The S-Classes That I Raised [EN]: Chapter 171

171. Merchandise (1)

“Are you sure I don’t need to go?”

I was supposed to head to the Association or the Awakened Management Office today regarding Choi Seok-won’s case. But my brother flatly said I didn’t need to go.

“It’s publicly known that you don’t have combat-related abilities, hyung [older brother]. You’re just a simple witness, so there’s no reason for you to go. I can go with Hunter Kim Min-yi. Besides, MKC has been picking a fight, right?”

“They’re just being sensitive because of the situation. Even if you run into them, just smooth things over. Haeyeon will be bringing in a lot of people, so it’s not good to make a bad impression.”

The hunters who came with that Choi guy were already tempted when I said I’d help them transfer guilds, so there’s no need to even mention the rest. Other than that Choi guy, it doesn’t seem like anyone will cause trouble, and Sung Hyun-jae will take care of him.

“Take good care of Kim Min-yi.”

She’s very satisfied with the contract terms, but for now, she’s unintentionally gotten caught up in this. I walked towards the entrance with Yoohyun and shouted towards the living room.

“Yerim, aren’t you leaving?”

“I can be a little late!”

“What do you mean, ‘can be’? You have class at 10. You barely brought any luggage, so you need to stop by the dorm before that. Come out quickly.”

She only brought dolls, no school supplies. Yerim grumbled as she appeared.

“I can really go leisurely. Unlike the Guild Leader, I have flight skills. While Han Yoohyun is walking back, I can fly straight in, so it’ll be quick.”

Yoohyun looked at Yerim, who was boasting, as if she were pathetic.

“Your memory is bad.”

“What?”

“Yoohyun has a flight skill substitute skill, right? Don’t fight, you two.”

I barely stopped them from almost having a fight last night. Even at the breakfast table, an unfortunate incident occurred where a chopstick was stuck in the wall. It wasn’t a serious, life-or-death fight, just a light squabble. But after I nagged them about how their F-rank stats would get messed up from that light squabble, they finally calmed down.

Their 모습 [moseup – appearance, figure], standing side by side and apologizing obediently, was kind of cute. If I didn’t have to pretend to be angry, I would have taken a picture.

“That’s different! How can running be the same as flying? Besides, blowing leaves around outside the dungeon is a nuisance. Who’s going to clean that up?”

It’s not real leaves, it’s a skill, so they disappear. But it looks so real that you could be mistaken if you don’t look closely. Before Yoohyun could point that out and laugh, I quickly stepped in and changed the subject.

“Yerim, here’s the key. We’ll be changing them soon, but take it for now.”

I handed over the keys I had received from Song Tae-won. If only Yoohyun had moved in, I might have left the door as is, but Yerim was here too, so I couldn’t leave it like that. I was planning to replace not only the portal key but also the front door key. Other guilds might complain, but it’s my house in the first place.

If they don’t like it, they can cancel the contract. Seseong and Breaker wouldn’t do that, though.

“Can I really have this?”

“You live here too, so of course. It’s weirder not to have a key.”

“That’s true!”

Yerim happily took the key. I saw them off at the entrance and checked if there was any fur on their clothes. Yoohyun was fine, but Yerim had red fur on her clothes here and there, as if she had been hugging Peace. I used the tape cleaner I had placed at the entrance to remove the fur.

“You’re not going out today, are you?”

“Yeah. I’m thinking of going to see Myungwoo.”

“If anything happens, contact me immediately. And don’t ever walk around the building alone.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll stick with Peace. Noah is also there.”

A guy who’s five years younger than me is making a face like he’s leaving a child home alone. Mentally, there’s a ten-year difference, you know. Yerim was also looking at me with a similar expression next to him.

“Contact me too, Ahjussi [term for older man, like uncle]. I’ll fly over right away.”

“Okay, okay. Study hard. Just because you can get into college easily doesn’t mean you should be lazy.”

“Ah, it’s originally vacation.”

“Middle school should be starting soon. More than that, it’s supplementary classes. Yerim, I’ve already told them to contact me if you don’t attend class properly.”

“Yes, yes. I’ll be back~”

“I’ll be back.”

The two of them left side by side. I watched them disappear beyond the mini-portal right in front of the entrance and closed the door.

