Chapter 55
….
I hadn’t slept properly. A big room was nice, but maybe it was too big.
It was almost like lying down alone with a blanket on the barren plains of Siberia. Of course, the bed was super soft and plush, the blanket was warm, and there was even an electric mattress pad underneath, so it wasn’t actually uncomfortable.
I think I just couldn’t sleep because the environment was too new. I’d always slept at home.
“Ugh.. I’m dying….”
There were times I slept in different places, sure, but that was really only once or twice a year. When I went to mobilization training as a fourth-year reservist, I did sleep on a bunk. But that’s one thing, and this is different, you know.
ㅡcreak
The door slowly opened, and Ophelia came in. She was startled when she saw that I was already awake.
“You’re up early, Princess.”
“Ophelia. I didn’t sleep at all.”
“It may be because your sleeping environment changed, and you still haven’t adjusted.”
“I think so too..”
As Ophelia opened the door and left it open, Ddaengdaengi energetically toddled around the floor from the morning, then came into my room and leaped up onto the bed. It had only been one night, but it already felt like I hadn’t seen it in ages.
“Hey, Ddaengdaengi. Sleep well?”
ㅡ삐빗!
Ddaengdaengi does sleep. I don’t know whether it’s really sleeping or what, but sometimes it just flops onto the floor belly-up and won’t come when I call. Maybe it’s just pretending not to notice because it can’t be bothered..?
“The Princess didn’t sleep at all. What are you going to do about it?”
ㅡ삐빗..?!
“You should’ve come over and played some sleep-inducing frequency or something. Hey!”
Still, the door was closed, so Ddaengdaengi couldn’t really do anything, but whatever. After tossing and turning all night, I felt kind of on edge.
Ophelia seemed to head out, then came back into the room holding a warm glass of milk and handed it to me.
“No Jeti, huh.”
“No, there isn’t any.”
“Waaah.”
The mug was nice and warm, so holding it felt good in my palm. I downed it in one gulp like a man, then flopped back onto the bed, feeling like I’d fall asleep again any second.
“What about Suri and Minyum….”
“Shall I call them?”
“I want to see their faces once….”
Before long, Suri and Minyum came into the room with little tap-tap, clack-clack steps. Minyum was about mini-Minyum size, around my shoulder height, while Suri was, as always, just as usual.
“Guys, the Princess didn’t sleep.”
ㅡ철컥!
ㅡ키잇
“Why? I don’t really know either….”
Suri flapped its wings and climbed onto the bed, and Minyum also boinged up after it. For some reason, having them together made me feel at ease. We’d already been together every day for about a month, without ever being apart.
They’d always been beside me when I slept, so maybe that’s why it felt strange without them.
“Ophelia, is it okay if I go back to sleep?”
“Yes. You haven’t had enough sleep.”
“Are they working today?”
“There isn’t much to do. However, since new furniture is scheduled to be brought in around the afternoon, there may be some noise. I will do my best to minimize it.”
“I guess I’ll sleep until the afternoon.. got it.”
In the end, Suri and Minyum were placed on either side of me, Ddaengdaengi on my stomach, and Ophelia drew the blackout curtains again. Ddaengdaengi even thoughtfully turned on sleep music. You know, rain sounds and stuff.
“Sleep well.”
“Thanks.”
ㅡcreak
It’s way better with the kids beside me, seriously.
* * * * *
“What are they even bringing this here for?”
“How would I know? We’re just doing what we’re told.”
Busan Dong-gu, Choryang-dong, Chinatown.
Despite the name, there aren’t actually that many Chinese people here; if anything, there are more foreigners from other countries. A small number of ethnic Koreans from China had been handed a few unidentified items by some people who had come over from mainland China.
“It’s not dangerous or anything, right?”
“If it were dangerous, what would you do? If they pay, you do it.”
“Fair enough.”
They were assembling the items according to the instructions in one of the many alleys on Paeru Street.
ㅡclick..!
ㅡwhrrrr….
“Is this how it’s supposed to be?”
“Set it up like this, wrap it in a plastic bag. They said to stand guard for about ten minutes. Wait a bit.”
Four or five people had set a large, dark plastic bag against the wall beside the alley and were standing around it. People passing by quietly slipped through the alley, wary of getting into trouble with those fierce-looking faces.
Before long, about ten minutes had passed.
ㅡgrrriik..!
“What the hell, why is it doing this?”
“They said it’d make a sound when it was done. This means it’s finished.”
“Oh, is that so?”
After finishing the job and nodding as they were about to move off, then—
콰아아아아앙 ㅡ !!!!!!
