Chapter 313
Chapter 313
The time was past afternoon, reaching the point where one could call it night . The smell of fragrant food filled the house . Properly cooked white rice and boiling pollack stew lay in the middle of the table, with side dishes neatly placed around the table . Just the sight of the food could make one’s mouth water .
It had been a while since Sungyoon’s family sat around the picturesque spread of food on the table . The sight of Sungyoon, Jimin, and s.h.i.+nhae sitting next to each other presented a warm and gentle atmosphere .
“What about Mothers-in-law and Brothers-in-law? Aren’t they going to eat?”
The threat to his family hadn"t gone away, so everyone still resided inside Hweeyoung and Aiin’s house .
Jimin picked up a scrumptious piece of fish and placed it on s.h.i.+nhae’s dish as she spoke .
“My brothers are on a mission, and my mothers already ate . They are full . ”
“They are very considerate of us . ”
“I think so too . ”
Sungyoon was as busy as he could be, so he spent very little time with his family . Moreover, his schedule would continue to be busy . Therefore, Hweeyoung and Aiin made sure he enjoyed quality time with his family during dinner .
After a long time, Sungyoon could finally have a delightful meal with his family .
Usually, he ate in the dark and dangerous labyrinths . Since he had the storage Gem, he could eat tasty foods, but this didn’t mean he enjoyed the experience . It couldn’t be compared to eating a comfortable meal with his family .
“How long will you be home for, Dad?”
s.h.i.+nhae asked Sungyoon .
Sungyoon wanted to say, ‘I’ll be here every day!’, but reality was a harsh mistress .
“I won’t be able to stay long . I have to head out soon . ”
“Heeng! I want to play with Dad!”
Sungyoon really wanted to do that too .
‘I can’t because of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d, Grenoid!’
Sungyoon hated Grenoid for being the enemy of humanity, but his desire to kill it went through the roof at that moment . Because of Grenoid, the time that he could spend with s.h.i.+nhae had drastically gone down . No, it was more than a drastic cut . He could barely see his daughter these days .
“Then when will you finish your busy work, Dad?”
“I’m not sure . I have no idea . ”
A sad expression appeared on s.h.i.+nhae"s face, and Sungyoon"s desire to kill Grenoid skyrocketed further .
“Your dad does admirable work . He helps other people, and that"s why he"s short on time . You can bear this, right? s.h.i.+nhae is a good girl . ”
Not too much time had pa.s.sed since Jimin married Sungyoon and become a mother to s.h.i.+nhae . Yet, she had settled into the role of a mother quite well as if she had been a mother for over a decade .
“When he has time, he’ll make it up by taking you to fun places that you want to go to . Where do you want to go, s.h.i.+nhae?”
Jimin discreetly changed the topic . s.h.i.+nhae became serious as she agonized over her choices . The little girl"s sad figure was nowhere to be seen now . Seeing this, Jimin winked at Sungyoon .
Sungyoon chuckled at the sight of Jimin redirecting s.h.i.+nhae’s thought process .
s.h.i.+nhae had even stopped eating to think about the choices . Jimin carefully took away the spoon in s.h.i.+nhae’s hand, scooped the rice, and placed a piece of fish on it . Then, she immediately guided the spoon to s.h.i.+nhae’s mouth .
“Nyam!”
The scene looked as though a mother bird were feeding a baby bird .
Jimin repeated this process several times before she handed the spoon back to s.h.i.+nhae . s.h.i.+nhae once again started to eat her rice with her spoon . Jimin continued to place fish on her rice, but she could see that s.h.i.+nhae’s mind was elsewhere .
“Ah!”
s.h.i.+nhae opened her mouth to speak and let out a sound, but she then realized her mouth still contained food . Since she had been taught to not speak with a full mouth, she chewed on her food first .
She wanted to speak, so she did her best to swallow the food as soon as possible .
