OMH Chapter 69

69. Guide (14)

What should I do? The biggest crisis of the year has struck.

To think she stole a research subject from the lab. This is a huge problem.

The EGA Association has been heavily investing in the research lab for a long time.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the Esper Guide Association was established for research purposes.

Because that’s somewhat true.

But what’s important now isn’t the story of the EGA Association’s birth.

It’s how to deal with the monster’s egg.

The child who stole the monster’s egg fell asleep without a care in the world.

It’s no use blaming a child who’s just turned seven, so Cha Wooreen was put to sleep according to her usual routine.

Woojin, her guardian, and I couldn’t sleep, though.

“…What should we do? Should we just take it back to the breeding ground now?”

“The researchers sleep at night, so it’ll be locked up now. It’s already a successfully modified individual, so there won’t be anyone observing it late into the night.”

The thought of sneaking into the lab to put the egg back suddenly crossed my mind, but I quickly gave up.

It’s quite difficult to get through the numerous security programs, and it’ll be much more troublesome if we get caught. If you’re unlucky enough to get caught breaking into the lab, you’ll be immediately disposed of.

With a troubled heart, I looked down at the smooth monster egg.

Then, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘It’s been a while since it left the lab, but the fact that there’s no related contact means the lab might not even know the egg exists.’

That’s right. That’s possible.

So, right now…!

“We can just get rid of the egg!”

I shouted loudly, so happy that I had found a solution.

A startled Woojin immediately covered my mouth.

‘Ah, right. Cha Wooreen is asleep now.’

Kind Woojin didn’t scold me for my carelessness, but just asked in a small voice.

“Get rid of it? What do you mean?”

“Usually, if a research subject disappears from the lab, they make a big fuss right away. And it’s been a while since we got off work, but nothing’s happened. The lab clearly doesn’t know about the egg.”

Woojin’s eyes widened as he listened to me.

Even his startled face is handsome and cute.

While I was briefly lost in thought, Woojin asked me.

“Then, should we just break the egg?”

“I guess we have to?”

Thanks to Woojin, who hit the nail on the head, I finally came to my senses and took out a large pot to get rid of the egg.

I hope it’s unfertilized. Then it’ll be easy to throw it away as food waste. But even if a half-formed monster comes out of the egg, we can chop it up and disguise it as food waste.

Anyway, we’ll find out when we break it open.

I was about to knock the egg against the edge of the pot.

“Oppa… what are you doing?”

“Hick…!”

Cha Wooreen woke up from her sleep and spoke to me.

If she saw me trying to get rid of the egg, there would be a commotion, so I quickly put the egg into the pot.

Cha Wooreen kept rubbing her eyes and yawning, but she still came towards us. She should just go back to sleep if she’s sleepy.

‘But Cha Wooreen is half-asleep right now, so she probably doesn’t know what I’m trying to do, right?’

I glanced at Cha Wooreen, who couldn’t even open her eyes properly because she was so sleepy, and then turned my head back to the pot.

Breaking an egg isn’t difficult, so my bare hands are enough.

I was about to punch the egg when.

“No!”

Cha Wooreen, who had been nodding off, suddenly screamed.

What, why is she doing that?

I was so surprised that I stopped what I was doing and turned to look at Cha Wooreen.

Woojin, who was next to her, was also startled and looked at Cha Wooreen.

“Wooreen-ah, what’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

Even though Woojin hugged her and comforted her, Cha Wooreen shouted at me.

“Don’t kill my thing! It’s asking you to save it!”

I thought she wouldn’t be able to see because she’s so short, but it seems she knew I was trying to break the egg.

Still, we can’t leave it like this.

It’s better for Cha Wooreen to know that this is a monster’s egg.

I showed Cha Wooreen the inside of the pot and said.

“Wooreen-ah, what does this look like to you?”

“My thing. My treasure. The doggy gave it to me today.”

“That treasure is a ‘monster’s egg.’ The doggy we met today is a monster.”

“What’s an egg?”

“Do we have to start from there? An egg is like a ball where a baby is born. A monster will be born from your treasure. Wooreen doesn’t like monsters, right? Say your final goodbye to the monster’s egg.”

“…….”

I lowered the pot so that Wooreen could see the egg’s last moments.

Cha Wooreen came closer with a dazed expression, whether it was because she was sleepy or not.

After stroking the egg once as if saying goodbye, Cha Wooreen suddenly changed and started hitting me.

“No! Don’t kill it! Why are you doing whatever you want with my thing, Hana Oppa!”

“Ouch! That hurts. If you hadn’t brought it in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to kill it.”

“Anyway, no!”

