< Chapter 49: The 10 Years of Blank (2) >
We arrived at the training room of the Bihon Guild, the place we promised to meet.
“I’m sorry for being late.”
Yu Hwa bowed her head slightly with a smile of hospitality.
“Not at all. We came too early. Haha.”
A kind-looking grandfather in his 60s chuckled.
I was worried that he would be a strict supervisor of the committee, but he didn’t look so.
“More importantly, today’s registration is for the child named Goldie… Oh. There he is.”
The grandfather approached me.
I whispered to Goldie, who I was holding in my arms.
“Goldie, you know you can’t attack people, right?”
“Kyareung.”
Goldie turned his head and looked up at me with a smile that seemed to say, ‘Leave it to me’.
He’s really cute the more I look at him.
Goldie might be the only drug that the country allowed.
Something like cuteness toxin.
“Excuse me.”
The chairman reached out his hand to Goldie. Then he lightly stroked his head.
Goldie also rubbed his face against his hand and licked it.
…He’s not really tasting it, is he?
“He’s very well-behaved. If I saw him on the street, I would have thought he was just a cute cat.”
The chairman stroked Goldie continuously with a satisfied smile.
The people who came with him, who looked like staff members, approached us.
They had strange machines in their hands.
“How are the readings?”
“Mental resonance normal. No signs of aggression.”
“There’s no evil feeling in his magic either.”
“I see.”
The chairman smiled warmly and kept petting Goldie.
“Can I hold him for a moment?”
“Yes. Of course.”
I handed Goldie over to the chairman.
“Nyaang.”
Goldie snuggled into the chairman’s arms and acted cute.
“Haha.”
Everyone’s eyes were drawn to Goldie.
“…There’s no need to look any further.”
Everyone’s eyes naturally softened.
“Yes. There’s no reason to fail him.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen such a well-behaved child.”
“That’s right. Haha.”
Things were going well.
“I’ve had a good show in a while.”
Yu Hwa came up to me and whispered in my ear.
-He, he came running as soon as he saw the video of Goldie that I sent you.
“Ah.”
As expected, he looked like someone who liked animals very much.
I’m thankful for that.
“Then let’s finish it off with a light measurement of combat power. Bihon Guild Master. Can you summon a suitable monster for me?”
“Yes. What kind of monster do you want?”
“Hmm. For this size…”
“A carnivorous deer, please.”
I interrupted them.
“…Isn’t a carnivorous deer a bit dangerous? Even if it’s a magic doll, it could be risky.”
Yu Hwa said with a worried look.
“It’s okay. I told you. Our Goldie is very strong.”
He could even fold the spine of an A-rank superhuman or so.
“Hmm. The owner knows best about his child.”
The chairman stepped forward and backed up my opinion.
“Of course.”
“…Okay. I’ll set it up as a carnivorous deer.”
Yu Hwa tapped on the hologram keyboard and started the settings.
Shortly after.
“Shall I summon it?”
“Yes. Oh, before that, Goldie.”
I put Goldie on the floor.
Then Goldie walked out with a dignified look that suited a beast.
He was cute even then.
“…Are you sure it’s okay?”
“It’s okay, I told you.”
“Uh. Then I’ll summon it.”
Ziing-
Magic particles gathered and formed the shape of a monster.
It was a perfect carnivorous deer in anyone’s eyes.
“Goldie~ Go bite!”
“Kyareung!”
Goldie nodded his head cutely.
And the next moment.
Whoosh-
A strong wind blew and then.
Kwaaaaaang-!
The body of the carnivorous deer was stuck on the wall far away.
In an instant, he returned to his original huge body and smiled as if he was satisfied.
“…Huh?”
“…Uh?”
A cold silence flowed.
Yu Hwa, the chairman, and everyone else looked at the carnivorous deer that had been smashed with an expression that they couldn’t hide their confusion.
“Kyareung…”
Did he not like this awkward atmosphere?
Suddenly, Goldie opened his eyes wide as if he realized something and ran towards the carnivorous deer that hadn’t completely disappeared yet.
