Chapter 7 - Loyalty

Translator: Roshi

Oh no.

Things just got annoying.

I never usually came through the park at this hour, so I had no idea.

Who would've thought there'd be punks like these hanging around the park I stopped by just to walk Cer.

"The hell are you staring at, huh?"

"Heheh. Look at the dog just standing there like a moron. Pathetic."

I let out a sigh.

Kking?

Cer looked up at me with an expression that said, Want me to take care of them, master?

"No, we agreed not to do that. Cer."

How long had it been since we decided he'd act like a normal dog?

Just in case, I had given Cer a few instructions before leaving the clinic.

First, don't attack humans like me.

If a human tries to attack me, only restrain them.

No fire-breathing, of course, and try not to bite either.

He was a Monster, after all, so even a simple body slam would be enough to send an ordinary person flying, right?

And I had Absolute Shield.

Attack power aside, my defense was rock-solid.

Anyway.

The best thing to do with punks like these was to just ignore them.

"Let's go, Cer."

Kking!

I turned to walk away, but.

"Ugh, even the mutt's a spineless moron just like its owner."

At those words, Cer's steps stopped.

Snap.

The students flinched.

"Wh-what? You think glaring at us is gonna..."

And in that moment.

"Huh...? Huh?"

"Wh-whoa...!"

The students suddenly began stammering, their lips trembling violently.

Their eyes were flooding with terror.

"Ah, ugh!"

"AAAAAGH!"

The students, looking like they'd just seen a ghost, scrambled away in sheer panic.

Thud!

"Uwaah!"

One of them tripped over a rock while running.

Bam!

"Gack!"

Another slammed into a utility pole.

But they didn't seem to feel the pain. Without so much as a glance back, they vanished in a flash.

Then Cer looked up at me.

Kking!

As if to say, I chased them off, master!

'What was that?'

It didn't seem like Mana had been released.

I'd told him beforehand to keep his Mana well hidden, after all.

'Was Cer's expression really that scary?'

When he'd whipped around to glare at them, his face had scrunched up pretty fiercely.

Deep furrows between his brows, looking like he was about to bare his fangs.

They must've gotten spooked by that.

'For all their tough-guy act, they were just cowards.'

Well, they were just kids, after all.

In any case, he chased them off nicely, so...

"Oh my, good boy, Cer. You scared them off with sheer intimidation? Well done!"

What a puppy needs:

Always praise them when they do well.

I smiled at Cer and stroked his head.

Kking...! Kking.

Cer seemed to enjoy my touch, panting happily with his tail swinging in wide circles.

I looked at the spot where the punks had been.

A half-smoked cigarette butt lay on the ground, still lit.

'Ugh. Honestly.'

That could start a fire if they weren't careful.

Someone had to pick it up, and I guess that someone was me.

[Activating Absolute Shield (S).]

Picking it up barehanded felt gross, so I manually activated Absolute Shield, picked it up, and tossed it in the trash.

Not a trace of cigarette smell on my hand, and no ash stuck to it either.

'Oh wow, this is great?'

Even outside of dangerous situations, this could be a seriously useful perk if I made good use of it in daily life.

"Wow, did you chase those guys off?"

A voice came from behind me just then.

I turned around to see a woman who appeared to have been jogging, catching her breath as she approached.

"Those kids are seriously nasty. When there aren't many people around, they're always here smoking and picking fights with anyone who walks by."

"Ah, so they're regulars."

"Yeah. I went off on them once before, and they stopped messing with me. I saw them harassing someone again from a distance, so I was coming over to tell them off, but looks like you already handled it! Was it the big dog?"

I nodded.

"Our Cer is usually a sweetheart, but I guess he looks pretty scary when he scowls."

Maybe that expression just now was only not scary to me.

They say owners always think their dog is cute no matter what it does.

The so-called owner filter.

That explanation made sense.

"You said his name was Cer, right? Hey there, Cer!"

Kking!

Cer seemed to sense the woman was friendly and wagged his tail as he responded.

"Wow, he responds right away and looks really smart. I've been thinking about getting a dog myself for a while... It'd be nice to have one like this."

I nodded.