Cha Wooreen, whether she was tired of hitting me or just exhausted, threw me aside and hugged the egg tightly.

“This is mine!”

Crack─

Wait a minute. Didn’t I hear something cracking? After telling me not to break it, did Cha Wooreen break it herself?

-Beeeee─

“?!”

I became nervous at the strange sound that suddenly came from Cha Wooreen’s arms.

There’s no doubt a monster has hatched from the egg.

The monster I saw in the breeding ground was definitely carnivorous.

If anything happens, it might attack Cha Wooreen, so I have to get her away quickly.

“Cha Wooreen, I won’t kill it. Let go and come to Oppa.”

I gently took Cha Wooreen’s small hands off the egg and hugged her.

Cha Wooreen’s hands and clothes were all wet with the fluid from the egg.

“Hey, what is all this? You have to wash again. You have to wear new pajamas too.”

“Look over there. There’s a tiny puppy.”

Cha Wooreen was only interested in the newly born monster. Well, we’re the ones who wash and dress her, so it’s not your problem.

I couldn’t resist Cha Wooreen’s insistence and turned my gaze to the monster.

It was definitely much smaller than the ones I had seen in the breeding ground because it had just been born. The ones I saw in the breeding ground were at least up to my knees, but this one was only the size of my palm.

It’s just a lizard, but it seemed cute to Cha Wooreen.

“Oppa, look at that! It’s a puppy!”

-Beeeee─

Cha Wooreen seemed to like the monster, which wasn’t even dry yet, and grabbed it and started playing with it.

If Cha Wooreen stressed the newly born monster to death, that’s exactly what we wanted.

I mentally cheered for Cha Wooreen and started cleaning up. It would be nice if that monster died and went into the food waste bin.

But Woojin seemed to have a slightly different idea than me.

“If you grab its neck like that, it’ll hurt, Wooreen-ah. You have to support its feet with your palm. That’s right. Like that.”

Kind Woojin was helping Cha Wooreen not to kill the monster.

It’s good for Cha Wooreen’s emotional education, but it would be much better for us if the monster died.

First of all, it would be better to put Cha Wooreen to sleep first in order to get rid of the monster.

“Wooreen-ah, it’s too late today, so let’s wash up and go to bed. Say goodbye to the monster now.”

At the moment I was trying to get Cha Wooreen to say her final goodbye, the monster, which had been closing its eyes all along, suddenly opened them.

The bright blue light in its eyes made it seem somehow arrogant. Is it glaring at me?

The innocent Cha Wooreen didn’t care about the monster’s arrogant glare and was happy.

“Oppa, Oppa, look at this! It opened its eyes! Its eyes are blue like mine!”

Cha Wooreen jumped up and down with joy at finally seeing the monster’s eyes.

It was definitely similar to Cha Wooreen’s eye color. No, its overall color was different from the ones in the breeding ground. The ones I had seen so far were yellowish, but this one was white. Isn’t it just because it’s a baby and its pigmentation hasn’t developed yet?

I approached the monster and examined its appearance. It’s okay to take a good look at how the thing that’s going to die in my hands looks at least once.

-Kieeee. Kyaaaaak!

When I showed it some attention, this arrogant monster hissed at me.

“Huh, did everyone see that? Woojin, did you see that? That thing showed its teeth to me! Its aggression is too much. I guess we have to dispose of it after all.”

Even in the midst of all this, Cha Wooreen, who can’t stand being curious, asked.

“What’s ‘dispose of’?”

“It means it has to disappear from the world now. You’ve played with the monster enough, so say goodbye now, wash up, and go to bed.”

I told her the meaning of the word and the situation very kindly, but Cha Wooreen got annoyed and hit me.

“No! I won’t dispose of it! You go dispose of yourself!”

“Hey, how can you say such harsh things? I feel like I’m really going to get hurt, you know?”

Woojin, who heard Cha Wooreen’s words, also hardened his face and said to Cha Wooreen.

“Cha Wooreen. I told you not to call someone older than you ‘you.’ There’s no one here that you can call ‘you.'”

Woojin scolded Cha Wooreen sternly, but it felt like he was missing the point.

‘Woojin, is that more important? Cha Wooreen told me to be disposed of.’

Woojin didn’t do anything wrong, but I felt somehow wronged.

And Cha Wooreen seemed to feel wronged as well.

“Sob, sob, waaaaah! No~! I didn’t do anything wrong~”

Cha Wooreen started wailing loudly in the middle of the night.

The baby monster even cried along with Cha Wooreen’s crying, so it was much noisier than usual.

The people in the next room even banged on the wall, telling us to be quiet. It was a complete mess.

In the end, the night of wailing, in which nothing was accomplished, passed like that.

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