Ch.33Shall We Run Down the Hallway? (3)

If there were only a few people trapped here, we could have acted more leisurely.

But now that even children who know nothing about monsters are trapped, it seemed like we didn’t have much time left.

“Teacher, I’m hungry…”

“I’m, I’m scared… Bleeeurgh!”

“Are you okay? Let me pat your back.”

“Ugh… Teacher, where can I find a bathroom?”

“Yes. For a bathroom, I’ll try to convert the kitchen into a makeshift one.”

Yoon Ha-eun was busy caring for the roughly twenty elementary school students who had fallen into a near panic state.

As the strongest S-class hero, she should be busy just keeping watch over the surroundings.

Yet while maintaining her vigilance, she was also perfectly fulfilling her duties as a student teacher.

“Amazing…”

“I hate to admit it, but she’s just like a mother.”

Her ability to perform her duties was becoming a good example for the two princesses who would become heroes ten years later.

But even so, there must be limits.

Being trapped in an enclosed space with many others made it difficult for me to transform into a monster.

If S-class hero Yoon Ha-eun were to collapse in this situation, that would truly be a crisis.

So who could the monster opponent be?

Rummaging around.

‘There must be a hint somewhere.’

We seemed to have been trapped for about a day already, but there was still no movement from the enemy.

Even after sleeping and waking up, I was just hungry and lethargic.

I considered two possibilities here.

First, the enemy might be wary of S-class hero Yoon Ha-eun and waiting for her to tire out.

No matter how much they had brought us into their own space, the opponent was facing an S-class hero known to be capable of defeating even Level 1 danger monsters.

Fighting her head-on would be quite burdensome.

So my hypothesis was that they were quietly waiting for the stronger Yoon Ha-eun to become exhausted by the frightened children.

If not that, then the second possibility remained.

This one was honestly questionable, but not entirely impossible.

Perhaps the monster that trapped us had no combat ability other than the power to separate spaces.

‘Actually, when I played <Monster Front>, there were monsters that formed formations with combat-type monsters by separating spaces like this.’

A prime example was the Monster of Eternity.

It used a pattern that trapped others eternally in a space, and while the ability itself was annoying, it had almost no combat power otherwise.

So the Monster of Eternity would hide somewhere in the confined space and insert other cooperative monsters to fight.

‘But this space is too flat to have been created by the Monster of Eternity.’

At first, I thought of that monster’s ability and believed it must be the culprit behind this incident.

But now that I’ve slept and my mind is clearer, I suspected this wasn’t the Monster of Eternity’s doing.

Because the spaces that the Monster of Eternity could create always required backgrounds like “stairs” or “corridors” that allowed for endless descending or walking.

In contrast, the restaurant where we were trapped…

There were no corridors to walk through or stairs to go up and down.

Just a modest circular hall with tablecloth-covered tables and a kitchen.

This place was too “one-dimensional” for the Monster of Eternity to use its ability.

‘Prison? …but that monster had the ability to create prisoner-like minions to attack. Above all, it had no patience at all.’

It couldn’t be the Monster of Repetition either, as its attack pattern wasn’t like this at all.

That left only the Monster of Domination, but honestly, that made the least sense.

‘The Monster of Domination being afraid of Yoon Ha-eun and just watching? That “witch” wouldn’t fight like that.’

The conclusion was that it was likely a monster I hadn’t encountered yet, despite playing <Monster Front> for over five years.

So what should I do?

“Jang-hoon, are you okay?”

“Miss…”

As I was pondering.

“Are you searching the kitchen because you’re hungry? If so, I brought some chocolate bars, please have this at least.”

Miss Hoshino and Carmilla were suddenly crouching beside me in the kitchen.

Both were looking at me with very youthful expressions of concern.

“No, I’m not particularly hungry.”

“Don’t lie! You must be starving after a whole day without food!”

Among them, Carmilla, who had brought snacks for the field trip, was trying to hand me a chocolate bar.

However, I declined.

As an adult, I didn’t want to take food from children in such a dire situation.

I waved my hand, telling Carmilla to keep the chocolate bar since we didn’t know when we’d escape.

Then.

“Just eat it!”

Shove!

Returning to her fierce expression from when we first met, Carmilla forcibly stuffed the opened chocolate bar into my mouth.

“Mmph?!”

“Protecting men is a woman’s duty! Moreover, as a hero, my pride won’t allow me to be worried about by Jang-hoon!”

Nod, nod.

After feeding me the chocolate bar, Carmilla was actually angry at me.

As if this was the natural thing to do.

Even heroes must get hungry too.

