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Chapter 227: The Grandfather, The Sea, and The Shadows

“Grandfather, Grandfather.”

“…Hmm?”

Feeling something small tugging at his sleeve, the old man lowered his head. It was a very weak and cautious touch, reminiscent of small hands from a distant memory.

“Aren’t you the little one who came yesterday? What’s up? Did you get lost on the way?”

“Uh-uh, no. I came because I wanted to talk to you, Grandfather.”

“…Did your brother send you to do this? It would be troubling if you thought you could win me over like this. If that’s the case, you should head back.”

“It’s not like that! I really wanted to talk to you by myself! I have a lot of questions!”

Perhaps she was angry, as the girl’s eyebrows formed a V. With such rich emotional expression, the old man’s stern look softened. It wouldn’t do to be harsh with this little one.

“What could an old man like me have to offer?”

“Hey! You shouldn’t say stuff like that! You have to live until you can!”

Getting scolded for just speaking weakly. He stood tall, but still felt a sense of seriousness despite his short stature.

Seeing her cute expression caused the old man to burst into laughter and sit down on the concrete floor of the pier.

Finally, their eyes met. Sharp golden eyes shone through her smooth dark hair that resembled her brother’s. Quite the unique gaze, the old man thought.

“Alright, alright… So what are you curious about?”

“Why are you looking at the sea, Grandfather?”

“Well, let’s see… when was that…”

Faced with her straightforward question, the old man slowly looked up at the sky. A salty breeze blew.

Once, he had fought alongside people against monsters crashing in like waves while enjoying such breezes.

He recalled those days from a distant past as if unpacking a packed bundle. It was a story from when he was still young.

*

“Hmm, what should I do?”

It couldn’t be anything surprising. I came to work, but now there’s nothing to do. Isn’t this a form of alchemy as well? It was the ultimate alchemy that all office workers love.

As that silly thought crossed his mind, he suddenly realized that he was left alone, stripped of friends and even his divine being.

Shar and Tae-oh had gone outside, leaving only minimal safety measures behind; Lunaria was busy with church affairs, and Down was with Tae-oh. Only the normal form Choi Yeon-woo remained.

‘Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to realize something?’

Even if Shar and Tae-oh turned into Mana Entities, it wouldn’t make a big difference, but it did mean the control of Mana became stricter than when they were together.

In short, this was the worst condition Yeon-woo could find himself in.

“Should I try hunting some mermen?”

“Here?”

“Where else could I face mermen other than here? Want to join?”

“Sure, sounds good.”

As Yeon-woo mumbled that, Baek In-hwa, irritated, suggested going along, nodding as if flipping a palm.

Could it be bipolar disorder…? Forgetting about that thought being notoriously rude, he swallowed it down.

“By the way, you’ve been getting along well with Nea lately. What’s going on?”

“Nothing. She’s just being nice to me.”

“Don’t lie. Nea isn’t that easy of a girl.”

“She said she’d teach me to cook next time. Is she good at cooking?”

“Haven’t you tried it? Her cooking is amazing. Objectively not bad. It feels like she follows the recipe faithfully. No originality, but it’s satisfying as a taster.”

“…I see. So my role is to add originality to it?”

At those words, Yeon-woo couldn’t help but frown. When he looked at her while frowning, even Baek In-hwa, with a face made of steel, mumbled it was just a joke and looked dispirited.

The Ice Golem wasn’t good under pressure than expected.

As they exchanged minor chatter, they soon arrived at the beach. Many Hunters meandered around the seaside, looking rather leisurely.

“Wait a minute, this surprisingly turned into an atmospheric walking course?”

“Not bad. Just the smell of fish is a downside.”

“That’s definitely a downside. I shouldn’t walk with Nea.”

“Is that my purpose?”

“If you say that, won’t I get caught and beaten up?”

In truth, he could feel the glare of nearby Hunters casting looks at Yeon-woo, as if they were looking at trash.

Fortunately, with sunglasses on and a changed hair color, he had made some efforts to avoid being recognized.

He had crafted a decent image, but it almost crumbled away in an instant. Accompanying Baek In-hwa might have been a dangerous choice after all.

Perhaps thinking that, he wandered along the sandy beach like the surrounding Hunters when suddenly, a pillar of water shot up. It was as if a bomb had exploded beneath the sea, splashing seawater all around.

Thud thud thud!!

An enormous number of mermen revealed themselves at the beach. With blue skin, fish-like heads, and glossy fins on their limbs, they were not pleasing to the eyes.

“It’s an ambush!!”

Suddenly, the Hunters around them shouted and drew their weapons. Given the suddenly tense atmosphere, it seemed to be quite a major wave.

Instead of pulling out her ice spear, Baek In-hwa readied herself with bare hands, while Yeon-woo pulled out White from Relin’s Warehouse.

