Ch.142Season 2 – Is This the Right Place?

Ah, these children are just like me.

Sophia had realized this since Harumi first spoke about Shinwoo.

“Are you having a hard time?”

“…Pardon?”

“If you’re struggling, come here. I’ll give you a hug.”

“Hug me? …You, the Empress, would hug me?”

Children desperately trying to be just good enough for a father who never acknowledges them, who they desperately want love from.

And herself, struggling to live normally among hateful things since birth.

Their pain might not be something she could fully understand.

Their connections might be different.

But if there was one thing they had in common:

None of them had anyone to truly share their pain with.

Even if it was their parents… though they might sympathize, in the end, each person had to bear their own suffering alone.

So even if it was just a little comfort…

Sophia opened her arms toward Harumi, offering a place to release that pain.

Even if this child was born from Kurumi’s womb, she was still Shinwoo’s child too.

It was consideration born from being unable to completely hate her.

But.

“Empress…”

“Yes?”

“Do I look that easy to you?”

“What?”

“Did you think I would open my heart and take your side if you treated me this way?”

Harumi spoke coldly, dropping her previously eccentric demeanor, as if such kindness was an unwelcome luxury.

“No, no! That’s not what I meant at all…!”

“I’ll take my leave for today. But please refrain from saying such things in the future.”

Sophia tried to quickly clear up the misunderstanding, though she didn’t understand why Harumi was suddenly acting this way.

But before any proper reconciliation could happen, Harumi quietly stood up.

She didn’t say another word as she opened the door and left.

The girl only spoke after completely leaving Sophia’s room.

When she crouched down in a deserted corridor of the imperial palace.

“Give me a hug…?”

A hug?

She didn’t know what that was like.

Because she had never received one, not even once from her parents.

Her father didn’t even know she existed.

And her mother was supposedly kept somewhere in separate quarters.

Since she had opposed the Emperor in his plan to destroy humanity, she had been confined to a separate palace, and Harumi had never seen her.

As a result, having someone hold you when you’re struggling…

That was something she hadn’t experienced even from her siblings who were close to her age.

Therefore.

“Why does it hurt so much…?”

Harumi, experiencing someone else’s “kindness” for the first time in her life, clutched her aching heart as if long-buried emotions were awakening.

And she could only shed tears she herself couldn’t understand, feeling an inexplicable pain in her heart.

“Huh…? Why am I sad? There’s no reason for that…”

***

“Danger level D monster Hururuku approaching from the front!”

“Hurururururu!!”

“Father! Now’s the time! Quickly, transform just your arm into a monster form and defeat it!”

“Oh, right. Got it. I’ll give it a try!”

The creature charging toward us was none other than a “chicken.”

The monster Hururuku, which supposedly tastes just like chicken when fried.

However, the reason people didn’t turn it into food back when livestock farming was still possible was because this creature was far too dangerous.

Think about it.

It’s a chicken, but a 10-meter chicken with three heads charging at you.

This wasn’t the divine chicken—this was just a chicken bastard.

And that chicken bastard had now identified me as prey.

“Visualize just the arm becoming monstrous… visualize just the arm becoming monstrous… visualize just the arm becoming monstrous…!”

“Father, hurry!”

“Shinwoo! You’ll get trampled to death!”

“Brother?! Do you want to die?”

“Shinwoo! Quickly! Hurry!”

“Everyone be quiet! I can’t concentrate!”

I was trying to visualize my right arm transforming into a monster form like Jaewon had instructed, but…

Our group was “cheering” from behind a rock, actually disrupting my focus.

While I was shouting at them, the chicken bastard Hururuku had already leaped directly above my head.

Raising its beak, ready to split a single human in half.

“Hurururu!”

CRASH!

Hururuku slammed into the ground.

I barely managed to dodge, but if I’d been even a little slower, my body would have been cut in two.

“Partial kaijufication! Partial kaijufication! PARTIAL KAIJUFICATION!!”

WHAM! THUD! THUD!

“KEEEEEK?!”

Taking advantage of the moment when its beak was stuck in the ground, I struck the monster’s body exactly three times with all my strength.

