Hunter Kindergarten, Dolphin Class! - Chapter 5

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 005

 

 

Park I-deun’s eyes rolled around, losing direction.

 

I grabbed her arm to prevent her from running away and pulled her toward me. Then I pointed straight at the window that had been blown open with shattered glass.

 

“When I give you the signal, spread the vines from the building’s exterior wall across the entire classroom ceiling. Is that possible?”

 

“…Yes, yes. Well, just the classroom ceiling?”

 

“Good. Then, I’m counting on you.”

 

Okay. That’s settled.

 

“Teacher I-deun, please wait here. The other teachers should evacuate with the remaining children to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances. And please make sure to call for rescue as well.”

 

At my words, Kang Sa-gwa and Kwon Hae-seong ran down the stairs without hesitation.

 

And Yu Jin-chae, who remained alone… was making a phone call to someone with a somewhat satisfied expression.

 

Now that I’ve decided, I have no intention of hesitating.

 

I passed by the nervous Park I-deun and approached the window area.

 

Then I picked up a children’s chair that was lying around on the floor, lifted it above my head, and swung it a few times in the air.

 

‘This weight seems just right, and it doesn’t look like it’ll break easily.’

 

I immediately lifted the chair above my head and brought it down with all my strength as if throwing it.

 

Onto the intact glass window.

 

-Crash!!!

 

Moving one step at a time, I smashed every visible window like breaking seals. A burning sensation and throbbing pain spread through my palms.

 

‘The fact that these aren’t opening windows for safety reasons becomes a problem at times like this.’

 

As all the windows in the classroom shattered, wind began rushing in fiercely with a metallic sound.

 

I caught my breath and looked at the twins who would be a little distance away.

 

As I had feared, the fire on the furniture that had been blocking like a barricade began blazing up in an instant.

 

This was why I had given up on approaching and chosen fire suppression instead.

 

I thought that if the flames grew even a little bigger, the building might collapse before I could even find the kids.

 

Thump thump. I took a short deep breath while listening to the sound of my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

 

…The preliminary work was finished.

 

Now I needed the most important preparation.

 

I nervously and awkwardly touched my right earlobe. The hard metallic earring caught on my finger.

 

As I briefly brushed down the silver earring heated by the warmth…

 

 

 

An unwelcome message floated in the air.

 

-Ding

 

 

Fluorescent-colored text appeared in rapid succession at a frightening speed.

 

I swallowed the nausea rising up and managed to give my answer with difficulty.

 

“…No.”

 

I decline.

 

***

 

Since what I wanted was something else, I waited quietly.

 

And after a moment, another message appeared.

 

 

 

 

Accept.

 

 

 

“…”

 

From the neon sign status windows that would only appear in games to the strange messages that come with using an ability even once.

 

As you can see, there are more than one or two unsettling aspects for a Tamer.

 

But what’s even more maddening here is…

 

While Awakeners use their abilities as naturally as breathing, I have to go through these cumbersome procedures every single time.

 

To do anything beyond communicating with animals, it’s absolutely necessary.

 

Furthermore, recalling what this mysterious status window-like thing had babbled about in the past.

 

It said that only this [Lower Open Source] functions as a Tamer ability.

 

‘Everyone else does it just fine, so why only me!’

 

 

 

After what felt like an hour but was only a minute, finally.

 

-Ding!

 

 

 

‘It worked!’

 

 

But there are more than I expected?

 

For a concrete-dominated city, this was pretty good.

 

I looked at the names of various animals floating in the air.

 

For my plan to succeed, they need to be able to climb vines, be small and agile, and above all, be able to use their teeth or paws.

 

And among these, the animals that best fit the conditions are….

 

‘Squirrel, chipmunk, mouse… and maybe guinea pig.’

 

…Yeah, let’s be honest about what I need to admit.

 

I’m someone who lacks even basic common knowledge about animals, despite having an ability that doesn’t suit me.

 

‘The only thing I know about those four is that they’re all rodents…. That’s it.’

 

‘The guinea pig looks chubby, so it probably can’t climb vines.’

 

In the end, I excluded the guinea pig from the four candidates and shouted ‘anyone.’

 

 

But I didn’t expect just anyone would actually come.

