chapter_0484

484 – Smart Autumn

484 – Smart Autumn

Gaeul wondered just how smart she had become after using the item.

I decided to ask her a few questions to check the item’s performance.

“Gaeul, how much is this?”

I pulled out four one-hundred-won coins from my pocket.

Gaeul touched each coin one by one and then held up four fingers.

“Four times!”

“Wow…”

Gaeul’s speed in counting coins was twice as fast as usual.

She even accurately held up four fingers.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one surprised; the eyes of the family members around us widened in astonishment.

Even Saebyeok, who usually had a blank expression, opened her eyes wide.

“Gaeul is really smart.”

“Cold, Gaeul is a genius.”

Ahem.

This time, I showed Gaeul a bill instead of coins.

Three one-thousand-won bills, totaling three thousand won.

“Gaeul, how much is this?”

“Ugh…”

As Gaeul examined the bills, she eventually held up three fingers.

“Three thousand won!”

“Wow, wow…”

Three pieces of paper money.

At this point, it could be said she got about half of it right.

Sophia couldn’t help but admire Gaeul’s astonishingly quick calculation skills.

“It seems like it’s an item that increases cognitive ability.”

“Yes, it seems so.”

I wondered if it would be better to give that gem to Gaeul.

But I thought it wouldn’t be good for her to rely too much on the gem.

While I was lost in thought, Bomi approached me with a math workbook she had never seen before.

“Gaeul, can you solve this too?”

The workbook Bomi opened had addition problems.

It was single-digit addition, but adding two numbers resulted in a two-digit answer.

“Ugh, this is too hard.”

Adding seven and eight.

No matter how smart Gaeul had become, this would be…

I thought it would be tough, but I looked at Gaeul with a glimmer of hope.

Meow—

Perhaps the problem Bomi showed was difficult, as Gaeul wore her usual expression.

Could it be that she couldn’t do this one?

Just as I felt a twinge of disappointment, Gaeul alternated between holding up ten fingers and five fingers.

“Fifteen!”

“Oh my gosh.”

“Whoa!”

Gaeul’s calculating ability exceeded my imagination.

Levinas seemed so shocked that he closed his eyes and collapsed as if fainting.

“Levinas, are you okay?”

“…Levinas is currently in a faint state.”

“I see.”

Maybe he needed a moment to calm down.

I gently patted Levinas’s back and turned to Bomi.

“Bomi, what’s with the workbook?”

“Marin gave it to me. She said to solve one page a day.”

“I see.”

Marin is surprisingly attentive to Bomi’s studies.

Maybe our kids should also do a little studying.

While I was pondering, Levinas suddenly sprang up.

“Now Gaeul can play difficult games with me!”

“Difficult games?”

“Yes! Very, very difficult games!”

What kind of game could be so difficult that Levinas would say that?

I started to feel a bit curious.

**

“Ah, thank you very much. It truly is dawn.”

“Yes. But we didn’t do it alone; these people helped us.”

Hanyeoreum looked back at the adventurers behind her.

When the hotel manager’s gaze met Hanyeoreum’s, they blushed and lowered their heads.

“…I see. Thank you.”

A strange atmosphere flowed among the adults.

Feeling the awkward yet warm atmosphere was stifling, I returned to the hotel room with the kids.

“Levinas, what was that difficult game you mentioned earlier?”

“That is…!”

“Is it?”

“It’s word chain…!”

“Gasp.”

Word chain, huh.

It was quite a challenging game for our Gaeul, who struggled with words.

“Gaeul, you’re going to play word chain with Levinas!”

“Okay. But I want to eat cocoa candy.”

“Got it!”

Gaeul unwrapped a cocoa-flavored candy and put it in her mouth.

There seemed to be quite a few cocoa candies, as she shared them with everyone.

Once everyone had a candy in their mouths, the word chain between Levinas and Gaeul began.

“The first word is frog!”

“Ugh…”

Gaeul made a blank expression upon hearing the first word.

Seeing her deep in thought, I decided to explain the rules of word chain to Gaeul.

“Gaeul, when playing word chain, you can change the final consonant to a different one.”

“Frog?”

“Yes.”

Upon hearing my explanation, Gaeul smiled brightly.

Then she held up two fingers.

“Two!”

“Uh… bread!”

“…bread two!”

“What?!”

Was “bread two” a word unique to Gaeul that meant there was no one hundred won?

I hesitated for a moment at the unfamiliar word, but Levinas seemed to understand the general meaning and continued the word chain.

“Then, cheers!”

“Bread!”

“Uh, uh…!”

Oh my.

Our Gaeul was only using words that started with “bread.”

At this point, she could be considered a master of word chain.

“Bread… bread!”

