TRPM 429

chapter 429

The haunted house prepared by the third-year seniors was undoubtedly high quality.

… However, it wasn’t that scary to me.

As expected, compared to the pranks the academy seniors pulled before my regression, it was somewhat lacking.

‘… Wait a minute…’

Could it be that the seniors who made this haunted house are the same ones from before my regression?

‘… Seems kind of similar.’

Thinking back to the haunted house I saw today, that seemed plausible. If the pranks I saw from the seniors before my regression evolved into this haunted house… it made sense.

“… Ah… this is healing.”
“… I thought I wasn’t scared of ghosts… but I guess I was…”
“… We’ve just never seen a truly scary ghost before…”

Oh, by the way, the three people who came out of the haunted house are currently in our classroom, petting Sarang and getting healed.

“What on earth happened to make you like this?”
“You should go too… to the haunted house.”
“The haunted house? Oh, the one made by the third-year seniors?”
“Yeah… leave the pet café to us and go check it out…”
“Wait… I guess I will go, but you can’t be hugging Sarang while I do? You need to give the other visitors a chance?”
“Yeah…”

Are they actually listening to what the girls are saying?

Even the girls, seeing the three boys being healed by Sarang, seemed distrustful and looked over at us.

“We’ll put him away when guests arrive.”
“I’m here too, so don’t worry.”

Both I and Grandma Bokja, who was sitting beside me, said that in turn.

Grandma Bokja wanted to enjoy the festival, but because of her age, she couldn’t keep moving around, so she was just running our class’s pet café. Naturally, she would stay in the classroom with me while the other girls went to the haunted house.

“Please take care of him, Grandma. Alright, let’s go.”
“Okay. If there’s anything to eat at the street food stalls outside, I’ll bring some for you too!”

The girls said that and left the classroom. Judging from their behavior, they intended to enjoy other booths as well before coming back.

‘Still, they should be back before lunch.’

Thinking that, I sat down in my chair.

Rrrr… Woof…!
“Uh…? Why is he suddenly getting bigger…?”
“Wait…! Sarang…! Stop…!”
“Krgh?!”

As the girls left, Sarang didn’t hesitate—he grew in size and knocked down the boys who had been petting him.

“……”
“Do dogs these days change size at will?”
“No. That’s special to Sarang.”

By the way, Grandma Bokja is amazing. Any ordinary person would scream in terror if they saw a dog—or rather, a wolf—growing like that.

Woof!
“… Why?”
Kiiiing…!

Sarang, having knocked out the boys, came over to me, signaling that he wanted his clothes removed.

For reference, the clothes Sarang was wearing were magical, allowing for size adjustments. That’s probably why he couldn’t just take them off by growing bigger.

“I don’t mind taking it off, but you’ll need to put it back on once the girls return, right?”
Woof!
“Now is now, later is later? Alright then…”

I unbuttoned Sarang’s clothes. He shook himself like a dog coming out of water, removing the outfit. Then, he extended his claws, seemingly ready to tear the clothes.

“Hey, no. If you tear that, it won’t just be you getting scolded—it’ll be me too.”

I restrained him with a bit of magic, speaking as I did.

Kiiiing…
“Don’t make a sad face either.”

I snatched Sarang’s clothes with my magic, securing them in an extra-dimensional space. That should keep them safe.

Clack…

Having prevented Sarang from tearing his clothes, the classroom door opened as if on cue.

“Wow…! That’s a huge dog!”
“… Uh… he won’t bite, right?”
“Who are the people lying down over there…?”

A young child came in through the classroom window, followed by what seemed to be guardians. The child fearlessly ran up to the giant Sarang, and Sarang looked at me, unsure of what to do. I conveyed my intentions through my gaze.

‘You know what happens if you hurt him, right?’

Kiiiing…

Understanding my gaze, Sarang accepted everything the child did, keeping his claws in and making sure the child wouldn’t get hurt.

Time passed, and soon…

Clack…
“I need healing…”
“Sarang… why did you grow? Where did your clothes go…?”
“I don’t know… He just grew, so let’s dive into that fur…”
“Yeah… good idea…”

The girls who had gone to the haunted house returned to the classroom to be healed by Sarang, just like the boys before. They dived onto Sarang, who was already overwhelmed by the child.

?! Kiiiing?!

Sarang, now dealing with even more people, looked increasingly troubled. I laughed at Sarang and looked at the two girls who hadn’t dived in.

“You two seem fine, huh?”

Elena and Lee Ha-eun. Both had visited the haunted house like the others, but they were fine. Perhaps it’s because they had crossed the wall?

