The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 506: Seed (4)

“Seong Hyunjae didn’t seem too pleased though. Or more accurately, I should say he was uncomfortable.”

If he knew about Seong Hyunjae’s condition, that made perfect sense. If it was power enough to face the source, it would be threatening even to Transcendents.

“What about other people?”

I unconsciously swallowed dryly. If Puppeteer knew Whitey, then perhaps there might be some information about Yuhyun too. Why Whitey took my brother, and what she planned to do. I suspected she used him as a hostage to make me help her, but it wasn’t certain.

“Who knows. They asked about everyone’s wellbeing though.”

“Wellbeing?”

“Han Yujin’s younger brother, the protégé who handles water, the red-haired spear user, the blonde support-type. Asked if they’re all doing well.”

It seemed to be Yuhyun, Yerim, Hyunah, and Noah. Surprisingly, Myungwoo wasn’t mentioned. Was it because Myungwoo was supposed to receive the Unfilial Children’s protection even if this world ended? Or maybe because he wasn’t S-rank?

“Meaning they’re concerned about all the S-ranks around me.”

Kim Seonghan, well, we’re not that close. Evelyn wasn’t mentioned either.

“Oh, and the red cat too.”

Hmm, to a Transcendent’s eyes, S-rank monsters and S-rank human Awakened might not feel much different. Though not a Transcendent, Yuhyun was also somewhat like that.

“But why you of all people?”

I threw him a deeply suspicious look. There are plenty of S-ranks, so why this bastard? Hwang Rim stroked under his chin saying “Hmm,” then opened his mouth.

“I told you Transcendents have a hard time getting involved in this game. I’m, so to speak, one of the seeds scattered in advance.”

“You too?”

“A bit different from the government official. It’s just preliminary groundwork for a simple connection. Since they scattered it randomly and roughly, it’s not just one or two. However, among them, I was the most useful~ shall we say. I heard there’s even a lower-class non-Awakened and an African poison dart frog.”

“So you’re saying they put something like a communicator into living beings of this world?”

“Roughly similar. More like a pathway that can also send small parcels? This also has many restrictions, and the other party’s ability must be above a certain level too.”

In the end, Hwang Rim making deals with Puppeteer was pure coincidence.

“…How did she end up stuck with a guy like this?”

“Hey, why? Little Jin, I’m capable.”

Hwang Rim made an aggrieved expression.

“Is that something a guy in handcuffs should say?”

“The Breeding Facility Director’s ability was just a bit better.”

“So shameless. Don’t you know why they targeted Chief Song?”

“Just because it’s dangerous. Safe—”

“Hey, hey!”

I hurriedly covered Hwang Rim’s mouth while glancing at Song Taewon. Chief Song’s expression didn’t change, but I didn’t know what he was thinking inside.

“Um, Chief Song. Could you step outside for a moment… that won’t work, will it?”

“Since I can’t guarantee Han Yujin’s safety, no.”

I should have come with someone else. But if he left now, Hwang Rim would definitely try to escape. Since the soil remained on the table, Chief Song would be momentarily incapacitated. I should have put the soil in my inventory first—that was a mistake. Though if I had, there was also the possibility Hwang Rim would have grabbed Chief Song who couldn’t recover immediately and fled. At minimum, Hwang Rim alone would have escaped.

“Then cover your ears at lea—ugh!”

This bastard licked me! Both my mood and palm became dirty in an instant.

“Hey, you dog—”

“Want me to lick more?”

“…You human bastard.”

Ugh, disgusting. I wanted to wipe my hand, but I didn’t want to use my clothes or a towel either. As I held my palm out while grimacing, Chief Song took out that handkerchief.

“I’d feel bad for Little Song, so I’ll decline. Even if you boil and wash it, it’s still disgusting.”

“I brushed my teeth after lunch.”

Hwang Rim insisted his mouth was clean and took out a handkerchief from his inventory to hand over. Then he looked at Song Taewon with curved eyes.

“You’re not a child, you should listen to what you need to hear.”

“Adults get hurt too!”

It’s obviously not like turning twenty or graduating college suddenly makes you level up in maturity like some skill grade increase. You just try to live accordingly as you have more things to take direct responsibility for.

“Han Yujin, I—”

“If you’re going to say you’re fine, keep your mouth shut. Or I’ll go block it for you.”

Song Taewon closed his mouth.

“But if it’s not that you’re fine, but that you want to know.”

I looked at Song Taewon and continued while meeting his eyes.

“If it’s not because of duty or responsibility but you purely want to know, you can stay here.”

Song Taewon’s mouth opened then closed again without any words. After a brief silence, he forced out his voice with difficulty.

“I think I need to know.”

