The Grill-Wielding Saintess of the Dead

After the First Great Rift, it’s a well-known fact that the regime in North Korea collapsed, turning countless residents into refugees who fled the country.

North Korea, which always had a poor urban infrastructure, completely fell apart after the Great Rift, with its national systems and military failing to function, leading to swift disintegration. Consequently, since 2024, North Korea has been completely untouched by both the government and the Hunter Association.

But here’s the kicker: it’s not just a five- or ten-year abandonment.

2024: First Great Rift occurs.
2025: Collapse of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
2028: The Hunter Association formally declares the North Korean region a no-man’s land.

From that moment until today, in 2088, no nation has dared to intervene in North Korea. Official announcements aside, in reality, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has essentially vanished.

Sure, there have been cases of grave robbers, unregistered Awakened Ones, terrorists, and Awakened criminals sneaking into that desolate land, but that’s mostly confined to areas near the borders.

In the end, both the United Nations and Hunters aimed to protect people and civilization, meaning there are hardly any takers wanting to step into the deserted and infrastructure-less North Korea.

If North Korea had oil or valuable resources, there might’ve been some effort to liberate it later on.

While rare earth metals are said to be buried in abundance, in the age of Hunters, resources can be found elsewhere in different dungeons, making the liberation of North Korea increasingly pointless.

Anyway, the reason the Hunter Train is passing through the North Korean region is that the world has stabilized enough for countries to have the luxury to turn their attention to no-man’s lands.

Originally, the Hunter Train was supposed to head straight from Busan to Japan, and then from Japan to the Pacific or Russia, but this Hunter Train took its first step towards liberating North Korea by heading to Pyongyang.

For decades, gates and dungeons were left unattended, and the monsters crawling out of the gates have practically taken over North Korea.

However, surprisingly, the number of monsters creeping out of North Korea was low.

While some monsters adapted and settled well into the no-man’s land of North Korea, monster scholars proposed a theory that a powerful ruling class of monsters had emerged within North Korea.

These powerful monsters, deemed the ruling class, control those weaker than themselves, reigning as kings of their kingdom, thus keeping other monsters from venturing out of North Korea.

And today, that theory was somewhat confirmed.

○○○○

In a white, comfy dress, Yoonjeong was sitting on the bed, welcoming a new face.

“So, what’s your name…?”
“Uh, I’m Kim Hana!”
“According to our son… um, Shia, you’ll be living with us from now on… is that what I heard?”
“Yes, yes! But son?”
“Oh, it’s nothing…”

‘Th-that person is Isia’s mother…’

Why a much younger-looking woman than Isia is the Mother of the Seongnyeo remains a mystery, but now wasn’t the time for Hana to think about it.

‘Should I just take the undead Seongnyeo’s mother hostage and ask for our liberation…?’

With a snake-like impulse, the back of Hana’s head transformed into a slime form.

With just a thought, she could pierce the defenseless Yoonjeong at any moment.

No, she didn’t even need to pierce her.
Even without using the slime’s power, Hana could easily overpower Yoonjeong with her original physical strength.

The quality of the magic she felt was incredibly low and scarce.
As a Hunter, she might be rank D or at best C.
It would be an insult to even compare her strength to Isia’s.

‘Right, now’s my chance. Isia killed my brothers, didn’t she? If I capture this woman named Yoonjeong and ask Isia to liberate me…!’

“That’s not recommended.”
“…!?”

In that moment, Hana felt her body, transformed into slime, caught in cold water.

“Oh, Mermaid Princess. You’re awake? Want some food?”
“Eek!”
“I ended up sleeping longer than I thought because the hot spring water felt better than expected. I’m fine with food.”

‘W-when was she even here…!?’

She didn’t know.
Was she hiding her presence?
Oh no, it’s not that…

‘Why is a mermaid even here!?’

Even examining Kim Hana’s mind, there’s no way a mermaid should be without reason in this place.
Why was she looking at Hana from the Hunter Train’s spa where they were?

And she didn’t have any eye patches on, yet didn’t seem to have issues with sight as she stared directly at Hana.

As the White Eye Mermaid twirled her finger, the liquid holding Hana’s slime part was sucked into the princess’s hand.

“Eep~”

Yoonjeong felt a hand that had been draped over her shoulder lower, followed by someone giving her scalp a few taps.

