The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

I Really Want Silla's Divine Rule

After finishing his business at the school, Ma Jun-sang returned home.

He took the elevator up to his large apartment, punched in the passcode, and opened the front door. As he did, his wife, Han Suyeon, greeted him.

"You're home early today?"

"I was called in because of Seongjin at school. Thanks to that, I was able to leave the office early."

To be precise, he had just stepped out after pausing his work for a bit.

However, Ma Jun-sang's influence at his workplace wasn't small, so taking a break wasn't an issue.

There was even a junior prosecutor who looked at him with envy as he left.

"How did it go today? Don't tell me something's already gone wrong with Seongjin in first grade?"

"It's nothing like that, so don't worry. It's actually the opposite."

Ma Jun-sang told Han Suyeon about the parent-teacher meeting at school.

For starters, there wouldn't be any issues with their son attending school for the next six years, and the student they had the bet with had decided to transfer schools.

Other than Seongjin having a bit of a rough attitude, he hadn't really done anything wrong.

All he did was play slap game and he hadn't swung his fists.

That was really all Seongjin had done.

"That's such a relief. When the school contacted us suddenly, I thought something major had happened."

"Ha... Seriously."

Both Han Suyeon and Ma Jun-sang felt as if their hearts had dropped.

Even though it had all ended without much harm to them, their reaction was rather sensitive.

"I was worried our kid's true self was going to get exposed."

It had long been clear to them that their son, Ma Seongjin, was not ordinary.

The signs of Seongjin's strangeness began to appear ever since he was born eight years ago.

When they first held their child, it wasn't joy but shock that dominated. That was because the baby had horns on his head reminiscent of a demon.

The fact that he was revealed to be an Awakened was not really a problem. In a world overrun by gates and monsters, not being an Awakened would be the oddity.

The real issue was that Seongjin, among the Awakened, was what they called a Mutamit.

Ever since gates first appeared, people who could wield magic—Awakened—began to pop up all around the world.

Most became Awakened after being exposed to the mysterious powers of the gates, but from that time on, some children were also born as Awakened.

However, among these children, those with animal parts were sometimes born.

It was only natural that the world was shocked that fantasy-like other races were being born from ordinary human mothers.

People would abandon their children, saying they were Satan's offspring, or insisting, "How can you call this a human?" and throw them away.

Given how alien they were, there was nothing to say against the resulting discrimination.

Still, with the emergence of gates as a common enemy, some human rights were given, but that didn't mean discrimination had vanished.

Han Suyeon and Ma Jun-sang were deeply worried that their own son might also face discrimination.

But then something astonishing happened—Seongjin's horns, which had been on his head, disappeared on their own.

They hadn't seen it wrong. The physical proof of his otherness as a Mutamit had vanished. Only a day after he was born.

"Do you remember when Seongjin was born?"

"How could I forget? I still doubt my eyes thinking about it."

"Do you think, maybe, those horns—could it be he's intentionally hiding them using a superpower or something?"

"I don't know."

Given the circumstances, Han Suyeon's theory seemed likely, but Ma Jun-sang couldn't trust it completely.

There had been experiments on Mutamits for years, but eliminating their unique body parts had proven impossible.

It was also proven impossible for them to polymorph into ordinary humans.

"To hide the Mutamit parts with magic? If that was possible, there wouldn't be people who looked like animals among all the Hunter organizations."

"I suppose you're right. But then how did Seongjin do it?"

That was one of the strange things about Seongjin.

And even though he hadn't even become a teenager, he communicated extraordinarily well.

He understood concepts that would be hard at his age and often spoke in an unchildlike manner.

Maybe he was just born with a brilliant brain as an Awakened? Like how he used to have horns.

They didn't know why, but one thing was clear: Seongjin was not ordinary.

But still, he was their son.

Alien or special in some way, as long as he lived well just like now, that was enough.

"Did Yunhee get home alright?"

"Yes. I picked her up after kindergarten. She should be sleeping in her room by now."

They had one more child besides Ma Seongjin.

Her name was Ma Yunhee. This year, she was seven and a kindergartner.

Unlike Seongjin, Yunhee was an ordinary person, not even an Awakened, let alone a Mutamit.

And she didn't have a hint of anything strange about her, unlike Seongjin.

"Oh right, there's something else I should tell you."

"Hm?"

"I'm not sure if it's good news or bad, but about Seongjin, later..."

Beep beep beep beep—

At that moment, the sound of the door code being entered echoed.

They weren't surprised, since they knew exactly who would be coming home at this hour.

Beeeep—
And then came the sound of the door unlocking.

They moved to greet their son, to say, "Welcome home."

But despite their son stepping onto the shoe cabinet, the couple was startled.

Because there was another person stepping onto the shoe cabinet besides him.

"I'm home."

Seongjin greeted them as usual after school.

"Hello..."

And the girl like a little puppy who followed behind him spoke in a timid voice.

* * *

I ended up inviting Ah-rin to my house.

She kept trailing behind, following me with small, quick steps.

And then she said thank you and just stood there, looking so pitiful.

It made sense for her to be grateful since the bullies who tormented her were now transferring schools thanks to me.

Then, I could have just nodded and gone my own way. After all, we'd see each other again at school.

But, just before I turned away, she spoke.

—Can you... draw the picture with me?

By drawing, she meant the future dreams drawing the teacher had assigned as homework.

If it were another classmate, I would have harshly answered, "Just draw it yourself," and gone on my way.