Sungyoon and Jimin could see what she was doing, and they did their best to hold back their laughter .
s.h.i.+nhae was unaware of this . Her mind was elsewhere, and she didn’t have the processing power to pay attention to her surroundings right now . She wanted to tell her mom and dad about the places she had thought of .
Gulp!
She finally swallowed the food in her mouth . A grain of rice remained stuck to her bottom lips, and it only added to her cuteness .
“There"s a place I want to go to!”
“Where?”
“Europe!”
s.h.i.+nhae pointed to the table with her hands . However, she quickly put her hands down when Jimin scolded her .
“My friend Hanna went there last time with her mother and father!”
“Really? Europe isn’t just one place . Which country did they visit?”
s.h.i.+nhae was so excited that her arms and legs moved every which way . However, she froze when she heard the question . She started to think again, and this time, she clutched at her head .
“Mmm… That"s… It sounded like a bug’s name in Korean . . . . ”
“Paris?”
“Yes! Paris! That’s it! It was named after an annoying bug!”
‘I thought the same when I was young . ’
Sungyoon watched his wife and daughter have a fun time with each other .
Paris was a city known for its fas.h.i.+on and elegance . However, if the name was translated into Korean, it sounded like the name of a dirty bug that annoyed people in the summer .
Therefore, it was normal for s.h.i.+nhae to make such an a.s.sociation with the two names .
“Then! There is . . . uh . . . Lan, Lan, Lan . . . ”
It seemed s.h.i.+nhae remembered another place, but she couldn"t quite recall its name .
‘… Lan?’
This time Sungyoon had no idea what s.h.i.+nhae was trying to say . s.h.i.+nhae continued to work her brain to find the answer that she wanted .
“Lan… duh? No . Lan? Lon?”
“London?”
“Yes! That one!”
s.h.i.+nhae was delighted .
However, Sungyoon was surprised, and he stared at Jimin with a dumb expression .
Jimin laughed as she continued to listen to the excited s.h.i.+nhae . She turned to look at Sungyoon and let out a sigh when she saw him .
“Don’t be jealous of your wife because of your daughter . ”
Jimin had immediately deciphered s.h.i.+nhae’s words, which he couldn’t understand . This had given him a great deal of shock . As Jimin said, he had felt jealousy flood his heart, as if she had stolen his daughter .
“I’ll have to end this as soon as possible . ”
He had to spend more time with s.h.i.+nhae .
“I agree with your a.s.sessment, but my feelings are complicated since I’m feeling jealous of my wife . ”
Jimin was struck dumb .
His daughter was important, but his wife was important too . Thankfully, Jimin didn’t take his words the wrong way . Still, he had to make it up to her . He felt the need to spend the night with her to pay extra attention to her needs . It had been a while since the two of them had been together .
These d.a.m.ned monsters always got in the way when he wanted to spend quality time with his family .
Sungyoon’s phone rang . He frowned, while Jimin’s face froze . s.h.i.+nhae didn’t know what was going on, so she continued to enjoy her meal .
“h.e.l.lo?”
Sungyoon answered the phone with a sour expression .
There was a very small chance that this call was about nothing . However, the voice on the other end smashed his faint hope into pieces .
“… Yes . Understood . I’ll be there right now . ”
Sungyoon ended the call . When Jimin saw his expression, she didn’t say anything as she stood up .
“Where are you going, Dad?”
s.h.i.+nhae still held her spoon, and her eyes had turned round . Sungyoon walked up next to her and gave her a tight hug .
“Dad is being called to work . I have to go right now . ”
“Again?”
Again .
When he saw his teary-eyed daughter, Sungyoon felt like a piece-of-s.h.i.+t workaholic, who ignored his family .
“You just came back . ”
“Yes . Dad wants to stay with s.h.i.+nhae, but a lot of people are in trouble . Dad has to go help them . ”
“s.h.i.+nhae . Your dad"s going out to do good deeds . He’ll help the good people and punish the bad people . Let’s let him leave . ”
s.h.i.+nhae looked downcast as she squeezed her father’s hand once more . Then she let him go .
