WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The S-Classes That I Raised ◈
Chapter 67: Conversation
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“No, this...”
Two arms shot out from behind me and pulled me into a crushing hug. A solid, broad chest pressed tight against my back, squeezing hard enough to hurt.
No, really, it hurt.
“I'm hurting, ease up!”
It was obviously my little brother. I knew he was shocked, but this was too much.
“Urk, hey!”
My body was lifted lightly, and Yoohyun threw me over his shoulder. I tried to struggle, but it did nothing. Naturally.
“Yoohyun! Peace!”
Fine, my little brother was one thing, but Peace was only staring at me too. Peace was following us with a deep frown on their face.
Still, it was really handsome. It had not even fully grown yet, but its four legs had stretched out nicely, and its mane and tail had become thick and lush. Its horn gleamed more brightly, and its longer fangs were sharp.
It was truly a satisfying sight, but...
“Put me down! I know I worried you, but talk to me! Use words!”
“...What more is there to say?”
Yoohyun answered in a voice tightly holding back anger.
Grrr!
Peace even chimed in. I was glad the two had gotten close while I was gone, but Peace, Dad was being dragged away by force right now. Even if the culprit was my biological little brother, this was still kidnapping.
Where were we going? It seemed like we were heading toward the beach.
“Yoohyun, I'll explain everything. Calm down and let's talk.”
“Shut up before I shut your mouth for you!”
Right after that hysterical shout, I heard his teeth grind.
This was unsettling.
I knew he must have been terrified when I suddenly disappeared. I would have been scared out of my mind too. Still, refusing to hear a single word from me?
...He was not really going to shut my mouth, right?
“Just listen once. The truth is...”
“Hyung, do you really want to see me lose my mind?”
He already seemed well past normal.
“This is enough!”
“No, what is...?”
“Fine, whatever happened outside the dungeon. But this, what the hell... Once might have been a coincidence, but not twice! Why does something strange happen every time you enter a dungeon?!”
That was how it looked to Yoohyun. He did not know I had sneaked into dungeons before. I had only entered two dungeons in his eyes. The first time, an Out-of-Grade monster appeared, and the second time, I suddenly vanished.
That would drive anyone mad.
“I'll explain...”
“I don't need an explanation.”
Let me talk.
“I...”
“This is the last warning. Shut up.”
He looked like he would really silence me if I said another word. I decided to cooperate for now and try again after he had calmed down.
The sound of waves drew close, and Yoohyun stopped walking.
Grrr.
It sounded like a suppressed groan. Was that a monster?
“I wondered if I should just endure it. You were settling in well on your own. It had already gone beyond what I could handle, so I thought I should restrain myself.”
His words were admirable, but his actions were another matter.
“That's what I should do, but I can't.”
Yoohyun finally put me down. Peace came over and rubbed its thick neck against my waist.
Grrr.
Why had Peace suddenly gotten so big? As I petted Peace and looked around, I saw a monster with all four legs severed. It was the dungeon's boss monster. Its eagle-like head occasionally opened its beak and let out a groan.
Why had he left that alive?
“So I'll make it look like you died here, Hyung.”
“...What?”
“I can't do whatever I want with you while you're alive. There are too many things tied up in this for me to deal with on my own. My reputation will hit rock bottom if I say I failed to protect a companion in a D-Class dungeon.”
“...You'd be suspected, not just lose your reputation.”
He was not some rookie. He was an S-Class combat Hunter with three years of experience. Losing a companion in a D-Class dungeon? That was ridiculous. It was not funny even as a joke.
“Besides, what about everything that comes after? Like you said, I've already set too much in motion.”
“It doesn't matter.”
The guild leader said that irresponsibly. It was just like someone who had thrown away his life despite having everything laid out before him. Had I raised him wrong?
He seemed a little calmer now, so I should try to soothe him.
“What do you mean, it doesn't matter? Haeyeon Guild could collapse instead of MKC if this goes wrong. That's a bigger problem than kidnapping.”
“You don't need to worry about it, Hyung. I prepared that to reduce suspicion.”
That? The monster?
“To make it convincing, it would be best to cut off an arm or leg, but I can't go that far. There still needs to be blood or bits of flesh. Sea Lutum is not large enough to swallow a person whole, so it tears people apart with its beak.”
Yoohyun explained calmly.
I did not want to agree with the assessment that my little brother was crazy in a situation like this. Still, since he said he could not cut off my limbs, perhaps he was a little less crazy.
