Chapter 138: Sekyung Walker (4)
Unlike others who were panicking in the sudden chaos, Yuri was fully aware of what was happening.
He knew exactly who that wildly rampaging dwarf was.
He knew why he was here, causing such a commotion.
Yuri knew better than anyone else.
That’s why it was even more absurd.
“Wow….”
It was indeed Yuri himself who had told Yulia, “You just need to make him want to meet me. He’ll probably come looking for you first.”
But…
‘…This actually worked?’
He never expected it to actually happen.
Even Yuri hadn’t anticipated that things would unfold exactly as he had said.
The remark he made to Yulia was simply meant to imply, ‘I’ll provoke him enough that he’ll want to meet me!’
So, Yuri had only expected to receive a reply filled with curses at best.
‘But for him to show up in person…’
He scratched his cheek and glanced at the shattered wooden barrier.
‘But how did he smash that?’
Yuri’s question was soon answered.
“Oh yeah! You damn bastard, you’ve finally crawled out, huh?”
A loud, resonant voice rang out.
In the dim dawn light, a piercing blue gaze fixed on Yuri.
“Eek!”
“I-I’m hungry!”
“…?!”
Sekyung Walker’s gaze was so intense that even those near Yuri, who had nothing to do with the situation, recoiled in fear.
And in that moment, they saw it.
The crazed dwarf, whose eyes were practically rolling back, was hoisting something onto his shoulder.
‘What is that?’
Yuri closely observed the object Sekyung had placed on his shoulder.
It appeared to be a metal cylinder, roughly 110 cm in length.
Its diameter was about 15 cm, and it was an empty, dark green cylinder.
“Hmm?”
“What the heck is that?”
No matter how long they looked, Yuri and his companions couldn’t figure out what the strange object was used for, leaving them scratching their heads.
As they stood there dumbfounded…
“Die quietly!”
With a harsh curse, thunder roared.
Boom!
The cylinder let out a short but powerful blast.
And from what they thought was an empty cylinder, a black orb shot out with a spark.
The recoil was so strong that it even pushed Sekyung’s body backward.
“…?!”
As Yuri saw the black orb hurtling toward him at an alarming speed, a chill ran down his spine.
His instincts were screaming a warning.
‘That… is dangerous!’
Sensing the danger, Yuri immediately leaped forward.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he swung his sword at the approaching orb.
Swish— Slash!
Just as the blade was about to meet the orb, Yuri slightly adjusted his sword.
The orb slid along the side of the blade, altering its trajectory.
Instead of flying straight, the orb veered off by about 20° at Yuri’s point.
Phew—
In the slow flow of time…
—Woooom!
Arin, Poppy, and Theresia turned their heads, following the black orb as it flew past them.
As the black orb lodged into the wooden barricade behind them, time, which had slowed down, returned to normal.
Boom!
An enormous explosion ensued, shattering the massive wooden barrier into pieces that flew everywhere.
“Eek!”
“W-What is that?!”
“I-I’m hungry!”
The black orb was not just a simple metal object.
It was a powerful explosive on its own.
Rumble—
The area within a 3-meter radius from where the black orb exploded was completely obliterated.
Feeling the aftershocks through the ground, Yuri and his group realized just how powerful the explosion had been.
They also now understood exactly what had awakened them at this early hour.
Yuri’s face hardened instantly.
‘With just one explosion, it wiped out an entire area like that?!’
Had he been just a second slower in heeding his instincts’ warning…
Had he made the wrong decision and tried to slash the orb instead of deflecting it…
The debris scattered everywhere wouldn’t be pieces of wood.
It would be his internal organs.
Gulp—
As Yuri swallowed nervously, the piercing blue gaze flickered again.
“You actually blocked it?”
Sekyung Walker tilted his head at an angle.
With a cruel smile on his lips, he pulled another black orb from his pocket and loaded it into the cylinder.
And then.
“Let’s see you block this one too!”
Boom!
The cylinder once again unleashed fire and thunder.
Now fully aware of the destructive power of the black orb, Yuri prepared himself.
‘It’s coming!’
This time, he wielded his sword even more carefully.
One wrong move, and he wouldn’t even have a corpse left behind.
Swish— Slice!
The black orb deviated from its original path, just like before, as it encountered Yuri’s beautifully wielded sword, and smashed into the barricade behind them.
And that was just the beginning.
Boom!
Bang! Boom!
The cursed cylinder kept spitting thunder one after another.
Theresia, Arin, and Poppy, who were behind Yuri, watched in terror as the black orbs continuously flew past them.
Boom!
This time, the explosion occurred quite close, and Arin started slapping Poppy’s arm, shouting.
“Shield! Get the shield up! That’s what shields are for! Hurry up!”
“I’m hungry!”
“Your size is intimidating enough, what’s there to be scared of?!”
“I’m hungry!”
“You idiot! If your arm’s going to break just by blocking this, then don’t even think about doing strength training anymore! You muscle pig! And eat only half your meals from now on!”
“I-I’m hungry!”
“What are you whining about!”
As Arin and Poppy argued, completely engrossed in their spat, Theresia quietly slipped behind them.
She had swiftly decided to use her juniors as meat shields.
It was a crisis response truly worthy of a senior of the Cradle.
Meanwhile, Sekyung also shouted at Yuri.
“You! Stop dodging already!”
