I Became the Main Character’s Favorite

Nyom Nyom

After seeing Seo-rin’s awakening, I fainted, perhaps because the tension was released or because I felt relieved.
In other words, I don’t remember anything after that.

I blankly looked around the white hospital room and blinked my eyes slowly.
It’s good that things worked out well, but I wasn’t sure what to do next.
So I crossed my arms, closed my eyes for a moment, and fell into serious contemplation.
‘I guess I should start by learning how to be self-reliant. Since everything I had on Earth is gone now.’

My residence (my parents’), guardian, and even my high school graduation certificate and university admission letter have all vanished.
If I were thrown into society like this, I might starve to death before long.
‘Of course, since I look young, they probably won’t throw me into society right away, but…’
The pressure intensified somewhat, knowing that someday I would have to stand on my own without a guardian.

At first, I thought about asking Seo-rin for help, but living off her like a parasite when she had thrown herself in harm’s way for me… seemed inhumane, so I decided against it.
‘So I need a way to earn money on my own if possible, but…’
No matter how much I think about it, I can’t come up with a good method, and my mind becomes complicated.

Just as I was pondering what would be good, a doctor in a white gown entered the hospital room.
“Ha-eun, are you feeling better?”
“Yes.”
“Really? That’s good. But just in case, let the doctor examine you, okay?”

Since it wasn’t a difficult request, I nodded.
The doctor speaks to me with a very satisfied expression.
“Ha-eun is very brave. When I tell Ha-eun’s friends that I’m going to examine them, they all cry so loudly the room shakes.”

It’s a compliment, but a somewhat strange one.
Wondering if it’s right to be praised for something like this, I hesitate, when
The doctor checks various things and then pats my head while saying,
“Okay, done. This is something I’m not supposed to give, but because Ha-eun didn’t cry and listened to the doctor so well, I’m giving it to you, okay?”

Saying this, he places a candy wrapped in red packaging in my hand.
As I blink at the candy with an unidentifiable puppy character drawn on it,
The doctor leaves with the nurses, looking very pleased.
I blankly watch them go, then turn my gaze to stare at the candy.

‘I don’t really like candy though.’
I don’t particularly like sweet things, and because I dislike the stickiness left in my mouth, I remember not touching candy at all since high school.
So at first, I thought about leaving the candy uneaten, but
Strangely, I found the puppy drawn on the wrapper cute, and the thought of trying it arose.

‘It’s not like I have anything else to do anyway.’
Thinking I might as well eat the candy, I put it in my mouth.
“……!”
A stimulating taste strikes me, making the white horns on my head tingle.
Before, when I heard strawberry-flavored candy, I avoided it because it tasted like medicine syrup rather than strawberries.

But now, whether it’s strawberry medicine syrup or whatever, it’s really, really delicious, making my eyes widen.
As I eat, I keep smiling, so I try to calm myself by patting my cheeks, when
I hear someone entering the hospital room with hurried footsteps from outside.

“Ha-eun!”
Looking to the side, I see Seo-rin rushing towards me with tears in her eyes.
I flinched in surprise, but I couldn’t push away someone running to me with joy, so I opened my arms towards Seo-rin.
“No, Ha-eun, ugh, why did you do that? I thought you were going to die… I was so scared…”

Seo-rin burst into tears in the middle of speaking and hugged me tightly.
As I look at Seo-rin like this, trying to show an adult-like behavior by patting her back,
I saw a woman who followed her in making an “Ah” sound and smiling awkwardly.

‘Who is that?’
Judging by her attire, is she Seo-rin’s attending physician?
It was embarrassing to stay like this, so I tried to calm Seo-rin down and separate her, but
She stuck to me as if she would never let go, so I had no choice but to give up.

Thinking “a child is a child” while watching this, and considering that I should take care of Seo-rin more diligently,
The doctor who came in with Seo-rin started speaking to me.
“Hello? I’m a psychologist, and I came because I have a few questions to ask Ha-eun.”

Ah, she was a counselor. I nodded at those words and looked at her intently.
She looked at her documents, asked a few simple questions, and then slowly got to the main point.
“Is there anything that’s troubling or bullying Ha-eun?”

Since there wasn’t anything in particular, I shook my head.
The counselor wrote something on her document with a very pitiful expression, saying “I see.”
Judging by her reaction, it seemed she had misunderstood something, so I quickly spoke while waving my hand.

“Really, there isn’t.”
My pronunciation is slurred due to the candy left in my mouth and my short tongue.
Embarrassed by making mistakes every time I open my mouth, I lowered my head deeply.
The counselor patted my head and repeatedly said it was okay.

For some reason, as I was wondering about Seo-rin suddenly starting to cry again beside me,
The counselor held out her pinky finger and made one request to me.
“Then, shall we promise that Ha-eun will tell the teacher when you want to talk, not now but later?”

