HVG Ch 5

Episode 5

When Haewon knocked on the old wooden door, which had holes scattered throughout, and stepped inside, a child sitting on the bed blinked wide eyes at him.

The child quickly scrambled off the bed and ran toward him, clinging to him.

“Chorangi, have you been good?”

“Have you been good?”

“I told you not to repeat what I say.”

“Repeat what I say.”

“Sigh… You really are a Jangsanbeom^[1], through and through.”

“Through and through.”

After hugging the child once and setting him down, Haewon took out a chocolate bar he had brought and held it out. The child, who appeared to be about eight years old, was a non-human species Haewon had rescued two months ago during a monster wave.

Once a week, a “Monster Wave” would erupt, spewing a horde of creatures from the roots of the Tree of Good and Evil. Occasionally, amidst the chaos, an intelligent non-human species would appear among them. 

Chorangi was one such being.

“Chorangi, let’s eat this. It’s delicious. Should I unwrap it for you?”

“Unwrap it for you?”

“Give it here.”

Chorangi was a Jangsanbeom who had been swept away by the wave. Like a newborn, he had lost his mother and was left trembling on the battlefield, his fur thick and unkempt. Haewon had rescued him and brought him to the guild. There had been strong opposition from the guild members, but his older brother, Seo Kangyeol, had persuaded them and found a compromise.

But still, wasn’t it a bit too much to keep him confined here?

“Does it taste good?”

“Does it taste good?”

As soon as Haewon unwrapped the chocolate bar and handed it over, Chorangi sniffed it before beginning to chew. At the first bite, his eyes widened in surprise, and he looked up at Haewon.

The child was completely white from head to toe, yet his sharp eyes were a deep crimson, as if drenched in blood.

Ding—

<A Child’s Growth Is a Parent’s Duty! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`)>

◈ Chorangi is extremely hungry. Feed the child until he is full!

Reward: 100 Points

Failure Penalty: -5,000 Points

Time Remaining: 90 minutes (89:49)

Well, at least the reward was points. Haewon swiped away the bright blue system window floating before him and smoothed down Chorangi’s tuft of unruly hair.

“Hyung taught you the answer, right? What are you supposed to say?”

“What are you supposed to say?”

“I told you, it’s ‘Yes.’”

“Yes.”

“If someone asks, you answer with ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ That’s what I told you.”

“Yes.”

Like a baby just learning to speak, Chorangi mimicked most words without understanding their meaning. It was natural, given how unfamiliar human language was to him. With no one to properly teach him, his instincts occasionally took over.

After all, a Jangsanbeom was a creature that lured humans by perfectly mimicking their speech.

“Chorangi, did you go outside today?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Yes.”

As Chorangi munched on the chocolate bar, he nodded his small head and suddenly held out the half-eaten snack.

Such a baby. He’s still just a baby.

Haewon gently pushed the chocolate bar back to the child’s mouth. Chorangi, blinking up at him, obediently took another bite.

“Did anyone come here?”

“Yes.”

“Uh… No one came here, right?”

“No.”

Someone had been here?

Haewon’s expression turned serious as he gently held Chorangi’s face, turning it from side to side, examining him.

The child blinked in confusion, then burrowed into Haewon’s chest.

With tiny arms, he clung tightly and pressed his cheek against Haewon’s ear.

“This is where the Jangsanbeom is, right? Oh no… This isn’t good. Did our Baekseol^[2] get eaten?”

“Uh…”

“Baekseol! Baekseol, where are you? Oh, Baekseol?”

A familiar woman’s voice slipped out of the child’s throat. The words, echoing as if bouncing between floors—or rather, between doorways—belonged to someone Haewon knew well. Judging from the content, she must have temporarily lost the weasel she had rescued during the last monster wave.

Fortunately, it seemed like she had found it. But now Haewon was certain that someone had been on this floor.  

“You’ve been a good boy, Chorangi.”

“Yes.”

Because Chorangi was a monster capable of mimicking human speech and changing his form, the guild members shunned him. Some believed he should be cast out before he grew any bigger, while others thought they should observe him a little longer. Haewon’s brother, Seo Kangyeol, had sided with the latter.

“…I wish Hyung liked Chorangi too.”

“No.”

“Well, I mean… I do understand that Hyung already has his hands full taking care of the guild members. But still, keeping him locked up like this is a bit… Ah, forget it. We’ll just be understanding. No point in arguing. Besides, look at how adorable our Chorangi is.”

“How adorable.”

The Red Cloud Guild, led by Seo Kangyeol, had gone through an incredibly rough start. Well, to be fair, what guild hadn’t struggled in the beginning? Even now, just thinking about it… It was enough to choke up in the middle of a meal.

“Chorangi, once you’re done eating, let’s brush your teeth. Hyung brought a toothbrush.”

“Brought a toothbrush.”

“This goes here, right? You brush your teeth so they don’t rot. If you brush well, you can eat lots of delicious food.”

“Yes.”

When Haewon lightly tapped Chorangi’s teeth, the child gasped in surprise and covered his mouth with both hands. Haewon dug into his coat and pulled out a toothbrush case. He squeezed just a tiny bit of toothpaste onto the brush, wet it with water, and placed it in Chorangi’s mouth. After a few demonstrations, Chorangi, to Haewon’s delight, soon learned to hold it properly and brush on his own.

While Chorangi busily brushed his teeth, Haewon casually stripped off his clothes.

“Hyung is going to wash up, so stay put, okay, Chorangi?”

“Yes.”

