Ch.65Sister VS Little Sister

# “Lee Heejeong?”

“Yes~! This is Lee Heejeong!”

“?!?!??!”

Who are you?

I almost blurted that out.

For good reason—I couldn’t believe this person was the same Lee Heejeong I’d seen in the game.

It was simply unbelievable.

Lee Heejeong was basically a heroine with anti-Korean sentiments, what you’d call Korea-phobic traits.

So I expected her to frown immediately if I, a Korean, spoke to her.

But she was all smiles.

‘…Could she be on drugs?’

Her smile was so bright it looked like her mouth might tear at the corners.

Seeing her beaming face, I could hardly get a word out.

Right then, as if voicing my inner thoughts:

“You seem to be in a good mood today, Heejeong.”

Research Director Lee Jin-ah asked about Lee Heejeong’s unusual behavior instead of me.

“Did something ‘good’ happen to you?”

“?!”

At that moment, I saw Lee Heejeong’s bright smile freeze.

But she quickly returned to her original smiling expression.

“Ha, haha… It’s nothing~, Research Director.”

Lee Heejeong avoided answering with an obviously transparent lie.

‘What’s going on? Where exactly did things diverge from the original story…?’

I’d never had any connection with Lee Heejeong before.

I had no way of knowing why she’d become like this.

If there was any silver lining, it was that at least in this state, she probably wouldn’t impulsively murder the Japanese researcher like in the original story.

‘…Wait a minute?!’

Come to think of it, the reason Lee Heejeong was consumed with rage around this time was because she’d failed to transfer to the US headquarters.

Which means, contrary to the original story, there could only be one reason for her good mood now.

‘She succeeded in transferring to the US headquarters…?’

A new scenario that wasn’t in the original story.

It seemed Lee Heejeong had been promoted to a researcher at the US headquarters.

‘But how?’

There were still about two days left until the announcement date.

So why did she already know she’d succeeded in transferring?

I had no way of knowing exactly where the original story had broken down.

The only certain thing was that I needed to observe for now.

“…Now that the tour of the research wing is over, I’ll head back up.”

“Already? We just arrived at the entrance.”

“Haha. Well, it’s work hours, and I’d like to work up a sweat after so long.”

Since hasty intervention might cause an even bigger butterfly effect,

I decided to leave this ‘time bomb’ alone for now, at least until I understood why Lee Heejeong was able to go to the US Hunter headquarters, known as the holy land for Hunters.

***

With that, Shinwoo took the elevator out of the research wing without much to show for it and headed up to the workshop located on the middle floor of the association building.

‘How should I investigate this…?’

The genre of the original “Hunter’s Blood” was action, fantasy, and dating sim.

It was structured so that the system automatically resolved character mysteries, and there weren’t any particular elements of deduction.

Which meant that from this point on, even veteran player Shinwoo was a newbie.

‘I’ll have to ask Jin-ah again later. As the research director, she must have a lot of useful information.’

Should I ask the Villain’s Troupe for help?

He briefly considered it but decided against it, feeling that if he contacted them, he’d immediately be pressured into joining as a member.

So while he was planning to use the Jin-ah card to solve the current situation:

Tap tap tap tap tap.

“?!”

Shinwoo saw it.

In the workshop—the modern-day forge responsible for repairing and crafting Hunter equipment:

“Ooh…! So this is what humans fight with!”

Among the burly craftsmen, a bold child with gleaming red eyes was running around.

It was Eve, the baby monster he’d been looking for.

“You, you…!”

“Hm?”

Shinwoo hastily pointed at Eve, who was busy exploring the workshop, surprised.

However, since this was their first meeting with Shinwoo in human form, Lia naturally didn’t know he was the black monster who had saved her in Jamsil.

“What are you?”

“Ah, that…”

I’m that black monster who saved you before!

…He couldn’t exactly “monster out” like that, so:

“M-monster…! A monster…”

“……”

Shinwoo tried to act as naturally surprised as possible, pretending to be shocked at seeing a monster in such a place.

Just then:

“Shinwoo, you’re here.”

“Team leader!”

“Hoho. No need to worry about this child. She’s a tamed monster being raised by Branch Director Lee Jin-ah. We’ve been asked to look after her in the workshop for a while.”

“D-Director Lee Jin-ah?!”

The workshop craftsmen’s manager—

The team leader with a white beard that proved the passage of time—left Shinwoo dumbfounded with his explanation.

Lia’s younger sister was in the hands of none other than Lee Jin-ah!

And she was even calling Jin-ah “mom”!

What in the world was going on?

His head, already confused because of Lee Heejeong, was now practically steaming.

And the worst part was that there was nothing Shinwoo could do about either problem at this point.

“When you say ‘look after her in the workshop’…”

“It means exactly what it sounds like. Just like babysitting a child—keep her entertained until her parents come to pick her up.”

“Ah, I see…”

Shinwoo had no choice but to accept it for now.

Meanwhile, Eve, who had stopped going down to the research wing after retrieving the lower half of the monster mother’s body:

The baby monster, who no longer wanted to be there because of Lee Heejeong, had chosen this place as her next playground.

The craftsmen’s workshop, which emitted a uniquely strange aura even within the association building.

Of course, this place was fun too.

There were many things she’d never seen before, and thanks to her mom, all the humans were kind.

The only problem was that they were all too burly…

Clang clang clang!