Then he bit its mouth and ran back to us.
…This feels strangely familiar?
Clack!
As expected,
He slammed the carnivorous deer on the floor.
“Kyuu?”
Then he tilted his head cutely.
“…Wow.”
It was exactly the same as the ‘thing that used to be a carnivorous deer’ that I saw in the ruins.
He remembered that I praised him back then.
“Good, good. You’re a good boy.”
Our Goldie is smart too.
I stroked his head and asked the chairman.
“How about it? Is he qualified?”
“…”
He didn’t say anything.
“…”
“Hello? Everyone?”
No, everyone was speechless.
* * *
Goldie passed the guardian qualification test without any trouble.
-I can’t believe that this tiny kid’s original form was such a big tiger. It still doesn’t feel real to me.
-Meow?
-The voices of Yu Hwa and Goldie came through the phone.
“Well, it’s not easy to imagine an elephant-sized tiger when you see his cute face.”
-Exactly! Oh. Oh.
-Meoww~
I heard Goldie making a fuss. They seemed to be playing around.
“Aren’t you scared?”
I would think she would be afraid since she saw Goldie’s original form.
-What does it matter if he’s a cat or a tiger? He’s so adorable and kind. Right~ Goldie~
-Grrr~
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any problem.
-Oh. Right. Then you’ll be taking Goldie with you next week?
“Yes. I think so.”
Once I finish the guardian registration, I can bring Goldie to the dormitory.
It takes three days to be officially registered in the association’s database, and then another two days to get the identification tag, so…
I guess I can live with him in about five days.
-You have to submit an application to the school too, you know?
“Ah.”
Right. I forgot about that.
Then I should add another day, maybe six days.
-Then it’ll be at most a week. Sigh. I miss our Goldie so much already.
“Just visit him once in a while.”
-Goldie, you’re not going to forget about this sister, are you?
-Meow.
Ah. I feel jealous when I hear them teasing each other like that.
-Oh, can I ask you one thing?
“What is it?”
I had a rough idea of what she was going to say.
-How did you tame him?
As expected.
“Hmm. What if I say it’s a secret?”
-Well, then I’ll just have to accept it.
She was surprisingly obedient.
-But I might not be able to contact you for a while. I have something planned.
“…Ah.”
That was a pretty cute threat.
Well, I have an excuse ready anyway.
“I tamed him with the Tiger’s Gauntlet at the ruins.”
-How did you… ah.
“Did you figure it out? Yes. Goldie and the Tiger. There was some connection between them.”
Strictly speaking, it was the power of [Boiling Pureblood] and [Guardian], but there was indeed some connection between the Tiger’s Gauntlet and Goldie.
It wasn’t a lie.
-Wow… That’s creepy.
I heard her exclaim over the phone.
“Why?”
I felt a sudden anxiety.
-So that’s why you asked for the Tiger’s Gauntlet.
“…Yes?”
The conversation started to go in a strange direction.
-If everything was planned from the beginning… Then Goldie is…
“Hello? Yu Hwa?”
She started to mutter something to herself.
-No, judging by the fact that you knew the hidden effect of the Tiger’s Gauntlet…
She didn’t seem to hear me.
She just kept talking.
Then that means…
What kind of delusion was unfolding in Yu Hwa’s head?
I couldn’t even imagine.
I quietly pressed the end call button while listening to her mumbling voice.
I don’t know.
Let’s just sleep.
Thursday classes were filled with boring theory lessons.
“As you all know, ten thousand years ago, all non-human races except humans disappeared.”
It was also a tedious history lesson. The guest lecturer didn’t seem to care about the sleeping cadets and continued his lecture.
“The strange thing is, there is no record of their disappearance at all.”
Sleepiness is contagious, they say. Now most of the cadets were lying down and sleeping.
The only ones who were awake were three people.
Me, Ha Si-yeon, and Jia.
I was not drowsy because of the boiling pureblood in my veins, but they both had bright eyes and listened attentively to the guest lecturer’s words.
