Rea looked at the bowl of bibimbap in front of her with an uneasy expression.
‘This is meant to be eaten, right?’
She glanced around the restaurant and saw that everyone else was mixing their rice.
But the hand holding her spoon refused to move so readily.
The three people around her kept stealing glances at the hesitant Rea.
Finally, she steeled herself and heaped a spoonful of bibimbap onto her spoon.
As she glared at the spoon for a moment, the minors looked at her as if cheering her on.
Right. Refusing food here would be impolite.
In the end, she squeezed her eyes shut, opened her mouth wide, and put the bibimbap inside.
She had thought that mixing all sorts of things together like this might result in a terrible taste, but the chewy grains of rice and crunchy texture of the vegetables were not bad at all.
As she chewed, she opened her eyes and began to savor the flavor, taking her time. The nutty, spicy taste went down her throat with a gulp.
The sharp, savory flavor lingered in her mouth, making her want to take another bite.
‘Just one more spoonful…’
And so, one spoonful became another. Rea began to enjoy the bibimbap without any further hesitation, and smiles spread across the children’s faces.
Whenever they pushed a dish toward her, telling her to try this or that, Rea scooped up a generous portion and happily chewed away.
After taking a bite of braised short ribs, Rea covered her mouth. She could not stop smiling at the sweet and salty flavor.
“It’s delicious.”
Before long, flowers of laughter began to bloom across the table.
*
At that moment, the Maltese tied to a garden pillar lay quietly on its stomach with the hamster and rabbit riding on its back.
Several employees passing by reached out their hands, calling it cute, but Yurian merely turned his head aside and sighed, pretending not to notice.
After all, Yurian could think of nothing but escaping from here as quickly as possible and returning to his master.
But for now, he was merely an ordinary puppy.
‘Isn’t there another way?’
With a low whine, Yurian rested his chin on his front paws.
“Hmm…”
While Yurian was worrying like that,
Beilak, enjoying the outdoor air for the first time in a while, rested his chin in one paw as he watched Yurian behaving so unusually well.
He had sensed it ever since they came to Hyeonak, but after watching him carefully just in case, Beilak realized that his suspicion was probably correct.
He quietly whispered to Ruksifer.
“Mew.” (The mount’s condition is poor.)
“Ggyu?”
Ruksifer’s ears perked up.
“Mew.” (Ever since we arrived in Hyeonak, he hasn’t gotten angry or even trembled.)
“Ggyuu?”
Wasn’t that a good thing? Ruksifer seemed to be asking that, but to Beilak, it was anything but good news.
“Mew mew mew? Mew mew mut.” (The Maltese who even lost his temper with On Jurim suddenly isn’t getting angry? That means something’s wrong with him.)
Oh! Ruksifer nodded as if persuaded.
Beilak sat cross-legged with his short legs, folded his arms, and tilted his head to the side.
There were several possibilities he suspected, but there was only one worst-case scenario.
Beilak spoke somberly.
“Mew mew mut.” (The skill’s duration may be coming to an end.)
The thing that had turned Yurian into a Maltese was Yurian’s own skill, deflected by Mephisto.
He had deliberately not told Gru or Mephisto, but there was no way a mere human’s skill could last forever.
At that, Ruksifer opened his mouth in bewilderment.
“Ggyut…!”
“Mew…” (Yes, if that happens…)
Beilak clenched his tiny hands into fists.
“Mew!” (Our mount will disappear!)
“Ggyu, ggyuuuu?!”
“Mewhoot…”
Beilak ground his teeth in frustration.
“Mew mew.” (We have to overcome this situation. Otherwise, we’ll have no choice but to return to the bag.)
“Ggyu ggyu…” (But…)
“Mut mut?” (Are you planning to fight Mephisto over the top of our master’s head?)
Remembering Mephisto kicking up a jealous fuss, Ruksifer shook his head vigorously.
“Mew!” (That’s why this Maltese must remain a Maltese!)
Beilak raised his voice as if delivering a speech.
The innocent Ruksifer had been completely swayed by Beilak’s persuasion.
“Mew. Mew mew mew.” (So go steal some filial piety snacks. You know where the master hides them, don’t you?)
“Ggyu…!” (How could I…!)
Ruksifer covered his round, open mouth with both front paws.
“Mew mew mew mew mew mew mew.” (We need to feed this fellow filial piety snacks and amplify the skill’s effect. So he can’t turn back into a human.)
Ruksifer’s eyes trembled.
To think up such an evil plan…
“Ggyu…!” (You evil genius hamster…!)
Kekeke! Kahahahaha! The ugly hamster burst into a sinister laugh.
The employees began whispering as they watched the hamster laughing atop the Maltese.
