Translator: Nox
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: The Baby Mandragora
Mandragoras were famously difficult to acquire.
Their natural habitats were in places humans couldn’t reach.
“Their habitat was… high-altitude mountains, right?”
He looked around to see if there were any elevated regions nearby. In the distance, he spotted a snow-covered mountain.
If snow fell at that altitude, there was a good chance it was a mandragora habitat.
‘At that height, the concentration of demonic energy must be pretty thick.’
In the demon realm, the higher the elevation, the more densely condensed the demonic energy.
Even for Awakeners, withstanding that concentration wasn’t easy.
If one surpassed their physical limit, it meant death.
That’s why Hunters constantly died while trying to harvest mandragoras.
‘Let’s go grab a few roots.’
Cheon Do-yoon’s steps were light as he headed for such a place.
There was one reason he could survive in high-altitude areas.
His own demonic energy vastly surpassed the concentration around him. He simply suppressed the surrounding energy with his own.
That was why the harsh environment had no effect on him.
‘Once the vegetable patch is done… maybe I should get a pet. It’d be nice to have a dog to guard the garden.’
A house with a yard and a vegetable patch. A pet running around. The ideal home—like something out of a picture book.
Cheon Do-yoon smiled at the thought of having it all.
* * *
Climbing the mountain was easy.
With each leap covering dozens of meters, getting up was no trouble at all.
But trouble came from an unexpected direction.
“This snow’s coming down way too hard.”
He expected snowfall—it was a snowy mountain, after all. But not this much. A full-on snowstorm blurred his vision.
“I’ve come all this way… guess I’ll just wait it out?”
Cheon Do-yoon sat on the snow-covered ground.
Even though he was wearing only a fur hide that left his limbs exposed, he didn’t feel cold at all.
‘Come to think of it, it was snowing like this the day I was kidnapped too.’
Watching the falling snow reminded him of the day he was taken by the lab.
When he was nine, he’d been living in an orphanage in the slums.
Facilities in slum orphanages were terrible. The fact that one even existed was a miracle.
Due to the lack of supplies, fights among the children were frequent—and usually won by the older kids.
At the time, Cheon Do-yoon was nine.
The head boy in his room took his blanket as winter began.
Not just his—every kid in that room lost their blankets.
[You tell the teachers and you're dead. Wanna find out what happens? Just try snitching tomorrow. I’ll beat you to death.]
The thief was sixteen, the oldest and biggest. He ran with other older boys from nearby rooms.
A different kind of survival of the fittest.
The smaller kids could only tremble in the cold and give up their blankets.
[It’s freezing… I think I might actually die.]
Cheon Do-yoon lay on his icy bed and thought.
The room leader hadn’t stopped at blankets. He’d taken the bread rations too—it had been five days since Do-yoon last ate.
Even eating snow from outside was reaching its limit.
[Last winter, four kids died because of him.]
Would he be the next? Cheon Do-yoon got out of bed. Starvation made him stagger, but he held himself up with the wall.
[I’m not dying alone.]
He quietly approached the room leader. In his hand was a pen from the table.
[You look nice and warm.]
Buried under layers of stolen blankets, the boy looked peaceful.
Cheon Do-yoon didn’t hesitate. He covered the older boy’s mouth and climbed on top of him.
By the time the boy awoke, the pen was already stabbing down toward his throat.
[Did you hear? Cheon Do-yoon killed the room leader.]
The news spread through the orphanage that very day.
[Good! That bastard deserved it.]
The other kids cheered for what he had done.
[Last year, four kids froze to death because of him.]
[Right? I've been eating nothing but weeds for a week thanks to him. If Do-yoon hadn’t done it, I might’ve.]
The slums were a trash heap of a city. A breeding ground for criminals.
Death was common. Killing someone at nine wasn’t even considered unusual.
[But Cheon Do-yoon still killed someone. What happens now? Will the cops come?]
[What cops? This is the slums. The staff’ll handle it themselves.]
Murder was handled internally. That was the slum’s unspoken rule.
Cheon Do-yoon wasn’t taken in by the law—but he did receive something worse.
[You know the orphanage rules. Killing another kid means expulsion. I’m sorry, Do-yoon.]
On a night of heavy snowfall, Cheon Do-yoon was kicked out of the orphanage without even a coat.
