Chapter 43

Chapter 43

I deliberately eased my tension to keep from making any loud noise as I stared at the ball of light hovering over my chest. The thing quietly floating right in front of my chest was none other than Avan.

…Honestly, I know how ridiculous that sounds, but it was true. This morning, right after I got the guild master’s text and was about to head straight to the guild, Avan grabbed me and immediately took the form I was seeing right now.

According to him, since he was an S+-Rank item, transforming into whatever form his master wanted wasn’t a big deal. But I couldn’t help wondering if the ragged doll form he’d taken when we first met was also part of that logic.

“What exactly got you so worked up earlier? Do you have some kind of grudge against the guild master?”

I quickly moved my feet to get away from the guild master’s office, asking in the smallest voice possible so no one else would hear.

—Th-that’s not it. I was just watching him to see if he was trustworthy…

“Guild Master Kang Mujin is plenty trustworthy. Sure, I haven’t known him long, but… still, the way he treats even a C-Rank hunter like me with respect, he’s definitely not a bad person.”

Let’s just ignore for a moment that Hunter Yoon Juyeong is also known for being kind to lower-ranked hunters in public.

—Of course, I thought so too, but you still need to be careful. Your nobility knows no bounds, Master, so there are those who covet you…!

“Ugh, Guild Master Kang Mujin isn’t that kind of person, okay?”

—…Ahem. W-well, certainly. At first glance, he did seem like a decent person. After you fell asleep yesterday, I looked into him, and apparently he’s a faithful husband and a loving father to his children.

After all, anyone who leads an organization should be like that. Yes, indeed.

Avan said all that Confucian nonsense in a pleased voice. This guy looks nothing like an Easterner—he’s straight out of a fantasy world—and yet the things he says… How should I put this?

‘He’s like a scholar? Ah, that’s it. He’s like a scholar.’

Always spouting proper words, going on about loyalty and calling me Master—he was exactly like a Confucian scholar or a nobleman.

Wow. It’s not just that he looks Western and acts like a scholar; he looks like he stepped out of a fantasy novel and acts like a scholar, which makes the cognitive dissonance even worse.

—No matter how high his position, he is still beneath you, Master, but still, at that level…

“Master.”

As I was half-listening to Avan’s Confucian ramblings, a familiar person approached me from the opposite direction, calling me by that familiar title.

I stared blankly at the man who strode toward me with his characteristically long legs and called his name.

“Mr. Yoon Juyeong.”

“Are you done with your talk?”

“Yes. They said the guild will suppress the dating rumor. Oh, and they mentioned they might call you if needed… but I told them it would probably be fine. Um, if you’re uncomfortable with public appearances—”

“It’s fine. If it’s what you wish, Master, then I should oblige.”

See, that’s the problem—I can’t tell if your ‘it’s fine’ means you’re genuinely okay with it, or if you’re just forcing yourself because it’s my request.

I looked at Mr. Yoon Juyeong with an ambiguous expression—not quite frowning, but not blank either. However he interpreted my face, he asked if something was bothering me.

‘Yes, something is. Specifically, my conscience.’

How should I put this? It felt like I was using my position to extort what I wanted from him. I never thought I’d feel this way, having never held a title that could be called a ‘high position’ in my life. Life really is full of surprises.

“I’m fine. More importantly, what about Mr. Jeong Seojin?”

“Ah, he went home first, so you don’t need to worry—”

“Surely you don’t intend to lie in front of your master, Mr. Yoon Juyeong?”

“Huh-uh-uhk?”

Gasp. When did this guy get here?

Startled by Jeong Seojin, who had approached right behind me without a sound, I spun around. …And I was startled all over again.

Wait, what is that person carrying on his back?

“Um, Mr. Jeong Seojin. Weren’t you supposed to wait in the waiting room with Mr. Yoon Juyeong while I talked to the guild master?”

“That’s right.”

“Then who’s that person hanging on your back…?”

This morning, after I got the text from the guild master, I wasn’t the only one who accompanied me.

As for Mr. Yoon Juyeong… well, I wasn’t surprised since he’s already so obsessed with that ‘Master’ nonsense, but what really startled me was none other than Jeong Seojin.

‘When I said I’d go alone, he didn’t say a word, but the moment I stepped out the front gate, he was right there beside me…’

It wasn’t like he was some cat famous for not listening to its owner, so I wondered what he was playing at, but when I thought about it, Jeong Seojin was also a member of Heewon Guild.

