[2] Solo Leveling

Chapter 266 | Recollections / After Stories

"The next drawing is what Soo-Hoh drew as his family portrait."

Flip.

The page of the sketchbook flipped again. What greeted her next was a drawing of herself, a man that seemed to be her husband, Jin-Woo, and innumerable black figures standing behind them.

Soo-Hoh grew up from his toddler days surrounded by the Shadow Soldiers and he must've thought of them as his extended family now.

'This is how we look like in Soo-Hoh's eyes.'

Hae-In thought that this drawing contained her son's innocent but warm gaze, and her nose stung with emotions.

The class teachers couldn't understand the meaning behind these drawings and fell into a rather considerable amount of panic and came to the conclusion that there must've been some sort of a problem with Soo-Hoh.

And of course, that included the headmistress herself, the person responsible for asking Hae-In to stop by at the kindergarten today.

The middle-aged lady formed a pretty grave expression as she spoke.

"The final page contains Soo-Hoh's drawing of his 'home'. And the reason why I requested you for today's meeting, as well."

What kind of a drawing would it be this time? With a pair of nervous eyes, Cha Hae-In flipped to the last page.

There was a cosy little house.

A normal-looking house was standing erect in the middle of some land.

The problem with this depiction was that the ground below was completely painted black.

Over 70 percent of the sketchbook's real estate was dominated by the black colour.

"We've been caring for many children over the years, but never have we encountered such depictions of friends and family by a child until now."

The headmistress pointed to the black portion of the drawing and spoke in a calm voice.

"The homeroom teacher-nim asked Soo-Hoh why he drew the lower half of the house like this, and the boy replied that that's where his friends, his family, as well as his giant father, are staying."

'.....Giant father?'

That explanation was puzzling enough to make Hae-In tilt her head this way and that, but still, she could more or less guess how this drawing came about.

However....

"By any chance, do you know why Soo-Hoh is drawing these sorts of images?"

....It was really unfortunate that Hae-In couldn't reveal what she knew to other people. She could only shake her head.

"....As I feared."

The headmistress nodded her head as if she understood the situation.

Initially, the kindergarten was fearful that Soo-Hoh was being mistreated at home, but they couldn't find any evidence of abuse from the boy's jovial, good-natured behaviour he displayed every day.

Although rare, things like this did happen occasionally – young kids drawing the world as they see it through their eyes.

"Maybe... It's possible that Soo-Hoh possesses a great talent for art."

The headmistress convinced herself with this and smiled gently.

Hae-In stopped forming a gloomy expression, now that she knew the source of today's 'trouble', and smiled awkwardly, as well.

"Ah, yes. Yes."

What a relief that it was not a huge matter. She could finally relax a bit.

However, these drawings weren't the end of the headmistress's business today. She again deliberated on whether she should speak of this or not, before coming to a difficult decision and raised her head.