Hunter Kindergarten, Dolphin Class! - Chapter 65

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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 065

 

After the overnight camp ended and I returned home, it was already 3 PM.

 

‘Who would have known… I’d sleep so soundly there.’

 

When I opened my eyes, these people were sitting around me in a circle, munching on snacks.

 

‘It was a feeling I hadn’t experienced in a really long time.’

 

You know… everyone must have experienced this at least once.

 

That situation where you go to grandmother’s house during Chuseok or New Year’s, oversleep, and wake up to find all your relatives staring at you.

 

 

I’d never been so embarrassed in my life.

 

Anyway, I hurriedly sent the remaining children home, cleaned up all traces of the overnight camp, and left work.

 

With my refreshed, clean body, I leaned back against the living room sofa on this weekend afternoon with no one around.

 

‘Hyung said he was going on a blind date, and Aunt said she was going on a trip with friends.’

 

Therefore, only Nabi and I were in this house.

 

[ Why, why didn’t you take me along! ]

 

I’ll correct that. Only me and a sulking Nabi again.

 

I familiarly brought an armful of snack bags that were piled up like a mountain on the living room kitchen ceiling.

 

“Sorry… This is an apology gift.”

 

Really, is it worth being so upset about going on a ghost story tour in the middle of the night without her? And how did she even find out about that…

 

“I was so busy that I forgot to look after you.”

 

[ How could you do that? Is our friendship worth only that much? ]

 

“Our Nabi… has gotten much more talkative.”

 

If she had answered without eating snacks, those words would have been quite threatening.

 

But with the black hand going in and out of the snack bag and the crunching sounds coming from the doll’s back, I could lean back comfortably on the sofa again.

 

“Yes, yes, I’m so sorry…”

 

[ Give me more snacks. ]

 

“Here, here, eat them all. These are all Nabi’s.”

 

[ Don’t steal any. I won’t share today. ]

 

“I won’t steal any.”

 

Now I was getting the hang of how to deal with this Nabi friend.

 

‘When she seems sulky, it seems like snacks and candy usually solve it.’

 

When she’s angry, it seems like she gets over it if I somehow play with her physically.

 

‘Controlling her impulsiveness is a bit difficult though.’

 

There were several times when she suddenly popped out or did things without any prior warning.

 

‘I never thought she’d follow all the rules just because we made them…’

 

It was when my concerns about Nabi were deepening.

 

Suddenly, my mobile phone rang.

 

‘Who could it be?’

 

There aren’t many people who would call me on weekends.

 

But as soon as I saw the name on the screen, I could quickly guess the reason for the call.

 

“Hello?”

 

-Hello, Teacher.

 

It was a call from Team Leader Moon Chae-yeong.

 

-I’m sorry for contacting you on the weekend. We need to conduct an interview investigation about the EX-grade Dungeon. Would you have time tomorrow?

 

An interview investigation on Sunday.

 

It would feel like working on the weekend, but I thought it would be better than taking half a day off on a weekday.

 

“Yes, tomorrow is fine.”

 

-Then let’s meet at the company lobby tomorrow.

 

After finishing that brief call with Moon Chae-yeong, I went to my room and turned on Seo-ra’s digital camera that I had brought.

 

The Principal’s video… was filmed well.

 

‘The voice was captured well too, and it’s clear.’

 

Moreover, the video recording date had been changed.

 

To a week before I joined the company, that is, to the very day the Principal had attached rubber tape to the sprinkler.

 

While it was somewhat eerie, this actually reduced the troublesome work, so it was something to be pleased about.

 

‘I was already wondering how to edit the recording date anyway.’

 

Now I could respond shamelessly even if suspicions of fabrication arose.

 

Good.

 

After backing up the video to my computer, I put it in the file I had been collecting.

 

‘This alone feels insufficient as evidence.’

 

Hmm… Should I use that method after all?

 

I couldn’t say there was absolutely no risk involved, but I couldn’t stop here because of that either.

 

‘Since I’ve started, let me try as far as I can go.’

 

I had reached that conclusion.

 

“Baek Cheonhyeong is…”

 

I cracked my frantically overworked fingers audibly as I thought.

 

Baek Cheonhyeong and Baek Cheonji.

 

‘What kind of conversations do those two usually have that makes the kid think like that?’

 

 

Additionally, Cheonji’s status abnormality was too concerning to ignore.

