Ch.49Human Rights for Monsters?

# The Princess Kurumi Incident: Two Days Later

Two days had passed since the Princess Kurumi incident.

During that time, Shinwoo, who had collapsed from dislocated muscle pain, was still receiving treatment while unconscious in the VIP room at Seoul Hospital.

And by Shinwoo’s side, as always…

“Waaaaaah! Sh-Shinwoooo…!”

Already on the second day.

Seemingly tireless, Sophia remained firmly attached to the sleeping Shinwoo like a chimpanzee, sobbing loudly.

“Master, I brought some drinks.”

“Oh my, Cheran, thank you. I’ll enjoy them.”

Yoo Cheran, who had come to visit every single day, handed a box of drinks to Rolling, her master among Sophia’s family.

“I never expected the battle’s impact would reach that far…”

“I know, right? They were both on a building rooftop, but who would have thought debris from the amusement park would travel a kilometer and hit Shinwoo directly?”

Rolling and Lee Seokgyu sighed simultaneously.

At the time, Shinwoo had lost consciousness on the rooftop of a building with Lotte World visible in the distance.

While quickly calling for a medical helicopter, Yoo Cheran had to create a plausible alibi for why a young man with a dislocated arm was collapsed on top of a high-rise building.

“Y-yes, exactly…”

She had made up an absolutely ridiculous excuse that they had coincidentally gone up to the building rooftop together, and by sheer chance, debris from an amusement park a kilometer away had somehow flown and hit Shinwoo.

Normally, no one would believe such an explanation and would immediately be suspicious.

After all, there was no reason for the two of them to be there together in the first place.

But…

“That just shows how intense the situation was.”

“*Gulp!*”

“That’s right. Cheran wouldn’t lie, and this time it was truly bad luck.”

“*Gulp! Gulp!*”

Yoo Cheran was a C-rank Hunter, placing her in the top 20% of all Hunters.

Moreover, she was once the exclusive disciple of Rolling, who had received the title of National Authority in the United States.

Thanks to this, everyone seemed to believe her, while she alone felt the pangs of conscience.

It seemed she had successfully concealed Shinwoo’s identity, however…

*Glare*

“?!”

Except for one person.

Sophia, who had known his identity from the beginning, couldn’t be fooled so easily.

‘Could it be… that Cheran saw Shinwoo’s true identity?’

‘As expected… Lady Sophia isn’t so easily deceived?’

An ironic situation where they were both keeping tabs on each other to protect Shinwoo’s secret.

Sophia was suspicious of Yoo Cheran, who claimed to have first discovered the collapsed Shinwoo after the battle ended. Similarly, Cheran was wary of Sophia, who was devotedly caring for Shinwoo, doubting she could have fallen for such a flimsy lie.

*Zzzzzap*

The two were now staring each other down, shooting laser beams from their eyes without saying a word.

…But wasn’t something missing?

“Mom…”

“Yes?”

“That Japanese princess. Why is she so quiet for once?”

It had been two days since Shinwoo was hospitalized.

Sophia asked her mother Rolling about the whereabouts of Kurumi, who she expected would have rushed over like herself—the one who was interfering with what Sophia called her “official route” to Shinwoo.

From her expression to her tone, there was so much to criticize about referring to the princess as “that person”…

“…Princess Kurumi came down with a severe cold and collapsed the very day she was rescued.”

Rolling answered anyway.

“Huh?! So suddenly?”

In reality, it was just a temporary overload on her body due to the side effects of having an “extraordinary being” summoned into her body.

But Rolling and Lee Seokgyu, unaware of this fact, were simply worried that something might have happened to the princess.

Meanwhile, regardless of all that…

‘…Hmph!’

Sophia thought it served her right—that woman who might have “slept” with Shinwoo was now sick.

And in fact, they had indeed gone almost all the way to the point of biting, sucking, and… well.

It was somewhat legally justified payback(?).

***

In the underground research wing of the Korean Hunter Association.

The facilities, which had been damaged during the baby monster incident, were now perfectly repaired, and normal research activities should have resumed…

*Munch munch munch munch*

…should have, but…

*Munch munch munch munch munch munch!*

‘…It’s so annoying!’

Lee Heejeong, who had been suddenly promoted after all her senior researchers died in the baby monster incident.

Now a team leader, she was delegating the cleanup work of joint research—which until recently had been her own role—to the flood of new junior researchers while focusing on her own research.

Or more precisely, she needed to focus.

But in front of the test tube she had moved for large monster research…

“Wow! This one would taste delicious too!”

This wasn’t some half-baked cafeteria but a research lab where only talented individuals could enter.

Yet there was a child pointing at each monster corpse in the test tubes as if they were menu items, drooling.

No, not even a child, but a baby monster.

Eve, holding a monster corpse in one hand and chewing on it while wandering around the lab as usual. Seeing her, Heejeong couldn’t help but frown again today.

‘That dimwitted monster brat comes down here every other day!’

A monster in human form.

Because her appearance was that of a harmless child, Eve had become something of a mascot in the underground research wing, monopolizing the researchers’ affection.

She was indeed harmless, being a monster under the control of Lee Jin-ah.

