Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Examination?
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Examination?
After laughing like that for a while, the awkward air had completely vanished.
Kim Suho scratched his head and spoke.
“Anyway, since we've run into each other like this. I'll take you to the research institute. Can't just let you go by yourself.”
“It's fine, really.”
“Fine my foot. You planning to dig up the ground again on the way and cause another accident?”
He lightly pointed at my forehead as he added,
“And this is payback for that chestnut on my head earlier. Gotta save face as an S-rank hunter who can't even poke a kid's forehead.”
His words drew a snicker from me.
I didn't refuse his offer.
Getting an escort from an S-rank hunter didn't sound like a bad experience.
“Then I'll trouble you.”
“Alright. Hold on tight.”
Kim Suho lightly wrapped his arm around my waist.
I reflexively grabbed the hem of his clothes tight.
The next moment, the ground beneath my feet shot away in an instant.
The sensation of my body floating into the air.
Only then did I realize my mistake.
“Wait, wait, wait!”
“What, what's wrong?”
“Put me down! I'm scared of heights!”
“What? Oh no....”
I practically wailed it out.
Kim Suho seemed greatly flustered by my unexpected reaction.
“Got it, got it! I'll land right now!”
He hurriedly lowered the altitude.
The moment my feet touched the ground, my legs gave out, and I plopped down right there.
My whole body was trembling.
“Huuuuh....”
“You okay? Your face is ghost-white.”
Kim Suho crouched down in front of me with a worried look.
I panted raggedly for a good while.
That was when Kim Suho cautiously suggested,
“Wanna close your eyes for a bit?”
“Huh?”
“I'll control the wind super carefully so you won't feel any movement at all. Just close your eyes and open them, and we'll be there.”
Kim Suho's voice sounded reliable.
I hesitated for a moment, but I didn't have the courage to fly through the sky again in this state.
I nodded and squeezed my eyes shut.
Kim Suho moved his mana once more.
This time, there was no sensation of floating like before.
No wind noise, no shaking.
It felt just like standing still in a quiet room—no sensations at all.
How much time passed?
“You can open your eyes now.”
A voice tinged with slight fatigue.
When I opened my eyes, I was in a completely different place.
A huge H was painted on the ground beneath my feet.
The city's skyscrapers stretched to the horizon.
The research institute rooftop. A heliport.
***
We took the exclusive elevator on the rooftop down.
The research institute was quiet. It felt just like a general hospital.
When Kim Suho approached the reception desk, the staff member who recognized him jumped up in surprise.
Even here, a visit from an S-rank hunter wasn't commonplace, it seemed.
After a simple ID check, we sat on the visitor sofa and waited for Eun Mirae.
Not long after, the click of heels came from inside.
Soon, a woman appeared.
A cold, composed expression.
A dress that accentuated her curves, with a lab coat casually thrown over it.
Dark blue hair neatly tied up without a strand out of place.
She was A-rank Ice Mage, Eun Mirae.
Eun Mirae spotted us and halted.
A faint flicker of puzzlement crossed her expressionless face.
“Kim Suho? What brings you here?”
“Had some business nearby, so I dropped by while at it.”
“That's unusual.”
Eun Mirae gave a small nod, then naturally shifted her gaze to me.
At that moment, Eun Mirae's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.
“....”
Eun Mirae looked back and forth between me and Kim Suho several times.
Eyes deep in thought.
After a moment, she opened her mouth as if she'd reached a conclusion.
“Kim Suho.”
“Yeah?”
“Did you already have a kid this big?”
Eun Mirae's voice was still flat, but the content was anything but.
“You're not married. When did you even have her?”
“Pfft...!”
I barely held back the laughter bubbling up.
Kim Suho seemed not to grasp the implication of the question at first, staring blankly before his face twisted in absurdity.
“What nonsense is that? No way she's mine!”
Fervent denial.
Suddenly, mischief bubbled up in me.
I carefully grabbed the end of his sleeve.
Looking up at him with the purest, most pitiful voice I could muster, I said,
“Daddy...?”
Kim Suho turned to look down at me with a creaking, malfunctioning motion.
His pupils were shaking wildly.
“What the—? No, I mean, this kid is...”
Kim Suho desperately tried to explain, but his fluster mangled his sentences.
I finally couldn't hold it and burst out laughing, clutching my stomach.
“Pfft, puhahaha!”
“...Good grief, unbelievable.... Anyway, this is that newbie you were supposed to meet today.”
Kim Suho lowered his head.
Through it all, Eun Mirae remained utterly unshaken.
As if Kim Suho's panic meant nothing to her, she took another step toward me.
She bent at the waist to meet my eye level and began peering at me piercingly.
“....”
Eun Mirae's cold eyes scanned every inch of my face like a microscope.
An oppressive gaze.
I stopped laughing and stepped back.
“Wh-what...?”
Eun Mirae's lips moved ever so slightly.
“Cute.”
A voice close to a whisper.
So soft it nearly vanished into the air.
