[So, did you safely get back with Mother? Did you enjoy the ride from Yeon Family?]
“Yes, I’m… on my way back now.”
After spending several hours with Yoonjeong at a street stall, Shia decided to take her home once Yoonjeong was half out of her mind with drink.
Yoonjeong and Shia rambled on about their experiences, crying and laughing together, and they talked all night long.
With all the memories and longings piling up during their time apart, it’s needless to say how joyful this moment of reconnection as family was.
[It’s probably going to be noisy up there for a while.]
“Are you talking about San Guild?”
[Yes, they are keeping an eye on not just Yoonjeong, but also you, Shia. Moreover, we’ve captured signs of exchanges where they seemed to be abducting Awakened Ones under the name of Exchange Hunters, so it will definitely be very noisy from here on out.]
“…Thank you. Because of me…”
[Don’t worry. It’s not because of you. This old lady has had quite the long feud with those disgusting lowlifes.]
Hearing Yeonseo’s voice through her smart watch, Shia felt she couldn’t express enough gratitude. While she felt confident in her strength, she definitely sensed her lack of experience in the political maneuvers and strategies related to the upper levels’ agendas.
In her previous world, Menelapie and Teresa would have covered for her. Had Yeonhwa or Yeonseo not been around, Shia might have faced a rather troublesome situation.
She was now in a direct hostile relationship with San Guild, the world’s largest guild. If Shia had been alone, she might have been forced to resort to extreme measures and shed blood in an all-out war, but thanks to Yeonhwa and Yeonseo’s help, it might end up being just a struggle against the association and the high ranks of the government.
Shia promised never to leave anyone who touched her loved ones, including her mother Yoonjeong, unpunished. However, as a Seongnyeo, she intended to refrain from killing unless absolutely necessary.
[But, dear. I’ve heard that a Fragment of the Demon King is being used by San Guild… are you okay with that?]
“What do you mean?”
[The fragments are a significant issue for us, but for you, they are like a reverse scale, aren’t they?]
That’s a fact. For Shia, who loathed the mere existence of the Demon King, any fragments attempting to invade this world had to be erased.
“It’s fine. It’s scared of me now.”
[Scared of you?]
“Even the fragments possess a certain level of intelligence.”
Since Shia had already spotted the Demon King’s fragment, it was half-settled that the Demon King was preparing for an invasion.
“But what if I charge directly into San Guild? The fragments would be scared, right?”
[Hmm, you’ve thought that through. Yes, if Shia were to go after the Demon King’s fragments and storm San Guild… they would hide. After all, San Guild alone cannot use the fragments. The Chinese government might be actively utilizing the fragments on their citizens…]
“It’s possible that not just China, but other countries could be using fragments too.”
So, Shia decided to wait. Forcing the fragments to disappear wouldn’t be the end. Other fragments certainly existed.
Hidden somewhere, lurking, waiting in ambush were the fragments of the Demon King scattered worldwide, and they likely had sensed Shia’s existence.
If Shia rushed into San Guild and all the fragments hid from her, it would be rather annoying if she had to slowly dismantle everything around her.
While she wasn’t incapable of protecting herself, this place lacked Menelapie and Teresa; Shia was all on her own.
“‘The Demon King that lost to me in the ‘previous world’ will surely come find me again if he senses the existence of the Seongnyeo. There’s no need to poke the hornet’s nest early. I just need to catch the moment when I can blow it all up in one go.”
Will I really lose to that filthy, wretched creature that I’ve already beaten once before?
Yeah, you can come.
This time, I’ll make sure to obliterate you.
So that you can never set foot in this world again…
“I will wait. When they can no longer escape, when they’re the most confident… then, I will crush them.”
[Daughter, sometimes I think, but you surely didn’t earn your experience from doing nothing?]
“Come on, you’re the one who’s amazing. You’re the Hero of this Earth, after all.”
[Hero? Don’t flatter me. Hmm, it looks like I have to head off soon. I’ll take care of the issues with China, so for now, spend some time with your mother.]
“Yes, thank you, Yeonseo Unnie.”
Though Shia would later realize, this time, she received enormous help from Yeonhwa, Yeonseo, and the Yeon Family.
Originally, this incident could have escalated into a significant national issue.
However, Yeonseo had nearly completely managed to stave off the headaches of political and diplomatic matters. Thanks to Shia, Yeonseo had various cards to pressure the Chinese side, and once Yeonseo intervened, it effectively sealed San Guild’s defeat, which was engaging in acts bordering on terrorism and abduction.
