Chapter 19
What am I supposed to do with this....
As the horse golem and part of Minyum turned back into a car, Minyum returned to her original height and the car suddenly appeared in the hotel living room.
Its bulk was far larger than when it had been in horse-golem form, to the point the living room felt cramped. I guess it looks that way because there are a lot of empty spaces inside.
“Auuu... what do I do? If tire marks get left on the floor, I’ll get scolded...?”
As I fretted and stomped in place, Suri came over and handed me the car key that had been on the roof. Come to think of it, I’d been startled when the car key vanished along with the transformation too.
ㅡbeep
“Hmm... open the car...? No, what would I even do after opening it? The entrance is smaller than the car...?”
Still, just in case, I went into the driver’s seat, and there were somehow all sorts of things inside. That said, it didn’t look like there was anything I could actually do.
“Ah! Then if I turn it back to normal... maybe I can take the elevator down to the parking lot and switch it?”
Once you have a plan, put it into action right away.
“Han Dohee’s car..! Golem Creation!”
I touched the car door and tried to use mana to make it into a golem, but for some reason it wouldn’t activate. Could it be because it isn’t mine? But it changed fine at Hangang Park, so what gives?
“If I can’t change it here..? Then what am I supposed to do?”
When you need help, call an adult. I’m an adult too, but when there are two adults, they become incredibly smart.
* * * * *
“Ah, um....”
“What are we supposed to do about this....”
“I think we’ll need Team Leader Yoo first.”
And so, not long after the bodyguard sister called Yoo Chaerin.
“Eve! My car connected to Bluetooth, but what is this?!”
“Ah, u-uh... that....”
“Whoa, my car. Why is it here?”
“I turned it back. I did good, right..?”
Han Dohee, who had come with Yoo Chaerin, was staring at me.
“Hmm... how do we get this out?”
“Can’t be helped. We’d only have to pay for the window frame and glass.... The load-bearing wall should be fine, right?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. There should be enough room for the car to get out.”
“Please call Mr. Im Jongho.”
Yoo Chaerin shook her head and headed toward the living-room window. Sitting beside the window was a giant flowerpot about the size of a person’s upper body.
When Yoo Chaerin placed her hand on the soil in the pot, a huge plant stem began growing in an instant.
“W, wow...!”
“There may be some dust for a moment, so could you wait in the room, Eve-ssi?”
“I-I want to watch too! Can’t I just hold my breath?”
“Hmm. Then let’s have you move back a little farther.”
“Ah, yes.”
The person Yoo Chaerin had asked to call arrived at the front door about three minutes later.
“Hey, long time no see.”
“Uh, what? Why are you here? Team Leader Yoo, I’ve arrived?”
But it looked like Han Dohee knew him too. The man named Im Jongho kept turning his head this way and that, first startled by the car stuck in the middle of the living room, then glancing at my face with a puzzled look.
“This young lady is....”
“Eve. Do you know who he is?”
Han Dohee asked me, but of course I had no way of knowing who he was. Since he was a stranger and I felt a little awkward, I just shook my head.
“You should know, though? You’ve talked to him before.”
“Me, me..?”
“It’s Gagalipdan, this guy.”
“Uh..?”
I remembered him. A C-rank Hunter with the unusual ability of telekinesis. I only knew he was in the Nova Guild, but I never thought I’d see him here.
“Hey, what are you saying to the kid. Is the little one’s name Eve?”
“I... I’m Insaengmanghaet-eum...”
“Hmm? Hahaha, you’re still young. What do you mean your life is ruined?”
“No... my gallery nickname...”
“Huh?”
“Jongho? We’re going to tear out the window frame as is, so could you help keep the dust from falling below?”
“Ah, yes, Team Leader. Understood.”
Gagalipdan... no, Im Jongho, stood in front of the window, scratching his head with an uncertain look.
After that, the giant plant vines filling the living-room window area slowly began pushing the wall beside the window outward, and Im Jongho used telekinesis to gather the dust and tiny debris spilling out from the side into one place and compact it.
Literally, a hole had been blown clean open in the living-room wall. After that, the giant plant vines grown by Yoo Chaerin’s mana grabbed the sturdy load-bearing wall supporting the building, held it in place, and slowly began lowering the car while wrapping around it.
