I PICKED UP A CHILD IN A DUMPSTER-Chapter 95: Ryu Sarah (IV)

After the chat finished laughing themselves half to death and Si Hon had fully accepted that reality had decided to bully him today, the room slowly settled into an awkward silence.

Sarah suddenly stood up from beside the bed without warning.

Without saying anything, she walked over to a small wooden cabinet pushed against the stone wall. The torches flickered softly behind her as she opened it and rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a loose, baggy black shirt.

Then she glanced over her shoulder at him.

"Turn around."

Si Hon, still sprawled sideways on the bed like a corpse that had given up on life, didn’t even bother asking questions. At this point, asking questions usually made things worse.

"Yeah, yeah..."

He lazily rolled over and turned his back toward her, staring at the wall instead.

Then his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Huh."

The wall wasn’t completely bare.

Scattered across the stone were small doodles— simple drawings scratched into the rock with what looked like charcoal or maybe a sharp stone.

They were... childish.

One of them showed a small stick-figure girl standing between two taller figures. The taller ones had big round heads and long arms, probably meant to be her parents.

The girl was holding both of their hands while several other tiny stick people stood behind them.

Above the group someone had drawn a big uneven circle with lines coming out of it.

The sun, probably.

And every single stick figure had the same huge curved smile.

Si Hon blinked slowly.

He stared at the drawing a little longer.

Then his eyes drifted across the wall.

There were more.

Another drawing of the same girl— this time holding something that vaguely looked like a stuffed animal.

Another where the girl was standing on top of something tall while tiny stick figures surrounded her below.

Some of the lines were smudged. Some were drawn over multiple times like someone had been bored enough to redraw them again and again.

Si Hon’s brow slowly furrowed.

Inside his head, a quiet thought surfaced.

(Uh. Is this...)

His eyes flicked around the cavern again.

The bed.

The cabinet.

The clothes.

The doodles.

(Is this supposed to be a human lair...? Not a Munches lair?)

He slowly glanced over his shoulder.

For a brief second, his eyes landed on Sarah— And immediately froze.

She was still in the middle of changing.

Si Hon’s brain processed the situation in the most impressive way possible.

Which is to say... It completely refused to process it.

His face remained perfectly blank as he slowly, very calmly, turned his head back toward the cavern wall again.

No reaction.

No embarrassment.

No flustered panic.

Just the quiet, emotionless expression of a man whose brain had already experienced too much nonsense today to care about anything anymore.

"..."

Yep.

Nothing to see there.

Behind him, the faint rustling of cloth continued as Sarah finished pulling on the oversized black shirt.

Above Si Hon, however, the glowing chat windows immediately erupted like a group of children who had just witnessed the funniest crime imaginable.

「Si Hon~ you naught, naught boy」

「ಡ⁠ ͜⁠ ⁠ʖ⁠ ⁠ಡ Naughty...」

「Dude, she literally told you not to look and OH MY~」

「STREAM CLIPPED. STREAM CLIPPED.」

「BRO DID THE SLOW TURN」

Si Hon’s eyelid twitched slightly.

He stared at the wall with the same dead expression as before.

Then he sighed quietly and muttered under his breath.

"I didn’t even react."

Which was true.

He genuinely hadn’t.

At this point, after being kidnapped by gorilla monsters, dragged into a death tower, chased by a dog-dragon hybrid, and watching someone’s skull explode like a tomato...

A half-second accidental glance didn’t even make the top ten list of weird things that had happened today.

So instead, he focused on something far more interesting.

The wall.

The smiling stick figures.

The little sun.

The girl holding her parents’ hands.

Si Hon blinked again.

(I mean... she’s... acting as a Munches King...)

Above him, the chat immediately noticed what he was looking at.

「OH」

「He realized it?」

「CHAT! Don’t say anything」

「No No for spoil!」

Si Hon squinted at the floating messages.

"You guys are being suspicious again."

He turned back toward the wall.

But this time—

He looked at the drawings a little more carefully, And... gave up... fuck you Si Hon... you’re a Bad Mc.

Behind him he heard the faint rustling of cloth, the soft shuffle of feet, and the quiet thump of the cabinet door closing again.

The chat above him immediately lit up again.

「AYO???」

「Dude.... Don’t turn around again.」

「Do not turn around BROCHACHO.」

「THIS STREAM JUST BECAME PREMIUM CONTENT」

Si Hon sighed.

"Shut up," he muttered under his breath.

A few seconds later, something suddenly dropped onto the bed behind him with a soft bounce.

He blinked.

Then slowly turned his head.

Sarah was now lying on the bed beside him, wearing the oversized black shirt that hung loosely over her small frame.

The sleeves were too long and the collar drooped slightly to one side, making her look less like the terrifying ruler of thousands of Munches and more like a kid who had stolen someone else’s clothes.

She stretched comfortably and folded her arms behind her head like she owned the place.

Which, technically... she did.

For a moment they just stared at the cavern ceiling together.

Then Si Hon cleared his throat.

"Kim Si Hon, by the way."

Sarah didn’t look at him.

"Cool."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"...Okay."

A few seconds passed.

Then she said, "Ryu Sarah."

Si Hon blinked.

"That’s your name?"

"Yeah."

She squinted at him suspiciously.

"You have a weird name by the way."

