The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 616: Health Checkup (1)

It was still dark outside the window.

Waking up early, Han Yuhyun looked at Han Yujin’s face, dimly shadowed in the gloom. His hyung’s breathing was quiet, and he showed no sign of waking anytime soon. Yuhyun slowly pushed himself up to sit. He’d burned away the bloodstains, but the lower floor was still a mess. Yesterday’s events—still technically today in Korean time—rose up in his mind.

That Han Yuhyun had been identical to him.

Even Iryn had recognized him as his contractor.

‘…It was me, but.’

Their basic appearance wasn’t much different. The other one had been a little taller, but almost the same. His build had been a bit bigger, but his body type was also similar. It was like a Han Yuhyun from further down the line, after more years had passed. At least several years older.

‘…A dungeon monster?’

Something similar had happened in the dungeon in China. He’d met his hyung at twenty–nine in there. He hadn’t seen it himself, but the twenty–four–year–old Han Yuhyun had also been in that place. Yuhyun’s brows faintly furrowed. It was hard to understand what was going on. The guy who’d suddenly appeared had hardly explained anything about himself. He’d only explained about his hyung.

‘He was… favorable toward hyung, at least.’

You couldn’t really call him an enemy. If he really was Han Yuhyun, then he was someone he should accept. He was trying to help and protect his hyung. He even put Yujin above himself.

Even so, Yuhyun felt a sense of rejection.

If he thought about Han Yujin, he shouldn’t feel that way, and yet he hated that other version of himself. Should he tell his hyung? Honestly, he didn’t want to bring the subject up at all. Hesitating, Yuhyun climbed down from the bed. That guy had tried to hide it too, so there was probably no need to reveal everything right now.

Yuhyun glanced at Han Yujin once more and left the bedroom. He was heading down the stairs, wondering if he should just say a monster had broken in.

“…”

He actually felt a beast’s aura. Quietly, Yuhyun headed for the living room. A small animal was up on the table where the cake and food had been left out as they were. Its fur was a bright, wheat–colored shade, and its long, fluffy tail flicked now and then. Holding a chunk of cake it had scooped out with its front paws, it was nibbling away, getting cream all over the fur on its face and chest. A fork was tossed nearby, like it had tried to use it at first.

Its rank was quite high, but it was still a cub. Yuhyun changed his mind about killing the monster. A high–rank beast cub, and its looks were something his hyung would probably like. If he captured it alive and gave it to his hyung, then his hyung would be too busy fussing over the cub to notice anything strange.

– Kyuu.

The beast cub’s nose twitched as it lifted its head. Blue eyes stared at Yuhyun. He thought it would bolt right away, but its ears perked up and its tail tapped against the table. That was unexpected. Even tamed monsters usually feared him instinctively. Most of them did. Yuhyun slowly approached the table.

– Kkyup, beep.

The monster, making odd little noises, was struggling to grab the fork with its front paws. After a few tries, it squeaked in frustration, then hopped lightly down from the table and—

“…Hyung?”

—turned into a human.

Yuhyun’s eyebrows flicked up. The hair and eye color were different, but the face was the same as his hyung’s when he was little. Now that he looked, he could faintly sense his hyung’s scent and mana. At first he thought it was just a trace from yesterday, but getting closer, he realized it was different. It was coming from the monster itself.

“Here!”

Little Han Yujin grabbed the fork and jabbed it into a piece of cake. Then he held it out toward Yuhyun.

“It’s good!”

He had no intention of eating food offered by anyone other than his hyung. In unavoidable situations he might put a little in his mouth, but that was it. However, this was a cake his hyung had prepared. And the beast was clearly related to his hyung somehow, and it had that familiar face. He wasn’t the type to get hung up on appearances that were only skin deep, but even Yuhyun had memories—had nostalgia. Memories of childhood that would have grown blurry for most people came to him easily: his hyung, just that small, saying it was tasty and trying his best to take care of him.

Of course, it wasn’t the real hyung, so instead of accepting it into his mouth, he took the whole fork. The cub, staring fixedly as Yuhyun ate the cake, turned back into a beast. It must have been in a very good mood; it hopped up and down, jumped back up on the table, bit into one of the colorful birthday candles, then spat it out with a ptoo.

Yuhyun watched it for a moment, then reached out toward the beast. Had his hyung brought in another beast cub without him knowing? He should take it over and check first—

– Piiiii! Beep!