As expected, it was Yane.
A naive, innocent 0-year-old Bladed Centipede Seongnyeo who liked Yoonjeong more than Shia.

Yane giggled while looking at the stone-faced Kim Hana.
“My junior, ahem!”
“Are you a junior, Yane?”
“Yup! Junior! Ahem. I’m the most senior. Yoonjeong mama! Eep~!”
“Oh, I see.”

Ah, this won’t do.
How long has she been here?
Yoonjeong, who was being hugged from behind by Yane with a narrow gaze, witnessed Elder Mandragora dozing off, drool dripping as it nodded off by the window with sunlight shining through.

In the hot spring overlooking a bright room, the White Eye Mermaid was glaring at Kim Hana as if to say, “Bring it on.”
Moments earlier, Hana hadn’t sensed her presence at all, but from the instant she appeared before her, her instinct for survival was in a frenzy.

Everyone was dressed in the guise of human girls, but Hana felt like an ant in front of an elephant.

‘T-t-these guys are definitely stronger than me…’

Though she hadn’t gauged their true abilities, Hana broke out in a cold sweat at the relaxed atmosphere surrounding her.
Could Isia be preparing a safety net in fear that she might take Yoonjeong hostage?

‘…Even without Yoonjeong, there are still three of them… gulp… that plant girl… she must be the one who sucked the cores of, oh, my brothers earlier…’

She was done for.
Kim Hana, gripped by fear, started to sweat cold.
She had never had options. The moment she considered taking Yoonjeong hostage, someone popped out around her as if waiting for it.

To begin with, the Undead Seongnyeo didn’t care whether she betrayed them or not.
If she behaved, she’d be taken along as a subordinate as initially planned, and if she didn’t listen and acted impulsively, they might eliminate her right on the spot.

‘W-what a terrifying woman…!’

Meanwhile, unlike the trembling Kim Hana, Yoonjeong was deep in thought calmly.
Though it could be understood that Menelapie and Teresa had close ties with Shia from the previous world, now Yane, the Mermaid Princess, and Elder Mandragora had shown up, along with this girl named Kim Hana looking to become part of Shia’s family.

But today,
The family grew again.

According to Shia, it wasn’t like a close friend or acquaintance like Yeonhwa. They’d be living together under the same roof.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like she was a biological daughter born in pain, but still, the household was already a bit crowded, so could adding family be so easy?

‘But Shia must have her own thoughts… Even if she sometimes acts carelessly, she’s got depth; she’s a kind girl worthy of being called a Seongnyeo… And she’s rich too, with great abilities, so if I expand the family, Shia won’t be lonely…’

Yoonjeong knew that even if Shia always wore a smiling face, she sometimes felt extreme loneliness when alone or waking up from sleep.
Once, while Yoonjeong was making breakfast, she saw Shia bursting into tears as she looked at Yoonjeong in shock. When Yoonjeong hugged her and asked what was wrong, Shia confessed she was scared she would wake up one day to find no one there and that their reunion and family was all a dream.

‘…I guess Shia is also afraid of being alone again.’
There was no way she wouldn’t understand her own child.
A capable child wanting more companions and family, how could a mother disagree?

Yoonjeong felt the same as always, wanting to treat Kim Hana, the new family member, kindly.

“Okay, I got it. I won’t ask you too much.”
“Uh, uh? You won’t ask who I am or what I am?”
“Well, since we’re going to live together from now on, you’ll tell me when you want to share, right? You’ll need an adjustment period too; it might feel awkward at first.”
“Well, that’s true…”
“If Shia brought you, you must not be an ordinary person. You’re either a Returnee or a mutated monster or something, right?”
“……”
“Honestly, at this point, I’ve seen so much of Shia surprising me that I’m not even curious anymore.”

Surprisingly accurate, indeed.
Kim Hana swallowed hard and trembled her eyelids.
The truth is, for Kim Hana, or rather, the Slime Empress, it was quite a nerve-wracking moment.

‘T-thank goodness…’

One of the conditions Shia placed for saving her was ‘Yoonjeong’s permission.’
If Yoonjeong didn’t allow her to live together, Shia planned to eliminate all the slimes inhabiting Kim Hana’s body and hold a funeral for the human Kim Hana.