Chorangi nodded so vigorously that his long hair bounced wildly. Haewon gathered it up and tied it neatly before heading into the shabby bathroom attached to the room. Pressing down on the handle of the hand pump, he drew up water and scrubbed the dirt from his hair, shaking it loose as he washed.

***

When exactly had he come to accept the system’s existence?

At the time, Haewon was still a student. Sometimes, he wondered if he was going crazy, but then the system would assign him absurd quests, claiming it was guiding him onto the right path.

At one point, he even thought it might be some kind of “Perfect Child Project” program created by someone.

<You, the former villain! Studying is an essential virtue for proper repentance!>

◈ Rank in the top 10 of your school to prove that you are not ignorant.

Reward: ??’s attention

Failure Penalty: ??’s disappointment

Time Remaining: 90 days

It wants me to be a straight-A student?

The system interfered with everything, even when it came to making friends.

It even criticized his food choices, demanding he follow a strict, healthy diet.

After spending a full year with it, Haewon could no longer dismiss the system as mere hallucination or mental illness.

Thanks to it, he developed an interest in studying, something he’d never cared for before, and his grades improved. Eventually, he even got into a decent university.

That was where he met Beom Ryeohan.

But for every action, there was a reaction. In Haewon’s case, that reaction manifested as anxiety and panic attacks. At first, he managed to suppress them on his own, but after his parents’ accident when he was twenty, he could no longer hold himself together. From that point on, he had been on long-term medication.

Had he known he would become so dependent that he couldn’t quit, he would have endured a little longer. But… what was the point of regret now? It was already far too late.

Haewon blinked as he realized his arms were empty. He must have taken his meds and dozed off, but now, in the middle of the night, Chorangi was nowhere to be seen.

“Chorangi…? Chorangi?”

Fumbling around the bed, Haewon jolted upright in alarm. He scanned the dim surroundings until his eyes landed on the old wooden door. Faint light seeped in through the gaps. Quickly slipping on his shoes, he moved toward it, only to halt the moment he heard the sound of running water from the bathroom.

“Chorangi?”

With a sense of urgency, he rushed into the bathroom and looked inside. The basin beneath the hand pump was filled to the brim with water, and something was floating inside. Strands of fur drifting weightlessly in the water.

Chorangi was crouched beside it, kneading the drenched fur with his small hands.

The basin was already pitch-black with muddy water.

“Chorangi, what are you… Where did you even get that?”

No matter how he looked at it, the thing in the basin was a white-furred weasel. Chorangi, who had been rubbing the animal clean, hesitated. His small lips trembled before he blinked up at Haewon and spoke.

“What do we do, Unni? Baekseol is missing again. I searched everywhere, but I couldn’t find it. What if it went outside? Where could it have gone in the middle of the night? I’m seriously going crazy because of it!”

It was the same woman’s voice he had heard earlier that day.

So the weasel had wandered off again.

“Did you find the weasel at the door? Is that why you let it in?”

“No.”

“Then… did Chorangi go out and bring it back?”

“No.”

Chorangi kept repeating “no” and then pointed to a corner of the bathroom.

The dilapidated fortress, worn down as if it had endured thousands of battles, had numerous damaged spots. In every room, there were at least one or two fist-sized holes in the walls. Usually, they were plugged with stones or scraps of cloth, but no one had bothered to patch up the ones in the bathroom.

“The weasel came in through that hole?”

“Yes.”

Haewon let out a sigh of relief and rubbed his forehead. He had been worried sick that Chorangi might have gone outside, but it turned out the weasel had come in on its own. It must have gotten dirty crawling in, and Chorangi had been washing it.

“Should we clean the weasel, dry it, and send it back?”

“Yes.”

“Chorangi is so kind. You even know how to wash a weasel properly.”

“Wash a weasel properly.”

After finishing up, Haewon roughly dried the weasel with a towel. Just then, footsteps echoed from the far end of the corridor. Quickly, he set the creature outside the door. The little thing, shivering from the cold, hesitated for a moment before suddenly leaping away. A woman’s voice rang out from the other end of the hallway.

“Baekseol! Where did you go? Are you seriously going to keep doing this?”

Listening to the scolding from the doorway, Haewon waited until the footsteps faded before returning to bed. Lifting the blanket, he called out to Chorangi, who was still standing quietly by the door.

“Chorangi, come here. It’s time to sleep.”

“Time to sleep.”

Pressing his ear to the door, Chorangi perked up at the sound of Haewon calling him.

He scurried over and burrowed under the blanket.

As Haewon gently ran his fingers through the child’s messy hair, he fell into thought.

Is he really that lonely?

Well, of course. He must be lonely being here alone.

When the wave hits the day after tomorrow, should I bring back an animal or something for him?

With that thought lingering in his mind, Haewon gently patted Chorangi’s back as the child wriggled closer. His heavy eyelids finally shut completely.

“Tomorrow… I guess I have guard duty.”

Now that he thought about it, getting two bottles of pills had been the right choice.

Each bottle had twenty pills, and if he took two per day, they would last him about ten days.

Though… it did make him feel like he owed his senior something.

Muttering to himself, Seo Haewon slowly drifted off to sleep.

“Baekseol, are you going to keep disobeying me? If you go outside one more time, you’re going to get in big trouble. Do you even know how dangerous it is out there? Sigh… What am I even doing, lecturing an animal that doesn’t understand me?”

As the voice from the floor above prattled on, Chorangi tilted his head. He didn’t understand why she thought the weasel couldn’t comprehend her.

After all, the weasel had spoken to him just fine earlier.

It had said that next time, it would go beyond the fortress gates.

Staring at the wall where the wind seeped through, Chorangi eventually nestled his cheek against the broad chest beside him.

After all, in the end, this was where he belonged.