🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 27
“……!”
Gil Seyun’s and Gil Rohan’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out. Odoa continued speaking.
“Do you have any idea how long I waited for a call from you, Ms. Morae?”
Even without looking, Morae could feel the siblings’ stares. She smiled awkwardly.
“Then… you could’ve called me first….”
“I don’t have your number.”
“Why not?”
“Well….”
Odoa hesitated, then suddenly smiled with her eyes.
“I transferred into Section 8. I’ll be staying there from now on.”
“What about the cats?”
“Of course they came with me. Come visit them.”
“Yes, I will.”
Odoa’s eyes sparkled like a cat staring at a fish right in front of it.
“Really? When are you coming? Today?”
“Well, um, I think I’ll be finishing late today.”
“Then tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow, too….”
“Do you work overtime that much? Then pick a day and call me. I need to save your number.”
“Yes….”
Having extracted a promise from Morae, Odoa finished registering the information. She handed the leash to Gil Rohan, put her sunglasses back on, and left with dignified strides.
A heavy silence fell.
The unspoken question—What on earth is your relationship with Odoa?—prickled at Morae’s face. Just as she was about to speak, unable to bear it any longer—
“Wow, Ms. Morae, you really do work here?”
The door opened and Gosan walked in. And with him, Cha Taejun.
Gosan was holding a sleek, glossy Doberman, while Cha Taejun cradled a pure-white Pomeranian.
A human cotton candy scampered over, giving off a sweet scent.
“I heard a rumor that you work here, Ms. Morae, so I came all the way. I did good, right?”
“Yeees….”
Who started that rumor, anyway?
Were Gosan and I close enough for him to come looking for me just because he heard I’d gone to work?
By now, Gil Seyun wasn’t even surprised anymore. Judging by her vacant gaze, she looked completely dazed.
Which was understandable. Every customer coming in one after another was a world-famous S-rank Awakener.
It wasn’t my fault, but I still felt oddly sorry. Morae handed the tablet over instead of the utterly broken Gil Seyun.
“Please enter the pet’s information.”
“I just need to fill in the circled parts, right?”
“Yes. Hunter Cha Taejun, please register as well.”
Cha Taejun quietly stepped forward and went through the registration process.
The Pomeranian nestled in his arms lifted its head. Its tiny face, with a little pink tongue sticking out, was absurdly cute.
It looked young on the outside, but was it actually old? The color of its fur, too—there was a slightly aged feel to it.
Morae reached out her hand, sending a wave of energy along with it.
“You’re so cute—”
[Where do you think you’re touching me so casually?]
“Oh, sorry.”
[Who told you to take your hand away?]
So it had a bit of a prickly personality. Morae barely held back a laugh.
“Can I pet you?”
[I’ll allow the top of my head. Nowhere else.]
“Thank you.”
Its owner must pet it often—the top of its head was smooth and glossy.
As she slowly stroked it, the Pomeranian licked her fingertips as if giving her a reward.
That tickles. As Morae smiled softly, Cha Taejun asked,
“Can you understand what it’s saying?”
“Rather than understanding… no, actually, yes.”
“Then could you tell me what it’s saying right now?”
[I don’t know why my dad keeps rubbing his face on my belly. It’s so annoying.]
“Ah, um… it says it likes its dad.”
[Hey! When did I ever say that?!]
“Did it… just call me ‘dad’?”
“Of course.”
Emotion rippled through Cha Taejun’s eyes.
Seeing a man over two meters tall moved to tears by the fact that his companion animal thought of him as its parent was unexpectedly touching.
I heard rumors he could tear a creature apart with his bare hands….
Guess he’s not that scary after all.
Having built a bit of internal familiarity with Cha Taejun on her own, Morae smiled gently.
“The pet’s name is, um….”
She quickly scanned the application Cha Taejun had filled out. Name: Princess. Age: 14. So she really was old.
“May I take Princess for a moment?”
“Her hind legs are weak. She had patellar surgery last year.”
“Yes, I’ll be careful.”
“I’ve always been anxious whenever I had to leave her at my lodging. I feel relieved now. Please take good care of her.”
“Don’t worry. Hunter Gosan, have you finished filling yours out?”
“Just a second… Ah, I’m done.”
