Chapter 125
The floor below was quiet. The human must be sleeping in the master bedroom.
There was no sign of movement.
"They probably haven't even noticed we're here."
If we just get rid of the floor below, the noise problem will disappear. A simple fire scare should be enough to drive them out.
Humans are afraid of fire after all.
Suryeon admired her own plan.
"Ha, as expected of me. I can solve this problem peacefully."
I really deserve praise.
Suryeon was lost in self-admiration.
Meanwhile, what was Hwaryeon doing?
"Grab all the tasty stuff! Sweep it up!"
Clang-!
She was checking the food in the refrigerator. Before driving out the homeowner, they had to secure the food.
"Pudding! And drinks too! But nothing really tasty! Mangmung, grab the dog food!"
"Woof woof-!"
Chomp-
Mangmung held the snacks in his mouth for safekeeping.
'They're doing well.'
Suryeon gave a thumbs up and entered another room.
Curiosity.
She wanted to see how the human in this house lived before driving them out. Suryeon was curious about other humans' lives.
'How do ordinary humans live?'
Creak-
Suryeon opened the door to a small room and entered. Looking around the room, she said.
"Is this used as a storage room? There are a lot of books."
It's too disorganized to be called a study. Rather than books for reading, it's a room full of scattered workbooks.
Suryeon picked up one of the workbooks and checked its contents.
"Hmm, I don't really understand what it's saying. Are these formulas written here?"
Strange formulas with X's and Y's were written. Looking at it roughly, she could understand what kind of formulas they were.
"Seems to be formulas for finding the values of X and Y. Easy."
But why bother writing this down? You could just solve it mentally.
Thinking this, Suryeon quickly flipped through the workbook pages. All the problems had such formulas neatly written out.
"Hmm, they've solved a lot. Did they solve other workbooks like this too?"
Suryeon's curiosity was piqued. She picked up another workbook and flipped through its pages.
Just like the previous workbook, problems were solved with diligent note-taking.
"English. This one has everything underlined too."
While she couldn't read the most difficult English words, she could understand how the problems were solved.
And Suryeon could tell that the person who solved these workbooks had put in a lot of effort.
"To study by underlining everything. Even if they tried hard, humans are too stupid. Solving such easy problems in such a difficult way."
Still, the effort isn't bad.
Thinking this, Suryeon came out to the living room.
Hwaryeon, munching on a banana, asked.
"When do we start!? Humans are afraid of fire, right!? If we start a fire, we can drive them out, right!? I don't want to wear indoor slippers!"
"Wait a little. I haven't decided yet."
She wanted to know more about the owner of this house. She was curious about what kind of person they were.
Suryeon put her hand on the doorknob of the master bedroom where the homeowner was sleeping.
Hwaryeon shouted in surprise.
"Hey, Lee Suryeon! What are you doing! There's a human in there!"
"I know."
"Then why are you trying to go in! What if they wake up!"
"I'm curious about what kind of human they are. I'll be careful not to wake them. Don't worry."
"I-I don't know about this!"
Huff-
Hwaryeon turned her head away, saying she didn't know. Suryeon didn't back down and immediately opened the door.
Creak-
As the door opened, the yellow light from an electric lantern on the desk greeted Suryeon.
"As expected, they're sleeping."
The homeowner was sleeping face down on the desk. Her pillow was a workbook filled with dense notes.
"Hmm, did she fall asleep while solving these easy problems?"
Suryeon peeked at Na Kyung-i's workbook. By dragon standards, it was simple math problems.
As she was doing this, the sleeping Na Kyung-i mumbled in her sleep.
"This time... I have to pass... I can't fail again..."
Suryeon heard Na Kyung-i's sleep talk and said in a sharp tone.
"If you keep failing the same exam, it seems you lack talent. Wouldn't it be better to just give up?"
Still, I'm curious about what will happen later. Will this human be able to pass the exam later?
Suryeon looked at Na Kyung-i with a face full of curiosity and spoke. The face that had fallen asleep while studying hard didn't look bad.
"Well, I don't particularly dislike humans who try their best for something. It's like our dad."
Her mind changed. She's altering the plan.
Suryeon left the master bedroom and said to Hwaryeon, who was waiting quietly.
"Hwaryeon unnie. Let's just go back up."
"Huh? But we haven't driven out the downstairs neighbor yet! We only ate the food in the fridge!"
