Chapter 50
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: That's the Itchy Spot
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Background music to make the meeting between Cheon Doun and Ppuri more dramatic.
Yu Beom tried to recall a song he knew.
Having spent most of his childhood in the research institute, he knew very few songs.
He vaguely remembered a few children's songs he'd heard before being abducted.
He couldn't even remember the lyrics. But he knew the melody, having hummed it since he was young.
Alright, this is the one. Having chosen the song, Yu Beom began to hum quietly.
“Hmm hmm… hmm hmm hmm… hmm hmm…”
An eerie noise began. Cheon Doun looked back at Yu Beom.
Their eyes met. Yu Beom nodded. *Leave it to me.* He continued humming with that expression.
Yu Jia, who had been picking flowers nearby, sensed something was off and hid them behind her back.
“Hmm hmm… hmm hmm hmm… hmmm…”
Her clueless brother continued his barely audible humming.
*Stop. This isn't it.* Yu Jia nudged Yu Beom's side with her elbow, trying to give him a hint.
Cheon Doun watched the siblings for a moment before turning away.
‘He's seriously tone-deaf.’
It sounded like a tribal ritual to summon a demon. Cheon Doun looked at Ppuri standing before him.
Ppuri, too, seemed startled by the sudden noise and was watching Yu Beom warily.
-Huung!
Thump. It slapped the ground once with its fine roots. *Begone, demon.* It seemed to say.
Cheon Doun knelt on one knee in front of Ppuri. He held out his hand toward it.
Unconsciously, the corners of his mouth lifted into a gentle smile.
“Come here.”
A single phrase. That was enough. Ppuri, who had been wary of Yu Beom, turned to look at Cheon Doun.
Its eyes widened as it saw the hand extended toward it.
-Hu, huung…!
*You're calling me.* The leader Mandragora ran to Cheon Doun.
Plop. Ppuri hugged Cheon Doun's palm. It rubbed its leaves against his hand.
*Ah, my great benefactor. I remember. This is your scent.*
The Mandragora, with its poor eyesight, identified Cheon Doun with senses other than sight.
While eagerly rubbing its leaves on his palm, Ppuri paused.
*This won't do. I'm not a child anymore. Am I not the leader of a whole group?*
Ppuri let go of Cheon Doun's hand. It took a step back and groomed itself with its fine roots. It also subtly wiped away the plant sap welling in its eyes.
Straightening the leaves that had gotten crumpled from rubbing against Cheon Doun's hand was a bonus.
*Good. Perfect. The perfect image of a leader.*
-Huung!
Ppuri let out a leader-like roar.
-Huung, huung!
It stood with its roots apart and pointed to the hundred or so Mandragoras behind it.
*Behold. Those are the children I lead.*
*I am not the same as before. I have grown. You have become huge, but I have become huge too.*
Ppuri raised its leaves high. It also subtly stood on its tiptoes. This had the effect of making it look two centimeters taller.
-Huung!
It wanted to show only its best side to the benefactor it hadn't seen in so long.
“Yeah. You’ve grown a lot. You were alive.”
Cheon Doun's voice was filled with amusement.
Ppuri couldn't understand his words. But it could sense that he was pleased.
Ppuri took off the white string tied around its stalk. It grasped it with its leaves and held it high above its head.
-Huung!
*Do you remember? You gave this to me. I have protected it.*
The string it had kept for sixty years. It showed it off proudly.
“Yeah. That’s amazing. You didn't lose it.”
-Huung!
Having shown it off, it put the string back on its leafy stalk.
Just then, the wind blew. Ppuri turned its body toward the wind. The white string fluttered in the breeze.
It also showed its back. The white string cutting diagonally across its plump rear. It fluttered majestically in the wind.
Ppuri turned back to Cheon Doun. *Did you see? This is how I've worn the string.*
Cheon Doun briefly covered his mouth with his hand. His shoulders trembled slightly. What was this delightful feeling?