As I returned to the living room with Peace, who was clinging to my side, I saw the duplex with the curtains wide open. It was the trace of Yerim jumping down this morning. I had suggested putting up a partition instead of curtains, but she stubbornly refused, and it seems like she wanted to do this. She flies up, opens the curtains, and goes in, and when she comes down, she just jumps. It looked comfortable.

‘Still, she should close the curtains.’

It’s like leaving a wall open, not a door. I hesitated for a moment and then went up the stairs. Yerim told me not to worry about it, but I’m still reluctant to go in and out of a girl’s room carelessly.

“Peace, you can’t come. You shed too much.”

– Kkiung.

Peace stopped trying to follow me up. Your fur is already covering my bedroom enough. It’s less now, but when it first got hot, it shed a lot, as if it was molting.

The fairly large duplex had only a bed and a small dresser that had been moved in the middle of the night. I said we should prepare properly, but Yerim insisted on moving in. She said she liked the spaciousness, and a large doll was rolling around on the wide bed that Yerim had chosen herself. Half of the blanket was touching the floor, hanging down.

I made the bed and closed the curtains. I need to bring in more furniture, but what should I buy? She’ll need a desk in the closet too. Yoohyun is also still at an age where he should have a desk for studying.

‘Should I go shopping for furniture with them tonight?’

Yoohyun might need something else too. I have plenty of budget, so I should buy the best. What’s the best brand of desks and chairs for kids these days? And I need to buy more dishes and spoons too. If we’re going to continue living together.

…For a moment, my mind went blank.

I had believed they would come back. I don’t know until when, but maybe I hadn’t been able to give up.

And they came back. I wanted to be purely happy about that fact. But, but.

– Ppiyak.

Bbyak, who had flown over at some point, was floating in front of me. I could also hear Peace grunting because he couldn’t come up. When I looked at the clock on the dresser, it had been over thirty minutes since the kids left. I had been standing there blankly for a long time.

“Okay, let’s go down.”

As I went down the stairs, Peace quickly clung to my feet. Just then, my phone rang. When I checked, it was Yerim’s tutor. She said Yerim hadn’t arrived yet. It’s been quite a while since she left, so I wondered what was going on and called Yerim.

[Ah, Ahjussi! Blue wanted to play… I’m flying over right now!]

She started making excuses as soon as she answered the phone. That kid, really. But hearing her cheerful voice made me feel better.

I roughly cleaned up and left the house. Not only Peace but also Bbyak and Bellare followed me. It’s a good thing Comet was sleeping, or it would be quite difficult to take them all with me. Peace must have noticed that I was tired because he didn’t ask me to hold him and took the lead.

‘He’s so thoughtful.’

My kids are all so great that it’s a problem.

As I headed towards the building, I heard the quiet sound of flapping wings. When I looked up, Noah was gently flying down. He landed in front of me and smiled more shyly than usual.

“Hello, Yujin-ssi [term of polite address].”

After greeting me, he hesitated and continued.

“I heard that Haeyeon’s Guild Leader and Hunter Park Yerim have decided to live with Han Yujin-ssi.”

“The word has already spread, huh.”

“It was a bit noisy last night, after all.”

Well, Yerim was carrying a big bed across the sky, and Yoohyun was making it obvious that he didn’t like it and tried to burn the bed as a mistake. It would be stranger if rumors didn’t spread after that commotion.

“Yerim ended up coming to my house by chance. She’s still young, so she seemed lonely living alone.”

Yoohyun is my younger brother, so it’s nothing new.

“I see. Hunter Park Yerim is still young… I’m not very young, though.”

“You’re older than Yerim, but Noah-ssi is still young, no, that’s not it.”

He’d be upset if I treated him too much like a child. I’m worried that I’m constantly showing it in my attitude because he keeps feeling young to me. Usually, people his age want to look mature. He’s even a former Guild Leader, so it could be seen as rude.

“Noah-ssi is a wonderful adult.”

“…Yes.”

Noah answered a little gloomily. Did he seem disappointed about something……?

“Noah-ssi?”

“No, um, before, when your sister was here, you asked me to let you stay at Yujin-ssi’s house, right?”