“Wow....”
It had to be at least 30 floors’ worth, and the fact that a planter could grow that much plant from inside was amazing. It was also holding the car’s weight. As expected of an S-rank Hunter, this was on another level.
“For now, this room won’t be usable today. I’ll prepare a new room for Eve-ssi, so please move there.”
“I’m sorry....”
“No, it’s fine. And... a present has been prepared for Eve-ssi.”
“A present for me..?”
Yoo Chaerin smiled softly and patted my head. The car had been safely lowered to the ground, and the wall had been roughly sealed up so the outside wouldn’t be exposed for now, but it would still need to be repaired again.
“Then shall we head out?”
“Ah, just a moment.”
I walked over to Im Jongho, who was standing by the window, and spoke.
“You’re really Gagalipdan?”
“Uh... I guess so....”
“I told you, he’s the one.”
“I’m Insaengmanghaet-eum. My gallery nickname.”
“H-heh... really..?”
“You won’t talk about what happened today in the gallery, right?”
“Y-yeah....”
The gallery regulars... weren’t AI after all. I’m relieved.
* * * * *
“What is all this...?!”
“You could think of it as a thank-you from the Nova Dimension.”
“I feel like I didn’t do anything though....”
“If Eve’s golem hadn’t been there, the gate damage at Hangang Park might have been even greater. You did plenty as a civilian Awakened.”
“Ah....”
Come to think of it, I did rescue some people. At least about a million? There were seriously so many people.
“I heard from Dohee. You made a golem called Suri out of rare metal and magic stone, right?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Arriving in the other prepared room, I found people who looked like electricians reinstalling the computer. The layout was almost identical, and I had personally carried Minyum, Suri, and Daengdaengi—who was in the middle of a data transfer—over here in my arms.
“For now, we’ve prepared 30 kg of rare metal and 800 g of high-grade magic stone, though.”
“Eek.”
This was enough to roughly make Suri five times over. And the magic stone was high-grade. It’s not that the magic stone embedded in the sword Han Dohee gave me was bad, but the difference between low-grade and high-grade magic stones is enormous.
“I-I’sn’t this... expensive..?”
“You could buy 1,000 Seolleim Cookies & Creams with that.”
“I’m not a baby.”
“Wow, didn’t know that.”
Han Dohee was snickering beside me, and of course I knew that kind of money was something I could only dream of. High-grade magic stones are items that hardly ever show up on the exchange in the first place. Even if you have money, you can’t just buy them whenever you want.
From rare metal sparkling with a pure white light to the blue magic stone beside it, shaped like a perfect crystal.
After waiting until the computer technicians left, Yoo Chaerin, Han Dohee, and I were the only ones left in the room. The bodyguard also went outside just in case. I looked at Han Dohee and Yoo Chaerin once each, then knelt down in front of the pile of rare metal ingots.
“Then... I’ll do it..!”
“Yep. Go ahead.”
“Suri’s ready too..?”
ㅡnod nod
After taking a deep breath, I set Suri beside me, put the rare metal ingot in my left hand and the magic stone in my right, then shouted.
“Golem Creation, merge with Suri..!”
ㅡwoooong....
The two materials began vibrating in a deep, weighty hum. I could feel an enormous amount of mana pouring out of my body, and then I squeezed my eyes shut against the intense light bursting from the materials.
The materials touching my fingertips clumped together into little balls, then vanished with a whoosh.
Through my half-lidded eyes, partially shielded by my hand, the last thing I saw was Suri being sucked toward the floating materials in midair.
[ The shards of the fallen kingdom have reached maximum completion. Attempting a new form of fusion. {Time remaining : 79:59:59} ]
A blue mass of mana floated in midair, slowly bobbing up and down. It was shining brightly, and even when touched, it didn’t seem to react at all.
“How did this happen?”
“What came out, Eve? Why is it like this?!”
“It says it reached maximum completion... and that it has 80 hours left until it takes shape.”
“What, so it’s going to take time?”
“I’ve never had anything like this happen before....”
It looked like it was trying to make something ridiculously amazing. For something like that to take this long, too. It might become a super-strong robot on par with an S-rank Hunter, or since it was originally an animal form, it could turn into a mythical-beast-class monster.
