WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 188: Creator (1)
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When I woke up, it was well past noon. I had come home in the middle of the night and gone to bed completely exhausted, so it made sense that I had overslept. The moment I sat up, my whole body ached.
“Ugh... I’m dying.”
Peep.
Peep rolled onto the blanket, though I had no idea when it had arrived. Then the door opened and Peace came in. It padded over without a sound before leaping onto the bed. It rubbed the sides of its head and its nape against my legs, then flopped onto its back.
Yip!
“Yeah, Peace. Did you sleep well too?”
After petting Peace, I got out of bed. The house was quiet, so Yoohyun and Yerim must have gone out. There was probably plenty to clean up after yesterday. Yoohyun had not caused any trouble, but Yerim would probably get fined at least.
‘Though Seong Hyeonje caused the biggest mess.’
The more I thought about it, the more it all felt like a waste.
I washed up, fed the kids, and ate something simple myself. When I turned on the TV and switched to a Hunter channel, they were talking about last night’s incident. The ship had sunk, but there was no mention that Seong Hyeonje had caused it.
“...Why is Yerim there?”
They showed Yerim floating over the sea, saying she was cooperating with the cleanup. Her ability would be useful for clearing debris and oil slicks. Maybe she had been ordered to do community service instead of receiving punishment. It would help her image too. It was a decent solution. The Association handled that well.
There were messages on my new phone from Yoohyun and Yerim saying they had left first. I replied that I had just woken up and told them to eat lunch properly, then looked through my contacts. I had learned to back up my phone information in advance, so the contact list was unchanged.
[Damn Skill]
Should I change it too? After considering it, I left the list as it was for now.
“I don’t know if I can do this well, Peace.”
Grrr.
I stroked Peace, which was leaning against my lap. I had no regrets, but I did feel pressured. How much could I really accomplish?
“I’m still lacking in so many ways.”
Until now, I had confidently thrown myself into all kinds of things. But most of the time, I had relied on skills rather than myself.
I wore Fear Resistance like armor and used useful skills as weapons. And whenever I could, I used myself like a tool. An item, merchandise, bait. Something that would be discarded once it was no longer useful. At the same time, it was a way to step back and turn myself into an object.
Because that was easier. Even with Fear Resistance, I instinctively wanted to do that.
I really had been useless, harmful, trash that would have been better off not existing.
Looking back now, I was not sure whether that had actually been true. At the very least, I did not think I had ever gone out of my way to hurt someone excessively. It was not like I had never done anything deserving criticism. I had lied, at least. But I did not think I had been trash awful enough to be torn apart like people wanted to kill me, or trampled that thoroughly.
But my own opinion did not matter. They said that if three people got together, they could make up a tiger that did not exist. What could I do when people everywhere said I was bad?
So I had simply accepted it. It became familiar, then natural. Five years had been more than enough time for that.
“...It won’t change easily, though.”
I took a deep breath and turned off Fear Resistance. Whether the skill was off or on, I tried not to think unnecessary thoughts. There were too many things better forgotten. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was used to burying memories too.
But this time, I decided to dig them up.
I opened my contacts again and stared at the list. Damn Skill. The moment I saw it, a chill ran down my spine. Remembering yesterday without Fear Resistance made me afraid.
What had I done? How was someone like me supposed to pull this off?
Whine.
Peep.
Perhaps noticing that something was wrong with me, Peace looked up at me worriedly. Peep let out a small cry too.
“...It’s okay. It’s not okay, but it’s okay.”
I could be scared. I could be afraid. Was that not normal? If anything, I was doing fairly well. Who was I dealing with? Even as I reassured myself that it was only natural, my fingertips kept trembling.
Would it be better to take it back now? Claiming I would stand on equal footing with the Sesung Guildmaster would sound insane to anyone. An F-Class who had rolled around at the bottom, and an S-Class standing at the top of the world. It was ridiculous. It made no sense.
I was different from before my regression. Even so, the moment those memories surfaced, I could hardly breathe. I remembered too vividly how people would curse and demean me, to the point that I almost laughed instead.
While I was breathing shallowly, my phone rang. Startled, I nearly dropped it. Instead of Damn Skill, my younger brother’s name appeared on the screen. I answered with a hand that was still trembling.
[I just saw your message. I left my phone outside while I was testing the item MKC gave me. Did you eat?]
“Y-Yeah.”
My throat was a little hoarse, so I cleared it awkwardly. A worried voice immediately came back.
[Did you catch a cold? Should I buy medicine on the way home?]
“No, I’m fine. We have medicine at home too. Did you eat lunch?”
[Yeah. I should have gone home to eat. Oh, Park Yerim probably won’t be easy to reach. She should be out at sea by now.]
“I saw her on TV. The Association didn’t say anything to you?”
