“Kuuh, how should I say this. It’s a good day right?”
It was Myung Yongha the Druid of Regeneration, officially ranked 9th worldwide.
“Been a while since we’ve gathered at one place in good health. Why don’t you all smile a bit more hey? Uhahat!”
He nonchalantly laughed out loud, but not a single one of the people sitting with him smiled back. Around the circular table were members of the Grand Natural Society sitting down. They were all top superhuman rankers of the globe but they were wearing grave expressions.
Slightly embarrassed, the large druid scratched his cheeks before leaning back onto the backrest.
“Seriously… does it hurt to say a few positive words after coming together like this? You all look as if there’ll be a war anytime soon…”
“Congrats–”
Gulp.
After a mouthful of vodka, BM opened his mouth with a murmur.
“For having a son. Now you’re a father of two sons.”
“Ahh, you weren’t there last time right? Thanks! How’s your dungeon raid going?”
“Well, like always.”
“Seriously, you’re so stubborn. I can help you anytime if you want.”
“…You need to change nappies for your baby.”
BM vaguely dodged the question.
It was when Myung Yongha was about to ask something after staring deeply at BM’s face through the pair of sunglasses.
“Ah, this is annoying.”
The Sword of the Royal Family of Japan’s special forces, Minamoto Ai officially ranked 13th worldwide, irritatedly grumbled. The eyes of the surroundings turned towards her.
“Isn’t it past the conference time?”
“By 5 minutes already.”
And yet the president of the Grand Natural Society wasn’t here yet.
“Hahaha! What can we do? It’s not the first time he is like this.”
“He’s always coming late because we’re not saying anything.”
“Hey, at least he’s never late by more than 30 minutes right.”
“What does that even mean? I have an appointment in the evening.”
Someone interjected their chit-chat.
“…The agenda of this conference,”
An old lady seated in the corner opened her mouth with a creaking voice. Her low and soft voice had a unique tone to it that closed the mouths of the complainers.
She was Li Hwa, formerly ranked 6th worldwide officially.
“Is about that young man if I’m not wrong?”
With one sentence, the crowd became quiet once again.
“…”
“…”
A myriad of emotions passed across their faces ranging from confusion, puzzlement, uncomfort and displeasure to admiration and goodwill.
“Ai. The Royal Family and the Association haven’t discovered it yet right?”
“Nn. Probably not yet.”
“Hulhul.”
Li Hwa’s lips formed a deep wrinkle while Minamoto Ai heaved out a deep sigh.
“We had to scale the size of the incident down for the report to hide that person’s identity. So, the Royal Family doesn’t even know that there had been a catastrophe there. At least not yet.”
There were several pieces of information that discouraged them from revealing it to the media, so Minamoto concealed information related to the Melissia Masquerade. Even the Association was only aware of Ysayle Khalifa’s appearance.
“What a dilemma. It was a catastrophe-rank this time. That’s not something we can do anything about. Throwing a hot potato to the Association now might even be late already and yet…”
The ones that had despaired from the might of catastrophe-ranked demons at the battlefront during the Great War had now become the heads of the organisation after 20 years. They would be in a seizure just from hearing the name ‘Noah’. What would happen if they were to reveal everything that happened inside Melissia Masquerade?
Noah appeared?-> But what, he died?-> Who killed him?
…With that procedure, information about that man would also inevitably have to be shared. One of the members asked, “What do you know about that man?” and Minamoto replied with a sigh.
“All I know, is that the man referred to himself as a ‘demon hunter’ and that he had a disgustingly pretty assistant next to him.”
“And he’s strong?”
Minamoto clenched her teeth.
During the war, demons that remained unkillable against three to four top rankers received the title ‘catastrophe’. A catastrophe who had hidden himself after the war appeared once again after 20 years or so.
This was more than enough to shock people.
But then, an ‘unidentified superhuman’ appeared and individually killed a catastrophe, let alone the fact that all his limbs were intact after killing it. The Sword of the Royal Family conveyed that she felt like ‘a herbivore that froze in front of a carnivore’.
The only ones that were aware of this were the seven members of the Society. No-one from the group frankly revealed their thoughts, but the Grand Natural Society needed an insurance. They wanted to share information about this unclassified existence and lessen their burden.
Wasn’t there the International Hunter Association, the world’s best insurance company?
“I’m against it.”
That was when BM shattered the tacit atmosphere with his voice. He, who was known to have the closest relationship with the ‘man’ from the Grand Natural Society, argued that all records about the man had to remain hidden. He provided several evidence to back off his claim.
“We should never let the Association know about him.”
