Chapter 52
An artificial satellite drifting across the sky.
Even Baek Sawol, who had picked up a sword instead of learning to read at the age when she should have, and grown up roaming back alleys instead of attending school,
had at least a vague idea of how expensive such a thing was.
But then.
They'd deploy one just to watch a single person?
‘No way.’
Of course, this was a world where men were scarce.
Even so, there had to be limits.
They were even mobilizing a satellite floating in space to track one person's movements in real time.
So she quickly reached a conclusion.
That it was a 'bluff.'
“If you're trying to stall for time, it's pointless.”
“⋯?”
“Doctor Seo Jihoo. I've already looked into the fact that the Ministry of Men and Family Affairs is backing you.”
A low voice continued from behind the bone mask.
“That's why I chose today.”
The Ministry of Men and Family Affairs.
Judging solely by the size of the organization, it was laughably small.
But when it came to issues involving men, it was a special agency that even the Life Resources Administration couldn't push around recklessly.
Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't even have considered laying a hand on a man under the protection of such an organization.
But today was different.
It was the day when the Ministry of Men and Family Affairs's attention and personnel were spread thinnest all year.
“Today is Friday of the first week of July. In other words, it's ‘Concentrated Male Birth Day.’”
At that answer, Jihoo's eyes changed ever so slightly.
The Concentrated Male Birth System.
A thoroughly this-world sort of system, created in a world where men were scarce.
From the moment a fetus was confirmed to be male, the mother was removed from the ordinary pregnancy-management system.
State-designated medical staff were assigned to her, and the fetus's heartbeat and growth were monitored around the clock.
If the mother was a Hunter, mana instability was managed separately, and if she was struggling financially, the state even covered her room, board, and living expenses.
The intensity of the care only increased as the pregnancy entered its later stages.
The condition of the cervix.
Placental function.
Fetal growth and degree of descent.
The medical staff combined all those figures to calculate when each mother could give birth safely.
Of course, they didn't forcibly induce labor in every mother on the same day.
If a risk of premature birth or placental abnormality was found, separate treatment was provided immediately.
Conversely, if the mother had reached full term and both she and the fetus were stable, labor was induced to coincide with the first Friday after checking cervical ripeness and the uterine response to contractions.
Medication.
Balloon catheter.
Oxytocin.
In addition, synchronization-type techniques stabilized placental blood flow and assisted the rhythm of uterine contractions.
It was the result of using Hunter abilities to fill the final gap that could be dangerous with modern medicine alone.
This made it possible to gather mothers carrying male babies who had reached a safe point in their pregnancies at regional concentrated-birth centers on the first Friday of every month.
And.
Whenever that many baby boys were born all at once, two organizations were bound to converge on the scene.
The Ministry of Men and Family Affairs.
And the International Life Resources Administration.
“By now, all the Ministry of Men and Family Affairs personnel should be attached to the birth centers.”
Baek Sawol continued calmly.
“The Life Resources Administration should be the same.”
She wasn't wrong.
A considerable portion of the enormous expenses required to operate the concentrated-birth centers was funded by the Life Resources Administration.
Free hospital rooms were only the beginning.
If a mother lacked living expenses, they provided money; if her housing was unstable, they found her a home; and for mothers drowning in debt, they even arranged debt restructuring.
For the past ten months, they had given these women care they had never received in their entire lives.
And the moment the child was born safely, the paperwork appeared.
Consent Form for Entrustment to Special Male-Child Education.
International Guardianship Program.
Genetic Preservation Agreement.
All the names sounded perfectly respectable.
But when you read the contents to the end, they all led to the same destination.
The child's education and upbringing.
Future reproductive rights.
Even where the child would live after reaching adulthood.
Contracts obtaining the parents' consent so that, under the pretext of protection, the Life Resources Administration could reach out first.
Especially impoverished mothers who had received premium rooms and living expenses for the past ten months were vulnerable to that temptation.
It was practically modern-day human trafficking.
And whenever such documents appeared, the people who stood in their way were the Ministry of Men and Family Affairs.
So every first Friday of the month, inside and outside the birth centers where the cries of baby boys rang out, the two organizations would be eyeing each other's throats without saying a word.
‘So it's today.’
The day when the Ministry of Men and Family Affairs's attention was most dispersed, making it the best time to take Seo Jihoo.
But.
“Did you think I hadn't considered that?”
“⋯What?”
It was then.
Crash!
“⋯!”
Her head snapped up.
Baek Sawol's synchronization-type barrier, which she prided herself on making difficult for even other A-rank Hunters to detect when it came to assassination and covert movement.
That sky split like glass.
Crackle.
Beyond the black veil.
Something enormous was falling.
A pink meteor plummeting through the night sky.
Yet at its center was unmistakably the silhouette of a person.
“In case anyone tried to target a day like today, Soheon noona prepared for it in advance.”
“No way⋯.”
“The Seo Jihoo Special Protection Unit, newly established under the direct authority of the Minister of Men and Family Affairs.”
A faint smile appeared at the corners of Jihoo's mouth.
“Its total personnel: one.”
And.
“The youngest member of the Ministry of Men and Family Affairs—and its only field grunt⋯ Ah, no, combat operative.”
Kwooooom─!
The ground flipped over.
It wasn't the sound of a single person falling.
The entire barrier rippled as though a real meteor had crashed into the middle of Seoul, and the rooftop beneath their feet collapsed.
The dust cleared.
Someone slowly rose within the pink afterglow.
“U-uuuuugh⋯.”
A trembling voice.
“M-Ministry of Men and Family Affairs official⋯.”
She took one deep breath.
“E-Elodie⋯ a-arriving⋯!”
“⋯⋯.”
Silence.
Then someone muttered without thinking.
“S-so big!”
