Chapter 15

“Lift your leg.”

Embarrassed, Morae instinctively pressed her knees together.

Pado lightly smacked her calf.

When she hesitated, he gave her a look that plainly said, Are you really going to make this difficult?

Morae didn’t hesitate for long.

She lifted her legs one at a time.

Pado slipped off her pants and panties.

In situations like this, it was better to cooperate.

If Pado really wanted to, lifting Morae into the air and stripping her naked would have been effortless.

Wrapped tightly in a dry towel, Morae shrank into herself.

“W-What are you doing? Out here?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea. My shoulder’s soaked, and you’ll catch a cold if you stay in wet clothes.”

He said it as though he were doing it for her.

That didn’t change the fact that he’d left her wearing nothing but a towel.

Pink as strawberry milk, Morae trembled.

Pado let out a snort and scooped her into his arms.

“There. Better?”

“…!”

Her face was even closer than when she’d been wrapped up before.

And now she was wearing nothing but a single towel.

Pressed against Pado with only a towel between them, Morae bit down on her lip.

Otherwise, she was sure her face would turn bright red.

Meanwhile, Pado looked even grumpier than usual.

Still cradled in his arms, Morae cautiously looked up at him.

“…Hey.”

“No.”

“Don’t make boring jokes. Just carry me on your back.”

“Don’t complain when you’re the one being carried. This is easier.”

“But—”

“No.”

“Even so—”

“I said stop complaining.”

It wasn’t as if she wanted to complain.

At the rate things were going, he looked like he might even take away the towel.

Even so, she couldn’t bear it anymore.

After being rejected three times, Morae finally raised her voice.

“You’re touching me!”

Being carried while wearing nothing but a towel was something she could endure.

If she stayed in her wet clothes, she’d catch a cold, and the towel covered everything that mattered.

The problem was…

Something firm kept brushing against her side and her backside.

It definitely wasn’t his thigh or stomach.

“Of course I am. You’re outside, wrapped in nothing but a towel, sitting in my arms. This is the kind of experience money can’t buy. Did you really think I wouldn’t react?”

Pado said it matter-of-factly as he adjusted his grip.

People with too much pride tended to stay composed even in awkward situations.

Pado was exactly like that.

What was she supposed to do with someone who could openly admit he had an erection in the middle of the outdoors?

Eyes welling with frustrated tears, Morae struggled just enough to make it clear she didn’t want him to leave her behind.

“You could just give me a piggyback ride!”

“No. Then everyone would be able to see it.”

Pado refused without hesitation.

The reason was reasonable enough that Morae actually stopped to think for three whole seconds.

Still…

It didn’t make any sense.

“So you’re fine with me noticing when I’m right next to you?!”

“You’d make an even bigger fuss if I didn’t react.”

She wanted to snap back with, I wouldn’t.

But…

He had a point.

It was embarrassing enough having his hard length brushing against the small of her back.

Still, after he’d put her in this situation, it somehow would’ve felt unfair if he hadn’t reacted at all.

As Morae finally fell silent, Pado lifted her a little higher in his arms.

The distance between her and his erection widened just enough that it barely brushed against her anymore.

Instead, their faces drew closer.

Their skin touched.

Pado leaned down until his lips were beside Morae’s ear.

“I don’t have another towel, so don’t get this one wet.”

“What are you even talking about?!”

“You know exactly what I mean. Next time, the only thing you’ll have to wear is my jacket. If you’re okay with that, I won’t stop you.”

“There you go again! You touched me again while you were saying that!”

Perhaps because talking about it had only made him more aware of it, his erection pressed more firmly against her backside.

This time, Pado simply ignored Morae’s cries.

Holding her any higher than this was already uncomfortable enough.

After struggling for a little longer, Morae gradually stopped resisting.

It was embarrassing to be in his arms after he’d stripped off her wet clothes.

But not embarrassing enough to kick him and jump down.

Pado moved swiftly.

The wind dried the moisture from their skin.

When Morae, whose arms and legs were still exposed, shivered from the cold, Pado draped his jacket over her.

The physical abilities of a capable Hunter far surpassed those of an ordinary person.

He was fast.

Behind him, the large sphere of water floated through the air, carrying the specimen bag with the collected rocks inside.

It would have taken a little effort, but he could have transported Morae the same way.

Instead, he continued carrying her in his arms.

At one point, he started grumbling that she was heavy.

Even so, he never put her down.

Silence lingered between them for a while.

It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence.

“If you’re going to leave, pay off your debt first.”

Breaking the quiet, Morae spoke.

“Once you’ve paid back all five hundred million won, you’ll really be free.”

Her tone was blunt, but not sharp.

It sounded more like a childish plea for him not to leave until then.

“So you’re not asking for a billion?”

“I already told you I’d cover half of it. How could I take that back after saying it? That’d be pathetic.”

The day Morae recruited Pado and escaped with him…

She had actually spent a total of one billion won.

Only half of that became Pado’s debt.

She’d insisted the other half was her own responsibility for being the one who’d gone to recruit him.

