Chapter 19
Translator: Roshi
"Oh? Unnie!!"
Hanuri, noticing the person, toddled over with her short legs.
As expected, Hanuri was like a beagle.
"Oh my, Hanuri. It's been such a long time!"
"Hehe, unnie too..."
"Didn't you miss me?"
"I missed you!"
Hanuri, nestled in the arms of the young woman, chattered like a sparrow.
The woman, finding her adorable, hugged Hanuri and indulged her.
‘Who is that? She looks familiar.’
Watching the scene, Kim Do-yoon tilted his head slightly in puzzlement.
As he was doing so, the woman noticed him and greeted him.
It seemed that she knew not just Hanuri but also him.
"Hello? It's been a while since we last met, hasn't it?"
"Are you talking to me?"
"What? Did you forget? Unbelievable... Hanuri, this ajosshi doesn’t remember unnie..."
The woman tattled to Hanuri as if she were genuinely shocked.
Hearing that, Hanuri looked at him with an equally shocked expression and asked.
"Ajosshi... you don’t remember Unnie...?"
Kim Do-yoon's mind worked rapidly and intensely as he tried to recall.
And then, someone came to mind.
The nurse.
Managing his expression swiftly, he replied shamelessly.
"Of course I do, haha... I was just kidding!"
"It didn’t seem like you were kidding though?"
She wasn’t an easy opponent.
Fortunately, though, the woman seemed to take notice of Hanuri’s expression and let it go.
"Fine, I’ll let it slide this time. Especially since I got to see Hanuri. But on one condition!"
"...??"
"You have a phone, right? Hand it over."
Kim Do-yoon, caught off guard, handed his phone to the nurse, Ha-eun.
She fiddled with it for a moment and then handed it back to him.
"Hanuri, from now on, if you want to talk to unnie, just say, 'I want to call Ha-eun unnie~. I want to text her~. I want to video call her~.' Okay?"
"Uung? Call? Text?"
"That’s right. If you say that, you can hear unnie’s voice, see her face, and talk to her anytime."
"Really? I just have to say that to ajosshi?"
"Of course~ Right?"
Sparkling!
Following the woman’s words, Hanuri’s clear and sparkling eyes turned to him.
How could he say no to that?
He suddenly felt like he had fallen for Ha-eun the nurse’s plan.
"...Sure."
What could he do?
Hanuri wanted it.
In return.
"Wow! Ajosshi, you’re the best!"
"Huh? Hanuri? I’m the one who came up with the idea, so why is that ajosshi the best?"
"Hehe... because Hanuri can’t do it, but ajosshi can."
"Wow, you're quite smart."
He received both Hanuri’s praise and Ha-eun’s envious gaze.
That was enough.
"Oh, right. How could I forget? Hanuri, what should I do? I think unnie has to leave now."
"Already...?"
"Yes, I have an important appointment."
"Hiing."
At Ha-eun’s words that she had to go, Hanuri’s face turned into a pout.
Seeing this, Ha-eun offered a sweet suggestion to console her.
"Then how about this? Why don't you invite unnie to Hanuri’s house next time?"
"To Hanuri’s house?"
"Yes, to Hanuri’s house. Along with the doctor and the people who were nice to Hanuri. How about that?"
Swoosh.
Both of their gazes turned to Kim Do-yoon.
"Ajosshi..."
"...Let’s do that."
What choice did he have?
In the end, he nodded his head.
Only then did Hanuri let Ha-eun go.
It was time to end the brief encounter.
After saying goodbye to Hanuri, Ha-eun whispered something to Kim Do-yoon before leaving.
"I added myself as a friend on your messaging app, so please send me some videos of Hanuri. Everyone at the hospital is curious about her."
Before he could even respond, she left in a flash.
‘I’ve really changed a lot.’
Clicking his tongue at how easily he’d been outmaneuvered, Kim Do-yoon nevertheless didn’t feel bad about his change.
To be honest, it felt good.
It felt like he had become an ordinary person.
All thanks to Hanuri.
He quietly held Hanuri’s hand.
"Shall we go now, Hanuri? Kkomi and Kkoma must be waiting."
"Ah! Yes, yes! Let’s go quickly!"
Disappearing into the shadows, they immediately returned home.
But then...
***
One hour.
A long time, if one were to call it that, but the scene that greeted them first seemed beyond reason.
The house was a complete mess.
And then.
"Why are you like a polar bear, and why are you..."
Kkoma, for some reason, was covered in white flour, looking like a polar bear.
Kkomi, on the other hand, was holding a black, furry creature in her mouth.
-Squeak!
It was still alive.
The identity of the black furry creature was quickly apparent.
‘The baby Rich Tiger?’ How did it end up here and get caught by Kkomi.
