He was approaching the farm, dripping blood.
“Squeeeak!”
“Kieeeek!”
Cheche and Geuru, startled, clung to each other.
‘Scary!’
The man approaching in that terrifying state soon came to a halt.
“Geuru?”
“……Mister?”
‘Huh? Why is Uncle Hungsam here?’
While Geuru was puzzled by the appearance of an unexpected person,
he shook off the blood, lifted his arm, and wiped at his blood-soaked face. But since his clothes were completely drenched in blood, it didn’t really come off.
He scratched his cheek as if embarrassed, then raised his head and smiled gently.
Against his bloodstained face, only his teeth showed white.
Scary!
“It’s all right. It isn’t my blood.”
Was that really all right?
At the horror-movie-like scene, Cheche nearly lost her reason and cried out.
“Squeak—!” (Carnivorous squirrel!)
“Huh!”
There was such a thing?
At this, Siwon replied softly.
“I’m omnivorous.”
“Huh?”
Was that how he was supposed to respond?
“Ah, that’s not what you meant.”
He trailed off awkwardly, then spoke as if he understood.
“Ah, I have tried squirrel before.”
“Squeak?!”
Cheche’s tail shot straight up.
How had he eaten a squirrel? Geuru asked tensely.
“Flying squirrels too?!”
Siwon smiled gently and said,
“No, flying squirrels are covered by CITES, the endangered species protection agreement, so I haven’t had much chance.”
“Ah……?”
Geuru’s voice rose sharply at the end. Did that mean he would eat one if he had the chance?
Siwon went “Ah!” and smacked his palm—
“In a dungeon like this, I might have the chance to eat one.”
He said, with complete seriousness, “CITES won’t apply here, after all.”
The fact that there wasn’t a hint of mischief in him, that he seemed one hundred percent sincere, frightened Geuru even more.
Geuru hugged Cheche and trembled.
Shiver, shiver.
‘Uncle Hungsam was this scary?!’
When the squirrels handed him a towel, Siwon thanked them and began wiping away the blood. After removing as much of it as he could, he asked,
“But Geuru, why is there blood on your clothes?”
“Ah!”
“Are you hurt somewhere?”
Geuru shook her head.
“I’m not hurt. It’s not that. Geuru went to the stream to get water, and I picked up my savior big brother.”
“Hm?”
*
“Cough!”
Leaning against the headboard of the bed, Serhi covered his mouth.
At this rate, he had no idea how long it would take him to recover.
It might be better to rest here for a while.
‘But a squirrel tribe…….’
Even the name sounded utterly harmless.
On top of that, that baby flying squirrel was apparently the tribe’s king.
Serhi let out a disbelieving laugh.
‘What an absurd place.’
Outside the window, he could see a pastoral countryside view and a modest little farm.
‘Is that… an excavator?’
As he watched a squirrel drive a mini excavator across the farm, Serhi rubbed his eyes.
It was modern heavy equipment that hardly suited a scene that looked like something from an old masterpiece painting.
For a squirrel farm, their agricultural methods were quite advanced.
“They have everything here…….”
In any case, this place didn’t look dangerous at all.
Maybe he could let his guard down for a moment. Just as Serhi was thinking that—
“Big brother!”
Bang! The door opened.
Serhi’s gaze fixed on the man standing behind Geuru.
His body froze solid.
“……!”
Bloodstained ash-blond hair, eyes with slightly drooping corners, and green eyes.
The Gnosis hunter.
He had never faced him directly, but he knew the man possessed a high-level Reading skill.
The fact that he had gone around destroying every eye Brother Nao had planted in the Bureau was surely due to that skill.
‘If he can identify Gnosis through Reading…….’
Jin Siwon strode over to the bedside.
‘At this rate…….’
Serhi squeezed his eyes shut.
Jin Siwon’s hand reached toward him.
‘I’m dead!’
Whisk! The blanket was pulled back.