Si Hon immediately sat up halfway and pointed at himself.

"Excuse me? My name is the weird one?!"

"Well yeah."

"How?!"

"It just sounds weird."

He stared at her.

"Trust me," he said, flopping back down on the bed again. "Where I live, this name is completely normal."

Sarah nodded slowly.

"Oooh."

Then after a short pause she added thoughtfully—

"Still weird."

"Wow."

Another silence fell over the room.

A long one.

They both stared at the ceiling again.

The torches crackled quietly along the cavern walls while a distant echoes of the Munches moving through the tunnels drifted faintly through the air.

Five seconds passed.

Ten seconds.

Fifteen.

Finally Sarah suddenly sat up.

"ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ"

Si Hon glanced at her.

"What."

"This is dry."

"What?"

"Our conversation."

She gestured between them.

"It’s so dry."

Si Hon shrugged lazily.

"That’s it?"

"Yeah."

"You’re not going to fix it?"

"No."

She stared at him.

"Why not?"

He stretched his arms and sank deeper into the mattress.

"Because," he said calmly, "for the first time today, I’m not being chased, kidnapped, sacrificed, eaten, and this is always my response."

He closed his eyes.

"This is the most peaceful moment of my life right now."

The chat:

「AMAZING, PEAK CINEMA...」

「MAN THIS IS... DRY... IT’S GETTING... I DONT KNOW... BORING?」

「LET HIM SLEEP, HE NEED IT. AFTERALL... Y’ALL KNOW.」

Sarah stared at him like he was some kind of bizarre creature.

"You’re weird."

Without opening his eyes, Si Hon replied,

"I’ve been kidnapped by gorilla monsters, dragged into a death tower, chased by a giant dog-dragon hybrid, and watched someone’s skull explode like a tomato."

He cracked one eye open and looked at her.

"And I’m the weird one?"

Sarah thought about it very seriously.

"Yes."

The chat immediately lost their minds again.

Si Hon groaned quietly and rolled onto his side.

"Unbelievable."

A few seconds later his voice softened.

"Also I’m tired."

Sarah glanced at him.

His eyes were already drooping.

Within another moment his breathing slowed, his body relaxing into the mattress like someone whose brain had finally decided to shut down after surviving too many disasters in one day.

Just like that—

Kim Si Hon fell asleep.

Sarah watched him for a moment.

Then she slowly leaned back against the bed again and looked up at the cavern ceiling.

"Weird guy."

Above them, the glowing chat windows continued scrolling endlessly while far beyond the cavern, on the unseen Fate Channel, countless higher beings watched the broadcast with growing amusement.

Because somehow— they’re entertained even just a bit.

***

(A little hours later.)

Some time later.

After what felt like the first real sleep he’d had in ages, Si Hon slowly drifted back to consciousness.

At first he didn’t move.

His mind was still foggy, hovering somewhere between sleep and reality while the warmth of the blanket and the faint crackling of torches filled the cavern room. For a brief moment, he almost forgot where he was.

Then he noticed something.

Something heavy, warm, clinging to him.

Si Hon’s eyes slowly opened.

"The hell?"

He looked down.

Sarah was asleep beside him.

Except she wasn’t exactly beside him.

At some point during the night, she had completely migrated onto him like a determined little koala.

One arm was wrapped around his waist while the other rested against his chest. Her leg was half draped over his torso, and her head was pressed comfortably against him like he was some kind of oversized pillow.

Si Hon stared at the situation in silence.

His brain took a moment to process it.

Then he sighed quietly.

Of course this was happening.

He had survived monsters, rituals, and a death tower... only to wake up being used as a human pillow by the boss.

"Great."

He considered moving.

He really did.

But before he could, Sarah shifted slightly in her sleep.

Her grip tightened around him.

Then she murmured softly.

"Mom... Dad..."

Her brow wrinkled faintly.

"I can’t..."

Si Hon froze.

For a moment, the sleepy irritation on his face faded.

He looked down at her more carefully now.

Up close, she looked completely different from the terrifying "Munches King" he had seen earlier. Her dark gray hair spilled messily across the pillow, and the oversized black shirt she had borrowed from the cabinet was slightly twisted from how she’d been sleeping.

There was a small mole beneath her lip.

Another faint one near her eye.

Her face was calm, but every few seconds her forehead creased slightly, as if something unpleasant was chasing her even in her dreams.

Si Hon watched that expression for a few seconds.

Then he quietly exhaled.

"Nightmare, huh."

He hesitated.

Then slowly, very carefully, he lifted one hand.

For a moment it hovered awkwardly in the air above her head, like he was debating whether this was a stupid idea.

Then he gently placed it on her hair.

His fingers rested there for a second before lightly patting her head.

Not enough to wake her.

Just enough to soothe.

Sarah shifted slightly again.

But this time the tension in her expression eased a little.

Her grip on him loosened just slightly as she settled more comfortably against him.

Si Hon stared at the cavern ceiling for a moment.

"Well," he muttered quietly. "not like I’ve got anything better to do."

So he left his hand where it was.

Letting her cling to him like a pillow.

And after a while—

His eyes slowly closed again.

In the quiet torchlit cavern, with the distant echoes of monsters far down the tunnels, the two of them drifted back into sleep.

For once.

Everything was peaceful.