The Horned Retriever
Choi Jin-woo felt cold sweat beading on his forehead. He was on the verge of a heart attack.
The moment the titanium cage was set down, a mechanical whir and heavy clank echoed through the room as the locking mechanisms disengaged. The cage began to dismantle itself with a long, drawn-out metallic screech that made his skin crawl.
Creak.
Something hopped out on all fours.
“Is that the monster? Did it come out? Where is it? What does it look like? I’m kind of scared…”
An Sion trembled in place, voice shaking. The monsters she had faced in her hunter days were never the cuddly, fluffy type. C-rank grotesque goblins and orcs, B-rank demi-humans like elves or centaurs. And the ones classified as A-rank? They possessed forms so grotesque they defied human comprehension. Unless someone had a corpse-fetish level of twisted taste, no one in their right mind would feel any affection toward a monster.
That was why.
Right now, sharing the same air in the same space as a monster, Sion’s sixth sense was going absolutely haywire—twitching, quivering, screaming at her.
But then Luna’s explanation made her reconsider. Just a little.
Yes. I will now describe the monster’s appearance. With the sole exception of the *horn* protruding from the exact center of its forehead, its outward features match the Golden Retriever breed at a 96% similarity rate.
“What?”
Contrary to Sion’s fearful expectations, what had burst out of the titanium cage was not some twisted hell-dark goblin. It was a dog with glossy golden fur, shaking itself off—complete with a single horn on its head.
“A dog? What the hell is this? You said it was a monster!”
“It is a monster, Senior. To my knowledge, it is a hybrid.”
A hybrid? For real?
“Did its dad fuck a golden retriever?”
“Grrrr, woof woof!”
“Oh, the other way around?”
“Woof woof woof!”
The hybrid monster, tail held high, began growling at Sion. The sudden savage burn about its parentage had triggered an instinctive reaction.
The monster was already sensing that this wasn’t going to be easy.
Sion stared hard at the creature. Well, she couldn’t actually see it, so she was really just glaring in the general direction she assumed it occupied.
“So you’re telling me I have to raise this thing?”
“That is correct, Senior.”
“…Why me?”
Sion crossed her arms and clicked her tongue. She was already living her best life, lounging around her dorm and the academy without lifting a finger. And now they wanted to dump a damn dog on her out of nowhere?
She’d have to feed it, clean up its shit and piss, take it for walks… The list of annoying chores was endless. On top of that, it would bark all day, chew up everything in sight, and turn the whole place into a disaster zone. Sion had zero confidence she could handle any of it.
‘Besides.’
She also had some bad memories involving dogs.
“I don’t want to.”
The monster answered in kind.
“Woof woof.”
“What’s it saying? Translate for me, Luna.”
Luna, attempting to parse the meaning behind the barking, immediately fell silent from the overload.
“Please, Senior. Consider the Chairman’s face and do this favor for him. This is a top-secret project being conducted within the Foundation. I was told your participation is absolutely necessary.”
“Top-secret project? You know about stuff like that, Jin-woo? Wow, you’ve really made it, huh?”
“Thank you! It’s all thanks to having you by my side back then, Senior. I was able to…”
Choi Jin-woo, a man weak to praise, began rattling off old memories that Sion hadn’t even asked about. Most of them were things she had experienced herself, so she listened with the same mild interest one might give to military stories. Seeing a beautiful girl who barely reached his waist listening with such a cute expression, Jin-woo couldn’t help but keep pulling more stories out of his bag of memories.
“Whiiiine.”
Only when the bored monster let out a long yawn did Jin-woo finally snap back to reality.
“Ahem. I got a bit carried away. Anyway, I’m counting on you, Senior!”
“Hey, wait a second…”
Sion had been secretly pondering how to return the delivered monster when she realized it was a request from Han Shin. Refusing outright would be incredibly awkward. It might even get her kicked out of the academy. She’d be forced back into the pathetic life of a bottom-rung street rat among the homeless gangs at New Seoul Station.
‘That… I really don’t want.’
With no other choice, Sion nodded.
“This friend will be officially registered as your ‘guide dog,’ Senior. As for the horn on its head… just make up something if anyone asks. As long as you don’t reveal that it’s a monster, it should be fine.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Sigh.
