WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 189: Creator (2)
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“I'm thinking I should go see Hunter Kang Soyoung late this afternoon... Would that be all right?”
Noah hesitated as he entered the building. Come to think of it, today was Kang Soyoung’s birthday. After the cruise ship explosion yesterday, disciplinary action must have come down not only on the Guildmaster but on Sesung itself. Just like last year, it probably would not feel much like a birthday.
“Of course it’s all right. There are plenty of other Hunters, so don’t worry.”
Yerim was out, but Yoohyun was in the building next door, and Mr. Seonghan was here too.
“More importantly, will you be all right, Noah? Riette will probably be there too. Won’t it be awkward?”
“It’ll be difficult for everyone to gather properly after yesterday, so we decided to see her separately. Most of Hunter Kang Soyoung’s acquaintances are high-grade Hunters, so people are planning to visit at different times.”
Ah, that made sense. Yerim and Moon Hyuna seemed close to Kang Soyoung too, so they would be going to wish her a happy birthday. That would make four S-Class Hunters already. Gathering like that right after yesterday would be more than tactless. It would give Manager Song an ulcer.
...But meeting alone like that was practically a date, wasn’t it? I found myself staring at Noah. The two of them suited each other pretty well. Noah was keeping his distance, but the fact that he was going because it was her birthday meant he did not dislike her that much.
‘More than anything, Soyoung likes him.’
I ran into Kang Soyoung now and then because of Comet, but honestly, she had not seemed interested in Yoohyun at all. It hurt as his older brother, but it was enough to make me wonder if the pre-regression romance rumors had simply been tabloid gossip. Yoohyun never brought up Kang Soyoung either.
“Noah, you look cute, I mean, handsome in anything, but you should dress neatly if you’re going.”
“Huh? All right.”
“For a birthday, you need a bouquet of flowers.”
“...Flowers?”
“You’ll definitely look good holding a huge bouquet.”
A massive bouquet of red roses, enough to fill his arms. It really would suit him perfectly. And he should wear a white suit... No, that was going too far. That was wedding, engagement, or at the very least proposal territory.
I urged him to hurry up and prepare, telling him he could ask Haeyeon Guild for help, then got into the elevator alone. I tried calling Myeongu, but he did not answer, perhaps because his phone had been ruined by water damage.
The residence at the top of the building could not be reached by a single elevator ride. We had to go through a security checkpoint midway and switch elevators. The top three floors had all been remodeled into housing, but not even a quarter of them were occupied yet.
Myeongu’s home took up part of the top floor and was not very large. He had a separate workshop and could enter the Golden Forge whenever he wanted, so he said a large home would only be inconvenient and asked only for a spacious kitchen.
‘Should I ring the bell?’
I hesitated outside the door. I knew the passcode, but Noah said Myeongu had seemed upset, so it felt wrong to just let myself in. But ringing the bell now would be strange too. As I wavered, the door opened.
“What are you doing standing there? Come in.”
“Huh? No, it’s nothing.”
He did not seem any different than usual. I took Peep down from my head and went inside. There were often mana stones or mana stone powder lying around Myeongu’s house, so I had to be careful.
Sunlight filled the living room, which was spacious for the size of the apartment. The moment I sat on the sofa, Peep began fluttering.
Peep peep!
“No. You just ate.”
Peep! Peep!
The way Peep flapped toward the mana stone on the table looked just like a child stretching out their hands to ask for something. The sight of those tiny wings spread wide and fluttering was so cute that I nearly gave in.
But no. That was an A-Class mana stone, Peep.
“Here, have this and be patient.”
I put a D-Class mana stone fragment from my inventory into Peep’s beak. Peep still could not take their eyes off the table, but at least they quieted down for a while.
“About yesterday.”
I carefully brought it up while watching Myeongu, who came over with snacks.
“Did the other Hunters bother you much at the forge?”
“Not really.”
He had brought thinly sliced jerky and dried fruit in a bowl. It looked like cut-up apples, but the flesh was red. It was not quite like persimmons either. What was it?
