In the meantime, Song Taewon had evacuated the people in the rearing facility and finished up an emergency standby call to the building next door and the surrounding buildings including Haeyeon Guild.
When I told him that it was okay now, that I was sorry I made him do something pointless, the calm reply that there was no such thing as pointless in these situations was trustworthy. Anything was possible anytime, so prevention was key.
"I will go handle the discussion for you tomorrow, so please stay there quietly until then. Alright?"
"Yes. I will wait."
Noah obediently nodded his head. We dressed him hurriedly in reserve training clothes in the night duty room. The clothes he was originally wearing weren't dungeon items and even if they were items that changed to fit your body, there was a limit. So equipment for Hunters with entire body beast transformation skills needed special processing.
If it was as it was originally, Hunters with entire body beast transformation skills came out much later. Naturally there wouldn't be places that did special processing. Did I have to figure it out separately? What were the materials again?
I sent Noah off with Song Taewon, and took only Chirpie among the kids. Blue was already asleep, and Yoohyun, who seemed to have no intention of going back, as well as Peace, were the problem for bringing Comet over. It would probably be better to let them rest well first and then slowly show them, instead of letting them meet in the middle of the night. During the day, it was well-behaved Comet, so the impression would be better than the chaotic middle of the night.
-Geureung
Peace, who had become smaller again, came over holding the red egg in his mouth. He didn't lose it and looked after it well.
"Peace, I moved while you were gone. It's much bigger than before, so it'll be more comfortable for you, too."
Him in his adult form was a bit much, but it was roomy enough for his adolescent form. He could go around as an adult in the lower floor, and he could always go out to play in the rooftop garden. He didn't need to stay cooped up like before. …Even though both needed repair.
I placed Chirpie on my head, and held Peace. Yoohyun took the lead and opened the door as if it was his house. I gave him the entrance key, but when did he get the portal key? Did Kim Sunghan visit while I was sleeping?
After I put Peace down to let him explore the house, I went to look at Yerim's social media. I was originally going to meet her and talk about Noah, but with Yoohyun coming out, I couldn't even contact her.
'It seems like she met up with Kang Soyoung-ssi.'
There was a photo of cake slices piled up on a plate like a pagoda. Next to that, there was a bingsu[1] plate. It looked like she ate yukhoe[2] and beef sashimi for lunch. She really was a resolute meat-lover. Though she ate well whatever side dishes were sent to her.
'…Even if you are an S-Rank Hunter, don't stand on top of a racing motorcycle and take a selfie.'
It would be about the level of decoration anyways, but she didn't wear a helmet either. Though mid rank Hunters and higher weren't the targets of safety equipment crackdowns. They were exceptions for vehicle use during a dungeon break. Since it was inefficient to go driving a car and calmly taking off your seatbelt and getting off, after hearing that monsters appeared. Motorbike helmets would be cumbersome, too.
Yerim was also a victim, so she would have to go with me tomorrow; would she be asleep now? When did kids sleep nowadays? It probably would be better to contact her tomorrow.
"...The garden."
Just then, Yoohyun mumbled softly.
"Hm?"
I followed Yoohyun's gaze and turned my head. Through the large wall window, no on the screen, the rooftop garden that was midway repaired was reflected. It was in the middle of the dark night, but thanks to the uselessly okay streetlights, the broken trees and dug up ground were plainly exposed.
"It seems like it was more severe than I'd thought."
"Is that something you should say? The extent of damage is less. And the ground dug up over there was because of the miasma."
I was thinking of using the My Brat skill on Blue and going into training starting tomorrow, but he broke the training room wall. Though the inside facility was fine.
"You said you were sleepy. Sleep. Myeongwoo uses the lefthand bedroom over there, so you can use anywhere except that."
"Hunter Yoo Myeongwoo is here?"
"He's here and he's also not here. I don't know what he's so busy over, but he sometimes appears."
He said he does use the bedroom, but I don't remember seeing him sleeping these two days.
"I think he's making something, but he said it was a secret. Just in case, when you meet him this time, actually be nice to him. An S-Rank weapon came out, so it wouldn't be weird for an SS-Rank to pop out anytime."
I picked up the egg that Peace had dropped on the floor and put it on the table. In the meantime, Peace had gone up to the loft and was ripping up Blue's cushions, when he jumped down and went toward the monster-use living room while softly rumbling. Then he bit Comet's nest and brought it over, flinging it in front of my feet.
-Keuheung
It seemed like he had noticed an unfamiliar smell. He looked like he was in a really bad mood.