Moreover, as midnight passed, marking Yoonjeong’s birthday and her legal recognition as an adult, Yeonju, the administrative officer of the Yeon Family, diligently carried out various legal formalities including the process of renouncing Yoonjeong’s inheritance, completely severing her ties with her biological parents.
Thanks to that, Yoonjeong was now completely separated from her parents, with no debt from money she had never even used. She no longer had to be shackled to the burden of her parents.
“Ugh.”
“Uhe, heh…”
Arriving at the Returnee Shelter, Shia carefully scooped up the drunken Yoonjeong like a princess and slowly walked upstairs.
Along the way, some people who recognized Shia looked on in surprise.
“Uh, uh? Is that…?”
“Shh.”
Shia quietly covered the mouths of those who recognized her with a tentacle.
As the soft tentacle made contact with their lips, they nodded in confusion.
They had surely been notified of her participation in the S-rank promotion match, so if they were regular viewers of Shia’s broadcast, it was quite a shocking scene to see someone so indistinguishable being held by the person who announced their participation.
Well, not that many people were aware, and for Shia, Yoonjeong was the most precious thing at that moment, so she quietly took her home without waking her.
Fortunately, a few days prior, Yoonjeong had cleaned the place up nicely.
“Heheh, sleep well.”
She laid Yoonjeong down on the bed.
Since Yoonjeong was already more than tipsy and in a faint state, Shia began to undress her and gently wipe her face and body with a warm, damp towel.
“…You have so many calluses.”
How much had she struggled in this lifetime?
Shia remembered that Yoonjeong’s hands had always been rough with calluses even in her previous life.
From doing the dishes, household chores, and other hard work, her mother’s hands were always dry and coarse, with subtle calluses on her fingertips, and now, in this newly regained life, having just reached adulthood, her hands were rough and scarred unlike girls of that age due to her harsh life as a Hunter.
“Heh, heh…”
“You’ve worked hard.”
Shia intertwined her fingers with Yoonjeong’s calloused hands.
When they had gone to an amusement park as kids, she had held her mother’s hand like this.
Yeah, she thought she had forgotten, but holding hands like this again brought back that warmth.
“Oh, surprisingly, you have a lot of abs.”
She hadn’t noticed when Yoonjeong was wearing clothes, but it wasn’t the kind of abs built by consistent training like those gym rats; instead, it appeared as if it had been honed through actual practice.
Of course, Shia had abs too, but hers were more like muscles installed as part of this perfected body rather than as a result of training, and her abs looked a bit soft despite her appearance.
“Who says abs can’t be hard and soft at the same time?” Honestly, the most solid abs she had ever seen belonged to Menelapie.
When she first saw those solid muscles, she had honestly been a bit charmed.
Not in a romantic or sexual way, but more like a feeling of awe one feels when encountering an incredible and perfect work of art.
Ah, and Yeonhwa’s abs were pretty solid too; she wanted to hit them with a marimba.
“Good night, Mom.”
Shia had given Yoonjeong a decent wash and covered her with a blanket.
‘But what am I forgetting? This feels strange…’
As Shia was about to get ready for bed, she had the odd feeling she was forgetting something and looked around.
There wasn’t much in the house… Ever since her mom did a thorough cleaning a few days ago, there was nothing dirty left…
What was it?
What could possibly be the issue?
After checking all the rooms, Shia still hadn’t realized what she was forgetting.
‘Everything in the house is clean, and even the side room used as a storage is… nothing’s there………’
Wait.
Nothing’s there?
“Fortune’s Bladed Centipede?”
The centipede… where had it gone?
Shia’s face turned pale in an instant.
Fortune’s Bladed Centipede had recently been able to enjoy a peaceful sleep due to its owner’s indifference.
With its body measuring 15 meters, sleeping in such a small house was quite uncomfortable, but it could curl itself into the cracks between the rocks to manage a good sleep.
At first, it was content just to sleep comfortably as Shia seemed busy with all sorts of things, but its growing appetite, nourished by the time spent with Shia, soon brought about hunger pangs.
In fact, this was triggered by the time it had been forcibly bathed when Shia visited a raid dungeon in Andong, leading it to receive the Seongnyeo’s baptism.
Baptism was like a religious act where it gets washed by the Seongnyeo’s hand, purged of its sins, and publicly acknowledged as part of her group.
