The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 490

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Yeo Joo Saves the World
Part 3, Episode 94

Clink, clink.
The Common Space echoed with the sounds of a leisurely breakfast being prepared.
I took advantage of the gap to sit on the Living Room floor and catch up on everything I’d missed with Na Baek Ho.
Na Baek Ho barely stayed home these days, so I had no choice but to use this early hour—otherwise I’d hardly ever see his face.
“Can you get twice as big as you are now?”
“Growl.”
Na Baek Ho let out a low rumble and expanded his body just as I’d asked.
It happened in the short span of a single inhale and exhale.
It never stopped being amazing to watch.
His frame, already larger than an ordinary tiger, had swelled to a size so vast I could barely take it all in at once.
“All right, then make wings like last time.”
Before I’d even finished speaking, a pair of wings thrust upward from Na Baek Ho’s back.
I couldn’t resist.
I scrambled to my feet and hurried toward him.
Even in that chaos inside the Gate, I’d felt how unbelievably soft and fluffy those wings were.
So that’s why people collected feathers to stuff pillows and quilts.
But maybe…?
Without thinking, I started looking around the floor for falling feathers, and as if he’d read my mind, Na Baek Ho snorted.
“They don’t fall. I’m not a bird.”
“No, I was just wondering.”
“If you need something soft and warm, you can just sleep on me. Why would you want to collect feathers?”
“That’s true, but it’s really amazing. Wings, just like that.”
The white, enormous wings seemed at odds with Na Baek Ho, and yet they suited him perfectly.
As though they’d always belonged there.
“I told you. I’ll be wherever Yeo Joo wants me, in whatever form she desires.”
Na Baek Ho gazed at me deeply with eyes that were unusually vivid blue today.
“Wherever I want, in whatever form I want.”
“That’s right.”
All the small sounds rustling at the edges of my awareness fell away.
Sometimes moments like this happened.
Moments when it felt as though only he and I existed in this space.
“So… are Baek Young and Hong Joo the same? Can they transform the way you do?”
A proud sound rumbled from his throat.
With that, Na Baek Ho folded his wings back down and turned his head away sharply.
“That’s something they’ll figure out for themselves. It’s not our business.”
“You’re kind of cold about it, aren’t you?”
“It’s not coldness. It’s just genuinely not something anyone else can get involved in.”
“Fair enough.”
Most of the time he seemed so bright and naive, like a playful young animal, but when asked about something that truly mattered, he’d draw a clear line like this.
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t disappointed, but at the same time, I didn’t feel the urge to pry further.
Na Baek Ho would grumble that my requests were annoying, yet he’d always end up indulging them anyway. If he refused to answer, there had to be a reason for it.
Just then, Je Hwa, who’d been moving busily about the Kitchen all this while, spoke up.
“Should we eat now?”
“Yes, I’ll get ready!”
I’d have to do the washing up today.
Watching the steam rise from the Braised Short Ribs, I resolved not to be shameless enough to ask for seconds.
“I’ll go play around the Back Mountain then.”
Na Baek Ho stretched boldly as he announced this.
Running around with Maeng Yi and the mountains near the Guild.
That was Na Baek Ho’s routine these days.
But then Je Hwa pulled something from a Kitchen drawer and said:
“I made a separate plate for you too. Won’t you eat with us?”
“One for me?”
When Na Baek Ho spotted the low, wide mini table, his eyes sparkled.
Then, as Je Hwa began setting a large steak and a plate of bright-red strawberries on it one by one, his thick, rope-like tail wagged with excitement.
“Sure, though I’m not sure you’ll be able to use it in that form…”
“I’m shrinking! Making myself small!”
Na Baek Ho instantly compressed himself to the size of a small dog, and his wings, now proportionally smaller as well, fluttered as he zipped over to the Kitchen counter.
Baby-sized wings on a baby-sized Baek Ho.
It was violently adorable.
But the taste of the Braised Short Ribs that Je Hwa had prepared for the first time in a while was even more devastating.
I swallowed the tender, sweetly savory meat and, feigning indifference, turned to Je Hwa, whose eyes were alight with anticipation waiting for my reaction.
