Chapter 82 – Protecting Badugi

Hee-na opened her eyes wide and warned Badugi.

But was it because he had no eyes? Unfortunately, Badugi did not notice Hee-na’s desperate signal.

Badugi simply jumped up and down in joy. The grass leaves attached to his rear end spun around like a propeller.

He seemed to be shouting, ‘I feel so incredibly good!’

As he was nearly two meters in size, Badugi quickly drew close to Hee-na and Kang Jin-hyun.

It was around the time Badugi had almost approached. Kang Jin-hyun muttered in a low voice.

“Turn your eyes away.”

Hee-na understood the meaning of those words. It meant he would attack Badugi and turn him into mush without leaving a trace.

‘Ah, no!’

She could not stand by and watch Hee-won’s precious pet plant vanish like this. It was a plant her brother raised like his own child.

Hee-na herself had also grown quite attached to Badugi while going on walks with him.

Furthermore, if Badugi disappeared, she would never be able to complete the walk quest. In other words, she would lose ‘Home Sweet Home’ and even Osaek-i.

‘I can’t let that happen!’

The moment her thoughts reached that point, her body moved on its own.

Hee-na lunged at Kang Jin-hyun with a nearly transcendent speed. Then she clung to his body, dangling to prevent him from moving.

“No!”

Kang Jin-hyun was about to unleash a strike at Badugi with Hee-na hanging on him, but he hesitated at her shout.

“Ms. Hee-na?”

“Please spare Badugi! Our baby doesn’t bite, he’s gentle!”

Hee-na tightly hugged and held onto Kang Jin-hyun’s waist.

With his strength, he could have easily thrown off a mere C-class homemaker in an instant, but she was certain that Kang Jin-hyun would not do that.

He regarded Hee-na as highly important, and he was a gentle person who would never cause her even the slightest harm.

“Badugi! Run! I said run away!”

While he hesitated for a moment, Hee-na shooed away Badugi, who was running excitedly toward her.

“Go away! Go back home by yourself! Go to Oppa!”

As if unable to understand, Badugi tilted his head… no, his flower bud, a few times, and then turned around to leave.

Perhaps lingering regret remained over Hee-na not coming along, as he looked back several times, showing his disappointment.

Every time he did, Hee-na glared with wide eyes, gesturing for him to leave quickly. Fortunately, this time, Hee-na’s eye signals worked.

*Pitter-patter,* Badugi walked away dejectedly. The sound of his footsteps gradually receded.

‘I-It worked…’

Hee-na felt a sense of relief as she listened to the receding footsteps.

With Kang Jin-hyun held by her and Badugi out of sight, she had at least put out the immediate fire.

“Ms. Hee-na.”

However, the real problem was starting now.

“I have a lot to say… but first, could you please let go of my body?”

Kang Jin-hyun patted Hee-na’s back with a slightly stiff gesture.

“If I let go, you’re not going to chase after Badugi, right?”

Hee-na tightly held onto Kang Jin-hyun’s waist, unable to let go of a shred of doubt. A low sigh was heard from above her head.

“I promise. I will not give chase. Where would I go, leaving you alone, Ms. Hee-na? So… please let go.”

His voice had become very low.

‘Is he angry?’

Feeling intimidated, Hee-na unclasped her arms from Kang Jin-hyun’s waist. Then, she stealthily took a few steps back.

Only then did Kang Jin-hyun inhale lightly as if he could finally breathe.

Hee-na stood before him, hesitating. Her mind was complicated. She had resolved the immediate situation, but a larger problem remained.

“Ms. Hee-na.”

“Y-Yes…”

Kang Jin-hyun swept back his bangs with rather rough hands. It was a powerful look she had never seen before. Hee-na’s heart shrank.

“Why does a monster obey your commands, Ms. Hee-na?”

He interrogated her sharply.

“T-That is…”

“Before that, how do you know that monster? You, Ms. Hee-na, a normal non-combat awakened person who has no reason to contact dungeons unless it’s by a special coincidence?”

“Ugh.”

Hee-na, unable to look him in the eye, rolled her eyes around. She was trying to devise a way to escape somehow.

“Look straight into my eyes and speak.”

But today’s Kang Jin-hyun was quite different from his usual spaced-out appearance. His black eyes, holding a sharp edge, were staring directly at Hee-na.

“I know that you have things you are hiding, Ms. Hee-na. I could have easily pretended not to know. But if that ability is directly connected to dungeon monsters, I cannot simply overlook it.”

“Well… Badugi isn’t a monster, but the system, the system…”

Hee-na hesitated, not knowing how to explain Badugi’s existence.

It was too strange in appearance to say it wasn’t a monster, yet it was too friendly toward humans to simply call it a monster.