“Hey, it’s a deep-sea dweller. Quite rare among mermen.”

“Is there something different?”

“Just like you and I look different, there are many kinds of mermen. Some look quite remarkable, but deep-sea dwellers are among the ugliest. But they have excellent physical abilities.”

There were many other characteristics, but it wasn’t the right place to delve into those.

He lightly gripped the handle of White. Sword or spear? He briefly considered his approach but decided a sword was better here.

“Gyaaaah!!”

The deep-sea dwellers charged at the Hunters with their crude tridents, letting out terrifying screams. The peaceful beach transformed into a battlefield in an instant.

Amidst this chaos, Baek In-hwa stood out. Each time she reached out, the mermen charging in would turn into ice and explode.

Having lived in the always-temperate depths, this sudden chill seemed to confuse them, visibly hesitating as they faced only Baek In-hwa.

While catching the attention of those nearby, Yeon-woo clashed swords with the attacking mermen.

Though he appeared to match them in numbers, the mermen he faced felt as if they were the ones defending rather than attacking.

Yeon-woo wasn’t using a single ounce of Mana at the moment. He was relying solely on pure physical abilities to take on the mermen.

Even if the mermen had excellent physical attributes, they were just around the level of Lizardmen, and with that, he could comfortably face them with restrictions.

At that moment, he was also checking the state of his body. His Mana wasn’t flowing as smoothly as usual, feeling somewhat clunky.

In particular, the Elemental Mana of ice showed a strong tendency in that direction. Perhaps the proud Dragon’s Mana still wasn’t ready to acknowledge him.

Courage, after all, couldn’t be put to use in such situations and lay dormant, except for the Shadow’s Elemental Mana that swallowed deception. This one felt like it was moving smoothly, as usual.

A tiring deep-sea dweller, revealing exhaustion, lunged at him. Perhaps he felt that if this continued, he would be the one to tire first.

Yeon-woo lightly dodged the trident and swung White down.

White tore through the merman’s body, while frost followed the cut. The area frozen due to the cooling breath of winter encased the severed part.

“Alright, before Shar gets here, let’s practice against these guys a little.”

No matter how wild the flailing spear was, Yeon-woo’s method of using White was reminiscent of Claire. The reason was simple; Claire was the only one around him who used a great sword.

However, Claire’s techniques were too characteristic to imitate with White.

Those could only work because of the shield-sword combination, a contradictory combat style that was both defensive and offensive.

While he managed to do that in the western forest, he couldn’t be sure he’d be able to do so in the upcoming fights, meaning he needed to adjust his techniques with White accordingly.

“A never-ending supply of sandbags, how wonderful.”

“Ugh, the fishy smell.”

While Yeon-woo smiled brightly, Baek In-hwa wrinkled her face as if she had just opened a jar of Nordic herring. Hmm… the smell was a bit much, wasn’t it?

*

“What an incredibly spiritual landscape.”

Mermen statues, terrified, covering their faces with webbed hands, were scattered around Baek In-hwa.

As always, after Baek In-hwa fought, it turned into a scene reminiscent of a cult’s sacred ground. With mermen frozen and lying around, it created an even weirder sight.

“Who was supposed to come clean the corpses? When will they arrive?”

No sooner had he spoken than numerous people appeared on the concrete wall between the beach and the city. They looked like a cleanup crew.

Well, considering the number they had taken down, it might be quite rewarding, but neither Yeon-woo nor Baek In-hwa was poor enough to fight over that, so they felt it would be handled well, and thus they left.

“The settlement fee will be sorted out once you go to the guild later.”

“I’ll have to go collect it later.”

An unexpected reaction. Well, it’s not wrong to take care of your own spending money. Yeon-woo smiled comfortably and patted Baek In-hwa’s shoulder. She’s becoming quite human.

“But with the deep-sea dwellers, and Nephren-Ka…. Things are getting quite entangled these days.”

“Entangled? What do you mean?”

“The Cosmic Horror genre.”

“Oh, the one with all the alien gods.”

“Yeah, that one. It’s debatable if they are the same entities, but they are generally perceived that way.”

With that said, it was complicated; those from that side…

Yeon-woo sighed wearily. As for the beings that appeared in Cthulhu mythology, they were still not thoroughly understood, even in the distant future.

Reality confirmed their existence, as they introduced themselves by name.

But were they truly the same entities as the foreign gods in the novels? No one could clearly answer that.

Real yet fictional beings. Identical yet completely different, thinking that, “Wait, that’s totally different,” only to get blindsided again by monsters.

The most famous alien god group in the world: the Lovecraftian Mythos.

“I never once wanted to get involved with things like those…”

Yeon-woo sighed softly. Thinking that such things might be lurking behind Saturday…

“Indeed, the hero is a 3D job…?”

(Continued in the next part)

 

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