 

Excessive role obsession and performance obsession.

 

‘Isn’t that the kind of worry a new employee fresh out of college would have?’

 

Even thinking about it again, this was largely Baek Cheonhyeong’s fault.

 

‘I need to schedule a parent consultation quickly.’

 

I added one more name to the parent consultation list in my mobile phone memo.

 

-Lee Seo-hyeok (Career recommendation and guidance counseling)

-Baek Cheonhyeong (Emotional education and mental counseling)

 

Then I went to sleep.

 

I needed a sharp mind to avoid making mistakes in tomorrow’s situation investigation.

 

***

 

Late Sunday afternoon.

 

The situation investigation regarding the EX-grade Dungeon was conducted in Field Team Na’s Office.

 

“The Office is… impressive.”

 

“As expected, Teacher has good taste.”

 

Kang Ho-won shrugged his shoulders while brewing Coffee.

 

Except for the several desktops around a long wooden table, it looked more like a personal Workshop than an Office Space.

 

The classic-designed sofa and LP player visible in the corner, and wait… isn’t that a beam projector?

 

As I looked at the beam projector with eyes wondering if I had seen wrong, Choi Un-seong sitting across from me laughed heartily and explained.

 

“Teacher must not have seen other field team offices? Our Team Office is modest compared to others. There’s a dormitory within 20 minutes walking distance from the company, and some people drag all their living supplies from there to put in the Office.”

 

“There’s Lee Su-ho in Field Team A, and that guy even brought an induction cooker. Said he’d cook ramen every time he worked overtime.”

 

“It doesn’t violate regulations, so there’s no problem. We confirmed with the higher-ups that it’s fine for Team Members to decorate the Office after consulting among themselves.”

 

By the way, the last comment was made by Lee Seo-hyeok.

 

Seo-hyeok hurriedly tore open a premium cookie set from the bottom drawer of his office Desk and quietly pushed it toward me.

 

“Thank you, I’ll enjoy them. But… when you come to work on weekends, who stays with the twins?”

 

“On weekends, their grandparents take care of the twins instead of me.”

 

I see, that’s a relief.

 

Moon Chae-yeong, who was setting up her laptop across from me, remained quiet as usual.

 

Except for occasionally laughing at the Team Members’ jokes, there was no particular reaction.

 

Meanwhile, I was thoroughly subjected to the Team Members’ food offensive and question offensive.

 

“Teacher, I have a 10-year-old cousin nephew who’s damn disobedient. What should I do about this?”

 

I took a sip of Coffee and briefly responded to Kang Ho-won’s question.

 

“Lower Elementary School kids are naturally like that… Still, if you absolutely must Control the kid, you need at least one of three things.”

 

Third grade, it’s not exactly my specialty, but I know since I have cousins that age too.

 

“Three things are enough?”

 

Kang Ho-won looked at me with surprised eyes.

 

“Pocket money, smooth talking, and patience. These three things are all you need… Either give them enough pocket money to shut them up, or use childish and flashy smooth talking with the determination and competitive spirit to definitely win against an elementary school student and crush their spirit, or if not that, then quietly endure and wait patiently until the other person gets tired.”

 

“…Oh, I happen to have one of those.”

 

“Pocket money?”

 

“No, smooth talking. This weekend I’ll fight my cousin nephew and win.”

 

Well, I wouldn’t recommend going up against an elementary schooler with words.

 

I could see Kang Ho-won getting his mentality crushed in the near future through an unprofitable deal exchange with an elementary schooler.

 

[ Give me cookies too. ]

 

I secretly slipped a cookie toward the White Dog Doll I had in my front pocket.

 

[ Cookie! ]

 

I know.

 

[ Hurry! ]

 

I know, really.

 

If I was even a little late giving cookies, I had to stop Nabi from trying to slip her hand out of my pocket.

 

Between answering and giving cookies, I was going crazy.

 

While multitasking and overworking my brain like that, finally one of the two stopped.

 

Moon Chae-yeong finally started the situation investigation.

 

“Noah already finished his situation investigation with his mother present. Since he’s a minor, there’s an opinion that his testimony lacks reliability, so it probably won’t go into the official report.”

 

“I see.”

 

“Yes, so Teacher’s testimony is important… But anyway, since the dungeon has already disappeared, my opinion is that we should just do whatever works for us.”

 

“…Excuse me?”

