Chapter 26
Yeonwoo stretched out with a long yawn and looked around with unfocused eyes. After a moment of confusion at the unfamiliar ceiling, he relaxed and pressed his hands firmly against the mattress.
Whether it was because the bed was good or because he couldn’t hear any surrounding noise, compared to the short naps he’d taken in the C-sector break room where he’d barely fallen asleep after tossing and turning, his physical condition felt completely different. As he stretched his body in various directions, Yeonwoo muttered to himself, wondering if he had slept too deeply.
Last evening, upon learning he couldn’t return to C-sector, Yeonwoo considered folding space but gave up. If it wasn’t someone standing guard but a security system in operation, he couldn’t use his ability. After carefully checking and eating the delivered dinner, he practiced his abilities with Chahun, who led him to the training room as if it were the most natural thing.
“Cookie cutters?”
“Yes. It’s for exterior form training.”
Chahun put down the cookie cutter and clenched his fist. A ball of ice like cookie dough appeared next to the cutter. Is he going to stamp the ice with the cookie cutter now? While Yeonwoo watched with curiosity, Chahun, looking dissatisfied, dispersed the ice ball and created another cookie dough-like mass.
What’s going on?
Only after watching the training being repeated several times did Yeonwoo realize. So it’s training to create exactly the same shape as the cookie cutter.
Recalling Bae Jaeyoung’s ability to create fluffy ice balls out of thin air, Yeonwoo watched Chahun’s roughly emerging ice and rolled his eyes.
Well. He’ll figure it out himself.
Yeonwoo sat with his back to Chahun and placed pins on the floor. This was thanks to Chahun, who had provided him with tools similar to his original training equipment, telling him to practice with these.
Having slept well, his condition seemed good as his ability wasn’t flaring up. He wondered if he should suggest taking breaks during training. Every time his ability had flared up, Bae Jaeyoung’s ghost-like speed and fierce glare as she looked his way was so intimidating that he couldn’t even bring himself to apologize.
Chahun, who had been glaring at the cookie cutter intensely enough to freeze it, suddenly stood up and supported Yeonwoo. Yeonwoo, who had been nodding off with his head against Chahun’s arm, tilted precariously to one side.
He remembered saying he was fine. He also remembered being startled when Chahun laid him on the bed. And mumbling that he would sleep just a little bit when Chahun covered him with a blanket, saying, “Sleep. Just sleep.”
Just a little, yeah right.
With an embarrassed face, Yeonwoo got out of bed and spread his senses wide to find Chahun’s mana.
What’s this?
Frowning, Yeonwoo glared at the trash can placed in a corner of the break room. Chahun was practicing in the training room, so there shouldn’t be any mana reaction in the break room.
“Are there mice in the center?”
The apple with a note saying [Eat me] had traces of something having nibbled at it. All that talk about cutting-edge security systems, and they can’t block mice? Looking at the trash can with a disgusted expression, Yeonwoo pulled out the dagger from his belt.
Whoosh!!
Not a mouse? Seeing a snake standing alert with its body rigid, Yeonwoo gripped his dagger tighter. As he carefully took a step forward, his eyes met the snake’s golden pupils.
“Hh…”
Covering his mouth, Yeonwoo collapsed starting from his knees. He couldn’t breathe. He writhed without even being able to scream from the pain that felt like his entire body was melting, and curled up.
Indistinct memories flashed before his eyes. Without time to ruminate on these memories, a ringing sound filled his ears. What brought Yeonwoo back to reality, as he clutched his aching head, was a dull thudding sound: thunk, thunk.
Wiping away the tears flowing down his temple, Yeonwoo turned his head to look toward the source of the sound.
The sound was coming from the trash can. Next to it was a container of dungeon by-products that Chahun had sorted. And a very small snake, thinner than a finger, was poking the container with its snout.
With its glossy black scales that sparkled in the light and jewel-like eyes, it was a magical beast commonly called a gem snake.
Having identified the source of the thudding sound, Yeonwoo sat down with a soft “heuhhh.” As the tension left his body, he couldn’t help but laugh. Good thing no one was around. If someone had seen him collapse at the sight of a gem snake, which had no poison and low aggressiveness, he would have been the butt of jokes for at least ten years.
Wiping away his cold sweat, Yeonwoo readjusted his grip on the dagger. Then he hesitated. In principle, any magical beast that escaped from the research lab should be killed on sight. Yet, the reason Yeonwoo hesitated was because of the attitude of the research lab staff. While it was easy to kill magical beasts in dungeons, capturing them alive was considered rather difficult. And even when they were captured alive, most magical beasts that couldn’t adapt to life outside dungeons would drop dead one after another.
Because of that, there were frequent cases where the staff, failing at their own management, would shift blame to ability users. If he killed it now, he could already envision them raising hell about him failing to capture a gem snake and killing it instead. As Yeonwoo pressed his forehead, contemplating how to capture it alive, the gem snake continued to make thunk, thunk sounds, persistently striking the container with its snout.
Not very intelligent, it seems.
Is it hungry? Watching the gem snake lunging toward the dungeon by-products, Yeonwoo reached for the container. The startled gem snake quickly slithered behind the trash can.
With a threatening “shhh” sound in the background, Yeonwoo placed a blueberry like setting a trap. The container seemed quite spacious, making it a good choice for capturing the gem snake.
