Part 2 Chapter 25: Welcome to the Kindergarten of Destruction!(25)
TL: Hanguk
PR: MiniPixelZ
Black Tower 42nd Floor.
Thud! Thump!
Thud! Thump!
Pink-fur and the other adults were building a giant kindergarten building. It was large enough for Pink-fur to enter without any trouble.
While the building was being constructed,
“Today, we’ll be doing scent differentiation.”
Elka was teaching a class for the children.
Although the building wasn’t completed yet, the adults were teaching their specialties in shifts, outdoors, split between morning and afternoon.
“Daddy!”
“Daddy, let’s play!”
Elka’s children momentarily caused a disturbance by calling Elka ‘Daddy’ instead of ‘Teacher’.
“Ahem. You should call me Teacher here.”
“Yes, Teacher Elka!”
At Elka’s stern voice, the five baby wolves responded energetically.
And so, the lesson resumed.
Elka taught not only the species with keen senses of smell but also those with relatively underdeveloped senses in a systematic and basic way so that everyone could learn.
It is difficult to develop one’s sense of smell to the level of a wolf. However, as the saying goes, the more you know, the more you see, by practicing scent detection and distinguishing smells with precision, one can gradually improve their olfactory abilities.
Elka blindfolded the children and made them identify various scents using only their noses, then taught them the correct answers as part of continuous training.
Of course, the species with naturally stronger senses of smell learned faster, but Elka did his best to teach in a way that everyone could follow.
He also waited patiently so that the children wouldn't get discouraged, and over time, some of the others were also able to correctly distinguish scents.
Now that the class had progressed quite a bit, most of the children could accurately identify 8 out of 10 scents.
“Today we’ll raise the difficulty level a bit. We’re going to do scent tracking. From now on, smell this cloth and then go into the forest to find the cloth with the same scent.”
Elka held out the cloth in his front paw to let the children sniff it.
“And if you make it into the top 10, or bring back a cloth numbered from 1 to 10, you’ll get a special snack for dinner.”
“Special snack!”
The children’s eyes sparkled at Elka’s words. That was because the special snacks were treats made by Sejun, which the adults had saved and not eaten.
“The forest is dangerous, so be careful. Now, go!”
“Wow!”
At Elka’s signal, the children rushed off into the forest.
Although Elka had warned them to be careful, the adults had already cleared the forest of any dangers. As far as they knew.
***
Sniff. Sniff.
The special snacks are mine!
Elka’s youngest daughter, Eloi, sniffed her surroundings diligently, moving one step at a time.
Then.
Found it!
It's this way!
At last, Eloi found the scent she was looking for.
Tadadadak.
She ran toward the source of the scent. Although her short legs made her slow, she still gave it her all and ran with determination.
While she was running,
“Huh?”
What’s this smell?
Eloi’s nose picked up a strange mix of a fishy, unpleasant, nose-prickling scent, and a cozy, warm, pleasant smell.
But Eloi, focused on her goal, ignored the faint passing scent and concentrated on the strongest scent as she kept running.
And then.
Sniff. Sniff.
“Found it.”
She arrived at the source of the scent,
Pababak.
And dug into the ground with her short front paws to pull out a piece of cloth.
The number ‘7’ was written on the cloth.
If I quickly bring this back, can I get 2 special snacks?
Thinking about getting two special snacks, Eloi packed the cloth with an excited expression and stood up when,
Poke.
A stinging sensation on her right front leg.
“Huh?!”
What was that?
Eloi quickly looked down at her leg.
Creak.
There was a brown spider, about the size of a fist, injecting its venom into Eloi’s leg while staring at her.
A venomous spider!
Eloi, locking eyes with the venomous spider, panicked and hurriedly shook her front leg to knock it off.
I have to run away!
She tried to leave the area to get help. She had packed a Detoxifying Green Onion in her bag just in case, but in her panic, she couldn’t remember.
Meanwhile, the venom gradually spread through Eloi’s body.
“Huh?!”
Why do I feel so dizzy?
Eloi couldn’t move her body properly. Her vision began to blur.
And as the staggering Eloi struggled, spiders the size of a fist began emerging from the ground one by one, surrounding her.