He had wondered whether she’d changed her mind now that he might leave.

Apparently not.

There was something deeply moving about her generosity.

Pado relaxed his shoulders and let out a slow breath.

“Alright. I’ll pay it back before I leave.”

“Pay it back with your own money. I’m not letting anyone lend you any.”

“Got it.”

“If you leave whenever you feel like it, I’ll call everyone I know and hunt you down.”

“I got it. So don’t ever pull something like that again.”

Pado spoke quietly.

His voice wasn’t scolding.

It simply settled gently against her ears.

He didn’t need to explain what something like that meant.

She already knew.

Looking into Pado’s eyes as he deliberately avoided looking back at her, Morae answered softly.

“…Mm.”

“Never again.”

“…Mm.”

“I was worried.”

Eventually, when Yu Pado spoke in a firm, final tone, the conversation fell silent.

Eun Morae swallowed several times before slowly answering.

“Okay.”

For some reason, her lips tingled even more than they had the morning after she’d said it four times. She bit down on her lip and stole a glance at Yu Pado’s face. Seeing him absentmindedly biting his own lip the same way made her want to laugh.

【 Research Results 】

“So that’s it. This mineral reacted with the calcium-rich water, turning it strongly alkaline. I was wondering where such highly alkaline water was coming from, and this turned out to be the source! What an incredible discovery. To think there’s still a completely new material this close by.”

A tiny hamster scurried excitedly in front of the monitor. Barely the size of a palm, Eun Jisung perked up his ears and tail in delight.

“When I heard the waterfall had been destroyed, my heart nearly stopped. I’m glad something worthwhile came out of it.”

“I planned the whole thing.”

“If only we’d recovered more. It has high hardness but low toughness. I wanted to try refining it in different ways, but this is all we’ve got. I’ll have to send another team when the time’s right.”

Ignored by her father, Eun Morae puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.

To make matters worse, her mother chimed in with something completely different.

“Pado must have worked hard. Why don’t you bring him some snacks?”

“I was the one who almost got hurt, and you’re only worried about Pado?”

Still nestled in her mother’s arms, Morae pouted dramatically.

Even while making her displeasure obvious, she accepted the box of desserts Han Nokyeong handed her and checked what was inside.

Chocolate cookies, lemon muffins, grapefruit tarts, and Earl Grey tarts.

Every single one was homemade by her mother.

Morae quietly slipped three madeleines she’d baked herself into the basket.

“He carried you all the way back soaking wet. It couldn’t have been easy.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t catch a cold.”

Her parents’ easygoing conversation pricked at her conscience.

She hadn’t done anything she truly felt guilty about, but she couldn’t exactly act completely innocent in front of them either. Especially because her parents, oddly enough, trusted Pado without any suspicion. That only made her feel more conflicted.

“By the way, did something happen to Pado?”

“Nothing happened! Why would anything happen to him?!”

Morae, who had been carefully reading the room, suddenly shouted at her father’s question.

Eun Jisung tilted his tiny body and looked up at his much taller daughter.

“I asked if something happened to Pado. His abilities improved dramatically. He’s normally not strong enough to wipe out eight members of the Justice Enforcement Division all at once.”

“He was definitely stronger than usual. But maybe they just let their guard down because I blew up the waterfall?”

“I don’t think so. The test results back it up.”

“Really?”

Morae sprang to her feet and rushed over.

She snatched the control panel from her father and read through the recorded data.

It was true.

After analyzing both Pado’s performance during the incident and his latest test results, they found that his physical abilities had improved enough to be clearly measurable.

His water manipulation, which had remained stuck at the lower end of A-rank for so long, had advanced by an entire level in both power and control. He had finally broken through the plateau that had held him back for ages.

His previous examination had only been a week ago.

In just that single week, he’d improved as much as a marksman going from consistently scoring eights to consistently scoring nines.

Eun Jisung climbed up Morae’s arm and settled comfortably on her shoulder.

“We don’t know if the growth is permanent. It could just be a temporary surge. People can draw out strength they never knew they had in moments of crisis.”

“That’s amazing. If he keeps improving like this, he might actually be able to fight me.”

Han Nokyeong spoke leisurely as she absentmindedly patted the spot where her daughter had been sitting.

“That’s right. I’d like to have him spar with you soon. We might be witnessing the birth of a new S-rank Hunter.”

The wonderful news made Morae’s eyes sparkle.

Unfortunately, the hamster perched on her shoulder couldn’t see her expression.

“So, Morae… does anything come to mind?”

“Nope!”

Morae answered brightly.

She set her father down on the desk and dashed out of the room.

A second later, she hurried back in, grabbed the basket of snacks, then disappeared again like an arrow.

The couple watched the trail their daughter left behind without even saying a proper goodbye.

They had planned to comfort their daughter after her encounter with the Justice Enforcement Division and spend some quiet family time together.

Instead, it had all come to nothing.

There was only one reason their daughter would rush out like that.

“There is.”

“There is.”

Their leisurely voices overlapped almost perfectly.

With warm smiles, they watched their daughter go.