Chapter 106
Chapter 106
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Familiars in Distress
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“The kids are acting weird? How exactly?”
Seong Yona hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Yeah.”
Emergency.
This was an emergency.
I quickly spread the news to the other familiar owners.
“The kids aren’t eating their snacks.”
“Please tell them we’ll be right there.”
“Should we look into a hospital for familiars?”
Kang Han and Im Cheong-su had the exact same reaction.
We immediately stopped eating and got up from our seats.
“Everyone else, come up tomorrow in the van. We’ll use the spatial transfer service to head back.”
The others nodded at my words.
“Not eating snacks? That doesn’t make sense.”
“It better not be anything serious.”
While Kang Han contacted the 24-hour spatial manipulation awakener guild he ran, Im Cheong-su and I hurriedly packed our things.
“Ugh……”
“Urgh……”
My first experience with spatial transfer was pure agony.
Far from the explanation of ‘folding space and slipping through the gaps,’ it felt like the entire world was warping around me.
If I had to describe it, it was like being thrown into a blender, spun at insane speeds until shredded, then poof—back to normal.
Anyway, I barely suppressed the physiological urge to dry heave and staggered into the guild building.
Of course, our first destination was the underground training ground.
“Yona, we’re back…… Ack!”
“Kyaaaooo!”
The moment we opened the training ground door, a white fluff ball letting out an enormous cry launched itself straight into my chest with a thud.
I instinctively hugged it as I fell backward.
“Wuooong, wuuueeeng.”
Rubbing its head frantically against my stomach while making those bizarre cries—it was none other than Baekho.
“There, there. Did Baekho behave?”
“Kuu, kuuwoong.”
Now it was even digging its claws into my waist, refusing to let go.
I firmly stroked Baekho’s head, pressing down gently.
Its face was completely buried in my chest, so I couldn’t see its expression, but the speech bubble floating above its head told me everything about its state.
“Sorry, sorry.”
Anyway, while apologizing, I glanced sideways—Kang Han and Im Cheong-su were in no better shape.
Maengi was……
……in this state, clutching Im Cheong-su’s hair and not letting go.
“Ow, that hurts! I get it, okay? Let go, you little punk!”
Baek Young had coiled itself around Kang Han’s neck like a scarf.
I’d thought its calm personality might make it different, but……
Seeing the usually composed one trembling its thin tail while crying just made it all the more heartbreaking.
I kept stroking Baekho’s back as it clung to me with all its might and asked Seong Yona,
“When did they get like this?”
“They started getting really anxious after we entered the gate. During the battle, they were so tense I couldn’t even touch them, and after the raid succeeded, they just kept…… I guess they were worried about their engravings.”
I gently bounced Baekho up and down, still clinging desperately.
The familiars freaking out like this meant we’d been in that much danger.
Especially since familiars are so sensitive to their engravings’ safety.
“You’ve had it rough, Seong Yona.”
Kang Han said calmly.
“I was just chilling at the guild. You all did the hard work……”
Her voice lacked energy as she replied.
But there was a scratch on Seong Yona’s arm.
The classic three-line claw mark you see on cat owners.
“That scratch on your arm—was that from Baekho?”
“Oh, yeah. During the raid, when unnie was in danger, it was so distressed that I tried to pet it…… I think Baekho was scared it might hurt unnie.”
It looked pretty painful—enough to get annoying, but……
Seong Yona answered while worrying about Baekho instead.
“Can I see your arm?”
I couldn’t move because Baekho was still holding on, so I reached out toward her.
“It’s nothing…… It’ll heal if I put some ointment on it.”
“Come on.”
Seong Yona reluctantly extended her injured arm toward me.
Once I used the skill, Seong Yona’s wound vanished without a trace.
It was the advantage of a healer skill—unlike regular treatment that could leave scars.
“Thanks. Good work, Yona.”
“No, unnie, you had it way harder.”
I smiled at the bashful Seong Yona, then flopped straight down onto the training ground floor.
Judging by the familiars’ states, it looked like we wouldn’t need the hospital after all.