He'd never raised one, but perhaps this was what it felt like to watch a puppy's antics.
Cheon Doun laughed silently for a while before picking Ppuri up.
-Hu, huung?
As its body was lifted into the air, Ppuri's eyes went wide.
Its benefactor, who had already been big, had grown so much larger. But there was something even more curious.
-Huung?
*Why does my benefactor smell like one of my own kind? Before, we were definitely not the same species.*
But now it was different. We are the same species.
-Huung!
*I don't know what it is, but I'm happy. Benefactor, you are like me.* Ppuri swayed from side to side. It performed a dance of joy on Cheon Doun's palm.
“You’ll fall. Stop it.”
The leader's dance was more vigorous than that of the other Mandragoras.
The siblings watched the Mandragora dancing on Cheon Doun's palm with fascination.
“Is that the Mandragora you were talking about?”
“Yeah.”
“Then that string must be the one you made for it.”
“That’s right. I didn’t think it would still have it.”
Cheon Doun put Ppuri in his pocket.
-Huung!
After pushing the peeking Ppuri back in, he looked back at the Hunters.
The pressure crushing them. He still hadn't released that power.
The Hunters were trembling, sweat pouring from their bodies.
They struggled against the crushing aura from above, but no one could stand. Far from standing, some had collapsed and passed out on the ground.
When he released the pressure, the Hunters gasped for air and collapsed.
“What are you going to do with them?”
Yu Beom asked. At his question, the Hunters glanced nervously at Cheon Doun.
*We opposed him, but we never directly harmed him. Maybe he'll just let us go.*
They clung to a small sliver of hope and awaited their fate.
When the power difference was this great, one couldn't even think of trying anything.
“I don’t really have any ill will toward them.”
Relief washed over the Hunters' faces.
“But I don’t have any good feelings either. Let me ask you one thing. You all, what did you think when you saw this kid?”
The unexpected question left the Hunters looking bewildered.
“Just from his age, you must have known he’d just awakened. An F-rank kid came through the Gate. He didn't even have a nosebleed; he was perfectly fine. Though he seemed half out of his mind. So? What did you think when you saw him?”
There were over a hundred people, but no one answered. Cheon Doun looked at them with a blank expression.
“*What should I do with the reward money after this is over?* That's what you were thinking. Weren't you?”
Again, no one could answer.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you. Being a bystander isn't a crime punishable by death.”
Undisguised sighs of relief could be heard here and there.
“I’ll just return the favor.”
The softly spoken words sent a chill down the Hunters' spines.
*I don't know for sure, but we're not getting out of this unscathed.* That was the thought that crossed their minds.
***
At a flick of Cheon Doun's finger, the Hunters' eyes rolled back, and they fainted.
Seeing this, the siblings turned their gazes to the boy standing there in a daze.
*For Cheon Doun to go this far, it can't be a kid he doesn't know.*
“Do you know him?”
“He guided me around the slums a few times. When you think about it, he’s also the one who introduced me to Manager Kim.”
At Cheon Doun's words, the siblings' expressions softened.
They generally didn't like people.
But hearing that O Bongsu was from the slums, their gazes softened a little.
Pity and a sense of kinship. The emotion that flickered past was definitely of that kind.
‘Come to think of it, they're from the slums too.’
Cheon Doun looked at the siblings.
The days they were abducted to the research institute were different, but they were taken from similar places.
Cheon Doun was from District 13 of the slums, known as the worst. The siblings were from District 11, a few blocks away.
The districts were different, but they were both from the same slums.
“What are the slums like these days? It’s been decades, so I wonder if it’s changed enough to seem like a place people actually live?”
“It’s changed, more or less. But it feels like the fundamental parts are still the same.”
The guide boy, O Bongsu. He said never to go into the inner areas of the slums.
He said even the locals avoided it.
Considering that, it seemed only the district where the D-rank Hunters lived had changed, while the substantive parts remained largely the same.
