Chapter 20
Translator: Roshi
“Hanuri, do you know what the sea is?”
“Uh-huh! I heard it from Ha-eun unnie!”
“Really? Then, what’s the sea?”
“The sea is… blue~ and wide~, and it also has lots of yummy things!”
Hanuri used her entire body to explain the sea to Do-yoon.
She spread her arms wide, opened her mouth, stretched her eyes, and imitated something with exaggerated gestures.
“Oh, right… and there are cute dolphins too!”
“What’s a dolphin?”
He purposely kept prompting her to see more of Hanuri’s descriptions.
The innocent child, unaware of his intentions, once again used her whole body to portray a dolphin.
Seeing her like that, he chuckled and recorded the moment on video.
“Like this! Like this! It swims, and it’s sooo cute!”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh! Hehe… but… there are also scary sharks.”
“Sharks?”
“Yeah. They move like this in the water and go ‘rawr!’ and bite.”
Hanuri mimicked a shark’s dorsal fin and made a distressed face.
It was just a story she had heard, but it seemed to have scared her.
“So, Hanuri, does that mean you’re too scared to go to the sea?”
“…I can go….”
“You’re not scared? What if a shark goes ‘rawr!’ and bites you?”
"It's okay... because Ajosshi is there... Ajosshi will protect me, right? Hm?"
“Pfft!”
How could he not protect something this adorable?
That was impossible.
“Of course, Ajosshi will protect Hanuri, Kkoma, and Kkomi. And I’ll also make you delicious food, okay?”
“Delicious food?”
“I heard there are ve~ry delicious things in the sea. Have you heard about it, Hanuri?”
“Very… delicious things… hehe.”
Watching Hanuri imagine and lick her lips, he laughed again.
“Shall we go to the sea and eat it?”
“Yeah!”
Bzzz!
Before Hanuri could finish answering, the phone vibrated.
He looked at the caller ID, ended the video recording, and answered the call. -What! Why didn't you call!
It was Ha-eun.
“There were some circumstances. I was just about to call you.”
-Really?
It wasn’t a lie.
After all, he needed to contact the hospital regarding Hanuri’s formal adoption process.
Preparations were nearly complete now, both emotionally and financially.
-Fine, I’ll let that go. Show me Hanuri quickly! Hanuri~.
“Huh? Unnie!”
-Video! Switch to video call quickly!
As soon as Ha-eun heard Hanuri’s voice, she demanded a video call.
Left with no choice, he switched to a video call and held the phone up so Hanuri could be seen.
"Waaah! It's unnie!"
-Hanuri! We're here too!
“Huh! Grandpa!”
“Hahaha!”
-Oh my, how cute!
“Hanuri, you’ve gotten even prettier!”
-She's gained weight, looks much better! Hoho!
It seemed to be the hospital.
On the screen, Ha-eun, dressed in a nurse’s uniform along with the people who had shared the hospital room.
Everyone seemed delighted to see Hanuri, and their laughter filled the call.
“Hehe… I miss you all too!” -We miss you too. Hanuri, are you doing well there?
-Are you eating well?
“Uh-huh! Ajosshi makes yummy food for me… Oh, and! Hehe, Ajosshi said he’ll take me to the sea too!”
-Sea?
-Really? To the sea? Wait a minute… the sea is a monster paradise right now, isn’t it?
-Hey! Don’t say that in front of a child. So, Hanuri, Ajosshi is taking you to the sea?
“Uh-huh!”
With so many people talking at once, it seemed the call was going to take a while.
Do-yoon subtly created a Shadow Hand to hold the phone.
‘Sometimes, this isn’t so bad.’
Since Hanuri was fully focused on the people in the phone, he had nothing to do.
Thanks to that, he got a brief moment of freedom.
Playing with Hanuri wasn’t something he disliked.
In fact, he enjoyed it.
But having some time to relax every now and then wasn’t bad either.
Purr…
Kkomi, who had woken up from all the noise, approached him and plopped down beside him.
With a half-asleep face, Kkomi rested her chin on his knee.
As he stroked the little one, Kkomi let out a contented purring sound.
It was a sound that brought peace to both of them.
While listening to that sound and watching the sunset, a commotion suddenly broke out on Hanuri’s side.
Thud, thud, thud!
Hanuri came running toward him.
The commotion was coming from the people on the phone.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“Unnie wants a video of Hanuri.”
“A video?”
“Uh-huh!”
He answered the phone, wondering what was going on.
- You have videos of Hanuri, don’t you? Of course, you do. There’s no way you wouldn’t. Everything that adorable child does is just too cute. Don’t keep them for your personal collection; show us too!
- Show us! Show us!
- Are you planning to keep Hanuri all to yourself?
- Exactly!
