The Monster Reappears #2
A monster with the body of a crocodile and the head of a lion—a colossal beast-type creature. It wouldn’t have been strange to call it a chimera. The monster smashed a house on the western coast of Argentina with its jaws and devoured it whole. The sharp crunch of shattering concrete and rebar filled the air as the building crumbled between its teeth. All around it, residents fled in blind panic.
It let out a low growl—Grrrrr…—as if savoring a rare delicacy, then swallowed the entire house in seconds. Its gaze lifted to the empty sky, eyes narrowing with instinctive caution. It lowered its stance, muscles coiled.
A cool sea breeze drifted across the clear blue sky. Then came the sound: a high-pitched kiiiiing—! like the air itself being ripped apart. The wind swelled violently, whipping into a localized storm.
The monster sensed the incoming threat. But before it could react—
THUD.
An arrow the size of a house, moving at a speed too fast to perceive, punched straight through its skull. For such a dramatic entrance, the death was almost pathetic. The arrow continued onward, obliterating the rest of the monster’s torso before vanishing into the sea in a towering spray of water.
From a great distance away, Yuria lowered her bow. She slid the retrieved arrow back into her quiver and tapped her communicator.
“It’s done. Any other monsters?”
The Doctor, watching the feed from the monitor, answered calmly.
“No more monsters. Forget about the corpse and return to base. Good work.”
“Understood, Doctor.”
After the brief reply, Yuria stepped through the portal and disappeared.
With the crisis over, the Doctor exhaled in relief. “It wrapped up cleanly. Looks like there were no casualties or injuries.”
I didn’t respond. My eyes stayed narrowed, fixed on one section of the monitor.
The Doctor tilted her head. “What is it?”
“That wrecked yacht… did the monster chew it up?”
“Yacht? Zoom in.”
I enlarged the feed, showing a sizable yacht whose entire midsection had been erased. The Doctor studied it in silence for a moment, then murmured, “Doesn’t look like bite marks. This was pierced by something with incredible force.”
“I thought the same.”
After a short pause, the Doctor realized what had actually happened. “Don’t tell me…”
She brought a hand to her mouth, clearly worried that humans had been aboard.
The lab grew quiet. I broke the silence first.
“Yuria used far too much power to kill a C-class monster. It might be lingering resentment toward Tyrat, or maybe she couldn’t control her strength after staying transformed for so long. Either way, it’s a serious mistake. This is exactly why we need proper Device regulation.”
“……”
“We’ll have to report the yacht as something the monster ate. You know that, right?”
“Y-yes… Do you think the people on board managed to escape…?”
“I hope so. No biological signals are showing up, and there’s nothing in the nearby waters.”
“Should we tell Yuria?”
“We have to. We can’t guarantee today’s mistake won’t happen again.”
The Doctor sighed repeatedly, her expression clouded. “Maybe we could phrase it gently…? Tell her to hold back a little…”
“With Yuria’s personality, she’d see through any sugarcoating immediately. Better to be direct, with just a touch of deception mixed in.”
“Haa… I’m losing my mind…”
I gently placed my hand over hers as she sat there looking miserable. “I’ll speak to her myself. Sister, finish organizing the report and send it to the World Coalition, then head home.”
“But I…”
“There’s only one thing you need to focus on right now. You know what it is, don’t you?”
“Yes… I understand. I’ll do as you say…”
Satisfied by her obedient answer, I gave her back a few gentle pats and began wrapping up the remaining details.
Arriving at the separate residence in Uijeongbu, I listened to the radio for a moment before the front door opened and Silvia appeared. I killed the engine and stepped out of the car. She stared at me with a serious expression. She must have seen the news reports flooding every channel. Behind her, Adele’s bright, round eyes peeked out.
I grabbed the two cases of bottled water from the back seat, carried them to the entrance, and greeted them.
“Hello.”
“Welcome back. We saw the news. That’s why you’re here, right?”
“Yes.”
“And what you’re carrying… is that water?”
“It is. The other day Adele seemed anxious about bugs getting into the water purifier, so I bought some.”
Silvia let out a weak laugh and glanced back at Adele, who answered with a bright, bashful smile.
Once inside, I neatly set the water in the corner and sat at the dining table. Silvia brought me a cup of ice water from the purifier. She offered a disposable straw.
“Drink.”
“Thank you.”
I stuck the straw in and took a cool sip, then got to the main reason for my visit.
“First, I’m sorry we didn’t call you even though a monster appeared. You must have been disappointed.”
Silvia gave a small nod. “A little. But I understand. From the news, it sounded like that Beast Slayer—her codename was Yuria, right?”
“Yes. In her case, her codename and real name are the same.”
“Right. The moment she showed up the monster was already dead, so we figured you didn’t need us.”
“Thank you for understanding. For now, please look at this.”
I sent the monster threat classification chart I had created—which had since become the world standard—to both of their phones and continued.
“The monster that appeared this time was C-class. Without a Beast Slayer, handling something at that rank is nearly impossible.”
“Really? Are humans on Earth that weak?”
