Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 15

15. Whispers of the Stars (1)

Hyeon-woo unfolded the cloth with a troubled expression.

He immediately understood that it could perfectly regenerate lost body parts, but he couldn’t figure out what it meant to promote growth.

The option to regenerate lost body parts could actually be a very useful effect.

However, Hyeon-woo resurrected in perfect condition upon death, so it was ambiguous how to use it.

‘Maybe if I put it on my head, I’ll get smarter?’

Hyeon-woo tried wearing the Cradle of Heaven on his head.

Nothing happened.

Hyeon-woo, who had been expecting something, felt awkward.

Growth didn’t seem to mean what Hyeon-woo was thinking. Maybe it would work for hair loss. But its value couldn’t be underestimated.

It was a subtle item for Hyeon-woo to use, but there would definitely be people in the real world willing to pay tens of billions to get their hands on it.

As Hyeon-woo was about to put the Cradle of Heaven into his inventory, something caught his eye.

An item he thought was slightly subtle, just like the Cradle of Heaven.

[Unidentified Egg (Legendary)]

A legendary item created by assembling mosquito corpses. Since then, Hyeon-woo had created Hell Darts whenever he had the chance, but he had never created the same item.

‘Wait, does promoting growth include eggs too?’

Hyeon-woo took out the egg. The moment he was about to cover it with the Cradle of Heaven, Hyeon-woo hesitated.

There was no way an item with such a powerful effect wouldn’t have a penalty. If you think about it, it was like an infinite potion.

It was likely to be a consumable item.

But was it right to use it on an item he didn’t even know the identity of, rather than for himself?

“No, it’s better to get something useful out of carrying around two subtle items.”

Hyeon-woo covered the unidentified egg with the Cradle of Heaven. And he watched.

Nothing happened.

“Do I have to keep holding it like this?”

The moment Hyeon-woo grumbled and tried to take the Cradle of Heaven off again, his fingertips brushed against empty air.

The Cradle of Heaven crumbled like mist from his fingertips. Hyeon-woo was taken aback by the way it dissipated as if it had never existed in the first place.

“Uh… uh?”

And beneath the spot where the Cradle of Heaven had disappeared, the egg was glowing.

The light was emanating from within. The egg glowed translucently, showing something moving inside. Hyeon-woo briefly recalled a scene from the movie and tensed up.

The egg began to crack without a sound. Even though the fragments of the egg, smaller than a fist, were breaking off, Hyeon-woo’s body was tense as if it would shatter if touched.

‘Surely, after pouring in two legendary items, a crazy cannibalistic monster that tries to kill me won’t come out, right?’

Fragments fell to the floor. Soon, something small emerged from within.

It was a hand and arm smaller than a finger. At least it wasn’t a crazy cannibalistic monster that attacked human faces and laid larvae in their throats.

Something thin and white struggled to crawl out, digging through the fragments of the egg. Something white, small, frail, and winged. A small, cute face with a tiny flute in its hand.

The first thing Hyeon-woo thought of was a fairy.

The fairy looked up at Hyeon-woo weakly with drooping wings. Hyeon-woo hesitated and reached out a finger towards the fairy. The fairy stared intently at Hyeon-woo.

Then, it rushed over and bit his finger firmly.

“Aaaah! It’s a crazy cannibalistic monster!!”

Hyeon-woo swung his hand and threw the fairy away. The fairy, thrown like a baseball, made a pathetic squeaking noise and crashed against the wall.

Hyeon-woo’s scream wasn’t an exaggeration. The spot where the fairy bit him had pieces of flesh falling off in the shape of tiny teeth marks, and blood was gushing out.

“Seriously, what kind of reward is this?”

Is this why there isn’t a single person in sight? Hyeon-woo approached the fairy, who was sprawled out powerlessly, while still huffing and puffing.

Still, it was something made by plundering two legendary items. It was a waste to just throw it away like this.

Fortunately, the fairy didn’t seem to be seriously injured.

It was just muttering weakly.

