“Kyaaah. Kyah…”

“Dialuria…” Dialugia called out.

It seemed as if she was questioning Smartie’s betrayal, and I was shocked by it as well. I knew I would see the mother and daughter’s sad parting, but what I saw was the face of a mother who felt as if her daughter had betrayed her.

“Kyaaaah…”

Smartie definitely hadn’t noticed her mother’s shocked expression because she continued to bury her face into my chest while wagging her tail. When I lightly patted her head, her whimper turned into panting, and she even flipped her body to show her stomach. Naturally, my hand reached out toward her stomach. I used to think that she was like a dog sometimes, but it felt like it had gotten worse today. It seemed like she was trying to act cute since we were going to be leaving soon, but Dialugia looked grim while she was watching us with her mouth agape and eyes quivering.

‘Is she acting different from usual?’

When Smartie was still the size of a puppy, I recall her mother following her around. Even back then, I felt that Smartie cared about me more than her mother, but now that she had grown to the size of a teenager, I suddenly realized that I had no clue about what she was like when she was alone with her mother. Judging from Dialugia’s extremely exhausted face, I knew Smartie was giving her a hard time, but…

‘Did she not show this side of hers to her mother?’

Based on Dialugia’s reaction, I was sure Smartie had never shown her stomach to her mother, and I finally realized what the ‘#Mom is Frustrating Too’ unique habit meant. Our Children Have Changed.[1] I naturally wanted to try and broadcast the same program. I started to question if Smartie was looking down on her mother for being so devoted to her.

‘That’s not good…’

It was already too late to salvage her unique habit, but I really wanted her to grow up to be normal. Many thoughts filled my head, but since I couldn't do anything right now, I decided to push those thoughts away for now.

The expedition party was staring at us from far away. It was time to leave, so when I said something to Smartie, she replied right away.

“Smartie… Daddy has to leave now…”

“Kyaaah…”

As expected, she whimpered as if she was telling me not to leave, and she definitely understood me because her eyes started to fill with tears. I guess she was waiting for me to hug her because she opened her arms, and when I hugged her lightly, I heard her panting discreetly.

“Ah…”

Dialugia looked at us incredulously, so I had no choice but to say something because her mother looked as if she was out of it.

“Smartie, you should say goodbye to your mom, too.”

The way Dialugia looked at me with appreciation looked kind of cute. Smartie looked as if she didn’t want to do what I said, but Dialugia quickly approached her, as she was afraid that she might miss this chance, so she hugged Smartie while crying.

“We won’t take long, so if you listen, I’ll play with you all day,” I promised her.

“Kyah!”

“Dialugia, it’s time to go,” I informed her.

“Okay. Dialuria, Mom is…”

“Kyah!”

The situation came to an end when we handed over Dialuria to Hwang Jung-Yeon and Kim Ye-Ri. We immediately headed toward the castle gate without looking back, I could hear Smartie’s screams, but I knew I shouldn’t look back.

“Don’t look back…” I told Dialugia.

“B-But—” she stuttered.

“You have to be strict,” I advised.

“...”

“If you look back and keep responding to her, it’ll be difficult to part with her. I don’t know much about the ecology of dragons, but Dialuria should be old enough to be by herself. I’m sure she’ll need help with many things, but the guild members will take care of her,” I assured her.

“...”

I wanted to give her a lot of advice, but unfortunately, I wasn’t an expert. I had never raised a child before, and I never had a dog as well. As such, it was better to stay quiet than to pretend I was knowledgeable.

“Kyaaaaah!”

When I saw how Dialugia flinched every time she heard Smartie’s sad cries, I was sure she would have already run back to Dialuria if I wasn’t here. I saw how she was trying to hold her tears back.

“I’m sorry for being late,” I apologized.

“It’s fine, Mr. Ki-Young. It still doesn’t change the fact that we’re leaving earlier than planned, and your situation was understandable…”

After saying that, Park Yeon-Joo looked at Dialugia.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dialugia. I have seen you before at your nest, but this is our first official meeting. I’m Park Yeon-Joo.”

“I’m Dialugia.”

“I appreciate you joining us,” Park Yeon-Joo said.

Dialugia nodded lightly.

She seemed really dejected. She probably needed some time to cope with the sadness whenever she thought about Smartie.

“Let’s get into the carriage. We’ll have to travel for about two days,” she announced.

“Okay…”

“You should rest inside, Dialugia,” she suggested.

“I will,” she replied.

There were a total of five carriages, and they were filled with luggage. It was going to be a pretty rough expedition because the supplies contained food the party was going to eat during the expedition, first-aid supplies for the people isolated inside the Rift Museum, as well as trivial items like clothes.

‘Their carriage is pretty nice…’

After letting Dialugia get inside the carriage the Blue Guild was riding, I looked around and realized that it wasn’t just the size that was nice.

‘We should get one, too.’

Honestly, I never thought we needed a large carriage since our parties had always been small on expeditions. I didn’t think about changing the Blue Guild’s carriage since it wasn’t all that bad, but I changed my mind after getting inside the Black Swan Guild’s carriage. The interior resembled a campervan, and my mouth went agape when I saw a room inside the carriage.

‘I knew official guild members are entitled to great benefits.’

