Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: How about Calling It a Draw? (Intermission)
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Lee Jin-ah, the branch chief, and Sir Lancelot had run off to a distance where they wouldn't be able to see us.
By the time they were gone, I'd undone my monsterization and reverted to human form. I started searching for the baby monster.
"Hey! Where are you?!"
I'd thought it would be fine since we only fought within the intersection.
But this wasn't out at sea—it was smack in the middle of the city. Even taking every precaution, the aftermath of two national disaster-class monsters clashing had exceeded my wildest imagination.
The streets of Gangnam were eerily empty, like a ghost town, desolate and barren.
High-rises far beyond the intersection had their outer walls tilted at angles, every window shattered. The asphalt road was cracked all the way to the horizon.
'I had no idea when we were fighting...'
Yeah, holding back from the start had definitely been the right call.
If I'd gone all out with Kyokushin Karate right away, not only would the baby monster still in Gangnam have been toast, but so would every civilian huddled in the building basements.
"Where the heck did it go, anyway...?"
For now, I was heading straight home.
I figured there was nowhere else for the baby monster that had fled to run back to.
Our house was its only nest... or at least, that's what I believed.
But maybe not.
"...! Our house..."
The baby monster wasn't home.
No—our house was gone entirely.
When I arrived at the single-family home, I stood there dumbfounded.
It had only had a hole in my bedroom roof when we first escaped, but now it was just a pile of rubble, collapsed beyond recognition.
And that rubble was our house.
"S-Sophia?"
My daze didn't last. I immediately started searching for Sophia, who'd fought here.
There was no way, but she could be buried under all this.
The monster she'd faced was a danger level B+ Nashar Snake—something an A-rank hunter should have hunted, not a B-rank like her.
"S-Sophia! Sophia!!"
I dug through the collapsed house frantically.
But no matter how much I shouted and called, no voice came back.
With every moment, my anxiety grew. Tears welled up at the thought that something unthinkable might have happened.
'Should I have just monsterized right then?'
If she learned I was a national disaster-class monster, she could be in danger.
And if my identity ever came out later, she might get branded a traitor by association.
That's why I'd kept it hidden without telling her.
But if I'd known we'd part like this, I would've—
"Sad?"
"Yeah..."
"Sorry?"
"Yeah..."
"Th-then... do you wanna leave your mark on her body or something?"
"......"
...Yeah, good thing I'd kept it secret.
"S-Sophia?"
"...Why no answer at the end there."
"O-Oppa! Oppa!"
"Ah, you're safe too!"
I shot to my feet from where I'd been kneeling on the ground.
Wiping away the embarrassing tears, I turned to see the baby monster and Sophia holding hands, getting along surprisingly well.
"Shin-woo, you were right—there was a chocolate-ball-sized core in the Nashar Snake. I targeted that and sliced it out, and poof, it evaporated."
"Oh, really?"
"Oppa! I'm so glad you're safe!"
"Yeah. You okay?"
"Yeah! I'm f-fine!"
Relieved I was safe, the baby monster ran straight to me and hugged me tight.
It felt just like raising a daughter. A smile crept onto my face.
Meanwhile.
"......"
"......"
Sophia watched us silently.
...She'd probably already figured out I was the Jamsil Monster.
Hell, it'd be weirder if she hadn't after I told her I picked up an escaped research lab monster off the street.
I'd asked the baby monster to keep my secret, but it was pointless.
Then.
"Ah, Oppa."
Whispering.
"...What?"
"That human girl... she seems suspicious that you're the same kind as me."
"......Yeah."
Whispering right in front of her? Now even the innocent would suspect.
Gulp.
I might have to come clean right now.
With that thought, I squeezed my eyes shut.
Better to speak up than endure these piercing stares.
Just as I steeled myself.
"I won't listen."
"...Huh?"
Sophia spoke flatly, eyes half-lidded.
"Shin-woo, I won't hear it until you tell me naturally."
What?
Was she mad?
But she didn't look angry.
She just nodded to herself, like she'd made a decision.
Then she pointed at the baby monster clinging to my waist and face.
"Anyway, what are you gonna do with her now?"
"Do with her...?"
"She's a monster, for now. You're not thinking of releasing her into the wild, right?"
"O-of course not!"
Releasing a baby monster into the wild?
You trying to wipe out every wild boar and deer in Korea?
For the ecosystem's sake, no way.
Which left only one option: me raising her.
"Hey, kid..."
"No way! You were gonna raise her? Sorry, but civilians breeding monsters is straight-up illegal. In the US, it'd be the electric chair at minimum. Japan, hanging. China, drawn and quartered by horses."
(For reference, Korea has no death penalty, so it'd be life imprisonment. The setting said France uses the guillotine.)
"Oppa. Does that mean I can't live with you anymore?"