The cub flailed as he lifted it by the tail. Yuhyun stared impassively at its cream–smeared paws and fur. He should probably wash it first. Heading straight for the bathroom, he carried the cub along as it squealed in protest.

“Ack!”

My back burned. It was like I’d been scorched by fire; my eyes flew open. Wh–what the.

“Where…”

The bedroom? With my head still foggy, I finally managed to recall what happened yesterday. I was celebrating Yuhyun’s birthday and about to eat cake, and then I collapsed, right? In France time it should be the twenty–fifth now. No way a few more days passed again, right?

“…I thought I was better.”

My crying little brother’s face surfaced faintly in my mind. He must have worried a lot again. I thought he’d fallen asleep next to me; where did he go? I hurried to get off the bed, but my body felt a bit off.

‘…Huh.’

My mana sense, which had become much sharper after the fight with Chatterbox, was dulled. What the. Had my condition gotten worse, and that was why my senses were weaker too?

‘…Should I go see Elder first?’

It was still the twenty–fifth, so I could drop by a nearby dungeon for a bit—

“Ow!” My back suddenly prickled again. What the hell. Was this also a sign that I didn’t have much time left…

– Kyuooo!

Just then, a strange sound faintly drifted up from downstairs. It sounded kind of familiar… I had to find Yuhyun anyway, so I hurried down. Wait, why was the living room such a wreck? Did something really happen?

– Piiiik! Beep! Beep!

“Yuhyun?!”

I grabbed the bathroom door and flung it open, and Yuhyun turned to look at me. In the sink, a wet ball of fur was flopping around, and Yuhyun’s hand was pinning that furball down. With his sleeves rolled up like that, he looked like he was doing laundry or something…

“…Kiddo?”

– Pyuit, Biiii!

The kid flailed his front paws toward me. Yuhyun lifted the beast cub to show me.

“Like I thought, it’s a monster related to you, hyung. It was eating cake in the living room.”

“What? When did he even pop out?!”

Could he come out even before I’d given him a name? Well, Gyeol did that too. The black dragon, on the other hand, apparently couldn’t. So that was why he’d made my back heat up to chase me over to my brother.

“He had cream all over himself.”

“No wonder the living room is wrecked. You can’t just wander around on your own!”

I took out a towel, soothing the kid as he squeaked, all offended by the sudden dousing.

“And you can’t just eat anything you find. This guy is, you know, the beast I made before. The kid was exactly the last one.”

“…It really is the last one, right?”

“For real. That’s it after him.”

I used the towel to dry the kid’s fur. Once it had dried out a bit, he slipped smoothly into my hand and vanished. Looked like he’d gone back into the magic stone.

“He needs a name too. Anything come to mind?”

“…Furball?”

“Don’t lower yourself to my level, hyung. We still have to name the black dragon too. I mean your sword.”

We went out to the living room and checked over the table. The evidence of what the kid had been eating was laid out plain as day. As for the sofa, how had he managed to smash that? His rank seemed higher than I’d thought. There were scorch marks on the floor too.

“Were you about to go after the kid?”

“At first.”

“That could’ve gone really bad. I should’ve told you in advance, but I didn’t think he’d come out and wander around on his own.”

I was going to have to teach him properly so he wouldn’t roam around as he pleased.

“Are you feeling okay?”

Sticking close at my side as he followed me, Yuhyun spoke in a worried voice. I hesitated a little, then opened my mouth.

“To be honest, because of the fight with Chatterbox, my condition’s… not great. So I think I need to go into a dungeon.”

“…I figured.”

A shadow fell over Yuhyun’s face right away. It was still my little brother’s birthday… I couldn’t help sighing.

“Don’t worry too much, and let’s call the French Hunter Association and have them let us pop into a nearby dungeon for a bit.”

I was worried about the others who were probably still in Africa, but I had assured them I’d rest comfortably until the day after Yuhyun’s birthday. December had thirty–one days, so there were still a few days left until January first. I gave Yuhyun an awkward smile.

“I really wanted to celebrate your birthday properly this year. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, really. I can spend it with you again next year, and the year after that.”

“Yeah. We absolutely have to make that happen.”

It was still way too early, barely dawn, so we waited for the sun to come up. We ate the food and cake we hadn’t been able to eat yesterday, bundled up warmly, and stepped outside. It was deep in the mountains, no lights at all, so dark you could barely tell what was in front of your nose. Yuhyun held out his hand, and red flames bloomed.