“I’ll check it.”
“Ms. Morae, please take good care of Gang. He’s a bit prickly.”
“I’ll make sure he’s well cared for so you can work comfortably, Hunter Gosan.”
Princess and Gang went into the playroom.
Until the children were completely out of sight, Gosan and Cha Taejun didn’t take their eyes off them.
Even S-rank Awakeners who protect the world to the sound of cheers were, here, just guardians anxious about leaving their children behind.
After Gosan and Cha Taejun left, two more people visited. During a lull, Gil Seyun finally launched into her interrogation.
“Ms. Morae, who are you, really? Are you some kind of big shot no one knows about or something?”
“How could that be? Those people are… this might sound strange, but I just happened to get to know them.”
“You can ‘just happen’ to get to know S-rank hunters? And not just any S-ranks—Special Team 1? Do you live in another world or something?”
“It’s really nothing special….”
“I feel like I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t know what that ‘nothing special’ is, okay? Please tell me. Quickly.”
Morae told her everything as it was—except for Kyeon Suho.
She couldn’t bring herself to say that he had tracked her all the way to a dungeon using someone else’s device.
“Ms. Morae, you’ve lived a pretty spectacular life.”
Recently, shocking incidents had happened one after another, and those incidents had led her to start working at the Ability Administration.
It was something she never could have imagined before.
To others, it might have been nothing special, but it had taken Morae an enormous amount of courage to come this far.
Enough that she’d even been prescribed anti-anxiety medication.
But over the course of the past week, none of the things she’d feared actually happened.
She didn’t become unbearably anxious or fall into a panic state.
Of course, the medication helped—but more than that, aside from Choi Manduk, no one recognized her.
The incident from twelve years ago had already faded from people’s memories. The past week had been a time for her to learn that fact with her body.
And then, the world no longer felt as frightening as before. She still felt a jolt of anxiety when there were too many people, but at least it wasn’t paralyzing terror anymore.
Wasn’t this what hope was? Even if it was as slow as a grub, believing that things could gradually get better.
I’m really glad I decided to work here. Now, if only I could sneak a look at Kyeon Suho going to and from work, I’d have no regrets.
“But there are fewer users than I expected.”
“There’s been almost no promotion.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?”
“Ah….”
The team was supposed to establish a promotion strategy, but there was no way Oh Changseok would actually do any work.
Gil Seyun shook her head back and forth.
“It’s a bit early, but should we eat lunch now?”
“You two go ahead. I’ll step out for a moment.”
“Do you have something to do?”
“No, remember I said I’d talk about the issue of working in pairs at night?”
“Huh? Didn’t you give up on that?”
Morae answered with a smile, picked up the printed documents, and stood up. Gil Seyun hurriedly grabbed her.
“Ms. Morae! Don’t do it. If you get on the bad side of someone like that, you’ll be the one who suffers.”
“I’m already on his bad side.”
“Still, isn’t it better to just endure it?”
“I need to be helpful too.”
“What are you talking about? You’re already doing all the work yourself… But where are you going? I know I’m stopping you, so this might be hypocritical, but the team leader is on the second floor right now.”
“It’s not something I need to say to the team leader.”
“Then who are you going to….”
“I’ll be back.”
Morae gave her a bright smile and stepped outside.
Before getting on the tram, she swallowed another anti-anxiety pill.
She’d gained more courage than before, but that didn’t mean she’d completely overcome her anxiety.
Maybe because it was close to lunchtime, the tram was crowded.
Morae slipped into the crowd and grabbed a strap.
Good thing I took the medicine in advance.
Her senses were a bit dulled, but her heartbeat was steady and her breathing was comfortable.
Compared to the days when she’d tremble uncontrollably every time she used public transportation during rush hour, this was nothing.
Still, maybe because she’d taken two pills today, her body felt a bit sluggish. She was a little sleepy, too.
Morae opened the café <Beautiful, Kyeon>. Seeing malicious comments about Kyeon Suho instantly woke her up.
She was typing replies one by one when the tram stopped in front of the main building.
Perhaps because it was lunchtime, the main building was even more crowded.
Morae boarded the elevator with her head lowered. When she got off on the twelfth floor, secretaries were seated there.
“How may we help you?
