Chapter 19: Galfus’ present

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[Galfus is back! WOW! YAY!]

[Galfus has returned!]

[Our Galfus is back with us again!]

[The boss has returned. Joonbum is back to his slave life again.]

[Orcs! Big, strong orcs! They brought disaster.]

[A battle scene all of a sudden? Crazy!]

[Hey, what kind of orc are those? Shouldn’t they say something like, ‘Uh, We. Eat. Human. ‘ That’s not an orc!”]

[Galfus watch out!]

[Whoa, this is thrilling. My heart will pop out in excitement if this was live.]

[Eek! That club is like a cannonball!]

[A club? That’s a pillar!]

[WOW. THIS. IS. THE. BOMB.]

[This is so realistic. Isn’t it too brutal?]

[Look at the quality of this CG!]

[He’s flying! Galfus is flying!]

[That proves its fake. How can you jump that high so easily with that size? It’s not real.]

[A loyal dog always finds its owner. Galfus has returned!]

[Hah, she came back to Joonbum when she needs him! She shouldn’t have left in the first place.]

[DON’T INSULT GALFUS! It’s only natural to use a slave as you want.]

[Galfus must have gone through hell. Look at its fur! She lost weight too!]

[This is so fierce. It would be crazy if this was real.]

[Yeah, but it’s not. But, it’s still crazy. Hey, he’s bleeding from his face!]

[For real?]

[Shoot it! Reload! Help Galfus!]

[I think he’s going to drop some bullets. It’s cliché. A must-have scene.]

[Joonbum’s going to win anyway. He’s the main character here.]

[Kill it! Kill it, Joonbum!]

There was an unimaginable amount of responses made to the video. The number of responses was over fifty thousand already.

“Hehe. Haha. Ha… owww…”

Joonbum cackled at the screen until his face crumbled in pain.

“It’s crazy.”

He felt a burning pain from his cheek but quickly regained his grin. The video that captured his battle against the orcs had gone viral in just ten hours of being uploaded. There were initial responses that did not say anything, but it soon exploded into a heated discussion. There were all kinds of responses ranging from insults to cheers.

Joonbum felt he was full just by watching the sheer amount of responses. However, there were more reasons to why he was grinning.

“Joonbum, it’s time for dinner.”

“Yes, mom.”

Joonbum glanced one last time at the screen before he got up and moved to the living room.

“Is it pollack stew?”

“Yeah, your favorite, pollack stew.”

“Nice! Thank you. This is delicious.”

Joonbum started eating the pollack stew with white rice. His mother, Sunsook Lee, watched him.

“Is that enough? Should I cook some beef also?”

Sunsook, who wanted to give her son more, watched him with motherly love. Joonbum shook his head.

“Did you check your bank account? It will get better soon. You can stop working at the restaurant and get some rest also.”

“Yes, soon. But not now. It’s better to move around than just stay home.”

“Of course, but please don’t overwork yourself. I don’t want you to get injured.”

Sunsook nodded at Joonbum’s words. Her eyes watching Joonbum were filled with mixed feelings of pride and sadness.

Suddenly, a baby started crying. Sunsook moved over to a crib at the corner of the room and Joonbum watched as she took the baby in her arms.

“Hey, why are you crying? Oh, you pooped?”

Sunsook sniffed the baby with shiny blonde hair and commented.

“Eek! Poop?”

“Yeah, a lot too.”

The baby burst into cries again while Sunsook stood up and moved to the bathroom.

“I’ll take care of it. You can finish your food. But are you sure it’s not yours? I don’t mind a foreigner as my daughter-in-law. You can tell me the truth…”

Joonbum was pinching his nose as he silently shook his head. Sunsook watched him for a second and then nodded.

“Well, I guess it’s not yours if you hate the smell that much. Open up the windows.”

Joonbum opened the windows to let some fresh air in and started eating. Occasional crying was heard from the bathroom, but Joonbum had to stop again as the other cries pierced his ears.

“You guys too?”

Joonbum shook his head and moved over to a basket as the cries began to grow louder.

“Hah!”

There were four puppies sharing each other’s warmth inside the basket. Each had a striking difference. One was fully black, one was fully white, one was brown, and the last one had black markings on its gray fur.

“You guys hungry again? You eat too much.”

Joonbum went over to the sink and started preparing the milk bottles.

‘How on earth…’

Not even a day had passed since all this happened.

