Chapter 30
Translator: Roshi
Crunch!
The thin, crispy batter broke apart, revealing the tender white meat inside.
A mouthful of soft yet delightfully chewy meat entered his mouth, contrasting with the crisp exterior.
Chew… chew…
As he slowly bit down, the juices burst inside his mouth, and the crispy skin added a savory taste in between.
It was reminiscent of an old-fashioned whole chicken deep-fried in a cauldron…
This was it.
This was exactly it.
The simple, unseasoned chicken he had once tried to replicate.
A long time ago, while working as a mercenary, he had ended up stealing and eating horned chicken eggs.
It tasted exactly like that.
But at the same time, it was different.
‘Delicious. Even better than back then.’
Clean oil.
Neatly prepared ingredients.
And, most importantly, a far more comfortable environment than before.
In terms of taste alone, this was better.
‘Strange.’
Yet, strangely, he didn’t feel happy.
It was certainly delicious, but…
“Ahpuh… Sooo good! Hawee mawkk baddamangkk!”
Caught in these strange and subtle emotions, Do-yoon turned his head and looked down.
Hanuri, sitting in a squat position like him, was holding a drumstick.
Her pronunciation was muffled due to the mouthful of chicken, but he could understand.
It was delicious.
So much so that Hanuri’s cheeks puffed out like steamed buns.
Seeing her delighted face snapped him out of his thoughts.
‘It’s different from back then, but now, instead…’
The taste of old memories should remain in the past.
This taste, right now, would become another cherished memory for him.
A moment shared with someone precious…
And.
‘For Hanuri, it will be a happy first memory.’
That alone was enough.
“Is it that good?”
“Mm-hmm!”
“Eat slowly.”
“Hehe…”
Do-yoon patted the smiling Hanuri’s head and glanced to the side.
Now he remembered.
The two who were always by Hanuri’s side were missing.
Something felt off, and when he thought about it, he realized, he hadn’t brought Kkomi and Kkoma.
“Ah…”
He had come straight home after leaving the dungeon.
Reporters were camped outside, and he had been eager to eat the chicken quickly.
They were probably with Go Du-ri and Kim A-rang by now.
‘I’ll go find them after I finish eating.’
There was nothing to worry about.
He had successfully brought back the missing hunters that Go Du-ri had asked for.
They would be well taken care of.
At the very least, it was a promise made by someone willing to put everything aside and bow his head for his people.
‘But before that, what do I do about those chickens?’
There was something more pressing than retrieving Kkomi and Kkoma.
The colorful horned chickens.
And the eggs they had laid.
All of them were in his spacious yard.
He had brought them because of Hanuri.
‘I should also check Hanuri’s control over them.’
It would be a good idea to build a pen for the colorful horned chickens.
The eggs wouldn’t spoil easily if he used Shadow’s cold aura on them.
‘Maybe I should just set up a full-fledged poultry farm.’
It seemed like a pretty decent idea.
He could test Hanuri’s control and have a steady supply of eggs.
“Hanuri, should we toast?”
“Mm? Toast?”
“Yes. Daddy with beer, Hanuri with cola.”
“Hehe, okay!”
Even though she didn’t know what the toast meant, Hanuri laughed along with him.
What was she thinking about with that little head of hers?
It probably wasn’t the same thing Do-yoon was thinking…
Clink! The clear sound of their glasses touching rang out.
Gulp! Gulp!
The beer cooled his throat refreshingly.
The cola fizzed with sweetness and tingled delightfully.
Just as their drinks were different, so were their thoughts, but both enjoyed the moment as they drank.
Then, after finishing the drumsticks, they picked up the wings.
Crunch!
The meat had a different texture from the legs, and the juices flowed with each bite.
The lingering bitterness of the beer mixed with the umami of the chicken, clearing away all unnecessary thoughts.
Just eat.
For now, he would eat and think later.
Thinking too much while eating was an insult to delicious food.
He focused all his senses on nothing but the taste inside his mouth.
* “Coo! Coo-coo-coo!”
“Cluck…”
Hanuri crouched down, watching the horned chickens inside the wooden enclosure.
And the reason she was doing that…
“It’s delicious… But why is it delicious… Hiiing.”
She had realized that the chicken she had eaten earlier had come from one of these very horned chickens.
That was why she was acting like this.
It was delicious, but at the same time, she felt sorry for them.
Yet, it wasn’t like she would stop eating it either.
