“Open, cradwe!”
At that, a snow rabbit popped out from Mephisto’s head and fluttered its sprout leaves.
“Kkyung!”
Along with its booming reply, a small window appeared before her eyes.
[Emergency! Cradleization failed!]
‘It, it failed?!’
What should I do? Geuru furtively gauged Beillak’s reaction.
Beillak wore an expression as if to ask how such a thing could even happen.
[Changing request. Creating a subspace to replace the cradle.]
[Would you like to open the entrance to the temporary cradle?]
Good, this should work, right?
When she pressed “Yes,” space split apart and a small entrance opened.
“To think you cannot even open this much…….”
Beillak shook his head, and Geuru puffed out her cheeks.
“Geuru is still a child…….”
Clicking his tongue, Beillak obediently stepped inside.
“Huff…….”
Geuru, snorting in indignation, slipped in after him.
Inside the subspace was a pure white snowfield.
‘It’s not cold at all.’
Here, she could make as many snowmen as she wanted.
While Geuru marveled and delighted in it,
Beillak stepped across the snow.
At the same time, his body began to darken pitch-black, and together with horns, his enormous true form started to reveal itself.
Beneath black horns that grew in branching shapes like tree limbs, a mask covered his face, and a jet-black veil that reached down to his feet wrapped around his body.
—Ha……!
Feeling a chill so cold it seemed it would freeze even his lungs, Beillak drew in a deep breath.
The cradle where he was born had also been a snowfield like this.
It felt as if he had returned to his homeland.
An intense sense of liberation!
‘I’m back.’
His power!
Beillak, who had been laughing as he looked up at the sky, shifted his gaze.
At the end of his line of sight, he saw the child making a snowman.
Geuru hummed as she scraped together the snow.
She had been thinking of making a Daddy snowman and a Geuru snowman, when the sprout leaves of the snow rabbit sitting on Mephisto’s head trembled.
‘Hm?’
Suddenly, the subspace began to collapse.
This quickly?!
“Kkyuu…….”
When the snow rabbit became woozy, Mephisto kicked it in the belly.
“Kkyu…….”
“Ppi!”
As if saying they had to hurry back, Mephisto pointed at the entrance.
Geuru trudged through the snow toward Beillak.
“Bei—”
Beyond the mask, his sharp gaze blazed.
“We gotta go now.”
Geuru held out her hand.
Beillak stared at the tiny hand.
‘A collapsing cradle…….’
And.
‘The tiny monarch of another world.’
To him now, she was nothing more than a single mouthful.
He silently stared at Mephisto.
When that child sealed his father, he had refused to submit until the very end and had fallen into corruption by resisting the principles of the world.
In his world, the monarch was a god. The one who had given birth to all bloodlines and civilizations from the primordial cradle.
Because he had resisted the order of such a monarch, his fall had called down a curse, and that curse came with pain that melted the bones. As the curse dug into his body, terrible screams burst from him.
Even so, the indifferent ruler of the snowfield did not so much as glance at his cries.
He merely sat in the snowfield that had sealed him, closing his eyes with a bored expression.
After that dreadful agony, when Beillak opened his eyes again, he could tell that his world had collapsed.
And that he had been placed inside the vessel of a tiny bloodline from another world.
“……Why’re you like that?”
When Beillak only stared and showed no sign of taking her hand, Geuru asked cautiously.
“…….”
The cradle opened by the little monarch resembled the snowfield of that day when he had suffered.
Before long, with the collapsing snowfield behind him, Beillak knelt before the small child.
Now, everything was futile.
Having lost his monarch and been trapped in a frail vessel, his pride had long since vanished.
—My name is Beillak Shados. The first bloodline created by the first monarch, Sheier. The First Seat Guardian of the Hesed Knights.
As it collapsed, he could feel it. Even this true body he had now was only a momentary mirage created by the subspace, and the instant he returned to the original world, he would once again be trapped in the body of a child.
He lightly placed his fingertip atop Geuru’s outstretched hand.
—As of this moment, I shall become the little monarch’s vassal.
At last, a system window appeared before Geuru’s eyes.