"Th-that's..."
Was there really no way?
As tears welled up in the baby monster's eyes, squeezing me hard enough to crack ribs.
"But I can raise her."
"Huh?"
"...?"
"I'm a Beast Hunter, after all."
The one job in the world where monster taming was legal.
We had Sophia!
"Since you want it, Shin-woo. I'll tame her specially."
"...! N-no! I'm Oppa's!"
"Hmph. She's mine anyway. For the record, Shin-woo's mine too."
"...?! R-really?"
"Yeah. Really."
"As if..."
They bickered but clicked in the weirdest ways.
"Haa..."
Should I worry or relax? Hard to tell.
Well, everyone was safe, so relief first.
That's when.
"Anyway, when are you gonna stop calling her 'baby monster'?"
"Huh?"
"She's my tamed monster now. She needs a proper name."
"True."
"N-name...?"
Sophia smiled brightly at the baby monster.
Like she'd had a name ready for a kid like her.
"From now on, your name is Lia!"
"Li, Lia...?"
"Why Lia?"
"Because my name's Sophia! It's from that!"
And just like that, she named the baby monster Lia on the spot.
The monster alert for Yeongdeungpo and Gangnam was lifted.
The Association's key personnel rushed to the scene for cleanup.
Meanwhile.
"Haa..."
Lee Jin-ah returned not with gains, but losses, nursing a throbbing headache in the research building.
She was here, naturally, to erase every trace of the eight years she'd secretly researched the Angel mother's pregnancy records.
"How am I supposed to procure another national disaster-class monster..."
She personally hunted down and burned every hidden file.
But as she sighed over the massive power loss.
"...Eh."
"Eek?!"
Plucked by the Jamsil Monster and Sir Lancelot.
Her mentality shredded by two national disasters at once.
So when an inexplicable noise echoed in the empty research building, even a national power-level hunter like her let out an uncharacteristic shriek and threw punches at the air.
"Wh-what?! D-did it follow me?! The Jamsil Monster?!"
Lee Jin-ah flailed wildly at nothing.
Cold sweat beading down her face, she reached the research building's center, tracking the sound.
"...Ba, baby... waa..."
"......What."
The Angel's lower half, spilled from the test tube in the chaos of the baby monster's birth.
Left untouched since the day before yesterday.
But from the exploded womb area came a faint, unmistakable sound: a baby's cry.
"No way... for real...?"
'A miracle, truly.'
Not fully summoned, but sharing Lee Jin-ah's vision, Lancelot quietly marveled.
And in her blood-soaked arms as she rummaged through the corpse.
A tiny white baby, eyes barely open, let out a soft wail.
A dark secret chamber.
Not in Korea, but Japan.
The Hunter Association's "Japan Branch" hidden underground space in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Illuminated only by a single candle in the center of a tatami room.
There sat Japan's top brass—figures who could dismiss the top 1% A-rank hunters as "mere".
And their sole topic.
"Pressure from China and Russia on our Japanese islands is mounting."
"North Korea right next door's been noisy lately too. The enemies are too close! Prime Minister."
In the dim tatami room's center.
Japan's representative himself, the Prime Minister, sat on a cushion.
He nodded gravely, sharing their concerns.
Then.
"In that case, I have a fine idea. What do you think?"
Across from the Prime Minister.
Meeting via laptop due to circumstances, this heavyweight chuckled heartily amid the tension.
"Our clan happens to have 'princesses' available."
"...What do you intend, Kitsune Clan Head?"
"Simple."
North Korea, Russia, China.
If these threats all target Japan, then we—and Asia's other targets like Taiwan, Mongolia, India—especially our close neighbor 'Korea'—should forge an even stronger alliance.
Plus, Japan hosted the world's strongest, the U.S. forces in Japan.
"Let's strongly promote a far tighter Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance worldwide."
"But... we already have a tight Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance. Can it get tighter?"
"Of course! Prime Minister. Beyond mere friendship—sworn brothers, or family ties."
"How?"
The alliance was already militarily bound, led by the U.S., with joint defense training.
Even closer? What peace treaty could do that? The Prime Minister awaited the answer.
Creak.
Through the sliding door to this secret space for Japan's elite.
In stepped a demure figure.
A woman in a neat red yukata, her beautiful hair gleaming like obsidian.
A mysterious eyepatch over her eyes, yet overflowing with feminine allure.
The room froze.
"Ah..."
"Wh...!"
The Prime Minister and all inside held their breath in shock.
And.
"We'll send this child as a 'gift' to Korea."
The voice from the computer.
"To make Korea-Japan ties even closer."
Hearing her 'father', the bloodline called princess across Japan and the world.
Kitsune Kurumi, second daughter of the Kitsune clan, remained silent. Utterly silent.