 

 

“…!”

 

Who the hell is that??

 

It took a few seconds for my stunned thought process to start working again.

 

‘No, wait. First of all…!’

 

“Park I-deun! Now’s the time!!”

 

After confirming that [Response Complete] appeared on the status window, I shouted.

 

Shortly after, vines reached near the window at high speed, climbing the outer wall like waves.

 

The slowly growing vines showed bizarrely fast vitality as they climbed the classroom’s inner walls and densely wrapped around the ceiling.

 

‘The sprinkler area seems to be completely covered.’

 

I lowered my head while watching the green vines intertwining and extending.

 

Next is….

 

Just then, I saw chipmunks that had emerged from rummaging through the kindergarten flower bed. Four in total.

 

‘Surely those guys aren’t the Dongaksan Fighter.’

 

But that ‘surely’ was wrong. Their triumphant attitude as they climbed up the vines was extraordinary.

 

“….”

 

I looked down at the four chipmunks that had somehow reached right in front of me. My chest ached with guilt.

 

‘Even though I called them, is this really right?’

 

Looking at these creatures smaller than my palm, the human heart is….

 

No, look at the situation you’re in right now.

 

‘This isn’t the time to be picky.’

 

Let’s survive first, then worry about the rest.

 

“Could you do me a favor? Just tear off the tape visible between those vines over there. Is that possible?”

 

The four chipmunks, each with slightly different appearances, nodded their heads in agreement.

 

“Just remove the tape. Don’t get hurt.”

 

Just in case, I made sure to give them a firm warning too.

 

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

 

Once given their mission, they quickly reached the ceiling using the vines. Moving nimbly here and there, they swiftly approached the sprinklers.

 

Watching the squirrels gnaw through the hard rubber tape with their teeth, I roughly ran my hand through my sweat-soaked hair.

 

I can do this.

 

It’s not too late yet.

 

-Thud thud thud.

 

One by one, the tape fell away in sequence. The remnants of tape that fell to the floor burned in the flames and disappeared in the air.

 

And finally, when all the hard tape blocking the sprinklers had fallen away…

 

-Fire detected, fire detected.

 

-Fire detected in annex building.

 

-Please evacuate the building immediately.

 

-Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

 

Water poured down from the ceiling.

 

“…Done.”

 

***

 

“Will he be okay?”

 

After frantically evacuating the children to the main building and catching her breath, Kang Sa-gwa asked Kwon Hae-seong who was beside her.

 

Unlike the anxious Kang Sa-gwa, Kwon Hae-seong appeared remarkably calm on the surface.

 

As if he had something to rely on.

 

“You told us to leave him alone… When did you become so cold-hearted?”

 

Kwon Hae-seong spoke deliberately teasingly.

 

Her body was too tense. He looked down briefly at Kang Sa-gwa who was frozen stiff with tension.

 

“Well, he has to go through it at least once. If he’s going to quit anyway, the sooner the better.”

 

“…”

 

His slow gaze returned to the 3rd floor of the kindergarten that was blazing fiercely.

 

‘That’s true though.’

 

Kwon Hae-seong, who had joined when the kindergarten was established, had experienced all the Dolphin Class teachers who had changed several times already.

 

And he had seen all their endings too.

 

Resignation.

 

For whatever reason, none lasted even a month.

 

There was someone who cried like a child while throwing their resignation letter, someone who caused a scene in a fiery rage, and even a bastard who verbally abused the kids before disappearing.

 

And each time they left, the remaining teachers had to fill their spot.

 

They really gave it their all to fill the gap.

 

‘The workload was doubled…’

 

It was tough, but everyone endured it thinking of the children left behind. As a result of taking care of their own classes while sharing the work among themselves, though rough around the edges, they had recently started to find their footing.

 

But… even that would reset when they hired someone new.

 

Thus, the remaining teachers were thinking it would be better to have no Dolphin Class teacher at all.

 

In the midst of all this appeared the new teacher ‘Na Hwi-yeon’.

 

“I wonder if he’ll resign…”

 

At Kang Sa-gwa’s muttering, Kwon Hae-seong couldn’t deny it either.

 

“Probably…”

 

It would be strange if he didn’t resign after experiencing this chaos.