“Are you crazy?! If I get hit, I’ll be reduced to pieces of meat!”
“That’s exactly what I want!”
Sekyung and Yuri were each doing their best from their respective positions.
As a result, the explosions continued to echo in the northern section.
With each blast, the foundation of the fortress that Yuri and his friends had worked on for weeks was rapidly disappearing.
Boom!
By the time most of the barricades behind Yuri had been destroyed—
In other words, when half of the painstakingly built barricade was gone—the thunderous noise finally stopped.
“Huff, huff.”
Sekyung, panting heavily, caught his breath and glared at Yuri.
“You… damn bastard.”
After catching his breath for a while, he warned Yuri sternly.
“If you run your mouth one more time, I won’t let it slide like today!”
“…Honestly, this doesn’t seem like you’re letting it slide.”
“Tsk!”
Sekyung spat on the ground, disgusted by Yuri’s cheeky remark.
He turned away, leaving with a chill in the air.
The cold was so intense that even Yuri didn’t dare to grab Sekyung as he walked away.
Yuri stared blankly at Sekyung’s retreating figure and then turned around.
Once he saw the scene behind him, he was once again left speechless.
“…….”
The barricade they had spent days building had completely vanished.
Beyond the empty space, the dense forest was visible.
Realizing that all their hard work had crumbled in an instant, Yuri let out a sigh.
At that moment, Theresia, Arin, and Poppy approached Yuri.
Theresia glanced in the direction Sekyung had gone and asked.
“Who was that guy?”
“…The person I submitted the lecture request to.”
“Lecture request? Then why is he acting like that?”
In response to her confused tone, Yuri scratched his cheek and answered honestly.
“Uh… well… I thought writing it normally wouldn’t have much effect, so I made the reason for the request a bit provocative.”
Arin suddenly butted in.
“What did you write? Did you insult his parents or something?”
Before Arin even finished speaking, Yuri shot her a scornful look.
“Hey, no matter how rude I am, I have some standards, okay? Did you really think I was that kind of trash?”
As Yuri fumed, Arin realized she had gone too far and quickly apologized.
“…Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Just don’t do it again.”
“Okay, but what did you actually write?”
“Nothing much. I just said, ‘Stop wasting your pathetic life as a shut-in and come teach me while you still can.’”
“…….”
“And I added, ‘You never know when you might die alone somewhere, so you should start training successors now. I’ll be your last student.'”
“…….”
“Oh, and I also suggested, ‘Since I’d probably do better than you anyway, why not pass on your skills to me and retire.’ Wait, why are you all looking at me like that?”
Yuri expressed his indignation as he received the same scornful gaze he had given Arin earlier.
“No, I didn’t write it exactly like that! I wrapped it up nicely with polite and pretty words!”
He protested, but the contemptuous looks, as if staring at garbage, didn’t soften.
In fact, they only intensified.
“…That demon.”
“He thinks as long as he says it politely, it won’t offend anyone.”
“I’m hungry.”
Arin, Theresia, and Poppy each muttered their thoughts, now fully understanding the dwarf’s frustration after his outburst.
Finally, as Poppy’s “I’m hungry” comment made Yuri’s eyebrow twitch, he turned to him.
“Hey, Poppy. Did you just curse at me? Why do I feel like that was seriously offensive?”
Poppy placed a hand on Yuri’s shoulder, looking at him with a serious expression.
“I’m hungry.”
Arin translated for him.
“He’s asking if you finally understand how the other guy feels.”
“…….”
As Yuri’s open mouth clamped shut, Poppy patted his shoulder a few times and walked away, as if telling him to reflect on it. Not to be outdone, Arin and Theresia also silently patted Yuri’s shoulder before following Poppy.
Left alone, Yuri muttered with a genuinely aggrieved expression.
“I really… tried hard to write that nicely.”
He thought that if they knew how much effort he had put into wrapping his words nicely, they wouldn’t be saying such things.
The day after the chaotic early morning incident.
Yuri tapped his index finger on the table, lost in thought.
Next to the tapping finger lay the [Irrefusable Lecture Application Form].
This was the source of Yuri’s current dilemma.
‘When should I submit this?’
At least it was confirmed that Sekyung Walker was indeed the Bone Clan member he had been searching for.
All that was left was to submit the [Irrefusable Lecture Application Form].
However, after the uproar of the previous day, Yuri strongly felt that submitting it now would definitely not end well.
‘Hmm… Do I need something to appease him?’
After all, even when using the stick, a carrot makes it more effective.
Yuri felt the need for something to soothe Sekyung Walker.
He felt it, but…
“Ugh, damn it, why am I even worrying about this crap?”
Yuri suddenly snapped in frustration.
‘Since when did I ever cater to someone else’s mood?’
Of course, using both the stick and carrot is ideal.
It makes taming easier, after all.
But that wasn’t Yuri’s style.
His way was to wield the stick until the other got used to the pain.
“Alright.”
Yuri reached for the pen to write the [Irrefusable Lecture Application Form].
At that moment, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.
And the hand that was about to grab the pen swiftly recoiled, grabbing the sword beside him instead.
Ching—
At the same time, a killing intent-infused object that had been flying towards Yuri’s chest was deflected.
Buzz—
As the sword vibrated in small tremors, Yuri’s face hardened.
‘Intruder!’