Chapter 145

Jun-sang and Henes headed straight for the underground parking lot. On the way, they passed by a few people, but no one seemed to notice Lyches perched on Jun-sang’s shoulder.

Using invisibility or stealth might make you unseen by everyone, but it doesn’t allow you to be visible only to specific people. Jun-sang, curious about the principle behind this, asked Lyches, who was sitting on his shoulder and swinging her legs.

“It’s true, then. How is that possible?”

“What is?”

“The ability to be seen only by the person you want to.”

“Oh… it just is. It’s always been possible.”

“…”

Lyches’s unhelpful answer left Jun-sang speechless for a moment. Of course, it was a typical answer from a regular fairy, but Lyches was a fairy with experiences and a status that made her difficult to categorize as “regular.”

“Looks like you want to go back in.”

At Jun-sang’s next remark, Lyches pouted and reluctantly began to explain.

“Tch… I mean, it’s something like this. A person always walks forward, but you can’t say they see everything in front of them, can you? So…”

Whether it was her true nature or not, once she started explaining, Lyches began to speak quite seriously. But this time, Jun-sang was the problem.

“Just the main point.”

“…”

Lyches turned her head and grumbled to herself for a moment, then summarized the main point as Jun-sang wanted.

“So, simply put, it’s escaping someone’s perception. You know how it is. You spend all day looking for something that’s right in front of you and you don’t notice it. It’s the same thing.”

“And you can do that intentionally?”

“Because I’m a fairy.”

“…”

He got a rough idea of the principle, but it still meant that only a fairy could use it. In any case, they soon arrived at the underground parking lot. Jun-sang checked to make sure there were no people or cameras around, then took out the Raptor in an empty space.

When a massive, solid-looking object suddenly appeared out of thin air, Lyches gasped in awe. “Wow! How did you do that?”

Jun-sang immediately replied, “Just because.”

“…”

Lyches frowned. To take revenge for her “just because” answer in this way… She thought this man might be unexpectedly petty. Unfortunately, that was a misunderstanding. Jun-sang himself didn’t know the operating principle of the inventory, and if he were to explain it, he would have to go into a long, detailed story of all his experiences. Out of sheer laziness, his simple summary was the answer he gave.

Henes, who had been listening to the conversation between Jun-sang and Lyches, quickly covered her mouth to stifle a laugh and got into the passenger seat of the Raptor. While Jun-sang meticulously checked that Henes was properly buckled in, Lyches began to buzz around inside the car, looking at everything in a dizzying frenzy. She tried not to show it, but it was actually her first time exploring a place that wasn’t the Fairy Realm. Moreover, the sight of Earth, filled with completely different cultures and objects, was enough to ignite the intense curiosity that all fairies possessed.

“Wow! Wow! Wow!”

At her ceaseless, meaningless exclamations and frenetic flying around inside the car, Jun-sang frowned but pretended not to notice. He started the engine and slowly began to move the car.

“Wooooow! Was this a cart? But how does it move without a horse?”

Lyches asked again, but Jun-sang’s answer was the same. “Just because.”

“…”

He couldn’t help it. There was no way Jun-sang, whose major was not in engineering, would know the driving principles of a car. Of course, he could give a rough explanation about burning fuel and converting its explosive power into rotational force, but considering the endless questions from this curious fairy, it was better for his mental health to cut her off here rather than to give a clumsy explanation.

“Tch…”

Lyches puffed out her cheeks with a dissatisfied expression and sat on the dashboard, glaring at him. But Jun-sang ignored her and drove out of the hotel. As the car came outside, Lyches forgot her pouting and was once again engrossed in the scenery flashing past the window.

From the sight of countless cars zipping around in a chaotic tangle to the bustling crowds and the clothes they wore, she didn’t miss a single detail, marveling at everything. Henes could easily guess just how much Lyches had longed to see the outside world while she was inside the Fairy Realm.

Jun-sang was about to head directly to the location where the riot police went missing, as marked on the map, but he changed his mind when he saw a large supermarket sign. He had used up a lot of chocolate bars while managing the fairies, and he also needed to stock up on various foods and ingredients.

“I’ll make a quick stop.”

“Okay.”

Jun-sang immediately drove into the supermarket parking lot. As the intimidating pickup truck entered the lot, people glanced at it, but upon seeing Jun-sang’s solid physique and sunken eyes through the car window, they flinched and quickly turned their heads away. Even without intentionally radiating the ‘Mad Dog’s Dignity,’ Jun-sang’s gaze was already the kind that ordinary people couldn’t easily handle. Or, to be precise, as he kept using status-affecting skills like ‘Gaze of Fear,’ ‘Evil Eye,’ and ‘Mad Dog’s Dignity,’ that intense aura had gradually permeated his body.

Henes, who was always with him, was already smitten and somewhat accustomed to that feeling. In addition, she had the ‘Iron Skin’ card on standby, so it was no problem. Not only that, but Lyches, being a transcendent being herself even if not in the Fairy Realm, could easily ignore that level of pressure. But other ordinary people were not so fortunate.

