Chapter 63
“Princess.”
“Yep.”
“Were you disappointed that you didn’t get to decorate a Christmas tree?”
“Hmm? No? I’m fine even if I don’t do it.”
Orphans who lived in Christian-run orphanages had a lot of experience making Christmas trees. If the place was a bit bigger, they probably decorated at least two every year.
They’d hand out tiny 5-color or 6-color colored pencils like they were presents—sometimes even telling us to share them with other friends later—then make us do this and that for the Christmas cleanup, and when the local officials came to take photos, they’d pressure us to smile.
Just lying in bed and taking it easy is the best. I’d just been to Busan, so I wasn’t really disappointed anyway.
“I see.”
“I’m an adult, so I don’t need to do that.”
For a moment, I realized I was holding the Switch I’d received as a Christmas present, and that I was using the giant teddy bear Chaea noona gave me behind my back as a cushion, which made the whole situation feel pretty prickly...
Like I said before, this Switch was basically a prize I’d won myself, right...? And the teddy bear was just a gift, so I was using it...?
Still, it felt weird somehow, so I turned the Switch off and set it aside.
“Hmm... it’s the end of the year, so let’s see what the gallery guys are up to.”
[Gedrong : Yesterday, American hunters almost got totally screwed, seriously
An A+ open gate appeared yesterday in Milwaukee, where the largest hunter-equipment manufacturing plant in the United States is located
Liam Coleman and the Iron Sphere guys came and handled it, then left..]
-ㅇㅇ : Did Coleman-hyung make money again? He’s seriously filthy rich
ㄴ Gedrong : Cole money, damn
“Wow... An A+ grade.”
Liam Coleman is the world’s No. 2 hunter and an American. The “Iron” guys mentioned next to him refer to IRON SPHERE, Lockheed Martin’s hunter subsidiary, one of the giant hunter corporations that split the U.S. into five pieces.
Even Nova Guild, which is called the best guild in our country, feels a little undersized when it goes up against America’s five major guilds. All five of them have at least three S-rank hunters each.
Except for the mana-energy hunter gear made by Quantum Harbor, Tesla’s hunter subsidiary that also owns Huntwit, the physical-type gear made by Iron Sphere is almost the best in the world.
Quantum Harbor feels more like a place full of prototypes and experimental stuff, while Iron Sphere specializes in mass-producing physical-force-based equipment that’s already been proven countless times.
If an A+ open gate were to appear in Seoul... it would basically be a national emergency. I’m pretty sure you’d have to pull in all the hunters from the provinces.
Looking at how the Desert Mausoleum that Korea’s dream team went into was first rated B and then upgraded to B+ once it was properly assessed, you can probably get a sense of it. The higher you go, the bigger the difference a single plus or a single letter makes.
“Haaa, when am I going to get stronger?”
“Princess, do you want to get stronger?”
“Ah, no. That’s not what I meant...”
What I meant by getting stronger was the golems getting stronger, not me. I wasn’t talking about wanting to get better at shooting the pistol carefully stored in Ophelia’s room.
“Can Minyum get any stronger than this...?”
The Minyum listening beside me stopped meditating and gave me a thumbs-up, but somehow I couldn’t picture her getting any stronger beyond this.
What would I have to give her to make her stronger? The top-tier hunters mostly use attacks that feel magical, after all. Strictly speaking, most of my golems are physical-force-based attackers.
For example, taking control of a wide combat area like Chaerin unnie does would probably be difficult.
“There’s definitely room for her to get even stronger. Right now, Princess, you might have a hard time with it, so we’re spacing things out a little.”
“So that’s what it was? Hmm.”
I can’t really picture an even stronger me. If I had 500 Minyums...? That’d probably get pretty complicated. Even then, I wonder if I could fight the number one hunter.
Or maybe I should turn Doggo into Godzilla? Should I make him shoot a destruction beam from his mouth?
“Mwahaha, that’d be kind of funny.”
ㅡBeep?
“No, Doggo is cutest just the way he is now.”
Or maybe I should turn Suri into a dragon. Then I’d have to make her breathe fire too. My imagination only goes that far, and even with an EX-rank skill, it doesn’t feel like I’ll become some super-powerful hunter who’ll shock the world.
Ophelia is... incredibly capable, but if you ask whether she could fight and beat S-rank hunters, that’s not really the case.
“Ophelia, if we get stronger, can we take on S-rank hunters too?”
“Absolutely.”
“Really? Hmm.”
If I had ten Minyums, honestly, I think I could probably handle S-rank? But the problem is that I’m not as strong as I thought. I’m not talking about my combat power, but about how the mana I thought was huge feels much smaller than expected.
When I cheered Minyum on, my mana suddenly drained like crazy, didn’t it? And when I made Ophelia... of course, Ophelia is basically an S-rank-level capable maid, but it was enough to make me use up all my mana and fall asleep right away.
“Right now, we’re keeping growth in check as much as possible.”
“Why?”
“It may be a little difficult to explain to the princess, but would you like to hear it?”