All the researchers here absolutely trusted Lee Jin-ah, who was both the branch director of the Hunter Association and the director of the Korean branch’s research institute.

And how could they dislike the research director’s controlled monster?

“Eve, want some snacks?”

“I have drinks for you.”

“Want a piggyback ride like before if you’re bored?”

“Hehehe. You humans. Do you know who I am! …Well, since you all want it so badly, I’ll grace you with my presence!”

Eve got along well with the researchers as always.

But in the midst of this friendly atmosphere, Heejeong, who had risen to the position of team leader…

“Fist! Strike! Go!”

Remembering the trauma of when she was attacked by Lia, a baby monster who looked similar to Eve when she first woke up, Heejeong snapped at the researchers who were trying to be nice to Eve.

“Are none of you doing research? Do you think we’re monster trainers or something?!”

“S-sorry!”

“Oh my, the team leader is angry again!”

“…She’s barely senior to us anyway.”

The atmosphere in the research wing grew heavy again due to the team leader’s outburst.

“Ugh…!”

Seeing people avoiding her to stay out of trouble, Eve became irritated and approached Heejeong.

But so what?

“Excuse me! Lady!”

“……”

“Damn it…! Lady! Can’t you hear me?!”

“…What I’m researching right now is important work that Jin-ah personally asked me to do. I wonder what problem our baby monster has that’s so urgent it requires interrupting research requested by Jin-ah herself?”

“M-mom asked you to do research…?!”

Of course, it was a lie.

The research Heejeong was currently conducting was solely for herself, by herself.

But thinking that a baby… moreover, a monster couldn’t possibly read complex research data…

“Now, I’ve put everything down because of you. So tell me, what’s the problem?”

“Uh, um…! Th-that…”

As expected, Eve was flustered, having fallen for the lie.

Soon, teardrops began to well up in her ruby-colored eyes.

“What is it? If you called someone over, say something! Otherwise, apologize!”

Faced with the “adult” in front of her who was being even more aggressive, Eve—though externally strong but internally still immature like a child—could only…

“Sob sob…”

“Hmph! Such a trivial thing.”

Eve began to sob, sniffling.

And looking down at baby monster #2, Heejeong snickered with a vicious smile, regardless of how the surrounding researchers viewed her.

‘Just you wait. I’ll definitely ask the director to make you my punching bag… no, my test subject later!’

She still hadn’t gotten over what Lia had done to her in the past.

That’s why she was secretly sharpening her knife, planning to perform the breeding experiment she had intended for Lia on Eve instead.

“I-I’m leaving!”

“Hey, wait!”

Before she could tease her enough.

Eve turned her back and fled at an incredibly fast speed.

But Heejeong could guess where baby monster #2 would run to when sad.

“Hmph. I bet she’s gone to see that thing again.”

Heejeong entered the only second floor of the research wing—a -10°C cooling chamber created to preserve rare monster corpses in their original state—following Eve.

And sure enough…

“Ran away here again?”

“Eee! I hate you, lady! Go away!”

Behind the lower half of a corpse—the entity known as “Angel” whose upper body was missing and whose lower half was frozen in a pile of snow—Eve was hiding.

Seeing this, Heejeong just scoffed.

“You’re really funny. Whenever you get a little sad, you always hide behind that piece of meat.”

“It-it’s not a piece of meat! It’s my mom!”

“You fool. What mother? Monsters like you without human rights are just mother and offspring… What? Just because you got a little love from people, do you think you’re actually human?”

“Th-that…”

“Hehehe. By the way, if your mom only has legs, how do you greet her? …Oh! Maybe you shake her foot or something?”

Quite satisfied with her own joke, Heejeong now openly laughed out loud.

Eve wanted to tear out the throat of this human who was insulting her monster mother, emitting killing intent, but…

“Eve, listen carefully. You must never harm humans.”

“Why? Even when I haven’t done anything wrong?”

“Yes. Of course. Because you’re a monster. Even though your mom is the branch director of the Hunter Association, I don’t know how far I could protect you if you harmed people. So…”

From the time when she was learning various things from her human mother…

“As a monster, always be in a position to be victimized when dealing with humans.”

Having been thoroughly educated that monsters must always be in a subordinate position in human society…

“Ba… bad… badbadbadbad!”

Though killing would have been simple, the young baby monster could do nothing but cry.

“Mom… help me…!”

“?! Y-you’re bringing up the research director to play victim? Hey! You started this in the first place! And now you’re suddenly playing the victim? A mere monster!”

*Thump thump*

Heejeong flicked Eve’s head a few times and grabbed her wrist to forcibly drag her away.

Unable to resist, Eve could only sniffle and be dragged along like a child suffering domestic violence…

…*Thud*

…or so she thought.

“…Huh?”

Heejeong, who was walking ahead with her back turned, heard something rustling behind her.

Thinking it was baby monster #2 whining again, she turned around with her fist raised to give her a few more flicks.

“Wh-what?!”

“M-mom…?”

They saw it.

The sight of Angel’s lower body—which should have been completely frozen with not a single living cell remaining—standing up on its own.