Chapter 49
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Monsters Have No Human Rights!
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Two days had passed since the Princess Kurumi incident.
During that time, Han Shin-woo, who had collapsed from excruciating muscle pain due to his dislocated arm, was still fast asleep in the VIP room of Seoul Hospital, receiving treatment.
And by his side, as always...
"Waaah! Sh-Shin-woo...!"
Already on her second day there.
Sophia was stuck to his side like a cicada, sobbing endlessly without showing any signs of fatigue.
"Master. I brought you some drinks."
"Oh my, thank you, Cheol-ran. I'll enjoy them."
Yoo Cheol-ran, who had visited without fail every day for the past two days, handed a box of drinks to Rolling, who was like family to Sophia.
"Who would've thought the aftermath of that battle would reach so far..."
"Right? They were both on a rooftop, and debris flying from the amusement park over a kilometer away hits Shin-woo dead-on—who could've predicted that?"
Rolling and Lee Seok-gyu sighed in unison.
At the time, Shin-woo had lost consciousness on the rooftop of a building with a clear view of the distant Lotte World.
As Yoo Cheol-ran hurriedly called for an ambulance helicopter, she had to come up with a plausible excuse for why a young man with a dislocated arm was collapsed on top of such a high-rise building.
"Y-Yeah, exactly..."
She'd spun a truly absurd alibi: that she and Shin-woo had coincidentally gone up to the rooftop together, and by some fluke, debris from the amusement park a kilometer away had coincidentally flown straight at him.
Normally, no one would believe such a story and would start asking questions immediately.
There was no reason for the two of them to be up there together in the first place.
But...
"That just means the battle was that intense."
"Gulp!"
"Exactly. Cheol-ran wouldn't lie about it, so it must've just been really bad luck this time."
"Gulp gulp!"
Yoo Cheol-ran was a C-rank hunter, in the top 20% of all hunters.
Moreover, she had once been the personal disciple of Rolling, who had been honored with the title of national power in America.
Thanks to that, everyone believed her, leaving Yoo Cheol-ran as the only one plagued by guilt.
They seemed to have glossed over Shin-woo's true identity without issue.
Zing.
"?!"
Except for one person.
Sophia, who had known his secret from the start, couldn't be fooled.
'No way... Did Cheol-ran see Shin-woo's true form?'
'As expected... Lady Sophia isn't so easily deceived...'
In an ironic twist, they eyed each other warily, both determined to protect Shin-woo's secret.
Sophia suspected Yoo Cheol-ran, who had been the first to find Shin-woo collapsed after the battle.
Likewise, Cheol-ran quietly watched Sophia, wondering if someone who cared for him so devotedly would really fall for such a flimsy lie.
Ziiiing.
The two glared at each other, now exchanging silent laser beams with their eyes.
...But didn't it feel a bit empty?
"Um, Mom..."
"Yes?"
"That Japanese princess. Why's she been so quiet?"
Sophia had expected Princess Kurumi—the one blocking her so-called "Sophia main route"—to rush to his bedside just like her.
But she asked Rolling about the princess's whereabouts anyway.
The way she said "that person" about a princess...
Her expression and tone were so off, it was hard to know where to even start correcting her.
"...If you mean Princess Kurumi, she collapsed from a severe cold right on the day she was rescued."
Rolling answered regardless.
"Huh?! Suddenly?"
In truth, it was just a temporary overload from the aftereffects of an "enormous presence" being implanted inside her.
But Rolling and Lee Seok-gyu, unaware of that, could only worry if something had happened to the princess.
Meanwhile, Sophia smirked inwardly at the news that the woman who might have "shared a bed" with Shin-woo was now sick.
'Hmph!'
Serves her right!
And honestly, since they'd actually gone all the way up to sucking, biting, and thrusting, it was somewhat justified schadenfreude.
The underground research building of the Korean Hunter Association.
With the facilities damaged in the baby monster incident fully repaired, normal research activities were resuming...
Nom nom nom nom.
...as they should have.
Nom nom nom nom nom nom!
'...It's so distracting!'
Lee Hee-jung had skyrocketed through the ranks due to the senior researchers all dying in the baby monster incident.
Now a team leader, she had dumped the backlog of joint research cleanup—her old responsibility—onto the new juniors and was immersed in her own personal studies.
Or rather, she was trying to immerse herself.
But in front of the test tube she'd moved for large monster research...
"Wow! This one would taste good too!"
This wasn't some backwater diner—it was a lab accessible only to top talent.
Yet there was a childlike figure pointing at the monster corpses inside the test tube like menu items, drooling eagerly.
No, not even a real child—a baby monster.
Lee Hee-jung couldn't help but frown upon spotting Eve wandering the lab as usual, munching on a monster carcass held in one hand.
'That dimwitted monster brat comes down here every single day!'
A monster in human form.
Her completely harmless childlike appearance made Eve the lab's beloved mascot, monopolizing the researchers' affection.
And rightfully so, since she was a monster tamed by Branch Chief Lee Jin-ah herself.
