SWNOVELXO Chapter 84 - Is It True That You Did That with the Princess?
Chapter 84 Is It True That You Did That with the Princess?
The Joo Han-jung military situation quest ended well.
Thanks to the Monster Group, who somehow knew about it and came to get me, I was able to escape the West Sea directly by boarding a submarine.
Of course, the treatment that followed was a bonus.
Fortunately, despite being timid, having zero combat power, and officially being the most infuriating character in
“I-I’ll heal you. Please, p-p-please don’t kill me…!”
“…I won’t kill you.”
“B-But! You just k-k-killed all those soldiers on that ship earlier!”
“They were prepared for it, so I killed them. Anyway, Dorothy, you’re a good person. So I won’t kill you…”
“I’m a good person…?”
It was a bit of a flaw to call someone kind when they were dealing with a monster whose human rights had been erased.
“I don’t kill kind women like you, Dorothy.”
“…! T-Thank you.”
It had been a long time since Dorothy, who was practically an ordinary person(?), had heard a compliment.
Looking down at me, lying in the submarine in my human form, she seemed slightly hesitant but pleased.
“Whew… Anyway, it’s a relief that person managed to escape quickly…”
“…? Was there someone else inside?”
“A-Aah, nothing, nothing at all!!!”
“??”
Anyway, I arrived safely back at my detached house…
“Hey, you can’t do that here!”
“Really, Shin-woo isn’t like that?!”
…What on earth was going on here?
“Oh, Katarina. By the way, how did you know my identity…?”
“Se-cret! I’ll never tell.”
I never got to hear from Katarina about how she knew my identity while we were in the submarine.
So I returned home, feeling uneasy all the way.
But the grand scene that unfolded before my eyes made me forget all about that uneasy feeling.
As soon as I arrived at my house, I was speechless at the sight of reporters and various broadcast vans lined up like an army.
“…Huh?”
“…Ah.”
“…Han Shin-woo?”
“…Yeah.”
“Han Shin-woo is here!”
“There he is! Surround him immediately!”
Could it be that my secret was already exposed to the world?
If not, what on earth were these people here for?
Not only reporters from all the broadcasting stations in Korea but also YouTubers with cameras started filming me.
I wanted to run away, but I was instantly surrounded by these people.
“Ugh…”
“Sophia?!”
Sophia, who tried to push through the crowd towards me, turned pale from her anthropophobia.
It was then.
“Han Shin-woo, did you see the news?”
“What news…?”
“The one about Princess Kurumi! Everyone in the world already knows that you and Princess Kurumi had a secret meeting!”
“Can you tell us how you met?”
“…What?”
At least it wasn’t the crowd from the Jamsil monster incident, so I could breathe a little easier.
But hearing such bizarre gossip, which was almost equally dangerous, made my face turn white in just a few seconds.
“What did you say…?”
***
Inside the mansion where Kurumi was staying.
Even after the Lotte World incident, the mansion was still used as the princess’s sanctuary, and inside the guest room.
Currently, there were four people waiting for Princess Kurumi in that room.
However, aside from the red-haired girl sitting at the far left end on a cushion, everyone else was waiting for Kurumi in a shockingly relaxed manner.
Then.
Thump, thump, thump.
“She’s here.”
“The bastard daughter doesn’t even know her family is waiting.”
“At least she knows her place; she’s walking quickly.”
Kurumi burst into the guest room, forcefully sliding open the sliding door.
“…!!”
Seeing the four people inside, Kurumi frowned without hiding her displeasure and shouted.
“What on earth have you done! Sisters and brothers!”
Her family, looking at Kurumi who was fuming with anger, chuckled mockingly.
They were connected by blood, and nothing more.
Kurumi and the others were next-generation ‘head candidates’ formally recognized by the Kitsune Family, entirely different in status from her biological parents or family hierarchy.
“Kurumi, you’ve grown a lot. To think you could even yell at us.”
“Rokyu Oppa…”
A man immediately stood up, reacting to the insolent behavior of the bastard girl.
He was Kitsune Rokyu, the second brother who always played nasty pranks on Kurumi since childhood, with his gentlemanly tuxedo and greasy hairstyle.
“What are you so angry about? …Ah! Is it because we revealed your ‘servant’ to the public? Are you embarrassed and mad about that?”
“…! Shin-woo is not just a servant!”
“What…”
But why was she acting like this?
In the past, she would have been terrified into silence by a few of his words.
Rokyu was taken aback by Kurumi’s unexpectedly defiant attitude, and he stepped back.