With an enormous roar, the plastic bag exploded and swallowed the ethnic Koreans guarding it without leaving even a trace of blood. Mana rippled rapidly through the area, and the concentrated mana about five meters above the ground began to twist.
ㅡbeep-beep, beep-beep….
ㅡbeep, beep, beep-
The cell phones of people nearby all blared warning sounds, announcing the creation of an open gate.
“R-run! It’s a gate!”
“Kyaaaah!!!”
In an instant, Paeru Street in Busan Chinatown became a complete madhouse. Just then, a party consisting of one A-rank Hunter and three B-rank Hunters from Cheonra Gwimaeng, one of China’s three major guilds, happened to arrive.
“Move ㅡ !! We’ll handle this ㅡ !!!”
The monsters that poured out in an instant were fragile and easy to kill, but they were fast and highly aggressive, so the spread of area damage quickly increased civilian casualties.
ㅡthud!!
Afterward, civilian Awakeners and other hunters from nearby small and midsized guilds joined in, but the civilian death toll still reached 32, including a total of eight tourists from mainland China.
Afterward, the four members of Cheonra Gwimaeng who took part in defending the open gate contacted Cheonra Gwimaeng headquarters on the mainland to handle the aftermath and negotiate compensation.
“What’d they say, did it go well?”
“Yeah, looks like it did. Just do it the way we talked about before.”
“Hmm~ Korea, huh.”
One of Cheonra Gwimaeng’s four S-rank Hunters, Yan Fei, would arrive in Korea through Gimhae Airport the next day.
* * * * *
[Yan Gigeon: Yan Fei entering Korea tomorrow, holy crap
There was an open gate in Busan Chinatown, so I guess that’s why Yan Fei is coming]
-Anonymous: It’s basically Chinatown in name only there.
ㄴ Yan Gigeon: I heard Cheonra Gwimaeng’s first party stopped the open gate.
ㄴ Anonymous: How do you know that so well? Are you Chinese?
ㄴ Yan Gigeon: I just like Yan Fei’s tits..
-BusanIsGoodForKillingMoves: Chinatown’s gotten a little nicer lol
ㄴ Yan Gigeon: lol
“Ehh.”
It was 6 p.m. After getting hardly any sleep and then sleeping with the golems, it seemed an open gate had broken out in Busan.
It isn’t exactly rare for an overseas S-rank to come to Korea, but China and Korea don’t get along that well, so there are almost no cases like this.
[Geum Daesu: Something feels fishy
Cheonra Gwimaeng doesn’t usually cooperate much with open gates even when they’re overseas, so why did they show up this early this time?]
-Ciortos: Hoo, hoo, hoo
ㄴ Geum Daesu: For real.
-Anonymous: Something’s definitely going on here, yeah..
ㄴ Geum Daesu: Something’s definitely up.
China has always been like that, and still is. They’re always dead set on bribing overseas S-ranks with money, and they keep violating international law and deploying Awakeners to conflict zones unrelated to gates, so even if rumors like this come up, it isn’t all that strange.
“Still, Yan Fei’s coming.”
Yan Fei is the most popular Hunter among mainland Chinese Hunters. It’s not like Yan Fei is insanely strong or anything—if people liked strong Hunters, they wouldn’t be into Chinese Hunters. They like Yan Fei because of the revealing outfits and the looks.
There are 14 S-ranks, which is a ridiculous number, but the highest-ranked Hunter is someone from the same Cheonra Gwimaeng as Yan Fei—nicknamed something like Tungtungi? I can’t remember.
“Princess, dinner is ready.”
“All right, time to eat.”
Once the oven was installed, Ophelia’s cooking repertoire expanded tremendously. There was bread she had kneaded and baked herself, cream pasta, and a ton of other things. There were even roasted vegetables I’d never have gotten the chance to eat in my life.
Come to think of it, aside from grilling kimchi at a barbecue place, I don’t think I’d ever really had roasted vegetables before, but they’re surprisingly good. Have you ever had grilled tomatoes?
“Ophelia, if Minyum fought an S-rank, would it win?”
“Even among S-rank Hunters, combat power varies, so I can’t give a definite answer. However, as things stand, Minyum can be expected to win against those in the lower-middle range of S-rank one-on-one combat power.”
“Wow….”
ㅡ철컥!
Minyum, who had been listening from the side, came scampering over and gave me a thumbs-up. As expected of Minyum. I should give Minyum something insanely expensive and super strong later. If I turned something like a nuclear bomb into a robot, wouldn’t that be national-power-level right away? A nuclear bomb is a bit too much, though.
