By Zephyria 
“That’s right. If it doesn’t work, we try again… What? What do you mean?”
He wondered if he had misheard, but unfortunately, Kim Si-baek’s hearing was perfectly fine. Tae-un smiled softly, his cheeks flushing red.
“Do you think I can’t crawl on all fours in front of you, Hyung? You’ve carried me on your back while crawling before.”
“Don’t describe giving you a piggyback ride when we were kids in such a weird way…”
“To make sure we don’t waste time, should I start crawling now?”
“Do you have some kind of filter installed in your ears that intentionally ignores my words?”
“Yes.”
When Kim Si-baek slapped the mouth uttering such cheeky words, Tae-un instead grabbed his hand and kissed it with a loud smacking sound.
“You knew your hand would turn me on, yet you still reached out—is this your kindness, telling me to eat it up?”
Everything was fine, but there was a minor nearby.
However, before the mouth pouring out inappropriate remarks about a minor’s backside could be sealed, Kim Si-baek’s phone rang. It was a call from Moon Sung-hee. He quickly answered the phone while Tae-un stepped back, licking his lips.
Hello? Teacher?
“Yes, Raid Leader. What is it?”
“Nothing much, but I’m thinking of going to do some volunteer work with Gae-un on my day off, and I wanted to see Jun-seo’s face as well. There are some people from our shelter who go together. If there’s anything you want to tell Jun-seo, please let me know.”
Park Jun-seo was a child who had been the host of an Id Portal not long ago. Kim Si-baek had heard from Tae-un the day before yesterday that he had entered the Somang Orphanage, which happened to have space.
The nuns who had cared for him and his siblings at the orphanage naturally came to mind. If their nature had remained unchanged despite enduring such chaotic times, Park Jun-seo would spend days far more peaceful and stable than when he was with his father. That was enough.
Kim Si-baek brushed a hand over his face before answering. He felt no need to forge unnecessary ties.
“Nothing in particular.”
…Ah, I see.
Perhaps not expecting him to draw a line so bluntly given his personality, Moon Sung-hee responded in a slightly awkward tone.
Once the call ended, Tae-un peeked over.
“I think I heard something about Somang Orphanage. What is it?”
“The Raid Leader said she’s going to volunteer and see Jun-seo.”
“Moon Sung-hee—I mean, Sung-hee Noona—used to go there often.”
Tae-un, who had almost called her ‘Moon Sung-hee’ out of habit before remembering Kim Si-baek was there and quickly changing the title, snapped his fingers.
“That quest—if Hyung goes to the orphanage too, you might be able to solve it easily.”
When Kim Si-baek called Moon Sung-hee to ask again, she readily agreed. On their day off, they gathered and headed to Somang Orphanage. Naturally, Tae-un sat in the seat next to Kim Si-baek.
“But are you off today too?”
“Aw, Hyung. I have tons of annual leave left. I worked like a cow without resting.”
“…Really?”
Due to the difficulty of searching the internet, Kim Si-baek—who still didn’t know if CEOs even had annual leave—only tilted his head in confusion.
They arrived at the orphanage shortly after. Aside from a minor incident where others, especially Moon Sung-hee, looked horrified—their eyes nearly popping out—at Tae-un’s ‘Sung-hee Noona’ comment, there were no problems. Sister Benedicta, who had come out to the main gate to greet them, welcomed the group warmly.
Since it had moved to Daejeon, the building was different from his memories, but the people were the same. The head nun Kim Si-baek had known had passed away from old age, and Sister Benedicta, who succeeded her, was the one who had cared for him since he first entered.
Benedicta was the first person other than his mother to hold him warmly in her arms. She had encouraged him when he said he would find his younger sibling, and when he quit fencing, she had comforted his wounds, grieving as if it were her own. With a voice similar to that time, Benedicta spoke.
“Welcome. I heard from Gae-un and Sung-hee.”
The nun greeted Kim Si-baek, a stranger, with a bright smile. Kim Si-baek gazed at her for a moment—her wrinkles deeper and her appearance softer and rounder than in his memories—before bowing his head with a faint smile.
“I heard you are quite close with Un-i as well?”
Glancing at Tae-un, he saw him pretending to be indifferent, staring at a distant mountain.