Murder was common in the slums. The real reason they expelled him over it? To reduce mouths to feed.
Winter was the season of cold and hunger. A time when not everyone made it to spring.
When someone had to be abandoned, it was always the child who had sinned.
That was the logic behind the rule against killing other kids.
[Figures. I guess I’m meant to die today.]
Cheon Do-yoon wandered through the snowy streets.
He no longer felt cold. He wasn’t even hungry. His body, standing at the edge of death, was starting to go numb.
Eventually, he collapsed in the middle of the road.
At that moment, a black van screeched to a halt.
Two men stepped out and tossed Cheon Do-yoon inside.
[Got another one. Let’s move!]
[Man, the slums are crazy. Kids just lying around. We’re gonna make a killing.]
Inside were about a dozen other children his age.
[We’re not gonna get in trouble for this? Someone saw us. What if they report it?]
[Relax. No one reports anything in the slums. Even the cops here work for gangs.]
The kidnappers laughed and floored the gas.
That night, Cheon Do-yoon was expelled from the orphanage and kidnapped into the Chimera Lab.
And the only thought he had then was:
‘It’s warm.’
The heater in the car was blissfully warm.
At least, he wouldn’t die just yet. With that thought, Cheon Do-yoon fell asleep.
“Looking back… being a chimera wasn’t all bad.”
Recalling his childhood, he chuckled.
Thanks to becoming a Chimera Hunter, he no longer feared freezing in winter. Even starvation couldn’t kill him now.
Whether he was human or a monster—he was alive, and able to enjoy the falling snow.
Cheon Do-yoon watched the blizzard swirl around him as he waited for it to pass.
* * *
An hour later, the snowstorm finally stopped.
He resumed climbing and soon discovered a mandragora habitat near the summit.
“Good thing it wasn’t a wasted trip.”
He smiled at the sight before him. Green leaves poked up through the snow, glowing with freshness under the sunlight.
‘I’ll just grab three roots for now.’
Mandragoras were fragile creatures. Even minor changes in their environment could kill them, so a test run was needed.
‘If I’m transplanting them, young ones with high adaptability would be best.’
He picked a sprout with small leaves. The mandragora opened its eyes.
—Huuuuh?
It let out a sleepy mumble. The infamous “Mandragora Scream” was nowhere to be heard.
That scream only came from mandragoras artificially grown in the human world.
‘They say it screams from stress.’
They were originally creatures of high-altitude regions saturated with demonic energy.
In the human world, they didn’t get enough of it and were constantly stressed.
If pulled in that state, they would scream and die instantly.
“So this is what they’re like when they grow properly.”
It was only about 10 centimeters tall. The little mandragora wiggled its roots and promptly fell back asleep.
Its plump body reminded him of a teddy bear.
‘Not like the dried-up husks I saw in the lab.’
Guess natural-grown ones really were different. Cheon Do-yoon pulled two more of similar size.
Each time, the mandragoras squirmed and let out sleepy noises.
—Huuuuh.
—Mmm, huuuh!
It sounded like they were fussing about being woken up.
They made odd noises but never resisted. That puzzled him.
‘Why aren’t they putting up a fight?’
The lack of screams was one thing—but not even trying to escape? That was strange.
As he studied their vulnerable behavior, a theory came to mind.
“Do they recognize me as one of their own?”
His body contained cells from all sorts of monsters—including plant-types.
Sure enough, he had mandragora cells in him. They must have sensed it and taken him as kin.
“Lucky me.”
He grinned. Transplanting them without stress would be ideal.
He tied the mandragoras to the end of his belt.
Even dangling like dried fish, they didn’t wake.
‘This is going easier than expected. I’ll raise them, maybe snip a few side roots for tea later.’
If an alchemist heard that, they’d probably faint.
‘I could eat the fruits as snacks too.’
Another line that would horrify anyone in the business.
Mandragoras were rare and sensitive. Even slight environmental changes could kill them.
And Cheon Do-yoon was treating them like cheap cabbage.
‘Right—if you pick the fruit by force, it turns poisonous.’
Which meant only one method: earn their trust until they offered the fruit willingly.
Cheon Do-yoon gently petted the mandragoras.
—Huuuh.
Tickled, they squirmed in their sleep.
All that remained was planting them in his garden. With a spring in his step, he headed down the mountain.
