Preparing to Go to School

Beep—

Suddenly, an alert sound rings out in the room that was filled only with the sound of turning pages and the smell of ink.

At that sound, Yeon-ah, who had been writing documents, turned to look at her laptop, and Neon, who had been doing a handstand with two fingers next to the bookshelf, also stood upright and approached Yeon-ah.

“What is it? What kind of alert?”

“It’s a report from the Ancestor who went to Mount Seorak. More precisely, a report sent by Team Leader Seo-hyun.”

“What does it say?”

Neon’s eyes lit up at the mention of a report from Seo-hyun.

Although it had only been a few hours since they parted with Shin-yeon, since the place she went was none other than the outside, Neon couldn’t help but be interested.

And since Neon wasn’t the type to suppress her curiosity, she immediately stuck to Yeon-ah’s side and peered at her laptop, and the two of them read through the message that had arrived as a report.

“Let’s see… ‘During the flight, the U.S. General Management Team who were illegally capturing monsters in Chuncheon City’… Wait, what?”

The problem was that the content was so absurd.

Yeon-ah’s voice broke off before even getting through three lines due to the unrealistic content of the report.

Yeon-ah rubbed her eyes, doubting whether she had read the content correctly, and then Neon began to read the rest of the report.

“‘We executed the exclusive hunter of the U.S. General Management Team, Evelyn, who was illegally capturing monsters. The Ancestors’ safety was directly threatened, and there was justification that she broke the agreement, so we executed her. However, we expect problems to arise, so we would like preparations to be made for the aftermath.’ … Is this real?”

“Team Leader Seo-hyun isn’t the type to lie about something like this, so it must be true. But to think they executed Hunter Evelyn… No, why was an exclusive hunter of the General Management Team in Korea in the first place? Surely they had an agreement?”

“Well… it says they killed her because she broke that agreement, right? Looking at the report content, it seems the bigger reason was that Shin-yeon and the other Ancestors’ safety was threatened.”

“Yes, that must be it. Of course, if she broke the agreement and the Ancestor was threatened, it’s natural to kill her… but I don’t like that something like this happened.”

A full-on collision with the U.S. General Management Team had occurred.

Just thinking about it gave Yeon-ah a headache, and she pressed her brow hard.

Of course, if Yeon-ah herself had been there, she wouldn’t have hesitated to kill Evelyn if Shin-yeon had been threatened, but since it was Seo-hyun who caused this incident, her thoughts became complicated in many ways.

And seeing Yeon-ah like this, Neon read the report once more while stroking her lips.

“Hmm… but there’s a postscript saying they’ve just departed and will arrive soon. It seems they achieved the purpose of going to Mount Seorak. Ah, there’s also a note added by Shin-yeon. Umm… it says to clear out the first floor of the tower?”

“Huh? Clear out the first floor?”

At Neon’s words, Yeon-ah turned her head back to the laptop screen, wondering what that meant.

Then Yeon-ah couldn’t help but tilt her head at the postscript part that contained exactly what Neon had said.

“I don’t understand why she wants us to clear it out…”

Although she would carry out the order without question since it was Shin-yeon’s command, she couldn’t help but be curious about the reason.

Shin-yeon’s order made her wonder what the reason could be.

“Should we first relay the message to the personnel on the first floor lobby? Neon?”

“Alright, I’ll call the personnel management department.”

While deciding to see for herself the reason for this curious order when Shin-yeon herself arrived, Yeon-ah began preparing to carry out the order along with Neon.

Since there was Shin-yeon’s order to clear out the first floor lobby, Neon and Yeon-ah efficiently connected communications.

And it wasn’t long after this that Yeon-ah found out the reason for Shin-yeon’s order.

The truth she would learn in just a few hours.

Looking forward to that, Yeon-ah began carrying out Shin-yeon’s order with a joyful heart.

---

After Esi reclaimed her clan’s treasure.

We were finally able to come out only after spending a bit more time in the warehouse.

The items we brought out of the warehouse were Esi’s clan treasure, the Tears of the Beginning, and two items I had picked up.

Clank—

“These should suit Yeon-ah and Neon quite well.”

More precisely, they were two weapons I had brought out for Yeon-ah and Neon.

One was a ‘short flute’ I had taken out by breaking the seal for Yeon-ah.

And the other was a ‘club’ with only the handle existing, which I had brought for Neon.

Originally, I had planned to find and take items and weapons for myself as well, but since I was planning to come back with Yeon-ah next time and sweep up everything in the warehouse anyway, I only brought out these two that caught my eye for now.

Both Yeon-ah and Neon had strong powers of their own but didn’t seem to have suitable weapons, so these two would definitely suit them well.

“Ah, we’re already here.”

And after walking down the cliff while having such idle thoughts for a while.

I came to my senses and raised my head at the goblin village we had arrived at before I knew it, and couldn’t hide my smile at the spectacular view visible at a glance.

“Wow… as expected of the jangseungs. When given an order, they carry it out neatly, don’t they?”

Who wouldn’t be amazed at this spectacular view?

“My goodness… they’ve really demolished it.”

“There’s barely a trace left of it being a village…”

“This is… I don’t know what to say.”

As I chuckled and muttered like that, the three behind me each uttered their impressions.

『This is farewell to the goblin village here.』

Lastly, with Hwa-gon’s voice that was more nonchalant than expected as a punctuation mark, I looked at the panoramic view of the goblin village.