There was no other way to describe it.
A messy pink bob that fell to the nape of her neck.
Eyes that looked as though they might start crying at any moment.
Trembling lips.
Even the way she wandered around, not knowing where to hide once everyone's eyes turned toward her.
Judging by her features alone, she was the very image of a gloomy shut-in loner who would spend her life cooped up in her room.
But her body ruined everything.
Two meters.
No, even though she stood with her shoulders hunched and rounded, she was well over two meters tall.
A giant who looked close to two meters thirty.
Among East Asian women averaging barely 160 centimeters, she was almost like having an extra upper body stacked on top.
But height wasn't the real problem.
The chest straining against her suit jacket as though it might burst.
The massive pelvis and buttocks continuing below it.
In short, it was an unnecessarily vulgar body.
But to Hunters, that was absolutely not something to laugh off.
A female Hunter's breasts and buttocks were natural reservoirs where mana lingered for a long time.
The so-called mana pouches.
Of course, size and strength weren't perfectly proportional.
But.
If they were that enormous⋯.
“⋯Just how much could that even hold?”
The words slipped from Baek Sawol's mouth before she knew it.
At that moment.
Squeeze.
“Hyaaah?!”
A sharp scream burst from Elodie's mouth.
The culprit was Yoon Gaeun.
No one knew when she'd slipped behind her; before anyone realized it, she was gripping that enormous butt with both hands.
Her fingers sank deep, then the soft flesh sprang right back, plump and resilient.
Squish.
Squish-squish-squish!
“My goodness⋯.”
“W-wait⋯ not there⋯!”
“I've never touched such a huge, bouncy butt in my life!”
“Hwaaahwaaaaa?!”
Gaeun was genuinely admiring it.
First meeting or not, she didn't care.
But unlike her playful expression, her eyes were cold.
‘If all this is mana storage capacity⋯.’
A monster.
That was the only word that came to mind.
Meanwhile.
“Elodie noona. It's been a while.”
“⋯!”
At the familiar voice, the giant's head shot up.
“J-Jihoo!”
Her face lit up at once.
She flung both arms wide in delight, but froze just as she was about to pull Jihoo into her arms.
Because of a terrible memory that suddenly surfaced.
Back when Jihoo was still young.
She'd hugged him in that same joy, only for his face to become buried between her excessively voluptuous breasts, nearly suffocating him—a horrifying precedent.
“Eek, eek⋯!”
Elodie hurriedly withdrew both arms.
Then, as though determined not to cause another accident, she carefully dropped to one knee.
“A-are you hurt anywhere?!”
Her huge hands moved about in a panic.
Head.
Shoulders.
Arms.
Face.
She checked him here and there in case he had suffered even the slightest injury.
“T-the satellite said your location signal had just been lost⋯ So I ran right over!”
“Haha. I'm okay for now.”
“R-really?”
“Yes. But those people are trying to kidnap me, so things could get a little dangerous if something goes wrong.”
“Kidnap⋯?”
Then her flailing hands suddenly stopped.
A build that made not only men, but even other women, instinctively keep their distance.
People avoided her because she was frightening.
They whispered that she was grotesque.
Even now, only a handful of people ever approached her first.
But Jihoo was different.
From the very beginning, he had spoken to her as though there were nothing unusual about her.
He hadn't been afraid of her large hands.
And when they walked together, he would sometimes take her hand first without paying any attention to the gazes of others.
That was why he was even more precious to her.
A man who hadn't looked at her like a monster.
A man who had treated her as Elodie, not as some huge, gloomy woman.
But someone was trying to forcibly take her Jihoo away?
“Th⋯ th-that, th-th-th-that can't happen⋯.”
Her huge body trembled as if convulsing.
“I-if they kidnap Jihoo⋯ the m-minister will scold me too⋯ and⋯ I'll⋯ be in a lot of trouble too⋯!”
Baek Sawol was momentarily at a loss for words.
What was that?
With that build.
A face that genuinely looked as though it might cry.
Fidgeting in place, even biting her fingernails as she spun around restlessly.
And such a perfectly exposed opening.
‘Now.’
Her fingers moved.
Fwoosh!
The masked figures all leaped at once.
One.
Ten.
Dozens.
Black silhouettes blotted out the night as daggers were drawn from within their clothes.
“D-danger!”
Yoon Gaeun shouted, but the person in question was still biting her fingernails.
“Hwaa, wa wa⋯ W-what should I do⋯.”
The blades came down.
Head.
Neck.
Heart.
Joints.
A perfect encirclement.
But Elodie only looked up slowly and spoke.
“Thank you for going to the trouble of coming up here⋯.”
“⋯?”
“Th-thank you.”
Viiiiiiiiing──.
At the same time, white light began leaking out from the center of her enormous chest.
Breasts and buttocks were vessels for storing mana.
The basic principle was to let it flow throughout the body when needed.
The breasts, in particular, were close to the heart and lungs.
What if mana were compressed and heated directly inside them?
Even the slightest loss of control would burst the blood vessels, and her heart and lungs would be cooked by her own mana.
That was why no one used—or rather, could use—that method.
But.
Elodie was doing it.
Energy boiling up inside the two enormous mana pouches traveled up along her rib cage.
Her throat.
Her mouth.
And just before her lips.
Only then did Baek Sawol realize.
Those enormous breasts were not merely storage tanks but an 'armory.'
“Boob Death Beam⋯.”
Her trembling eyes turned toward the sky.
“Kuwaaaaaaaaah!”
At that moment, light shot upward.
Kwooooom!
The night turned white.
It was far too large to call a beam.
It was as though a meteor that should have fallen from the sky had forgotten its direction and shot upward into space instead.
A massive white flash surged upward, swallowing the masked figures as they leaped and piercing the entire night sky.