Sion’s face crumpled into a tragic expression at suddenly being saddled with a dog. Choi Jin-woo, watching her quietly, once again felt his heart stop.
Sion was already unbearably cute. Adding a fluffy dog on top of that? Was this why all his friends kept telling him to have a daughter?
‘…More importantly, I’m glad she’s doing well.’
Feeling relieved, Choi Jin-woo turned to leave.
“What should I name him?”
Understood. Would you like me to provide the Top 10 most commonly used dog names in Korea?
“No, no. That’ll just spit out mass-produced names like Choco or Baekgu. Since I’m stuck raising him anyway, I want something a little special.”
She had no interest in ordinary names. She wanted to give him something an alien, a time-traveler, or a superhero might use.
The monster, sensing her intentions, perked his ears up sharply.
‘What kind of name?’
If one were to simply rank intelligence in this room, Sion would undoubtedly come in dead last. First place belonged to the next-generation autonomous neural AI “Luna,” a singularity-breaking entity created by the late Milon Mengsk, who had poured everything into her right before his death. Han Shin had secretly appropriated her and installed her at full capacity in the dorm where Sion lived. One should never ask what exactly is stored inside the giant fuel tank on the dormitory roof.
Second place went to the hybrid monster, who was objectively smarter than Sion. Due to the structure of his mouth he couldn’t speak Korean, but he had already memorized the entire history of human civilization, the structure of society, and even the current state of Korea’s culture and situation. All so he could faithfully and meticulously carry out the “contract” his father had made with the leader of this nation.
That was why he had been secretly looking forward to it. He was curious what name the girl who would become his partner would bestow upon him.
Of course.
That expectation was completely and utterly shattered.
“From today on, your name is An Nureongi. How do you like it, Nureongi?”
“Krrrk, woof!”
“You’re barking because you like it that much? Wow, it’s so weird that I can understand everything.”
She hadn’t pulled “Nureongi” out of thin air. She couldn’t see with her own eyes, but according to Luna’s description, this guy’s fur was apparently yellow. Like a retriever.
Wasn’t Nureongi a mass-produced name?
Yes, it was. But by attaching the family name “An” in front, its identity exploded. In other words, it became a unique name used by only one individual on the entire planet.
People who named their dogs Nureongi usually didn’t bother giving their mutts a family name out of affection. In that sense, by using “Nureongi” she had maximized familiarity, while granting it her own surname “An” added originality. It was the perfect name.
“Hehehe.”
She probably should have become a scholar instead of a hunter or teacher. Sion beamed with self-satisfaction.
It is truly a name that captures the core essence. There is no one else on Earth besides Lady Sion who could come up with such a name for a companion animal. Your thoughts are so profound and deep that even an AI like myself cannot hope to follow them.
“Hehe.”
When Sion looked happy, Luna seized the opportunity to unleash a storm of praise. As expected of an AI that had surpassed the singularity.
“Woof… grrr…”
An Nureongi’s head throbbed so badly that he finally collapsed on the spot, tongue lolling out as he panted.
“Hey. Come here, Nureongi. I’ll teach you how to hold your pee and poop first.”
“Woof.”
Training like this had to be done early—right from the start. Sion recalled her childhood experiences in the countryside. The mutts her grandmother had let loose in the front yard had once come inside and pissed and shat all over the house. Her grandmother had then mercilessly beaten them with a cypress club. After that, it never happened again.
Violence was always the best solution, no matter the time or place. Even a broken computer would turn on if you hit it hard enough.
Of course, since Sion was a civilized person, she had no intention of suddenly punching a being that could clearly understand human speech. Besides, even if she did hit him, it probably wouldn’t hurt at all, so Nureongi would likely just take the beating without complaint.
Sion fumbled around until she grabbed Nureongi by the scruff of his neck. She was going to “teleport” him to the bathroom. It was discipline meant to imprint the location.
And at that exact moment—
Absolute Sensitivity is being strengthened.
A message only visible to Sion (which she could no longer see) appeared.
Right after that—
Huh? Lady Sion’s condition is…?
Sion began to glow so brightly that even the AI Luna was shocked. It was a kind of evolution—or growth—achieved simply by coming into contact with a monster above S-rank.
“What the hell is this!!!”
Sion screamed in shock.