After waiting for a moment, the gem snake emerged cautiously, scanning its surroundings, and quickly swallowed the blueberry. Following the line of blueberries while chomping away, the gem snake darted toward more blueberries, avoiding the banana.
After devouring all the blueberries placed near the trap, the gem snake looked around. Upon confirming that only oranges and bananas remained, it turned away without hesitation.
Even in this situation, it’s picky about food.
Impressed, Yeonwoo rolled a few more blueberries, and after a brief moment of caution, the gem snake soon opened its mouth and devoured them. Then, as if wanting more, it licked its lips before fearlessly slithering toward Yeonwoo.
As if entranced, Yeonwoo rolled more blueberries and extended his hand. The gem snake obediently climbed onto it. Then, wrapping itself around his finger, it rubbed its head against his cheek and gestured toward the blueberries.
“You really eat well.”
The gem snake, which had finished an entire container of blueberries as if using Yeonwoo as its servant but still wasn’t satisfied, stretched out its head and peered around curiously.
“This?”
When Yeonwoo took out a sandwich, the snake nodded. Yeonwoo laughed at its precise expression of intent and tore off a piece of bread to offer. The gem snake opened its mouth wide for the fingernail-sized piece of bread, trying to swallow it with effort, but finding it difficult, it stared at Yeonwoo with its golden bean-like eyes.
Seeing its tamed behavior and well-maintained scales, Yeonwoo picked up his phone and accessed the center’s community.
“Someone must have been secretly raising it and lost it…”
Gem snakes were among the magical beasts traded at high prices due to their ornamental appearance. Seeing it without a single injury, it clearly seemed to have escaped while being well cared for. The glossy golden bean eyes and s-shaped mouth were quite cute, but a gem snake was still a magical beast. Muttering about who would be crazy enough to raise a magical beast in a place crawling with espers, Yeonwoo still busily moved his fingers.
[Looking for] B-sector / Can be confirmed after authentication.
[Take it away] C-sector / Please take back training knuckles.
[Take it away] C-sector / Obtained auxiliary bag from cafeteria.
[Looking for] C-sector / Looking for leather wallet with SCD engraving.
[Take it away] A-sector / Can be confirmed after authentication.
Thinking that someone might have posted indirectly because they couldn’t openly mention a gem snake, he flipped through several pages but found no posts that matched his suspicions. Since he couldn’t check the A-sector posts, he wondered if he should ask Kang Chahun to help check those posts.
“Ouch.”
Feeling a sharp prick, he looked down to find the gem snake biting the tip of his finger. It was gnawing gently without applying pressure while staring at him, clearly urging him to tear more bread rather than sitting idle.
“My goodness.”
I never thought I’d end up taking care of a magical beast. Even as he let out a hollow laugh, Yeonwoo was tearing bread when he raised his head at the sound of someone approaching.
“Are you up?”
Yeonwoo greeted Chahun, who was patting his hair dry with a towel, water still dripping from it as if he’d just washed up. Yeonwoo looked down at his hand. The gem snake that had been wrapped around his finger just a moment ago, demanding this and that, had disappeared.
“Huh?”
What’s going on? Did I use my ability?
“What’s wrong?”
“No… a gem snake appeared in the room and I caught it, but it was in my hand just now?”
“A gem snake?”
“Yes. About this big…”
Seeing Yeonwoo’s flustered state, Chahun put down his towel and looked around the break room.
“Did you send it somewhere?”
He had briefly suspected that, but he hadn’t set any coordinates, nor had he felt any mana draining from his mana core. It was definitely somewhere in the room.
“It’s a species without poison, right? If it’s that small, even a bite wouldn’t leave a mark. If it’s caught, I’ll put it somewhere, so don’t worry too much.”
Chahun said this while shaking water from his hair, but Yeonwoo felt uneasy. Chahun had never even seen a hologram magical beast. If anything went wrong and he got hurt, it would be Yeonwoo’s fault for not capturing or killing the gem snake.
Why did I even take care of it?
As Yeonwoo berated himself, Chahun told him to put away his dagger and pulled him to sit on the sofa.
“I need to kill it right away. If you can’t do it, trap it in ice.”
“I got it, but what do you want for breakfast?”
And fix your hair. At Chahun’s words, Yeonwoo touched his hair to find it sticking up wildly, seemingly defying gravity.
Is my hair important in this situation?
Frowning, Yeonwoo once again spread his senses wide, but with Chahun beside him, he couldn’t search properly.
“Don’t keep it captive, kill it immediately if you can.”
Unlike Yeonwoo, Chahun wouldn’t face any punishment for killing the gem snake. They might hold the research lab responsible for endangering an S-class user, but there was no way they would punish Chahun.
Gem snakes, with low aggression but high defense, were more effectively attacked with weapons than with mana. Yeonwoo earnestly urged Chahun to strike its neck immediately, or if that was difficult, to trap it in ice and call someone else. If he didn’t want to ask anyone else, he should find Yeonwoo. As Chahun looked down at Yeonwoo making this earnest request, the corners of his lips turned up pleasantly.
“Hyung. Are you worried about me right now?”
“Of course.”
At this response, Chahun’s eyes widened.
Since it seemed to have a strong appetite, it would probably be weak to food. As Yeonwoo tore sandwich bread and scattered it around, he was startled by Chahun’s sudden burst of laughter and turned to look back. Chahun’s laughter didn’t stop until after they finished breakfast and Yeonwoo returned to C-sector.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