“I’m hungry……”

“……”

Hyeon-woo felt troubled. If he thought an investment had failed, the answer was to cut his losses early, but a legendary item wasn’t something he could easily give up on.

Hyeon-woo decided to try to appease this crazy fairy. Hyeon-woo took out a caramel from his pocket and carefully offered it.

The fairy stared blankly at it, sniffed it, and shook its head.

He also offered emergency rations, but it was no use.

“You’re hungry, but you’re so picky. What do you want to eat?”

When Hyeon-woo asked irritably, the fairy quietly pointed at Hyeon-woo.

It seemed like it really was a crazy cannibalistic monster.

***

Hyeon-woo was filled with complex emotions as he watched the fairy sitting on his forearm, sucking his blood through a straw.

The thing Hyeon-woo initially thought was a flute was a straw. On top of that, the wings looked like mosquito wings no matter how he looked at them. Come to think of it, he had created this thing from mosquito corpses.

‘……Could it be a mosquito fairy or something?’

Hyeon-woo tentatively named this thing the Cannibal Fairy. Unaware of his complicated feelings, the Cannibal Fairy, who was happily sucking his blood, even hummed a tune.

Its pale skin had returned to a healthy complexion, thanks to how much of Hyeon-woo’s blood it had sucked.

While the Cannibal Fairy was distracted by sucking blood, Hyeon-woo examined it closely. Its overall appearance was like a tiny human, except for the mosquito wings and long straw.

Its hair was a bit long, about bobbed length, but its gender was impossible to determine. But since its arms and legs were long and slender compared to its flat chest, he decided to think of it as a male for his own peace of mind. It seemed easier to treat it roughly that way.

Hyeon-woo thought it was enough and nudged its back.

“Stop eating.”

“Eek!”

The Cannibal Fairy was suddenly pushed away, pulled out the straw, and was pushed back. Blood flowed from the hole. The Cannibal Fairy licked it up as if even that was precious.

“I said stop eating.”

“I’m stopping the bleeding, you idiot!”

What was this tiny thing saying?

But the Cannibal Fairy’s life had been postponed until its value could be determined.

The Cannibal Fairy licked until no more blood flowed out, as if the hemostasis [blood-stopping] procedure was really important. The blood really did stop. Although it became red and swollen and unbearably itchy.

No matter how he looked at it, this was just a mosquito that looked like a human.

“That was a good meal, slave. Now bring me dessert!”

It said triumphantly to Hyeon-woo. Hyeon-woo flicked the Cannibal Fairy’s head with his finger without hesitation.

“Kyaang!”

“Your attitude is disrespectful.”

“Hing…… Th, thank you for the meal, servant?”

“Say it more politely.”

“Ugh, I, I’m being generous.”

The Cannibal Fairy cleared its throat as if making a grand concession, then said majestically.

“I express my great gratitude for your meal, butler.”

“……Is that it?”

The Cannibal Fairy looked puzzled, as if wondering what more there could be. It was an expression that couldn’t even imagine it. Hyeon-woo sighed.

“My name is Kang Hyeon-woo.”

“I see. Kang Hyeon-woo Butler.”

The title seemed to be fixed as Butler. Usually, wouldn’t something like Master be decided? But Hyeon-woo wasn’t the type to get pleasure from tormenting small animals. Maybe if the other person was a big, sturdy adult. Still, it didn’t seem like it couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“What are you?”

“I am……”

The Cannibal Fairy put its hand on its chest and hesitated, stopping as if it was about to say something.

“……I don’t remember.”

Right. That would be more logical. It had just been born. But how could it be that it could speak so well from birth, but had no settings or background knowledge?

It was too convenient.

Maybe the Cannibal Fairy was hiding something, but he didn’t feel like finding out by pressing it.

“Then you’re useless.”

It couldn’t be helped, but should he cut his losses here? Maybe something would come out if he dismantled this thing.

“Et? Ah? W, wait a minute, Butler!”

