The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess - Chapter 108



108 – Hybrid #1

108 – Hybrid #1

While Baek Yeoul and the friends of the day without leftovers, along with Wang Jaehyun, were forming a very suspicious team-up, Seo Gaeul was acting individually.

“This is the brainwave of Main Namwooju. If you look at this part, it seems that an unknown stimulus has acted on the brain, causing changes in the nerves.”

“These are symptoms commonly seen in those who have been brainwashed for a long time due to external factors….”

I visited the research institute studying Main Namwooju and heard about the tedious progress of the situation, but most of the difficult medical jargon quickly evaporated from my mind.

‘So when will Namwooju come to his senses? They should have properly explained what it means to find “Kore.”‘

The repetition of unproductive times.

Seo Gaeul felt frustrated.

“Gaeul.”

As Seo Gaeul was leaving the research institute, someone’s voice stopped her in her tracks. When she turned her head, she saw a woman in military uniform.

“Jang Boreum.”

That’s what the name tag on her chest said.

‘Who was it?’

‘Was it Nam Woo-joo’s lieutenant?’

Seo Ga-eul, who neither knew nor was interested in the ranks of soldiers, didn’t know what kind of person a lieutenant or a second lieutenant was.

But she could tell that the woman’s eyes were swollen.

The woman in front of her and Nam Woo-joo must have been very close.

“The Brigadier General was looking for you until the end. He thought you were connected to Kore. Did you not contact Kore while you were kidnapped?”

Kore was a fairy princess.

Seo Ga-eul couldn’t understand why Nam Woo-joo and the other soldiers were so desperate to find the fairy princess.

“Why? Why are you looking for Kore?”

“That’s classified information.”

They wouldn’t answer easily.

But then, Lieutenant Jang Bo-reum, after looking around for a while, handed Seo Ga-eul a small note.

It was a piece of gum wrapper with an address written on it.

“What is this?”

“Go there.”

The address wasn’t far.

It was about an hour’s walk for Seo Ga-eul.

She arrived at a junkyard.

In a place where crushed and flattened cars were piled up, an old man was making a fire.

A bonfire in the scorching heat of summer.

“Who goes there?”

An old man with graying hair looked at Seo Ga-eul and asked. His face was deeply tanned from years of outdoor life, and his hands and feet were calloused and rough, like iron lids.

“This isn’t a place where a pretty girl like you should be.”

The old man grinned, revealing yellow teeth.

Seo Ga-eul felt slightly offended, as if she had been ignored.

So she shot a miraculous bullet from her palm, piercing a nearby drum. The old man’s eyes gleamed strangely.

“Oh, you’re the girl from that place. I have nothing to say. I’ve been discharged for a long time! Don’t think you can keep using me for free!”

The old man shouted.

It was only then that Seo Ga-eul noticed the old man’s hands were trembling and his eyes were slightly out of focus.

‘What? He’s just a crazy old man?’

Why did Jang Bo-reum give her this address?

Suppressing the urge to turn around, Seo Ga-eul forced a fake smile.

“Grandfather, do you know someone named Lieutenant Jang Bo-reum? He sent me here. Do you have any idea why?”

“Jang Bo-reum or Jangdokdae, how should I know! It’s my lunch time now! Can’t you see the water boiling over the campfire? If you really want to talk, why don’t you cook some kimchi stew!”

What? Kimchi stew? Treating her like a cook?

Seo Ga-eul almost got angry, but since she had come this far, she decided to play along.

The problem was, Seo Ga-eul didn’t know how to cook kimchi stew.

Instead, she had a smartphone.

Tap-tap-tap.

“How to cook kimchi stew in 30 seconds”

From noble mtl dot com

Just watch one video and it’s over.

What? Easy.

Seo Ga-eul thought so as she added sour kimchi and pork to the pot boiling over the campfire.

Slurp.

The broth tasted so-so.

‘Something seems to be missing.’

Seo Ga-eul, just in case, squeezed some ketchup into the kimchi stew.

It was the kind you get one by one when you eat fries at a fast-food restaurant, but lately, Seo Ga-eul had been carrying these ketchups around more often.

“It looks decent! Now, the taste…”

Slurp.

The old man took a spoonful of the kimchi stew.

And then his face crumpled.

“Who in the world puts ketchup in kimchi stew? The kimchi I carefully aged has become useless because of this!”

The old man was furious.

He was so angry that his whole body trembled, and then tears started streaming down his face.