So that’s what it was.
Ha-eun the nurse and the others were clamoring for Hanuri’s videos.
Of course, he couldn’t deny it.
Just as the nurse had said, there were too many moments of Hanuri that he couldn’t not record.
And he had recorded a lot.
“Ajosshi, why are unnie and the others acting like that?”
“Oh? Hmm… well…”
- Hanuri is juuuust so adorable, but that Ajosshi is trying to keep her adorable moments all to himself. We want to see Hanuri’s cute moments too. Isn’t that bad, Hanuri? You should scold him a little.
“Ah!”
Startled by Ha-eun’s words, Hanuri looked up at him with wide eyes.
And then she delivered a critical blow.
“Ajosshi, are you bad?”
“……”
“Ah, even if Ajosshi is bad… Hanuri still likes him….”
Her pure, trembling pupils looked as if they were experiencing an earthquake.
Her focus seemed to have gone somewhere far away.
Left with no choice, he decided to share the videos.
If this had been some kind of trade, he might have hesitated.
But since it was all out of love for Hanuri, he couldn’t say no.
“Ajosshi isn’t bad, so don’t listen to those lies.”
He patted Hanuri’s head and picked up his phone.
“Hehe… Hanuri wasn’t lying though….”
Finally, she looked at him properly again.
And as if enjoying his touch, she smiled bashfully.
- Ahhh! Watching that smile live by yourself… Just send us the videos! At least let us see them before we sleep!
At Ha-eun’s insistence, he momentarily lowered the call screen and opened the messaging app.
Then he selected the option to send videos and brought up the list of clips he had recorded.
He had taken quite a few in such a short time.
“Hmm… which one should I send?”
He wasn’t planning to send all of them.
There were some clips that made even him cringe, so he intended to exclude those.
But then, as he was scrolling through the list, Hanuri, who had been watching the screen, suddenly pointed her finger.
“Ah! It’s Porong!”
Tap!
“……Huh?”
In one of the video thumbnails, Porong was visible.
Hanuri noticed it and poked her finger at the screen.
The problem was that the video was sent immediately.
That video was…
‘Do you like Porong, or do you like Ajosshi?’
The embarrassing moment he had captured on video replayed in his mind.
It was a cringe-worthy clip, complete with the sound of him swallowing nervously in tension.
A moment of silence passed.
Do-yoon froze in panic, and beyond the screen, there was silence as they watched the video.
Then,
- Pfft, hahaha!!!
- Awww! Hanuri is so cute!
- Hehehe! He is hilarious!
- He’s so serious about Porong.
- They’re both adorable, honestly.
- Where on earth did he find that bear?
- Ahhhh… It looks like a teddy bear!
The silence broke with a burst of laughter and chatter.
More comments followed, but they were mostly variations of Hanuri is adorable, send more videos, and he is funny.
“Whew-.”
Using dinner time as an excuse, he ended the video call and let out a sigh.
"Hehe, I want to see them again."
"Okay, let's see them again later."
“Okay!”
Though it was embarrassing, seeing Hanuri happy made it all worth it.
He patted Hanuri’s head and he promised for next time.
***
A few days later, the Taegeuk Guild contacted him.
Do-yoon headed out, bringing Hanuri along with the Bear Siblings this time.
“Hanuri, can you hold onto that?”
He was carrying Kkomi in his arms, so small and quiet that it was hard to tell she was even there.
But Kkoma, in Hanuri’s arms, stood out easily.
After all, Hanuri was holding a fluffy baby bear almost as big as her upper body.
“Yeah! It’s okay!”
"Not heavy?"
“Ah! …Ajosshi.”
When he asked if it was heavy, Hanuri quickly leaned toward his ear and whispered.
“You’re not supposed to ask stuff like that.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“I don’t know. Ha-eun unnie said it’s bad to ask that.”
Speaking softly and carefully, Hanuri looked so adorable. It seemed her caution stemmed from something she’d learned: you shouldn’t casually talk about weight.
Hanuri must have asked someone about their weight and gotten scolded for it.
‘She’s learned some odd things.’
Since Hanuri was being serious, he decided to just go along with it.
In any case, carrying Kkoma didn’t seem to be too much of a burden for her.
Although Kkoma looked large, most of it was just fluff, so he was lighter than he appeared.
Hanuri held Kkoma firmly in her arms as Do-yoon entered the shadows with her.
Having been to the location before, he didn’t need to travel through multiple shadows this time. In no time, they arrived in front of the Taegeuk Guild.
However, this time there were far more people gathered at their arrival point than there had been before.
“Haaa!”
"Eek?!"
Hearing someone gasp in surprise at their sudden appearance, all eyes turned to them.
“Huh? What’s that?”