I thought about saying again that it’s really okay, but
It seemed that no matter what I said here, she would just repeat “It’s okay” with pitiful eyes, so I had no choice but to link fingers.
‘I should try to seriously say I’m okay when emotions seem to have calmed down later.’

I decided to do so, thinking otherwise this might repeat endlessly.

In a conference room of the Hunter Association.
As Lee Seo-rin sat quietly looking at the hunter who first reached out to her when she escaped from prison with the injured Ha-eun,

He shuffled through documents with a serious expression, then sighed and continued speaking.
“I’ve been pondering whether it’s right to tell Seo-rin about this, but I think it’s right to tell you after all.”
His cautious response made me feel a bit anxious, but

Still, thinking it was right to hear this, I took a deep breath and nodded.
The hunter, upon confirming my resolution, smiled awkwardly and then slowly handed over a document while continuing to speak.
“It’s about Ha-eun.”

“… What?”
The moment I heard Ha-eun’s name, I was so surprised that my body flinched momentarily.
If it had been about myself, I might have listened indifferently, but
Hearing the name of Ha-eun, who had become too precious and like my Achilles’ heel, I couldn’t hide my agitation.

As I felt my eyes trembling and my heart beating fast,
He hesitated for a moment, then calmly opened his mouth and told me shocking news about Ha-eun.
“Please calm down and listen. Ha-eun was undergoing illegal human experimentation there.”

“… Human experimentation?”
“Yes. Human experimentation to forcibly inject ancient dragon blood into humans to create half-dragons.”
My mind goes blank at these words.
As far as I knew, injecting dragon blood into humans was an experiment with a success rate close to zero, resulting only in death or impending death.

“What? Then, does that mean Ha-eun might not live long?”
“Well… it’s difficult to say this, but the healers are commonly saying such things.”
“… That can’t be, right? She woke up fine and said she wasn’t hurting anywhere.”
“It’s a sad story, but children who escape from places like laboratories or prisons often lie about not being in pain to avoid being abandoned.”

“What?”
“The moment they say they’re in pain, they’re immediately disposed of there, so they keep their mouths shut after seeing that.”
I tried to deny it, but an even more gloomy fact came.
But I couldn’t accept such words at face value here, so I quickly offered another denial.

“Wait a moment! I didn’t suffer anything there. Wouldn’t it be that the place wasn’t a laboratory to begin with?”
I knew better than anyone that these words were far-fetched, but
The moment I uttered these words because I couldn’t bear it without denying it like this,
He shook his head and gave a bitter smile.

“It was indeed a laboratory. The reason Seo-rin wasn’t experimented on was just because they temporarily stopped experiments due to the Hunter Association auditors conducting mana searches.”
Come to think of it, I remember all the guards leaving upstairs because of the siren sound.
As I covered my face, heartbroken by the realization that my not being experimented on was purely luck, and that Ha-eun wasn’t included in that luck,

With a comforting voice, he sighed and told me,
“Of course, the association will do its best to save Ha-eun, but since the possibility of saving her is slim, it might be good to prepare yourself to some extent.”
With those final words, I felt like everything was crumbling down.

When I had given up all hope, trapped in prison after being abandoned by everyone,
The story that Ha-eun, who was the first to reach out to me and became my mental support, could die was too cruel to bear.
My whole body trembled and tears poured out at this fact, but knowing that I couldn’t break down like this, I tried hard to endure.

“… Then, is there absolutely no way to save Ha-eun?”
“It’s not that there’s absolutely no way, but there is an option that’s realistically impossible. The elixir that’s said to cure all diseases, perhaps an elixir could cure Ha-eun’s condition.”
“If it’s an elixir…”
“Yes, it’s a precious potion of which there are only 3 bottles in the whole world.”

At those words, I blankly stared at my hands.
Although I had awakened my ability, with my power I couldn’t even get the right to purchase an elixir, let alone actually buy one.
So despair struck again, but I had to stand up again because if I crumbled here, there would be no one to save Ha-eun.

‘I must rise by any means necessary.’
Thinking I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself otherwise, I clenched my fists.

Nyom nyom.
I was still licking the candy the doctor gave me while watching TV.

Fortunately, the language system was the same as in Korea, so it wasn’t difficult to understand, but
The underlying common sense, for example, the existence of hunters and monsters, was different from the Earth I lived on, so
It took time to grasp and accept these things, and I was blankly watching them.

As I was blankly watching the TV covered in all sorts of bright colors and blinking my eyes,
Suddenly the screen changed and a new topic appeared above.
[Are Internet personal broadcasts that have gone too far okay like this?]

I’ve seen this phrase somewhere… where was it?
As I was blankly looking at this, I saw internet broadcasters broadcasting.
Thinking that this world also has games, I was watching this closely when the thought of trying broadcasting myself flashed through my mind, but

Seeing a broadcaster who poured soy sauce on their head, then spun 5 times in the air while clapping,
I shook my head, thinking I probably couldn’t do it because I lack talent.