“For now... we’ve confirmed that the ability works. You said 80 hours? That’s not very long, so waiting should be fine.”
“Then roughly... it’d be done around 2 a.m. four days from now. Since it’s 6 p.m. now.”
“Oh....”
“I told you I was fast at mental arithmetic.”
“W-well....”
She was pretty fast, though. Maybe she’s good at math.
“Ugh. Why am I so sleepy?”
“Since you used a lot of mana, that can happen. Let’s take a bath and go to bed early.”
“That’s too early..?”
“Sleepiness caused by overusing mana is best handled by going to bed promptly for your health.”
* * * * *
Three days passed after that. That day I tried really hard to stay awake, but I was so sleepy that I had no choice but to wash up, brush my teeth, and go to bed early.
Thanks to that, I didn’t even get to meet the Maxina and Utaha I had been looking forward to. The next day, I felt like staying at the hotel all the time was getting a little weird, so I went back home, but with Suri gone, it somehow felt like something was missing.
Minyum also kept tinkering away at things, and Daengdaengi had lost all sorts of functions, so these days it just plays around. Maybe everyone got bored after Suri disappeared. Still, the money Daengdaengi had made is still there.
More than anything, my salary came in during that time. I hadn’t gone to work for a few days, so it’s a little low, but still about 1 million won.
[Account balance : 9,132,764]
“Hehehe... I’m rich.”
Even after paying rent and everything else, there’s still this much money left. I’m basically a chaebol now, aren’t I? Enough money to buy 5,000 Seolleim Cookies & Creams.
And tonight, Suri’s transformation will finally be complete. I’m so excited I can’t sleep because I want to know what form it’ll take. It’s already 9:17, but my eyes are still wide open.
[Insaengmanghaet-eum: I’m going to become a new S-rank Hunter
Seriously, look forward to it. No joke, really]
-Mentong : Whoa, S-rank convenience-store accountant
ㄴ Insaengmanghaet-eum : I quit the convenience store, though;;
ㄴ Mentong : S-rank unemployed bum, lol
ㄴ Insaengmanghaet-eum : Heyㅡㅡ
-Yangigyeon : Did you really awaken? You’ve only been posting awakening stuff lately
ㄴ Insaengmanghaet-eum : I told you it’s real, why won’t you believe me
ㄴ Yangigyeon : Anything I ask and it’s always real
-Anon : Even if you awakened, if you’re still D-rank, give up ㅇㅇ
ㄴ Insaengmanghaet-eum : No, it’s not. I already got an S-rank assessment
-Dosyungjwak : How’s the situation?
ㄴ Insaengmanghaet-eum : Soon. Seriously, look forward to it
ㄴ Dosyungjwak : Should I come watch?
ㄴ Insaengmanghaet-eum : That’s a bit.. I’ll show you later
At this rate, I’ll keep browsing the gallery and hold out until 1 a.m. Since I’ve been going to bed early lately, staying up this long shouldn’t be hard.
“Has an hour passed yet..? Daengdaengi, what time is it now..?”
[PM. 9 : 21]
“No way... it hasn’t even been 5 minutes..?”
Time wasn’t passing very quickly. I needed to be there to welcome Suri as it was born into a new body. If the owner slept while it was appearing in the world, Suri would feel hurt too. Let’s keep our eyes open and hold out.
“Ugh... four more hours....”
ㅡdoro-rong....
9:53 PM. Eve asleep.
* * * * *
ㅡpoke poke
“Mmm... five more minutes....”
ㅡpoke poke
“I’m so sleepy... let me sleep just a little longer....”
ㅡpoke poke
“Hnnngh..!!”
Eve stretched her short body as far up and down as possible, as if booting up a body that had been powered off all night.
Through my half-lidded eyes, I could see Daengdaengi between my legs....
“Minyum, why did you wake me up..?”
“Welcome, Princess.”
Someone had broken in in the middle of the night!? Could this be the kidnapping of civilian Awakened by Chinese hunters I’d heard about before...?!
“W-who are you..?!”
At my panicked question, the woman before me elegantly spread her skirt wide and bowed her head in greeting.
“I am Ophelia, head maid of the royal household.”
“Eh..?”
Who are you, really.