"Haha. It's great. But if you're going to get one, it's best to think it over carefully before deciding. It might be fun at first, but it takes real commitment to care for them until the very end, and there's also the pain of them leaving your side before you do."

"Ahh, yeah, that's true. The fact that you raise one knowing all that is really admirable. If I do end up getting a dog, I'll bring it to the park for walks! See you around! Bye, Cer!"

The woman smiled, waved goodbye, and went back to her jog.

I petted Cer and said,

"Shall we finish our loop and head back?"

Kking!!

*

After the walk, I brought Cer home.

"First things first, gotta feed him."

I had brought some basic supplies and some of the food we sell from the clinic when I came.

All the food sold at our animal hospital was high-quality stuff made with proper nutritional balance in mind.

But would this guy actually eat regular dog food?

Kkiiiiing!!!!

Chomp chomp chomp chomp!!

...He ate it just fine.

He was eating like he hadn't had a meal in days, and it made me feel guilty for not feeding him sooner.

If I'd known this would happen, I would have fed him at the clinic first.

As a Korean, I felt a pang of guilt for not having taken care of the meal first. [TL: In Korean culture, "Have you eaten?" is a common greeting, reflecting the deep cultural value placed on feeding others as a form of care.]

I was worried Cer might choke, so I spoke up.

"Easy there, Cer. Eat slowly. Nobody's going to take it from you."

Kking...!

Then suddenly his eating speed slowed down as if someone had hit the slow-motion button.

"No, you don't have to eat that slowly. I just said that because you seemed to be eating too fast."

Kking!

At that, the light returned to his eyes.

Reassured, he resumed eating his food at a reasonable pace this time.

"Does it taste okay?"

Kking!!!

He bobbed his head up and down enthusiastically, as if to say the flavor had moved him to tears.

Poor thing.

What on earth had he been eating before if he thought dog food tasted this good?

He was enjoying it so much, I should buy him some actual meat later.

If he loved dog food this much, how much more would he love meat?

"Hmm, the food costs are gonna be pretty steep... Oh wait. Never mind, Cer. Don't worry about it. I'll be making plenty of money at that job I mentioned earlier."

Kking...!

I'd been muttering to myself without thinking, then realized Cer understood every word and quickly corrected myself.

"All you need to do is eat well, stay healthy, and be happy, Cer. So don't worry about it and just eat. Okay?"

Appearances aside, I was an eight-year veteran Veterinarian.

I could handle one large dog just fine.

The monthly deposits into the savings account I was building up to buy a house in Seoul would shrink a little, but what could I do.

Cer glanced at me cautiously for a moment, and when I gave him repeated reassuring looks, he went back to eating.

'Is there another dog this good-natured in the world?'

His species was Hell Hound, but to me, he was nothing short of an angel.

'Watching Cer eat is making me hungry too.'

I'd been about to eat dinner when the CCTV alarm had gone off and I'd rushed out, after all.

I was starving.

The thought crossed my mind that I should have ordered delivery earlier, but it was already too late for that.

"Times like these call for ramyeon."

I boiled up one of the packs I had stashed away and polished it off with rice and kimchi.

After that, I took a shower and gave Cer a bath too.

It was his first time in the house, so a bath was in order.

Kking~.

He closed his eyes halfway as I washed him with warm water, seeming to enjoy it.

Most dogs threw a fit when it came to bath time, but this one truly was an angel.

On top of that, when it was time to dry off, he gave a quick puff of fire from his body and was fluffy-dry in an instant.

I told him he was allowed to use fire just for drying off.

"Yaaawn. I'm sleepy. Shall we go to bed, Cer?"

Kking!

I threw myself onto the bed.

Cer settled into a spot on one side of the room and lay down flat.

Seeing that, I patted the space beside me on the bed and said,

"Cer, don't lie there on that hard floor. Wanna come up here and sleep together?"

Kking...?

Cer's eyes went wide.

As if asking, Is that really okay?

"Of course. I'm scared of falling off the bed in my sleep, so I bought a big one on purpose. There's plenty of room for you."

Cer still seemed to hesitate slightly.