“Yes, you did. Riet is in the dungeon, so it’ll be okay for a while.”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

“And if you beat Riet this time, you’ll be able to relieve a lot of your anxiety.”

You might become confident enough that you don’t need to hide. Noah looked like he was about to stomp his feet, not knowing what to do. Is he worried about the fight with his sister? It must be scary.

She’s been the object of long-standing fear that has been suppressing him since childhood. It’s not easy to cut the tied rope and fly up at once. I reached out and gently patted Noah’s shoulder.

“Don’t feel too pressured. Whether you win or lose, it’s clear that Noah-ssi is taking a step forward.”

“…Yujin-ssi, I. So…….”

Noah said something so quietly that I couldn’t hear him. “Huh?” I asked, and his face turned red.

“No, that’s, I too…….”

He mumbled again, then disappeared with a swoosh. He must have used his stealth skill. He used the skill right in front of my eyes, but my stats were so low that I couldn’t find any trace of him.

“Noah-ssi?”

An invisible hand gently grabbed me as I unknowingly walked forward.

“I’ll follow you like this.”

Why? I don’t know the reason. I told him to do as he pleased and started walking again. Unlike me, Peace was probably looking directly at where Noah was and followed me.

As I entered the building, people greeted me from here and there. Thanks to Myungwoo’s effect, there were still many hunters loitering in the first-floor lobby. Should I really open a cafe? Upper-level hunters have a lot of money, so even if I charge a lot, the business would do well.

Myungwoo’s workshop had become even more heavily guarded than before. I heard that there had been several hunters trying to break in without permission. An upper-level hunter who wanted to impress Myungwoo was swarming around, so it was handled without any problems.

“There are always stupid guys who only care about their bloodlust.”

The hunter guarding the smithy told me that they had all received heavy penalties from their respective guilds.

The smithy had even more equipment than before. There were also a few unfamiliar faces. Seo Dong-baek, whom I had seen before, approached me with a happy expression.

“Welcome, you’ve come to see the teacher, right?”

“Teacher?”

“I’ve started learning how to make items in earnest, so I’m calling him teacher.”

He started teaching skills. Come to think of it, Lee Min-seok was also making something that wasn’t a repair but something that was less defined.

“We have a guest, but if it’s Han Yujin-ssi, it’ll be okay. Come this way.”

A guest? As I followed Seo Dong-baek, I saw Myungwoo and another person standing in front of the mana furnace. A woman with neatly braided hair and round glasses. It was Evelyn, an S-class hunter from Seseong. She was intently watching Myungwoo holding an arrow. It seems that Evelyn was the owner of the arrow he was making before.

“Yujin-ah [term of endearment].”

Myungwoo, who noticed that I had arrived, relaxed his serious expression and smiled. It hadn’t been long since I last saw him, but he seemed to be in even better shape. Even in front of Evelyn, who was a woman but an S-class hunter with a tall height and well-balanced body, he didn’t look inferior.

…The two of them look good together. Could it be that he’s making the arrow because he likes Evelyn?

“I don’t know if I’m interrupting.”

“Not at all. Come on in.”

As I approached, Evelyn looked at me with great interest.

“The Candy Box I’ve only heard about? It’s really nice to meet you.”

“…Excuse me?”

Why is she suddenly talking about Candy Box? Just then, an arm that suddenly appeared in the air pulled me back as if hugging me. It was Noah.

“Be careful. Hunter Evelyn has a Mystic Eye [a rare skill that allows the user to see hidden truths].”

“Mystic Eye?”

As soon as Noah finished speaking, Evelyn’s brow furrowed. Her aura, which was weaker than other S-classes, suddenly became fierce. Her eyes, with a fierce light, glared at me, at Noah.

“Your mouth is too light. Even if you’ve changed owners, you shouldn’t go around talking about your old colleague’s skills.”

Oh dear. As she said, revealing information about other people’s skills is something that people would react sensitively to. But Noah didn’t seem to be willing to back down easily.

“You are too dangerous to be allowed to approach Yujin-ssi.”

“How loyal.”

As the air became even more fiercely sharp.

Thud!

A heavy sound rang out. Myungwoo, who had slammed down his hammer to draw attention, coldly looked at Evelyn and Noah.