In the end, it was a sense of duty. Naturally, Chief Song would also have moments he wanted to avoid. There was no way he’d want to hear it. Who would like hearing unpleasant things? Unless you were born with quite abnormal inclinations, you’d naturally want to cover your ears.

“Not knowing is more unsettling.”

“See?”

“You shut up for a bit.”

“Anyway, what I know is limited, okay? It’s just for safety. It’s dangerous. Being able to swallow Seong Hyunjae ultimately means being able to swallow most things.”

…Even Transcendents. That bastard Hwang Rim spoke in an utterly light tone.

“Since it was aimed only at Seong Hyunjae, the compatibility probably isn’t great yet. While maintaining humanity, at most it just blocks skills. And even that isn’t complete swallowing, right?”

Even with time, it only lowered skill grades for a while.

“Still, just in case, any Transcendent who knows about Song Taewon would want to get rid of him. Though it seems not many people know yet.”

“…Hey, you didn’t go around blabbing everywhere, did you?”

“I can’t even if I wanted to.”

“Contract?”

“Not me, but Puppeteer first. More precisely, it seems to be a contract with Whitey. Puppeteer knows this information through Whitey’s foresight. There’s a restriction that they can only tell people who already know. If there was even one person here who didn’t know about Song Taewon’s condition, I couldn’t have spoken either.”

Then the possibility of word spreading among Transcendents seemed small. The Elder seemed to not have told the Newcomer yet, and Crescent Moon also appeared to be keeping silent. She couldn’t easily blab because of Seong Hyunjae anyway.

“What about you?”

“I received information sharing through the seed. Just that much. I need to know to make deals. I don’t know much more than what you guys know, Little Jin.”

Hwang Rim said that because we came to know, Puppeteer also became able to interfere. I suddenly remembered how the Unfilial Children had tried to hide information as much as possible before.

The more you know, the more involvement there is? But we can’t afford not to know.

“Can I block them?”

Song Taewon, who had been sitting silently, opened his mouth.

“Wait, Chief Song. That’s—”

“Transcendents are considered impossible to stop with ordinary human power.”

“They can’t come in directly anyway!”

If he could block them, what would he do? Song Taewon’s final appearance that the King of Harmless showed came to mind. There was no way he’d be safe. That power couldn’t be contained in a human vessel from the start. Like how once Seong Hyunjae was completely filled, the current him would disappear.

“Chatterbox isn’t holding a party for no reason. So don’t have rash thoughts.”

There was no reply. This is maddening.

“For now, I mean, even if you use it, it would only be once. Save it just in case.”

I said it like this at least. With Chief Song’s personality, there’s no way he’d spare himself… so a more dangerous opponent might appear! You need to keep a last resort, I could only block him like that.

“Can’t you take these off now?”

Hwang Rim showed his handcuffed hands.

“Why should I trust you? You didn’t even properly talk about Park Hayul’s side.”

“I just made a deal with that side. Even in China, I took the request because the situation seemed… iffy.”

His fingers were fine, so it didn’t seem to be a lie. Come to think of it, what happened to Hwang Rim before regression? He probably escaped to America and lived well.

“So you could keep dealing and screwing me over. As expected, I can’t just let you go.”

“Little Jin, I’ve already been screwed twice. I treated you well.”

“Put your hand on your conscience and say that.”

Hwang Rim respectfully placed both hands together on his chest.

“My conscience is the size of my chest.”

“Maybe if you were Chief Song, but for you it’s inversely proportional. You just watched from the side next to that bastard Cho.”

“Minui did look after you a lot though.”

“…What?”

I was beyond dumbfounded—I was speechless. At my look asking what bullshit that was, Hwang Rim made excuses saying wasn’t that so?

“That place is excellent at trampling people. But you, Little Jin, were at least treated like a person.”

“So?”

“Usually they start by stripping you.”

Hwang Rim spoke casually.

“Clothing has a bigger impact on a person’s mental state than you think? When everyone else is fully dressed but you’re the only one stripped, you don’t feel like an equal human being to those around you. And here, they shouldn’t mock or tease the nakedness but treat it as natural. That it’s natural for you, unlike us, to crawl naked on the floor.”

Chief Song’s brow furrowed. I figured my expression was similar.

“After laying that groundwork, it varies depending on the level of resistance~ though it’s a bit much to explain in detail?”

“…I don’t want to hear it.”

“My preference is the bribery route, so don’t look at me like that. In today’s world, most things can be solved with money, so why waste effort on useless places? Anyway, because of the monster breeding business, they really did treat you well. Fed you at the table, gave you a room with a separate bathroom.”

Put like that, I felt a bit like maybe that was the case.

“What should we do?”

I looked at Chief Song and asked.

“Legally, we can’t punish him, right?”

“Yes. From what I’ve heard so far, he didn’t harm Han Yujin.”

He just gave me cigarettes.

“What about the attempted kidnapping of Chief Song?”