“No matter how hard I try, I can’t make this taste. This strange taste…”

Is he really senile?

Just in case, Seo Ga-eul placed her hand on the scabbard at her waist, ready to strike and run if necessary. The trembling in the old man’s hand, which was holding the spoon, stopped.

“So, who are you, young lady?”

“Seo Ga-eul.”

“What? Seo Ga-eul? You should have mentioned that first! You came to see me because you want to hear about ‘Kore,’ right? That kid often talked about you guys.”

Kore!

Even in the sweltering heat, the irritation Seo Ga-eul felt from humoring the senile old man melted away like an ancient glacier, replaced by a refreshing thrill.

“Wait a moment!”

The old man seemed to enter a tent built among the junk cars and rummaged around for something.

It was a physical photograph, a rare sight in this age of smartphones.

“This is Kore. Her Korean name is Kim Bom. I gave it to her.”

Kim Bom.

It was a photo of a woman with light brown hair making a V sign.

Seo Ga-eul felt a familiar sense of déjà vu from that familiar face and pulled out the photo album of ‘Hanamjin’s Photobook.’

The woman in the photo with the young Hanamjin looked exactly like Kim Bom.

What could this mean?

While Seo Ga-eul was trying to organize his thoughts with his overheated mind, the old man’s eyes glanced at the album.

And then he exclaimed in admiration.

“Could it be that Bom has a son? But that can’t be! Haneul, that rascal, said he couldn’t get married because he was like a seedless watermelon!”

“A seedless watermelon?”

“He has no sperm. Why else would Nam Tae-geon adopt so many children? Because his only blood relative, Nam Haneul, is azoospermic and can’t continue the family line, so he took in adopted children instead.”

“Wait, what, Nam Tae-geon?”

Seo Ga-eul felt like he had just heard something incredible.

But the old man continued to ramble on a few more words.

“What did I just say? The important thing is that Bomi must go to the Great Labyrinth before it’s too late. The Red King has endured for too long. If we delay any further, the Black Rain will…”

“Grandpa! What are you talking about? What’s with Nam Tae-geon? And who are the Red King and the Black Rain?”

“To use it in a real battle, the individual value must be 6V… Mom… I told you I wanted my fried eggs sunny side up…”

The old man’s eyes grew cloudy again, and his hands trembled like aspen trees in winter.

Seeing him like this, as if he had dementia, Seo Ga-eul wondered if cooking him some kimchi stew would bring him back to his senses, but there was no more kimchi left to make the stew.

# # #

I briefly explained to Yoo Yeoreum what had happened over the past few days.

After listening for a while, Yoo Yeoreum turned her head away, seemingly uninterested.

“Your explanation is too long. Summarize it in three lines.”

“I’m saying it’s nice to see you again in these difficult times. And this is Puba, the fairy of the baobab tree, so say hello.”

“I am Baonoi, the nymph of the stream…! It’s amazing that you entered the ‘Food Storage’…! This place is an amazing spot that only chosen fairies can enter…!”

Baonoi was purely delighted as she looked at the jerky and dried figs piled up in the food storage.

For Baonoi, who had been barely surviving on dried mushrooms in the forest contaminated by the Black Rain, this place must have seemed like heaven.

Baonoi also seemed to like Yoo Yeoreum very much.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a cute Kore…! She looks a bit dumb, but the stupidity of Kore can be wrapped in innocence and charm, so it’s amazing…!”

“Did you just call me dumb?”

As Yoo Yeoreum frowned, seemingly upset, I also had a question.

“What is a Kore?”

Even Nam Woo-joo, who had briefly regained his senses, mentioned something about Kore.

“Explaining what Kore is is not Kore-friendly at all…! Anyway, we nymphs love cute Kore as much as dried mushrooms…!”

Kore must mean a young and pretty lady like Yuyeoreum.

“If I can make this amazing Kore my partner Kore of that Baonoi, I will be so proud in front of the returning nymph sisters…! I am looking forward to the next bragging day…!”

Anyway.

We decided to leave this place for now.

We are going to find an exit through the ventilation duct.

“When did you decide to put me here, and now you want me to crawl out through that ventilation duct?”

Yuyeoreum seemed displeased with this operation.

But without firmly refusing, she stepped on my shoulder and struggled to climb into the ventilation duct.

Just in case, I looked up, and the angle from below was quite impressive. Yuyeoreum’s butt, wrapped in spats, was as big as a bread loaf!