“The monsters are simply that strong, and Aether is a mysterious power. Anyway… many monsters have appeared so far. Up to B-class, a single Beast Slayer could handle them alone. But starting at A-class…”
“You need more than one person?”
No. You alone could wipe out an A-class. Maybe even an S-class. The Aloken you killed when you first arrived was an A-class bordering on S-class.
“Yes. However, we believe both of you are stronger than Sehwa or Yuria. That’s why we’re confident you could handle one-on-one battles against A-class or higher monsters. The important point, though, is that while we want to send you into combat against monsters right away, the Devices still aren’t finished…”
Silvia cut in. “So you’re saying you’ll conserve us until the Devices are complete, in case we burn through all our Aether and it disappears?”
“Exactly. Until the Devices are ready, we’ll only call you when Sehwa and Yuria can’t keep up.”
“I see… I understand. But as long as we can’t locate Tyrat, we’ll be stuck just reacting to monster attacks, won’t we?”
“I don’t believe the number of monsters is infinite. If we continue to protect Earth steadily, I think he’ll eventually reveal himself. From our perspective, the fact that Tyrat is only probing like this is actually good news.”
“Still… why would he act this way? A full-scale war would seem more logical…”
Because he’s trying to bring all of you under his control.
“I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that. Ah, and Sehwa would like to meet both of you. I was thinking of arranging a meeting the day after tomorrow… would that work with your schedules?”
Both Silvia’s and Adele’s faces brightened considerably.
“We’re free. We’re finally going to meet her…”
“Understood. I’ll contact you tomorrow with the exact details.”
“Okay. You must be busy, yet you still made time for us. Thank you, truly…”
They seemed genuinely excited to meet a fellow comrade. Too bad. Sehwa has already become my subordinate and the queen of the Magic Realm. You two are far, far too late.
I was planning to begin my conquest of Adele soon. First, I would build up favorable feelings toward me as a man. After that, I would gradually create distance between her and Silvia. If I could separate the two strongest Beast Slayers, I would be able to handle any unexpected variables that arose.
Having finished thinking, I gulped down the rest of the water and stood up.
“I believe that covers everything, so I’ll take my leave. There’s still a lot to do.”
“Yeah, take care.”
“See you.”
I headed straight for the entrance and slipped on my shoes. Just as I was about to open the door, Adele came running after me.
“U-um, Jihyeok!”
“Yes?”
“You look really tired… Here…”
With a shy gesture, she held out a drink. It was a two-thousand-won vitamin beverage you could buy at any convenience store. I let out a small chuckle, accepted it, and thanked her.
“Thank you. I feel more energetic already.”
“Right? I did well, didn’t I?”
“You did very well. Ah… and also…”
I lowered my posture, cupped a hand beside my mouth, and Adele glanced at Silvia before leaning her ear toward me. Finding the action adorable, I smiled and whispered.
“You said before that you wanted to teach me about the doctrine, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Is Lady Rosario’s doctrine one that gives mental strength?”
Adele blinked. Then the corners of her mouth lifted into a bright, wide smile. She looked convinced that I was deeply interested in the sermon.
“Yes! If you have sincere faith, it feels like your heart becomes clear and pure. I’ll explain it in the easiest way possible!”
“Then… shall we make time after you meet with Sehwa?”
“Yes! It’s a promise! Right now!”
Adele thrust her pinky finger out stiffly toward me. I pretended to be burdened and mentally exhausted as I hooked my finger with hers. For a brief moment her face darkened, but it quickly cleared. She gave me a gentle, warm smile and encouraged me.
“I’ll blow away all of Jihyeok’s worries and troubles. So don’t worry. Everything will turn out fine.”
Yes. Everything will turn out fine. It has to.
When I returned home, the Doctor was sitting on the sofa with a gloomy expression, sipping coffee. I walked over, planted an evening kiss on her forehead, and sat beside her. She pulled out a wet wipe and began cleaning my hands.
“Did you meet Yuria?” she asked.
“I did.”
“And you came straight back afterward?”
She was double-checking. The more she acted like this, the harder it would be to smooth things over if she ever discovered the tracker.
“No. I also met Silvia and Adele. I gave them a rough explanation of how we’ll move from now on and arranged a meeting with Sehwa.”
“Shouldn’t you have told me something that important first?”
“I didn’t want to burden you with too many thoughts. It might affect the pregnancy.”
“……What did Yuria say?”
“She was worried she might have shot a human. I told her she hadn’t. I also warned her to be more careful.”
“I see…”
Trailing off, the Doctor finished wiping my hands, then went back to sipping her coffee while watching TV. The room grew quiet. After staring at the screen for a while, she finally looked at me.
“Jihyeok.”
“Yeah?”
“That… thing we promised earlier…”
She was shyly suggesting we have sex. I casually slipped my hand inside her shorts and pressed a finger against the center of her panties. They were already damp. She must have been holding back her desires the whole time I was gone.
I stood, lifted her into my arms, and asked, “Did you take the ovulation inducer?”
Avoiding my eyes, the Doctor gave a tiny nod. I grinned and carried her toward the bedroom.
Things were going to get very busy for the next few days. It would have been nice to have two bodies… What a shame.