Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: The Princess Takes Action
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“Waaah, uwaaaaaah!!!”
Not long after Han Do-hee and Yoo Chae-rin left, a loud cry echoed from beyond the reception room door.
“Wh-what was that?!”
“What’s going on?!”
Naturally, the two Awakened, with their heightened senses, couldn't have missed the sound.
When they rushed back into the reception room, their eyes fell upon the security staff, who were pacing anxiously, unsure of what to do. And there was Eve, wailing as if it were the saddest day in the world.
“E-Eve?! Why are you crying?!”
“Eve!? C-calm down!! What happened, Ms. Oh?!”
“I’m not sure myself...?!”
She was sobbing her heart out, clutching a little doggo, and neither Han Do-hee nor Yoo Chae-rin’s attempts to console her had any effect.
“Mecha-Doggo! Uh... t-try playing Teenieping or something!!”
At Han Do-hee’s words, Mecha-Doggo did play Teenieping from YouTube, but it was no use. As the crying spread through the wide-open door, the sound reached Suri and Minium, who were waiting on the first-floor lobby.
Crash!!
Minium burst through the reception room door, scooped Eve into its arms, and began patting her back. Only then did her sobs begin to subside.
“M-Minium! Suri...! I missed you!”
Minium was now the size of a grown man. Suri, perched on Minium’s shoulder, dropped the candy it was holding onto Eve’s stomach, and Eve’s heart slowly began to calm.
Ever since becoming an adult, she had always been alone, soothing her loneliness with the internet. The solitude, which she had somehow endured with an adult male’s testosterone, had been somewhat alleviated by Minium, Suri, and Mecha-Doggo after her awakening.
But now, Mecha-Doggo was the only golem left with her, and she couldn't access the gallery. Han Do-hee, the only person she vaguely knew, had left her behind, and the whole day had been exhausting, getting swept up in a gate and having her plans ruined.
Suri and Minium had been away for a long time fighting monsters in the gate, and she had built up stress from being jostled by the massive crowd at Han River Park.
After all that, with no time to rest, being left alone in a strange new place... Eve’s sorrow had finally exploded, sending her into a full-blown panic.
Only after Minium and Suri rushed over, hugged her, and rocked her gently did her tears finally stop.
“E-Eve? Are you okay?”
“D-don’t leave me alone....”
“Ah, o-okay....”
Han Do-hee nudged the dumbfounded Yoo Chae-rin with her elbow and scowled. Leaving a ten-year-old kid in an unfamiliar place was a difficult situation even for an adult, especially one who was shy around strangers.
From their perspective, they had just left a ten-year-old orphan who lived alone with a complete stranger as her supposed guardian. As Yoo Chae-rin had said, Eve was a civilian Awakened with great potential.
An Awakened’s skills could be a bomb or a shield depending on their emotions. They had just triggered the abandonment trauma of a child who grew up without parents.
“E-Eve! Will you be okay if you’re with your golem friends!?”
“M-me too!? I’ll stay with you too, okay?!”
Han Do-hee and Yoo Chae-rin, sweating profusely, did their best to soothe Eve’s hurt feelings.
They had Eve’s original security detail bring a mountain of snacks that a child would like and spread them on the table. Han Do-hee sat Eve on her lap and diligently unwrapped snacks to feed her.
But despite their earnest efforts, Eve adamantly refused to eat. It wasn't because she held a grudge.
‘I’m so embarrassed I could die...!’
To have burst into tears and wailed like the world was ending just because there was no one she knew around... for the self-proclaimed tough guy Eve, it was so embarrassing her face felt like it was on fire.
“E-Eve...? Are you okay...?”
Eve just covered her face with both hands and shook her head in response to Han Do-hee’s question. To an onlooker, it simply looked like Eve was deeply upset.
Completely drained, Han Do-hee and Yoo Chae-rin quietly slipped out of the now-calm reception room and started blaming each other.
“Are you crazy, sis? Leaving a kid with no parents alone with a stranger?!”
“And what about you? You just followed me when I called!?”
“I listened because it was you! Ugh, I swear, you’ll be the death of me!”
Objectively, the greater responsibility lay with Yoo Chae-rin, so she was left speechless. Pinching the bridge of her throbbing nose, she wracked her brain, trying to figure out how to soothe Eve’s feelings.
“What does Eve like...?”
“Umm... Hachuping?”
“That didn’t work.”
“Damn it. What then? I don’t really know either.”
As they put their heads together for a moment, something occurred to Han Do-hee.
“Magic stones?”
“Magic stones? Why those?”
“Apparently, she uses them to make golems. You saw Suri, right? It was made with rare metal and a magic stone. A hidden piece, she said.”
“A hidden piece...! At that age, already....”
Yoo Chae-rin was stunned when she heard the exact specifications of Suri from Han Do-hee. To think that a golem equivalent to a B-rank combatant could be created with about 7kg of rare metal and a single low-to-mid-grade magic stone.
In terms of cost, it meant B-rank combat Hunters could be mass-produced for roughly 15 million won each. It was a level of cost-effectiveness that was worlds apart from recruiting and training a proper Hunter.