“Boss, want to open a Braised Short Ribs restaurant together?”
“Yesterday you wanted to open a ginseng chicken soup place.”
“It’s too delicious for me to keep to myself!”
I could definitely make a fortune off it.
As I stared longingly at the Braised Short Ribs, Je Hwa—unable to bear my regret—delicately scored a shiitake mushroom and set it on my plate, then asked with a hint of laughter in his voice:
“But if I opened a restaurant, I wouldn’t have time to cook for you anymore, would I?”
“Oh, that’s…”
Since I’d come back from the Hospital, Je Hwa had been preparing nutritious meals every single day.
Beef bone soup, seafood soup, grilled eel, ginseng chicken soup, and today, Braised Short Ribs.
These were menus that could feel heavy for breakfast, but in the face of Je Hwa’s culinary skill, such objections were meaningless.
“So stop asking me to open a restaurant. It hurts my feelings.”
“Hurts your feelings?”
“It’s the same as telling me to cook for other people instead. I only want to feed you.”
It made sense when I thought about it.
I quickly nodded, and Je Hwa let out a soft laugh.
“Go ahead and eat. The radish is sweet this season, so the radish salad came out wonderfully.”
After breakfast, I polished off a whole bowl of rice and finished the dishes to try to make a dent in my full stomach.
Once I’d wiped away the last traces of water from around the sink, Je Hwa—who brought me a towel to dry my hands—let out a small sigh.
“I’ll do it. Why are you getting your hands wet?”
“Aren’t your hands hands too, boss?”
At my words, Je Hwa laughed helplessly and hesitantly opened his mouth.
“Have you been in contact with Sa Ma Young?”
“Not really, no.”
Since I’d returned to the Sama Guild, I hadn’t even spoken to Sa Ma Young on the phone.
It wasn’t as though his number had changed, and he’d probably answer if I called.
It had just happened that way, as if by unspoken agreement.
“It’ll be announced on the internet or in the news soon, but it seems the internal restructuring at the Guild is almost finished.”
“He’s returning as Guild Master?”
“That’s part of it, but the board approval has already come through too. He’s taking on the position of vice president.”
“That’s faster than I expected.”
Sa Ma Jung was dead, the only successor, so from the family’s perspective, there was really no alternative to Sa Ma Young.
I’d anticipated this would happen.
That’s why Sa Ma Young had left the Justice Guild in the first place.
But now that it was actually coming to pass, I couldn’t shake a strange feeling.
“And while it’s not certain, there’s another rumor circulating. That Sa Ma Young plans to separate the Sama Guild and the Sama Hunter Market from the group.”
“…Is that not just gossip?”
Those two businesses were absolute cash cows for the group—its pillars.
All the more so in a situation where management and succession were undergoing such dramatic shifts.
“It could be. Or it might be an attempt to consolidate the two into something independent and scale it up even further.”
“That sounds very much like Sa Ma Young.”
Either way, Sa Ma Young was steadily achieving what he wanted, one step at a time.
I couldn’t fall behind.
“Boss, how’s that job I asked you about a few days ago coming along?”
“Oh, that.”
Je Hwa dried the remaining moisture from my hands with the towel himself as he answered.
“About half is done. I’ve stored it in the Guild Warehouse.”
“You’re saying it’s finished, not just in progress? Already?”
“Making Disposable Protective Gear isn’t some impossible task.”
“But it’s S-rank, though…?”
“All it needs to do is block Mental-type Skills.”
If there were any other crafting-class Hunters present, they’d probably be clutching their temples and collapsing by now.
No matter how powerful an S-rank crafting skill someone possessed, creating items of comparable grade was supposedly quite difficult.
Je Hwa was talking about it as though it were nothing at all.
“But what are you planning to do with all those suits of armor? If it’s for sale, it might be good to add more diverse functions.”
“I am planning to sell them. The thing is…”
I was about to explain my future plans to Je Hwa when the door to the Common Space opened.
It was Kang Han, who hadn’t been visible all morning.
I’d wondered if he was returning from his dawn training.
“Guild Master… where are you… going?”

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