“Ok . You can go . Instead, you have to play with me next time . Ok?”
“Of course! We’ll do as you suggested! We’ll go to Europe! We’ll go to Paris, London, Rome, and Berlin!”
Sungyoon stroked s.h.i.+nhae’s head as he looked into Jimin’s eyes .
“I’ll leave s.h.i.+nhae to you, Jimin . ”
“Don’t worry . She"s my daughter . ”
Jimin placed a hand on s.h.i.+nhae’s shoulder .
Sungyoon quickly exited through the front door .
“Huh? Where is Son-in-law Woo going?”
Sungyoon encountered Aiin, who exited her room at that moment . Hweeyoung was behind her .
“I received an emergency call . It seems the monsters have appeared again . ”
The expressions on the two women’s faces darkened .
“Again?”
Hweeyoung said the same thing as s.h.i.+nhae, with a frown on her face .
“It seems you"re going through a lot . ”
Aiin consoled Sungyoon with a sympathetic expression .
s.h.i.+nhae and Jimin exited from the kitchen . Hweeyoung and Aiin felt pity when they saw the two of them, who looked to be in a bad mood .
“I’ll be back . ”
He said goodbye to his mothers-in-law, then looked at s.h.i.+nhae and Jimin .
“I’ll be back as soon as possible . ”
Sungyoon opened the door under the gazes of four people, who had come out to see him off .
***
Kwah-jeek!
A monster’s head was crushed in its entirety .
Boom!
An explosion erupted afterward .
Blood and flesh splashed onto the asphalt and the pavement as the headless monster fell to the ground .
Earth didn"t have a magical-energy-rich environment like the Moon, so monsters couldn’t replenish any of the magical energy they spent here . It also meant that their corpses didn"t vanish and turn into a moonstone .
However, Sungyoon didn’t care why such a thing happened . He ignored the corpses . He just felt a burning rage toward the monsters who had interrupted his family time .
‘Next!’
He threw his halberd at a monster roaring in the distance . ;The halberd pierced through the monster’s mouth and exited out of the head . Sungyoon had physically made the monster shut up, and he looked for his next prey .
‘Next!’
Kwah-jeek!
A monster resembling a leech emerged from the surface below him . It tried to bite Sungyoon with its sharp teeth .
Puh-uhk!
He just swung his ax into the side of its face . The monster retreated back into the ground in surprise . Sungyoon didn’t chase after it . He just looked at the hole where the monster had run away to .
Keeeeeeeeee!
Soon, a scream came out from that hole . The ground s.h.i.+fted as the monster moved underground .
Puh-uhng!
Its tail shot out from the ground . The poison was decaying it, so its body emanated a foul smell .
Boom!
Its tail flopped to the ground . After trembling for a moment, it became motionless forever .
‘Next… There are none . ’
It seemed while he was rampaging, all the monsters had died . The people dispatched to clean up the place rushed forward to pick up the corpses . They started was.h.i.+ng away the blood .
While watching the clean-up crew, Sungyoon kept his guard up . He made sure he hadn’t missed any monsters .
At that moment, he received a call . The screen displayed the Mayor’s number .
Was it another mission?
He really wanted to get back home, so he scrunched up his face . However, he couldn’t ignore the call .
“What is it, Mayor?”
- The day we’ll recapture Armstrong city has been set!
Finally, they were going to reclaim Armstrong city, so the Mayor sounded elated . His voice was very bright .
Sungyoon was speechless for a brief moment, but then, he remembered his own reality where he had to stop his dinner with his family to come here .
Ggah-doohk!
His phone let out an ominous sound due to the pressure being put on it .
“Mayor . ”
- What is it?
It seemed the Mayor realized Sungyoon was in a bad mood, so he became subdued .
Unlike him, Sungyoon’s voice became stronger and full of killing intent .
“I’ll make sure we’ll kill all those sons of b.i.t.c.hes on the Moon!”