Hunter Kindergarten, Dolphin Class! - Chapter 97

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

Episode 097

 

 

The next day.

 

Kwon Hae-seong, who had shaken off his body aches and cold with terrifying recovery ability in just one day, came to work at the kindergarten with a healthy mind and body.

 

He quickly changed into his uniform and apron, finished the morning meeting, and headed to his classroom.

 

And today, as always, he was diligently taking care of the children in the Seal Class.

 

“I need to step out for about an hour. Could you possibly watch over our class kids?”

 

After lunch, before starting the full-scale afternoon activities.

 

If it hadn’t been for Teacher Na Hwi-yeon’s request, that is.

 

Kwon Hae-seong quickly nodded his head.

 

“Yes… Of course.”

 

Since he was someone who rarely made requests in the first place, Kwon Hae-seong readily accepted that favor.

 

“But… what’s it for?”

 

‘It’s not another incident, is it?’

 

Teacher Na Hwi-yeon was clearly someone who could do anything, was thorough and meticulous, and had no gaps to speak of.

 

When it came to work, he was more professional than anyone.

 

But…

 

Kwon Hae-seong glanced at Na Hwi-yeon’s expression as he stood right in front of him.

 

‘Why do I feel anxious…?’

 

Whenever he announced what he was going to do, or said he was going somewhere briefly, his heart would strangely feel anxious.

 

He had even felt anxious just because Na Hwi-yeon hadn’t said a single word in the ‘Ocean Kindergarten Teachers’ group chat’ over the weekend…

 

However, unable to attach a clear reason to his feelings, Kwon Hae-seong could only ask about his whereabouts while reading the other person’s mood as much as possible.

 

If Na Hwi-yeon had known about Kwon Hae-seong’s feelings, he might have received the harsh evaluation of ‘Mind your own business, you bear cub.’…

 

But unaware of this, Na Hwi-yeon kindly answered the question as if it were nothing.

 

“Ah… An employee from headquarters said they have something to tell us. They called Sa-gwa Teacher and Seo-ro too, so we decided to go together.”

 

An employee from headquarters?

 

…Na Hwi-yeon and Kang Sa-gwa, and even Seo-ro?

 

‘What could they possibly have to say?’

 

He wanted to ask right away if there was anything he could guess, but Kwon Hae-seong couldn’t do that.

 

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

 

“…Oh. Yes, yes.”

 

“During that hour, I’ve prepared what I need to do today…”

 

While he was barely mustering the courage to ask and looking for an opportunity, Na Hwi-yeon had already finished giving simple instructions and schedule guidance.

 

Then he left abruptly like someone with no lingering attachments…

 

In the end, Kwon Hae-seong had no choice but to head to the Dolphin Class carrying an armful of worries without being able to ask anything.

 

Of course, along with Won-gang and Da-yeong from the Seal Class.

 

‘Today… he said it was a math lesson.’

 

Since Teacher Na Hwi-yeon said all the preparations were finished, all he had to do was teach the lesson well.

 

And true to his word, number cards and arithmetic cards that were already cutely printed were neatly attached to the learning board.

 

Kwon Hae-seong pulled it over and sat in front of it, looking around at the focused children.

 

It was his first time conducting a lesson for so many children, so he was even a bit nervous.

 

‘Don’t let the nervousness show…’

 

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

 

“Now… Today we’re going to play with numbers.”

 

Immediately, reactions poured out in response to this single statement.

 

“Eww? I don’t like numbers!”

 

“Noah, numbers don’t like you either.”

 

“I’m not confident with math…”

 

“Lee Seo-ra is confident! Cheonji, I’ll teach you! Just trust me!”

 

“…Numbers?”

 

“I’m hungry.”

 

“This is going to be fun! Hehe!”

 

Would it be an exaggeration to say it was already dizzying?

 

The jeers and screams, answers completely off-topic, seemed to hit Kwon Hae-seong’s head one by one as they passed by.

 

However, he had to pull himself together.

 

‘I can’t let them take control.’

 

Just as he composed his expression again and struggled to open his mouth.

 

He reflexively closed his parted lips slowly.

 

Then he looked over the children again.

 

…Huh?

 

‘Why are there so many children?’

 

This was strange.

 

Clearly, with Seo-ro absent, there should be 4 children from Dolphin Class and 2 from Seal Class, a total of 6 children…

 

“Why, why… are there seven?”

 

He counted the heads of the children sitting in a circle around the Learning Board again.

 

One, two…

 

“Six, seven…”

 

And after several internal screams and anguish… he had no choice but to accept it.

 

That there was another child here.

 

***

 

At the same time, inside a luxurious Reception Room in the BOND Headquarters Building.

 

Kang Sa-gwa, Lee Seo-ro, and I were sitting on plush Leather Sofas, enjoying the prepared Refreshments and tea.

 

And in front of us three was an Employee moving around busily.

 

Before speaking, while waiting for the Employee who was moving around busily saying there were things to prepare, I leisurely sipped my tea.

 

Then, as soon as the bitter Black Tea touched my lips, a fact I had forgotten suddenly came to mind.

 

‘Oh… shit.’

 

I didn’t tell them about Nabi.

 

Tell who?

 

…Kwon Hae-seong.

 

With the upcoming week-long summer vacation, there were more than one or two schedules to finish, so unusually, the morning meeting proceeded quickly.

 

There was no casual chat or personal talk like usual.

 

Moreover, since I had spoken separately with the Principal about Nabi’s adaptation to the new Kindergarten, there was no reason to bring up this topic again afterward.

 

…Therefore, Kwon Hae-seong, who had taken sick leave yesterday, had no way of knowing about Nabi’s existence.