“Some scholars dismissed the existence of non-human races as nonsense. They said it was impossible for them to disappear at the same time. The records from ten thousand years ago were all fiction. That’s what they said.”
I felt like I had heard that somewhere before. The records from the past were all based on one person’s delusion, and we were being fooled by them.
-The skeptics.
“But their words were quickly dismissed as nonsense. Why do you think that is?”
“Because there are clear evidence of ancient relics all over the world.”
Jia answered.
“That’s correct. You can see it just by looking at the World Tree standing on the Korean Peninsula. They definitely existed.”
That’s true.
The non-human races definitely existed in the past.
I’m probably the only one who knows vaguely why they disappeared in this world.
“They disappeared because of the great war that broke out ten thousand years ago.”
The guest lecturer continued.
“It lasted for ten years, and all non-human races were annihilated by it.
Except for the humans who miraculously survived, that is.”
Not all of them were annihilated.
There were some who escaped extinction by being sealed or exiled.
They actually returned when the seal was broken in the middle of the novel.
Like that black demon Mephisto.
Anyway, there was no record of that long war.
So in the original novel, the ten-year war was called ‘the ten years of blank’.
The problem is, I don’t know much about those ten years of blank either.
It was mentioned a few times in the original novel [S-Class Status Window], but it was never described in detail, so I couldn’t tell.
I was curious about it until the end.
I asked Shin-hyung about it after the novel was finished, but he just drank his glass with a bitter expression and that was it.
Judging by the fact that it wasn’t mentioned much in the original, it wasn’t that important, but it bothered me for some reason.
After Thursday classes were over,
I had a simple dinner and went back to my room.
The current time was 6:40 p.m.
Jia said she would come around 7 o’clock, so she should be arriving soon.
Ding dong-
Just then, I heard the doorbell ring.
She must have arrived.
I quickly opened the door.
“Hello.”
Jia bowed her head slightly.
“Come in.”
“Yes.”
Jia passed by me and entered the room. I closed the door and followed her.
“Oh, right. Ancestor, this.”
Jia took out a book from her small handbag as she fidgeted.
“This is the book you wanted to see.”
“Oh. You brought it already?”
The book Jia handed me was a record book full of information about the elf race. Of course, it also recorded the unique racial traits of the elves.
I opened the book with joy.
“…”
And closed it right away.
It wasn’t in Korean.
“Is there a problem…?”
Maybe it was because I closed the book right away. Jia looked at me with anxious eyes and asked.
“No. I just want to focus on it later.”
…Where can I learn the elf language? Is there a place like Infinite Library or something… Oh, right, that was Shin-hyung’s previous work.
“Ah.”
Jia seemed to relax and sighed in relief.
“Just sit down.”
“Yes.”
Jia sat down on the bed, and I pulled out a chair from the desk and sat down.
“So. What did you want to tell me?”
Judging by Jia’s expression yesterday, it wasn’t something serious.
“Um…”
As expected, Jia hesitated. It seemed to be a difficult thing to say. I didn’t rush her and waited.
“Well, this is just a question, but Ancestor, do you…”
It was about a minute later when Jia opened her mouth.
Ding dong-
The doorbell rang again, cutting off Jia’s words.
“?”
Who is it? I don’t have anyone who would come to see me without contacting me at this time.
“Just a moment.”
“Ah, yes.”
I went out to the front door and opened it.
“Who are….”
Bang!
And closed it right away.
Did I see it wrong?
It looked like Yu Hwa.
Yu Hwa holding Goldie.
-Huh. I wonder where you learned such a rude thing as closing the door after checking someone’s face.
It wasn’t a mistake.
I rubbed my forehead.
“…Is that Yu Hwa?”
I felt an inexplicable chill from Jia’s voice behind me.
“No, that…”
Why did the two of them have to come at this time?
-Open the door quickly. This kid is crying because he misses you.
“…Ouch.”
This kid?
You should say, Goldie.
That sounds like a misunderstanding if someone hears it.
“…Ancestor?”
That really sounds like a misunderstanding.
“Hahaha.”
Please support me…
