Chapter 51: Mona's Two Gifts – Battling the Sea King Beast!
"Bullet? That's such a weird name. You're seriously boring, you know—that's why Mona doesn't like you. But here, I'll give you this as a little welcome gift!"
Mona pulled out a small black iron ball. On its surface was a chibi version of her face and two adorable little ghosts.
"This was actually my first failed attempt at making a bomb. It can't explode or anything, but my dad always says failure is the stepping stone to progress—it's what pushes us forward. So it's actually a super valuable keepsake!"
She floated beside Bullet, smiling cheerfully as she held out the little bomb with both hands.
Bullet looked up, slightly stunned, then reached out to take it. What required both of Mona's hands to carry, he could easily grasp with just one.
"Mm."
He nodded. That was his way of responding.
"Hmph! You're unbelievable. I just gave you something really precious, and you can't even say thank you?"
Mona hovered in the air, arms crossed and baring her teeth in mock anger. She was clearly not happy with Bullet's reaction.
Thank you? What did that even mean?
In Bullet's mind, there was no such concept. There was only acceptance or rejection—at most, some kind of acknowledgement.
"…Thank you."
He said it plainly. If the little girl needed to hear it, then fine—he'd say it.
Mona stared at his flat expression, looking a little deflated. As expected, she shouldn't have gotten her hopes up about this blockhead her dad brought home.
But then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something: Bullet's missing ear. And suddenly, it kind of made sense why he was the way he was.
All those big brothers who only knew how to fight—they always came aboard carrying wounds. She didn't know exactly how that affected their ability to connect with others, but Bullet… his case just seemed worse.
That empty left ear might've been just one scar he couldn't hide. Underneath his clothes, his body was probably already full of holes.
"Cheerful Ghost!"
Mona called out, and with a flick of her wrist, a teardrop-shaped white ghost appeared out of thin air. It had no hands and a giant cartoonish grin painted on its face.
"Um… that ear of yours probably hurts, right? I'll give you this too. Hope it cheers you up a little! I gotta go now—otherwise Grandpa's gonna start nagging again. Ugh, so annoying!"
She tossed the Cheerful Ghost into the air and floated away in the direction of Ross Castle.
She had just finished her daily training and playtime, and only bumped into Bullet by chance. Now she had to hurry back.
Bullet watched her leave—just like he had watched Tocos leave before.
A long while passed before he finally reached out his other hand and tried to touch the strange little ghost.
As soon as his fingers brushed it, the ghost seemed to come alive, slipping into his body and floating around inside him.
Bullet felt something—some long-dormant emotion—being stirred.
But just as quickly, the once-smiling ghost came flying out of him, now crying hysterically. It turned to glare at him angrily before dispersing completely into the air.
He tilted his head, confused. He didn't really understand what had happened.
But somehow… the pain in his missing ear didn't seem quite so bad anymore.
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The rest of the day, Bullet stayed in the small garden, alone.
He waited quietly for time to pass—just like he used to sit in the military tents, waiting for his next mission.
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The next morning, 8:40 a.m.
Bullet, now fed and ready, arrived at Ross Castle. He casually found a spot to sit and waited quietly for Ross to come out.
"Mm. Let's go."
Ross stepped outside, gave Bullet a nod, and conjured a cloud. The two of them rose into the sky, flying straight off the island.
As they soared through the air, seabirds occasionally passing beneath them, Ross suddenly asked:
"Bullet, do you know why birds fly?"
"…Huh?"
Bullet looked up, genuinely confused.
He had always seen birds soaring through the sky, heading off to distant places. He thought it was beautiful. But he also knew—deep down—that kind of freedom wasn't meant for someone like him.
So he didn't understand why Ross would ask such a question.
He wasn't even capable of thinking about right or wrong. He only knew how to follow the rules laid out for him, how to obey orders. That's what being a tool meant—that was the discipline beaten into him.
But since Ross had asked, he had to respond.
"…I don't know. Maybe… because they can?"
"No. It's because they have to."
"…Mm."
Bullet didn't bother to ask why. For him, there was no point.
Suddenly, he felt the world tilt—weightlessness sweeping through his body. A cloud-hand had lifted him up. He turned to look back at Ross, who spoke in a calm, detached voice:
"Below us is a small Sea King. Your objective today is to take it down. If you don't want to relive the feeling of dancing on the edge of death, then you'd better try to rise as high as those birds."
With that, the cloud-hand released him.
Bullet's towering body—over two meters tall—plummeted straight down.
Splash!
He landed on something soft and springy—a dense cloud platform. It didn't hurt, but it was far from comfortable.
Sometime while he'd been falling, several other cloud platforms had materialized all around.
And right in front of him, a Sea King was staring at him with predatory intent—its body shaped like a tiger's head on a serpent's torso.
Drool streamed from its jagged maw, and its eyes burned with crazed hunger.
He looked up. Ross had disappeared without a trace.
Now it seemed there was only the beast and himself.
There were no orders, no scolding. To Bullet, this was no different from any mission he'd ever undertaken—only the battlefield had changed, from war to raw survival.
Besides… he knew he wouldn't die.
He understood perfectly what Ross's words meant:
If he wanted to be acknowledged, all he had to do was kill this monster that dwarfed him several times over.
Clenching his fists, his keen battle instincts told him he could only defend—at least for now.
ROAR!
With a deafening roar, the fifteen-meter-long colossus whipped its tail, lifted its head skyward, and then dove into the water with a thunderous splash.
This Sea King could sense Bullet's strength—strength that posed a real threat.
If it wanted to eat, it first had to respect its prey as a fellow predator.
Standing on the cloud platform, Bullet stayed perfectly alert. The massive silhouette gliding under the water never stopped needling at his nerves.
If the platform beneath his feet weren't so large, the Sea King would probably have attacked from below already—and that would have been truly dangerous.
He didn't say a word.
Though his heart raced and every fiber of his body tensed with adrenaline, his mind remained calm—icy clear.
Splash!
ROAR!
—Behind him!
The instant the Sea King erupted from the water, Bullet's sole good ear picked up its location with pinpoint accuracy.
With reflexes honed to superhuman sharpness, he pivoted aside.
BOOM!
The tiger-headed monstrosity crashed onto the cloud platform, smashing it into a crater.
Bullet seized the opening and drove a fist toward its skull.
But before he could connect, the Sea King twisted its neck and swung its enormous tail straight at him, trying to pulp him into paste.
—Not good!
A danger more immediate than anything he'd ever felt constricted his chest. Death closed around him in an instant.
WHUMP!!!
A white cloud ball exploded from the impact, flinging Bullet into the air.
He landed—unharmed—on another platform farther away.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw the Sea King happily munching on a chunk of some other creature's carcass, its greedy gaze locked firmly on him.
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