Miss Hoshino, who was starving beside me, just nodded silently as a fellow hero, as if this was the right thing to do.

The two of them even covered my mouth with their hands to prevent me from spitting out the chocolate bar, forcing my jaw to move.

Gulp.

“You didn’t have to go this far…”

“No. This is actually the natural thing to do.”

“That’s right, Jang-hoon. We’re heroes before we’re children. And a hero’s greatest role is to protect the ‘socially vulnerable.'”

The socially vulnerable in Hero City.

There are many types, like the elderly or disabled, but among them, young boys are undoubtedly number one.

‘It’s burdensome when you put it that way…’

The chocolate bar I just ate would have been more needed by the children crying from hunger outside.

…No.

If they were female students enrolled in a prestigious elementary school in this world view, like Carmilla just now.

Even if I offered them the chocolate bar.

“I-I don’t need it!”

“How could I take food from a boy?”

“I’m not that much of a coward!”

…they would probably refuse in a hurry.

But there’s a limit to filling up on tap water from the kitchen sink.

How much longer could growing children hold out with just water on empty stomachs…

“Maybe I should have boiled that chocolate bar in water earlier so everyone could share it.”

“Jang-hoon…”

“I appreciate your kindness, Carmilla. But I’m not just some coward like other boys.”

“It’s okay! I actually brought two chocolate bars, one in each pocket!”

Fortunately, Carmilla had brought two chocolate bars as a 1+1 deal.

Thanks to her unexpected preparation, we could fill a pot in the kitchen with as much water as possible to make chocolate water that might slightly ease everyone’s hunger.

But then.

“This is strange though.”

“Miss?”

“This kitchen. The water, the gas, everything works so well for a separated space.”

…Come to think of it, that’s true.

Miss Hoshino, who was turning on the gas stove, remarked on how strange it was, and although I didn’t quite get it yet.

“Teacher Yoon Ha-eun.”

“Yes, Jang-hoon?”

“Does electricity work here too? I mean, that chandelier hanging above us.”

“Chandelier…?”

A restaurant where gas, water, and even electricity worked.

‘Does this make sense?’

As I was tilting my head in confusion at this unidentified space where everything seemed possible except for escaping, I suddenly thought of one monster that might fit this situation where we were simply trapped.

“Could it be…?”

***

Beyond the restaurant where all of Almighty Elementary School’s Class 1-A was trapped.

As you might have guessed, it wasn’t the human world but the world of monsters.

It was one of the spaces in another dimension.

“Kekekeke… I thought you were just a useless trash who always hides away somewhere, but you’re unexpectedly useful.”

“R-Really? Th-Th-Thank you…!”

“Don’t get cocky. ‘Monster of Disappearance.’ You’re just trash that can only trap targets in a single space.”

“O-Of course! High-ranking Monster…”

Two monsters had been watching the situation inside the restaurant through a hazy fog for two days now.

One of them was a humanoid monster with an extremely introverted manner of speaking, looking like a shut-in daughter who would only live inside her room.

‘Ugh… whatever, I just want to go home…’

Pink pupils trembling anxiously within black sclera.

Her hair was the same pink as her eyes, and her only clothing was a loose T-shirt covering her entire body.

The very embodiment of a complete shut-in.

The reason this appearance-matching homebody was now doing something as life-threatening as attacking humans was because of the high-ranking monster beside her.

The source of the threat that humans desperately wanted to eradicate.

The worst insect that was the origin of ‘pests.’

She had been dragged here by the ‘Monster of Mosquito,’ whose body was covered in hideous red and yellow muscles like swollen blood vessels, with pointed hands.

“Don’t feel too wronged, Monster of Disappearance.”

“Eek?! Y-Yes…”

“Yoon Ha-eun. That woman killed the ‘Monster of Cockroach,’ who was like a distant relative to me, so I had no choice but to borrow your meager power.”

“Ah, yes…”

“So be grateful that I’m using trash like you!”

“Th-Th-Thank you!”

How ridiculous.

Kidnapping me because you need me!

But the Monster of Disappearance, not wanting to be killed, just nodded silently as instructed.

‘Ah… I want to go home and play my PlayStation…’

Just wanting to get away from this disgusting high-ranking monster as quickly as possible, her body trembled…

“Grrrr…”

Not trembling… but growling?

“Huh?”

“What?”

While she was trembling.

“Grrrrrrrr.”

“…Who are you?”

Another monster naturally appeared behind the shut-in monster.

Some unheard-of monster wearing a dark red horned mask suddenly slapped the cheek of Mr. Mosquito, who had been grinding his teeth for revenge for his distant relative.

Slap!

“Puhek?!”

“Wh-What?!”