“Looks like it’s still the same. It’s strange. When I was a kid, I wanted to escape that place so badly. But now, since it’s my hometown, I kind of want to visit it at least once.”
Yu Jia nodded at her brother's words.
She had been so young when she was abducted that she had almost no memories of the outside world.
Nevertheless, there were faint images she could recall.
Dilapidated buildings, cracked asphalt roads, and Yu Beom carrying her on his back through the snow when she whined that her feet were cold.
She wanted to walk down that narrow alley again.
“You’ll be able to go soon.”
All they needed was for Manager Kim to solve the issue with the explosive spells carved into the siblings' bodies.
“Go get Manager Kim. We need to sort out the fruit-bearing Mandragoras. And we need Manager Kim to return this kid to normal.”
“I’ll go.”
With those words, Yu Jia flew up into the air.
***
In his dream, Manager Kim was surrounded by small teddy bears. Teddy bears with a single leaf on their heads.
-Huung!
A teddy bear shouted.
-Huung, huung!
The other teddy bears shouted back in response.
They were barely the size of his palm. They surrounded Manager Kim and circled him as if they were playing 'Ring Around the Rosie'.
[Ah, no! Stop!]
Manager Kim was in despair. There was nowhere to run. These small but cruel things were sucking his energy.
Manager Kim squeezed out his mana with all his might.
In response, the teddy bears puffed out their bellies. Mana was sucked into their small bodies.
*Ughhh.* Hasn't this happened before? Manager Kim fell to his knees in despair.
At that moment, a cool breeze brushed past his face.
It turned into a gust of wind, slapping him repeatedly in the face.
[Blblblbl…!]
The wind blew into his mouth, making his cheeks flap wildly.
*This also feels like it's happened before. What is this?*
*Ah, right. This is a dream.* Finally realizing, Manager Kim opened his eyes.
Even after waking up, the wind slapping his face continued. He looked around to see what it was and screamed.
“Ah, ahhh! What is this!”
Manager Kim was flying. He was being carried with his arms held up as if cheering.
“You’re awake?”
A woman's voice. Looking up, he saw a woman in a bone helmet. Yu Jia was flying through the sky, holding both of Manager Kim's arms.
The only relief was that she wasn't flying at high speed like before.
“He told me to get you.”
“Pardon?”
“You wouldn’t wake up. So I started moving you first.”
*Moving? To where?*
While he was still bewildered, a snowy mountain came into view in the distance. After landing on the mountainside, Manager Kim's jaw dropped at the sight before him.
“Wh-what in the world…!”
The ground was covered in plant roots. They were gathered together in a cluster on the ground.
-Huung.
-Huung, huung.
‘M-Mandragoras…! Are all these wild Mandragoras?!’
There looked to be at least a hundred of them.
Manager Kim clutched his chest. When would he ever see a sight like this again?
He was happy. At the same time, he was terrified.
He imagined the hundred or so Mandragoras circling him.
*Was my dream just now a premonition of this?*
-Huung!
*They'll make that cruel sound and suck out my mana.*
*And then they'll give me the humiliation of spitting it out right in front of me.* Manager Kim clenched his fists.
‘This time, I won't lose.’
A 100-to-1 duel. The odds were against him. But he couldn't back down.
There are times when a man must fight, even knowing he will lose.
Facing a great battle, Manager Kim's face became filled with determination.
“You’re here?”
A relaxed voice that cooled his determination was heard.
He turned his head and saw Cheon Doun sitting on a rock. A Mandragora was lying prone on his lap.
“Feel good?”
Cheon Doun asked as he scratched Ppuri's back.
-Huung.
“A little lower?”
-Huung!
“Right, so this was the itchy spot.”
Scratch, scratch. As he scratched its back with a single finger, the Mandragora stretched out languidly.
‘What… What is that…’
*What am I seeing right now? That cruel Mandragora is acting tame around a person.*
Manager Kim, who had just steeled himself for a 100-to-1 bloody battle, stared blankly at the scene before him.