273 – Nymph, Girl, and Squirrel Beasts #1
“Who is Haildo’s favorite girl?”
Wooooooh-.
The glass orb shone with a white light under Seo Ye-rim’s magic projection.
Magic is the act of projecting a person’s ‘thought’ and ‘concept’ in the form of magical power onto a target or phenomenon.
Now, the glass orb would reflect the image of Haildo’s favorite woman.
Sssssss-.
As a faint shape began to show within the glass orb, Seo Ye-rim felt a slight anxiousness.
“Just to clarify, it can’t be family like a mom or younger sister. Cousins are, of course, also out.”
Sssssss-.
The faint shape within the orb started to stir and seemed to mix wildly before transforming back into a dark shadow-like form.
Seo Ye-rim added as if suddenly remembering something.
“Only for those under the age of 25 whose names contain ‘ㅇ’. It must be one of the girls who usually spends time with Haildo. Height should be around 170cm and Korean.”
Only then did Seo Ye-rim nod her head in satisfaction.
Pazijik-!
However, the glass orb made a strange sound and left behind only black soot.
“Tch, did I fail?”
It was a failure of magic.
Seo Ye-rim had only just begun to learn and understand this mysterious sorcery and magic for a day.
Even with natural talent and a decent amount of magical power, failure was still a thing.
“Was it called ‘The Book of Solomon’?”
Witch Daleto had mentioned that the magical tome called ‘The Book of Solomon’ contained various spells for magic.
It was said that the more one knew about magical spells, the higher one’s success rate would be in different types of sorcery, just like compound interest.
That meant if Seo Ye-rim acquired ‘The Book of Solomon’ and succeeded in learning all the spells and magic recorded within it, she would be able to successfully answer, “Who is Haildo’s favorite girl?”
Of course, Seo Ye-rim already knew the answer to that question without necessarily needing to write such a spell.
She was convinced that Haildo’s favorite woman was none other than herself.
“I’m pretty after all.”
Seo Ye-rim was well aware of how impressive and special she was. It seemed impossible for Haildo not to be infatuated with her.
The charm of a young and beautiful woman was, in some ways, greater than any magic or sorcery.
“Still, if I want to catch Gumihee, I need to improve my skills. I wish I had an attack spell. Something useful. Where is ‘The Book of Solomon’?”
Sssssss-.
The glass orb began to emit light.
What the transparent glass started to reflect was…
# # #
The morning after witch Daleto had visited.
When I opened my eyes, there was a note on the living room table.
“I’m going out.”
It seemed like a letter left by Seo Ye-rim.
After spending a few days at home like a housewife, it looked like she had finally decided to go out.
Was she going out to practice magic?
The nymphs seemed to have gone out as well.
In recent days, Inoi and Kalilnoi would say, “Let’s go catch dragonflies before autumn leaves!” and they enjoyed catching dragonflies in the fields and rice paddies.
“Uncle, Uncle!”
Just as I was thinking about meditating or training in the now-quiet living room, someone banged on my front iron gate with a bang bang-.
I had now become the owner of the house.
This building was now one with me, and I needed to prevent actions that would cause it to age or shorten its lifespan by banging like that.
“The door is getting scratched.”
Swish-.
When I went to the gate, a small child was looking up at me with sparkling eyes while holding an even smaller squirrel.
She looked like a lively boy, but this kid was actually a roughly 10-year-old girl named Lee Ji-hoo.
“Ji-hoo, what’s the matter?”
“Uncle promised to take me on as a disciple! You said you would teach me how to fight with a squirrel!”
“Ah. That was true.”
I had forgotten about that with so much going on lately.
Isn’t it just my surroundings that have been too eventful lately?
Demon King, Amazons, Gumihee, Kang Cheol-Min, and so on.
Maybe I’ve become too famous because of that.
Even while being A Rank, this much is happening… What would it be like if I reach S Rank?
It wasn’t a bad idea to take on a disciple in preparation for that.
Having previously worked as an instructor, I knew well that teaching others often gives me many realizations about myself as well.
Could I break through the ‘wall’ of S Rank by teaching Ji-hoo?
They say the difference between A Rank and S Rank is realizing whether this ‘wall’ exists or not.
“Alright. But you must remember one thing. If you want to call me your master, you must also become the best. Having learned under the best, you must become the strongest disciple of all time.”
“I don’t care about that! I’m going to use a squirrel to defeat bad guys like you and save my dad! I heard everything! Gumihee is a bad woman!”
Kids really are bold.
How many points should I point out about what she just said?
For a boy, to easily dismiss the dream of becoming the ‘strongest’ by saying “I don’t care about that!” is quite something.
Is this how different the sensibilities of girls and boys are?
Well, Ji-hoo is at the age where she would like to play with wands, just like Lee Jin-A and Seo Ye-rim did when they were younger.
To choose combat instead of wands at that age…
Even if she doesn’t want to be the strongest, her will to fight was clear.
People like this can become strong.
“Gumihee is a bad woman, huh? Where did you hear that?”
“I can see it all on my phone! It says Gumihee stole Sister Ye-rim’s shadow, right? I’m sure she must have stolen my dad’s shadow too! That’s why I can’t just sit still!”