The Cannibal Fairy raised its hand in a panic. What could it do?

“I remembered! I’m a fairy promised to appear in the end times!”

“Are you really a mosquito fairy? Or did you come to save the world in the end times?”

“Fairies are promised to devour all living things like locusts when the world ends!”

“……”

The spot where he was bitten by this thing started itching again.

Hyeon-woo scratched the swollen wound and pondered how to take this. It could be nonsense to survive, but if it was real, the tentative name of Cannibal Fairy wasn’t wrong.

Suddenly, Hyeon-woo was reminded again that this Cannibal Fairy had sucked his blood.

His blood.

The blood that even melted goblin hands.

However, the Cannibal Fairy didn’t seem to be showing any particular signs of abnormality.

Hyeon-woo lightly raised his fighting spirit. But no message appeared. He couldn’t hear the stats of the opponent, nor the narrator’s voice. He hadn’t expected this situation.

When he thought about it, this guy could be called a legendary pet. If it listened to him, that is.

Its attitude was cheeky, but if he taught it well, he might be able to use it. No, in the first place, he wondered if it was even possible for him to ‘cut his losses’ with this Cannibal Fairy.

Just because it wasn’t hostile didn’t guarantee that it was weaker than Hyeon-woo.

“Okay. Let’s move on for now.”

The Cannibal Fairy looked relieved. It seemed like Hyeon-woo’s bluff had worked. Hyeon-woo decided to take the initiative before the Cannibal Fairy harbored other thoughts about him.

“You said you don’t remember your name, right? Let’s name you Dare…… no, Lenian.”

He was about to take the name of the fairy queen from a novel he had read before, but he stopped because he thought it was too much.

First of all, it was a girl’s name.

Somehow, it was an even more feminine name, but it depended on how the person accepted it. The Cannibal Fairy, or rather Lenian, seemed to like it very much.

“That’s a good name, Butler!”

“You like it?”

“In fairy language, it sounds similar to ‘Harbinger of the End.’”

What the heck was the fairy world like that it had such a word? And what kind of mental world was it that it was happy to hear that?

Hyeon-woo somehow felt that his remaining innocence was shattering into pieces.

“Let’s make a promise.”

“A promise?”

“Yeah. One. You can’t eat people.”

It was also a promise to protect Hyeon-woo himself. Lenian widened its eyes and asked.

“Not even Butler?”

“Even if you end up eating everyone else, you can’t eat me.”

“Even if I’m really, really hungry? Even if I really want to eat you? Just a little bit, can I eat your finger?”

“Even if you end up eating every living thing in this world, you can’t eat me. Got it? You can’t be hungry, you can’t want to eat me, and you can’t eat my finger. I can give you blood.”

“Fairies don’t discriminate.”

He never knew that the words “don’t discriminate” could sound so scary.

“From now on, you’ll need to be a bit more picky.”

Lenian nodded with a sullen expression.

He didn’t know what would happen, but it seemed like he had put on at least the minimum leash with this.

***

Hyeon-woo decided to postpone his worries about Lenian for later. Hyeon-woo began to prepare to return to reality.

“Huh?”

Then, the scarecrow that was lying down came into Hyeon-woo’s eyes.

“What is that…… Eh?”

Unlike the other scarecrows that were already standing by, the scarecrow that was lying down was headless. The specially treated mannequin face that covered its face and the steel head inside were shattered into pieces.

Hyeon-woo was taken aback when he saw the scarecrow, to which he had even developed some affection, in such a 惨状 [miserable state].

“……Did I do it?”

But even after running Battle Helper, Hyeon-woo had to strike it dozens of times to barely destroy the outer skin. There was no way its head could have been blown off in one blow like this.

The last moment when he was fiercely fighting with the scarecrows came to Hyeon-woo’s mind.

The moment when something surged from his stomach and manifested at the end of his fist.

The narrator’s voice was heard the moment Hyeon-woo’s consciousness reached there.

[The ‘Ganggi’ trait is added to Battle Helper.]