Moreover, the potential for growth was limitless. If the guild admission process for children under 13 wasn't so impossibly complicated, Eve would have been their top recruitment target.
There was a high chance she would become an active Hunter as she grew older, and they couldn't afford to leave such a bad impression.
“We have to win her over, somehow....”
“You have plenty of magic stones, right? Why not give her a few? Rare metals would be good too.”
“Do you really think that’ll work?”
“If not that, then, well...”
Han Do-hee briefly thought about the posts Eve had written on the gallery. How she would curse those who liked male hunters, calling them creeps, while being a huge fan of female hunters. The more she thought about it, the wider the gap between Eve's online persona and her real self seemed to become.
“Magic stones are probably the better option...”
She couldn't come up with any better ideas either.
“Eve, will this be sufficient?”
“Wow... Yes!”
At that moment, Eve and her golems were being escorted to a private room equipped with a top-of-the-line computer. But what Eve really needed wasn't the computer itself, but a strong Wi-Fi signal and a phone for browsing the gallery.
“This is the latest model. It was designed for active Hunters, featuring an anti-magic field, high-spec magic detection, a rare metal outer case, and a magic-reinforced film....”
None of that really mattered to her. As long as it could browse the gallery without lagging, it was perfect.
“Wow, I see.”
“The desktop provided will be delivered to your home later.”
“Really?! Is this phone mine too!?”
“That is correct.”
“Heehee.”
Mecha-Doggo was happily bouncing on the luxurious bed. Suri was exploring every corner of the assigned room, and Minium, who had been communing with a horse on the floor, was in a separate, spacious living room.
The security guard left a call button by the entrance before leaving, but it was better that she was gone.
No strangers, just her golems. Her stomach was full from all the snacks. It wasn't too late yet, so this was more than okay.
“Wow, it’s so fast.”
Unlike her previous phone, which had been a bit laggy, this new one was incredibly light, had a great design, and was perfect in every way. It was nice that Mecha-Doggo was making money from stocks, but not being able to use a phone herself had been a huge inconvenience.
“Mecha-Doggo, I need to transfer the data. Can you take out the SIM card?”
Beep?
“It’s... a really tiny thing. Looks like this?”
The internet search function was so convenient. A quick Google search for “SIM card” brought up a stream of images. She showed one to Mecha-Doggo, and after a moment, it nodded.
Ploonk.
“Eww....”
It emerged from a rather unsanitary location, but what did it matter? The SIM card was really out.
Unfortunately, this meant Mecha-Doggo lost its ability to make calls. It also wouldn't have data, so searching for things outside would be difficult, right? Still, it was much more convenient for her to have the phone.
“The stocks... hmm....”
She figured she could probably solve that by occasionally inserting the SIM card back into Mecha-Doggo’s... rear.
“Woohoo! It’s working!”
Next, she placed the new phone on Mecha-Doggo’s back and tied it down with a strap. She was using the Smart Switch function to transfer the old data and make the phone completely hers.
She tied it down so Mecha-Doggo wouldn't get bored standing still and could move around freely during the transfer.
And while the data was transferring, I should....
“Minium! Come here!”
Clank!
Minium was in the spacious living room, communing with the horse lying on the floor. It was a shame, but that horse golem and a part of Minium were what had been used to transform Han Do-hee’s car.
She felt bad for Minium, but she thought it was best to return it for now.
“Okay? I’ll make you something even better later.”
Though a little disappointed, Minium nodded. Her golem was so kind.
“Though I’ll have to succeed first....”
She felt a little sorry for the horse golem she’d just met, too. Having to turn back into a car so soon after being born. Still, it was someone else’s car, and she couldn't just use it as she pleased. This time was an exception since she had used it to save Han Do-hee.
“Suri, are you going to watch too?”
As if it knew she was about to try something new, Suri came out to the living room and sat on the desk. She had heard that restoring a created golem to its original state was influenced by the `Issue Command` skill....
“It’s still F-rank. Oh well, can’t be helped!”
She sat down in front of the horse golem’s head and stroked it. It definitely had the feel of a car, with eyes that flashed like headlights.
“Horse... return to your original form...!!”
Whicker.
“It’s not going to be that easy, is it....”
As expected, succeeding on the first try was too much to ask. Suri, watching from the side, seemed to be trying to tell her something, flapping its wings.
“Huh? What is it?”
Kiii!
“How? Like this?”
Nod, nod.
“My neck? What about my neck? Should I hit it?”
Shake, shake.
After spending a few days together, she was starting to understand what Suri was trying to say. She wasn't sure exactly how she understood it; it just felt like the message was being transmitted directly into her head. Its body language helped a little, too.
“Okay! I get it!”
“A-ahem! Hear the words of the princess! Horse golem, return to your original form!”
Actually saying it out loud was incredibly embarrassing.
“Ugh...”
Just as she was thinking that Suri might have just been teasing her—
“Huh?! For real!?”
Vvvvmm...
“W-woah...!”
A part of Minium’s body and the entire horse golem glowed with a bright blue light, and moments later, they reverted to their original forms.
But....
“Is it... okay for a car to be in here...?”
On the top floor of The Shilla Hotel. A car had just materialized in the middle of the luxury hotel’s living room.