<…>

<…>

<…>

47 jangseungs standing with closed mouths, looking only at me from various places.

And at the feet of such jangseungs, the remains of what used to be the goblin village lay shattered and scattered.

The thatched houses were so thoroughly demolished that it was hard to find even a single piece of wood, and the well-maintained grounds were roughly overturned like a wasteland.

The goblin village collapsed at the hands of the jangseungs who had been protecting this place.

“Haa… this is the best.”

At that sentence that was pleasing just from its resonance, I felt a slight elation rising and the corners of my mouth twitched.

But that was only for a moment. Reining in the rest of the joy in my heart, I soon gathered my emotions and turned to Seo-hyun to ask.

“Seo-hyun, can you immediately spread that curtain-like thing you used when fighting that Evelyn or whatever?”

“Huh? Ah, yes… there’s enough mana in the mana stone, so it’s possible, but…”

“Then that’s fine. Go up first and spread that curtain, and open the cargo hold.”

“The cargo hold, you say? Why the cargo hold…?”

“These guys here. We’re taking all of them with us.”

At my last words during our exchange, Seo-hyun’s expression began to change in real-time.

Question, conjecture, anticipation, doubt, shock.

Seo-hyun’s face clearly showed the series of processes until she understood my words.

And before Seo-hyun, who was looking at me with a face that seemed to ask ‘perhaps…’, could even ask, I nodded and affirmed her question.

“You’re right about what you’re thinking. We’re taking all these jangseungs here to the defense city.”

“B-But the cargo hold of the aircraft carrier we came on can’t fit all those jangseungs of that size…”

“Don’t worry. You don’t think I can’t solve something like that, do you?”

Seo-hyun’s words were truly reasonable.

The jangseungs, each approaching 10m in size.

No matter how huge the aircraft carrier we came on was, its cargo hold wasn’t big enough to carry dozens of such jangseungs.

However, if the problem was that the jangseungs were too big, we just needed to reduce their size.

For the goblin bat’s magic, enlarging and shrinking objects was easier than lifting a spoon.

“『Now, all of you become smaller, presto!』”

As I swung and struck down the Hwa-gon I was holding, the jangseungs’ sizes began to shrink with a strange sound.

Crackle—

In the blink of an eye, the jangseungs’ bodies shrank from 10m to about 4m in size.

『Hmm… it’s quite difficult to go any further than this…』

And after reducing the jangseungs’ sizes that far, Hwa-gon’s voice came through with a groan, indicating his limit.

Perhaps because each one was equipped with strength comparable to an S-rank monster, 4m was the limit for Hwa-gon without drawing out his full power.

But this was already enough to solve the problem.

The jangseungs had become squat compared to how majestic they were just a moment ago, so they would more than fit in the cargo hold.

“How about it? Is this enough?”

“Ah, yes! This should be enough to load them all.”

So at my question offered with a grin, Seo-hyun immediately nodded and began to leap towards the aircraft carrier, carrying Arashi in her arms.

Seo-hyun ran towards the aircraft carrier in the sky at a rapid speed, stepping on mana platforms.

And not long after Seo-hyun went up, as the concealed mana curtain began to spread around, I raised Hwa-gon once again.

“Now that we’re done with business in the warehouse, let’s hurry back.”

But this time, what I was pointing at was not the jangseungs, but the ground that the jangseungs and I were standing on.

At the same time, pointing at the ground where Esi was also standing, I drew up enormous mana.

“O earth.”

At my single murmur, the ground began to shake.

“Wh-What tremendous mana…! Is this why you asked for the curtain to be spread?”

“That’s right. Using this much mana will probably attract monsters.”

I nodded in affirmation to Esi’s words as she curled up in her water droplet.

This was the stirring of such mana used to move the flightless jangseungs to the aircraft carrier.

Given the characteristics of monsters being drawn to mana, it was inevitable that they would gather towards me.

That’s why I had asked Seo-hyun to lay out the curtain in advance.

And sure enough, after a little time passed, monsters began to swarm from beyond the curtain.

“Grooooar!!!”

“Grrrr…!!!”

“Kyaaaak!!!”

As if all the monsters in Mount Seorak had gathered, a horde of monsters that looked like a wave began to charge, crashing into the curtain.

Boom boom boom—!!!!!

Monsters colliding with the curtain, causing fierce impacts.

Even at a glance, strong impacts were erupting everywhere, enough that the curtain wouldn’t hold for long.

If the curtain tore like this, it was obvious that a troublesome situation would arise.

“Well, shall we go up now?”

“I sincerely hope we can…”

But of course, we would not face such a situation.

We had even waited a moment to see how many monsters would respond to the mana, so we had more than enough leeway.

And as soon as I slightly turned Hwa-gon upwards, the vibrating ground immediately began to rise towards the aircraft carrier.

Rumble—!!!

The ground rose towards the aircraft carrier in the sky, raising tremendous dust.

On top of that rising ground, I hummed a small tune while looking down at the monsters on the ground and the curtain that was just beginning to tear.

“Hmm… Are we finally going back to the defense city now?”

“It was a quickly finished job, but… it seems there will be quite a lot to do when we get back.”

“That’s true.”

Indeed, there was more work to do after returning to the defense city than what happened in the warehouse.

At Esi’s words, my humming stopped spontaneously as I thought of the future full of work.

But still, it was a future we had to face inevitably for an even further future, so I deliberately continued humming again while looking up at the approaching aircraft carrier.

Now it’s time to go home.