"Change of plans."
"Why!?"
"Why, you ask? Well..."
Hmm.
Suryeon thought for a moment and then said with a cool expression.
"It's just a dragon's whim."
And she thought to herself.
'I was pretty cool just now.'
Heh-
Suryeon was still thoroughly infected with chuunibyou syndrome.
'But I'm curious. What will happen to that human?'
It was a dragon's whim born of curiosity.
***
They say there was a burglar in the downstairs apartment last night. They say only the snacks in the refrigerator were taken.
It was a very strange incident.
"Kids, aren't you curious? Who could have done it?"
To my question, Suryeon pointed at Mangmung and said.
"From what I heard, a white dog ate it all by himself!"
"W-Woof woof-?!"
As expected, Lee Hwaryeon, Mangmung. You guys did it, didn't you?
"It was you guys who did this, except for Suryeon and Choryeon, right?"
"No! Suryeon did it too!"
Does she not want to die alone? Hwaryeon immediately ratted out Suryeon.
"Tch."
"Suryeon, you don't even care about food, do you?"
"I just wanted a midnight snack. I didn't intend to cause any big trouble."
Sigh-
I sighed and looked at the suspects in this incident. They all lowered their heads, showing signs of remorse.
'Even so, theft is going too far.'
The most dangerous habit to develop is kleptomania.
Hwaryeon spoke to me in a slightly defensive tone.
"But we only ate the food! We didn't do anything else!"
"That's right, we only stole snacks, Dad. It won't happen again."
"Woof woof-! Woof woof woof-!"
The children start defending themselves.
Will they really not cause such incidents again?
'They're smart kids so they should understand, but I'm still a bit worried.'
Still, the look in the children's eyes showed sincere remorse, and they were determined never to do such a thing again.
With them showing this attitude, if I were to impose a severe punishment here, it might have the opposite effect.
When children first show remorse and bow their heads in apology, I believe adults should respond with forgiveness accordingly.
'I need to harden my heart, but it's not easy.'
Sigh-
I sighed and spoke briefly.
"Since you know you did wrong, I'll let it slide lightly this time. But next time, I absolutely won't let it go."
"Okay!"
"Got it."
"Woof woof-!"
"If this happens again, you'll really be in for it then. Be prepared. And if you want something to eat, just tell Dad."
And, I should give a light punishment too.
"Everyone, show your foreheads."
It's time for the hell flick to make sure they never break into someone's house and start a fire again.
I loaded a forehead flick for Hwaryeon, who raised her forehead with a sulky face.
"Here it comes."
"Bring it on!"
And then,
"Take this!"
"Aaaah!"
Flick-!
I landed a forehead flick on Hwaryeon's forehead. Hwaryeon clutched her forehead, rolling on the floor, and shouted at me.
"It hurts! Dad!! You're hitting your child!!"
"Quiet, thief. People will misunderstand if they hear."
"Aaaah!"
In the end, a very red flick mark was left on Hwaryeon's forehead. I left Hwaryeon to cool off for a bit.
"Next, Lee Suryeon."
"..."
"Come here."
Such a large-scale incident was likely planned by Suryeon. Even if she stopped halfway, wrong is wrong.
So I loaded a forehead flick for Suryeon's pale forehead.
"Here it comes. Any last words?"
"Tch, I should have concealed the evidence. I wasn't thorough enough."
You know it well.
I gave Suryeon a flick on her forehead.
Flick-!
Suryeon immediately touched the flicked area and muttered.
"I-I must endure. The seal will break..."
"What on earth are you watching on that A-pad, Suryeon..."
"Kukuk... kukukuk... It's better if Dad doesn't know... You'll get hurt if you know..."
Suryeon seems to have malfunctioned from the strong impact to her forehead. After leaving a red flick mark on Suryeon's forehead too, I looked at the remaining culprit, Mangmung.
"W-Woof woof-!"
Mangmung knelt down with a face prepared for death and offered his forehead to me. But I had no intention of hitting Mangmung's forehead.
"I'm not hitting Mangmung."
"Woof-?"
"So Mangmung gets no treats for three days."
"W-Woof woof woof-!!!"
Whine-
Mangmung made a face like he'd lost the world. Mangmung grabbed my pant leg, asking me to hit his forehead instead.
I had absolutely no intention of hitting Mangmung's forehead. Because,
'I heard hitting a dog's forehead with a flick could kill them.'
