episode_0257

Suddenly appearing in a red cloak… well, not exactly, but the words of the girl who seemed to resemble it made me feel a bit perplexed.

The girl in the red cloak and the big, bad wolf. Characters from the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood,” which people from the previous world might have heard of at least once.

“Since ‘Luminor Academy’ is originally a game, it wouldn’t be strange to have episodes inspired by fairy tales like this… but the problem is that I have no memory of this episode at all.”

There was such an episode in “Luminor Academy”? I played it 25 times and never saw it?

Thinking back to my past self, who searched through Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, and even Indonesian communities using translation tools to find information about the “Lilith Virgin Strategy,” it was rather strange that I didn’t know about this episode.

Even if I thought it wouldn’t help with the Lilith strategy, if it was such a memorable event, I should have at least heard about it once.

“I’m curious. What kind of episode is this, exactly?”

I didn’t really want to get involved in something troublesome, but the instinct of a hardcore player of “Luminor Academy” made me hesitate.

Experiencing an episode that I didn’t even know what was happening was a first for me.

…And unintentionally making a slip of the tongue to this girl before, it was probably okay to at least listen to what she had to say.

“Just saying she was taken away doesn’t explain much. Can you explain in detail what happened, Miss Red Cloak?”

“Well, it was the night before last. My grandmother…”

After listening to the girl in the red cloak’s story, the general outline of the incident was as follows:

The girl who approached me and Edan to find her grandmother was named Kate. As mentioned earlier, her parents had passed away in an accident, leaving her alone with her grandmother for about three years.

She was always scared to sleep alone, so her grandmother stayed by her side until she fell asleep, telling her various stories until she drifted off.

However, there were about 2-3 days a month when her grandmother had to leave the house, leaving her to sleep alone. She could sleep alone on those nights, so it wasn’t that she couldn’t sleep by herself.

She didn’t know why her grandmother left the house for 2-3 days a month. She heard that she went to work far away, but she didn’t know what kind of work she did, and even if she tried to go with her, her grandmother would insist on going alone.

The last time her grandmother left the house for work was about a fortnight ago.

And the next time her grandmother left the house was a month later, the night before last, so it wasn’t the night her grandmother left.

Therefore, when she went to her room to call her grandmother before bed, what she saw was a big, bad wolf… according to Kate’s claim.

“…Wait, the wolf was in your grandmother’s room?”

“Yes!”

“And your grandmother?”

“The big, bad wolf took her away!”

“….”

…In the end, it seemed like we were back to square one.

There were many things in the girl’s story that were hard to understand from the perspective of the culprit. There didn’t seem to be any parts that were skipped or left out.

Of course, it may have felt that way because children tend to blurt things out without any order. However, starting over from the beginning to listen to this disorganized story was quite daunting.

“Um….”

“Unni and Oppa are incredibly strong adventurers, so they can defeat even a big wolf, right?!”

“No, as I mentioned before, Unni and Oppa are not adventurers…”

“It doesn’t matter! Even so, if it’s Unni and Oppa, maybe our grandmother can be saved!”

“Well, we can probably handle a wolf or two easily with my and Edan’s skills.”

Indeed, with my and Edan’s skills, we could easily defeat a couple of wolves. We had already taken down dangerous and terrifying monsters that couldn’t even be compared to wolves. Edan had even reached the level of a Sword Expert recently.

Edan alone could probably take down ten wolves without any trouble, and with my support added to that, we could easily handle double that number.

My concern wasn’t whether we could defeat the wolves, but rather something else. …Even if we were to find the wolf that attacked Cat’s grandmother, it would already be too late to save her.

After all, Cat’s grandmother had been attacked by the wolves two days ago. Objectively speaking, she probably succumbed to her injuries and passed away within an hour of the attack. It must have been a brutal and painful death.

I didn’t want to explain to this child the gruesome situation her grandmother faced among the pack of wolves. It would be too cruel to make a child who had already lost her parents understand her grandmother’s death.

“If she wasn’t killed immediately after being captured, but even if two days had passed, it would already be too late….”

We couldn’t determine the exact age of Cat’s grandmother, but considering this child’s age, she was probably in her 50s at least.

