The triplets with the surname U: Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
In the game, they provided the opportunity for Gang Hanbyeol and Do Gyeonu to grow close, and were known as Do Seungu’s hunting dogs.
But perhaps because they didn’t like being called that, they called themselves by another nickname.
That nickname was…
「U Geumdong & U Eundong & U Dongdong」
―If you speak of us!
―We are the gatekeepers of hell!
―The Three-Headed Hound!
―We are the Cerberus of Geumgang Academy!
Uh…
In the game, they really appeared like that.
Striking their exclusive poses together.
Because of that, although the triplets were extra villains with little screen time, they were quite memorable characters.
When the game was enjoying explosive popularity, there was even a challenge on social media imitating the triplets’ lines and poses.
But even so…
‘They weren’t opponents to be taken lightly.’
The triplets, to the extent that they proudly called themselves Cerberus, had excellent synergy in combat.
And they were cunning.
In the battle between Gang Hanbyeol and the triplets.
Players with clumsy controls were often defeated by them and got stuck early in the story.
So much so that they would wail and come to the Brave Hearts community to complain.
Saying they might not be gatekeepers of hell, but they were definitely gatekeepers of the early game.
‘So I can’t let my guard down.’
I decided not to drop my suspicion.
These cunning bastards might be kneeling before me as if submitting, while thinking something else entirely inside.
‘How do I know if they knelt to gain momentum?’
Perhaps the reason they crouched like that was to conceal a hidden weapon in their bosom.
Or while I was focused on them, other guys might be waiting somewhere to ambush me.
‘But I don’t sense any other presence…’
I spread my detection net once more.
It seemed only these guys were on the rooftop.
And then.
‘Hm?’
I caught a presence hiding behind the rooftop door.
A familiar presence.
There was no way I wouldn’t know it.
‘Yeon Haneul? Didn’t she go home?’
Why is she here?
I turned my gaze to the rooftop door.
Right then, white rabbit ears were peeking furtively through the gap in the door.
It was Yeon Haneul.
She was the only one in this school with rabbit ears.
‘I don’t know why she’s there, but anyway, it means there’s no one else around besides these guys…’
I turned my gaze back to the triplets.
What intention did they have for calling me out?
To find that out.
“I guess I should start by knocking you out after all.”
“What!? What do you mean….”
“How would I know what trick you’re plotting while pretending otherwise?”
“No, hey….”
“That’s why I have to completely neutralize you.”
“We don’t have any intention of fighting…!”
“If you have something to say to me, say it after you wake up.”
Knocking them out wasn’t difficult.
Just strike their necks.
Thanks to having knocked out Do Seungu before, I had more or less grasped the knack.
I was about to strike the necks of the guys poking their heads out.
It was then that the triplets spat out words like a machine gun.
“We’ll do anything you tell us to!”
“So please, we’re begging you!”
“You’re the only one we have left!”
“Please sponsor us!”
“…What?”
Hearing them ask for sponsorship, I lowered the sword I was holding.
It seemed I needed to hear them out.
* * *
The triplets began to talk, putting their hands behind their heads to prove they had no intention of harming me.
“So…”
Cutting out the useless embellishments.
I organized their story.
The point was simple.
“You were abandoned by Do Seungu, right?”
That was one way to put it.
According to the triplets, after being toyed with by me at the swordsmanship gym some time ago, Do Seungu’s contact had become infrequent.
And yesterday, he suddenly contacted them to firmly say he would no longer sponsor them.
Not only that.
‘Do Seungu took measures so they couldn’t attend the swordsmanship gym…’
It seemed Do Seungu had expelled them so they couldn’t register at any swordsmanship gym operated by the Divine Sword Do family.
‘They’ve fallen out of Do Seungu’s favor.’
This was something that didn’t happen in the game.
Naturally.
Because there wasn’t a story where the triplets suffered at my hands.
So it wasn’t an incomprehensible development that Do Seungu was disappointed in the triplets because of that matter and cast them aside.
However, the response felt excessive, and it was suspicious that he would cast them aside now.
There was one possible inference.
‘Is it because he lost to me?’
Two days ago, Do Seungu was defeated by me.
