“What?”
“Huff, so freaking hard. Huff, huff……!”
“Fuck, won’t you let go?”
“Just let me, huff, catch my breath…….”
Perhaps because he hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat while dealing with monsters, the man’s clothes were fluffy and clean. Sniff sniff…, there was even a pleasant fragrance strong enough to mask the disgusting smell emanating from the monster corpses.
He wanted to lean on him a little longer, but the man slowly pushed Pyeonghwa’s head away. Pyeonghwa swayed greatly, regained his balance, and caught his breath.
“Phew… I want to go with you, hyung.”
“Says who.”
“Says me…… Please. I’m scared to be alone.”
“Ha, you want me to fight with a tumor attached to me?”
“Ah… can’t you do it? Are you weaker than I thought…?”
“Fuck, what?”
“No, the news made a huge fuss about a Gate thief closing a B-rank Gate. So I thought a D-rank would be fine.”
The man pressed his throbbing forehead. What kind of brat is this? Was he raised sheltered without knowing how the world works, or was he missing a screw or two……
Just when he thought about beating him to his senses, his motivation dropped because he was too small. He felt even more uncomfortable because of the powdered milk smell that wafted from him when he clung to him earlier.
‘Does he know who I am right now?’
There’s a reason they say people are more dangerous than monsters in dungeons. The man was suspicious of the boy who wagged his tail calling “hyung, hyung” toward a suspicious masked man and even talked back straightforwardly.
When he narrowed his eyes and looked down, Pyeonghwa opened his mouth with an innocent face.
“Hyung, your eyes are really pretty. If you take off the mask, you’d be a total pretty boy.”
At Pyeonghwa’s words, the man flinched and averted his gaze. Thinking his attitude was from embarrassment, Pyeonghwa grinned and continued.
“Your voice is also the coolest of anyone I’ve heard. Originally, you know that Do Jeon-gwang’s grandson? I listened to the radio he was on and thought it was fucking awesome, but now you’re the best, hyung.”
“…….”
“Uh, um, and… you’re tall, have a good body, and your personality is……?”
“Follow me.”
“Yessss.”
When the man grudgingly gave permission through gritted teeth, Pyeonghwa quickly stuck to his side. He seemed like he wouldn’t bleed even if stabbed, but apparently he liked this kind of flattery. If he had the skill to lightly dice up monsters, he’d have more than enough ability to protect him.
Pyeonghwa decided to work even harder as the man’s underling until he got out alive.
“I’m lucky to have met someone like you, hyung.”
“What do you mean someone like me.”
“Hehe, you know~.”
“…….”
Murderous intent rippled in the black eyes that glanced down at Pyeonghwa’s slender neck.
If he knew his identity, he’d have to take action. Since it wasn’t certain yet, he planned to keep him around and if it became certain, deal with him the dungeon way.
Completely unaware of the man’s thoughts, Pyeonghwa giggled and followed closely behind him.
Kiiiik!
“Fall back.”
“Yes sir.”
Every time they moved forward, monsters popped out from the front.
The monsters were in the form of silver wolves with red eyes and voluminous manes. The cry flowing through their sharp teeth was as chilling as the sound of fingernails scratching a chalkboard.
It was a monster with the long name ‘Lion’s Mane Silver Wolf’, but Pyeonghwa couldn’t know that much.
Meeting eyes with the monster, Pyeonghwa felt his entire body stiffen hard as stone. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds…… In exactly 3 seconds, the status ailment was released.
Pyeonghwa resolved to avoid making direct eye contact with the monsters as much as possible and fixed his gaze on the man’s back.
‘Wow, what the…… He’s like a game character.’
The monster’s status ailment skill didn’t seem to work on the man. In the blink of an eye, the man moved in front of the monster and lightly swung his dagger with one hand.
He just raised his arm and swooped it down, but the monster was sliced into pieces and scattered on the ground. Observing it several times, it felt like the angle was subtly changing.
He must have moved at a tremendous speed invisible to the eye. Unconsciously, Pyeonghwa’s pupils rolled swish swish swish rapidly as if he were playing a game.
‘Threaten, provoke, attack. The movement pattern is simple. Intelligence doesn’t seem high.’
The monsters discovered their enemy and threateningly fluffed up their manes, made unpleasant cries to provoke their opponent. Then came the attack. They rushed over quickly, opened their sharp teeth wide, and leaped up.
Splat, splat! It was disgusting how the squishy corpses fell in all directions, but monster bodily fluids were already splattered here and there on his body.