It must have been grinding its teeth in anger.
"Sigh-."
Kim Do-yoon let out a deep sigh and began cleaning up.
First, the polar bear(?).
"Come here."
Kyup!
The little one resisted, but he grabbed the back of its neck in one swift motion.
And then he shook it.
As if shaking the dust off a fluffy stuffed toy.
"Woaaa!"
The flour that came off Kkoma created a white cloud in the air.
Kuing.....
A strange noise came out, but he ignored it.
Then, all of a sudden, Hanuri jumped into the flour cloud.
He didn’t have time to stop her.
"Hehe!! It’s a cloud! A cloud!"
"...Hanuri."
"Ajosshi really is a goblin!"
"Huh? A goblin?"
"Yeah, yeah! When you go poof-poof, you make all sorts of delicious food, and then when you go poof-poof again, we end up in strange places."
Covered in flour that had come off Kkoma, Hanuri excitedly chattered.
Hearing her words, Kim Do-yoon momentarily forgot that he should stop her.
‘So that’s how she interpreted it? No wonder.’
He had actually been worried about how indifferent Hanuri was whenever he used his abilities.
He wondered if her cognitive abilities were perhaps a bit underdeveloped.
When he looked it up online, it seemed possible.
Of course, even if that were the case, she was still a lovable and adorable child.
Still, he hadn’t brought it up intentionally, but it turned out his worries were unfounded.
Hanuri, in her pure and childlike way, simply thought of him as a goblin.
"But it’s okay, because even if ajosshi is a goblin, I still like him! As much as Hanuri!"
If he was a goblin, then Hanuri was surely a fairy, or no, an angel.
An angel covered in white flour.
"Yeah... Ajosshi likes Hanuri too."
"Uung? Ajosshi, what are you doing?"
What was he doing?
Kim Do-yoon began dusting off Hanuri and Kkoma together.
Shake, shake, shake.
Kueng!
"Heheheh! Hehe, it’s fun!"
Their different reactions made him smirk as he finished dusting them off. Then, he moved over to Kkomi.
-Ppyah! Ppyah!
The baby Rich Tiger clamped in Kkomi’s mouth squeaked loudly.
‘Tsk, it must’ve gotten caught because of the Shadow.’
Normally, a Rich Tiger would’ve easily escaped from Kkomi.
But because he had briefly left and set up shadows as traps, it had been caught.
And that's how Kkomi caught it.
The fortunate part was that the Rich Tiger’s body was capable of protecting itself, so it was still unharmed.
"Calm down, Kkomi, okay?"
Kyurururu.....
Kim Do-yoon tried to quiet the squeaking Rich Tiger and take it from Kkomi, but it wasn’t easy.
Kkomi growled and made it clear she wasn’t willing to let go.
It was only natural, she had nearly been killed because of that creature.
‘Should I just take it by force?’
He hesitated for a moment.
After all, Kkomi was family.
The usually docile creature was showing this much stubbornness...
At that moment!
"Kkomi."
Kyurururu.
"It’s okay, it’s okay. Ajosshi is here, and unnie is here too."
Hanuri approached and gently petted Kkomi, speaking softly to soothe her.
Kim Do-yoon silently observed the scene.
Kyurururu.
"Were you scared? I’m sorry..."
Kyuru.
"Yeah, yeah, it’s okay."
Stroke, stroke.
Hanuri didn’t rush.
Slowly.
Very slowly, she stroked Kkomi and calmed her down.
And then, as if by a miracle, Kkomi dropped the Rich Tiger with a light thud.
Kyup!
Immediately afterward, Kkomi leapt into Kim Do-yoon’s arms.
She nuzzled against him, whining softly like a baby.
‘She wasn’t angry; she was scared.’
He had assumed it was revenge.
But it wasn’t.
Kkomi had been frightened by the Rich Tiger that appeared in their absence.
Her instinct had driven her to attack as a means of defense.
And the reason Hanuri had understood that was probably...
‘Not everyone in the hospital would have been a good person.’
It was likely due to her experiences.
Just as Hanuri had fought for Ddugi and Chuchu at the hospital, this was a natural defensive mechanism.
It wasn’t uncommon for fear to manifest as aggression.
At its core, though, it was all due to fear.
"Hehe."
Hanuri had already returned to her usual innocent self, as if nothing had happened.
Kim Do-yoon gently patted her on the head.
Parenting really was a constant learning experience, it was true.
It felt like he was learning, little by little, from this tiny child.
"Uung?"
"You’re just so kind."
"Hehe, Hanuri is kind."
"Yeah, yeah."
He wouldn’t leave her to fight alone anymore, like she had at the hospital.
He was determined to protect her innocent nature.