In any case, Jun-sang parked the car in an empty spot, and as Henes and Lyches got out, he immediately stored the car in his inventory. He could have left it parked, but it would be a hassle to come back for it later if a quest occurred. As Jun-sang put the car back in his inventory, Henes naturally came forward and held his hand, and Lyches also took her place on Jun-sang’s shoulder.

Henes suddenly wondered why every fairy she met seemed so eager to sit on Jun-sang’s shoulder. Was it really that comfortable? The thought even crossed her mind that she would like to sit on Jun-sang’s shoulder like that just once.

As Jun-sang and Henes entered through the automatic doors, people’s attention was drawn to them once again. The sight of the solidly built Jun-sang with his sharp eyes and the exotic-looking brown-haired girl holding hands affectionately was certainly a rare sight. But again, people were overwhelmed by the aura subtly emanating from Jun-sang’s body and had to quickly turn their heads away.

Jun-sang took a shopping cart and began to pick up the necessary items one by one. The first thing he grabbed was, of course, the weapon he would use to lure the fairies: chocolate bars. He pushed an entire large box filled with smaller boxes of a dozen or so bars into the cart, then began to fill it mainly with fresh fruits. Instant food was simple and convenient, but if he had the leisure, there was no reason to stick to it. Fruits, in particular, could be used without any special cooking, which was a double bonus. Before, with only a few inventory slots, he couldn’t even dream of dedicating one solely to ingredients, but now it was entirely possible.

“Do you need anything?”

After roughly getting all the food he needed, Jun-sang asked Henes. He had given her some feminine products through Jin Se-ah before, but he wondered if she might have run out of anything. But Henes shook her head with a smile.

“Not really. Nothing comes to mind.”

“…”

Lyches’s eyes were wide with wonder at the various items in the supermarket, and she was constantly exclaiming. She pouted at the sight of the couple lost in their own world and said, “Excuse me!”

“…”

Jun-sang, who had momentarily forgotten that Lyches was sitting on his shoulder, frowned and asked, “What is it?”

Lyches quickly pointed to a transparent cup of cotton candy in a corner of the supermarket. “What’s that?”

Jun-sang glanced at what she was pointing at and replied, “Cotton candy.” Of course, with just that answer, Lyches couldn’t understand. Unless cotton candy already existed in the Fairy Realm.

“What is it?”

“Something you eat.”

“You eat that?”

“…”

Too lazy to explain it all, Jun-sang picked up a few of the displayed cotton candies, put them in the cart, and said again, “I’ll give it to you later, just eat it yourself.”

“Yes!”

Lyches finally fell silent, filled with anticipation for the new food.

After finishing shopping, Jun-sang first went to the parking lot and took out the Raptor, then loaded the purchased items into the back cargo area. When he was ready, he drove the car out of the parking lot again.

Henes opened the lid of the cup for Lyches, who then picked up the fluffy, cloud-like cotton candy with her hands and brought it to her mouth.

“Ooh-ooh-ooh!”

The texture that melted the moment it touched her tongue! Chocolate bars were good, but this was another revolution. Lyches busily flew around the cup Henes was holding, captivated by the magical power of the food called cotton candy.

But there was a problem. She had gotten so passionately into it that she had literally burrowed into the cotton candy.

“Ugh… what is this.”

Lyches’s face fell as the sticky sugar got all over her body. She then used magic to clean herself. Jun-sang, who saw this while driving, asked her, “Don’t you use a spirit?”

“A spirit? I would in the Fairy Realm, but it’s a hassle to summon one here.”

“Even with a Spirit Gate?”

Lyches looked puzzled, as if she didn’t know what he was talking about, then her expression turned to one of shock.

“Y-you… what on earth did you do to your body?”

She must have finally noticed the fairy stone transplanted into Jun-sang’s body.

“What do you think? It’s a Spirit Gate.”

“H-how can that be…”

The reason they don’t transplant Spirit Gates into animals is partly because it’s a hassle to manage, but also because it’s hard to find a creature with vitality as strong as an ancient tree. Vitality and stamina are similar but different concepts, and animals, unlike plants, tend to have their vitality weaken as they age, perhaps due to their more strenuous lives.

And yet, this absurd man had a Spirit Gate built into his own body. Was such a thing even possible? This was all thanks to the vitality enhancement from the seed and items he had equipped, as well as his physical abilities amplified through rigorous training and combat. But for the Queen, who still didn’t know the true extent of Jun-sang’s power, it was truly incomprehensible.

“Is there really nothing wrong with you?”

“Not much. Why? Are there any side effects?”

Lyches quickly shook her head. “No. It’s not that… it’s just amazing.”

“…”

Lyches began to furtively watch Jun-sang, who was concentrating on driving. No matter how he did it, the very fact that he had tied her down was proof that he was no ordinary human. Lyches thought for a moment, then shook her head and once again immersed herself in the sweetness of the cotton candy.