Chapter 12
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Please Save My Granddaughter
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Then... I'll be heading out now."
"Whoa?! W-Wait a sec!"
This self-proclaimed sexy branch chief... Spending more time with this cute loli-looking grandma just felt like a waste of time.
More than anything, I was a psychiatrist, not a marriage counselor.
I wasn't in any position to get involved in this bizarre love simulation, especially not as a virgin who hadn't even awakened to that yet, let alone have a girlfriend.
So, without a second thought, I turned to leave the room. But the branch chief grabbed me in a panic.
"N-No, that was a joke! How can a young fellow be so hasty!"
No, was that a joke...?
A grandma over eighty, with a body that looked like a kid's, seriously talking about wanting to get married, and now she's calling it a joke.
If I exaggerated a bit, it seemed like just moments ago, with that 'sexy' voice of hers, she'd been imagining holding hands with a groom in his early twenties and raising kids.
...She was seriously scary.
Still, this was a line I couldn't cross.
It wasn't just that I didn't want to help—it was beyond my human capacity, medically speaking, and way outside my abilities.
But then.
"Truth is, the reason I called you here... was because there's a patient I'd like you to take on."
"...Pardon?"
The conversation had done a complete 180.
What I'd thought was just a simple greeting or interview had suddenly turned into a real on-site call for Psychiatrist Kim Seungbin's help.
"A patient? I came today because I was told all the association's counselors had to meet with you for introductions..."
"Hmm, that's true procedurally. But... you're already the 'expert' who treated Cheok Yunhwa, aren't you? The association knows it too. You're the only one who got an S-Rank Hunter back on her feet in just a few days."
She strode right up to me in no time, grinning like a little devil, and poked my chest with two fingers.
"...! So... firm... Heh heh heh..."
"......"
I smacked her hand away, feeling oddly sexually harassed, but anyway.
"Ahem! So, what I'm saying is... Yunhwa seems almost fully treated now... I was wondering if you had some time right now."
"Time? Well... if there's a suffering patient, I'd make time even if I didn't have it. But is this someone important enough that you'd come out yourself, Branch Chief?"
I asked because if it were an ordinary patient, any association staffer or clerk could relay the message.
But for the branch chief—the association's top brass—to come out personally and ask me like this meant it might be another 'top-secret VIP patient.'
Her lips moved slightly, and I leaned in closer.
Tilting my ear carefully, she whispered in a low, serious voice.
"It's unofficial for now, but... an S-Rank Hunter candidate on par with Cheok Yunhwa."
"S-Rank?! You mean there are gonna be two of those ultra-elite top rankers—fewer than a hundred worldwide—in our country?!"
Surprise burst out first.
Someone at that level would've had their face plastered all over broadcasts or association meetings by now.
But.
I had absolutely no clue. Zero.
I hadn't heard even a rumor of such a talent, let alone who might be poised for that rank.
And as if reading my curiosity, the branch chief added.
"But... her specs are more than enough. The thing is, for the past two months, she's been showing severe... mental symptoms. She's holed up in her room and won't come out."
"No way... Who is it?"
"Well..."
The branch chief's eyes wavered.
And then, a shocking name dropped.
"My granddaughter."
"......Pardon?"
Honestly... when I first heard that story.
More than the next S-Rank Hunter candidate having mental issues or that the patient I'd be treating from now on was the branch chief's granddaughter... something else bugged me way more.
The fact that this branch chief, who just minutes ago had been rubbing my hand and talking about marriage, turned out to have a granddaughter.
It hit me like a sucker punch to the back of the head.
No, even before that... it was just fucking shocking.
Even being generous, her body was upper elementary school kid size.
With proportions like that... she'd given birth? Gotten pregnant?
Just imagining it blanked my mind out.
This was practically capital crime territory.
As cold sweat dripped down from those infinite horrifying possibilities,
"Her name is Yoo Narae... She's not blood-related. But she's family I raised myself."
Ah, figures.
Phew, what a relief!
It was a simple, refreshing line that blew away all the unholy imaginings dominating my head in an instant.
"...? Seungbin, why are you grinning like that all by yourself?"
"Hahaha! It's nothing. Just... in a sweet country that gives rights even to 2D characters, this setup is utterly impossible. Hahaha!"
