A Gift of a Lock
Around the time I got a sharp scolding from Kang Jiye, I witnessed the Party Bears borrowing the Director’s glasses and pulling some nonsense.
{Is this okay?}
{Old human. Don’t know what this means.}
{Right. The lock sparkles. Humans like sparkly things.}
Click! Creak-creak.
{Here, human. A gift.}
The Party Bear returned the Director’s glasses.
When the Director stared blankly at the lock hanging from the middle of the frames, the Party Bears started beeping at each other and flapping their arms. That was their signal that it was fun.
“…….”
I could have stopped them, but at the Director’s gesture that it was fine, I just stood by for now. He’d been carefully watching the Party Bears’ behavior for a while, as if he had plenty of questions.
Besides, the Clockwork of the Mind’s Eye could be absorbed into its owner’s body, so a prank like that was completely meaningless. No—if the Director so much as waved a finger, that lock would scatter into dust.
The Director put on the glasses with the lock as if he knew nothing at all. The Party Bears’ reactions grew even more intense; they started hopping up and down right where they stood.
Even looking at that nonchalant expression of his, it was obvious he was playing along. As expected, his airheaded cuteness really stood out.
“What the! Who did this!”
Yena, belatedly discovering the Party Bears’ prank, came running and pointed at the Director’s glasses.
The Party Bears instantly pretended not to know one another and stood blankly looking the other way.
Hands on her hips, Yena glared at the teddy bears, then reached out toward the Director.
“Could you give me the glasses for a moment?”
The Director slightly widened his eyes at the now-behaved Party Bears, but soon answered calmly.
“Sure.”
Yena snapped the lock hanging on the glasses with a forceful crunch. Returning them to the Director, she said,
“I’m sorry. Our little ones are a bit mischievous. As their teacher, I’ll apologize.”
The Director smiled faintly.
“So you were their teacher. It’s fine. I thought it was a real gift.”
“It’s not a gift! From now on you shouldn’t fall for it! This is a bullying trend among kids these days!”
It carried the nuance that she herself was not a kid, but considering the mental-age gap between the Party Bears and Yena, the statement was somehow understandable.
Yena clapped her hands to gather everyone’s attention.
“Alright, alright—our little ones should apologize too. You mustn’t play such mean pranks on old people. Ribbon Forty little one, you put on the lock. Bow your head, quickly.”
{I’m sorry.}
“Mm-hmm. Good job. The other little ones too—politely bow from the waist—”
Yena instantly identified the ringleaders and made them apologize. Since they were distinguished by decorations and order of creation, specifying them didn’t seem difficult.
Of course, I had no idea who was who.
Anyway, thanks to that I got to watch the rare spectacle of magical beasts bowing in unison from the waist.
“The magical beasts follow well. Even though she’s a human girl.”
Saying so, the Director approached the bench where I sat.
He wore an everyday smile, but the look in his eyes as he gazed at Yena and the Party Bears was quite sharp.
The Director rarely reacted like that. Mostly it was when he faced some incomprehensible phenomenon. In other words, it meant he still hadn’t pinpointed the Party Bears’ behavioral patterns.
“Hehe, Yena handled the education and guidance. I just made them.”
“Dedicated to education, is it? Isn’t that dangerous? After all, they were born to kill humans.”
“Huh…… is that something you’re saying for me to hear?”
“Don’t misunderstand. Among magical beasts there are individuals that act out suddenly. Like Golden Goblins.”
Among goblins there were those who stole every last treasure of their own tribe. They didn’t actually have golden bodies, but from the enemies’ perspective they were definite trolls.
I nodded, understanding what he meant.
But such variables were limited only to lower-tier individuals.
I smirked and replied.
“What you’re worried about won’t happen.”
“How can you be sure?”
“It’s simple. Whether they’re cowards, pranksters, delinquents—whatever their innate personalities may be—what we desire is unified as one.”
“And what is that?”
“True happiness. We wish for the happiness of the world. So we don’t do things that hurt humans for no reason and make them unhappy.”
“……Hmm?”
Magical beasts weren’t simply made by kneading materials; each had to have a will injected to be fully completed.
And magical beasts could not escape from that will.
Meaning that even if the Party Bears played pranks, they would never cross the line.
The Director, nodding to himself, this time asked Kang Jiye.
“What do you think? Aren’t you worried about things like Alpha variants?”
Kang Jiye crossed her arms, thought for a moment, then answered.
“I was worried too, so I looked into it a lot, but these kids definitely seem different from Alpha.”
“In what way?”
“First of all, they’re surprisingly unplanned and troublemakers. Rather than planning something big, they’re just interested in relieving boredom moment by moment. Far from Alpha’s meticulousness.”