Feeling the now-considerable weight of Baekho settled on my stomach, staring up at the familiar ceiling, all my fatigue seemed to melt away.
Now that it had relaxed a bit, Baekho’s purring helped release the last remnants of my tension.
“Home really is the best.”
Sama Young’s days were monotonous.
He rose when the morning sun hung loosely over the mansion surrounded by mountains, completing his first routine of the day: sparring.
“That’s enough for today.”
“Haa, haa. Good work, sir.”
His right-hand man, Woo Jun-kyeong, handed him a fresh towel despite his ragged breathing.
Sama Young took it as if it were natural, wiped away the faint sweat, and headed straight to the bathroom for a shower.
As he patted his wet hair dry while wearing a robe, he tossed a single word at Woo Jun-kyeong, who offered him coffee.
“Right foot.”
It was a point about Woo Jun-kyeong’s habit of pivoting first with his right foot in attacks.
“I’ll correct it. Thank you.”
Woo Jun-kyeong bowed, his ears turning slightly red.
It was because his master’s sincere attention genuinely pleased him.
But Sama Young ignored it, gazing far at the mountains and trees beyond the window.
“Not enough.”
Lately, he’d been keenly feeling the limits of A-rank.
He’d pushed his physical abilities to the extreme through training, but his A-rank skills were blocking further growth.
This left him parched.
A thirst born of greed that drinking couldn’t quench.
“I’ll head in now.”
A woman with dark red hair stepped into the space heavy with dead silence.
Bang Ri-ri, a member of Sama Young’s elite raid team that he personally commanded.
“Good morning, my lord.”
She pulled a tablet from her bosom and offered it to him.
To summarize everything that had happened outside the mansion that day.
As Sama Young emotionlessly scrolled through the report, Bang Ri-ri spoke in a sweet voice.
“Yesterday, Ri-ri led the 3rd unit and cleared the Daejeon guerrilla gate, my lord.”
No reply came, but she smiled even more deeply.
It meant her lord was listening.
“And……”
“Seems like something’s missing from the report, Bang Ri-ri.”
Sama Young tossed the tablet to the floor, his red eyes turning to her.
“The Gangwon gate?”
“Ah…… That one.”
Her body heating under her master’s gaze, Bang Ri-ri made a pouty face as she answered.
“Taesan failed. And of all things, the Justice Guild nearby went in second and cleared it, my lord.”
“So the Justice Guild took it.”
Sama Young blinked slowly as he spoke.
“Any casualties?”
“Association reports say none. Talk about good luck, huh? Oh, and it looks like Lee Yu-chan reawakened.”
“Reawakened?”
As Sama Young stood, the hem of his robe trailed long.
“Justice Guild again.”
It just so happened they were nearby and snagged the guerrilla gate assignment.
Lee Yu-chan’s reawakening, following Kang Han and Lee Yu-eul.
And the successful gate clear to top it off.
All of it disrupting Sama Young’s own plans.
“The Justice Guild sure has a lot of coincidences.”
It grated on him.
At first, they’d been like bugs scurrying away without dying.
Now, it felt like they were lurking in the shadows, aiming at him.
Sama Young stepped toward the wide-open window, thinking.
‘Should I kill Kang Han?’
But that wasn’t what his father, the chairman of the Sama Group, wanted.
The father who’d passed down his greed wanted Kang Han alive.
‘Kill the guild members?’
Not a bad idea.
But too easy.
Sama Young pondered.
What was the way to weaken the Justice Guild the most?
What weapon allowed cockroaches like them to keep surviving?
“Honor.”
Pride and honor—the pillars of the Justice Guild since its founding.
That was it.
Just clearing one guerrilla gate had public opinion buzzing.
“The revival of the Justice Guild.”
As Sama Young smiled like a red poppy,
Bang Wi-jin, Bang Ri-ri’s cousin, entered to report.
“My lord, Taesan Guild Master is waiting outside. What should we do?”
“How long?”
“About five hours.”
Taesan, who’d had an A-rank gate snatched right in front of the Justice Guild.
Something interesting was about to happen.
Sama Young reached for the clothes Woo Jun-kyeong held.
“Let him in.”