“Since both are S-rank Hunters and it’s overseas, it’s difficult.”

“What if I privately bury this bastard?”

“…If it’s by Han Yujin’s power alone. It’s fine. If an S-rank Hunter is killed by an F-rank stat, it will practically be concluded as suicide.”

Well, with F-rank strength, even stabbing with a knife would barely scratch. Even using a special dungeon item, how could they not dodge? Hwang Rim made a pitiful expression.

“Little Jin, I have lots of money.”

“I have lots too.”

Should I take the SS-rank restraints out? They’d be useful, but I hesitated since they weren’t the type to help the kids. There are only three. Items are definitely best. For now, I took out wire from my inventory and nicely wrapped it around Hwang Rim’s neck.

“If you run, you really die.”

“That’s too much.”

“I didn’t strip you. How gentlemanly.”

“If Little Jin wants, I’ll take off—”

“Get your hands off your pants! You crazy bastard! Don’t you have any shame?!”

“Why would I be embarrassed? Other men would be embarrassed though.”

…So confident, this crazy bastard. When I looked at him sourly, that bastard Hwang Rim proudly puffed out his chest.

“Excellent in many ways.”

It was annoying, but it was true.

“What are you talking about, you bastard? There’s no one around me who’d be embarrassed seeing you.”

Except me. Damn it. No, I’m fine too, honestly… no, never mind. The standards are too different.

“You talked about stripping affecting mental state.”

“That’s for ordinary people. The government official would be confident too, right?”

Song Taewon frowned. He seemed to dislike being grouped with Hwang Rim. Correction, he seemed to really, really dislike it. He usually didn’t show such obvious distaste.

“Same with Seong Hyunjae and Little Jin’s brother. Though your brother might care about his hyung’s gaze. The Sesung Guild Leader could at least pretend to be embarrassed. Liette would have absolutely no reservations.”

“I think so too, but why suddenly Liette? Are you acquainted?”

“I like dragons.”

At the gaze he sent along with those words, Gyeol hid behind me in disgust. What should I really do with this bastard Hwang Rim? It felt awkward to just let him go, but I couldn’t keep him either. If Puppeteer was really favorable toward me, it would be better to let Hwang Rim go nicely for now. Still, I wanted to hit him at least once—

“Master.”

Number 71 suddenly appeared. I really need to at least fix that Master thing—at this rate I can’t even bring the kids in here!

“Someone is approaching.”

“What?”

Immediately after, knock knock, a knocking sound was heard.

“Should I allow entry? If I concentrate on defense, maintaining the drawer may become difficult.”

“Fine. Hold out your handcuffs!”

Since I hadn’t even replenished mana yet, it seemed better to release Hwang Rim first and exit the drawer. Song Taewon approached my side as if to protect me, and I hurriedly removed Hwang Rim’s handcuffs—

Screech—

Along with an ear-grating sound, a round, black circle appeared in the air. Then a hand reached out from beyond the circle. It was an ordinary person’s hand, somehow familiar to the eye. That finger, the index finger, moved toward Hwang Rim—flick.

Like a beckoning gesture.

“…Puppeteer?”

At my questioning look, Hwang Rim stood up and approached the hand. Then the hand—

Thwack!

Hit Hwang Rim on the head.

“Ow.”

I liked Puppeteer a tiny bit more. Gyeol clapped. Come to think of it, that side must have had quite a headache getting stuck with such a guy. Then they grabbed Hwang Rim’s ear and pulled him toward the black circle.

“Little Jin, bringing people connected to Transcendents into the drawer is risky. The drawer doesn’t receive proper protection from your world, and if there’s a contractor, location tracking becomes easier. Especially Seong Hyunjae is dangerous, and if you must bring him in, using the drawer inside a dungeon is safer. Because dungeons are managed by the Unfilial Children.”

“Uh… tell them thanks.”

“See you next time, love you~”

“Fuck off.”

Then Hwang Rim, grabbed by the scruff of his neck, disappeared beyond the circle. Since there was no more reason to stay in the drawer, I also came out with Chief Song. Everything else was the same, but the glass bottle containing soil that had been on the reception room table was gone.

“Could someone have taken it?”

“There are no signs of intrusion.”

Song Taewon said while quickly examining the door and windows. If Puppeteer retrieved it, that would be fortunate at least.

“Don’t be alone for a while. Just in case. With the Sesung Guild Leader…”

Could I tell them to stay together? What if they both get kidnapped? I wish I could have talked more with Puppeteer.

First, I had to check if Seong Hyunjae was safe. When I went downstairs, Yuhyun, who had come to wait on the first floor of the annex, frowned.

“Where’s that bastard?”

“Uh, he got dragged away.”

It’s a long story to explain. Since I needed to tell others too, I headed to the main building for now.