The Director glanced at me, then asked Kang Jiye again.
“Meaning that even if they cause an accident, we can notice first?”
Kang Jiye shook her head.
“I mean that such a thing won’t happen in the first place. Moreover, these kids are surprisingly full of affection. Like Pecia.”
“Affection? The Purple Bunny?”
“For example, helping a pitiful girl who’s the head of her household, or responding to annoying interviews if I ask—things like that. Director, you know too, right? How lazy Pecia is. That’s absolutely not an easy thing for her.”
Is that how it works?
The interview aside, helping Han Hye-yeon had just been because the situation at the time was annoying……
Not being able to help a child sacrificing for her siblings, and even interfering—such things should naturally be returned to a “normal” state.
…….
No, thinking about it makes me mad again. Is it that hard not to hate others without a just reason?
Anyway, because of these useless people we can’t even open the amusement park!
The Director suddenly pointed at me with a curious look.
“Your lips suddenly stuck out a mile.”
Then Kang Jiye gently stroked me as if to calm me and smiled.
“She seems to have some complaint. Or she does this when she thinks of something that makes her angry. It’ll go back on its own after time passes, so don’t mind it.”
“……Fascinating. As expected, to the research lab.”
“No.”
“Director, would you like one little teddy?”
As they wrapped up the conversation and prepared to leave the gate, Pecia held out a pink magical beast. It was the one that had first covered her face.
It was a protective measure for now, but the Director merely smiled slightly.
“As the Director, I can’t very well become friends with a magical beast.”
He clearly drew a line with Pecia.
No matter how cooperative and free of schemes they seemed, that was only for “now.”
Even if they looked empty-headed like that, one never knew what schemes might be hidden in their heads.
Fortunately, Pecia nodded as if she understood. Looking pitifully at the pink magical beast, she muttered something.
{He says he doesn’t like you ’cause you’re ugly…..}
Then the pink magical beast stared at the Director with a shocked expression. Though it wasn’t a type whose face showed expressions clearly, one could still tell it was hurt.
Somehow the thought came that if it had been a real person, he would have felt sorry.
Geez. It’s a strange reaction. It’s not even a puppy.
“Then we’ll take our leave. Thank you for listening to us today, Director.”
“Ah, Deputy Director Kang, you’ve worked hard too. Go rest.”
Kang Jiye, Yena, and Pecia thus exited the security checkpoint side by side.
Beeeep—!!
Only Pecia’s checkpoint lit up red, but no one recognized anything strange.
Analyzing the checkpoint staff’s retina with the Clockwork of the Mind’s Eye, it was manipulating Pecia’s records to normal values.
Though he had been forewarned, it was a somewhat chilling situation.
If Pecia had hidden into society and prepared a meticulous one-shot, what would have happened?
With skills that had toyed with S-class magical beasts, they would have been helplessly done in as well.
Just like that.
“Tsk tsk… Maybe it’s time for me to go too. How pathetic.”
To think he wouldn’t know until the magical beast voluntarily reported itself.
Even if the mana was hidden, not recognizing what was right next to him was disqualification as Director.
Sorry, but I’ll watch a little longer.
From now on, failure could not be allowed. Even if Pecia’s heart was sincere, even if the whole world believed her, the Director alone had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
That was the natural role of the head of Korea’s hunters.
If, when everything was over, Pecia remained on the side of humans to the end…… then he would honestly convey his thanks and apology.
To that pink magical beast as well.
“Beep.”
“……!”
But when he returned to the Director’s office, that pink magical beast was sitting on the reception table.
Because it had hidden its mana, he hadn’t known it had left the gate.
Even as the Director, he could not perceive a “rock” with no hostility at all.
“What……”
As the Director blinked in bewilderment, the magical beast flapped its two arms.
“Beep—beep.”
“What are you saying?”
The Party Bear irritably kneaded its own face all over, then pointed at the Director as if accusing him.
The Director let out a hollow laugh.
“Is there a problem with my appearance?”
When the Director pointed at his own face, the Party Bear that understood the gesture nodded vigorously.
“Byuu, beep……! Beep!”
…..He really shouldn’t, but it was cute.
Until now he had never met a magical beast so honest with its emotions.
He didn’t know why it was suddenly doing that, but somehow his worries about them felt utterly futile, and a hollow laugh came out.
Unconsciously reaching out a hand toward the Party Bear and stroking it a little, the Party Bear started making pleasant sounds.
“Beep beep… beep?”
But then—for some reason the Party Bear stood up abruptly, looking out the window. Immediately after, a commotion began outside the hallway and an alarm sounded.
Sensing that something was amiss—
KWAAaaang!!!! Thud……!
A roar that seemed to shake the earth itself swallowed the sound of steel needles being drawn.