"There's a new kid, but I'll introduce it tomorrow. It's called Comet and it's a black baby dragon. Come here, Peace. Do you want to sleep together for the first time in a while?"
He roughly wagged his tail like he was in a bad mood, but quietly came over to be held. Naturally, he wouldn't like unfamiliar monsters continuing to come over. But still, what could I do – dad's job was raising them.
"Did you take care to feed Peace properly?"
"He caught and ate them on his own."
"He really is all grown up."
What should I do? Should I also find alive monsters to give him?
Just then, Myeongwoo suddenly appeared. As usually, along with a steaming heat. At nearly the same time, Yoohyun blocked my front. Peace also straightened his ears, as if surprised.
"…What is that?"
"What do you meant what, it's Myeongwoo."
"No, that's not a normal fire's heat."
Was that so? Though it was a little hot, it wasn't at a level where someone could get hurt. Myeongwoo, who had heard what Yoohyun said, quirked his lips.
"Ismual's fire's heat is indeed impressive. There would be no fire that has that pure of magic power in this world."
At Myeongwoo's words, Yoohyun's expression was slightly that of hurt pride. Still, seeing how there was no rebuttal, it seemed like something really was different.
"But what's that?"
Myeongwoo asked, gesturing to behind me. When I turned my head, I saw the egg that I had placed on the table. The red egg that had a wide crack.
...Why did that have a crack? It was an egg that was famous for never cracking. I reflexively tried to pick it up, but Yoohyun's hand was faster.
"We don't know what'll come out so don't touch it. It could be dangerous."
Then he stood back. The egg in Yoohyun's grasp slightly trembled. The crack became bigger and bigger, and a gap formed. Inside of it, a small flame flickered.
It flickered again, and licked and swallowed the egg shell as if to melt it when,
Hwareureuk!
It completely burst into flames. I was briefly a little surprised, but maybe because of his fire resistance, it didn't seem hot.
The fist-size flame soon disappeared, and what appeared from inside that was a small lizard. The small lizard that consisted of flames, went across Yoohyun's hand and wrapped around his wrist.
Baffled, I tried using the Seed-Leaf skill.
[Fire elemental – F-Rank
Contractor Han Yoohyun]
"...Fire elemental?"
At my mumbling, Yoohyun and Myeongwoo turned to look at me at the same time.
"It's a fire elemental? There's also things like elementals?"
"Ismual said that there shouldn't be any elementals in this world?"
Well there wasn't. Even 5 year later, things like elementals didn't appear. There were only unidentifiable eggs.
Were those eggs elementals' eggs?
"…There was no change to the egg until you appeared, Myeongwoo. You said the heat just a while ago was Ismual's, right?"
"Yeah. What I'm making now needed a lot of Ismual's flame power, so it overflowed out… Did that hatch because of that?"
"Probably. Only hatching when a similar elemental's strength touches it – wouldn't it be something like that?"
If that was so, then I understood why the unidentifiable eggs didn't budge an inch for years even when anything and everything were done to them. Since there were no elementals in this world.
Yoohyun was staring at the lizard that was circling around his hand as if it was fascinating. Then he made a small flame at the tip of his finger. The lizard stopped moving and then attentively watched the red flame turn black. When the flame turned completely black, it opened its mouth wide and chomped on the flame, swallowing it.
"It seems like it's completely immune to flame attributes. Though it seems like it'll be pretty useless."
"Well, if you raise it well, it could become strong like Myeongwoo's Ismual. It hatched out of an SSS-Rank egg."
"Something small like that?"
Myeongwoo said, displeased. It seemed like he had become pretty close to Ismual in the meantime.
Anyways, if a relevant elemental's strength was needed for them to hatch, then the other color eggs would also be left as unidentifiable in the future as well. What a pity.
When I woke up, it was past ten in the morning. Seeing how neither Blue nor Comet were here, it seemed like I slept through without needing to wake up.
-Geureureung
When I raised my body, Peace rubbed his head against me as if he was waiting. Chirpie also flapped inside the basket. It seemed like it had been a while since they woke up, but they didn't pester me to get up – these good-hearted guys.
I took Chirpie out of the basket and went to the living room. It did feel a little empty without Blue.
It seemed like Yoohyun had returned to the guild already. He was gone for several days, so he would probably have a lot of things to do. And he would have to go to the Association, too. Should I have woken up a bit earlier and taken care of breakfast for him?
-Chirp chirp
Chirpie went up the pet stairs to the sofa, and pressed the remote control button. It seemed really used to the motions of sitting down and watching TV. It might not be far before it leaves a plate next to it and uses its wings to eat as it buys and watches VOD movies.