He was sharing the same argument today as well when a member raised their hand.
“BM.”
“Please.”
“Don’t we go through an interview even when we’re finding a casual employee?”
Beneath the pair of sunglasses, BM gave a slight frown.
The Saviour of Gallia, officially ranked 29th worldwide, Simon Abkarian. He was wearing a bored expression full of leisure while twitching his elegant moustache.
From what BM thought, that hero of France was someone who wanted everything in the world to be under his control.
“Let me ask for a simple request. Please bring that person over here.”
“Will something change if you see him in person?”
“Who knows. At least it would be better than hearing the story of a distant country through a spokesperson.”
He was now being sarcastic about BM, calling him a spokesperson. BM therefore let out an empty laugh.
“I don’t think that would work.”
“…”
“You’ve been sitting on top of others for so long that it seems you can’t differentiate top from bottom anymore. Casual employees was it? Are you still the boss here?”
Simon’s eyes twitched as a leisurous smile appeared on his lips.
“That’s true too. Then please give him a word so that I can go find him.”
“…”
“You’re close enough to be a spokesperson so that shouldn’t be hard right? Please do so.”
***
“We’ll get going then!”
“……!”
“Let’s go Gyeoul!”
In the morning, Kaeul and Gyeoul left the house while holding hands. The two of them were recently loving Lair Amusement Park. It was a small theme park located in the entertainment district but apparently there was close to no-one there during the holidays.
“Yeorum. Let’s go.”
Yu Jitae also took Yeorum outside.
She was growing at an exponential rate in the mere span of ten days or so. Defeating an A- ranked Named Monster as a cadet was an extremely praiseworthy task.
Yu Jitae thought it was about time to enter the next stage of training so he was planning to start a slightly different training method from today.
“Yu Yeorum?”
“Yeah, yeah… I’m coming.”
Yeorum walked out from her room with large bags under her eyes and followed behind him. That was when Bom called him from the living room.
“Ahjussi. Can you come a bit earlier today?”
He gave a nod.
“Okay.”
The door closed with Yu Jitae, Yeorum, Kaeul and Gyeoul having gone outside. Left alone, Bom sat down on the sofa of the living room. When everyone left the house to do their own thing, she would stay behind alone to read or watch dramas, like what Yu Jitae would do when he was alone.
Ah.
She remembered that it was time to give food for the baby chicken.
Bom filled the baby chicken’s bowl up to the brim with chicken feed. Then, a baby chicken the size of a soccer ball dashed forward and buried its face into the bowl.
The chicken was growing fast from its original fist-sized body. According to Yu Jitae, it was normal for a spirit beast to grow like this and it’s growth must have been restricted before. Even then, it appeared exactly like a baby chicken and thus resembled a large fairy floss.
Chirp!
After finishing its meal and drinking some water, the baby chicken threw several glances before dashing into Kaeul’s room. Bom did not forget to remind it.
“You can’t go outside and fight just because Kaeul’s not here. Okay?”
– Chirp chirp!
“Don’t just say that and ignore it.”
And just like that, silence covered Unit 301.
Lying down on the sofa, Bom stared at the ceiling. Her grass-coloured hair was scattered in disorder and she deeply pondered about something.
“…”
She blankly looked at the ceiling before stretching her hand forward and grabbing a notepad out from her alternate dimension storage.
[Ahjussi Observation Diary ★]
Then, she began writing something down.
*
“Ahjussi. I have a request.”
It was at night after he returned from educating Yeorum.
“What is it.”
“I’m thinking of making some healthy food for Yeorum.”
“Healthy food?”
“Yes. Yeorum doesn’t look very good these days.”
Yu Jitae nodded his head.
A dragon’s mana could only cure the body and was powerless in front of overwhelming piles of exhaustion and mental stress.
“Actually, our green race has a unique health food.”
Unique health food of the green race?
“It’s like a medicinal soup but I don’t think I can find the same ingredients on Earth.”
“You want me to go look for the ingredients?”
“Well, I gathered a few already with things that had similar mana properties and attributes.”
Bom showed a sieve full of ingredients.
Bigyeong, Old Crescent, Root of Adria, Full Moon Grass… even Yu Jitae knew some of these medicinal herbs. They were all good for mana regeneration and energy recovery.
“So, are you going to boil these?”
“Yes. But since all the ingredients are different, I can’t find the right ratio. So I’ll try cooking with different ratios and can you try tasting them ahjussi?”
“Alright.”
She walked into the kitchen and began cutting the ingredients up. And after rustling around for ten minutes or so, a bubbling soup was created.
“Here you go.”