What a smart kid.
Was I this clever when I was 10?
What did I do at 10 years old?
I was busy sitting in front of the computer and playing games after school.
“Alright. Squirrels don’t usually follow people well. But they show strong and sticky bonds once they do grow attached. Look, see this Kkungkkungi?”
Swish-.
I placed Kkungkkungi, who had been sitting on my shoulder, onto my palm.
And instead of petting Kkungkkungi from head to tail the right way, I stroked him the other way.
Meaning, I stroked from tail to head.
Krrrrrrr…!!!
Kkungkkungi let out a furious sound.
That’s to be expected; if someone pets your fur in the opposite direction, you can’t help but get mad.
Upon seeing this, Ji-hoo shouted in shock.
“You petted the squirrel’s fur backwards! Of course, he wouldn’t like that! If you do that, he’ll bite your hand and run away!”
“Normally, yes. But Kkungkkungi and I have such a strong bond that even when I pet him like this, he won’t bite my hand. Also, I can do this.”
Swish-.
After making Kkungkkungi’s body round like a ball, I threw him like a baseball.
Then Kkungkkungi, who was thrown far away, came running back and jumped onto my palm.
Kkungkkungi…!
He probably wanted me to throw him again.
For some reason, squirrels loved being tossed around like a ball by others.
“Now, as you can see, in order to handle a squirrel, you need to know what your squirrel likes and hates. This is extremely important.”
Squirrels usually resemble their partners.
What the partner dislikes, the squirrel also dislikes, and what the partner likes, the squirrel also likes.
Knowing a squirrel means knowing yourself.
In fact, I learned much about myself while patrolling the neighborhood with Kkungkkungi or practicing skills.
However, little Ji-hoo was hugging the tiny baby squirrel, Daram, tightly and said.
“Aren’t there any attack techniques or anything…!?”
Suddenly, I remembered Seo Ye-rim asking Daleto yesterday, “Is there no attack magic?”
Was Daleto, who was teaching magic to Seo Ye-rim, feeling like this?
“Attack techniques are an advanced level. Telling a squirrel to attack someone is an incredibly profound matter. Someone might get hurt because of the squirrel, and the squirrel might get hurt because of me.”
Weapons or tools were simple.
They had no will or thoughts, and they just bled when swung.
But squirrels are living beings and have emotions.
Making them attack something meant I had to bear full responsibility for that.
“You mean you can’t teach me attack techniques?”
“Not yet, that is.”
Was it too difficult for a 10-year-old?
Becoming a master was harder than I thought.
“Today, we’re going to focus on training Daram, your squirrel, to be petted earnestly. We’ll also do some ‘wait’ training with food in front of him.”
# # #
Have you ever seen a squirrel eat an apple?
If you search for videos of squirrels eating apples on MeTube, they come up.
Sha-sha-sha—chop chop chop—they eat like that.
I’m not kidding; it really sounds like that.
And it was just like that now.
“Daram! I told you to wait! Why did you just eat the apple on your own!”
Kkurr-!
No matter how smart a squirrel is, it is still an animal.
It was closer to a dangerous ‘demon’.
Squirrels are independent and cannot be easily tamed, and unless they are the ‘prime specimen,’ meaning the alpha, they do not bow their heads to anyone.
That means they don’t easily listen to orders from humans.
“Not listening to your commands means Daram does not see you as a trustworthy leader. Now you understand why you can’t learn attack techniques?”
“W-well…”
“Animals are honest. They don’t follow commands from someone weaker than themselves.”
“But Kkungkkungi listens to you! You know you’re weaker than Kkungkkungi! It’s said you became A Rank because of Kkungkkungi!”
Whoa.
Well, there were such rumors.
Someone must have read one of the malicious comments spread by someone online.
“That’s incorrect. I’m stronger than Kkungkkungi. Kkungkkungi thinks of me as the best among all squirrels. That’s why he follows me and tolerates having his fur stroked the wrong way.”
To control squirrels, one must earn their respect. A leader must always have something to be emulated.
In that sense, I could confidently say that if I fought the non-hyper evolved normal Kkungkkungi 1:1, I could win by a narrow margin.
I’d win about 51 out of 100 fights.
That’s quite a significant difference.
Pirr-rrr-!
Just then, a shadow fell over my face, and I heard the screech of a hawk owl in the sky.
Was it Kalilnoi?
Kkurr-!
Kkungkkungi let out an angry sound.
Kalilnoi was a natural enemy of squirrels and a superior predator.
The baby squirrel, Daram, was startled and squeaked out the typical sounds that squirrels make when they are scared, sad, or frightened.
Whoosh-!
As Kalilnoi flew through the air, it made a swift dive to snatch something.
It seemed like it was targeting squirrels, but the talons of Kalilnoi were aimed not at the squirrels, but at Ji-hoo.
As the large hawk owl flew over, Ji-hoo stumbled in surprise and fell on her backside.
Just then, I thought Kalilnoi intended to grab Ji-hoo and take her on a little tour of the neighborhood.
Kkurr-!
The tiny baby squirrel Daram let out a rather fearsome sound and leaped at Kalilnoi!
Bam-!
It was a full-body slam.