There was a high possibility that the bastard took out his anger on the blameless triplets.
The timing was too impeccable.
Anyway, so…
“You can’t get sponsored by him anymore, so you want me to sponsor you instead?”
“We’re begging you like this! Please, we’re asking!”
“We know we have no shame!”
“We want to become Hunters!”
The triplets who had been cut loose came to me.
No, should I say they had summoned me by letter.
I sighed as I looked at the guys with their hands on their heads in a defenseless gesture.
“Then you could’ve just said so. Why did you write a letter telling me to come up to the rooftop?”
“It’s because we thought you’d ignore it….”
“Why didn’t you write your names on the letter?”
“That was for the same reason! We thought you’d ignore it if you saw our names.”
“The handwriting was quite pretty, though?”
“That’s because our handwriting is hard to read, so we asked the kid who writes best in class instead.”
“But even though we didn’t write our names, we gave a hint that it was us!”
“What? How?”
“We put stickers on the envelope opening. Three stickers of different colors.”
“Gold! Silver! Bronze! You should’ve noticed from that! You have no tact… sorry, we were wrong! Please forget it!”
“Sigh… Your stickers were hearts, though?”
“We wanted to express our hearts!”
“It’s our hearts! Please accept them!”
“Yeah, no.”
The triplets flattered me to get on my good side.
Blatantly trying to receive my patronage by any means.
Their clamoring scattered my mind and filled it with thoughts.
‘What should I do…’
I didn’t particularly want the story to flow exactly as it was.
But I also wanted to avoid influencing the story and bringing about a butterfly effect I couldn’t handle.
In that sense.
Even if the future of the triplets, who didn’t hold much weight in the story, changed, it wouldn’t have a big impact.
‘Even if these guys’ future changes, it won’t trigger a bad ending.’
So the triplets’ circumstances were none of my concern.
It served them right.
As someone who held a personal grudge against them, I only needed to laugh at their predicament.
How delightful it would be to enjoy the faces of those bastards who had their future stolen and were left in despair.
It was like blowing my nose without lifting a finger.
My mind should feel refreshed.
It should.
“Ha….”
But my mind felt far from refreshed.
Rather, it was unpleasant.
It felt as if sweet potatoes with their vines still attached were stuffed in my heart.
I guess I couldn’t become a bad person after all.
‘You pushover… no, you moral bastard.’
Had I been like this in my previous life too?
I didn’t know.
However, even after realizing my past life, I didn’t think I could be vicious enough to ruin someone’s life.
“Gyeonu, please….”
“….”
The triplets’ eyes welled up with tears.
In the end, after deliberating, I decided to accept their request.
“Put your hands down and stand up.”
“…Huh?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said stand up.”
“Y-yeah!”
The triplets jumped in surprise.
As they scrambled to their feet and stood at attention, I pointed at them one by one.
“Underlings Gold, Silver, Bronze. From today, you guys are my underlings and bread shuttles. If you want my sponsorship from now on, listen to me well. If I tell you to buy bread, buy it. If I tell you to bark like dogs….”
“Underlings? What do you mean underlings between friends the same age!?”
“Right! Even Seungu didn’t do that!”
“At least call us subordinates!”
“Tsk.”
“Finish what you were saying.”
“Should we buy bread?”
“Woof, woof!”
This was rather a good thing.
Let’s think positively.
I decided to change my way of thinking as I looked at the guys groveling before me.
‘I was looking for guys to boss around anyway, so these guys aren’t bad.’
The academy city that served as the game’s stage.
To prepare for incidents happening all over the academy city, not just the academy, it was better to have many people I could use.
The triplets could fulfill that role.
I didn’t know if they’d help as main force, but they were sufficient for menial tasks.
“I’ll tell my father, so you can attend the swordsmanship gym like before.”
“Thank you! You’re really the only one!”
“But if by any chance Do Seungu orchestrated this to make you guys spies… then you should know you’ll really die. No matter how nice I am, I won’t forgive a backstab.”
“That will never happen!”
“We’re not spies!”
“We pledge our loyalty! Loyalty! Loyalty!”
“I’ll be watching to see if you do well from now on. Underlings Gold, Silver, Bronze.”