 

But still…

 

‘It’s a shame though.’

 

Regardless of his previous thoughts, wasn’t it a shame to lose someone like Na Hwi-yeon?

 

A face full of smiles that made people feel good just looking at him, and a calm attitude uncharacteristic of a newcomer.

 

Moreover, the fact that he was from the Early Childhood Education Department was the most regrettable factor.

 

‘Isn’t there a way to keep him a little longer?’

 

The teachers at this kindergarten had each entered here due to their own circumstances and were simply caring for the children, but they knew almost nothing about education.

 

They were studying in their own way and doing their best, but they couldn’t compare to a professional.

 

“This is why I said we shouldn’t show him…!”

 

Kang Sa-gwa was now shrugging her shoulders as she got angry.

 

“We can’t hide it forever… You agreed to it too.”

 

“Even so, he found out too quickly! What if he’s a good person?!”

 

“…For someone like that, you were quite ruthlessly driving him into a pit of fire.”

 

“I tried to stop it at first, but when that didn’t work, I had a ‘whatever happens, happens’ mindset.”

 

“Wait, Sa-gwa… Was asking if he could take responsibility your way of stopping it?”

 

“…”

 

My goodness, that must be right.

 

Na Hwi-yeon shouting about resignation in the near future was now playing in 4D augmented reality.

 

Kwon Hae-seong barely held back a sigh.

 

“We didn’t leave anything behind, right?”

 

Kang Sa-gwa obviously changed the subject as she glanced around and muttered.

 

“Yeah, there shouldn’t be anything. All the other kids are here, and what we forgot… I don’t think there’s anything.”

 

“Aren’t you worried about him?”

 

“Of course I’m worried… But Jin-chae noona is there.”

 

It’ll be okay. If Yu Jin-chae remained at the kindergarten, she would somehow secure the safety of the twins and the remaining teachers no matter what happened.

 

This was closer to certainty than belief.

 

“I really regret it. The twins seemed particularly sensitive today, so we should have tried to stop it as much as we could on our end.”

 

Kwon Hae-seong smiled bitterly as he watched Kang Sa-gwa patting the back of the child in her arms, trying hard to soothe her anxiety.

 

“We didn’t know Teacher Hwiyeon would come up then.”

 

It seemed like the first greeting was completely ruined, so he went to visit the classroom separately and witnessed the twins fighting.

 

It was the very beginning of the fight, so while they were discussing whether we should stop this or inform the new teacher, the incident happened.

 

We tried to intervene belatedly, but…

 

‘He was strongly opposed to using the Control Device…’

 

Na Hwi-yeon’s attitude was so firm that we ended up agreeing with his momentum.

 

Anyway, since things turned out this way, we had no choice but to trust Yu Jin-chae and wait.

 

He gently stroked the head of Lee Won-gang from his class, who was dozing off on the sofa.

 

“Sorry, did we wake you up? There was a problem with the kindergarten building, so we came out. Da-yeong is… sleeping.”

 

“The kids are all busy sleeping since it’s nap time. Even though there’s chaos outside.”

 

“That’s fortunate…”

 

It was a blessing in disguise. Since it coincided perfectly with nap time, the children were fast asleep, unaware of what chaos was happening outside. Fishing them out like catching fish wasn’t too difficult a task.

 

However…

 

“Gasp! What is that?”

 

“Sh-shouldn’t we call them? One-one-nine! One-one-nine!”

 

“Crazy, what the hell is this? That’s the kindergarten building over there!”

 

“Whoa, our Section Chief’s kid goes there!”

 

They couldn’t prevent the surroundings from gradually becoming chaotic. Company employees passing through the lobby were puzzled by the suddenly appearing children, then checked toward the kindergarten and started murmuring.

 

“H-hyung…”

 

Kwon Hae-seong was arranging Won-gang and Da-yeong’s sleeping area when he looked up again at Kang Sa-gwa’s call.

 

“What is it, Sa-gwa…”

 

Then, he read the unusual look in Kang Sa-gwa’s eyes.

 

“What is that-“

 

“…!!”

 

And before her words could even finish, Kwon Hae-seong was already running far away.

 

Toward the kindergarten that was spewing out everything in the classroom through the broken windows.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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