They were burrow spiders that lived in deep underground tunnels and only surfaced during hunting season, which is why the adults had not discovered them.
“No...”
If I lose consciousness here...
Eloi desperately tried to stay awake, but her consciousness was gradually fading.
At that moment.
Whoosh.
Such a pleasant smell.
A cozy, warm scent she had caught earlier suddenly rushed into her nose. At the same time, she felt something refreshing enter her mouth, and Eloi completely lost consciousness.
***
Kueng!
[Phew. Thank goodness!]
Cuengi, who had caught the scent of Elka on Eloi and sensed her danger, quickly flew over and squeezed Detoxifying Green Onion juice into her mouth, sighing in relief.
While Cuengi treated Eloi,
“Kyoot kyoot kyoot. Power of gravity... Gravity.”
Crack.
Thud.
Iona, perched on Cuengi’s right shoulder, used gravity magic to crush the burrow spiders and their tunnels all at once.
Once the burrow spiders were dealt with,
Kuehehehe. Kueng!
[Hehehe. I really want to see Mom quickly!]
Cuengi slung the unconscious Eloi over his left shoulder and quickly flew toward the place where he smelled both Mom and Elka.
A short while later.
While Cuengi handed the unconscious Eloi over to Elka and explained everything that had happened,
“Kyoot kyoot kyoot.”
Iona quietly climbed down from Cuengi’s shoulder.
“Did you finish everything I asked you to do?”
She began attending to her duties as Chairman of the Wizard’s Association.
And then.
Kueng!
[Mom, Cuengi’s back!]
Cuengi flew toward Pink-fur and threw himself into her arms.
Thud!
It was quite a shock, but Pink-fur, who had undergone special training with the Minotaur King, easily received Cuengi’s tackle.
Kuong?
[My son is back?]
Kueng!
[Yup!]
Hehehe. Mom smells nice.
Cuengi buried his face into Pink-fur’s body and acted spoiled. From Pink-fur’s body came the same cozy and warm scent that Eloi had smelled earlier.
After the heartfelt hug between mother and son,
Kueng! Kueng!
[Mom, Cuengi will help build the building! Cuengi’s good at it after doing it a lot with Dad!]
Cuengi helped Pink-fur with constructing the kindergarten building.
Kueng!
[Cuengi will handle the cooking too!]
He enthusiastically put to use the cooking skills he had picked up by watching Sejun over time.
Fortunately, Cuengi’s cooking skills were far better than Aileen’s, so everyone was able to enjoy a delicious dinner.
After dinner,
Kueng! Kueng...
[So Cuengi... no, Great Detective Cunan followed the scent and caught the honey thief! Cuengi...]
Cuengi, nestled in Pink-fur’s arms, chattered endlessly about everything that had happened.
Kuhuhuhu.
Every time Cuengi talked about his heroic deeds, Pink-fur smiled and let out a delighted laugh.
Kuehehehe.
That smile was contagious and spread to Cuengi again.
Kueng!
[When we caught the culprit and were about to head home, Baektang showed up, and Big Bro knocked him out!]
Cuengi got even more excited and chattered on enthusiastically.
Time passed, and before long, the night sky had grown dark.
Kuehehehe. Kueng...
[Hehehe. Blackie gave a mental education lesson...]
Kurorong.
Cuengi, who had been talking so excitedly, couldn’t fight off sleep and dozed off.
Thud.
Pink-fur carefully lay down on the ground while holding Cuengi.
The stars are so bright.
When she looked up, she saw the sky densely filled with twinkling stars.
Pink-fur admired the beautiful stars for a while and then quietly closed her eyes.
Kuuuuh...
Kurorong.
The two of them, warmed by each other’s warmth, fell into a deep sleep.
And as if to reward Pink-fur for watching over him,
Shimmer.
The starlight gently covered the two of them. Thanks to it, they could sleep even more warmly.
***
<Hamk>
Still before sunrise, the Temple of Hamgod was shrouded in darkness.
Clack.
Archbishop Kalchi, wearing a pure white ceremonial robe embroidered with golden thread, forcefully opened the doors of the chapel and stepped inside.
And.