-Ppyah!
As soon as Kkomi let go of the baby Rich Tiger, it let out one cry and bolted away.
While it was unfortunate that the Rich Tiger might leave the area for good after this, Kim Do-yoon’s loyalty was with Kkomi.
He had no intention of stopping it.
"Alright, let’s head inside now."
"Yes, yes!"
Holding Hanuri’s hand, he led her back inside the house.
Then he quickly began tidying up the mess.
As he was finishing up, he noticed how quiet it had become. Looking around, he found:
Grrr~ Grrr~.
Kkoma was asleep.
Still covered in traces of flour, he was sprawled out without a care in the world, sleeping soundly.
With his limbs splayed wide, Kkoma truly looked like a little bear cub stuffed toy.
"Pfft."
The sight was both adorable and ridiculous, prompting a chuckle.
But then.
Purr~.
"Huh?"
As if to prove they were siblings, Kkomi had already fallen asleep in his arms as well.
"Yes, sleep sleep. You're angels when you sleep."
He placed Kkomi down next to Kkoma.
Then he looked around for Hanuri.
"Hanuri, are you... asleep too?"
Hanuri, who had been watching him, was now dozing off where she stood, nodding her head like a bobblehead.
It was a lazy afternoon.
With full bellies, it was the perfect time for a child to drift off to sleep.
Smiling, he moved the sleeping angels into a room.
Now that the angels were asleep, peace finally returned.
Even though the traces of flour on Kkoma’s jelly-like paw pads remained perfectly intact.
Click!
Quietly, he captured the scene with a photo.
Kkoma’s pink jelly paw pads dusted with white flour, looking like powdered sugar, click.
Hanuri’s chubby, flour-dusted cheeks, which resembled glutinous rice cakes, and Kkomi snuggled up against Kkoma’s soft white belly as she slept, click.
***
Meanwhile, back at the guild building, Ahn Soo-hwa let out a small chuckle as she thought about the negotiation at the Tonkatsu restaurant.
It was all because of the answer Kim Do-yoon had given when asked what kind of dungeon information he wanted.
"A dungeon with delicious food, he said."
What a carefree response.
How many people could think of something like that in a life-and-death dungeon?
If she hadn’t known better, she might have dismissed it as bravado.
‘But there’s no way it’s bravado.’
This was a man who lived in the monster-infested wilderness of Chuncheon.
His abilities were so subtle that even she had trouble discerning them.
And most importantly, she could sense it from him,
The composure of a truly powerful individual.
As an S-rank Hunter, she could tell whether such composure was real or fake.
‘A strange person... and a beautiful child.’
Having categorized Kim Do-yoon as a strange individual, she now thought of Hanuri and smiled.
It was a different kind of smile this time.
The indulgent smile of someone utterly smitten.
"Guild Leader, this is no time to be smiling. How could you agree to such a contract?"
The Deputy Guild Leader, who had overheard the details of the negotiation at the Tonkatsu restaurant, looked at her in disbelief.
But Ahn Soo-hwa, undeterred, gave her instructions.
"I won't accept any objections about the contract. This is the Guild Leader's authority."
"Guild Leader!"
"Just prepare the dungeon information. A place with lots of delicious things."
"......What?"
"Send the materials to Park Ki-ho."
Seeing the dumbfounded expression on the Deputy Guild Leader’s face, she drove the point home.
***
While the kids were taking an afternoon nap, Kim Do-yoon was browsing the internet.
‘Something similar to Dragon Tree Fruit or Brosia Honey…’
He started by searching for fruits or honey-like ingredients.
But, as expected, there wasn’t anything that stood out as exactly what he was looking for.
In the end, his internet search gradually veered off in a different direction.
"Foods that are good for children’s growth."
The topic naturally shifted toward parenting.
Specifically, food.
Since he was the one directly cooking for Hanuri, his attention was naturally drawn to it.
'Blue-backed fish rich in Omega-3?'
The article stated that it was good for the formation of developing cells.
"Hmm… Ajosshi."
As he was intently focused on his phone, Hanuri, who had apparently woken up from her nap, got up in a dazed state.
Still groggy, she staggered over to him and snuggled into his arms.
"Did you wake up?"
"Mm."
She answered, but she wasn’t fully awake yet.
Her eyes were more than half-closed.
Seeing this, he decided to play a little trick to wake her up.
"Hanuri."
"Mm?"
"Shall we go to the sea?"
"Mm? The sea… SEA!?"
Just as he’d hoped, Hanuri’s eyes snapped wide open, and her face lit up with excitement.
Her reaction made him laugh out loud.
At some point, his phone had already been switched to camera mode.
Another video of Hanuri’s adorable expressions was now saved on his phone.
*****