“It’s fruit from a dungeon. It was cleared as edible, so I made some. This should be able to go into your inventory too.”
“The jerky as well?”
“No. Though there are edible monsters too.”
The higher the grade, the more likely they were to be poisonous, but some lower-grade monsters tasted perfectly good. People still felt uncomfortable about them now, but they would later be sold as premium ingredients. Since they could be stored in inventories, they were also widely used as food for dungeon raids.
Even now, people mostly carried water procured from dungeons when raiding dungeons. It cost ten thousand won for one 500ml bottle at the market, including the bottle. Supposedly that was cheap when you considered the dungeon byproduct bottle, water transportation, inspection, and healer purification costs.
“This is delicious.”
Everything Myeongu gave me was delicious, but even though this was just dried fruit, it tasted amazing. The jerky was tender too, like well-grilled meat. It was on an entirely different level from anything I had eaten before.
“But it seemed Noah said it not to tattle, but because he was worried about you. He said you seemed upset.”
“How could I not be?”
I stopped eating jerky and looked toward Myeongu. My eyes met Myeongu’s as he sat back against the sofa. His expression was as heavy as his voice.
“I regretted making Eunhye for you.”
“...What?”
“I made Eunhye because I wanted to protect you, Yujin. I did not make it so you could throw away your own safety.”
“That’s...”
“If you had not had Eunhye, you would not have stepped in. You would have retreated to the Golden Forge.”
That was true. Of course I would have run. I was not reckless enough to act without any means of protecting myself.
“It cannot feel good to be protecting other people while leaving the person you want to protect outside. Especially if it is because of an item I made.”
“This is absolutely not your fault!”
I said hurriedly.
“You have helped me so much. And you made it just as I asked. Honestly, there have been several times when I took risks trusting in Eunhye. But without the items you made, Myeongu, I would have had a hard time sitting here safely now.”
Even if I had lived quietly, Diarma, the king of the cursed poison dragon species, would not have left me alone. Diarma had already recognized how important I was to Yoohyun. Similar events would have unfolded in the end, and without a damage nullification item, defeating the dragonkin would have been impossible.
“It is not as though I do not know that.”
Myeongu let out a quiet sigh.
“Why does it have to be you, Yujin?”
“...Huh?”
“I can’t help thinking that way. You could simply stay safely protected in the rearing facility. There are many people, including me, who want that, and it’s entirely possible.”
“That’s because I...”
There were things I had to reclaim. And... because I had received things. My skills, most of the skills I had now...
“...I told you, didn’t I? Dungeon difficulty is going to increase, and we need to prepare for that. And whenever possible, I’ll just raise monsters.”
“I really hope so.”
Myeongu seemed about to say something more, but he looked at my expression and closed his mouth. A brief silence passed. I pushed down the thoughts trying to rise in my head and spoke lightly, as though nothing was wrong.
“Want to go to a dungeon for a little while, if nothing comes up?”
I was curious about how the preparations the volleyball had promised were going, and I had things to ask. I also thought it would be good for Myeongu to meet the volleyball at least once. I had roughly explained the system regarding Ismuar and the forge, but seeing it in person would feel different.
I could not get the jellyfish’s words out of my mind either, that the blacksmith would be a rescue target. It would be better to find out for certain.
“A low-grade dungeon... Just a moment.”
I contacted Haeyeon Guild and asked whether they had a low-grade dungeon under management that we could enter right away. If it was a guild-managed dungeon, we could go in immediately without a bidding process.
They said there was an E-Class one, so I asked them to arrange a raid. Not long after, I received a call from my younger brother.
[You’re going into a dungeon?]
“Yeah. With Myeongu. I want to meet that volleyball too.”
It was E-Class, so the two of us should have no trouble, but just in case, Noah was no good. Yerim was no good either. Then Seong Hyeonje naturally came to mind.
I should be leaving him out now, but he kept slipping in. Before, I might have called Seong Hyeonje and told him to provide a dungeon. With one word from me, he would have prepared everything and come to pick us up.