Then willow leaves filled with light floated up into the pitch–black sky. They whooshed upward like they were riding the wind, then fluttered down slowly, gently. It looked just like pure white, sparkling snow was falling. No, something cold actually tapped against my cheek.

“Looks like it’s snowing.”

It was the kind of soft, faint snow that would have trouble sticking. I thought it’d be nice if it fell heavier, and when I sounded a little disappointed, Yuhyun smiled.

“There was snow piled up on the summit over there. Want to go see it?”

“Really? Is it a permanent snowfield?”

I think they said the western Alps were nearby. We’d just been in warm Africa yesterday, and it really hit me again how big the world was. Even in Korea they said Jeju Island and Seoul felt totally different.

“Let’s try going to Jeju next year. We went all the way to Africa but still haven’t gone to Jeju.”

“Yeah. Let’s go wherever you want, hyung.”

“No, not that. You’re supposed to think about where you want to go. You keep trying to slip the homework onto me.”

It was too far to actually go all the way to the summit, so we just took a light walk nearby. It was a winter mountain, so it was chilly, but with Yuhyun beside me I didn’t really feel the cold.

“There are so many stars.”

The ground was dyed completely black, but the night sky, which somehow felt low, glittered with countless stars. Maybe because only a little fine snow was drifting down, there weren’t many clouds either.

“Once everything’s safely over, we’ll be able to do this every day.”

Right? We’d never have to worry about money again. We could live eating good food and going to see nice things.

– Hyung…

Then Iryn slipped over onto my arm and spoke softly. Whenever he felt cold he’d hop over to me right away, but he’d been unusually quiet, and now he seemed oddly down.

– Iryn really likes Yuhyun a lot.

“Yeah. I know.”

– I mean it.

Looking glum, Iryn said that, then disappeared back over to Yuhyun.

“…Did something happen with Iryn?”

“It’s just Iryn’s nature. You don’t have to worry about it.”

What did that mean? Were fire spirits supposed to randomly get depressed sometimes? Yuhyun knew Iryn better than I did, of course, but I still couldn’t help worrying a little.

We walked, rested, then had breakfast and contacted the Association. When I said Hunter Han Yuhyun wanted to briefly test a skill, they easily pointed us to a nearby low–rank dungeon. In exchange, they got a promise that we’d pay an official visit to the Association after clearing the dungeon.

When Yuhyun and I stepped into the low–rank dungeon, a wide drawing room with warm air appeared. I’d been kind of hoping it would be a snowfield again like before.

“There’s no rabbit.”

Young Chaos was sitting on the couch in the drawing room.

“They said they could only open this place for a short while, so they can’t keep it up long.”

“Hello, Elder. Is it because Chatterbox died?”

“I don’t know the details either. I had other business to take care of.”

“Other business?”

“I smacked a bad guy’s ass a bit.”

So he’d fought someone? That sentence made my butt feel nervous for no reason. I had a feeling I’d be taking at least one hit too. I cleared my throat once and went over in front of the couch.

“Then I’ll keep it short. Elder, I have a request.”

Young Chaos immediately frowned.

“I refuse.”

“Excuse me?! Elder, come on! At least hear me out!”

“Fine, talk.”

“So, um, could you maybe turn me into a sword?”

“What?”

“…Hyung?”

Elder and Yuhyun stared at me with equally shocked eyes. Yeah, I was definitely about to get scolded. I swallowed dryly and continued.

“If you think about it, it’s only the appearance that changes, right? Looking at the black dragon, he seems perfectly conscious before he goes to sleep, and his lifespan—”

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting, brat!”

“Ack! Wait!”

As expected, he grabbed me by the ear. This time even Yuhyun didn’t stop him. He just stared at me, still looking stunned.

“Hyung…”

“No—ow, ow, ow! It’s not that bad, Transcendent, that really hurts! For real! It’s better than being bound, isn’t it?”

“Better?!”

“Ow! Ow!”

Tears came to my eyes. I clutched my ear, sure it was about to get ripped off, and knelt in front of Elder. Feeling awkward, Yuhyun also didn’t dare sit on the couch and knelt down neatly beside me. My little brother hadn’t done anything wrong; he could’ve just sat. Young Chaos clicked his tongue.