“Ratatouille?”
*
Rea felt as though everything before her eyes were spinning.
“Hi, Gru! Hi, Dani! Hi, Serhi! Looks like your friend came too~”
The three were welcomed wherever they went, and Rea had found herself being greeted along with them, which was how she ended up beginning a tour of Hyeonak.
‘Why?!’
The children apparently believed that Rea had truly come to tour Hyeonak.
After darting all over the training room, break room, lounge, playroom, and various other places, the next destination for the minors and Rea was the simulation room.
“Jurim-hyung gave me an earful, saying that I had to earn the money to use the simulation room myself.”
Rea’s eyes widened.
In the central space surrounded by glass on all sides stood a gray-haired man who looked fierce.
Around him, a shimmering, semisolid Milky Way undulated.
“Amakusa Kazuki?!”
“Isn’t it amazing?”
Rea nodded blankly.
A world’s one and only S-rank creator—if that did not make a hunter’s heart race, nothing would.
“So you’re making a new series?”
“Yeah. I think hyung was stimulated a little after a new S+ came out, too.”
Naturally, Gidan and Serhi’s gazes turned toward Gru.
Gru puffed out his chest, making a walnut-like bulge beneath his chin, and nodded smugly.
Meanwhile, Rea never once imagined that Gru had created the new S+, and instead turned her head this way and that, wondering if she might get to see Jjapso as well.
When Rea, who had initially been reserved, began to appear thoroughly absorbed in the tour, Gidan and Gru exchanged glances and snickered.
The next destination was Serhi’s office.
One side of the office looked like a game room, with a large television and several game consoles set up there.
Gidan picked up a controller and placed it in Rea’s hands.
The title ‘OVERCOOKED2’ was displayed on the screen.
“Gru is on my team, and Rea, you’re on Serhi’s team.”
After dividing the teams as he pleased, Gidan high-fived Gru, declaring that they were the “patriotic conservative team.”
Rea blinked as she pressed the buttons on the controller.
“Sorry, but… I don’t know how to play any games.”
“You can play as long as you have fingers, so don’t worry.”
At Serhi’s words, Rea gave a small nod.
And Serhi immediately regretted what he had said.
On the game screen, Rea’s character was wandering around aimlessly, having lost all sense of direction.
“No! You’re supposed to give it to me!”
Serhi shouted angrily. Rea was far worse at the game than he had expected.
“I’m sooorry!”
When Rea shouted her apology with a woeful expression, Gidan and Gru burst into laughter.
As Rea apologized again under Serhi’s scolding, she stared blankly at Gru, who was giggling.
“…?”
The child’s laughter was so beautiful and endearing that she suddenly found herself unable to speak.
‘Come to think of it, what am I doing right now?’
This was no time to be playing around.
The moment she realized what she had come here to do, her mind went blank, and then all sorts of questions came surging in like a tidal wave.
Hyeonak looked so ordinary, unlike what she had imagined. Like an ordinary company where kind and good people worked.
‘What if I’m actually mistaken?’
If something terrible had happened at Hyeonak, could the child laugh like that?
No—could something so horrible really have taken place in a bright and friendly place like this?
Rea gripped the controller more tightly to hide her confusion.
Amid that situation, the children’s innocent laughter and delighted expressions gradually blurred the suspicions she had held.
“How can you be even worse than Gru?!”
At Serhi’s words, the indignant Gru protested.
“Gru is good at it!”
“Let’s play the next game. You might be good at shooting games.”
At Gidan’s intervention, Serhi folded his arms again and fell silent.
When an opening screen with a dark background appeared on the large television, Rea blinked.
It seemed to be a multiplayer horror game in which they had to survive while avoiding monsters.
- Hah, hah…
On the screen, Rea’s character awoke in a room without any light and began to pant.
A small, filthy room with old tiled walls, barely illuminated by a single light.
After moving the character around the unfamiliar yet somehow not unfamiliar space, Rea suddenly shuddered and looked around.
She was definitely sitting inside Serhi’s office.
‘But why…?’
Why could she hear the sound of water trickling down through a drain beside her ear?
“…”
As a forgotten memory rose to the surface, Rea froze with the controller in her hands, as though her breath had stopped.
At the same time, her breathing began to grow ragged.
The place where the young Rea had lived was a square room with white tiles, barely three pyeong in size.
The walls were often stained with dampness, and the room was filled with the smell of stagnant water and cold air.
Trickle, trickle. Sometimes water flowed through a long groove carved into the bottom of the wall.
At times, blood flowed down with it.
When she turned her head toward the corner of the square room, that child would be sitting there with her legs drawn up.
That child who looked exactly like a twin, with the same face as me.