“I’ve also heard many stories about how the Sister alone fed and supported all the refugees in Seoul.”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.”
Benedicta was an S-class Awakened with the ability to rapidly grow plants and increase soil fertility. Her ability had been indispensable for the refugees in the isolated Seoul to survive.
As Seo Gae-un joked with Benedicta, who felt shy when the old stories—which could be called heroic tales—came up.
“Here is the evidence. Thanks to the crops the Sister grew by hand, I grew this tall and put on this much muscle, didn’t I?”
“Oh, honestly. And what about when you used to run away saying you hated carrots?”
“But you chased me down to the very end and shoved them in my mouth. Even now, I find it amazing how the Sister was able to chase down someone like me who had awakened.”
While chatting, Benedicta introduced the two other nuns who had come out to greet them.
“I look forward to your help today. This is Sister Catherine and Sister Hyo-ju Agnes.”
Since the others volunteered periodically, Kim Si-baek was the only one meeting them for the first time.
As he exchanged light greetings, the moment Kim Si-baek laid eyes on Sister Hyo-ju Agnes, who was standing at the edge, he felt an intense sense of déjà vu, as if he had been struck on the back of the head.
The slightly upturned, long eyes, the dimple that appeared only on the left cheek, and the lines of the features that formed a slightly broad face traced the image of a woman he could never erase from his life.
‘…Mother?’
The woman before him looked exactly like the mother in his old memories, as if she were a recreation of her. But it couldn’t be his mother. Unlike his mother, who would be nearly seventy if she were alive, Sister Hyo-ju Agnes looked to be in her mid-thirties at most.
“Um, Hunter-nim? Is something wrong?”
As his blank stare lingered, Hyo-ju Agnes looked at him curiously. Only then did Kim Si-baek snap back to his senses and take a step back.
“…I’m sorry. You look like someone I know.”
“I hear that a lot. I have a common face.”
Hyo-ju Agnes laughed brightly. …As expected, it wasn’t his mother. His mother had never shown him such a bright smile.
The fact that a smile was the proof that she wasn’t his mother left a bitter taste in his mouth, and Kim Si-baek let out a low sigh. He didn’t notice that Tae-un’s gaze, looking up at him silently from the side, had deepened.
“Argh! That’s so unfair, seriously! Does it make sense for you to be in ‘serious mode’ while playing soccer with kids?!”
“A lion always gives its all, even when hunting a rabbit. Do you wish to have your pride wounded by receiving consideration just because you are a child?”
“I don’t need pride, I just want to win!”
“As your Company Commander, I am disappointed in you.”
Since Seo Gae-un had actually been a company commander until a few years ago, the acting felt realistic.
The children flocked to her as she bounced the soccer ball, keeping her hands behind her back and speaking in a mock-dignified voice. Park Jun-seo, who had been hesitating due to the unfamiliar environment, had somehow blended into the group of children.
“Woof!”
While the children were crowded around Seo Gae-un, Kim Si-baek, who was taking a moment to cool down from the sweat, looked down at the damp sensation on his hand. Mung-i, who was licking his hand, wagged its tail fiercely.
This fellow was the reason Tae-un said the quest could be completed at the orphanage. It was a white Jindo dog he had started raising two years ago. He heard that Park Jun-seo’s dog was also scheduled to be brought in once it was discharged from the animal hospital.
Kim Si-baek picked up the boomerang that Mung-i had dropped at his feet and flung it across the field.
“Bark bark!”
Mung-i ran off, wagging its tail happily. When he roughly patted the head of the dog that had quickly retrieved it and returned, it bounced around even more excitedly.
[Quest 12. CLEAR]
[Counting the time spent playing soccer with kids while a dog runs around seems like a loophole, but it has been generously allowed. Because the System is always rooting for the Returner ㅇㅅ<)r☆] He hadn't noticed the time passing while playing soccer, but it seemed an hour had already gone by. However, there was a problem weighing on his mind more than the completion of the quest. Despite the proof that it wasn't her, the phrasing of the quest—mentioning that he might meet someone he missed—kept coming back to him. The System, which was clearly observing his movements. The strange nuance mentioned since the Id Portal quest. The existence of Tae-un, who could inform him about raising a dog at the orphanage. A nun who resembled his mother. The mere possibility made his heart grow increasingly anxious.