[Would you like to register “Beillak Shados” as your vassal?]
It was the same window as when Ham Honggi appeared.
Then that meant an SSS-rank subordinate?
“Yes!”
Geuru tightly grasped Beillak’s fingertip.
‘I got a subordinate!’
However, there was one problem……
“You’re too big.”
Just as she thought it would be nice if he were about the size of Mephisto or the snow rabbit,
[Activating skill “Moldy-Mold.”]
“Ooh!”
In an instant, Beillak shrank until he was small enough to fit on her palm.
—……!
Beillak flopped down onto her palm.
“Hmm, Geuru likes things that are a little more round and cute.”
[Activating skill “Moldy-Mold.”]
Along with that, Beillak transformed into a hamster-like form with eyes placed haphazardly, as if a child had scribbled them on.
“Myut!”
—What is this!
“You got small.”
Geuru’s eyes sparkled.
“Myuung! Myung myung!”
[Within the monarch’s domain, vassals are subject to absolute restraint.]
As if refuting Beillak’s words, a status window appeared.
“Hmm, I see.”
“Ppii—”
Geuru nodded as if she understood again, and Mephisto also nodded along as though he had roughly understood.
“……Myuhu.”
Looking at the two fools, Beillak let out a deep sigh.
*
The machine room beneath the resort.
Gidan lifted his head after stepping on the remnants of the Divine Army that had arrived belatedly.
“Nothing special.”
After interrogating the remnant who had handed over the tablet, they had raided the machine room where the ringleaders of the trafficking operation had gathered.
“Looks like they already sent word around.”
After confirming that an emergency message had been sent en masse to the prospective buyers who had already received tablets, Gidan let out a soft sigh.
‘Is it impossible to sweep up all the buyers too?’
However,
Jin Siwon and Serhi were searching for something.
Jin Siwon, who had been reading one of the remnants with his Reading skill, shook his head.
“This one doesn’t know either.”
“What about Allen Kravis? Are you sure there’s nothing more he knows about Irina?”
“Mm, let’s go check.”
Soon, the two turned their heads toward Gidan.
Gidan tilted his head. He did not know what this was about, but……
“I’ll stay here, so go.”
Agents from the Special Investigation Division and the Awakened Investigation Unit were continuing to gather in the machine room.
Someone had to remain behind to explain the situation and prepare for any possible further attacks.
When Gidan said he would take care of that, Serhi and Jin Siwon left the machine room to search for Irina and climbed the stairs.
Allen Kravis should be on one of the upper floors where the suites were.
Since there were two S-ranks, climbing the stairs was faster than waiting for the elevator.
Soon, they grabbed the railing and went up, then stood before Allen’s room. Just as they pressed the bell and waited for an answer from inside,
“……Mm.”
Serhi opened his mouth.
“Jenya.”
“Yes?”
Jin Siwon turned his head.
The boy could not meet his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck.
His awkward, hesitant manner made him look even younger, and Jin Siwon smiled.
‘Would he get angry if I patted his head now?’
Because he had a prickly personality like a feline, it was hard to approach him easily.
Even without reading him with “Barrett’s Whisper,” Jin Siwon knew all too well that Serhi felt awkward around him.
It was probably because deceiving Geuru and him in the RP Dungeon and then leaving had remained on his mind all this time.
He shoved the hand that had been about to pat Serhi’s head on its own into his pocket.
“It’s, uh, nothing much. After this is over, I have something to say.”
Instead of asking what it was, Jin Siwon smiled gently.
Perhaps thanks to the good influence Geuru had given him earlier, Serhi seemed ready to take an honest step forward.
“All right.”
Just as Serhi was about to lower his head in embarrassment,
Throb!
Jin Siwon clutched at his chest.
Pain.
‘Again…….’
The doctor had said it was a psychological issue, but ever since the RP Dungeon, the inexplicable chest pain had been growing more and more frequent.
No, to be precise—
Ever since he met Irina.
“……!”
At the thought that suddenly occurred to him, Jin Siwon shuddered.
‘What if that wasn’t the only seed……?’