Of course, neither Shia nor the centipede had the awareness of such things, and since the deity Shia worshipped didn’t actually exist in this world, no immediate changes occurred. However, the Seongnyeo’s baptism began to slowly alter the Bladed Centipede.
The first evident change was its increased intellect.
Originally having the intelligence of about a 3 to 5-year-old child, the centipede’s cognition had dramatically evolved, jumping to something that could be defined as a mutation-level of intelligence.
As it received the baptism from the Seongnyeo, its innards began to change gradually to mirror that of its “baptizer.”
As Shia had been absent recently, the centipede woke from its slumber today driven by hunger.
Where on earth had its master gone?
Where was its food?
I’m hungry.
I want to be taken along.
While various desires and thoughts whirled about, Shia had already left, leaving the Bladed Centipede to wander around the empty Returnee Shelter.
Realizing that venturing outside with its massive 15-meter body would undoubtedly cause a considerable stir, it was already conscious enough of the world that it knew its existence was different from the humans outside.
If it ventured out without Shia and ran into terrifying Hunters, it could die; it understood that well.
In the end, the Bladed Centipede recalled the behaviour of Shia taking something from the refrigerator and began fiddling with the white box that served as its door.
Naturally, it had no idea how to open the refrigerator, so it struggled with the door for several dozen minutes before, by a stroke of luck, it managed to open it.
As soon as the refrigerator door swung open, it spotted blackish-fruited apples inside.
[Keek…?]
What is that?
Blackish apples.
An alluring sweet scent wafted from the apple.
These apples were the ones that had grown on the rotten World Tree branches protruding like horns on Big Olgania after Shia resolved the incident in Elf Great Forest.
While a true high-concentration malice was the Demon King’s fragment, eating that could pose the risk of becoming the next Demon King. Therefore, this rotten World Tree’s apple could very well be the most high-purity malice Shia could consume in this world.
Originally, Shia had intended to receive this from Olga as a kind of nutritional supplement later, but with all the stalking events and incidents related to Yoonjeong looming recently, she spent more time outside than at home, completely forgetting about the apple’s existence.
And the Bladed Centipede couldn’t resist the sweet and alluring scent of malice wafting from the apple before its eyes.
Its master left such a delicious thing behind just for it!
Crunch crunch!
Originally, the Bladed Centipede was carnivorous, but the malice exuding from the black apple perfectly satisfied its desires.
It was astonishing how high the concentration of malice was; even just one bite filled it with satisfaction instantly.
[Keek~]
It had intended to devour all the various meat and ingredients in the refrigerator, but after eating a single apple, it was too full to the point of bursting. Satisfied, the Bladed Centipede fell back into slumber.
Hours later…
“…Kie…”
Waking from its slumber, the Bladed Centipede rubbed its eyes and stood up.
It was hungry.
Had it really been hungry for just a few hours after being so stuffed?
“……Kieee…”
The Bladed Centipede, now standing, looked around with a slightly elevated sight.
Its master still hadn’t returned.
“Kii, I… I… eh…?”
But something felt wrong.
Not just something; everything felt wrong.
When did I start walking on two legs?
When did my sight get so high?
When did I start having hands that resemble my master?
When did I start rubbing my eyes like a “human”?
When did I start standing in this place like a “human”?
Blink blink.
The Bladed Centipede gazed into a mirror, seeing its human-like form.
It’s not a perfect human.
First, the skin bore a lightly tanned reddish-brown hue.
Its arms and legs, joints, wiggled with yellow tinges. Instead of delicate flesh at the ends of its arms and legs, its Bladed Centipede’s unique hard claws and shell formed the shape of a human.
Its eyes were purple.
However, instead of having proper pupils like a human, it resembled a double-layered eye, which looked a bit creepy upon closer inspection. A horn or spine appeared at its navel and chest center.
Between its waist and hips, the body’s original shape as a centipede remained, with a tail-like feature extending about 1 to 2 meters, but the once 15-meter long body now measured less than one-tenth of that, and more than anything, it possessed a clump of flesh like its master’s, proudly jiggling about.
If the original body of Isia looked like it had been made five to seven years younger, this would be it.
“………….”
Why had it become like this?
The Bladed Centipede fell into contemplation, yet found itself without thoughts.
If it had changed, then it had changed.
Grrrrrrr.
The Bladed Centipede frowned at the hunger it felt in its belly.
“Kieee….” (I’m hungry….)
With an intellect now far superior to its kin.
No, it now possessed a level of intelligence comparable to humans. The Bladed Centipede accepted its new human form, considering it a stroke of fortune.