 

“As expected, our Team Leader. Going all out.”

 

“The Dungeon Research Team would be so happy to hear this~”

 

“…Teacher, please filter out what our team members say.”

 

No… somehow my head seems to be hurting even more.

 

“And anyway… there’s a lot you can’t say, isn’t there?”

 

This person hits right on target.

 

Sadly… what she said is right.

 

From the source of the items I used at Candy Fiore to how I came to bring them.

 

I had prepared plausible excuses but…

 

“You don’t have to answer questions you don’t want to answer. Well then, let’s start.”

 

Since she’s cutting me all this slack, I should bite.

 

“Yes.”

 

And so the interview-style situation investigation that lasted about an hour came to an end.

 

But Kang Ho-won, who had been listening alongside, made all sorts of expressions throughout the investigation, and finally unable to hold back, he looked at the laptop Moon Chae-yeong was typing on and said:

 

“Teacher, honestly tell me. Are you from some government special forces unit? Or an industrial spy? Why can’t you answer this question?”

 

“…”

 

“The source of the Nose-Growing Jelly? Are you illegally making Potion Snacks or something?”

 

No, that was obtained through the MP3-type Item called that Manager Lee Won-woo gave me as Discarded Products.

 

“Why did you ask our Team Leader if she has 1.5 billion won?”

 

That was because I needed the service fee for the emergency dispatch service.

 

I gave up right away when she said no.

 

“And this one you did answer… but honestly, this answer is the most incomprehensible to me. Does it make sense for a man to go to an amusement park alone on the weekend?”

 

“…Why wouldn’t it?”

 

“He could go.”

 

“He can go. Teacher, don’t mind what that person says.”

 

“He could go.”

 

See. They said I can go.

 

Kang Ho-won looked around at his team members with an incredulous face, then looked at me again and asked:

 

“Then why on earth were you dancing in the middle of an EX-grade Dungeon? This might be rude to say, but did you momentarily lose your mind?”

 

“I wasn’t dancing. I just waved my arms a few times to cheer them on.”

 

I had simply cheered a few times to encourage the people climbing up onto the platform.

 

I have no idea how that cheering got twisted into dancing.

 

“That makes even less sense. Who exactly were you cheering for in that situation?”

 

I deliberately mumbled dejectedly in a deflated voice.

 

“Couldn’t I cheer for them…? And I’m not a government person or an industrial spy. The source of the jelly and the 1.5 billion… that’s not something I can just talk about carelessly.”

 

Please just let this slide.

 

I’m exhausted.

 

Still, Kang Ho-won didn’t easily dismiss his suspicious gaze. However, this is where Lee Seo-hyeok’s perfect defense penetrated.

 

“As expected… You’re very thoughtful. You’ve been through a lot. I should have helped you somehow back then.”

 

He’s packaging me as a thoughtful person.

 

‘Though that was exactly what I was aiming for…’

 

But here, Moon Chae-yeong also seemed to be swayed and nodded her head.

 

“Right, well… It’s true that everyone survived thanks to Teacher. Does the process matter? The result is what’s important.”

 

“Is that right? …Team Leader, are you perhaps being threatened by Teacher behind my back? The 1.5 billion story didn’t come up for no reason, did it?”

 

Kang Ho-won whispered into Moon Chae-yeong’s ear, but since we were all crammed together on the small sofa, I could hear everything.

 

I didn’t threaten anyone. Really.

 

The field team, excluding Kang Ho-won, seemed to understand whatever answer I gave.

 

Not to mention Lee Seo-hyeok and Moon Chae-yeong, but Choi Un-seong…

 

“Let’s not bully the innocent kindergarten teacher. Senior, when people live their lives, they might get their hands on suspicious items, or they might start a dance party in the middle of a dungeon.”

 

…He seemed to be someone who believed in the philosophy that life’s fortunes are unpredictable.

 

“Investigation complete. Thank you for your hard work, Teacher.”

 

“What? It ends like this? Really? For real? Am I the only one who doesn’t understand what’s going on?”

 

Moon Chae-yeong skillfully ignored Kang Ho-won’s questions and wrapped up the conversation.

 

And perhaps to ensure this topic never came up again, she made an unexpected statement.

 

“Let’s all go grab some food together.”

 

And so I suddenly found myself heading out to have dinner with Field Team Na.

 

To the company cafeteria, which was full of employees who had come to work even on the weekend.

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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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