After eating free chicken nuggets, I gazed at the darkening sky in the late afternoon.
Lying on the living room carpet, I was helping Siyeon with her vacation homework on our first day in Sokcho.
Maybe it was because we were going to the beach tomorrow?
Siyeon was doing her homework more obediently than usual.
When I taught her something, she rarely asked about the same thing again, so I thought, isn’t Siyeon pretty smart?
The last math problem for today.
“I’m done!”
“Good job!”
The moment she finished, I clapped enthusiastically beside her, cheering her on.
Siyeon joined in and clapped as well, but her hands didn’t quite meet, so it didn’t make much noise.
Looking at her adorable clumsiness, I tidied up the scattered diary and homework and placed them neatly in her backpack.
Dinner was eaten, and today’s vacation homework was all done.
Though Siyeon still seemed energetic, it was already her bedtime back at home.
I nudged her towards the second floor where the beds were.
“It’s time for bed.”
“I’m not sleepy….”
Siyeon shook her head, claiming she wasn’t sleepy, but it was clearly because of the new place and the excitement of traveling.
“If we want to go to the beach early tomorrow, we have to sleep now. Don’t you want to go to the beach?”
“Yeah….”
I mixed her passive protest with an adult’s firm tone and laid the groundwork to force her to sleep.
If I just let her be until she got sleepy, it was obvious she’d end up waking up at noon and ruin her sleep schedule.
This struggle was enough for just one person for now.
“Wow, this room is nice.”
I had come up to the second floor for the first time since first exploring it.
The view of the night sea from the second floor was impressive.
It’s no wonder this vacation spot attracts politicians; it seemed quite a bit of money was poured into the amenities.
Once I entered the room, I could see that the bed was large enough for us both and could easily accommodate three or four people.
With a size like this, I bet itcosts more than our two bunk beds combined.
After confirming that Siyeon had climbed into bed, I tiptoed over and turned off the light.
“Aren’t we going to sleep together?”
Just as I was about to leave the room, I heard Siyeon’s voice from behind.
In an unusual environment where we had to sleep in different rooms, it might feel a bit awkward, but this is also an experience.
“There’s only one bed here.”
“It’s spacious…”
“It’s alright, it’s alright.”
Since Siyeon wasn’t used to sleeping far away from me, I left the door slightly open to let in some light from outside.
Even if Siyeon felt lonely on her own, I had other things to do on my side.
“Mari, Mari.”
“Are you up?”
“Yes, this time I’m sure about the direction.”
As soon as I stepped out of the room, Gomteng tugged at my side.
What needed to be done was also related to the frequency of monster appearances in Sokcho.
The average ratio for monster appearances was 50 percent for one appearance, 34 percent for two, and 13 percent for three or more.
A 0 percent occurrence was at 3 percent, so having a monster show up at least once a day was a blessing.
Monsters would drop by casually two or more times a day in this so-called hot spot.
Isn’t it good enough if there are just a lot of soldiers in Gangwon-do? Why do we also have to deal with monsters?
“Where is it?”
“Over in the opposite direction.”
This time, it looked like it was pointing to the downtown area instead of the beach, as Gomteng indicated toward the back of the terrace.
“Sun.”
After stepping out onto the terrace where no one was around, I muttered the transformation incantation.
I had already told Siyeon’s mascot not to disclose anything if monsters appeared.
With a slight leap from the terrace, I soared into Sokcho’s night sky.
The faint starlight twinkled above, and my glowing staff shone bright like a red star.
“You, you, you you you!”
Following Gomteng’s guidance, I arrived downtown.
There was a humanoid monster that looked as unpleasant as a fish had been turned upside down on its head.
It was gaping its fish-like mouth and pointing a finger toward me, unable to utter a word.
There was indeed a similarly designed merman in an online game’s ocean area.
“This, this was definitely Venus’s territory…!”
“Yeah, yeah, you recognize who it is, but get that disrespectful finger out of my face.”
“Ugh.”
As I told it to move its finger away while slapping a heart decoration on my glowing staff, the monster quickly realized its rudeness and returned to a proper posture.
It seems like it works for money, but it would be troublesome if it shows up two to three times a day.
Since my notoriety had spread among monsters, I decided to use some tricks to make life easier for at least two weeks.
Slap! Just as I slapped the heart decoration on my palm, I spoke up.
“Monster friend, you have a very important choice to make.”
“Wh-what is it! Sun!”
“It’s a very important matter directly linked to your life and death….”
At my words, the gaping mouth shut, and the monster’s gills fluttered.
From now on, the monster would answer carefully.
“Once you die, you’ll be able to return and tell your comrades something, right?”