“T-This…! How dare you, you impudent girl!”
“Haha. You even dare to speak so boldly to Rokyu Oppa, a head candidate. You’ve grown a lot, Kurumi.”
“?! Sakura?”
At that moment, the third child of the Kitsune Family, who had stopped her brother’s raised hand, stood before Kurumi.
She was the true princess of the family, Kitsune Sakura, wearing the same red kimono as Kurumi, with an extremely innocent appearance.
“Kurumi~ Have you been well? It’s so nice to see you again after so long.”
“Sakura Unni…”
“What’s with the ‘Unni’! Just call me sister like you did when we were kids~.”
“…”
Princess Sakura gave Kurumi a warm and loving hug.
But knowing her true nature, Kurumi only whispered coldly into her ear before they parted.
“Sakura Unni, just so you know, I will never come under your control.”
“…That’s a pity. Even though Kurumi has dirty blood, you’re still family. I thought it would be interesting if you bred with a monster.”
Maybe now, if I take you to my ‘farm,’ you won’t cry anymore.
When I threw you naked into the pen with the monsters when you were young, you cried until dawn, saying you were sorry for something you didn’t do.
‘Well, that spirit will soon disappear~.’
Princess Sakura, reminiscing for a moment, still with a bright smile, stepped back from Kurumi.
And then, finally.
“Kurumi…”
“…! Katsuo Oppa.”
He was practically already chosen as the next head of the family, a different level of existence.
Kitsune Katsuo, the eldest son of the Kitsune Family.
“I won’t say it twice.”
“…”
“Come back to Japan with us.”
Wearing a black kimono adorned with floral patterns, his face emotionless, Katsuo spoke.
Even though it had been a while since she’d seen him, facing him felt like confronting a machine, and Kurumi hesitated for a moment in her response.
And in that moment.
Slap!
As if it were the most natural thing, a slap landed on Kurumi’s left cheek.
“I said I won’t say it twice.”
“Yes, Oppa…”
“Come back home, Kurumi. And hand over the monsters inside you that will become ours.”
The direct descendants of the Kitsune Family had come for one reason: to reclaim the four guardian monsters of the Kitsune Family, who had absorbed Amaterasu’s energy and were currently being nurtured inside Kurumi.
Each of them had to become the new owner of these creatures to be recognized as the true next direct descendants of the Kitsune Family.
However.
“Then you should tell me first.”
“…? Tell you what?”
“About Shin-woo.”
To Kurumi, there was something much more important than that.
It was the matter of Shin-woo being entangled in false rumors that morning.
“When I woke up, there was strange news about Shin-woo. You all did that, didn’t you?”
“…Did what?”
“Kurumi, you…!”
“This impudent bastard! How dare you speak like this in front of not just us but the eldest brother as well?!”
You dare speak to the next head like this!
What on earth happened in Korea that made this girl so insolent?
Unable to listen any longer, Sakura and Rokyu rebuked Kurumi, who had lost all fear.
“Kurumi, you’re noisy without knowing your place.”
Standing in front of her, Katsuo tried to silence her with another slap…
Boom!
“Eek?!”
“W-What is this?!”
“…!!?”
But.
“Kneel.”
What on earth was happening?
Thud!
At Kurumi’s single command, Rokyu, Sakura, and even Katsuo, who was considered the next head and evaluated as a national power-level hunter in Japan, all fell to their knees, unable to move.
Seeing this, the siblings who had been scolding Kurumi immediately fell silent, and Katsuo, naturally, was bewildered.
‘What on earth is this…?!’
He felt as though an overwhelmingly superior existence was pressing down on him.
No matter how he tried to stand, his bones creaked, and his body was soon drenched in a cold sweat.
Still, he forced himself to turn his head forward.
“T-That…!”
For the first time, fear began to creep onto Katsuo’s usually expressionless face.
That’s because what emerged from the shadow of the bastard sister, whom he had always treated like an insect, was…
It was the true monster that was deemed uncontrollable by the family…
“Amaterasu. Stay still for now.”
[If. They. Touch. You. Again. I. Will. Kill. Them. All.]
“No. We’re still talking.”
It was the real deal.
“Sisters and brothers. As you know, I’m just a lowly bastard who couldn’t even go to school, so I’m very crude.”
“”…!””
“And I also have a bad memory, so I’ll only say this once.”
Taking a deep breath.
“If you mess with Shin-woo like this again, I will burn the entire Kitsune Family to the ground. Don’t ever show up in front of me again, before I kill you all.”