Damn Hunter Life Chapter 116
When my eye level matched Ja Hyeong-woo’s, my heart sank with a thump as if I was anxious.
It was uncomfortable having my entire field of vision filled with that bastard.
“Won’t you get lost? I’m fine. If my body wasn’t well right now, Squeaky would have come out already. Squeaky can handle everything on his own. Am I wrong?”
“…”
Ja Hyeong-woo’s lips moved for a while. An inexplicable, troubled expression as if his heart was being pulled circled his face.
But after his eyelids opened and closed several times, Ja Hyeong-woo’s face had returned to its original shameless color.
“If you didn’t want me to come, you shouldn’t have been sitting there like a lost child.”
“What… what?”
In the midst of my head aching from this fresh bullshit, Ja Hyeong-woo extended his hand to me. As if telling me to take it.
“Give me your hand. I’m going to flow water through to check your overall condition.”
“No!”
It was at that moment when I let my guard down while snapping at him.
Ja Hyeong-woo grabbed and lifted my left ankle, which was closest to him.
“What are you doing—!”
When I struggled, soon my other ankle was also caught and pinned to the floor.
Ja Hyeong-woo, who had easily subdued me, smoothly pulled off the shoe from my foot lifted in the air. The problem was that I had just washed my feet refreshingly after training and was only wearing slippers on bare feet!
Ja Hyeong-woo spread his palm and firmly grasped my white foot exposed under the lighting.
“Ah…!”
My toes curled from the hot body temperature. Ja Hyeong-woo’s gaze touched my five toes.
Shame comparable to having my underwear stripped off surged up. I bit my molars tightly and raised my right arm high.
But what my palm struck wasn’t Ja Hyeong-woo’s head.
Smack! A strong friction sound spread from my palm.
The sound was just loud, but it probably only tickled Ja Hyeong-woo. The proof was that this bastard’s cheek was fine while only my hand turned red and numb.
“Are you okay?”
A nonchalant sound popped out from that bastard.
Ja Hyeong-woo, with a calm face as if nothing had happened, grabbed my hand that was spaced out in the air. He put cool water energy into my slightly reddened hand.
“Why are you surprised when you’re the one who hit me. You didn’t have such vicious intentions?”
This detestable bastard…
I saw it clearly. He could have dodged but definitely deliberately offered his cheek.
This wasn’t me hitting him. Half of it was Ja Hyeong-woo choosing to get hit.
I should have realized he was crazy from when he started hurting his own body to get revenge on me.
“That’s why you should just give me your hand when I ask for it.”
When I came to my senses, I had already given both my left foot and right hand to Ja Hyeong-woo. After turning someone’s appearance upside down, Ja Hyeong-woo calmly went about his business.
I just imagined smacking that consistently expressionless face about six times.
“You little rat bastard…”
It seems this level of cursing doesn’t do any damage to Ja Hyeong-woo anymore.
‘Then I should do it worse. There are many ways to really hurt him. As long as I’m Gyeon Gang-hyeon—’
But.
No other words came to mind beyond that.
As my whole body stiffened, only the sensation transmitted to my foot became clear. The feeling of Ja Hyeong-woo’s skin and blue light touching simultaneously was truly bizarre. It was like soaking my foot in cool water, but the bottom touching it was like a heated stone.
The water energy that had been penetrating my body soon disappeared. Ja Hyeong-woo, who had silently achieved his goal, picked up the scattered slipper and put it on my foot himself.
Only then did I withdraw all my hands and feet with disgust.
* * *
I suddenly think.
The original Gyeon Gang-hyeon, even if he was a character who died quickly, shouldn’t he have been mentioned in detail? Why was he never properly described?
…When he’s so important to Ja Hyeong-woo.
Was he really just a simple catalyst? If there’s a reason he wasn’t ‘talked about’ in the original work.
Then what is Gyeon Gang-hyeon’s real role?
* * *
A day passed, and my heart calmed down enough that I could finally make a decision.
Right, let’s do it.
Even if situations where I use the familiar affinity ability don’t arise, I should at least experiment to see if I can use it reliably when I want to.
A little earlier morning than usual. As soon as I walked step by step down the corridor and threw open the earth attribute training room door, Jin Seol-woon was visible.
“Hey, can I use your familiar?”
As if he had expected my request, Jin Seol-woon immediately summoned his dragon. Then he obediently stepped back three paces.
“Do whatever you want to try. I’ll only intervene if a dangerous situation arises.”
Soon in front of me, a dragon with its body coiled in curves positioned itself with its neck that reached the ceiling folded once.
A friend with a much better first impression than the crazy ox or monster sheep. I had once received help from him on stage too.
There’s only one way to talk to someone else’s pet, right?
“Hand.”
I held out my hand under the dragon’s nose. When getting friendly with animals, you have to let them smell you first.
I could see Jin Seol-woon smiling slyly from behind. Why, what. I raised my eyebrows.
Right at that moment.
“Huh?”