“O Hamgod Iona-nim, we thank you for providing daily bread to our young hamsters today as well. Please keep us from falling into temptation, smite the evil that torments the hamsters, and kindly watch over all hamsters. Hamen.”
He bowed his head to the giant statue of Iona and offered a prayer with a reverent heart.
Once the prayer was finished,
“O Hamgod Iona-nim! Today as well, I will prove my devotion by licking your feet ten thousand times!”
Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick.
He began eagerly licking the feet of the Iona statue.
If Iona had seen it, he might have died on the spot, but fortunately, she still didn’t know.
However.
“Kyoot?”
Why are my toes so itchy?
Perhaps Kalchi's devotion had reached her, as Iona felt the itch.
No way… it’s not athlete’s foot, is it?!
If Theo-nim finds out, I’m in trouble!
Due to a small misunderstanding, Iona went on to achieve the great feat of developing a magical cure for athlete’s foot.
Of course, it was only much later when Iona visited <Hamk> and discovered Kalchi fervently licking the statue’s toes that she realized he had been involved in the achievement.
“Kyoo-kyoo-kyoo- I thought it was athlete’s foot!”
That day, Kalchi was said to have been hit with Magic Missiles almost to death.
***
The next morning.
“Alright.”
Sejun, who had woken up earlier than usual.
“For breakfast today…”
He began pondering over the breakfast menu.
And then.
“Puhuhut.”
I must check today’s news on the crops of our great hybrid Chairman Park, meow!
Theo, who was clinging to Sejun’s knee, checked the news using the smartphone Iona had left behind.
While doing so.
“Meow?”
When he played a YouTube video introducing Sejun’s crops, a familiar melody began playing from the phone. It seemed to be the background music for the video.
That’s Chairman Park’s third work song, meow!
“Chairman Park, they’re using your song without permission, meow!”
Realizing what the song was, Theo shouted in outrage.
“Huh? My song?”
At Theo’s words, Sejun checked the smartphone Theo was holding.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Hype boy~”
The video featured the famous girl group song Sejun often hummed while working on the 99th floor of the Tower.
“How dare they sing the song created by great hybrid Chairman Park without permission, meow! And on top of that, they sang it better than Chairman Park, how insulting, meow! These people have no respect for the original artist, meow! Chairman Park, I, Vice Chairman Theo, will go and stamp all of them myself, meow!”
Theo shouted, practically ready to storm out in fury.
And then.
“......”
Sejun, guilt weighing heavily on him, was at a loss for words.
Was this finally the moment he would pay for claiming someone else’s song as his own?
“Vice Chairman Theo, I gave them permission to sing it.”
No. The moment had not yet come.
“Meow?! You did, meow?!”
“Yup.”
Sejun shamelessly lied his way out of the crisis.
Thankfully, Cuengi wasn’t there.
If Cuengi had been?
Kueng?!
[Dad, are you lying to Cuengi right now?!]
Cuengi would have pulled out his thunderbolt staff to steer Sejun back onto the right path.
“Let’s hurry and eat breakfast, then go pick up Cuengi.”
Sejun quickly changed the subject.
“Puhuhut. Got it, meow!”
Theo nodded and turned his attention back to the smartphone.
However.
“Red flavor~ I’m curious, honey~”
“Meow?!”
That’s Chairman Park’s fifth work song, meow!
When another song Sejun had plagiarized came from the smartphone,
“Vice Chairman Theo, no more smartphones.”
Sejun, desperate to keep his lie from being exposed, tried to confiscate the phone.
“Meow?”
But Theo easily dodged Sejun’s hand.
“Hup!”
“Meow!”
“Hup!”
“Meow!”
No matter how hard Sejun tried, he couldn’t get the smartphone from Theo’s front paw.
"...If you let me confiscate it, I'll give you exclusive lap rights for a month."
He offered his ultimate bargaining chip, exclusive rights to his lap.
“Puhuhut. Deal, meow!”
Theo immediately handed the phone to Sejun.
But he had no idea that Iona had already sent legal complaints to all the artists Sejun had plagiarized, in Sejun’s name.
Hehehe. Perfect.
Sejun, blissfully unaware and thinking he had hidden everything well, grinned to himself.
*****
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