Torn between these conflicting feelings, she sniffled while smacking her lips, confused by her own contradiction.
A moral dilemma at the age of five.
‘How cute.’
Do-yoon couldn’t help but find it amusing, was this really something to be so serious about?
Still, he decided to just watch for now.
Of course, he didn’t forget to instruct Shadow Imoogi to record a video.
How long had he been watching?
“Hanuri, does this mean you won’t eat chicken anymore? Because you feel sorry for the horned chickens?”
“Th-that’s… Hiiing…”
In the end, he couldn’t resist teasing her.
And just as expected, her reaction was predictable.
Her big eyes welled up with tears as round as chicken droppings, her lips quivered, and a clear stream of snot dribbled down.
If an adult did this, it would be unsettling, but with a child, it was different.
She was so unbearably adorable that he decided to stop here.
To change the subject, he reached out his hand to her.
“Alright, let’s stop watching them and go pick up Kkoma and Kkomi.”
“Oh! Mm-hmm!”
As expected of a child, she switched focus quickly.
Holding Hanuri’s hand, he sank into the shadows.
And then, they suddenly emerged in Ahn Soo-hwa’s office.
Upon arrival, Do-yoon first scanned his surroundings.
“Hmm.”
As he had anticipated, things looked worse than he expected.
He scratched the bridge of his nose absentmindedly.
He hadn’t thought it would be this bad.
“Huh? Huhh?! He’s here! He’s finally here!”
As he took in the disaster zone that was the office, his eyes met Go Du-ri’s.
His eyes lit up with the joy of someone who had just seen salvation.
“Kyuu! Kyuu-kyuu!”
“Kkomi, Kkoma!”
On one side, Hanuri and the bear siblings were having an emotional reunion.
They hadn’t been apart for long, but the commotion was as if they had been separated for years.
Hanuri hugged them tightly, rubbing her face against them, while the bear siblings whined and licked her cheeks incessantly.
‘Probably because of the chicken grease on her face.’
Regardless, it seemed like they were genuinely happy to see each other.
“Why are you only coming now?!”
“You came out of the dungeon ages ago, and you’re only arriving now! This is a breach of contract!”
This side was just as thrilled in its own way.
Scorched fur.
Tattered clothes.
A damp, humid, and oppressively hot office.
It was clear they had suffered thanks to Kkomi and Kkoma’s uncontrollable weather abilities.
Ahn Soo-hwa looked a little better off for some reason, but just barely.
“…This.”
Do-yoon felt a little guilty.
Like a parent who had left a troublemaking child with someone else.
So, he handed over a plate of freshly fried Rainbow Horn Chicken.
“There’s no way a little food can make up for- Sniff, sniff!”
“Gulp!”
The ragged Kim A-rang, the singed-haired Go Du-ri, and the utterly exhausted Ahn Soo-hwa all shot up at the scent.
“I’ll be counting on you in the future, too.”
Swoosh.
Do-yoon placed a whole chicken in front of each of them.
And, slipping in the hint that he would continue relying on them, he grabbed Hanuri’s hand.
‘They’ll come in handy.’
Then, he vanished into the shadows.
“Hmmm… That aroma is just too rich… Huh? Wait, where did that bastard go again?!”
“He fried- I mean, he fled?!”
“Ugh…”
Only after being completely absorbed in the scent of the chicken did they realize he was gone.
“…Let’s just clean up. The guy responsible isn’t here, but even if he were, he wouldn’t be any help. This might actually be better.”
At Ahn Soo-hwa’s words, Go Du-ri and Kim A-rang nodded in agreement.
Outside, reporters had been waiting for a while.
As if they had been expecting Do-yoon.
The only consolation was that they already had some understanding of what had happened inside the dungeon.
The missing hunters had been rescued and had given their reports.
“I’ll handle any questions regarding Kim Do-yoon and Hanuri. You two brief them on what happened in the dungeon.”
“Understood.”
*
Kyu! Kyup!
Back home, Do-yoon found himself deep in thought as he watched Kkomi and Kkoma.
It was because of their growth.
For Golden Cloud Bears, there were two explosive phases in their development.
The first was when they transitioned from infancy and their abilities started to manifest. The second was during adolescence.
In the case of the bear siblings, they were currently experiencing the first phase.
Their abilities had only just begun to sprout, so they weren’t a major threat yet, but
Zap!
“Ah! Kkoma, you did it again?!”