I could not change overnight, so he would probably keep coming to mind for a while.
“I’m thinking of bringing Peace and Blue. Bellare should be fine to leave behind. The two of them should be enough.”
Bellare was still young and surprisingly fast. If Bellare got excited and ran wild, Myeongu might get hurt. He did not have poison resistance. Even if I could detoxify him immediately, it was better not to create a dangerous situation.
[Should I come too?]
“It’s fine. Aren’t you dealing with the MKC matter right now? You said you tested the item too.”
[That’s true, but.]
“I’ll be back before dinner. Don’t worry too much.”
Yoohyun hesitated a little before saying all right. He did not immediately tell me not to go as he had before, but he still seemed worried.
I felt the same way.
Haeyeon Guild soon contacted me again to say they would prepare the dungeon and a vehicle. Since Blue was coming along, they sent a van with plenty of cargo space. This was enough for now, but when Blue got bigger, we might need a freight truck.
‘Should I arrange a vehicle and driver for myself too?’
I could probably do that through a contract with Haeyeon Guild. Rather than making requests with a single phone call as I did now, I needed to make a proper agreement.
Before that, I would need someone to handle accounts and bookkeeping. I did not even have a clear grasp of my own assets right now. What about the rearing facility registration? I had left it to Haeyeon...
‘I can’t do it all myself. I need people, definitely.’
While waiting for the dungeon preparations, I told Do Hamin that I wanted to find some people. Unfortunately, perhaps because their phones had been changed not long ago, Do Hamin could not find the people I was looking for using their ability and said they would connect me with a reliable detective agency they knew.
There were other people I needed to hire too. It would not be easy to find trustworthy people all at once.
I entered the E-Class dungeon building and knocked three times on the gate. The moment we went inside, Blue sprang up.
Yaaow!
Blue seemed startled by the snow underfoot, then swiped at the snowflakes floating through the air. The surprise lasted only a moment. Blue was excited like a puppy seeing its first snow.
Peace stood beside me and flicked their tail as they watched Blue. They seemed to find Blue pathetic.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“This is fine.”
Myeongu spoke without even putting on the outerwear he had brought.
“But this place... is unusual.”
“It isn’t an ordinary dungeon.”
“No, I mean...”
Myeongu narrowed his eyes and looked around.
“...To make something like this.”
“Huh?”
“It’s like... a building or an item. I can’t recognize everything, but I didn’t know something could be made to this extent.”
What was he talking about? Just then, the volleyball came bouncing over. Blue spotted the white ball, happily pounced on it, and was sent bouncing away with a Boing!
Yelp!
[Honey! The blacksmith is here today too! Hello!]
The volleyball rolled up to Myeongu and spun in circles.
“This is...”
[I’m Newbie! I made this place!]
“Ah, I see.”
Myeongu spoke politely.
“Your craftsmanship is incredible.”
[Right? Even my seniors were amazed because I’m good at this sort of thing.]
Newbie spoke in a tone that would have puffed out his chest, if he had one. I had heard before that Newbie prepared this place for me, but hearing their conversation made the scenery around us look new. It was only a snow-covered forest, but Newbie had made it. More precisely, the volleyball must have created this entire space.
‘We make things like sets for filming too.’
Maybe it was like a transcendent upgraded version of that... But how had Myeongu recognized at a glance that it had been made?
[Um, Honey, the promised period isn’t over yet. What’s going on?]
Newbie spoke while blocking the space around me. He seemed cowed, like a subcontractor being pressured for a deadline.
That volleyball really was unusual. He was far stronger and above me, yet compared to the other unfilial bastards, he felt more human somehow.
...Except when I talked about Yoohyun.
“I have something I want to ask. About the mana stone in my chest. A portion of Seong Hyeonje, Chain’s fragment went into it. Are you sure it really has no effect?”
At my question, the volleyball moved as if tilting its head.
[Yes. It’s only an extremely small part. It normally can’t have an effect. That is, if Chain is human.]
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