The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 731: City of Dreams (4)

Thunk—! A head smashed by a shovel flew high into the air. Beside it, Noah brought his pickax down on another zombie’s skull. More precisely, they were zombified Hunters.

“There are so many zombies! Feels like I’m back home~.”

Liette laughed as she beat another zombie down with her shovel. Noah nodded.

“At least the low-level zombies are slow.”

“They’re supposed to be faster than this, though.”

Hwang Rim, wok in hand, spoke up. Since Park Yerim had shrunk and lost far more strength than the other three, he’d mostly been staying close to protect her.

“Maybe it’s because this is a dream. Popular zombie tropes must be affecting it.”

“Slow zombies haven’t been the trend in forever. Who even does that anymore?”

“Classics are slow, though. When you think zombies, the charm is in that rotting, crawling look—arms and legs falling off and all.”

“You’re way cornier than I expected, Mister Kidnapper.”

Hwang Rim made a wounded face at Park Yerim’s comment.

“That is the first time anyone has ever said that to me, little Hunter.”

“You showed up in a Hawaiian shirt.”

“No, that was about the vibe—”

“He kept insisting he wasn’t tacky at all. If you’ve got confidence, you prove it with actions, not excuses.”

“If we’re talking actions, then I— Liette! Can’t I switch over to your side? I can’t communicate with the little miss at all!”

Instead of Liette, Noah tossed Hwang Rim a roll of packing tape. Hwang Rim tore a strip off and stuck it over his own mouth. Park Yerim raised a brow at him like, What exactly are you doing?

Maybe it was because so many Chinese Hunters had turned into zombies and thrown the whole continent into chaos, but there were unexpectedly more zombies than monsters. Which actually made things easier. Without mana, humanoid enemies were far simpler to deal with than beast-types.

“No keys here either.”

After checking one of the cars parked along the roadside, Noah spoke. Liette blinked and said, “What?” then quickly realized and repeated in French that there were no keys.

“Noah oppa’s Korean has gotten way better, seriously.”

“I’ve been trying to use Korean more. Back in the building, I kept my translation item turned off. People didn’t realize because I still had the item on me, but… my accent’s awkward, right?”

“A little. It’s wild that the translation item could even smooth out clumsy Korean like that.”

Once they couldn’t use translation items, communication became a problem. Thankfully, Hwang Rim spoke Chinese, Korean, and English, and Noah knew French, English, and Korean, so between them they could interpret for everyone.

“It really is lucky we’ve got Mister Kidnapper with us. None of us speaks Chinese.”

“Mmph, mmph.”

“Why do you keep covering your mouth? You look weird.”

Hwang Rim peeled the tape back slightly and said,

“But the collar’s fine?”

“That’s different. You’re suspicious, so we don’t have a choice. You teamed up with a Transcendent called Puppeteer. How are we supposed to trust you? You could vanish again at any moment.”

“That’s not fair. Do you know how hard I worked taking care of our little Jin?”

“You kidnapped Mister once, tried to kidnap Director Mister once, and weren’t you trying to kidnap Gyeol too?”

“I swear on little Jin, I wasn’t.”

“Why are you swearing on our Mister? So what does Puppeteer want, anyway? And why were you trying to kidnap Mister Song?”

Crash! Liette smashed a display window with her shovel. Sighing, Noah opened the glass door right beside it. Liette shouted, “Because it’s fun!”

“Well—”

Hwang Rim bent toward Park Yerim. She tensed a little and leaned in to listen.

“It’s a secret.”

“…What?!”

The fire ax in Park Yerim’s hand cut through the air with a whoosh, grazing Hwang Rim’s hair. Hwang Rim yelped dramatically.

“I’m unawakened right now!”

“I’ll at least tell you it’s someone you’ll be happy to see!”

“Happy my ass!”

“I was shocked too when I saw them~.”

“Put the tape back on! You are not helping!”

“Oh, hey, phones!”

Hwang Rim pointed at a sign farther down the street. Park Yerim whipped around. A familiar cell phone company logo caught her eye.

“See? Helpful, right?”

“I don’t need Chinese if I can recognize the logo. It’s obviously a phone store. Totally useless.”

“When you use a phone—”

“Phones let you change the language these days, you know?”

“It hasn’t even been ten minutes since you said, ‘Good thing Mister Kidnapper is here,’ milady.”

“If you became useless in ten minutes, maybe reflect on your life.”

