Chapter 9.1: I Don't Have A Day Off
— Daybreak Guild + Top Floor —
At this moment, Han Yeoreum was standing with her hands clasped behind her back, her eyes locked into the floor, not daring to look up at the person in front of her at all.
This was due to the fact that the said person is a middle aged man who is glaring fiercely at her.
“Yeoreum, let me get this straight.”
“…”
“The people of our Daybreak Guild, have been neglecting, borderline abusing, an eight-year-old child, to the point where she’s at the brink of death?”
“Yes…”
The man in front of her is known as the [Living Legend], Kang Jinho, no adventurer in the entirety of South Korea doesn’t know this man, Han Yeoreum included.
Which is why, when she got called upon by him, her heart trembled in fear..
“Why did they do such a thing?”
His voice was cold, like that of someone interrogating a criminal, the pressure that he emmit, despite not intentionally doing so, is so great that Yeoreum struggled greatly to speak.
“It–It’s because the child had no mana at all.”
“Mana?”
“Ye–Yes. That– the child is also quite tall, almost as tall as me, acts quite mature, and disguised herself as a boy, so…”
Listening to the child height remark, Kang Jinho scanned Han Yeoreum from head to toe.
If that child is really almost as tall as Han Yeoreum, then that means she’s at the 160 – 170 cm range, and it’s understandable for them to think of someone of that size as an eight year old.
But, that doesn’t matter.
“So, they thought she was an adult and left her to nearly die?”
“No–no! That’s not what I meant!”
Yeoreum hastily waved her hands, unable to figure out how to defend herself in this twisted situation.
“Then what?”
“Well…”
Yeoreum took a deep breath, trying to calm down and explain everything from the beginning.
“I… before this… I had never thought someone would be that frail… that someone could die to a horned rabbit…. Such thoughts never crossed my mind…”
“…Since she had no mana, her skin must have been softer than jelly.”
If she truly had no mana, that is.
Even though Kang Jinho was skeptical of such outlandish claims, he doesn’t show it nor let it cloud his judgment.
He trusts the members of the Daybreak Guild, and since they said that the child has no mana, then, he would consider that child as mana-less.
“Yes. And it might sound like an excuse, but at first, we did help her a lot. We taught her how to hunt monsters and even rescued her from chases…”
“But you let her be because she made no progress?”
“Yes… We were a bit tired of babysitting her all day long.”
“Hmm…”
Tap-
Tap-
Kang Jinho tapped his finger on the desk, each tapping sound sent tremor to Yeoreum’s heart.
He thought of the situation without the knowledge that the other party is a child.
An adult man, someone so weak, to the point he couldn’t even properly catch a single horned rabbit, despite being taught and helped by many other seniors, and lacking talent as an adventurer but still coming to the hunting grounds for years seeking help.
It was a situation where anyone less than a saint would inevitably feel annoyed.
‘It must’ve been like torture.’
So, that torturer was actually a child?
A child abandoned by her parents due to lack of mana, struggling to survive.
Although it was ultimately the guild’s fault, it was hard to blame Yeoreum due to a series of misunderstandings.
“You should have helped her when she was being chased.”
“I’m sorry. We just thought it was a ridiculous situation…”
“Well, it is…”
The thought of an adult man being scared and running away from a horned rabbit is a weird and comical one.
If Kang Jinho hadn’t known that the adult man who are being chased is an eight year old girl, he might have just watched from afar too.
To others, the sight of her running away felt like watching an entertainment, like watching one of those 1990’s cartoons, but…
‘That girl was running for her life.’
Despite the misunderstanding, the guild had ignored and neglected such a child—a fragile child fleeing for her life from monsters.
Even the cold-hearted Kang Jinho felt suffocated by the situation.
“There wasn’t anyone in the guild who physically harmed the child, right?”
“No. There were some who verbally abused her, but no one physically assaulted her.”
“Thankfully, that’s one less thing to worry about.”
Tsk.
Yeoreum shivered as Kang Jinho clicked his tongue.
“But other adventurers might have hit and bullied her…”
“You didn’t stop them?”
“We did when we saw it, but we couldn’t always be around her…”
She must have suffered a lot where they couldn’t see.
Yeoreum bit her lip, feeling guilty.
“Alright, I understand. I’ll overlook the unauthorized use of the [The Blessing of the Beast God]. Just make sure to take good care of the child with the guild’s resources.”
“Yes…”
Yeoreum bowed deeply towards Kang Jinho, her heart heavy with turmoil.