The researchers here placed absolute trust in Lee Jin-ah, the Hunter Association's branch chief and director of Korea's research institute.
How could they dislike the research director's tamed monster?
"Eve, want some snacks?"
"The uncle over there has drinks."
"Bored? Want a piggyback ride like last time?"
"Heh heh heh. You humans! Do you even know who I am? ...Well, since you all want it so bad, I'll play along!"
Eve mingled cheerfully with the researchers as always.
But amid the friendly atmosphere, Lee Hee-jung—who had risen to team leader—couldn't join in.
"Straight... Punch!"
She flashed back to the trauma of that baby monster who looked just like her.
The one who'd tormented her when she first awoke.
She snapped at the researchers trying to dote on Eve instead.
"Don't you all have research to do? Do you think we're monster tamers or something?!"
"S-Sorry!"
"Whoa, Team Leader's mad again."
"...Their actual age difference isn't even that much."
The lab's mood grew heavy again under the team leader's outburst.
"Ugh...!"
Eve, annoyed at people avoiding her to dodge the fallout, approached Lee Hee-jung.
But so what?
"Hey, lady!"
"......"
"Hey! Lady! Didn't you hear me?!"
"...What I'm working on right now is important research that Lee Jin-ah personally asked me to handle. So what's the problem with our baby monster that you're interrupting even that to drag me away?"
"M-Mom asked you to do research...?!"
Of course, it was a lie.
The research Lee Hee-jung was doing was purely for her own benefit.
But she figured a baby... let alone a monster... couldn't decipher her complex research data.
"Come on, you've got both my hands tied up because of you. So spit it out—what's the problem?"
"Uh, uh... W-Well..."
As expected, Eve fell for the lie and fidgeted anxiously.
Soon, teary droplets welled up in her ruby-red eyes.
"What is it? You call someone over, so say something! Or apologize if it's nothing!"
Faced with the adult coming at her even harder, Eve—strong on the outside but still immature within—could only react like any kid.
"Sob sob..."
"Hmph! Over nothing."
Eve broke down into pitiful sobs.
Lee Hee-jung smirked viciously down at baby monster number two, not caring how the other researchers saw her.
'Just you wait. I'll make sure to ask the director to let me use you as my sandbag... no, my test subject someday!'
She still hadn't gotten over the grudge from Lia.
She was inwardly sharpening her knife to perform the breeding experiments she'd planned for Lia on Eve instead.
"I-I'm going!"
"H-Hey!"
She hadn't even bullied her enough yet.
Eve whipped around and bolted away at incredible speed.
But Lee Hee-jung knew exactly where a sad baby monster number two would flee in the research building.
"Hmph. Bet she's going to see that again."
She headed to the lab's sole second floor.
The -10°C cold storage room, built to preserve rare monster corpses in their lifelike state.
And sure enough.
"Hiding here again?"
"Eee! I hate the lady! Go away, lady!"
Behind the frozen lower half of a torso-less corpse half-buried in snow-like frost.
Lee Hee-jung just snorted at Eve cowering behind the entity known as Angel's lower body.
"You're hilarious. You always hide behind that hunk of meat whenever you get a little sad."
"I-It’s not a hunk of meat! It's my mom!"
"Dummy. What mom? You monsters don't even have human rights. You're just a parent body and offspring. ...What? Feeling a bit of human love and now you think you're a real person?"
"Th-That's..."
"Hee hee. So with a mom that's just legs, how do you even greet her? ...Oh! Do you shake with the soles of her feet or something?"
Evidently pleased with her own jab, Lee Hee-jung now openly cackled.
Eve glared murderously at the human insulting her monster mom, dying to rip her throat out right then.
But...
"Eve. Listen well. You must never harm humans."
"Why? Even if I didn't do anything wrong?"
"Yes. Of course. Because you're a monster. Even if Mom is the Hunter Association branch chief, if you hurt people, I don't know how far I could protect you. So..."
Back when she'd learned this and that from her human mom.
"As a monster, you're always the one who gets hurt when dealing with humans."
Eve had been drilled hard: in human society, monsters must always be in the inferior position.
"S-Sor... S-Sorry... Sorrysoborry!"
Killing would be easy, but the young baby monster could only cry.
"Mom... Help me...!"
"?! Y-You little cheat, bringing up the director? Hey! You started this fight first! Don't play the victim now! A monster like you!"
Thwack thwack.
Lee Hee-jung grabbed Eve's wrist to drag her off, punctuating with a few knuckle raps to the head.
Unable to resist, Eve could only sob and let herself be pulled along like a victim of domestic abuse...
...Pop.
...Or so she thought.
"...Huh?"
A rustling sound came from behind Lee Hee-jung, who had turned to lead the way.
Thinking it was just baby monster number two whining again, she cocked her fist for more knuckle shots.
"Wh-Wh-What?!"
"M-Mom...?"
What they saw was the lower half of Angel's corpse—completely frozen solid, with not a single living cell left—rising on its own.