Chapter 46

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: The Kids' Cafe
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It was supposed to be the talk of the town, topping the box office for weeks, but the movie itself was just… so-so.

‘Just another cartoon for kids…’

Kang-jun let out a yawn, his gaze shifting to the side. He snuck a glance at Seol-i, sitting right next to him.

“Woooow…”

Unlike him, Seol-i’s tiny fists were clenched tight, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the screen.

She was so engrossed that her little bottom was perched precariously on the very edge of her seat.

‘Is it really that fun?’

Kang-jun gently poked Seol-i’s cheek. “Poke.” He then leaned in and whispered,

“Seol-i, are you having fun?”

“Papa…” she answered softly, then looked left and right before putting a finger to her lips.

“We have to be quiet…”

At her words, Kang-jun gently caressed her cheek with the back of his hand and nodded in response.

“Seol-i having fun…”

After her careful reply, Seol-i turned her head back and stared intently at the distant screen.

‘She said this was her first time at a movie theater…’

Just as he had, by chance, become ‘the person who watched her first movie with her’…

He found himself wanting to be there for all the countless firsts she would experience as she grew up.

‘She’s probably never properly gone to see the flowers. Or been to the beach…’

He hoped that whenever she thought of the word ‘first,’ his face would be the first thing that came to her mind.

‘First…’

Kang-jun began to imagine the future, which still felt so distant.

The day she would start kindergarten, the day she would shoot up in height and enter elementary school…

For a moment, his heart fluttered. His current life was good, but…

He grew curious about an even happier future.

*Princess, take my hand!*

*Prince!*

*Don’t worry, I will protect you!*

As a thrilling scene unfolded on the screen, Seol-i grabbed Kang-jun’s hand with her tiny one.

Gulp…

Kang-jun swallowed dryly and stared at Seol-i, who still had her eyes glued to the screen.

Sensing his gaze, Seol-i suddenly whipped her head around, “Flick!” and their eyes met in midair for a moment.

“Papa…”

The child said softly, her face breaking into a bright smile.

It was a smile as fresh and vibrant as wild summer grass.

“Papa and the pwince are the same.”

“Hm?”

“Seol-i gonna mawwy Papa.”

Thump, thump, thump. His heart began to race.

I…

I’m this child’s first love.

“Let’s do that.”

Suddenly, a part of the rambling speech he’d given Aldebaran flashed through his mind.

‘Funnily enough, I found myself wanting to live.’

Paradoxically, he felt he could die for his daughter over and over again.

Conversely, if anyone tried to harm this child, he felt he could kill them without mercy, no matter who they were.

Even if…

…it was a god.

After the movie ended, on their way out of the theater, Kang-jun yawned and asked,

“Seol-i, did you enjoy the Winter Princess?”

“Yup!”

“Should we head home now?”

Seol-i pouted, lightly tapping her index fingers together, and answered in a timid voice,

“Seol-i wants to pway more…”

Then she added.

“Pwease…”

Kang-jun let out an involuntary groan. “Ugh…” He nodded a few times and replied,

“O-okay, let’s play a little longer…”

“Weally?!”

“What should we do, I wonder…”

Just then, as if remembering something, Kang-jun muttered, “Ah, right…” and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“Seol-i, have you ever been to a kids’ cafe with your auntie? It’s like a huge indoor playground…”

At his words, Seol-i beamed and replied,

“Seol-i wikes pwaygwounds!”

It seemed she had never been to a ‘kids’ cafe’ before.

“Alright, Daddy will look for a kids’ cafe nearby. Can you wait a moment?”

Seol-i nodded her head vigorously.

“Yay, so exciting-!”

Kang-jun focused, pecking at the smartphone’s screen with his index finger. “Tap, tap.”

“Uh…?”

Still clumsy with the device, he had only typed half the search term before accidentally hitting the search button.

As Kang-jun muttered, “Well, would you look at that?” Seol-i looked up at him, her eyes filled with anxiety.

“Papa, are we not going to the pwaygwound?”

“No, no, we can go…”

“Seol-i wants to go to the pwaygwound now!”

Seol-i’s gentle prodding made Kang-jun feel increasingly rushed.

‘This is a problem…’

Just as a cold sweat began to form on the hands of Kang-jun, who rarely ever got nervous,

Thud, thud…

A young man walked past them, speaking softly to his smartphone.

“Hey, Siri.”

Kang-jun glanced at the young man, and a young woman’s voice emerged from the smartphone in his hand.

— Yes, Master!

The young man then spoke to his phone again in a nonchalant tone.

“Find some good restaurants nearby.”

- I didn’t quite catch that.

“Search. For. Good. Restaurants. Nearby.”

And then.

- Here are the results I found!

It was just the standard voice recognition feature on modern smartphones, but Kang-jun acted deeply impressed.

“Oh, so that’s how it works?”

Kang-jun immediately went back to pecking at his screen, muttering,

“Well, I suppose it’s a decent world to live in…”

No matter how advanced the magitech of the Anux Continent was, it couldn’t keep up with modern science and technology.

Just look at the smartphone, the culmination of modern scientific achievement.

With this tiny electronic device, it felt like there was nothing in the world he couldn’t do.

A moment later,

Kang-jun brought the smartphone close to his mouth and began to speak shyly.

“Hey, Bong-gu.”

- Hello?

“Hey, Bong-gu?”

On the other end of the line, a confused Bong-gu kept repeating, “Hello?”

“Find a kids’ cafe nearby.”