I didn't catch it clearly and asked again.
“Huh? What'd you say?”
Eun Mirae immediately straightened up, her face back to blank as if nothing had happened.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
Eun Mirae cleared her throat briefly, then plucked a single strand of hair from both me and Kim Suho in the blink of an eye.
Such natural, swift movements.
“Ow! What was that!”
“Hey! What the—?”
We both yelped at the same time.
Eun Mirae paid no mind to our reactions.
She carefully placed the two strands into a transparent sample bag.
Eun Mirae stated matter-of-factly,
“For a paternity test.”
“She's not mine!”
Kim Suho's cry filled the lobby.
But Eun Mirae didn't bat an eye.
As she pocketed the sample bag in her lab coat,
“Who knows. Better to secure the data for sure.”
There wasn't a hint of joking in her tone.
Kim Suho could only gape wordlessly.
Eun Mirae stood as if all business was done.
She jerked her chin at Kim Suho.
“You can head back now. Thanks for bringing her this far.”
“Uh, yeah.... Take care....”
“And you.”
Eun Mirae's gaze turned to me.
“Come with me. We'll start with basic physical data measurements....”
“Huh? I came to see the relic, why a physical exam?”
So much had happened I'd momentarily forgotten myself, but my original purpose here was the dwarven relic.
To check if my ring's effect could restore it.
“And I've already had a full check-up before, back when I came to Seoul. With Kim Suho.”
At my words, Eun Mirae paused and turned to look at me.
Her eyes began scanning me from top to bottom.
After a moment, she spoke.
“We need a precise examination. You're much smaller and younger than I expected.”
Her voice was firm.
“And my exams are a hundred times more accurate. There's a world of difference between some amateurs fiddling with machines and me, the top genius in Korea, doing a hands-on precise analysis.”
Eun Mirae's words brimmed with absolute confidence in her abilities.
I was overwhelmed by that confidence.
'Yeah. If a smart person says so, it must be....'
Come to think of it, there was no reason to refuse if the top genius was offering to check me personally.
My body had changed a lot since then anyway.
I finally nodded and followed behind her.
***
The room she led me into was entirely white.
The walls were packed with complex machines of unknown purpose.
In the center of the room sat a lone bed.
Eun Mirae instructed me to lie on the bed.
“Let's check the basics first.”
Eun Mirae's hands moved without hesitation.
Cold metal patches were stuck to my arms and legs.
But when her cold hand slipped under my clothes and reached my stomach, I flinched back in alarm.
“No, you're sticking them here too?”
“Huh? Of course.”
Eun Mirae tilted her head as if my reaction made no sense.
Her expression said, obviously you'd put a stethoscope on the chest to hear the heart, right?
To her, this seemed like a perfectly routine medical procedure.
I finally gave up resisting.
The examination continued.
Unfamiliar graphs danced on the monitor.
Eun Mirae glanced over the data, then took my hand.
“Mana conductivity test.”
Eun Mirae's gaze lingered briefly on my fingertips.
Her pupils quivered ever so slightly as she noted my pinky.
“....”
But she said nothing.
Probably thinking it might be a sensitive issue for me, so she deliberately skipped mentioning it.
Eun Mirae's slender fingers gently stroked the back and palm of my hand.
I heard her mutter under her breath.
“So incredibly soft....”
Eun Mirae's eyes stayed fixed on the monitor, but her thumb unconsciously rubbed the back of my hand.
'Something's off....'
Right then, her other hand reached out and poked my cheek.
My cheek dented under her finger, then sprang back.
“...This is an exam, right? Feels like you're not doing anything.”
At my point, Eun Mirae pulled her hand away.
I eyed her suspiciously.
But her expression was so utterly serious, it looked like she was doing something vitally important.
One thing was certain: as an ice mage, her hands were freezing cold.
Without thinking, I voiced it.
“Your hands are super cold.”
At that instant, Eun Mirae's movements froze in startled surprise.
The first sign of fluster.
I was surprised she was flustered at all.
“Ah.... Sorry. It's because I'm ice-element....”
“It's fine.”
Her voice trembled faintly for the first time.
I nodded that it was okay.
Eun Mirae collected herself with a throat-clear, then spoke in a far more businesslike tone.
“Alright, now let's start the real exam. First, while doing an endoscopy, turning your body to sand....”
I nearly bolted upright from the bed.
“No, then what was all that until now?”
My shout made Eun Mirae's pupils shake violently.
Her gaze wandered blankly, losing focus.
“Th-that...? It was... um, preliminary measurements...?”
I couldn't take it anymore.
A sense of crisis hit me that I might actually get dissected at this rate.
“Stop! Just stop! Show me that thing already! That's why I came!”
At my firm shout, Eun Mirae smacked her lips regretfully.
“Mmm.... I haven't even started researching what I wanted to....”
Her voice dripped with lingering reluctance.
But she seemed to judge she couldn't push it further.
“Fine. It's not just today.”
Eun Mirae finally began leading me to the room with the relic.