In this world, a woman in her 50s was considered elderly. Even if she wasn’t elderly, if she had been bitten by wolves and abducted, she would have sustained significant injuries during the process. Even if the wolves didn’t eat her, she would have likely succumbed to her injuries and died within two days.

Either way, Cat’s grandmother was no longer in this world. Unless some miracle happened.

“…Did I bring up finding her for no reason?”

I had simply thought she was a lost child who had come to the market with the adults. I couldn’t have guessed that she had such a deep story.

Glancing at Edan, I saw that he was also deep in thought, contemplating something seriously. Perhaps Edan was also feeling the weight of having to tell the child about her grandmother’s death.

Having experienced losing her mother at a young age, Edan might even empathize with Cat’s emotions.

“For now, shall we guide you to your home?”

“Huh?”

“If we want to find any trace of your grandmother, we need to first check the place where she was abducted. By going to the last place she was seen, we might be able to track where the wolf disappeared to.”

“Ed, what if…?”

“For now, we need to recover her body, or any item that can prove her identity. And we should get the girl’s consent to hold a simple funeral, which might help her understand her grandmother’s death.”

Edan whispered to me, barely audible to Cat.

It seemed like Edan wanted to at least find some trace of Cat’s living grandmother to honor her spirit.

I somewhat agreed with his opinion, so I could only nod my head in response.

“Cat, can you guide us to the house where your grandmother lives?”

“Will you find Grandma, Unni?”

“I will try my best.”

At this moment, this response was the best I could do.

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything harsher to the young girl who still had her innocence intact.

***

“Over here! This way!”

As soon as Edan and I mentioned that we would find Grandma, the place we were led to with bright smiles was a house on the outskirts of the capital.

It was an old brick house that showed signs of aging, most likely the house where Kate and Grandma lived together.

It was a single-story house that seemed suitable for three people to live in, a bit cramped for four, but as soon as we faced the house Kate introduced as hers and Grandma’s, questions naturally arose in my mind.

‘…It looks more intact than I thought?’

In reality, when I heard that a wolf had entered the house, I imagined a few places with broken walls.

Even though wolves were considered smarter than other mammals, they wouldn’t just politely open the door and come in when attacking a house.

I thought there would be a large hole in the door, window, or somewhere on the wall, but the intact appearance of the house was the first question that came to mind.

‘Surely the wolf won’t suddenly jump out as soon as we open the door.’

A narrative trick like ‘The culprit was hiding in the secret room, not escaping’ from detective novels was a bit much.

Even if I was an adventurer or an academy student, I didn’t always walk around in combat mode. If a wolf suddenly jumped out from behind the door, I would surely be taken aback. It might be a bit dangerous if a wolf really did suddenly jump out from behind the door.

“I’ll go in first, Lily.”

“…Yes, Ed.”

Edan seemed to feel a similar unease to me and took the lead, not lowering his guard as he cautiously opened the door and leaned his shoulder against it.

“…Is anyone here?”

“…It doesn’t seem like it.”

“I considered the possibility of a wild animal still being in the house, but fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be the case. Children’s words are unreliable, so we can’t fully trust them.”

…Well, if there really was a wolf left in the house, we wouldn’t have come here in the first place.

Grandma was taken by a wolf the day before, so if the wolf that took her was actually still in this house, Kate would have undoubtedly been the victim last night.

It was hard to imagine a wolf leaving this narrow house. Even though she was a child, her head wouldn’t be so confused as to mistake a wolf leaving the house for going outside. She wouldn’t even be able to imagine that a wolf took Grandma and ran away.

“The wolf definitely took Grandma and left the house, right, Kate?”

“What? No?”

“Not?”

“Yes.”

…Is she deliberately trying to deceive me like this?

Realizing once again that the other party was a child, I asked Kate again about the whereabouts of the wolf.

“By any chance, is the wolf still inside the house?”

“No.”

“Then what was that reaction you just showed, Kate? It seemed like you were making a face as if I didn’t understand the story.”

“…But the bad wolf didn’t take Grandma and leave the house.”

“…Yes?”

…She clearly said at our first meeting that a big wolf took Grandma away.

To find out where Kate’s Grandma had disappeared to, we first needed to clear up any misunderstandings between her and me.