Hana’s thought of taking Yoonjeong hostage to demand her release from Shia was a failure, thanks to the presence of Yane, the Mermaid Princess, and Elder Mandragora. Now, her only chance of survival here was Yoonjeong’s permission.
Of course, Yoonjeong was completely unaware of Hana’s backstory, but anyway, the Slime Empress managed to retain her life.

‘By the way, my body feels a bit strange? Was I always this light?’

Hana then realized that at some point, her strength and presence had increased compared to usual.
Kim Hana might not notice it, but from the moment she received Yoonjeong’s permission, she underwent a kind of evolution into a Slime Empress.

The cause can be traced back to that moment she ate the slime cold noodles prepared by Shia.
Since she consumed food touched by the Seongnyeo’s hand, one could say she’d received a sort of ‘baptism’ like the White Eye Mermaid or Yane, and from the instant she gained Yoonjeong’s approval to become family, she unknowingly transformed into the Slime Empress.

Of course, Kim Hana still wouldn’t realize she had become a Slime Empress, nor how she came to be one.
For context, Elder Mandragora had also received her baptism long ago when she made fugu dove soup by cooking herself in a large cauldron to draw out the broth, benefiting from Shia’s touch at that time.

“W-what do I do now…?”
“Huh, what to do? Want to sit and watch TV?”
“Isn’t there any work or hard labor… or something?”
“Come on now. It’s not like we’re some dark organization or secret society. Do you think such things even exist?”
“…..Well, then…”
“If you’re bored, you can sit and watch TV or read a book, or hey, I heard there’s a swimming pool on the Hunter Train we could check out? Or are you hungry? Should I make you something to eat?”
“……..”

Now, having become the Slime Empress, Kim Hana could only smile shyly inside.

Living as a human, even alongside her kin and mother in the Blood Swamp, seemed to be surprisingly nice.
Thanks to Kim Hana’s brain, using human emotion and knowledge to enjoy the benefits of civilization felt incredibly good.

Here… could it be even better than expected?

[Ambush!]
[Ambush!]
[Ambush Alert!]
[Ambush Alert!]

“What’s that noise?”
“Hmm?”
“Eek?”
“…Cool…”

[Identifying unidentified entity… Searching…]

In that moment, the car Yoonjeong and the others were on began to shake violently.
One of the Hunter train cars was the size of a building, and to be shaking like this meant one of two things:
A natural disaster or something far larger than a building was intercepting the train Yoonjeong was on.

[Entity name ‘Uranium Dragon’! The Uranium Dragon is intercepting the Hunter Train! All Hunters prepare for combat!]

“Y-yikes!?”

At that moment, Kim Hana… or rather, the Blood Slime within Kim Hana began to react violently to the term “Uranium Dragon.”
The mother of mutated slimes in the Blood Swamp Dungeon had gradually secured its territory toward the south, not the north.

As a result, the Blood Swamp Dungeon encompassed the area of Geumgangsan, and had that encroachment continued, the Blood Swamp would likely have spread to the regions of South Korea as well.

Anyway, the reason the ‘mother’ secured territory to the south was simple.
The mother was wary of something in the north.

Not having proper intelligence, she wouldn’t ponder or question her mother’s actions out of curiosity, but today, Kim Hana realized why her mother shied away from advancing north.
It was because she heard that name, Uranium Dragon, on the broadcast.

Yeah, it had to be that.
That immense, monstrous presence and magic.
The fear that made her skin crawl and flesh tremble.
While not as frightening as the Undead Seongnyeo, for Kim Hana, the existence of the Uranium Dragon was terrifying beyond measure.

“Uranium Dragon? What’s that…?”
“Eek?”
“Hmm, I wonder.”
“Cool…”

‘No, these guys shouldn’t be this unconcerned…!’

A rumbling crash!
A bang!
A thunderous crash!!

At that moment, Hana felt the train she was on shake considerably before sensing a strange floating sensation.
‘Floating sensation? Could it be flying…?!’
With a fearful thought, Hana dashed toward the window.
And what she saw was a gigantic object with a prism-like morphing color ripping the car apart and soaring away at high speed.

“…What the heck…”
“Wow! We’re flying! We’re flying!”
“Seems like it.”
“Cool…”
“Wow, is this Hunter Train really flying in the sky?”

No, it’s not!
Seeing the calmness of those who were completely different from her, Hana felt like crying again.

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