When I moved my gaze to the TV, I saw the breaking news on the bottom.
Seseong Guild recruits S-Rank Hunter.
"…Wait a bit, Chirpie."
I held the remote and changed the channel. When I got to the Hunter exclusive channel, there were more details. Seseong Guild successfully recruited an overseas S-Rank Hunter to the country. Evelyn Miller was a long distance specialized S-Rank free Hunter, who was expected to arrive in the country today…
'…It's faster than originally.'
Evelyn Miller was recruited to Seseong Guild before the regression, too. But she didn't come this fast. Did they hurry it because the number of S-Rank Hunters increased at Haeyeon?
'If it's Evelyn Miller, she was a woman with a gentle personality for an S-Rank Hunter.'
Though somehow, she didn't get along well with Moon Hyuna. It was good qualifications for using the keyword, but.
'No thanks, I'm not going to use it on Awakened People anymore.'
Noah was the last. Trying to get an already grown S-Rank easily and then stepping on a mine, was enough with just once. I should go get Blue and Comet.
***
One long golden brown braid and brown eyes behind large round glasses. When Evelyn Miller appeared in the airport exit in clothes that looked simple at a glance, the gathered journalists simultaneously let out flashes.
Evelyn slightly waved a hand toward a broadcasting camera, and walked off. The Seseong Guild Leader, Sung Hyunjae, was standing in a tidy suit fitting the occasion at the place she was heading to.
"Thank you for coming over such a long way."
"It was nothing. Coming out to meet me directly like this – thank you for your hospitality."
At the gentle smile, a smile that was definitely friendly was sent back.
Sung Hyunjae directly opened the car door for Evelyn and went to the driver's seat. When the car started, Evelyn opened her mouth as if she was waiting.
"I heard the news. It seems like Noah committed something outrageous?"
"On top of that, contact came in the morning that he'll go back to being a free Hunter."
At Sung Hyunjae's words, Evelyn had a startled expression.
"That suddenly? I had thought that he wouldn't be able to give up mister[3]'s protection because of Riette. You must be a little upset."
"It's like a dog whose training was even finished and who was adorned with a collar with a name tag, has run away from home, so of course I'm upset. After even exposing the whole body beast transformation."
Sung Hyunjae sighed exaggeratedly.
Noah was an S-Rank Hunter with various assistance skills so he was usable inside dungeons too, but he could be used more helpfully outside of dungeons.
Above all, the existence of whole body beast transformation skills weren't known to the public yet. That meant that even if you committed an act of brutality like stomping on a guild in broad daylight, it was possible to pass it off as something a monster that had burst out of a gate somewhere did.
"Noah isn't that strong, but the poison is usable, so he could've handled a few things for me, but it's simply a pity."
You couldn't do anything about the same S-Rank Hunters, but if you completely wiped out below that, no matter what guild it was, they couldn't help but lose strength for a certain amount of time at least. If it was against a normal person in power supporting them from behind, not a guild, then it was even easier.
"But why exactly did he do that? Did the Korean air not suit him?"
"I don't know the exact inside story yet either, but it probably has to do with Han Yoojin-gun."
"That magic beast trainer? He wouldn't have tamed Noah just because he became about half a monster."
"Who knows. If it was that, then it'd be fun."
Evelyn tilted her head and searched Sung Hyunjae's expression.
"It seems like you are not that upset over Noah running away, mister."
"I was thinking of maybe complaining to the new owner to let go of the dog that ran away."
"If it was me, I would pretend not to know, saying to do as you please since it is a dog that came in on its own. Didn't you say he is stat F-Rank? Wouldn't he get frightened and cry?"
At Evelyn's words, Sung Hyunjae laughed lowly.
"It's a cuter personality that that."
Then he took out his cell phone and made a call. There was a dial sound for a while, and then a voice that you definitely couldn't say was welcoming came out.
[What business do you have, Seseong Guild Leader?]
"Do you have time in the evening, Han Yoojin-gun?"
[In the evening? It is not that I do not, but please tell me the reason first.]
"It's not much, just asking for a date."
There was a short silence, and then a voice that was clearly annoyed replied.
[It seems like someone who is a guild leader seriously does not have anything to do. I am busy raising your place's kid, so I will end the call now.]
And then the call was hung up ruthlessly. Sung Hyunjae held up and showed the cell phone as if saying 'see look'.
"He's like this."
"…He is stat F-Rank, right? He is a little… unusual? Didn't you say he also went into a dungeon with mister? So how is he like that?"
At Evelyn's taken aback words, Sung Hyunjae laughed again.
"He's even more unusual in other ways. It'll be good to look forward to it."