“…You really are little Jin’s family!”

A moment later, Park Yerim had a phone in her hand. She couldn’t make calls on it. After thinking for a second, she installed a social media app. The moment she logged in, she saw a photo of Han Yujin.

“Mister!”

Han Yujin was smiling awkwardly. After the last way she’d seen him, she’d been worried, but thankfully he didn’t look hurt. He looked fine.

“Mister’s in Busan, Korea, and he says he’s on his way home. Let’s take a picture too!”

They hurriedly gathered together, snapped a photo, and uploaded it. Park Yerim threw off the faint shadow that had been hanging over her and broke into a bright smile.

“Let’s go home already!”

Not long after, they found a car with the keys still in it. The four of them headed for the airport to hijack a plane.

The mana was thin. Peace could feel that his adult body was far heavier than usual now that he’d returned to it. At the same time, he noticed how much weaker the human in front of him felt.

Peace was a tamed monster. But the rank of the taming skill, which had only barely worked on him when he was in spirit form, had always been low to begin with. And now, with items unable to function properly, its influence had faded even more.

Right now, Han Yuhyun was weaker than he was. He was still clearly strong by human standards, and even with the mana thinned out, he still held considerably more magical power than ordinary beings. Even so, he was nothing compared to before. More than anything, the difference in size was overwhelming. Even an ordinary lion could weigh over two hundred kilograms. An adult Flame Horned Lion was more than twice that.

Even if Han Yuhyun swung a sword, without skills or item effects it would be hard for him to deal a fatal blow to a body that size. Humans, on the other hand, were much smaller. Han Yuhyun was tall and powerfully built, so against another human there were almost none he couldn’t beat. At the very least, protecting himself wouldn’t be difficult. But when the species-level size gap was this extreme, even the most seasoned Hunter had poor odds.

– Khhk.

Peace let out a low breath. The tips of his claws lightly scraped the ground. With a predator at his back, Han Yuhyun calmly scanned his surroundings, though he couldn’t completely hide the tension in his eyes. It was a small town in an out-of-the-way place. Scattered houses and stores came into view.

‘Alphabet… Russian?’

His English was excellent, and he also knew Japanese and Chinese. But he still hadn’t properly learned Russian. Without a translation item, it was safe to assume he’d barely be able to communicate at all. It didn’t look like a major city, either, so the odds of finding someone who spoke English were low.

Han Yuhyun slowly turned around. Those reddish-gold eyes were fixed on him in silence. Peace wasn’t baring his teeth. But somehow, that only made him more dangerous. This wasn’t the posture of a wary equal facing an opponent head-on. It was the stillness of a hunter preparing to pounce on prey.

And in that chilling air, instead of retreating or trying to evade him, Han Yuhyun spoke.

“I need to find my brother.”

One of Peace’s ears flicked.

“I know you want to reestablish your place. But not right now.”

That was why Peace had hesitated instead of acting on his urge to elevate and solidify his own position. Han Yujin hadn’t looked well the last time they’d seen him.

– Grrr.

But Han Yujin wasn’t nearby. It wouldn’t take Peace long to pin Han Yuhyun down. At the same time, Peace knew better than anyone how precious Han Yujin found whatever was right in front of him. Peace was no longer a cub. He had grown enough to crush Han Yuhyun underfoot, break free, and stand on his own.

“If he made it here safely, my brother will definitely head home.”

Home. Peace’s tail lashed hard enough to smack the ground. He ate the food his owner gave him, rolled around spoiled and shameless, and curled up on clean, fluffy sheets fresh from the wash. His instincts whispered that he shouldn’t do that, that he needed to leave. Since becoming an adult, that feeling had pricked at him like a thorn buried in his paw.

– Khngh!

But look at the human standing right in front of him. Peace narrowed his golden eyes. Han Yuhyun was strong. Strong, and unlike Park Yerim, whose body was still immature, he was far bigger than Han Yujin, the parent figure they both shared. He even had his own pack and led it. He was a complete adult, fully capable of independence, even if the only scent of his own kind on him was Han Yujin’s and there was no sign he intended to take a mate.

And yet he still burrowed into Han Yujin’s side and huddled there. Han Yujin treated him like a young cub too. Peace was confused. Adults were supposed to become independent. Instinct said so. But the place Han Yuhyun still hadn’t left was warm.