Because in this state, it could go outside!
In the era of Hunters, among Hunters or Awakened Ones, there were many possessing body-mutation abilities, transformation abilities, or other special capabilities, often shedding their ordinary human forms for those resembling monsters or anthropomorphic figures typical of fantasy movies.
Initially, such individuals might have appeared a bit concerning, but by the time it became 2088, people had become quite used to it; the Bladed Centipede’s form would likely just look like a somewhat peculiar mutation-type Awakened.
‘Theres is nothing to eat at home.’
‘I don’t know when my master will come back.’
‘If I go outside, there’s bound to be something tasty to eat.’
With that judgement made, the Bladed Centipede stepped forward in determination to venture outside.
“Kiee… eek… ek…”
However, not knowing how to open the door, the Bladed Centipede struggled for a long time with the Returnee Shelter’s entrance.
There was the option of breaking down the door, but… it wasn’t certain whether its master would be angry to see her door destroyed and fried it up.
In the end, the Bladed Centipede was wrestling at the door when it spotted a passerby.
“Kiee…?”
First, it noticed the neighbor grasping the door and turning it aside, realizing then that this door didn’t simply push open.
And it also noticed the human had something woven over its body.
Humans all had skin, yet they wore strange scraps of cloth over them.
Even its master Isia was the same.
Her master could venture out unscathed in her bare skin, yet always wore something.
‘Do humans have to wear those cloth pieces to go outside?’
Realizing it should adopt a form similar to those humans to avoid attracting suspicion, the centipede returned to the storage room where Shia’s clothes were kept and picked out some clothes.
Fortunately, most of the clothes fit the Bladed Centipede’s form reasonably well.
However, some were too constricting.
Especially the underwear; it found it too uncomfortable.
Simply wearing it felt like being confined, so the Bladed Centipede decided to don nothing but an oversized top.
This should be enough.
Now, let’s go outside.
Ding ding!
With the sound of the door opening, the Bladed Centipede took its first step into the vast and complicated world of Hunters in 2088.
Everything was enormous.
It was noisy and chaotic.
On the streets rolled large iron boxes, and numerous humans rushed about clad in all sorts of things.
So, this is the human world.
A very different reality from the rotten forest it once lived in.
With wide-eyed wonder, the Bladed Centipede took its first steps, exploring this new world.
“……?”
“Oh wow…”
“Looks like a mutation-type Awakened?”
“Who’s that?”
Naturally, all eyes were on it.
The Bladed Centipede’s form bore a resemblance to its master Isia, albeit slightly.
It possessed alluring and overwhelming dimensions, and it was hardly surprising for the attention since it was only covered by a thin T-shirt.
Had this been 30 years ago instead of 2088, it would have likely faced immediate reports to the police.
Grrrrr.
“I’m so hungry….”
While exploring this strange and dizzying world of humans was enjoyable…
The first priority was definitely to fill its stomach!
Where should it go?
It was really, really hungry.
“Sniff sniff…”
Just then, catching the scent of something delicious, the Bladed Centipede stumbled towards it, following the alluring aroma.
As it walked, its centipede tail swayed gently, almost as if expressing its elation at the pleasant smell.
“Kie… e…?”
It soon discoverd the origin of the scent.
It was the same aroma that wafted from Isia when she came home late at night or early in the morning.
[Our local Seonjigukbap.]
The fragrant and tantalizing smell simmering from the bubbling pot made the Bladed Centipede feel drool just flowing.
“Slurp…? Swallow….”
It was drool.
When it was a centipede, it didn’t have any physical reactions like this, but now, resembling a human form, it found itself drooling and eager.
“Oh, dear customer!”
“…Kie…?”
A customer?
What does that mean?
The warm voice of a kindly restaurant lady made the Bladed Centipede cock its head in confusion.
“My goodness, we have our regulars! It seems our Seonjigukbap is very popular with the young ladies these days, huh? You look like a Hunter; would you like a bowl?”
“………”
“Don’t just stand there; come on in! It’s not my business hours yet, but if you’re ordering food, you can go ahead now!”
“……Kie.”
Feeling the unexpectedly friendly response from the human, the Bladed Centipede couldn’t help but pull up its mouth corners.
It likely smiled similar to a grin.
But above all, it couldn’t let the stimulating and divine smell of the Seonjigukbap, with its meaty and bloody scent, pass by.
Slurp slurp… (That looks delicious.)