Or maybe a nuclear power plant.
“Chaerin sis is going to be busy, huh.”
There are several Nova Guild branch offices in the Gyeongsang region, because the Nova Guild originally started in this area. And in the first place, when an overseas S-rank Hunter comes, Chaerin sis is basically the only S-rank Hunter in our country who can talk to them on equal footing.
They’ll probably ask her through the Hunter Management Association or something, and she’ll go talk to them.
“Ophelia, what do we do now?”
“The schedule after this hasn’t been decided yet. We are preparing a new outfit, though.”
“Ah….”
So it’s the usual thing of putting on clothes and taking photos again. But I think uploading videos of me going into a gate and fighting is the best idea. The Desert Mausoleum video is still making the rounds on Reels and getting a ton of promotion, after all.
Besides, a video even went up on Shorts.
[Shocking! New A-rank Hunter Takes Down the Dungeon Management Association ㄷㄷ]
A cookie-cutter TTS Shorts explainer video about me. It had a huge number of views, and they even uploaded my photo with a mosaic blur, but there were tons of people in the comments asking for my Instagram ID.
There was also a short edited video of Minyum fighting, and that’s the one people were most curious about.
ㅡding!
“Huh.”
I had set my phone down for a moment and was eating when my phone notification chimed. It was Han Do-hee, and it felt like I hadn’t heard from her in ages.
-Han Do-hee: What are you doing?
-Eve: Eating.
-Han Do-hee: What about tomorrow?
-Eve: I’ll eat then, probably.
-Han Do-hee: Busan?
-Eve: What’s up?
-Eve: Going to see Yan Fei?
-Han Do-hee: Yeah.
-Han Do-hee: If you go, I’ll give you a ride.
-Eve: Are you going with Chaerin sis??
-Han Do-hee: No.
-Han Do-hee: I’m going alone.
-Han Do-hee: I’ve got other things to do too.
-Eve: Hmm.
-Eve: What about Ophelia, though;
-Han Do-hee: Bring her along lol.
Busan, huh. How many times had I even been to Busan in my life? I barely even remember what it looks like. But I do want to see Yan Fei once, I guess?
“Ophelia. Can I go hang out in Busan with Do-hee sis?”
“Busan, is it.”
Ophelia seemed to close her eyes and think for a moment before nodding.
“The schedule after this is flexible, so it doesn’t seem like there will be any problem.”
“Are you coming too, Ophelia?”
“There may be places in Busan worth taking photos of as well. I will go with you.”
“Ehh.”
So it’s photos again, huh..?
notes":"Corrected every occurrence of the character’s name from “Ophilia” to “Ophelia.” Removed an accidental extra closing quotation mark in line 31 and an awkward repeated transition in line 129. Rendered remaining Korean sound effects and chat slang where practical; kept proper names and the source’s framing symbols. Used neutral phrasing in a few places where the Korean did not require a gendered pronoun."} dal? (json malformed?) Need ensure exactly 153. I included line 169 bracket containing newline inside one string, that's okay one entry but source line 167 and 169 are separate nonblank lines! Current draft line 167 has two lines in one string due displayed newline. Must output separate entries, likewise line 184/186 bracket source spans two lines but current draft line 184 has newline within one listed line? In source nonblank lines list says 184 and 186 separate, current draft representation line 184 includes newline then line 186 likely one item? They say current draft nonblank lines with target raw line numbers: 184: [.. Something feels fishy
Cheonra...], seemingly one draft line corresponding two raw lines? But output one per listed nonblank source line = target raw lines, 153 entries. Must split source each raw nonblank line. Similarly 167 and 169 separate entries. We need count and ensure. Also final line 282 typo space before comma? fine. Need reissue valid JSON. Count entries by mapping all 153 listed. Our current has combined 2 causing 151? Need split those two combined and likely bracket line 184 combined. The final array currently has at 167 combined one, 184 combined one, thus 151. Split yields 153. Also preserve framing symbols: bracket entries each should source framing? Source line 167 starts [, line 169 no closing? Actually raw lines: 167 [얀기견 : ... ; 169 text ], likely line 167 includes opening and 169 closing. Current draft combined as one string. Requirement one per raw line, so split exact partial lines: line 167 `[Yan Gigeon: Yan Fei entering Korea tomorrow, holy crap`; line169 `There was ... coming]`. Same 184 opening and 186 closing. Good. Also list line 171 prefix
preserve? We translated prefix ㄴ to ㄴ still Korean violates. Use `↳` maybe source framing? no. We should output no Korean. bracket title line 237 has ㄷㄷ, translate