It was a light so faint it could have been mistaken for an illusion, but Suhyeon, who had been staring intently at the puffball, saw it clearly.
He tried sending out a wavelength once more.
As if responding, the puffball’s fur shimmered subtly again before returning to normal.
—As I thought… Suhyeon, you truly are… enough to be my child.
—Kkyuu, kkyu!
In that moment, a hazy scene flashed through his mind—the sight he had seen just before losing consciousness from the persistent pain while escaping Shin Seojun.
Back then, the puffball’s fur had definitely glowed white.
As the faint memory resurfaced, the intuition that had been nudging him in a certain direction grew into a firm conviction.
Guiding was definitely the key.
“Kkyuu? Kkyuuuu?”
The puffball, which until a moment ago had been chirping softly and rolling around peacefully, began to wail loudly as it received the guiding.
The white fur shimmered faintly once again.
Now, Suhyeon even noticed that whenever the fur glowed, the guiding wavelength was being sucked into the puffball in minute amounts.
“Kkyuuuuuu…?”
However, the puffball only repeated this glowing cycle and refused to take in any more of Suhyeon’s guiding.
It almost felt as if it were pushing him away, asking why he was doing this.
Staring at the puffball as if possessed, Suhyeon narrowed his eyes.
He whispered, pushing the wavelength toward it gently, as if coaxing a disobedient child.
“If you don’t transform, you might die.”
“Kkyuu…?”
The puffball swayed its faintly glowing fur as if it didn’t understand.
Suhyeon no longer felt that this would fail.
He moved his wavelength one more time.
“Kkyuuuuuu…”
Perhaps because of his whisper, the puffball accepted a tiny bit more guiding than before.
The fur glowed slightly more vividly.
“The light…”
It seemed Hajin had seen it this time too.
Suhyeon felt the arm holding him tighten.
“Kkyuu, kkyuu?”
But the puffball still wouldn’t accept the guiding properly.
Realizing that talking to it seemed effective, Suhyeon began to speak while gently stroking the puffball with his finger.
“You might really die. You have to listen to me if you want to live.”
The puffball spun around once under Suhyeon’s finger.
Once again, the fur sparkled and glowed.
The light was much clearer than before.
“Kkyuu?”
Its tiny, black, seed-like eyes seemed to ask, ‘Really?’ It felt silly to think so, but…
“Really,” Suhyeon answered.
In that instant, as the puffball’s eyes tucked between the white fur seemed to blink—
“…!”
Suhyeon’s guiding wavelength began to be sucked out in massive amounts.
It was different from the way it had been trickling out like a tiny ant.
It felt as if a dam had burst.
What had been a minute, barely noticeable suction turned into a stream, and then a surging wave.
A thick, sweet scent filled the air.
“Suhyeon.”
“Oh…”
Hajin and the surrounding Espers, sensing the wavelength, let out sounds of surprise.
“Kkyuu, kkyuu!”
Having gulped down the guiding energy, the puffball sparkled brilliantly.
The light grew stronger until it emitted a radiance so blinding the Espers had to shield their eyes.
Suddenly, Suhyeon felt a sharp tightening in his chest.
He winced at the sensation, which was close to pain.
However, it subsided quickly, and he stared at the small light as if entranced.
The tiny thing surged, tearing away a final, violent clump of guiding wavelength, and then its size exploded.
The light faded, and a massive, pure-white monster revealed itself.
A giant shadow stretched across the ground.
“…Crazy.”
One of the Espers, who had reflexively taken a combat stance, let out a horrified gasp.
Suhyeon stared blankly up at the puffball-turned-monster.
When he had fought Shin Seojun, he hadn’t been able to see what the monster looked like properly.
He hadn’t had the mental capacity for it.
The creature—whether it should be called a puffball or a monster—was pure white.
Tentacles swayed in the air.
Its snow-white fur, like clouds drifting high in a blue sky, rippled peacefully.
Staring at it as if mesmerized, Suhyeon thought it looked like a summon in a cartoon evolving into a higher form.
It was that peaceful; the thought that it might harm him didn’t even cross his mind.
Perhaps the guiding energy was only consumed in large quantities during the “evolution,” because now, it was only flowing out in a gentle shimmer.
The eyes, which had been like tiny seeds, were now the size of full moons as they gazed at Suhyeon.
The tentacles that had been swaying in the air slowly descended.