[No. The main culprit was the Sesung Guildmaster. The Sesung Guildmaster only got a fine and three days of confinement too.]
“I don’t know how much the fine was, but three days of confinement is light.”
[There’s no benefit in leaving an S-Class Hunter sitting around with nothing to do. But he’s difficult to put to work too, so it’s better to fleece him with a huge fine.]
“That’s true. If they provoke the Sesung Guildmaster too much, only Director Song Taewon will have a harder time. It’s fortunate the Association didn’t get greedy. I wonder how much they fined him. I hope they got a lot.”
The tightness around my heart eased. A faint smile rose to my lips as well. Whose younger brother was he, anyway? Even his voice was pleasant to hear. He really was an incredible younger brother.
“...Hey, Yoohyun.”
[Yeah?]
What if I had made the wrong choice? What if I hurt you again?
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. There was no need to ask. Even if I made mistakes and failed, my younger brother would stay by my side.
Until the end.
“Thank you.”
[For what?]
“Just... everything.”
For all of it. I adjusted my phone in a hand that had stopped trembling.
“Thank you for being here, Yoohyun.”
There was silence for a moment before Yoohyun spoke.
[...I’m grateful too, hyung. For being by my side.]
I had said it first, but hearing it from my younger brother made me embarrassed. We exchanged a few more words before hanging up, and then something occurred to me.
“That was the perfect moment for him to give me that watch.”
After muttering that, I laughed. I laughed out loud over something so silly, then tapped my phone screen. Without hesitation, I lightly typed on the keyboard.
[Mr. Business Partner]
All right, then.
‘First, I should put the rearing facility in order.’
The building and this place were both mine, but I had practically left them unattended. Other guilds handled everything from building security to management, aside from a few tenants. In practice, I was no different from just another tenant myself.
But now I needed to have authority. I could not change everything at once, but I could do it slowly, one thing at a time.
“...People I can trust.”
People who had never betrayed me, but had left me. I remembered the single call I had made to one of them. My lips clenched on their own, and my insides twisted, so I hurriedly turned Fear Resistance back on.
It was not that I was not curious about who they were now. I wanted to see them too. But I had buried it all. I was not confident I could endure it twice.
They were all people with low ranks, like me. Unlike Yoohyun, Yerim, Myeongu, Noah, and others with strong, rare skills, they were people I could easily lose again. So I pretended not to know. I pretended to forget.
‘For now, let’s meet them.’
Even if I did not draw them into my work, I should at least meet them. Calming the lingering ache inside me, I smiled at Peace and Peep, who were staring only at me.
“Someday, I’ll be okay even without Fear Resistance.”
It would be difficult to get better all at once. And saying it all depended on making up your mind was not even funny. If it were that easy, I would not have regressed. Still, perhaps I could at least start by making up my mind.
The Awakening Center had not been established yet, so none of them would have Awakened. I had not heard that they were trying to meet an awakening broker...
“Ah.”
Park Hayul. He was there. I had put off checking on him, and then he had become tangled up with things I did not want to remember until I completely forgot. I felt a little sorry, but I had saved his life, so he must have been getting on with his real job.
As for social media... I had far too many messages piled up. I checked Park Hayul’s account, but it had not been updated in a while. Had something happened? Surely it was not something like being unable to escape his fate of dying. Worried, I searched for Park Hayul on a portal site. Old articles came up one after another.
[Rookie Actor Park Hayul Arrested After Sneaking into Sesung General Hospital’s Special Wing]
[Park Hayul Causes Disturbance in Front of Monster Rearing Facility Building]
[Celebrity Obsessed with Hunters? What Are Park Hayul’s Intentions?]
...This might have been my fault. Other people did not know about my relationship with Park Hayul, so they must have thought he was simply a celebrity obsessed with Hunters who was causing trouble. Things like that happened at Haeyeon and Sesung as well as the rearing facility, so there was no reason I would have heard about it.
I wondered if I should contact him right away, when a relatively recent article caught my eye.
[Park Hayul Signs with China’s K Bay Contents]
Huh? Why China all of a sudden? Reading the article, it seemed he was not even in Korea anymore. After dungeons appeared, China had taken an almost isolationist approach, and exchanges with Korea in entertainment had dropped sharply compared to before. I did not know the details, but there had been news about the Chinese market because of it.
“Yun Yun also stopped sending news from China, and now Park Hayul too...”
No, Park Hayul had merely changed agencies. Still, I had a bad feeling. I left a simple greeting on Park Hayul’s social media account. Since social media might be censored in China, I only wrote that we had met before and that I had suddenly thought of him.
‘What should I do about Yun Yun?’
Seong Hyeonje immediately came to mind. But I could not simply ask for his help and lean on him like before. For now, it would be difficult for me to get involved with China even with Haeyeon’s help, so should I wait a little longer? The chance of anything happening to the Goblin King was truly low. If I got in touch with Park Hayul, I might be able to find out through him.