“Yes! So no one wants to go to the ‘black area’ where Sun is! Their minds go crazy and they can’t return as fighters!”
“Oh.”
In front of the fear of death, this monster was eager to share everything it knew.
Perhaps it was due to its fishy brain that it spoke thoughtlessly.
By the way, ‘black area,’ huh? So that’s what we call where we live?
And indeed, it seemed the methods of torture were correct.
“I promise you an easy death.”
“Are you serious!”
The eyes attached to the fish head widened, seeming to ask if I was for real.
Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy.
“However, there’s a condition.”
“Wh-what is it, you little fish head! I’ll sell everything except for information on my comrades!”
“No, no, that’s not necessary.”
Seeing the bold monster who would reveal ten things for just one question, I waved my hand to dismiss such thoughts.
Could I really treat an informant who would make things easier for us over the next two weeks badly?
But it seemed like this gang of monsters was slow to gather information from Earth, evidenced by how quickly monsters replenished after the first sacrifice.
“I plan to stay here for two weeks.”
“Ah, okay.”
Normally, this would be information that one should never share with a monster.
But if monsters completely disappeared, there would be unemployment, and I was a selfish human who wanted to work less while still getting paid regularly.
This method of demanding a reasonable line from the monsters might be a first for Earth.
Beliefs are beliefs, and money is money.
Beliefs won’t feed you chicken.
“So I’ll be less busy, and you guys will have fewer victims… as long as we can agree, it’ll be quite convenient, right?”
“Yes, uh?”
As I metaphorically patted its shoulder while soaring high, it tilted its face in confusion, not understanding my meaning.
This thing is a fish head, after all, so it clearly couldn’t comprehend.
“So, for the next two weeks, treat this place as what you call the ‘black area.’ Understand?”
“Ah…! I understand!”
“Good, good. Now stand over there; it’ll be too painful to look, so keep your eyes shut tight.”
Just as Sun made the sound of her staff transforming into the form of a cannon, the monster, Kyo-Pirette, who looked like a fish with a face, tightly closed its eyes per her instructions.
In an instant, flames burst forth, engulfing the monster.
In that brief moment, the surrounding heat built up enough to pool the asphalt like a small pond.
The scent of burning fish mixed with the melting asphalt began to create a horrendous odor that didn’t belong in this world.
Just as Sun had promised there wouldn’t be any pain, Kyo-Pirette opened its eyes wide without any psychological trauma, revitalized from the recovery process.
As the combatant emerged unscathed from the recovery device, the Medic Tentacle showed interest and approached him first.
“Oh, are you okay?”
“B-bee….”
The monster could only murmur uselessly like it was losing its mind.
Medic Tentacle wondered, ‘Was the only thing normal the appearance?’ as it tilted its head.
“Bisa…! Bisa…!”
In a panic, Kyo-Pirette shot up from the recovery device and dashed out of the recovery room, shouting loudly.
Medic Tentacle was greatly flustered by this behavior pattern it had never seen before.
It immediately judged that the monster needed to be placed in intensive care and shouted so that all the recovering monsters could hear.
“Catch that thing!!!”
“Goodness, crazy!”
Before long, Kyo-Pirette was caught by the recovering monsters and dragged back in.
Just before it was forcefully shoved into the intensive care unit, Kyo-Pirette conveyed the message it had heard from Sun.
For two weeks, the monster Kyo-Pirette would remain in the area it had visited.
From the monster’s perspective, Sokcho had originally been a green area and will now be treated as a black area.
Not killing Kyo-Pirette painfully was done under the condition of delivering that message.
That tale was eventually passed along just before another victim could appear, making its way to the monster transport room by any means necessary.
“If that’s true, we must treat that area as a black area for the time being.”
As soon as the Gate Keeper, the director of the transport room, heard this, he began modifying the color on the map.
One of the managing monsters in the transport room tilted its head upon hearing his words.
“But, how much time does ‘two weeks’ translate into human time? It sounds like a period of time….”
“Hm… For now, I know that the pronunciation for two refers to the degree of numbers in our concept.”
That’s right.
Monsters still had much to understand about humans.
Among them was the concept of time.
This gap was quite significant.
“Then, let’s set this place as a black area for about two setr’s worth of time? It shouldn’t be too short since they said they’d stay.”
“Hmm, let’s do that.”
The Gate Keeper nodded at the brilliant suggestion of his subordinate monster.
Two setr.
In human time, that translated to four months and twelve days.
In terms of actual elapsed human time, a sacrifice of one monster destined to be dispatched back to the area Sun would return to was practically determined by them.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.