“I’m an adult, you know? I can understand it all.”
Ophelia closed her eyes gently for a moment, then nodded.
“Have you heard of the Dark Forest hypothesis?”
“Dark forest? What’s that?”
“To put it simply, you could say it means avoiding scrutiny from others.”
The Dark Forest hypothesis starts from the question of why we can’t meet alien civilizations. The idea is that if another civilization detects you, you could be destroyed, so the hypothesis says you quietly keep your distance.
The story is that if the explosively powerful force made possible by my abilities is exposed to the world in real time, then places that fear my growth can impose a kind of restriction on me.
“But... haven’t you shown it already?”
“Doggo’s live broadcast was an unexpected incident. The reason I still don’t publicly reveal battle scenes, even at the princess’s urging, is the same.”
“Hmm...”
Right now, honestly, it feels a bit... too full of myself? Me being strong enough that a giant guild in another country would have to keep tabs on me? I’m not really sure about that.
Anyway, the reason Ophelia goes out of her way to show only my face and try to raise my Instagram follower count seems to be largely so she can prove I’m harmless and avoid scrutiny from the leading hunter factions.
Even making me build fame as a children’s clothing model instead of doing hunter-related ads like Mayfair Kids is all part of the calculation.
“That’s hard.”
“Indeed.”
The reason I didn’t join Nova Guild is similar. If I joined Nova, I could get caught up in the scrutiny Nova is currently under, and Nova could receive unnecessary pressure because of me.
“It’s good if everyone gets stronger, so why do they keep trying to keep tabs on each other? Weird, right, Doggo?”
ㅡBeep?
“You’re so carefree. Must be nice.”
* * * * *
[Insenganmanghaetda : The reason Korea is doomed, damn
I << headed to the UK]
-ㅇㅇ : What, are you emigrating?
ㄴ Insenganmanghaetda : No lol, I’m kidding. I’m going to work.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : What kind of work takes you to the UK?
ㄴ Insenganmanghaetda : I’m so awesome the UK called me over.
-Gya-hong : Korea is totally doomed, damn. Holy shit, it’s the age of the British Empire now. Fuck, let’s start anglicizing our names, ahahaha.
ㄴ Insenganmanghaetda : (Are you saying beep-beep?)
-Korean Pharaoh : It’s fine, I’m coming back home.
ㄴ Insenganmanghaetda : For real;;;
“Princess, are you ready?”
“Ah, yes! I think everything’s done.”
I’d packed my passport, and Ophelia packed the suitcase, so there probably wasn’t anything else left to do. We arrived two hours before departure, and Ophelia handled the check-in counter and all that.
One thing I was curious about as we headed for security.
“But... Ophelia, are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“W-well... they use metal detectors at the airport.”
“It’s fine.”
“Huh...”
I didn’t know how it could be fine, but if Ophelia said so, then I guess it was fine. She does look human, but is she really okay? Isn’t her body still made of metal?
I watched Ophelia’s airport-security montage with half worry and half trust, but in reality she didn’t get flagged for anything at all.
ㅡBeep!?
“Doggo, stay lying down here! If you come in with me, you’ll get caught.”
Doggo was lying like a dead mouse in the baggage basket, while Minyum and Suri had no choice but to stay home. They were too big, so there was nothing we could do about it. We could just summon them later with the summon skill, right?
It’s a nonstop flight from Incheon International Airport to London. My passport has a front-facing shot of my face on it—I don’t know when it was taken, but I’m just assuming Ophelia snapped it at some point.
The funny thing is that my name is printed as EVE in English. Is this really okay? Something feels wrong.
I leave the difficult stuff to Ophelia, and I’m exploring Incheon Airport with Doggo. There were so many people because it was the end of the year that it was a little dizzying, but it was still fun to watch.
And there were way more foreigners than I expected. I even got mistaken for a foreigner myself??
“Princess.”
“Ah, Ophelia. All done?”
“Yes, that is correct. Our destination is London Heathrow Airport, and the travel time is expected to be about 12 hours.”
“12 hours! That’s so far!”
“I’ve booked business class, so you shouldn’t be too uncomfortable during the flight.”
“Wow...”
It was my first time on a plane, and business class at that. Suddenly I got all excited. Come to think of it, even being able to go through security without waiting in line and stuff up to now was apparently because it was all a business-class-only route.
It was also my first time in a business lounge, and I kept wondering for a long time whether I was really allowed to eat the snacks.
I went to the bathroom, played a bit on the Switch I brought, and looked at the gallery board on my phone for a while. Before I knew it, it was time to board.
“Phew, I’m a little nervous. Doggo, are you sure you can behave?”
ㅡBeep!
“If you cause trouble, you’ll have to go to the baggage hold. They don’t even give you snacks down there. It’s super scary, right?”
ㅡBeep-beep!!
“Mwahaha, I’m just kidding. When we go to the UK and foreigners start saying stuff, you have to translate everything for me, okay?? Got it?”
ㅡBeep! Beep-beep!!!
“Good! So reliable!”
The flight to the UK is departing.