Hanuri, startled, gasped as Kkoma unknowingly discharged a small burst of electricity.
The problem was that these little disturbances were constant.
‘Hanuri’s control abilities, the bear cubs’ powers…’
Both were dangerous abilities for children to possess.
They needed to learn how to control them.
Which meant it was time for education.
That was what parenting was truly about.
It wasn’t just about feeding and putting them to sleep, it also involved teaching them.
Raising a child properly meant helping them become a person who could take responsibility for themselves.
Do-yoon had read that somewhere in an online parenting forum, and he agreed with it.
Feeding and putting them to sleep was easy.
Right now, he was already doing that more than sufficiently - no, in fact, he was overdoing it.
But now, they were reaching the stage where their abilities were blooming.
As a parent, it was his duty and responsibility to guide them on the right path.
Fulfilling that responsibility meant that, at times, he would have to be strict.
There might even be moments when he felt resentment toward the children he had cherished so much.
‘Even so, I have to do it.’
That was the path he had chosen as a parent.
‘For now, let’s see…’
He recalled the ability users and mature Golden Cloud Bears he had encountered in another world.
He wanted to use them as a reference for teaching.
But…
‘…All I did was beat them up. I never actually saw how they used their abilities.’
Unfortunately, the ones he had encountered had been complete troublemakers.
The ability user had been a tyrant who controlled an entire city at his whim.
The Golden Cloud Bear had lacked empathy and rampaged around, causing terror under the guise of play.
All Do-yoon remembered was thrashing them like a rag doll in a rainstorm.
If only he had met someone a bit more normal, he might have been able to observe and learn about their abilities properly.
‘I do know exactly how to break their powers, though.’
That wasn’t helpful right now.
To take away their abilities was akin to severing their limbs or removing their hearts.
In other words, it was an inseparable part of their existence.
No matter how much they needed discipline, that wasn’t an option.
‘Looks like I’ll have to figure it out as I go.’
Figuring things out on the fly was his specialty.
Unfortunate for the ones involved, though.
As he was lost in thought, Hanuri approached him.
“Daddy… Kkoma keeps going zap-zap.”
She looked up at him and pointed at her palm.
Her hand was perfectly fine, but her wide, startled eyes said otherwise.
“Yeah? Let me see.”
“Blow on it… please.”
After picking up some polite speech from the elderly at the hospital, she had become even more endearing when she spoke.
There was no way he could refuse.
She was so cute, how could he possibly discipline her harshly while teaching her…?
‘Wait. Do I really have to?’
As he blew gently on Hanuri’s palm, a thought suddenly struck him.
‘Hanuri listens well. Why did I assume I had to be strict and harsh in teaching?’
She was a good child who followed even playful instructions from the elderly.
The fact that he had immediately thought of discipline when considering education made him feel foolish.
Because of that, he hadn’t even considered the simplest approach and had needlessly worried about how to teach them.
“Hanuri.”
“Mm?”
“If you became really strong, would you bully your friends? Like how Kkoma zapped you?”
“Hm? Hanuri? Why? Hanuri just wants to play with friends… I don’t want to bully them…”
“Oh? So then…”
“And Kkoma is just a baby, that’s why. Kkoma didn’t mean to hurt Hanuri.”
She got him.
Do-yoon was left speechless by her words.
She was absolutely right, there was nothing he could say in response.
He had assumed she wouldn’t understand, but she already knew.
Instead, he was the one learning from her.
“That’s right. Even if Hanuri gets strong, you won’t bully anyone, right?”
“Mm! Hehe. Even if Hanuri is strong, I’ll still play with weaker friends.”
Do-yoon flinched.
Ahn Soo-hwa’s office flashed through his mind.
Using strength to oppress others.
Even though it had been a trade-off in a deal, he hadn’t needed to handle things that way.
In the end, it was no different from using force for his own convenience.
‘Hanuri might learn from watching me.’
He needed to be careful from now on. Instead of teaching, he had just learned something himself.
***** Hi guys, I have some sad news. I am dropping this novel. In the beginning, it was a bit of an interesting slice-of-life novel, but there hasn't been any progress or anything to keep me hooked. So without any motivating factor, I don't think I can keep translating it.
I haven't decided on what I will be translating next, but these are the last chapters of this novel that I have translated.
If any other translator wants to pick it up from where I have left off, feel free to do so.
Thanks for reading, and if anyone has any suggestions for novels that I should look into for translating, let me know here in the comments or on Discord.
*****