"Hey now. Do I neeed to order? Get up here right now."

At that, Cer reluctantly climbed onto the bed.

Sink-.

Having climbed onto the soft bed himself, Cer pressed down on it with wide eyes, testing its give.

He seemed unable to believe that a sleeping surface this soft could exist.

"Soft, isn't it? Hehe."

One look and it was obvious he'd been neglected wherever he'd been before.

From now on, he'd sleep somewhere soft.

Kking...

He must have been very tired, because Cer's breathing had already evened out.

Zzz, phew.

"Sleep well."

I'd been through a lot myself that day, so sleep overtook me quickly too.

*

Cer was happy.

A strange place he had barely managed to escape to.

A place he arrived at after wandering aimlessly, following a faint thread of light that guided him.

Once he emerged there, the faint light no longer led him onward.

Exhausted beyond measure, Cer had collapsed inside an unfamiliar building. That was where he met Shin-hu.

Shin-hu healed Cer without asking for anything in return.

He didn't get angry at Cer, didn't hit him.

Instead, in a gentle voice, he gave Cer a name, called him by it, and stroked him with warm hands.

Cer decided to devote his loyalty to Shin-hu for the rest of his life.

On the way home, they were walking through the park when some humans started picking a fight with his master.

He'd been told not to attack humans, so he held back, but then they called his master a "moron."

He could tolerate insults directed at himself, but he could not tolerate anyone insulting Shin-hu.

So he used a Hell Hound ability to plant fear into them.

It was a power that showed nightmarish visions to targets with low mental resistance.

To their eyes, Cer would have appeared as a colossal monster.

When he chased the humans away without harming them, Shin-hu praised him. He felt proud.

Back at the house, Shin-hu even gave him a delicious meal!

The taste was on an entirely different level from the food scraps he'd eaten in hell.

To Cer, who had been told every day that he was useless, Shin-hu said all he needed to do was grow up healthy and happy.

It was the first time Cer had ever heard such words.

'From now on, I'll be the one to protect master!'

With that resolve in his heart, he fell asleep.

Then, in the dead of night.

Snooore, phew.

Cer, who had been sleeping beside Shin-hu, snapped his eyes open.

'I sense Mana!'

Sniff sniff. Cer caught the scent of Mana.

This was a sign that a Dimensional Portal, or what Shin-hu called a Gate, was about to appear.

Soon, a Gate would open not far from here.

'This could be a threat to master.'

Dimensional Portals occasionally appeared in hell too, bringing invaders from other dimensions.

Cer had a fair understanding of Gates.

Of course, on Earth, humans patrolled and detected Gates, then summoned Hunters to clear them, but.

Cer had no way of knowing about any of that yet.

Quietly.

Cer slipped out of the house in silence.

Then he ran down the streets toward the Gate's emergence point.

Whoooosh!

The Gate opened just as he arrived.

Confirming it was a boss-type Gate, Cer charged in.

GROOOOAAAR!!

Inside was a massive Ogre.

A muscular Monster far larger than an orc.

On top of that, it was the boss, an Ogre King, ten times Cer's size, but.

KKIIING!!

Fire erupted from Cer's neck like a mane.

When Cer opened his jaws, Hellfire poured forth toward the Ogre.

GRAAAGGH!!

The Ogre collapsed with a heavy thud.

Cer darted in and clamped down on its nape, finishing the job.

In a boss-type Gate, killing the boss meant it was over.

A Mana Stone emerged from the charred Ogre's body.

-Hmm, the food costs are gonna be pretty steep...

Cer knew that Mana Stones had value.

Granted, back in the Second Demon Palace where Cer had been, an Ogre King's Mana Stone wasn't considered particularly valuable.

Still, hoping it might help even a little, he picked up the Mana Stone in his mouth and exited the Gate.

Then he returned to Shin-hu's house.

Cer had watched the procedure Shin-hu used to open this mysterious door when they came in earlier.

Beep, beep-beep-beep-beep. Ding~

He opened the door, came inside, placed the Mana Stone on the living room table, and then padded into the bedroom.

Kking.

Back in Shin-hu's arms, Cer drifted off to sleep with a proud heart.