“Whoa, amazing. So cute.”
“Look at that little kid!”
“Is that a teddy bear? So adorable! No, wait, is that an actual bear?!”
Those who didn’t understand why the initial gasp occurred quickly spotted Hanuri and began squealing for a completely different reason.
Having never encountered so many people at once, Hanuri was taken aback by their reactions.
“Hmm?”
She tilted her head in confusion.
“Gasp!”
“Too cute!!”
“She’s not from this world… too adorable…”
“But where did they come from? They weren’t here a moment ago.”
"I think someone said they fell from the sky earlier?"
“Then… is she a baby angel?”
“Oh? They’re entering the Taegeuk Guild!”
Do-yoon led Hanuri ,who was tilting her head, into the Taegeuk Guild.
Inside, Ahn Soo-hwa was waiting to greet them personally.
“You’ve arrived. Oh my~ Hanuri, hello! We meet again?”
“Yup! Ajumma! Hehe.”
“…Yes, well…”
There was no malice in Hanuri’s words, but they still hit Ahn Soo-hwa harder because of it.
“Wait, isn’t that the Fire Witch?”
“Isn’t that Ahn Soo-hwa, the Guild Leader?”
“Who is that for her to come out personally to greet them?”
The crowd, enchanted by Hanuri, was held back at the entrance, whispering among themselves.
“There are too many eyes watching, so let’s go inside.”
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Hoho, well… maybe just a little. But considering how much we’re giving you, isn’t this much fine? Of course, I didn’t expect this much attention either. Who knew I’d be welcoming an angel?”
Ahn Soo-hwa had a clear reason for greeting them herself, and Do-yoon had just pointed it out.
“Huh? Ajumma, where’s the angel?”
“The angel is standing right in front of Ajumma!”
“Hmm?”
“Right here! This is the angel!”
“Hehe, is Hanuri an angel?”
“Of course~! You’re so cute and pretty; how could you not be an angel?”
Pfft.
Do-yoon let out a small laugh at Ahn Soo-hwa’s playful remarks to Hanuri.
As she had said, receiving a bit of attention in exchange for all that she was giving them wasn’t a big deal.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
“Wait, is that Ahn Soo-hwa’s secret child?”
“Then who’s that man? What’s going on?”
“Is he some amazing guy with crazy abilities?”
“I’m pretty sure she called her Ajumma, though.”
“Then it’s not her child? What’s their relationship?”
Of course, there were a few misunderstandings among the crowd due to Ahn Soo-hwa’s actions, but…
“Let’s head inside. Don’t worry about those people; we’ll release an official statement later to clear things up.”
Following Ahn Soo-hwa’s lead, they headed upstairs.
However, what awaited them wasn’t quite what Do-yoon had expected.
“Huh? The rooftop?”
“We’ll be taking a helicopter to the Hunter Bureau.”
He had assumed they’d be heading to an office, but Ahn Soo-hwa led them to the rooftop instead.
Before they knew it, Do-yoon and Hanuri were boarding a helicopter.
“Wooooow!!”
Hanuri, thrilled by the experience, couldn’t contain her excitement and cheered loudly. In no time, they arrived at the Hunter Bureau’s headquarters.
“Ajumma! The helicopter was sooo fun!”
“Really? Did you like it that much?”
“Uh-huh!”
“Well then, do you want to come back and ride it again sometime?”
“…Can I?”
“Of course~.”
Do-yoon gave a look to Ahn Soo-hwa who was making strange promises with Hanuri.
It was nice that she was entertaining Hanuri, but they had work to do.
“Shall we get going then?”
Ahn Soo-hwa, understanding his point, quickly shifted her demeanor.
It seemed she had already arranged everything with the Hunter Bureau because the process moved along seamlessly.
Leaving Hanuri with Ahn Soo-hwa for a moment, Do-yoon immediately went in for testing.
The first test was the simplest: measuring his mana level.
All Awakened Hunters possess mana, and the amount of mana determines their basic rank.
“Please inject your mana into this device. The results will come out immedi-”
Before the staff member could finish speaking, Do-yoon infused the device with the mana from his Shadow.
And then…
Crack-crack-crack!!
A sound of cracking, followed by a loud boom, echoed throughout the testing room.
The machine had exploded, unable to handle the intensity of his mana.
"This, I wonder if it can be measured like this?"
“……Ehhhhhh?”
The staff member was so shocked that they couldn’t even register his question.
“What’s the next step?”
Do-yoon asked another question to the stunned staff member.
“Huh? Oh! Yes! The next step is….”
“I’ll explain the next step myself.”
“Gasp!? Bureau Chief!?”
Just as the flustered staff member was about to move on to the next test, the Hunter Bureau’s Chief suddenly appeared.
*****