 

‘Is this… trouble?’

 

My relaxed brain began to tense up again. However, at the same time, this thought also crept in.

 

‘But maybe it’ll be okay?’

 

Though it was only one day, Nabi had shown amazing Adaptability.

 

There were no violent behaviors I had worried about, or somewhat impulsive actions.

 

Even if there were, they were at a manageable level.

 

‘Plus, I gave her more Education when we got Home.’

 

To prevent her ‘true form’ from emerging when excited, I forced special Training.

 

‘I put on quite a show while doing emotional control Training…’

 

The effect was definite. I boldly showed her a short horror movie, and she just jumped around excitedly, but her true form didn’t emerge.

 

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

 

Just then, apparently finished organizing, the Employee wiped sweat and sat in the Chair across from us.

 

I quickly organized my wandering thoughts and came to a conclusion.

 

‘It’ll be fine.’

 

The Kids in our class would explain Nabi’s existence, so what could go wrong?

 

And I knew well that worrying about something that had left my hands was useless now.

 

‘Let’s focus on what’s right in front of me.’

 

I deliberately straightened my posture and returned to a listening stance.

 

 

The employee lightly pushed the topmost paper toward the three of us.

 

Then added some words.

 

And this was already content I had expected.

 

“We hadn’t planned to handle this so urgently, but something came up at the company, so we had no choice but to invite you here like this. We’d also like to apologize for the unpleasant incident you experienced at the camp.”

 

That’s right.

 

This was a meeting arranged to apologize for the ‘2-Day 1-Night Hunter Experience Camp’ that had given me all sorts of hellish experiences over last weekend.

 

‘I suspected as much from when they called the three of us in the first place.’

 

The employee continued explaining while pointing at each line of the lengthy text written on the paper.

 

Starting with a brief overview of the atrocities committed by the camp staff, they mainly explained the company’s position and measures regarding this matter…

 

The more I listened, even though no conclusion had been reached yet, I could already picture their fate.

 

‘What happens when you fight against a large corporation with top-notch lawyers… You become penniless in an instant.’

 

I could already see the letters of apology they’d write through tears and snot.

 

I snorted quietly so it wouldn’t show.

 

After that short but intense explanation, they finally got to the main point.

 

“Even though it was a free experience, we still felt very sorry to everyone who took their precious time to participate. So we prepared separate compensation on our end.”

 

The employee pulled out the paper placed at the very bottom and handed over a fountain pen boasting an elegant nib.

 

“Please choose one of these and just sign here.”

 

Right, compensation.

 

I quietly read through the text marked as ‘compensation’ on the paper.

 

Difficult legal terms and verbose phrases were lined up one after another, but what they wanted to say was simple.

 

-Monetary compensation

 

-B-Grade Healing Potion

 

They would selectively provide one of the two.

 

The choice was mine to make.

 

‘Large corporations sure are generous.’

 

Considering that the monetary compensation and B-Grade Healing Potion offered by the company were similar in price range…

 

‘The fact that they specifically offered a potion as compensation must be because they’re conscious that most camp participants are ordinary people.’

 

The reality is that ordinary people can’t easily buy B-Grade or higher healing potions even if they have money.

 

Therefore, in a situation where they would have been criticized for being insincere if they only gave money, by including a B-Grade potion in the compensation, they planned to perfectly manage their image at the last moment.

 

It was obvious they were trying to remain only as ‘a sponsor who was very considerate about how the situation escalated to this point.’

 

‘Even though BOND clearly has fault in letting things deteriorate to that extent.’

 

However, separate from these thoughts, I quickly chose one of the two compensations without much deliberation and scrawled my signature.

 

‘Since there are other ways to obtain potions, for me it’s obviously.’

 

Money.

 

Kang Sa-gwa also chose monetary compensation, no different from me.

 

‘Cash is the best.’

 

‘Naturally.’

 

And as expected, Seo-ro was…

 

“Ah, since Lee Seo-ro is a minor, we decided to discuss with his guardian and decide together later. But we thought it would be good to explain in advance…”

 

I see.

 

Seo-ro would have to come back later with Lee Seo-hyeok.

 

With the signing complete, we stood up from our seats.

 

While pleasantly thinking about the monetary compensation we’d receive.

 

And not long after we stepped out of the room following the employee’s guidance, we heard noisy voices in the hallway.

 

“They say the Potion Manufacturing Department’s confidential data has already been completely stolen.”

 

“This is driving me crazy. When the hell did they sneak in?”

 

“When is that Psychometry User or whatever Awakener coming? Or at least, when is our CEO coming?”

 

“Sigh… First strengthen security and quickly move the data to a safe place!”

 

“It doesn’t seem like anything’s been leaked yet…”

 

An employee who followed us out glanced at us nervously while holding the elevator.

 

Then, in a voice that sounded quite troubled, he said.

 

“As you can see, the company is a bit chaotic right now…”

 

The sound of high heels clicking as people rushed about urgently.

 

Complex instructions that were hard to understand, and brief answers in contrast, were exchanged rapidly.

 

I looked after Kang Sa-gwa and Seo-ro as we silently got on the elevator.

 

Then I added a few comforting words for the employee who looked frantic, constantly alternating between checking his watch and mobile phone.

 

“This must be difficult for you.”

 

“…Ha, ha… It’s not easy.”

 

‘This must really be a serious situation.’

 

However, since there was nothing I could do to help, I finished with an awkward smile.

 

‘Right, let me just focus on my own work.’

 

We clearly had different responsibilities, so wouldn’t it be the worst thing to meddle by adding a few more words?

 

And I believed that.

 

Until the company’s emergency became my business.

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