“The external wounds don’t seem too serious. What a relief.”
Jin Siwon spoke softly and smiled as if to reassure him.
“This blood isn’t mine, so don’t worry.”
Of course it isn’t…… It must be my mannequins’ blood.
“I heard you saved Geuru?”
“Huh? Uh…….”
There had been that time at the auction house…….
‘But does he really not know I’m a Gnosis?’
Serhi stared up at Siwon, blinking blankly.
The Gnosis hunter who had killed every Gnosis Irina created and picked out the countless eyes Brother Nao had planted?
“If you’re a snow leopard, you must have been in the Contaminated Zone. How did you end up all the way here?”
Behind Serhi, a snow leopard’s tail swayed gently. Apparently, he had been so startled just now that even his tail had popped out.
‘Can’t he read me?’
Could he not use his Reading skill right now?
It might be the influence of the RP dungeon. After all, when Serhi had entered the RP dungeon, several of his skills had been restricted too.
But he couldn’t exactly ask him outright whether his skills had been restricted……
While Serhi simply stared at Jin Siwon, deep in thought, Geuru answered in his place with a clear voice.
“Big brother came floating down! Like a dead jellyfish, bobbing along!”
“Ahh! So you floated down from the Contaminated Zone like a dead jellyfish.”
“Jellyfish?”
Serhi’s face twisted.
The dull-looking man and the baby flying squirrel sat side by side next to the bed, smiling meekly as they looked at Serhi.
Was the Gnosis hunter always this stupid?
“So then, Geuru used the duck tongs like this and scooped the jellyfish out!”
“Wow, you did that all by yourself, Geuru?”
“Yees! Right, big brother? You were a jellyfish, weren’t you?”
Geuru’s eyes sparkled as if urging him to quickly confirm her achievement. Jin Siwon also looked at him with a gentle smile.
Serhi hesitated, then nodded once.
“Uh…… yeah. I came… like a jellyfish.”
Fuck.
*
At Jin Siwon’s request, the squirrels found bandages somewhere and brought them over.
“How did you get injured?”
Jin Siwon asked as he wrapped bandages around Serhi. His hands moved as if he were used to this sort of treatment.
Serhi couldn’t exactly say, “Because you killed all my mannequins, I suffered internal injuries,” so he decided to give a vague answer.
“I was hit by [Erosion].”
“Are you from Kirus?”
Flinch.
When he used difficult words, his own country’s language would sometimes slip out unconsciously.
“No, Russia. That was on my mother’s side.”
Kirus, a Slavic-language country, was not very different from Russian, so Siwon nodded as if he understood.
“Ahh, then, Mr. Snow Leopard, did you come with Brom?”
“Serhi. That’s my name.”
“Seruhii?”
When Geuru drew out the end of the name, Serhi gave a small laugh and corrected her pronunciation.
“Ser-hi.”
“Ser-hiii—”
“Yeah, like that.”
The corners of Serhi’s mouth lifted as he lightly tugged on Geuru’s ears with both hands.
“You can’t even hide your ears or tail. Are you really a king? You’re not a fake?”
“Hmph. They said it’s ’cause Geuru is still little!”
Siwon watched the two of them with a gentle smile, and Serhi glanced at him.
Ah, as if he had just remembered, Siwon opened his mouth.
“My introduction is late. I’m Jin Siwon, team leader of the Special Investigation Division of the Awakeners Management Bureau. My former name was Evgeny Markov.”
Serhi lowered his gaze, feeling an awkward emotion surge within him.
To think he would end up sitting across from the Gnosis hunter and listening to his self-introduction.
But if he was Evgeny—
“Zhenya?”
Serhi furrowed his brow as if recalling something.
“Yes…… I was.”
Siwon answered shyly, his face reddening.
“That’s strange. Now, there’s no one left who calls me that.”
The Gnosis hunter.
‘Would it be better to kill him while his guard is down?’