“What an amazing sight. Now I have no regrets even if I die.”

“Then die!”

Yuyeoreum stomped on my face with her foot.

And so, we entered the ventilation duct.

“Look at this…! The pitch-black darkness is blocking the way…!”

Some parts of the ventilation duct were completely submerged in darkness, but when Yuyeoreum emitted light from her eyes, the darkness receded like ink being washed away, making it easier to proceed.

The minor problem is that we don’t know exactly where this ventilation duct leads to?

Fortunately, Baonoi knew the solution to that problem.

“Baonoi heard that there is an entrance to the outside world near the throne of the Red King…! It’s a story heard from Inonoi, so it’s certain…!”

“Inonoi?”

Yuyeoreum, who was walking ahead, seemed intrigued by the strange name.

When I asked “Why?” he cut the conversation short with a terse “No.” His attitude was highly suspicious.

The important thing here is that we knew the location of the exit.

After walking through the ventilation shaft for a while, a room filled with the shadow rats of Hameln appeared beneath our feet.

Rat hole.

That would be a fitting name.

━Krrrrng…!

As Ing-Ing, who was perched on my shoulder, let out an angry sound, the rats retreated.

Thanks to that, we were able to land somewhat safely in the dark room. Looking around, I saw thick pillars and red carpets.

On a platform that looked like stairs, a grand throne was carved, reminiscent of a Greek statue, and someone in red armor sat there without a single movement.

“Hiek…! It’s the ‘Red King’…! The terror of the fairies…! What the nymph…!”

Bao Noi suddenly had a seizure.

I understood his reaction. The shadow of the man in red armor was unusually dark.

It seemed as if the darkness of this great labyrinth was emanating from that man.

“Shh, be quiet.”

「Name: Red King, Valla

Possession: Tap to unfold

《???》 – Insufficient emotional level to peek at this.

《Darkness Lv.4》 – Darkness as pitch-black as an era where the sun has disappeared.

Status: 《Deep Sleep》 – In a deep slumber.」

Indeed, had Nam Woo-joo been defeated by that?

If there was one fortunate thing, it was that the terrifying king was in a very deep sleep.

And behind that throne, there was an immensely huge door.

A stone door that looked exactly like the one seen underground in the southwest group of the Yeongsa High School.

If we go through there, we can surely return to the outside world.

Great!

That joy was short-lived.

Flash-.

A blue light flickered deep within the helmet worn by the Red King.

Sssssss-.

A sinister noise, like someone taking a long-held breath.

【Successor. Prove your worth according to the ancient laws.】

“I’m terribly sorry to wake you, but can we just leave?”

A fair negotiation!

Speaking like a true man, the Red King exhaled a pitch-black breath from under his helmet and said.

【There is no retreat.】

Damn it! Just when things seemed to be going well!

Swish-.

As the Red King reached out his hand, the rats of darkness lurking near us began to pounce on Yoo Yeoreum.

Squeak squeak squeak-!

With a very fierce momentum!

“Get lost! Get─ubububub!”

Eventually, Yuyeoreum was buried under a swarm of rats.

If this continues, Yuyeoreum will be devoured by the rats of darkness!

Flash-! Spark-!

At that moment, a strange fairy resembling Baonoi appeared in the throne room, holding a dazzlingly bright lantern.

“The Red King has awakened from his slumber, so you must flee…! While this Inonoi is holding them off, you must escape…!”

I don’t know who it was, but thanks to the lantern, the swarm of rats was retreating!

Could the people who witnessed the white wizard who came to support the army of Rohan have been this happy!

【Is it the light of a miracle─.】

The Red King covered his face with his palm.

Taking advantage of the rats’ hesitation, I hugged Yuyeoreum tightly.

And then I ran with all my might towards the door behind the throne!

“Namjin touch!”

Swoosh-.

As soon as my hand touched the door, my vision changed completely.

When I came to my senses, I found myself sprawled on an unknown hillside. The nymph who introduced herself as Inonoi and Baonoi were also lying down.

It’s dark.

What time is it?

And something under my butt felt unusually soft.

“Move.”

At that moment, someone punched me in the butt.

It was Yoo Yeoreum, who was lying face down beneath me.

The soft thing was Yoo Yeoreum’s butt!

“Yoo Yeoreum! You’re safe! The escape was successful!”

“Don’t talk to me carelessly, you mongrel.”

“Huh?”