chapter_0622

622 – Earthquake

622 – Earthquake

The day Hanyeoreum and I first met was a secret between the two of us.

Aside from Saebyeok, who peeked into my memories, no one knew exactly what happened that day.

But to figure it out so quickly.

She was a truly remarkable and skilled fortune teller.

I grabbed my tail, which had perked up with curiosity, and pulled it down.

Hanyeoreum’s reaction wasn’t good.

“It seems like it got twisted because it wasn’t an exact birthday.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes. I’m also a fan of Summer. For Summer to laugh at death, of all people. I’m ashamed, even though I’m the one who did it.”

“Ah, hahaha…”

Hanyeoreum’s eyes trembled.

If I left her like this, she looked like she would burst into tears like a child.

“I’m sorry. I’ll read it again.”

“Yes, yes…”

The woman shuffled the cards, and Haneul drew them again.

They were several cards that revealed the past of the family, and the woman’s eyes widened when she saw them.

“Huh…?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah… it seems like something went wrong again this time.”

The woman stared intently at the cards Haneul had drawn, then scanned each of us.

She moved her eyebrows back and forth and stroked her chin.

Something strange must have come up about our past.

“How did it go wrong?”

“You drew a hammer, a man on the verge of collapsing, and a prison card. The hammer represents labor, the man on the verge of collapsing represents hardship, and the prison represents, well, prison.”

“Uh… so what does that mean…?”

“Collapsed from hard labor, but woke up in prison. It literally means you lived a life like a slave… but that can’t be true, right?”

We couldn’t help but be taken aback by the fortune teller’s words.

It was because she had figured out my and the children’s pasts too accurately.

Wow.

She’s really good.

Honestly, I didn’t really believe in fortune telling.

As we were all stunned, she seemed to take it as disappointment and hurriedly shuffled the cards.

“I-I’m sorry. This usually doesn’t happen…”

The children who live happily in Yeomyeong had a past as hard as slaves.

She must think it doesn’t make sense.

In fact, that was the truth, but there was no need to reveal our past here.

“Um… I think it’s because we don’t know the exact birthdays. Can we just switch to a different reading?”

“Yes. I’ll do it for free this time since I made a mistake.”

“No, you don’t have to do it for free.”

“But…”

“It’s really okay. More than that, the reading…”

I looked around at the children and asked with my eyes if anyone else wanted a reading.

Then Levinas raised his hand enthusiastically.

“Levinas wants a reading too!”

“What kind of reading?”

“A reading about the future! Will Levinas be able to get a present from Santa Claus this Christmas?”

“That’s…”

The woman shuffled the cards and glanced at Hanyeoreum.

Then, the fortune teller woman, pretending to do something magical, tapped the desk.

You didn’t need a reading to know whether or not you could get a present from Santa Claus.

“You can still get one. But you have to be careful because you might not get one if you suddenly become a bad child. Got it?”

“Yes! Levinas will continue to be a good child!”

Was he happy to be able to get a present from Santa Claus?

Levinas danced, shaking his left and right shoulders.

Behind the very excited Levinas, Gaeul peeked out.

“Gaeul too.”

“Gaeul wants a reading too?”

“Yes. Baekgeon.”

I wonder if she wants a reading about where she can pick up 100 won.

It would cost more than 100 won to find that out, but we’re just doing it for fun.

I glanced back at the fortune teller again.

She pointed to a corner of the room.

“There’s 100 won over there?”

“Huh?!”

A 100-won coin placed in the corner of the room.

Gaeul ran over and picked up the coin.

Watching Gaeul’s tail wagging gently, the fortune teller woman whispered softly.

“Actually, I dropped that while organizing money earlier.”

“Didn’t you pick it up?”

“I was going to, but you guys came right away.”

“Oh…”

Whether it was a coincidence or the fortune teller’s ability to foresee the future led her to put the 100 won there.

I didn’t know what it was, but it felt even more mysterious.

She was a truly remarkable fortune teller.

**

“Master, that was a really mysterious fortune teller’s house…!”

“Yeah. She got everything right, didn’t she?”

“Yes…! It was so much fun…!”

Haneul stamped her feet modestly.

Hanyeoreum smiled awkwardly at this.

“She was a very skilled person…”

Whew.

Hanyeoreum wiped her forehead and answered playfully.

Perhaps because it was something that had already been resolved a long time ago, she didn’t show much emotional turmoil.

“Ah, I have to go to the Dungeon now, so I’ll be going.”

“Okay.”

After Hanyeoreum left, we sat in front of the guild building and took a short break.

We were eating snacks with the children and chatting, using a fallen tree as a chair.

Kugugu-!

The ground began to shake slightly.

‘Earthquake…?’