The dragon fully rested its snout on my hand. Though it was a spirit, I felt some weight.
The dragon’s flowing whiskers passed by the side of my face. The dragon rubbed the side of its snout against my body. Just like what it does to Jin Seol-woon.
Behind us, the real owner was watching us with surprised eyes, arms unfolded.
Excluding special cases like Squeaky or Puppy, ordinary familiars have no self-awareness. They’re just the owner’s possessions, something like part of the owner.
‘Still, their tendencies seem to reflect their owner.’
So it’s being polite to me too.
But at that moment, the dragon snout that had been nuzzling my palm affectionately seemed to gradually move downward.
A branch of the horn came between my legs. Huh?
“The horn is caught. Just a moment…”
Before I could lift my leg to get out, my body was lifted first. The dragon carried me on its head and slowly raised its neck. Huh?
My feet left the ground. My butt that had slid down settled on the dragon’s long snout.
“This isn’t how you ride a dragon?”
Even the direction was backwards. I had my face buried in the dragon’s head.
It didn’t end there—
“Why are you taking me into your coil? Dragon?”
In a brief moment, the dragon coiled its body and trapped me inside.
It felt like being trapped inside a round ball of yarn. Wherever I looked, I could only see brown translucent body.
And beyond that, Jin Seol-woon’s flustered face.
“Hey, Jin Seol-woon. How do you control this? He pretends to be gentle but does whatever he wants?”
It was more serious than I thought. I tried patting and coaxing, but the dragon didn’t budge. Since it wouldn’t listen, I had no choice but to squeeze out myself.
“Ugh…”
After knocking off my shoes, I stood up on the dragon’s snout and pressed the center of the dragon’s forehead firmly with my foot. I planned to use that as a foothold to pry open the gap with my hands and escape.
“…!”
Suddenly the dragon fluttered.
The space that had been loosening squeezed me even tighter. I could hear Jin Seol-woon calling “Gang-hyeon-ssi!” for a moment, then it became faint. My body tilted sharply. I felt like I was being buried somewhere along with the dragon, then soon passed through something like a wall.
“I’m stuck in a wall! Or am I stuck in the floor? What’s happening to me right now?”
The dragon entered the dirt ground carrying me!
I was terrified by the feeling of being buried alive, the feeling of dirt filling even my ears. Even at this moment, I was being dragged deeper and deeper. I was in such a panic that I was just screaming—
“It’s okay, I got you.”
A quiet voice was heard right in front of the dirt-blocked area, close to my lips.
Jin Seol-woon’s hands penetrated through the dirt. One hand wrapped around my back, the other around my waist, then pulled hard. Dirt crumbled down like pulling out a potato.
And so I, safely rescued and placed on the floor… was in complete beggar’s state. Combined with the white clothes that had little white left, I truly looked like someone who had emerged from a grave.
My appearance must have been seriously bad for Jin Seol-woon to widen his eyes. Jin Seol-woon’s hands went down my hair, shoulders, chest, and waist, mercilessly brushing off dirt.
I didn’t stop him and grumbled bluntly.
“Well, I’m grateful, but I don’t think that’ll work.”
In the end, I had to stop the experiment and go home to bathe.
Jin Seol-woon followed me to my house. He waited outside the bathroom while I washed, then stood up from the sofa as soon as I came out.
“…”
Water droplets dripped from my wet hair. While I patted it dry with a towel, Jin Seol-woon just stared at me blankly for some reason.
Was the too-much sense of daily life from a colleague strange?
Anyway, I definitely shouldn’t steal and use other people’s familiars. Who knows what might happen. (Excluding Squeaky who has a will, I mean.)
“I was too presumptuous.”
“No. I should have stopped it. I’m sorry.”
“Earth attribute is already going haywire… What am I supposed to do when even a troublemaker like me is here.”
But how should I interpret what happened earlier? Was it telling me to go screw myself?
“Why did your dragon do that? Did you ask?”
I sat on the sofa and confronted Jin Seol-woon.
“Actually… there’s nothing to ask about. I know what that behavior means.”
You already know? Like problematic behavior of a pet you’re raising?
“At the Busan Gate before, and even earlier when I got hurt while going through trial and error, it did the same thing.”
“Ah.”
I know about the Busan Gate too. Come to think of it, Jin Seol-woon was buried in the ground then too and Woo Sae-geon had pulled him out.
It was an incident that occurred when Jin Seol-woon lost consciousness during battle.
“When it judges that the owner’s life is in critical condition, the dragon buries the owner underground. It’s like an instinct to protect from primary danger, something like that.”
“But why did it do that to me too…”
I was replying absentmindedly, then couldn’t finish my words and went blank.
Jin Seol-woon’s steady gaze was watching me. Jin Seol-woon also knew that I understood what it meant.
…To point out one thing, I wasn’t hurt anywhere right now. Since I hadn’t entered a stage in a while, I didn’t even need Squeaky’s heal.
“May I ask? What exactly is Gang-hyeon-ssi’s condition?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