Kang Jin-hyun, who had been staring at the hesitating Hee-na for a long time, let out words like a sigh.

“And on top of that, Badugi… to give a monster a name like that…”

She fully understood the reason why Kang Jin-hyun was so surprised.

Monsters were untamable beings, born to slaughter humans. At least, that was the case according to research over the past ten years.

Many countries were secretly researching ways to breed and domesticate monsters for military purposes, but no one had succeeded.

Hee-na, who was calling such a monster by the friendly name ‘Badugi’ and interacting with it, must have truly looked bizarre.

‘To explain this, where should I start? No, how much should I tell him?’

Hee-na bit her lip nervously.

‘Min-ah Unni told me to keep the secret no matter what…’

Had she not run into him out of nowhere in a dungeon and even shown herself trying to protect a plant that looked like a dungeon monster?

‘…And if it’s Jin-hyun, I can trust him.’

Hee-na trusted the behavior that Kang Jin-hyun had shown her so far.

If it was something that could be rationally understood, he would surely be willing to keep Hee-na’s secret.

At the very least, Kang Jin-hyun was not a person who would extort Hee-na’s ability for his own selfish interests. Rather, it would be the opposite—he might wrap her up even tighter out of concern for her safety…

‘Right. Let’s talk. Since I have to see Jin-hyun for a long time anyway, it’s better to be honest. Rather than making up ridiculous lies every time…’

Then, there would be no need to act like she lived next door when she actually didn’t, nor would she have to lie about having a strange skill that eliminated noise between floors.

“Uh… well, to tell you the truth, the story is long.”

“I can make as much time as needed.”

Kang Jin-hyun looked down at Hee-na with a firm expression.

However, she did not feel scared or aggrieved. This was because she could clearly see that emotions like concern and worry were mixed together with suspicion in his gaze.

Indeed, Kang Jin-hyun was worrying about Hee-na.

*Gulp.* Hee-na swallowed hard.

Revealing the truth she had worked so hard to keep secret felt frightening, yet on the other hand, she felt relieved.

“Actually, there is a skill that I haven’t disclosed.”

“Yes. I suspected as much.”

She thought she had hidden it well, but if Kang Jin-hyun had noticed it, she must not have hidden it very well.

Hee-na let out a sigh internally and opened her mouth.

“Actually, I have a skill called ‘Home Sweet Home,’ which…”

It was the moment she opened her mouth.

Kang Jin-hyun glanced behind him, then scooped Hee-na up without warning.

“Ack!”

Thanks to that, Hee-na almost bit her tongue hard.

“J-Jin-hyun!”

It was the moment she was about to protest his uncharacteristically rough handling. In an instant, her vision flipped.

‘Uwaaa.’

Hee-na flew through the air while being carried dangling by Kang Jin-hyun. The rapid change in altitude made her dizzy.

But this time, she could not complain at all.

*Flash! Sssss!*

This was because she saw a muddy liquid splash onto the ground where she and Kang Jin-hyun had been standing, melting the floor.

At the same time, a sour smell spread. It was an acidic solution.

Along with a loud thudding sound of footsteps, a giant monster was approaching them. Hee-na quickly raised her head and looked at the monster that had spat the liquid.

‘Ugh! Hideous!’

A huge flower with a diameter of easily twenty meters was gaping its mouth wide. Tentacle-like vines were attached to its stem, which it seemed to use to move.

Furthermore, the place where the pistil and stamen should be was packed with sharp teeth, and it dripped acidic solution instead of nectar.

It looked incomparably more dangerous and disgusting than Badugi, who had the same plant-like body.

[Gurgle, kerr, kerr, kerr!]

The boss monster let out a sound like a loud belch and rapidly drew closer to the place where Hee-na and Kang Jin-hyun were.

Kang Jin-hyun furrowed his brow at the sight. There was no fear. However, he was slightly puzzled.

“This isn’t a place where the boss mob should be…”

At his monologue, Hee-na quickly cast the ‘Where is my home’ skill.

It was a map skill that roughly showed the locations of the ‘Home Sweet Home’ entrance, the gate, and the boss mobs.

Opening the dungeon map, Hee-na was startled. This was because her current location and the marker for the ‘boss mob’ overlapped.

‘Gasp! It’s the real boss monster?’

How had the boss mob, which was clearly far away until earlier, come all the way here?

How did it notice the presence of Hee-na in the Robe of Stealth and the S-class Hunter?

Before long, Hee-na was able to realize the reason.

*Splat, splat, splat! Pat-pat-pat! Step!*

There were urgent footsteps being chased by the giant boss monster. Hee-na heard this sound often and knew it very well.

“Badugi!”

The Homemaker of the Dungeon