“But are you really going to call us that?”
“We have names, U Geumdong, U Eundong, U Dongdong….”
“Can’t you add the ‘dong’ at the end too?”
“Underlings Gold, Silver, Bronze. Your names are hard to memorize too, so let’s keep it simple. Simple. Okay?”
“….”
“I’ll think about names after seeing how you act toward me. Now, loyalty.”
“Loyalty! Loyalty! Ugh, dammit….”
And so.
I took in three mongrels.
I’d have to make good use of them from now on.
* * *
What a relief, truly.
The situation had flowed differently than expected.
“Phew…”
Yeon Haneul, who had opened the door slightly to peek at the rooftop through the crack without being noticed, sighed in relief.
‘So it was… the triplets again.’
U Geumdong, U Eundong, U Dongdong.
The triplets were known to be wild and fierce children.
At least they weren’t girls.
Knowing the identity of the person who wrote the letter to Do Gyeonu, her heart felt lighter.
She could continue staying by Do Gyeonu’s side.
When she thought that.
‘Why am I like this?’
She was seized by a strange sense of relief.
An emotion that couldn’t be expressed in words.
When she focused on that emotion, her face flushed and her heart thumped.
Her lips were about to curl up.
‘No, don’t go up!’
A feeling that was unfamiliar, yet not entirely unpleasant.
It tickled her chest and made her restless.
Weird, weird, weird.
Embarrassing, awkward, shameful.
If she fell into this feeling, she felt like she wouldn’t be able to control herself at will.
She wouldn’t be herself.
No, she would become something.
It was thrilling yet scary.
‘I mustn’t be conscious of it.’
To shake off that feeling, Yeon Haneul shook her head violently.
She rubbed her face to keep the corners of her mouth from rising, and pressed her hand firmly against her chest to calm the throbbing.
Pressing her ears flat against her head as if to stick them there, she covered her face.
“Calm down, Haneul. Haneul, calm down. Calm down…”
Yeon Haneul closed her eyes to sink into darkness.
She repeated the same words over and over as if comforting herself.
And then.
“What are you doing there?”
“…!”
Focused on her emotions, she had been caught by Do Gyeonu.
Yeon Haneul jumped in surprise at the voice from behind and turned around.
He was staring at her with a stony face.
“Didn’t you go home? I told you you didn’t have to follow me.”
“Ah, that’s…”
What should she answer?
She couldn’t hesitate in this situation.
She had to speak quickly.
Otherwise, he would be suspicious.
Too flustered, Yeon Haneul blurted out whatever came to mind.
“T-there’s this! I thought someone might need to report to the police or run to get a teacher in case of emergency….”
“Even though it was something I could solve alone, you had to?”
“Y-you never know! And you said it before. A superior Hunter must know to assume the worst-case scenario.”
“….”
You idiot, fool, stupid rabbit!
Did she think that made sense?
Realizing how absurd her spouted excuse was, Yeon Haneul inwardly grabbed her rabbit ears.
But the excuse worked.
“Well, you’re not wrong. You have a point.”
“R-right?”
Do Gyeonu nodded with a serious face.
Internally cringing, she quickly agreed so he wouldn’t raise any questions.
And then she swiftly changed the subject.
“S-so? Did you resolve things well?”
“Yeah, they said they wanted to become my bread shuttles.”
“Bread shuttles? Uh, y-yeah… I see.”
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Hm? Why?”
“From now on, if there’s anything you want to eat, just tell me. I’ll have them go buy it.”
“….”
“You can boss them around too.”
“Ah, yeah… if the occasion arises.”
“And here, I’m returning your sword. Luckily, I didn’t have to use it even once.”
Do Gyeonu spoke with a shameless pride, as if he had nothing to be ashamed of before the heavens, about having obtained bread shuttles.
Yeon Haneul found that partner of hers absurd, yet funny and cute.
Then he shrugged his shoulders.
“Since we’re done here, let’s go home. You don’t have anything else to do, right?”
“Yeah! No, I don’t!”
Yeon Haneul smiled brightly.
As she had been since becoming his companion, today too she left school with him.
She had become the childhood friend of a mid-boss.