This noona will protect us, so you don’t have to worry and you can play. It’s okay.”

The tips of the ears covered in red fur bobbed up and down. Peace, who had finally separated from me, started to look around the surroundings. I had heard that the dungeon the Horned Flame Lion came out of was a volcanic region, so it should be the first time in his life seeing this kind of green scenery.

Paak

The still small front paws scratched the grass. The cut grass blades scattered in all directions. He twitched his nose and sniffed the grass smell a little, before turning around once in a circle and looking back up at me.

“You like it?”

-Kkiang!

He jumped in place and then started to explore the surroundings. He didn’t look like he was planning on going far, but if it was this much, I thought he would be fine soon.

“I think it would be fine if you move away now.”

I said toward the Kang Soyoung who was still embracing me. You said there were surveillance people around, so it would be great if you would maintain a proper distance.

“Should I help you up?”

“It is fine.”

Did I look like I couldn’t keep my own body steady? Though relatively, I would probably look like a hatchling tottering around like it could die soon.

I walked on the trail, following the direction that Peace wanted to go. Since a little red body was dashing around in a flowerbed full of hydrangeas, soon lavender petals started to flutter all over the place. It took an instant for a flowerbed to be ruined.

“That is-.”

“It is alright!”

As soon as I parted my mouth, Kang Soyoung smiled brightly and spoke.

“Please do not mind it. There is no problem even if you plow over the entire place. It is just landscaping, so we can just do it again.”

As expected of a giant guild, they sure were generous. Peace was having that much fun, and once the Repayment skill effect ended, we should come often to play.

“If it is not an inconvenience, could I ask about how long it takes to grow a highest rank familiar? I did not hear the specifics.”

Kang Soyoung asked, carefully.

“It differs according to the monster, so I also do not know exactly. I think it differs according to type and ranking. And there should be a difference depending on whether they follow the training well. If it is a group of dragons from an S-Rank dungeon, they should be 2nd Rank or 3rd Rank, correct?”

If only one came out, it should be 2nd Rank, but if a nest happened to appear, it would mostly likely be a group. At my words, Kang Soyoung nodded her head.

“Yes. Specifically, they are 3rd Rank flying dragon type. They are Thorn Winged Dark Dragons[4], and their stamina and defense are good and their abilities stand out even for flying dragons.”

Flying dragons were comparatively on the weak side among dragon types. But with their flight abilities standing out, they would be even more useful used as a familiar.

“As much as three thorns this big sprout from their wings; they are really cute.”

“…Excuse me?”

Did she just say they were cute? Thorns that were as big as both her arms spread wide?

“There are scale-like thorns on their tails, and those can be shot out too! They are slightly smaller than my forearm, but covered in a paralyzing poison. They are flying dragons, but they have front legs and back legs, all four of them, so they are even cuter. They are strong and their scales are hard, too. The color of their scales is black, and those glossy things look just like black gems placed in rows and look really pretty.”

Um, truthfully, far from something cute, I could only think of a terrible-looking giant lizard fiend[5] with wings. In addition, it was a tough-looking jet black dragon with thorns sticking up out of it. Her taste was a little unusual.

“Ever since I first went in for an attack, I wanted to tame them – to think that I would be able to fulfill my wish. Ever since I learned about the magic beast raising skill, every day felt like I was walking on clouds. Ah, really – could I hug you one more time?”

“You cannot.”

Since I first met her, I was thinking that the atmosphere stood out; she was really excited. It was this much even now, so when I raised a familiar for her, if I just casually told her once that I love her, the keyword would probably apply right away.

Still, I didn’t know how the keyword effect would appear, so it would be better not to do so. Something terrible like being treated like a dad or a mom by my sister-in-law couldn’t happen. Let’s be careful speaking.

I was thinking of casually bringing up Yoohyun, when,

[The Weak’s Premonition is sending a warning!]

The premonition skill that had popped up quite a lot of times while coming here, was incited again. Who was it now… fuck, it was an S-Rank. He should be busy, so why was he going around appearing here.

[1] lit. ‘if it’s not lit, would smoke come out of the chimney’ and one of its meaning is the eng equiv above, which basically means ‘there wouldn’t be rumors if there wasn’t sth true abt it’

[2] the krn word for nephew/niece is gender neutral so I’m using this. My city now.

[3] lit. ‘her skinship was excessive’ where ‘skinship’ is eng transliterated into krn as konglish slang

[4] i’m not quite sure about the ‘dark’ as there is no hanja (it is usually ‘female’ but I don’t think that’s it), but given the context, that’s what it seems to be

[5] this is (one of) the krn word for ‘monster’, but I wanted to distinguish it from the ‘monster’ (the eng word transliterated into krn) used to describe the living things in dungeons

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