“I don’t think it has anything to do with crossing the wall. It’s just… we became resistant because of a scary experience we had before.”
“You mean that time, when we entered Chloe’s nightmare?”

Chloe’s nightmare… Ah. The nightmare filled with dolls that triggered Elena and Chloe to cross the wall.

‘Even the doppelgänger who killed me before my regression appeared as a doll in that nightmare.’

Given that, it makes sense they became resistant to scary things.

“Oh, right. I bought some chicken skewers on the way. Have some.”
“I bought enough for the whole class.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Ah, thank you so much.”

We ate chicken skewers while watching Sarang surrounded by people. For reference, Sarang was finally free from people’s hands just before lunch, thanks to all the guests who continued to arrive after the first child and our classmates had left.

“What are you doing over the vacation?”

While eating lunch in the cafeteria, Ryu Ah-yeong asked everyone that. After today’s festival, there would be cleanup, and then tomorrow, the winter vacation ceremony.

Elena and Elliot were the first to answer.

“I guess Elliot and I will return to England.”
“It’s good to spar with Doomin in Korea, but we can’t see our families if it’s not vacation. So we’re going back reluctantly… Once in England, the first thing we’ll do is tackle dungeons. In Korea, the procedures are too complicated to freely do that.”

Elliot said that, glancing at Lee Doomin. Doomin paused briefly, then said:

“I don’t have anything set in stone… but I’ll probably do more monster disassembly jobs than usual. Oh, I might also join the superhuman meetings.”
“Superhuman meetings? What’s that?”
“Just a normal meet-up for superhumans to hang out or share updates. They also share training methods, so I go often.”

Doomin had his own practical plan. I hadn’t realized there were so many of these meetings… Maybe other gifted people have gatherings too?

“Oh, I’m also going to the implemented superhuman meeting. In the past, it was mostly older men, but now there are people my age or younger too.”

Ryu Ah-yeong confirmed my suspicions. Apparently, such meetings are more common than I thought. In my case, only Yeon Mirae and I use martial arts, so such gatherings couldn’t exist—so I was a bit envious.

“Magic meetings welcome awakened users of magic!”
“You’d probably be the only one joining. Wait, when did you get here? You were picking up trash just now.”
“……”
“You ran away?”
“Is there anyone going out with So-in in the afternoon?”

At that, our classmates avoided Jin Chun-ha’s gaze.

“Why were you picking up trash there in the first place?”
“… I got points unfairly.”

Points?

“Unfair! I got points just for not wearing a uniform! And I was punished to do school service because of it!”
“……”
“……”
“……”

No one would think that’s unfair. Probably everyone thought the same.

“So, what about the rest of you? What will you do over winter vacation?”
“‘So, what about Jin Chun-ha?’ What do you mean?”
“I think I’ll help the police or the Night Eagle Guild.”
“Excuse me.”

I answered Ryu Ah-yeong’s question. I blocked Jin Chun-ha from interrupting by lightly pushing his face aside.

“Police or Night Eagle Guild? Why?”
“Why? There’s been almost a month of incidents. The police and the Night Eagle Guild haven’t had a proper break and are busy handling cases.”

I don’t have to help, but if I can, it’s best to lend a hand.

‘In the process, I’ll inevitably gather internal information from them.’

That’s the real goal. I won’t use their information for bad purposes—just to uncover the mastermind behind the ongoing cases based on the data they gathered while I wasn’t paying attention.

“What about you, Kang Garam?”
“Me? I’ll probably train to meet the conditions you set, right?”
“…Conditions you set?”

Did I even set those?

“You said you’d teach me the sword if I reached Elliot or Doomin-level physical ability, right?”

… Did I promise that? I can’t quite remember. But…

‘I probably did say something like that.’

If Kang Garam achieved that level of physical ability, he could follow the path of a magic swordsman, using magic and sword together like Elliot. If I did promise, it likely meant he should reach the minimum requirements first.

‘Considering his growth speed, he’d probably only meet the conditions after entering the academy at the earliest.’

Ah, that doesn’t mean his growth is slow. Given he’s only been awakened for a year, he’s growing incredibly fast.

“… Do your best.”

I’d prefer he walked the path of a pure magician rather than picking up a sword, if possible.

“What about you, Eunyeon? What will you do over vacation?”

After finishing with Kang Garam, Ryu Ah-yeong asked Kim Eunyeon. I expected she’d come to school for alchemy experiments during the break, but…

“Together with Grandma Bokja… I’ll go study abroad….”

Kim Eunyeon’s answer was a bit unexpected.