“Suhyeon—!”
Hajin reflexively grabbed him, but Suhyeon patted Hajin’s arm and stood up instead.
As he reached his arm upward, a white tentacle came down and tickled his cheek.
“Kkyang.”
The puffball made a sound that was neither a monster’s roar nor its usual cute chirp—as if it still thought it was tiny.
Suhyeon stared at it blankly for a moment before letting out a dry laugh.
He held out his hand, and a pure-white tentacle landed softly on it.
“Kkyang, kkyang!”
The puffball made another strange cry and then flopped down onto the ground.
Thump!
It was a mere “flop” to the puffball, but to the small humans, it felt like an earthquake.
“Suhyeon!”
“Is this… is this really okay?!”
Hajin pulled Suhyeon back and retreated, while the other Espers resumed their combat stances.
But Suhyeon felt fine.
He felt no hostility from the puffball, nor any intent to rebel.
A strange sensation seemed to have linked him and the creature together.
“Kkyang.”
As the cloud of dust settled, the black eyes looked at Suhyeon piteously, as if asking where he had gone.
“It’s okay.”
Without taking his eyes off the puffball, Suhyeon patted the arms Hajin had wrapped around his waist, gently coaxing him to let go.
With Hajin trailing behind him with a deeply furrowed brow, Suhyeon trudged back toward the monster.
Suhyeon placed a hand on the puffball’s body.
The white mass held the same cozy warmth as when it was small enough to fit in his palm.
“Kkyaaang.”
Liking the touch, the massive puffball nudged its body against Suhyeon.
It was fine when it was small, but now that it was giant, every movement felt like a natural disaster.
When Suhyeon awkwardly laughed and pulled his hand away, the puffball let out a sad “kkyaaang,” as if asking why.
Only its body had grown; its personality remained unchanged.
“…Um, it’s safe, right?”
As Suhyeon stood staring at the giant puffball, the Espers who had retreated began to approach hesitantly.
“This is actually possible…?”
They muttered while looking at Suhyeon standing right next to the creature.
To a man, they all looked as if they were witnessing something bizarre.
Since monsters were only targets for extermination to Espers, their reaction was understandable.
Lee Jeonghyeon, the most familiar face among them, simply stood there with his jaw dropped.
Only Suhyeon, who was petting the puffball, and Hajin, who was glancing at the monster while keeping his eyes on Suhyeon, remained calm.
“…Well, it’s docile.”
The first one to snap out of it was Lee Kyujin.
The red-haired man stroked his chin with interest, looking back and forth between the puffball and Suhyeon.
Suhyeon nodded slowly.
“Kkyang.”
The puffball chirped briefly as if in agreement.
After observing them for a while, Lee Kyujin raised an eyebrow.
“Hmm, well, control seems solid. But… exactly how do you command it?”
It was a question Suhyeon couldn’t answer.
He glanced up at the puffball.
Just at the touch of his gaze, the soft, fur-covered tentacles swayed in the air happily.
Suhyeon wasn’t “commanding” the puffball—he had tamed it, if anything.
“Hmm, hmmm. Well, now that we know it can be controlled, shall we check its aggression? Can you keep it in line when it’s being fierce?”
Lee Kyujin, having made his own judgments, nodded with his arms crossed and asked Suhyeon.
“Aggression?”
Kyujin nodded. Suhyeon finally remembered that turning the puffball into a monster wasn’t the end of the test.
“Absolutely not if it’s dangerous,” Hajin answered for him before Suhyeon could even process it.
Kyujin waved his hand dismissively, as if offended.
“Oh, come on. Dangerous? This is a fact we have to verify. Mr. Guide, um… since it’s probably too much for us to attack it, why don’t you tell it to go over there and destroy those abandoned houses?”
Kyujin pointed toward a row of eerie, dilapidated houses in the distance.
Suhyeon followed his gaze, then looked back at the puffball.
Difficulty immediately clouded his mind.
He could trigger the transformation with his guiding wavelength, but he couldn’t actually talk to the puffball.
Nor could he control its every move like a marionette.
“Kkyang?”
At that moment, the puffball was blinking its clear black eyes as if it had no idea what Lee Kyujin or Suhyeon were saying.
“Um, over there…”
“Kkyaaang?”
Suhyeon tried, but quickly trailed off and gave up.
How was he supposed to make it understand?