The soup was full of green and the smell of medicine crawled up in between. It was a sample dish for tasting so there wasn’t much in volume. Yu Jitae calmly raised a spoonful to put into his mouth,
“…”
And lost his language.
“How is it?”
Silently, he scooped it up once again with the spoon. He then tilted the spoon and the thick mixture slowly dripped down. It was the same as before but what he perceived from it was different from before. He thought the spoon might melt but it somehow didn’t.
To be fair, the soup was meant to be a medicine and not a dish. She probably wasn’t creating this kind of flavour to kill him.
Closing his eyes, he felt the medicinal herbs reacting with one another inside his body. It wasn’t that good.
He could only feel the individual effects of the ingredients while some of them in fact had their effect downgraded which acted like a faint poison.
Only after getting rid of the poison did he open his mouth.
“I think that one’s a fail.”
“Ah, really?”
“The ratio seems to be wrong. I don’t know the details, but I think there’s too much Full Moon Grass.”
“Ahh…”
Placing a finger on her lips, Bom contemplated.
“Then, can you please help me a bit more?”
“…Alright.”
As usual, he gave a nod and Bom began boiling the soup again but finding the perfect ratio of a soup that had dozens of ingredients wasn’t an easy task.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm…”
“Hmm……”
The food tasting session continued for a long time.
*
It was night.
“We’re back! Ahh, that was so fun. Right, Gyeoul?”
“…Nn!”
Kaeul and Gyeoul excitedly came back to the house from their entertainment.
“…!”
For the first time in a long time, Gyeoul reached her arms forward asking for a hug.
Yu Jitae pulled her in as the small pair of arms went around his neck. Her cheeks that had been flushed from the cold wintery wind touched his neck. It was cold.
Gyeoul slowly gave a smile.
“You must have enjoyed yourself. How was it.”
She mumbled with her small mouth and explained what happened that day. “…A large ship”, “…like this, like this”, “…went in circles”. She used her hands and diligently explained but he honestly couldn’t understand what she was saying. Nonetheless he calmly nodded back.
After finishing her explanation, Gyeoul carefully gazed up at him.
“…Next time.”
Next time?
“…Go together?”
She appeared expectant so he gave a nod.
“Yeah. Let’s go together.”
Perhaps exhausted from playing around, she fell asleep quickly in Yu Jitae’s arms.
Her gentle breathing sounds echoed in his ears.
Every time he was hugging her like this, he would realise once again that her body was really small despite having reached the size of a six-year-old. She had a small head, a thin neck and a tiny body – shoulders, arms and hands.
It was his first time thinking like this but it came to him that a dragon could be this small.
Was this small girl happy today?
“Oh? Little Gyeoul is asleep already.”
That was when the seventeenth soup had been finished.
Gyeoul’s sleeping posture was crooked. She would fall if Yu Jitae didn’t support her body with his hand and she was effectively sleeping on his arm. Besides, his other hand had to support her drooping head so even his other hand wasn’t free.
“Should I move her for you?”
“It’s fine. She might wake up.”
“Hmm, then let’s go like this.”
Bom naturally raised a spoonful and pushed it towards Yu Jitae. Whenever Bom tried to feed him something, he received it with his hand before eating it but there was a problem with that today.
“Here.”
Yu Jitae opened his mouth after stopping for a second as the soup came straight into his mouth.
But then, Bom didn’t take the spoon out.
“…”
She stayed at a very close proximity and stared deeply into Yu Jitae’s eyes.
“…”
What is she doing.
When he looked back into her eyes, the spoon slowly went back out.
“How is it?”
It still had a horrendous taste, but the herbs were harmonious this time. There wasn’t any ingredient straying off from other herbs and there was no waste. Forming a subtle harmony, they spread past Yu Jitae’s body.
“I think it’s good this time. It’s not bad.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Well done.”
“Nn, thank you.”
Bom nodded with a gentle smile.
“Oh right, how did it taste?”
“Well, just like normal herbs.”
“Herbs…”
In response to his words, Bom slowly sat on the dining table in front of him.
“Really?”
She then gave a mysterious smile. As if she was observing something, Bom looked into Yu Jitae’s eyes deeply before opening her mouth.
“I have a question.”
Her lips twitched with a very soft voice.
“What is it.”
“Why don’t you ever say it tastes bad?”
He didn’t know what to say in response. Did she know something; why was she asking this? When he remained silent, Bom asked yet again.
“Why, do you never refuse?”
“…I do when I have to.”
“That’s only when you think I’ll be in danger.”
Why do you not refuse my request in a normal daily life – Bom was asking that with her eyes.
“I want to know why.”