A stronger adult than Peace was staying there too. So maybe it wasn’t strange for a younger, weaker Flame Horned Lion to remain there as well, even if he was technically grown. Maybe for Han Yujin’s species, that was just normal.

“I need to confirm exactly where we are. For travel… borrowing a helicopter would probably be best.”

Han Yuhyun turned his back on him—casually, naturally exposing it to an opponent stronger than himself. Peace growled low in his throat. He still liked Han Yujin’s hands. He didn’t want to see him sad. He didn’t want to lose that place where he could roll around in complete peace.

And besides—

“Since you can’t turn into spirit form, I’ll have to find one big enough for you to ride in.”

Han Yuhyun himself wasn’t bad either.

Peace stepped forward. In a single bound, he caught up to Han Yuhyun, who had already started walking ahead. The urge to rise above him still writhed inside, but once mana returned, Han Yuhyun would go back to normal too. Deciding he could hold out a little longer, Peace lowered himself.

– Kyarrk.

At that gesture, Han Yuhyun climbed onto Peace’s back. Red fur and a golden mane streaming in the wind, the Flame Horned Lion started across the city.

“Achoo!”

Seong Hyunjae sneezed with theatrical emphasis. A cold wind wrapped around his soaked body. Chief Song Taewon looked much the same. They’d had the bad luck to fall into the sea, but fortunately land hadn’t been far.

“At this rate, I’m going to catch a cold.”

In the real world, it was January. Thankfully this place wasn’t especially cold for winter, but it wasn’t weather you’d want to stay wet in for long. If they’d still been S-rank Awakened, maybe it would have been different, but now that the thin mana had dragged them down to the level of low-rank Awakened, their bodies were starting to shake.

“We should find the nearest town…”

“We should loot one.”

Song Taewon pressed his lips shut at the joking reply. They’d been told this world had been created by gathering dreams. Even so, the idea of stealing someone else’s property still bothered him.

“There are Sesung Guild members here too, aren’t there?”

“If they’re asleep. They’d have to be dreaming too. Not everyone sleeps and dreams at the same time, do they? And who knows—maybe we’ll run into someone whose dream is stabbing their boss.”

“I think that’s unlikely, at least among the Sesung Guild members I know.”

“You never know what’s inside a person. Someone right in front of me may be very different on the inside too.”

Ignoring the question hidden in those words, Song Taewon kept walking. Before long, they reached a road. It was well paved, which suggested they weren’t in the middle of nowhere. A sign they passed on the way had Japanese on it. As the two followed the road, their skin gradually grew paler.

“This may be my first time dying of hypothermia.”

“…I thought we couldn’t die.”

“That’s why it’s dangerous. So if it starts to feel bad, say something. I’m still warm on the inside, so I could help.”

“What exactly—”

Song Taewon cut himself off. Instead, he picked up the pace.

“Looks like you’re angry.”

“I’m not. But I have no intention of surviving by sacrificing someone else.”

“Everyone survives by causing some degree of harm to others. The best we can do is try to keep it within reason.”

“Then I hope you’ll make the effort.”

“So when you retire, what will you do?”

If the Seong Hyunjae Song Taewon had spent all this time watching and managing disappeared, would Song Taewon really still be able to remain where he was? Song Taewon didn’t answer the long, indirect question. Seong Hyunjae gave a small sneeze.

“We should find cold medicine too.”

He could feel the faint start of a fever. The unfamiliar sensation wasn’t entirely unpleasant. After traveling a while longer, they came to a village. Quiet, but fairly large. The two headed straight for the shops. It was hard to find clothes that fit properly, but they changed into what they could.

“If Han Yujin made it here safely, he’d head home. Any phones around?”

“What are you planning to do?”

Song Taewon asked as he walked toward a motorcycle parked by the roadside.

“You tried to kill Han Yujin.”

His main goal had probably been to threaten Crescent Moon first. To keep Han Yujin’s body from being taken over again. But that hadn’t been all. He had meant it. Seong Hyunjae had genuinely intended to kill Han Yujin. Tugging irritably at the loose shirt he’d put on, Seong Hyunjae shrugged.

“Who knows. I should meet Han Yujin first. Think he’ll be mad?”

“…That would honestly be the better outcome.”

“Han Yujin does have that chronic problem of his. Though he has been getting better.”

A smile of uncertain meaning curved Seong Hyunjae’s lips. Over the darkening sky, a faint moon hung above them.