I hugged Peace around the neck and backed away. Peace seemed to sense that the atmosphere was not right and stiffened slightly.
“Don't touch my body.”
“I'm sorry. There is painkiller, so it won't hurt. You can recover immediately with a high-grade potion.”
“If you're sorry, don't do it! No, I said I'd explain! More importantly, do you really not care about anything as long as my body is safe? Do you think I'd be grateful for being protected by force? We were just starting to get along again, and now you want us to live distant lives where we barely speak for the rest of our lives?”
“You weren't planning to accept me anyway.”
“...What?”
What was that supposed to mean?
Yoohyun's gaze lowered slightly before returning to me.
“I was foolish to expect anything. Or maybe I should say I had no shame. You only wanted to build a stable foundation quickly and safely.”
“I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.”
“Don't pretend you don't. You were hiding everything from the start. Did you really get the Magical Beast Breeder skill at Level 10? It was strange from the moment you readily agreed to raise a Flame-Horned Lion cub. The cost of feeding it is no small amount. Even if it is not much of a burden to me, you are not someone who would accept that without a moment's thought.”
That... was true.
No matter how cute and lovable Peace was, I would not have immediately agreed to raise a pet whose food cost ten million won per meal. Back then, I had only just Awakened as an F-Class Hunter after living as an ordinary person. Once I learned how much its food cost, I should have gasped, waved my hands, and said I could not raise it.
When I could not say anything, Yoohyun's eyes grew colder. At the same time, they looked a little sad.
“What have you ever honestly told me? You were not even surprised when you disappeared today. I was trying to endure the skills. Hunters often hide some of their skills, and there is no reason to make an exception just because we are family. But something like today, where I could not even move a finger or understand what was happening...”
Yoohyun turned his gaze aside. I instinctively looked in the same direction.
A forest, destroyed so thoroughly that its original form was impossible to imagine, spread before us.
“...There is no way I could endure that.”
There was clear sorrow in my little brother's voice. Stronger than his anger.
The excuse that I would explain everything merely rolled across my tongue. I had to say something, but...
I took a deep breath and forced my mouth open.
“Is there anything else you find suspicious?”
“...I don't know. Ever since you said you loved me, I kept wondering. At first, I was just excited and happy. But it was strange when you suddenly said you were sorry. Even so, I was going to pretend not to notice because things were going well. It felt like we had gone back to the past.”
“Yoohyun.”
“You seemed like the Hyung from before things went bad between us, but also like a completely different person. I don't know either.”
Even if a family had been estranged for years, they were still family. I had not realized Yoohyun felt that sense of difference so clearly. I thought it would be enough if I apologized first and helped him in various ways.
I had been wrong.
“It is true that I've hidden a lot. Like you guessed, I planned to raise Peace from the moment I first saw it. The skill that awakens people really can be used once a month, but it is not a simple Awakening. It optimizes them. Yerim's original projected stat grade after Awakening was A to S. A-Class was more likely, but you could say I made her S-Class.”
After swallowing a sigh, I continued.
“I have entered dungeons in secret. I brought Peep from one of those dungeons. I have an A-Class Stealth skill, and I can share some skills. I have Poison Resistance and Curse Resistance, as well as Fear Resistance.”
“...I know about the Poison Resistance.”
“You do?”
“Hunter Park Yerim read the memories of the Bricks Guild's D-Class Hunter. There was a memory where they found it strange that the Watchman's Fruit had not worked despite searching everywhere and finding no antidote item.”
“What? Yerim did that? No, let's talk about that later. Also, it's L-Class.”
“Then painkillers would not work.”
“I found out I can turn the skill off.”
“...A resistance skill?”
“Yeah. Passive-type skills turn off if I try to deactivate them twice in a row. Normally, there would be no reason to turn them off.”
“You tried it when you were drunk.”
What a frighteningly sharp brat. I was the fool for trying to deceive someone like him.
“I also have a skill that doubles dungeon reward items and another that doubles attack skill effects. They are not very useful for me, though. My stats are still F-Class, and I don't have any attack skills.”
“...Your status window is really unusual, Hyung.”
“Tell me about it. Even if I had told you honestly, you would have had trouble believing me.”
A hollow laugh slipped out. Yoohyun's lips lifted slightly too.
“I can only share skills while I am in contact with someone. The cooldown is fifteen days.”
I left out My Kid and Our Kid, since he should not know their effects. I also left out Final Grace and Raucitas's Natural Enemy, which would be difficult to explain. I wanted to tell him about my regression too, but...