But Ah-rin looked too miserable to just leave like that.

While the others had finished over half, arin's paper was still blank.

I'd only played slap-match to resolve my own discomfort, but I had to think about things from Ah-rin's perspective, too.

Just helping her wouldn't mean anything if I didn't consider her circumstances.

Countless other races in Muziland had suffered without empathy from anyone.

I saw that same vibe in Ah-rin.

That's why I brought her home.

"Seongjin, who is that?"

"She's a classmate. Her name is Kang Ah-rin, and she's the girl who was bullied in my class."

At my mother's question, I briefly explained about Ah-rin.

Ah-rin took off her shoes and hesitantly stepped onto the living room tiles, greeting everyone.

"H-hello..."

Her voice still lacked any strength.

Just how alienated had she been to talk like this?

"Come in, dear. I'll make you something tasty."

With that, my mom took spaghetti from the fridge.

She had picked it out at the market to secretly eat it as a late-night snack, but there was no helping using it up now.

Pushing aside my regret, I sat at the table and waited for it to be ready.

Even as Ah-rin sat down, she looked bewildered.

As if she were experiencing this kind of environment for the first time.

"By the way, this is the first time a friend has come to visit Seongjin, isn't it?"

"I'm going to help her with drawing homework. She's not very good at drawing."

I answered my father's question. He praised me for being a good son.

He then started eyeing Ah-rin up and down with a business-like look.

Perhaps because she was a bullied kid, he seemed to observe her closely.

"It's ready."

Just then, my mom placed four servings of spaghetti on the table.

It was a shame our secret late-night snack was going away like this, but I didn't mind—it wasn't a waste.

We said "Thank you for the food," and started eating, wrapping the noodles around our forks.

"...."

But Ah-rin just sat there, holding her fork, unable to do anything.

She's in first grade, but does she not even know how to use a fork?

I didn't know much about her since she was a recent transfer, but if that was actually the case, it was a bit much.

"Your name is Kang Ah-rin, right?"

"Y-yes..."

As expected, she stuttered, causing my father's eyebrows to twitch.
He held up his fork, giving an explanation.

"Is this your first time eating something like this?"

"...."

Ah-rin didn't make a sound other than her breathing.

She just shook her head as if it wasn't her first time.

Even if she had been bullied, it didn't make sense to have never seen spaghetti before.

It's not like she's some otherworldly wanderer.

"Here, just follow me."

Unable to keep watching, I taught her how to eat.

Stab the fork in the middle of the noodles. Then twist it like a faucet.

Then, with the noodles wrapped around the fork, put it in your mouth.

"How is it? Tastes good, right?"

Doing as I showed her, arin put the spaghetti in her mouth.

Then her animal ears perked up and her eyes grew wide.

The sparkle in her eyes, as if she'd tasted something incredible, really made her look like it was her first time.

And before we knew it, her bowl was empty.

'It feels like she was lying about it being her first time?'

Otherwise, how could she react like this?

It was the expression of someone from another world, tasting spaghetti for the first time after being told, 'Ah, this is called spaghetti. You twirl it with a fork and eat it.'

As my father finished his second bowl, he asked Ah-rin,

"Ah-rin, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"... What?"

"To draw the picture, you have to decide that first, right?"

"...."

Of course, she didn't answer, as if she hadn't settled on anything.

It was a situation you could expect from someone with a history of alienation or being bullied.

And my father's attention went straight to...

"Do you have a cellphone?"

"This one...?"

"I thought I'd save Seongjin's number in there for you."

Ah-rin took a cellphone out of her bag.

But my heart sank when I saw the screen was shattered.

I wondered how she could even use the touchscreen on that thing.

"What happened to your phone?"

"I dropped it."

Just how badly did she drop it that the screen was cracked in all directions?

A wave of nausea hit me as hard as if the spaghetti I ate was coming back up.

"Um... can I use the restroom?"

"It's over there."

Ah-rin carefully went to the bathroom and left her phone on the table.

Taking the chance, my father suspiciously powered it on.

Thankfully, the touch worked despite the cracks.

With a suspicious face, my father said,

"Seongjin. Ah-rin transferred from another school, right?"

"Yes. She couldn't adapt at her old school, so she moved to ours."

"Aren't you curious why she couldn't adapt?"

I could pretty much figure it out.

Her last school must've had bullies like Ahn Jaewook, so she ran away to our school.

But it was worse than that.

As soon as my father accessed her phone's SNS app—

—You dog bitch. You eat so disgustingly.
—Freak.
—Don't you wanna yank that tail at least once?
—She's not human anyway. And her mom and dad betrayed the Hunters at the gate, you know.
—So why is she even in class with us?
—You're shedding dog hair. I have allergies.
—So, are your mom and dad dogs too?
—Of course. They're basically criminals.

My father and I got a glimpse of hell.

If it was this bad just from the posts, the photos were even worse: spilled lunches, scribbled-on desks.

There were even posts about stealing all of Ah-rin's tasty food at lunch so she could only eat plain rice.

So that's why she never got a proper meal like spaghetti.

"These things are always much worse online than offline."

My father muttered, as if he had expected it.

In a school like that, not just the teachers, but the higher-ups probably hated Mutamits as well.

Not only first graders, but upperclassmen joined in the bullying.

Byeonghak Elementary—that's where Kang Ah-rin used to go.

Holding my throbbing head, I thought,

'I really want Silla's Divine Rule.'