He was approaching the farm, blood dripping down his body.
“Squeeeeek!”
“Kkyaaaah!”
Cheche and Guru screamed and clung to each other.
Scawy!
The man approaching with that terrifying appearance suddenly came to a halt.
“Guru?”
“...Uncwe?”
Eh? Why’s Uncwe Hoongsam here?
While Guru stood puzzled at the unexpected figure’s appearance,
he shook off the blood and raised his arm to wipe his face clean of it. But his clothes were already soaked in blood, so it didn’t help much.
Looking troubled, he scratched his cheek and lifted his head with a gentle smile.
Only his teeth showed white through the blood-covered face.
Scawy!
“It’s okay. It’s not my blood.”
Was that really okay?
Cheche, on the verge of losing his mind at the horror-movie-like sight, screamed.
“Squeek—!” (Carnivowous squiwwew!)
“Eh!”
That’s a thing?
In response, Siwon replied softly.
“Omnivorous, actually.”
“Eh?”
Is that how you respond?
“Oh, maybe that’s not what you meant.”
He trailed off awkwardly, then nodded like he understood.
“Ah, yeah. I’ve eaten squirrel before.”
“Sqwi?!”
Cheche bristled, tail standing on end.
How did he eat a squirrel?! Guru asked nervously,
“F-fwying squiwwew too?!”
Siwon smiled gently and replied,
“No, flying squirrels are CITES-listed, so I haven’t really had the chance.”
“Ah...?”
Guru’s voice lifted at the end. So you would eat one if you got the chance?!
With an “Ah!” Siwon smacked his own palm—
“If it’s in a dungeon like this, there might be a chance.”
He added seriously, “CITES probably doesn’t apply here anyway.”
The fact that he sounded 100% sincere, with not a trace of joking, made Guru even more scared.
Guru trembled as she hugged Cheche tight.
Shivew shivew.
Was Uncwe Hoongsam... a scawy pewson wike dis?!
When the squirrels handed him a towel, Siwon thanked them and began wiping off the blood. He cleaned himself up as best as he could and then asked,
“But Guru, why do you have blood on your clothes?”
“Ah!”
“Are you hurt?”
Guru shook her head.
“No hurtie. It’s not dat. Gwuu went to fetch watew at da stweam... and picked up Owppaw!”
“Hmm?”
“Khak!”
Propped up against the headboard, Serhi covered his mouth.
There was no telling how long recovery would take at this rate.
He might have to rest here for a while.
Squirrel tribe, though...?
Just the name sounded ridiculously harmless.
And that baby flying squirrel? Apparently the tribe’s king.
Serhi let out a dry chuckle.
What a ridiculous place.
Outside the window stretched a peaceful countryside scene and a cozy little farm.
Is that... a backhoe?
He rubbed his eyes as a squirrel pulled a mini excavator across the farm.
It looked out of place—modern heavy machinery in a scene straight out of a pastoral painting.
For a squirrel farm, their agricultural methods were surprisingly advanced.
“There’s all kinds of shit here...”
Still, the place didn’t seem dangerous at all.
Maybe it was okay to lower his guard for a bit. Just as Serhi thought that—
“Oppaw!”
SLAM! The door flew open.
Serhi’s gaze locked onto the man standing behind Guru.
His body froze stiff.
Bloodstained ash-blonde hair, slightly drooped eyes, green irises.
A Gnosis hunter.
He’d never faced him directly, but he knew the man had high-level reading skills.
The reason all of Naohyeong’s surveillance eyes planted in the bureau were destroyed... must’ve been that skill.
If he can read Gnosis...
Jin Siwon strode up to the bedside.
If it goes on like this...
Serhi squeezed his eyes shut.
Jin Siwon’s hand reached toward him.
I’m dead!
FWIP! The blanket was flipped back.
“The external injuries don’t look too bad. That’s a relief.”
Jin Siwon spoke gently, smiling as if to reassure him.
“Don’t worry, this blood’s not mine.”
Of course it’s not... it’s probably from my mannequins.
“You’re the one who saved Guru, right?”
“Uh? Oh...”
But seriously, does he really not know I’m Gnosis?
Serhi blinked up at Siwon, dazed.
The Gnosis hunter who had slaughtered every one of Irina’s creations and hunted down every eye Naohyeong had planted... this guy?
“If it was a snow leopard, then you must’ve come from the Contaminated Zone, right? How’d you end up here?”
Behind Serhi, the snow leopard’s tail gave a soft swish. It must’ve slipped out from sheer shock earlier.
He can’t read me?
Can’t use the reading skill right now?
Maybe it’s because of the RP Dungeon. A few of his own skills were also restricted when entering the RP Dungeon.
But he couldn’t exactly ask the guy “Hey, is your skill blocked?”
While Serhi remained silent, mulling it over as he stared at Jin Siwon—
Guru answered brightly in his place.
“Oppaw fwoated hewe! Wike dead jewwyfish!”
“Ahh! So you floated in from the Contaminated Zone like a dead jellyfish.”
“Jewwyfish?”
Serhi’s face twisted in disbelief.
The dazed-looking man and the baby flying squirrel sat side by side by the bed, smiling innocently at him.
Was the Gnosis hunter always this much of a dumbass?
“Shooo! Den Gwuu used da duckie gwabbie and picked up da jewwyfish!”
“Wow, you did that all by yourself?”
“Yeshhh! Wight, Oppaw? It was jewwyfish, wight?”
Guru’s eyes sparkled like she was urging him to validate her achievement. Jin Siwon also smiled warmly and looked at him.
Serhi hesitated, then nodded once.
“Uh... yeah. Came in like, uh... a jellyfish.”
...Fuck.
At Jin Siwon’s request, the squirrels fetched bandages from somewhere and handed them over.
“How did you get hurt?”
Jin Siwon asked as he wrapped Serhi’s injuries with practiced ease, clearly familiar with this sort of treatment.
Serhi couldn’t exactly say “I got internal damage ‘cause you destroyed all my mannequins,” so he improvised.
“[Erosion].”
“Are you from Kirrus?”
Flinch.
Whenever he used complicated terms, his native language had a habit of slipping out unconsciously.
“No, Russia. That’s from my mother’s side.”
Kirrus, a Slavic-speaking country, didn’t differ much from Russian, so Siwon nodded knowingly.
“Ah, I see. Then did Mr. Snow Leopard come with Brom?”
“Serhi. That’s my name.”
“Seruhii?”
Guru stretched the last syllable, and Serhi chuckled before correcting her [N O V E L I G H T] pronunciation.
“Ser-hi.”
“Ser-hiiii—”
“Yeah, just like that.”
Smiling faintly, Serhi lightly tugged on Guru’s ears with both hands.
“You can’t even hide your ears or tail. You sure you’re a real king? Not a fake?”
“Hmphh! Gwuu’s a baby so dey said it’s okay!”
Siwon watched the two of them with a warm smile, and Serhi shot him a sidelong glance.
Just then, as if something had occurred to him, Siwon opened his mouth.
“Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Jin Siwon, team leader of the Special Investigations Division at the Bureau of Awakened Management. My former name was Yevgeny Markov.”
Serhi averted his gaze, feeling a strange wash of emotions.
To think he’d be sitting face to face, listening to the Gnosis hunter introduce himself.
But—Yevgeny?
“Zhenya?” (Yevgeny’s diminutive)
Serhi furrowed his brow, as if recalling something.
“Yes... I was.”
Siwon blushed as he replied shyly.
“That’s funny. No one calls me that anymore.”
The Gnosis hunter.
Maybe I should just kill him now while he’s distracted.

Comments

Loading...