[˙⌒˙ >>∞<< ˙=˙ ☞ ˙≠˙]
A message telling me to keep my mouth shut appeared.
It was telling me not to mention the infinity symbol. It must have meant regression. If I told him that too, too much information about the system would be revealed.
“And the reason I disappeared earlier has to do with the system's creator.”
“The system's creator?”
Yoohyun looked startled. At last, his face relaxed a little.
“I ended up helping the system's creator. I want to explain in detail, but I can't. They say I must not. Still, I wanted to tell you, so I asked them to send you a message. It is in system consonants. Please send it now.”
Yoohyun looked toward the empty air in front of him. A message window must have appeared. He looked deeply shocked.
“So... there really was someone who made it?”
“There was. It would be stranger if it had appeared naturally out of nowhere.”
“That is true, but...”
“I am only telling you because I got permission. Keep it secret from everyone else. You can never tell anyone.”
There was silence for a while. Still, my little brother's complexion had brightened considerably.
“Are your skills related to the system too?”
“Not all of them. I told you I can't explain the details. But they are not normal skills.”
“...Okay. But why you, Hyung? They are not making you do anything dangerous, are they?”
“It is not dangerous. It is basically what I have already been doing.”
I was just gathering S-Classes. At the moment, you were the one in the greatest danger, little brother.
Waterdrop’s warning to be careful of high-ranking Awakened suddenly came to mind. Kindness could become violence. It fit perfectly.
“If there is anything else you are curious about, ask me. Don't keep it bottled up again.”
After a brief silence, he answered in a subdued voice.
“...I'm sorry. I complained that you did not trust me, Hyung, but it was actually the opposite.”
“No. Anyone would have lost their mind after what happened today. It is true that I hid all sorts of things. Peace, I'm sorry to you too. You must have been scared. I didn't know they'd take you away so suddenly.”
Grrr.
Peace rumbled in its throat as it looked back and forth between Yoohyun and me. Then it suddenly became smaller.
No, younger.
It was not just its size. It looked exactly as it had when it was little.
[Grade 2 Unicorn Subspecies, Flame-Horned Lion (Juvenile): Peace
Current Stat Grade: C]
Even its status window listed it as a juvenile again, and its grade had returned to C.
“Peace, you...”
Yip!
It scratched at my leg with its front paw, asking to be held.
“Did you deliberately stay a juvenile even after growing into a subadult?”
Yrrr?
Why was it making such an innocent expression, like it knew nothing? I picked it up as it wanted, and its tail swayed back and forth.
“When did it grow?”
“Shortly after you disappeared, Hyung.”
Then it had not grown by hunting monsters. Had it really been deliberately staying small? Since when?
Just in case, I opened the My Kid skill window for Peace.
[Time Required for Adult Metamorphosis (71:22)]
Seventy-one hours?! There had definitely been over a hundred hours left. Even after I watched for more than a minute, the time did not decrease. Then it must normally have remained unchanged. Could it be because of training? I had kept playing with Peace often even after the skill effect ended.
I would need to check when we got home.
“Is something wrong?”
“No. But why has Peace not grown until now? Did it gain some related skill?”
“I don't know about skills, but if it grows, you won't be able to hold it, Hyung. You said it likes being held.”
Just for that?
“Still, Peace, let us know when you become an adult.”
Yip.
If it really was the training effect, it might fully grow before My Kid's cooldown ended. I already felt a little sad.
I petted Peace and looked at my little brother. When our eyes met, he looked embarrassed.
Sigh. Fine. When I thought about how anxious he must have been the entire time, I felt sorry. In the end, this was my fault.
“Just so you know, Yoohyun, you are the person I trust most in the world.”
My little brother's eyes widened.
“...Me?”
“Yeah. Even if you put my life in danger, I would think there might be a reason for it. That will never change.”
Unless someone died in my place, came back to life, or regressed.
“So do not fret or worry. You can interfere. You are my little brother. Of course, you cannot go too far. I'll get angry if you do. The same goes for confinement. Not allowed.”
“...Hyung.”
Yoohyun came over and hugged me. Caught between us, Peace let out a small whine.
“If you need help, tell me anything. Never overextend yourself. To me, Hyung, you are the most important thing. More important than anything else.”
“Don't worry. There is nothing for me to overdo.”
As long as I only did what the system people told me to do. I should not increase my workload any further.
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