Whirr whirr.

Zzzzzzing.

True to its nickname as a modern-day forge, most of the Hunter craftsmen working in the workshop were muscular individuals.

And they were all macho types covered in well-developed muscles.

If Eve had been an adult monster who had completed her secondary sexual characteristics, she might have enjoyed eyeing such men according to her preferences.

But the current Eve was just a child.

In human terms, she was equivalent to a lower elementary school student, which made these workshop humans feel too intimidating.

‘I want to leave…’

She felt queasy even while playing.

But then, what luck?

“Hey, you.”

“Hmm?”

“You’re my mom’s subordinate.”

“Um… yes?”

“Then play with me. I’m bored playing alone.”

Among all the burly muscle-men, an ordinary human A appeared who could be approached without pressure.

Plus, Shinwoo had a handsome face that appealed to children, so Eve immediately singled him out.

“Come on! Follow me!”

The branch director’s tamed monster.

Even as a monster, with such a status, she outranked a low-level craftsman.

“T-team leader?”

“Hoho. Play safely.”

Before he knew it, Shinwoo had been “volunteered” by Eve.

***

“Let’s play hide-and-seek!”

“Hide-and-seek?”

“Yeah. I’ll hide first. Find me, okay?”

“Ah, okay…”

Somehow, Shinwoo ended up playing hide-and-seek alone with the baby monster in the workshop storage room.

At first, he tilted his head wondering if this was right, but then:

‘…Let’s just go along with it for now.’

Since he was also interested in Eve, he decided to use this opportunity to get closer to her.

“Wait a moment.”

“…?”

“Come to think of it, what’s your name? I can’t play hide-and-seek with someone whose name I don’t know.”

“Really?”

Shinwoo naturally asked for Eve’s name first.

“I’m Eve. What about you, human?”

“I’m Han Shinwoo. Nice to meet you.”

“…? What’s this?”

After exchanging names, Shinwoo naturally knelt on one knee in front of Eve and extended his hand.

It was a gesture to shake hands.

But Eve, who had never experienced shaking hands as an equal with humans, naturally didn’t understand this behavior.

“…Are you threatening me right now?”

Shiver!

Having been taught that someone extending their hand to her was always showing hostility, she immediately frowned, but:

“This is called a handshake.”

“…!”

Shinwoo gently took Eve’s clenched fist in his hand and carefully shook their joined hands up and down.

With this first experience of a handshake, Eve’s hostility quickly subsided.

“It’s like a greeting people do when they want to become friends.”

“Ooh… This is a handshake…?”

“What do you think? Do you dislike it?”

She shook her head.

“I… I! I like this! I like handshakes! Ehehe…”

The act of joining hands.

Having always been taught that hands existed only to destroy things, Eve knew nothing about this.

So she couldn’t help but feel excited about an action other than destruction.

“I’m glad then.”

“…!”

Looking up at Shinwoo, who smiled when she expressed satisfaction, Eve turned her head away, feeling embarrassed for reasons she didn’t understand.

“Great. Shall we play hide-and-seek now?”

“Yes! Let’s do that!”

Having finished their handshake and reached a point where they could laugh together in the energized atmosphere, the two were about to continue with their original game.

But at that moment:

Shinwoo laid the groundwork too hastily.

“Oh, Eve. By the way.”

“Yes?”

“I saw a baby monster that looked like you before. Do you know anything about that?”

“…!!”

Shinwoo casually dropped information about Lia to Eve.

He wanted to see how the younger sister would react to her older sister.

Yesterday, Lia had seemed so eager to meet her younger sister.

He expected the younger sister would feel the same way and show a similarly pure reaction.

But.

Grab!

The next moment, Shinwoo found his neck seized and was forced to his knees on the floor.

With his vision impaired and barely able to breathe, he met the bloodshot eyes of Eve right in front of him, unable to even scream like the weak human he was.

“Where is that one now?”

The brightly smiling child from earlier was no longer there.

All that remained was a monster thoroughly trained to devour her sister and determined to complete her mission.

“Tell me quickly.”

“Kuhak… huk…!”

Eve’s grip tightened further.

As a result, Shinwoo couldn’t even swallow properly, making painful breathing sounds as his oxygen supply was cut off, bringing him to the brink of death.

However, he still wouldn’t speak about Lia.

Because he didn’t want to introduce her to such a younger sister.

To have the first family member you meet try to kill you—

He just couldn’t let Lia experience that…

“Hey.”

“…?!”

“Are you going to let go of that hand or not?”

Thwack!

He hadn’t wanted to show this.

“…Lia?”

When had she appeared?

Just as Shinwoo’s neck was about to snap, Lia, who had been hiding in his shadow all along, finally revealed herself.

She immediately punched the ill-mannered younger sister in the face, sending her flying, and then:

“Oppa.”

“Lia…”

“Leave this to me.”

Without looking back at Shinwoo, Lia locked eyes with her opponent who was slowly getting up again.

As she faced Eve, who was glaring at her with a bloody nose, Lia began to feel anger for the first time in her life.

“Huh?! You call yourself my older sister?”

After just giving me a nosebleed with a sneak attack!

“Vwoomshin! I’ll devour you right now!”

“…Sure. First, you’re definitely getting 100 spanks.”

Eve immediately charged toward her sister as if she’d been waiting for this moment.