Mangmung's head is small too. I thought he might die if I hit him.
"Woof woof-!! Woof woof woof-!!"
Mangmung seemed to be asking me to just kill him instead. But for that reason, I couldn't hit Mangmung.
"Wooooof-!!"
***
After the strange theft occurred, Na Kyung-i visited a fortune-teller, just in case.
"My luck has been really bad lately. There was even an unexplained theft in my house. Will I fail the exam terribly this time too?"
"Let's see... let's see..."
The fortune-teller grandmother caressed her crystal ball and looked directly at Na Kyung-i.
"When did your luck start turning bad?"
"After the upstairs neighbors moved in. Especially, the homeowner there has an unpleasant look. Should I say he looks at me a bit lecherously? Though his daughters are very pretty."
"Hmm, a father with daughters..."
The fortune-teller closed her eyes for a moment. Soon after, she opened her eyes and said.
"It could be a great misfortune, or it could be a great fortune."
"What? What does that mean..."
"It depends on you. Both the exam and the upstairs neighbors. Nothing else matters."
"Please explain in detail. Are you saying I have no luck-"
"Pay and leave quickly. Next customer!"
Na Kyung-i was thus chased out by the fortune-teller grandmother without even getting a clear answer.
"I came because they said she was a good fortune-teller! What is this?! Ha, unbelievable!"
I just wasted a lot of money and got in a bad mood.
Na Kyung-i sighed and returned home.
She went to the hair salon for the first time in a while, bought some food, and a book of past exam questions before returning home. But there was a young girl leaning against the door in front of her house.
'Wasn't she from upstairs? I remember because she's pretty.'
Her hair color was like the blue sea. She remembers because the girl was delicate and pretty, like a child actress.
'The noise is a bit annoying, but the child is cute.'
She liked children to begin with. Na Kyung-i looked at Suryeon standing quietly in front of the door and asked.
"Little one. What are you doing here? Your home is upstairs. Did you come to the wrong place?"
"I'm not little."
"U-Um?"
"And I didn't come to the wrong place either. Human. I was waiting for you."
"R-Really? Why were you waiting for me?"
It's our first conversation. The child is a bit unusual.
Na Kyung-i was slightly flustered. Suryeon put her hand in her pocket and took out a small sticker.
"Take this."
"A sticker? Are you giving this to me?"
"Yes, it's a sticker enchanted with soundproofing magic. If you stick it in your house, the noise between floors will disappear."
"Oh my, is that so? I'll accept it well. Thank you."
She came to apologize for the noise between floors. Na Kyung-i smiled and reached out her hand to pat Suryeon's head. However, that hand couldn't reach Suryeon's head.
"Don't touch me carelessly. Human."
Swish-
Suryeon immediately stepped back to avoid it.
"Anyway, I've given it to you. Stick it in your house. I nearly died learning to enchant magic on the ring by myself. Use it well."
Suryeon said this and quickly left. Na Kyung-i was momentarily dumbfounded at this.
"W-What just happened? Have I finally gone crazy from studying too much?"
Something is becoming strange.
Since the upstairs neighbors moved in, I feel like I'm gradually becoming strange. Na Kyung-i entered her house with a dizzy feeling and looked at the sticker she received from Suryeon.
"It's just a star sticker... This will solve the noise between floors...?"
This can't be real, it must be a child's prank.
Na Kyung-i thought this and put the sticker on the dining table. But suddenly, she thought it might be worth a try.
"...Whatever. Let's just stick it on."
She felt pathetic for believing this, but Na Kyung-i stuck the sticker on the living room wall.
Of course, nothing particularly changed.
"What, it's nothing at all."
I'm a fool for believing it.
Na Kyung-i sighed, washed up briefly, and started studying again. But unlike usual, no noisy sounds came from upstairs.
"...It might just be quiet today."
However, a day passed.
Two days passed.
Even after a week passed, the usual noise between floors didn't come.
"Was what that little child said actually true...? No, that can't be. They must be being careful upstairs."
In any case, because of this, Na Kyung-i could focus on her exam studies again.
"Phew, the problem is solved. This time, I'll definitely get into the university I want."
With the disturbance gone, Na Kyung-i gained even higher concentration than usual.
To get into her target university and to achieve her own dream, she began to repeat the studying she had been doing every day without fail until now.