The vibration was short and shallow, but the sensitive Beastmen could detect it well enough.

The children’s eyes widened at the sudden rumbling of the ground.

“The ground rumbled!”

“Heck…”

Gaeul, who had been staring blankly at the ground, put her ear to the floor.

Then she asked with a rather serious expression.

“Who’s there?”

Knock knock-

Gaeul knocked on the floor and asked.

Who’s there?

Did she think that someone underground was making the ground rumble?

Gaeul’s pure imagination made me laugh.

“Gaeul, is there someone underground?”

“Yes! Kugugu!”

Gaeul shook her arms up and down, expressing the earthquake.

She shook her body and upper body wildly, then perked up her ears.

“Hungry?!”

“Hungry?”

“Yes! Grumbling!”

If you’re hungry, your stomach makes a grumbling sound.

It seemed that Gaeul thought the ground was rumbling because it was hungry.

“Heck…”

Gaeul dug into the ground with her Wooden Caliber.

She put a few snacks in the small pit, then covered it with dirt again.

“Wow.”

Did she share food because the ground was hungry?

Gaeul’s pure and kind appearance made me chuckle.

“Thanks to Gaeul, the ground isn’t hungry…”

Kugugu-!

As soon as Gaeul planted the snacks in the ground, the ground shook as if asking for more.

It was such a small vibration that only sensitive people would notice, so I didn’t feel any danger.

‘Aftershock?’

Perhaps because the ground was still rumbling even after giving it snacks, Gaeul’s eyes widened.

Gaeul was about to pour a whole bag of snacks on the ground, so I decided to tell her the truth now.

“Gaeul, this isn’t actually someone underground, it’s just the ground shaking. It’s called an earthquake.”

“Not a mole?”

“Yeah. Not a mole, but… just like trees shake, the ground sometimes shakes too.”

“Really?!”

Was she amazed that the ground was shaking?

Gaeul stomped on the floor and started waving her hands wildly.

“Master, kugugugugu?!”

Gaeul made a big earthquake with her hands and tilted her head.

It seemed like she was asking what would happen if the ground shook a lot.

“If the ground shakes too much, buildings can collapse. That’s why earthquakes are scary.”

“……!”

Gaeul trembled as she looked at the ground.

Maybe I scared her too much.

“But there are hardly any earthquakes that big in our country. This small earthquake was the first time, right?”

“Yes.”

Perhaps because it doesn’t happen often, Gaeul sighed and stroked her chest.

Then she started burying snacks in the ground again.

“Gaeul, why are you burying snacks again?”

“Earthquake.”

“Are you giving it to the earthquake?”

“Heck…”

Is she giving the earthquake a bribe so it won’t shake the ground too much?

Bomi puffed out her chest as she looked at Gaeul.

“Don’t worry too much, we can just go to the sky if the ground shakes. If there’s a big earthquake, I’ll become a dragon and burn it all down.”

“……!”

Gaeul’s tail perked up.

Perhaps because her name came up, Haneul also wagged her tail.

That’s when it happened.

Thump-! Thump-! Thump-!

The floor began to shake more violently than before.

The tremendous vibration, which couldn’t be compared to an earthquake, startled me and the children.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Is it an earthquake?”

Even people who hadn’t felt the earthquake stopped in their tracks with surprised faces and looked around.

It was because the sound was coming from one place, so it couldn’t be called an earthquake.

Thump-! Thump-!

When I looked back, Saebyeok was stomping on the ground.

The nearby container building was shaking from how hard she was stomping.

‘Wow.’

Even though she was stomping on the dirt floor from a distance, the vibration was this strong.

If she had stomped on the stone floor near us, our legs might have broken from the shockwave.

Thump-! Thump-!

I slowly approached Saebyeok, who was still stomping on the floor.

Perhaps because I approached, Saebyeok stopped stomping on the ground.

“Saebyeok, what are you doing?”

“I was scolding the earthquake.”

“The earthquake?”

“Yeah.”

Saebyeok knows what an earthquake is, but she’s scolding it?

I tilted my head and then realized.

Our Saebyeok was relieving the children’s worries.

“I’m stronger than the earthquake, so don’t worry too much.”

“Ah, okay.”

Certainly, Saebyeok’s shaking was bigger.

Of course, the earthquake started from deep underground, but it didn’t matter to our children.

“That’s right! We don’t need to go to the sky! We can just scold it!”

Thump-! Thump-!

Starting with Levinas, the children stomped on the floor.

They were scolding the earthquake.

Saebyeok knew how to give courage to our children.

A word from the author (Author’s Afterword)

PIA1747014585384 Thank you so much for reading today!

Thank you also for the comments and recommendations! They are always a source of strength…!

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