— Huh?

“Kids. Cafe. Nearby.”

The reply came quickly.

- Uh, yes, just a moment…

“No, that’s not it.”

- What’s not it?

It seemed he had completely misunderstood the smartphone’s ‘voice recognition feature.’

“Come. Here. And. Guide. Me.”

— Huh?

“Guide. Me. In. Person.”

A moment of silence.

- *Sigh*, I’ll be right there…

“Wow…”

Seol-i, stepping into a ‘kids’ cafe’ for the first time in her life, widened her eyes as if in shock.

“Papa, it’s Bororo and fwiends…”

It was because of the cartoon character statues standing guard at the entrance.

Bong-gu, dressed in a shabby tracksuit with a bedhead that looked like a bird’s nest, spoke up.

“Seol-i, stand next to them. Uncle will take your picture.”

Seol-i stood beside the cartoon character statues and struck a shy pose.

“That’s it, beautiful.”

As Bong-gu repeatedly tapped the shutter button on his phone’s camera, Kang-jun sidled up to him and whispered,

“Hey, why do you look so scruffy?”

“Well, you did suddenly summon me on my day off…”

“Couldn’t you at least wash your hair?”

“You threatened to kill me if I wasn’t here in three minutes.”

Kang-jun shook his head and replied,

“It was just an expression.”

Just then, Seol-i shouted, “Yay, fun!” and dashed into the kids’ cafe.

Bong-gu quickly tried to smooth down his messy hair and asked cautiously,

“Boss, what exactly happened?”

“Hm?”

“The news is buzzing about the Anti-Bureau Alliance…”

Bong-gu trailed off before asking carefully,

“What did you do?”

At that, Kang-jun watched Seol-i climbing the stairs to a large slide and answered nonchalantly,

“I killed them all.”

Right before returning home after wiping out the Anti-Bureau Alliance, Kang-jun had given Crabslie an order.

“I will write a letter in my own hand. See to it that it is placed in the ‘Bureau Director’s Office’ at the Bureau’s Seoul branch.”

It was a short letter, just a few lines, stating that as of today, their alliance had been dismantled.

He also added that the Bureau could take full credit for the alliance’s collapse.

Of course, to add credibility to the letter, he had sent along the severed heads of a few executives.

“They were useless scum in the world my child will live in, so I simply killed them all.”

After hearing the full story, Bong-gu looked back and forth between Kang-jun and Seol-i.

He thought that perhaps, because of this child, the world might truly change.

Her father, Kang-jun, might just be the one to change this chaotic world.

‘Come to think of it, I'm jealous…’

Hadn’t Bong-gu seen Kang-jun’s immense wealth with his own two eyes?

The man had given a commercial building as a Christmas present. What more needed to be said?

‘First, she's born with a diamond spoon…’

And her father possessed enough power to wipe out South Korea’s largest criminal organization, the Anti-Bureau Alliance, overnight.

Furthermore, although Kang-jun pretended otherwise, a closer look revealed he was a serious dotard when it came to his daughter.

‘Now that I think about it, he always grumbles but ends up doing everything Seol-i asks for, right?’

You could feel his affection just by seeing him pore over a thick ‘childcare encyclopedia’ whenever he had a spare moment.

‘Yeah, who in their right mind would dare to bully Seol-i…’

If anyone so much as touched a single hair on her head, it wouldn’t just be the bully who suffered…

‘Their entire family might be in danger…’

Just then, Bong-gu’s eyes widened in an instant.

“Huh-?!”

A little boy had rushed over and shoved Seol-i’s slender shoulders with all his might, knocking her to the ground.

“What are you doing? Move!”

“Why are you…”

“I’m going first!”

Witnessing this, Bong-gu’s face turned pale.

Kang-jun, on the other hand, remained surprisingly calm.

“It’s natural for children this age to fight.”

After saying this, Kang-jun started walking toward Seol-i, adding in a confident tone,

“I read it in a book.”

He then approached the boy who had pushed Seol-i and spoke in a deliberately gentle voice.

“Friends should play nicely together.”

At his words, the little boy bit his lip, his face crumpling as if he were about to burst into tears.

“Now, let’s make up and…”

Just as Kang-jun was about to continue, the boy suddenly burst out crying, “Waaaah!”

Just then.

From the cafe tables set up on one side of the kids’ cafe, a burly man approached and asked in a gruff voice,

“Who the hell are you?”

Then he grabbed Kang-jun by the collar with his massive hand and demanded,

“What gives you the right to make my son cry?”

“Your son…”

“I asked what gives you the right to make my son cry!”

Bong-gu rushed toward the two men.

‘It's still okay…’

If he could de-escalate this right now, he might be able to save that man’s life.

He approached, clinging to that sliver of hope.

“Do you have any idea who I am, you bastard?”

“Well…”

“I’m a Hunter! The one who protects trash like you!”

He shook Kang-jun’s collar back and forth, adding with a sneer,

“Tsk, the moment things get a little better, all sorts of beggars crawl out of the woodwork…”

At that, Kang-jun’s brow twitched as he asked,

“Did you say beggars?”

Watching this, Bong-gu clamped a hand over his mouth and muttered, “Oh, no. P-please, stop…”

“Yeah, beggars who don’t know their place…”

To make matters worse, Seol-i burst into tears.

“Waaaaah, Seol-i and Papa aren’t beggars…”

Bong-gu shook his head, his expression grim.

“Now it’s gotten out of hand…”