Pyeonghwa poked the wriggling monster corpse pieces with the dagger he was gripping tightly. He thought they’d be soft since the man cut them so easily, but not just the skin but the insides were quite firm too.
He opened the sheath and tried slicing with the sharp blade swish swish. If he used all his strength down to the last drop, he could tear through the thick outer hide.
“I told you to stay still.”
The man grabbed the nape of Pyeonghwa, who was crouching and playing with the monster corpse, and pulled him up.
“You cut it so easily, hyung, so I tried it too.”
“Don’t touch them. Lion’s Mane Silver Wolves don’t die even when their bodies are cut.”
“Lion’s, what? Wow, the name is fucking long. So that’s why they’re wriggling even though they’re not dead. Then when do they die?”
“After an hour.”
“Are they moving to find their own bodies?”
“Probably.”
Pyeonghwa looked down at the monster corpse pieces with a curious face and then kicked it away with his foot.
The piece rolled along and bumped into another piece. The surfaces that touched twitched as if trying to stick together.
Soon realizing it wasn’t its own body, they started wriggling in different directions.
“I thought the attack pattern was simple. Instead, they have the characteristic of not dying easily, so unless you slice them up like you did, hyung, they’d be tricky to deal with. But you know what, hyung.”
“Ha… what now.”
“Did you know their Adam’s apples are dented inward? It’s hidden by the mane so you can’t see it, but looking at the cut cross-section, it’s pressed in. Normally the Adam’s apple area gets pressed when wearing a collar, right?”
Pyeonghwa had good eyes. It wasn’t just that his vision was good, but his observation skills were excellent. Even if something just brushed past his sight, information about it piled up systematically.
The man let out a sigh, thinking Pyeonghwa was spouting nonsense. He didn’t like children to begin with, but this was the first time he’d encountered one this annoying.
A few years later, when the D-rank monster ‘Lion’s Mane Silver Wolf’ was discovered in an A-rank Gate, it would be revealed that they were beings tamed by A-rank monsters for guarding purposes. But for now, it was a story no one could know.
“Noh Pyeonghwa, please just shut your mouth. Huh?”
“Sorry. I guess I got excited since it’s been a while since I talked to anyone.”
“You don’t have friends?”
“Nope. What about you, hyung?”
“…….”
“Ah, you don’t either.”
Pyeonghwa felt a sense of kinship with the man. Even in Pyeonghwa’s 17 years of life, he’d only had friends for a few years.
Until elementary school, he had to transfer schools once every two or three months, so he didn’t have time to make friends. When he settled in one place during middle school, he made friends, but he was very clumsy at socializing, so his relationships were narrow.
If he was like this, there’s no way a criminal like that would have friends. Pyeonghwa nodded as if understanding.
“It’s okay, hyung. It is a bit lonely. But living life, I found that friends aren’t that important. So when I get out alive, I want to make a lover. Have you ever dated anyone, hyung?”
“Stop.”
“Ah, a no-girlfriend-since-birth.”
The man’s body twitched, falling for Pyeonghwa’s speech pattern that invited a punch. He wanted to refute it, but since he actually had never dated anyone, he had nothing to say.
The man didn’t just dislike children. He disliked everyone regardless of age, gender, race, awakened or non-awakened. Because in all his life, he’d never seen anyone who approached him without an agenda. Whether it was positive or negative.
The only beings he liked were dogs. Dogs’ purposes were simple. I like you, play with me, love me, pet me. He had a fur allergy so he couldn’t raise them, but he’d take allergy medicine and satisfy his personal desire by volunteering at abandoned dog shelters.
A lover? Such a thing couldn’t exist in the man’s unfortunate life. He was taking out his anger by slicing monsters into even more pieces when the chattering voice continued from behind.
“Hyung, I think being a no-girlfriend-since-birth is better than being a player. Actually, my dad is a player. He has at least five lovers at once, and when it was the most, it was thirteen?”
“……Thirteen?”
“Yeah. So I don’t even know who my real mom is. My dad’s lovers took turns raising me.”
“…….”
“The thing I hate most is when people say I’ll grow up and seduce multiple people like my dad. I look exactly like my dad, you see.”
The man unconsciously scanned Pyeonghwa’s face. Delicate features were crammed into his small head. Right now the cute feeling was stronger, but once his baby fat disappeared and he grew, he’d probably have a quite handsome face.
Hearing that his father was promiscuous, the slightly smirking face did seem to strangely provoke one’s nerves. Just looking at his face made him want to punch him—he was that annoying.