Since it was a female-dominated guild, they had benefits like this. Park Deok-Gu and Ahn Ki-Mo had entered the room before me, but they were still looking around with amazement.

“This is really nice,” Ahn Ki-Mo commented.

“Hey, weren’t you part of the Red Mercenary Guild, Ki-Mo bro? This kind of carriage…”

“It’s true that the guild had a large carriage, but they didn’t manage it very well. The seats and the other parts of the carriage weren’t great, and the Mercenary Queen didn’t really like going on expeditions comfortably. She said it was better to invest in equipment rather than things like these. The issue was also because the guild required mages and priests,” Ahn Ki-Mo explained.

“What do you mean?” Park Deok-Gu asked.

“Pulling a carriage this big will be difficult for the horses. No, actually, it’s impossible. As such, the mages have to keep using their mana on the horses to prevent them from collapsing due to the weight, the priests also have to use their holy power,” he replied.

“Ahhh…”

“The Black Swan Guild has probably hired their coachmen separately since it seemed that the majority of them are abandoned mages without potential or those with no more room for improvement,” he added.

“I see…” Park Deok-Gu commented.

“You don’t need to be so sad, Mr. Deok-Gu. This is good news for them, too. I believe their wages are higher than you think and basically, the guild has created a job for them. It’s perfect for those talentless mages,” he continued.

“Ah, you’re right! Hyung-nim, how about we do the same?” Park Deok-Gu asked.

“It does sound like a good idea…” I said.

“It is!” he exclaimed.

The female members, Jung Ha-Yan, Sun Hee-Young, and Jo Hye-Jin, looked happier than Park Deok-Gu, and even though they didn’t express it, it seemed like they were pretty envious of the Black Swan Guild members for having these kinds of amenities.

Just then, Kim Hyun-Sung exited his room and spoke after organizing his belongings.

“I was actually thinking about doing something like this since we got some new recruits, and we’re planning on creating another party as well.”

It was amusing how their faces brightened up when the Guild Master confirmed it. Obviously, Dialugia didn’t really care about it, but this kind of amenity wasn’t for her in the first place.

A small smile appeared on Kim Hyun-Sung’s face as he continued talking. It was a different topic, but since it was regarding the dungeon we were heading to, they focused on him.

“And about this expedition…”

“Yes?”

“From now on, we won’t have separate meetings or training time. The expedition executives will still have meetings and we’ll announce any changes to our plans while we eat, but for now, the information you’ll need to study up on is written here, so you can read over this,” he announced.

“Okay, Guild Master.”

“Once we enter the dungeon, we’re going to get pretty busy, so it’s probably best to think of this as the final moments to relax until we reach the dungeon,” Kim Hyun-Sung suggested.

“Got it…”

Despite saying that, we couldn’t relax since we were heading to a dungeon. Kim Hyun-Sung himself and even Jung Ha-Yan looked as if they couldn’t relax.

‘Because capturing a dungeon would always be dangerous...’

This wasn’t our first rodeo, so it was a fact we all knew very well.

Once he was done with his speech, the carriage started to move and some spent time by themselves while others spent time with each other. Like Kim Hyun-Sung mentioned earlier, he made brief announcements of the changes to our plans, as well as reports while we were resting and whenever we had free time, we would either organize the supplies or fix them. Personally, it was a bit boring, but these repetitive meetings and studying should come in handy.

I would look out the window sometimes, and whenever I did that, I would realize that the carriage was moving faster than before. Park Yeon-Joo wasn’t showing it, but it seemed that she was quite anxious.

Exactly two days after our departure, we arrived at an area the carriage could no longer enter. The guild staff members started to unload our supplies, while we started walking toward our destination. When the guild staff members with us arrived at the danger zone, we saw them wearing large backpacks, so I instantly realized just how much they had prepared for this expedition.

‘Even though the actual expedition is kind of different…’

A dungeon capture probably wouldn’t take that long, and the only reason why those bags were stuffed full was that we could also get isolated inside the dungeon. Of course, I didn’t say anything to the staff, but I was sure the quick-witted ones had long caught on to it.

‘We might fail...’

The executives who prepared for this expedition had considered the possibility of failure and that possibility existed. If a mythic-ranked named monster appeared, it was best to hold out somehow with the power we had.

‘Or pay the price for it…’

Anyway, the atmosphere of the expedition wasn’t bad. The Harem King Park Deok-Gu was enjoying his prime as he was being surrounded by the female members of the Black Swan Guild and even though it wasn’t as much as him, Ahn Ki-Mo had also gotten close with a few of the female members. During our break time, Jung Ha-Yan exercised her privilege by standing close to me. Sun Hee-Young looked like she was having a serious conversation with the priests of the Black Swan Guild, and Jo Hye-Jin, who secretly liked Kim Hyun-Sung, directed a disappointed look at him as he was talking with Park Yeon-Joo.

The scenery kept changing, and the expedition party was about to enter a place that looked as if it was untouched.

‘It’s pretty…’

Purple light shimmered faintly from the rift of the huge rock wall that seemed to go on forever. The Rift Museum was probably behind the rock wall.

In addition…

[Welcome to the Museum.]

A small child created from magic greeted us.

We entered the unranked dungeon, Rift Museum.

1. Our Children Have Changed (Korean: 우리 아이가 달라졌어요) is a Korean program about the difficulties of raising children. ☜