With a sensation like bursting internal organs, the chicken bastard monster collapsed, vomiting blood from its head.

“Father, you did it!”

“As expected of my brother!”

“That was amazing, Shinwoo.”

Seeing the creature completely limp, the others ran toward me with congratulations, convinced of its death.

But I wasn’t satisfied at all.

“I failed…”

“Father?”

“I failed at partial kaijufication.”

That attack just now didn’t contain even a trace of monster transformation.

It was just the result of the physical abilities I gained from colliding with my future self.

“This was just my normal fist.”

“Your normal fist?”

“That attack that defeated a D-rank monster? Shinwoo.”

“Yes. I didn’t feel any monster power flowing into my right arm. In other words, I failed.”

So it seems that partial kaijufication isn’t something I can copy just by glimpsing memories.

My future self used it so easily—I saw that in the future memories—but I couldn’t even follow in his footsteps.

That made me even more anxious.

“Sigh… At this rate, who knows when I’ll be able to learn it.”

“Shinwoo. Don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Yeah, brother! I’ll fight alongside you next time. Don’t worry!”

Lia and Lady Kurumi tried to encourage me.

But I couldn’t just relax.

Because at this very moment, Sophia would be right next to that guy.

Whenever I thought about that, any relaxation I felt would immediately vanish.

“……”

“Shinwoo, rest is also part of training.”

“Cheran…”

“I understand you feel pressed for time because of Sophia, but if you keep this tension up, your concentration will falter when it really matters, and you won’t be able to fight properly.”

“Sigh… I guess you’re right.”

“Yeah, brother! Take a break, okay?”

“Since we’ve caught a chicken-flavored monster, let’s relieve some stress by eating this guy for dinner tonight. Father.”

“Yeah, okay. Let’s do that.”

I was fortunate to have such good companions around me.

If they weren’t here, I’d probably be running non-stop like a car without brakes.

Starting with Cheran, everyone stopped me from hunting more monsters.

It was getting dark, evening time.

“Father, even for you, nighttime is dangerous.”

“Because monsters’ abilities increase?”

“Yes. Monsters are mostly nocturnal. Besides, this isn’t the past—this is a dead world without any artificial light.”

In modern cities, even late at night, the bright nightscape made it nearly impossible for monsters to ambush using darkness.

But the future world was different.

This place was truly wild—not a single light bulb existed on the surface outside the kingdom.

In other words, the moment night fell, endless darkness would surround us, and we humans, not being nocturnal, would become quality prey for those creatures.

“Look. The sun is already setting.”

“You’re right… Then let’s just take this one and head underground for today.”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

I couldn’t put everyone around me in danger because of my impatience.

With that thought, I reluctantly slung the Hururuku over my shoulder and started walking back toward the ruins where the rebel entrance was located.

“Wow… Brother, you’re really strong.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Of course, Shinwoo! Moving a 10-meter monster with pure strength is something even professional hunters can’t do!”

I wondered if that was true, but I didn’t really feel that special about it.

I should have been surprised, but my future self had already had that reaction in my memories.

I was just nodding in acknowledgment when we arrived at the center of the location that led to the underground village.

“…! Father, get down!”

“Huh?”

Jaewon, who was at the front turning around a building, signaled for all of us to stop.

Not knowing what was happening, all of us, including me, stopped in our tracks and lowered our bodies.

I carefully put down the Hururuku carcass I had been carrying on my shoulder.

“What’s going on?”

“How… how did they find out?”

“Jaewon?”

“…They’re your future children, Father.”

“W-what?!”

“More of brother’s kids?”

“But this is the middle of ruins! If they’re Shinwoo’s children, that means they’re princes or princesses—why would such people be here?”

“I don’t know… I’d like to say they’re on a picnic, but they’re currently ‘digging the ground.'”

“…!!”

“Digging…!”

Hearing that, I quickly peeked out next to Jaewon.

And indeed, right in front of the entrance to the underground village, they were digging around in various places, apparently not knowing the exact location.

“Is it here? Or maybe here?”

“11th Princess, are you sure we came to the right place according to our map?”

I could clearly see two children who emanated Han Shinwoo’s energy, apparently searching for the underground village.