It was right after Joonbum sighed in relief after going through that big battle with the orcs. Relief from surviving the battle, the return of Galfus, and the joy of victory all mixed together. In contrast, he felt sudden fear when Galfus closed in on him, causing him to close his eyes, vulnerable to what would happen. Even with his eyes closed, feeling Galfus’ gigantic presence was enough to make him shiver.

But a sound that he heard amidst his fear was not expected. There was a basket in front of him when he opened up his eyes.

A baby? And puppies?

That was his thought at the sight. He could not think as he just stared.

“Oh, you bastard!”

Galfus watched Joonbum for a moment, then walked slowly into the fortress. It seemed like Galfus was saying that it was Joonbum’s job to take care of these kids now. So Joonbum had no choice but to bring the crying baby and puppies back to his home to look after them.

“You ungrateful wolf. I’ll deal with you when I get back.”

Joonbum frowned at the thought while he prepared the milk bottles. But he returned from his thoughts as the crying started again. Soon, Joonbum was holding four milk bottles, grinning.

*

[Look at him smile! You like it that much?]

[A chosen slave.]

[He’s happy to be a slave! …but I also want to be one! Four puppies! And a baby! They’re all too cute!]

[Don’t touch them you pig! Don’t touch those precious with your dirty hands!]

[There’s nothing laughable here. Five wolf masters and a mysterious baby!]

[I think it’s his kid.]

[That’s not possible.]

[I’ll rather bet on the world collapsing.]

[That baby cannot be born with his face. Unless it’s a mutant.]

[You mean the end of the world?]

[If it is, we may still have hope in the world!]

[Maybe a werewolf? The puppies might turn into humans soon!]

[Joonbum, show them when the moon is up.]

[Hey, which one’s female? You should raise a female. Who knows? Maybe it can transform into a human?]

[Isn’t Galfus a female? Galfus might change into a human too. But she might be too big! With a large bosom!]

[Can’t imagine Galfus turning into a human. Seems too big.]

[I want to see that.]

[Hey pig, can you please explain now? Why keep going with the wordless concept? Ohh, look at those puppies! Ugh, it’s torturing me with all the cuteness!]

[Look at the baby! The eyes are so beautiful.]

[Green eyes. I think the baby is a living doll or something. Way too cute to be true.]

[I don’t think it’s Joonbum’s child.]

[Of course not. That’s against nature.]

[Where would he find such a baby for the video shoot?]

[Way too young.]

[Don’t say ‘It was a werewolf!’ cliché…]

[Hope not.]

[Who knows?]

[You never know what’s coming.]

[Hope is hope. It might happen.]

*

“Okay, let’s get off.”

Joonbum turned off the truck and picked up the basket with the baby and four wolf cubs to move into his fortress. Galfus raised her head and silently watched him as Joonbum carefully scanned the area and entered the fortress before she put her head down again.

“Are you kidding me?”

He returned only after one full day. But Galfus did not show any interest in the basket that she had brought over while protecting it with her life.

‘What is happening?’

Joonbum raised the basket to signal at Galfus, but she did not budge. She had zero interest, which made Joonbum dumbfounded.

‘Why?’

His expectation was not met by a large margin.

‘Maybe it’s not her own cubs.’

Joonbum moved closer to her and put the basket next to her. Galfus then glanced inside the basket briefly before moving her head away. Joonbum shook his head.

‘She may be female, but I don’t think she’s ever had babies.”

The time that Galfus left the fortress wasn’t long enough for that to happen either.

‘I guess it’s the cubs from her pack.’

Joonbum thought of two possible theories. The first was that the pack was attacked, and Galfus brought the cubs here as the sole survivor.

‘Or else…’

Joonbum glanced at Galfus. She still wasn’t paying any attention to the basket. The second theory was that Galfus, who returned to the pack but wasn’t welcomed, took her leader’s cubs.

‘Nevermind.’

Joonbum shook away the second theory right away.

“No. The orcs were out of the picture for that.”

Another theory came to his mind as he remembered the orcs. That third theory was that Galfus returned to the pack but those orcs attacked her pack, killing all the wolves.

‘That seems to be a possibility…’

The fact that she was chased by the orcs showed a high probability, but he did not want to believe that to be the truth. Joonbum frowned as he thought up multiple theories.

“What about the baby then? Werewolf? Do these cubs turn into humans when they grow up?”

Joonbum had to stop his mumbling when Galfus growled, baring her teeth. It seemed like she was telling Joonbum to mind his own business.

“Ugh, you pig!”