“…!”

Bread.

It was somewhat similar in pronunciation to two hundred won.

Levinas seemed to think it made sense to some extent, as his ears perked up.

“Bread… building!”

“…building bread!”

“Building bread?”

I understood “bread” but what on earth was “building bread”?

Curious, I decided to ask Gaeul directly.

“Gaeul, what’s building bread?”

“If it’s wet, it’s wet bread.”

Ah.

So wet one hundred won became wet bread.

It was a reasonable statement.

“Uh, uh…!”

Levinas, who had been thinking of words starting with “bread,” eventually knelt down.

It seemed he couldn’t think of any more words starting with “bread.”

“Ugh, there are no more words…!”

Seeing Levinas in despair, Gaeul stuck her tongue out.

After a moment of contemplation, Gaeul cautiously opened her mouth.

“Chipmunk!”

A chipmunk.

Could it be that she was responding to Levinas’s “there are no more words…!” with word chain?

With the new starting word, Levinas regained his energy and jumped up.

“Earth!”

“Earth bread!”

“Ugh!”

Levinas screamed and collapsed on the hotel floor.

The emerald item seemed quite fearsome and powerful.

**

After finishing our business at the hotel, we decided to take a few days to rest here.

While resting at the hotel, we shared everything that had just happened with everyone.

“Gaeul is that good at word chain?”

“Yes! Gaeul is a genius at word chain! No one can beat her!”

“Oh my, then should I try playing with her? I won’t go easy on her!”

Hanyeoreum confidently challenged Gaeul to a game of word chain.

It took less than ten minutes for that confident expression to crumble.

“…building?”

“Wet bread!”

“Wet bread? What is wet bread…?”

Gaeul showed Hanyeoreum a one hundred won coin that was wet.

It meant a one hundred won coin that had gotten wet.

“Oh, I see…? Uh, what else starts with ‘bread’?”

Hanyeoreum said nearly twenty words starting with “bread.”

Eventually, she lay down on the floor, unable to think of any more words.

“Oh dear, Gaeul won.”

“Indeed.”

Hehe, Sophia and Marin chuckled playfully.

At that, Hanyeoreum covered her face with her hands and said,

“…I’m going to sleep now. Goodnight, everyone.”

**

The next day.

We decided to take a quick trip to the dungeon.

We heard that a new dungeon was appearing near the beach.

“They said that dungeons related to water usually appear near the sea.”

After facing the Kraken yesterday, I realized.

I was quite inexperienced in fighting in water.

Since the opportunity had come, I decided to experience a water-filled dungeon.

“Gaeul, this item is yours from now on.”

I handed the emerald gem to Gaeul, who had returned to her original state.

As Gaeul tried to lick the gem, I reached out and covered her mouth.

Thanks to that, what Gaeul licked was my palm, not the gem.

Gaeul seemed to prefer that, as she giggled.

“This is rechargeable, so you should only use it in emergencies. Use it only when you need to think quickly, okay?”

“Okay!”

Seeing Gaeul nodding, we moved to the dungeon that had appeared on the beach.

Since it was our first time at a beach dungeon, we decided to enter a simple three-stage dungeon.

“Hello.”

“Oh! You’re the dawn? You caught the pirate and the giant squid.”

“Yes. Can we go in here?”

“Of course. They say it’s a sea dungeon, but you guys will do well.”

After receiving permission to enter from the dungeon management official, we immediately stepped into the dungeon.

Whoosh—

As we crossed the portal, what appeared was a vast sea.

“This place…”

We were standing on a small wooden boat that could barely hold five people.

What are we supposed to do on the boat?

As I looked around, Saebyeok tapped my shoulder.

“Gyeoul, over there.”

“Oh.”

A sandy island larger than the boat.

We rowed over to the sandy island.

The waves were strong, but Saebyeok’s strength was even more powerful than the waves.

“I think we need to do something here…”

It was a small uninhabited island that took less than a minute to circle around.

What are we supposed to do here?

As I stood there blankly, Bomi pointed to the distant sea and shouted.

“Over there! Something is coming!”

Beyond the horizon where Bomi’s gaze landed.

A massive school of fish was approaching us.

Splash—! Splash—!

The creatures that leaped out of the water clashed their teeth.

Just the ones that had just jumped out numbered over a hundred.

Perhaps startled by the enormous number, Gaeul licked the emerald gem I had just given her.

“…!”

The mana from the gem seeped into Gaeul’s body.

Gaeul’s eyebrows, which had been lowered in fear, began to rise fiercely.

“Gaeul, did you come up with a good idea?”

At my question, Gaeul looked at me.

Then, with great confidence, she puffed out her chest and shouted.

“Anni!”