"...I don't know what you're on about, but it feels really offensive."
With a hand on my chest, sincerely relieved, I finally got the full story on this woman named Yoo Narae from the branch chief.
About ten years ago now.
Yoo Geumhui, the branch chief, already past the so-called retirement age for hunters in her fifties, nearing eighty.
Though her heart was still in the game, she'd judged it was time to step back and make way for the next generation.
Around then, Cheok Yunhwa was just starting to make her name as Korea's next-gen hero, so the branch chief cleanly decided to retire and headed into one last dungeon raid.
The site was a 90-floor high-difficulty tower dungeon in Busan at the time.
An ultra-nightmare dungeon no one but an A-Rank Hunter could even enter. Even with the branch chief leading the charge, it took a brutal three-month battle to clear.
And the very moment they finished that grueling journey and returned to the surface...
She... found her.
A tiny body.
Clothes so ragged it made your heart ache just looking at her.
No one around, an atmosphere that felt somehow inhuman.
A young girl glaring sharply, driven purely by the straw-grasp instinct to survive, to not die.
That kid, who almost looked like a monster in human form, was the 'Yoo Narae' she was talking about now.
"So... that's the Yoo Narae I'll be taking care of?"
"Yes. Narae was fifteen back then. By age, she should've been much older than me... but whether abandoned by her parents or whatever, when we first met, she was skin and bones—looked more like an elementary kid than middle school."
Makes sense. In this reversed world, if dungeon raids lagged even a bit in affected areas, 'dungeon breaks' would happen where monsters spilled out—not uncommon at all.
Lots of people died in the aftermath, and kids often lost parents, suddenly becoming orphans.
So cases like PTSD-ridden orphan hunter candidates weren't rare.
But Yoo Narae was especially severe.
She even eyed the adult hunter who saved her with suspicion, so whatever hell she'd survived went beyond just being orphaned.
And strangely, that must've overlapped with her own past self.
So Yoo Geumhui, the branch chief, saw this fateful encounter in her final dungeon as 'destiny' and adopted Yoo Narae as her granddaughter.
"I tried registering her as an adopted daughter at first... but when we went for the resident ID, they said the age gap meant no dice. Ended up as granddaughter on paper."
Props to the district office folks for having a conscience.
An 80-year-old and a 20-something daughter? That'd be a family tree tearjerker.
Granddaughter's pushing it too, but hey, that's reasonably sane.
Still, the branch chief sighed wistfully at her back—I didn't feel sorry, just hoped she'd get a grip.
Anyway, according to Yoo Geumhui afterward, Yoo Narae was super shy at first.
But thanks to the branch chief's unique patience and warmth, she gradually opened up.
Never even been to elementary school, let alone proper education, but she learned step by step and grew up just like a real granddaughter.
Then one day, a massive fact they'd overlooked came out.
The reason Yoo Narae survived alone near that death-trap upper Busan dungeon.
In other words, she had exceptional hunter talent.
So she naturally went the successor route, wanted training herself, and started serious hunter practice.
The result? Now she's rising as a potential next S-Rank on par with Cheok Yunhwa.
...Up to here, it's the classic elite growth saga.
Abandoned but miraculously rescued, meets great guardian and environment, succeeds as hunter—total rags-to-riches.
So I suddenly thought.
'Maybe as the adoptee, the pressure of being successor caused mental stress and PTSD?'
But the more I heard, the better they got along, and she wanted training more than the branch chief...
No weak spot in sight.
'Is she really a patient? Or is the branch chief just a doting grandma over-worrying?'
Having seen plenty of intern cases where the guardian's worry was the real issue over counseling, I figured this was another one.
That's when it hit.
"But... that kid, she acts like an animal sometimes."
"Like an animal...?"
"Yeah, I thought it was just a hobby at first. Kids these days have all kinds. But..."
A weird vibe started creeping in.
"Two months ago... she started saying this: 'I don't want to hold back anymore.'"
"...Hold back what?"
The branch chief's face darkened.
And what she said next.
"Clothes. Clothes! 'Why should animals wear clothes?' She's been going full nude indoors and out for two months straight!"
"...Pardon?"
Scratch all my prior thoughts.
This is at minimum Cheok Yunhwa-level patient. 100% chance.