Let’s find the people here first. The moment I thought that, Seong Hyeonje came to mind again. One word from me, and he would find everyone and tell me. It was really convenient, damn it. I had gotten too used to it. Still, I could do this much myself. I knew a certain amount of personal information, so I could ask Do Hamin or hire a suitable detective agency.
Get out of my head, Seong Hyeonje. The moment I thought that, my phone rang. Mr. Business Partner, he could not read my mind, could he?
“You should be confined right now. What is it?”
[I need to arrange a meeting with my partner.]
A separately arranged meeting. It felt oddly formal. Until now, we had been far too informal. He would suddenly show up or summon me.
When I told him to go on, Seong Hyeonje answered. It concerned the Japanese dungeon.
“You want to adjust the shares? Why are you suddenly changing your mind? It was already settled.”
[At the time, we were dealing with my item. If Han Yujin took seven-tenths, Haeyeon would receive around five-tenths. Including my item’s share, it would be five-tenths, which seemed fair enough. But that is no longer the case.]
“Haeyeon said it could offer the slime dungeon as bait as well. You seem rather greedy for a simple brokerage fee.”
[It is not a simple brokerage fee. I have sent S-Class Hunters, and we will handle the aftermath as well. Also, unlike before, I need to receive at least a minimum briefing. If you are asking for cooperation, you should at least explain what your objective is and what benefit there is.]
...He was not wrong, so I had nothing to say. We had not even drawn up a proper contract document. I had trusted and relied on him too much. When I fell silent, a low laugh came from the other end of the line.
[I can put things back the way they were if you wish.]
“No, it’s fine. It will have to be after your confinement ends, so three days from now. I’ll wait.”
[I will prepare the meeting place. You cannot come dressed as you normally do. My advice is to hire specialized personnel. You cannot keep relying on Haeyeon forever, and you are no longer alone.]
He was probably referring to Yu Myeongu, Seok Hayan’s team, and Noah. Seok Hayan’s team would need attention too, since they would have to begin their presentation once the field experiment ended.
“I’ll take your advice to heart.”
[Then I will see you soon, Han Yujin.]
The call ended. Han Yujin. I had heard that form of address many times, but it felt unfamiliar. More importantly, how much was he planning to take? Five-tenths again? ...If so, he would be merciful. If he saw an opening, he would try to take more. Were we really doing this right away without even a practice round? What a petty man. No retroactive application.
I went outside to visit Do Hamin. Do Hamin hated it because the hamsters got stressed, so I left Peace behind and brought only Peep. The moment I stepped outside the building, Noah spotted me and flew down.
“Did anything go wrong yesterday?”
I had been too exhausted last night to even think about checking. At my question, Noah nodded.
“No. Nothing went wrong, but... I think Myeongu was a little angry.”
“Myeongu?”
“When I went into the forge, the atmosphere was frightening.”
Frightening. That was unexpected. The atmosphere in Myeongu’s forge had been the opposite. It was like a scene from a fairy tale, with the scents of wood and fire mingling softly and sunlight filling the space.
“It was underground.”
“What?”
“It had been moved to a large basement, but the place itself was ordinary.”
There had been a basement there too. Noah lightly hunched his shoulders while remembering yesterday.
“Since so many high-grade Hunters had gathered, it was naturally noisy. Some people demanded to be let out, while others started picking fights for no reason.”
That had worried me in the first place. Ismuar was there, but I had wondered whether they could handle so many Hunters. Still, Myeongu was the owner. I thought it would be fine since anyone who caused trouble could simply be thrown out.
“Myeongu watched them quietly, then coldly told them, ordered them, to shut up and sit down.”
...That was so unexpected that I could hardly picture it.
“Uh, I would have thought there would be strong resistance.”
Even if he was a weapon maker they needed to impress, high-grade Hunters would not quietly accept being told that. There had been several S-Class Hunters too, not just A-Class Hunters. Noah nodded at my words.
“Yes. Someone even took out a weapon. But then Ismuar appeared. Flames swirled, and the person holding the weapon was thrown aside in an instant. They were an S-Class Hunter, but it looked effortless.”
Noah said Ismuar seemed to be at least SS-Class. When I had seen them before, I had thought they were at least A-Class, perhaps around S-Class.
“The flames were truly intimidating. Myeongu was calmly commanding them, and even that was a little frightening. We eventually got out of the forge and were rescued, but Myeongu seemed upset the whole time.”
Noah said it might be best if I went to see him. Myeongu had not even come to the forge in the building today. He had shown up almost every day, regardless of whether it was a weekday or weekend.
Maybe he was simply upset because the Hunters had been rude, but considering Myeongu’s usual self, it was strange. I said I understood and quickened my pace.
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