‘It’s not weird for him to go to his own guild… though it is a bit odd that he insisted on going with me.’

As it was, I was already worried about people’s eyes on me because of the dating rumor with Mr. Yoon Juyeong, and my honest feeling was that I was afraid of getting tangled up in a similar rumor with Jeong Seojin too.

…Of course, that worry faded pretty quickly when Jeong Seojin brought out a car with full tinted windows that I had no idea where he got from.

‘So… who is that person really?’

I snapped out of my brief thoughts and looked again at the person hanging onto Jeong Seojin’s back. At first glance, it seemed to be a small-framed woman with dark brown hair… Ah, she lifted her head.

Oh.

“Hello?”

“Oh, hello.”

Her eyes were a pale green, like a sprout lifting its head in the spring sunlight. I stared dazedly into those brilliantly shining, pale green eyes that held a sparkling friendliness.

I was sure I’d seen that color somewhere before…

“Nice to meet you! I really wanted to meet you in person, but Jeong Seojin kept getting in the way, so I had no choice but to hang on like this and come along.”

“When did I ever get in your way?”

“I said I wanted to meet her and asked you to guide me, but you said no!”

“That’s because you’re annoying.”

The woman I’d suddenly encountered bickered cutely with Jeong Seojin for a moment, then wriggled down from him like a koala and stood right in front of me.

It was only when her small frame stood before me that I realized who she was.

‘Ah, no way.’

“I’m Joo Minjeong, called the S-Rank 8th place Archer. Nice to meet you!”

* * *

“Personally, I really wanted to meet you. Normally, unawakened people or lower-rank hunters who get tangled up with S-Ranks are one of two types. Either they’re so overflowing with greed they’ve lost all sense of fear, or they’re genuinely good people.”

“…Uh, I don’t think I’m either of those.”

“From what I can see, Ms. Yoon Seohee, you seem like the latter. The way you put up with that rude brat over there, and the way you act as a brake for Yoon Juyeong…”

From the very start, Hunter Joo Minjeong had shown me an inexplicable friendliness, and right after that, she dragged me straight to the cafeteria set up inside the guild.

Ah, of course, that process wasn’t exactly smooth.

As soon as Hunter Joo Minjeong grabbed my arm, Mr. Yoon Juyeong growled at her to let go, Jeong Seojin provoked her by calling her a kid and a dwarf, and Avan kept circling around me chanting ‘Master, Master’ like a medley.

After going through all that incredibly complicated mess, Hunter Joo Minjeong finally succeeded in sitting me down here.

Of course, if you look at the seats behind us, Mr. Yoon Juyeong is pretending to drink coffee while keeping an eye on us, and Jeong Seojin left after warning me not to handle fragile people who’d die if you so much as poke them, then went to meet the guild master.

—Master, you must be careful. S-Rank hunters are mostly power-crazed lunatics. Once they find out about you—

‘I know, so can you please stay quiet? You’re driving me crazy.’

Ever since Hunter Joo Minjeong grabbed my arm, Avan had been frantically circling around me the whole time.

I wanted to just swat him like a fly and make him behave, like I did earlier, but the presence of Hunter Joo Minjeong, who was staring at me with sparkling eyes, was too overwhelming for that.

“Actually, when I heard a new S-Rank hunter had appeared, I was secretly looking forward to— I mean, curious about what kind of trouble this newbie would cause.”

“You just said looking forward to…”

“Curious, I said curious. Ahaha. Just a slip of the tongue.”

Anyway.

Hunter Joo Minjeong rested her arms on the table, glanced at the seat where Mr. Yoon Juyeong was sitting, and continued.

“Newly awakened S-Ranks always cause at least one or two incidents, you know. I blew up our entire backyard. Oh, and did you know? When our guild master first awakened and went home, he smashed the doorknob of his front gate and got scolded by his wife.”

It was a bit surprising that such a solemn and serious guild master had a past like that.

I tried picturing the guild master getting scolded by his wife, his face all droopy, but I shook my head not long after.

Honestly, even setting aside the fact that I couldn’t picture it at all, I wondered why I was even thinking about the private life of someone I’d only met two days ago.

“Anyway, that’s why I was waiting when Yoon Juyeong over there became an S-Rank too. Wondering what kind of trouble he’d cause. And if the scale of the trouble seemed a bit excessive, it’s also part of the existing S-Ranks’ job to step in.”

“…Was that really an obligation? I feel like I’ve never heard of anything like that…”

“It’s more of an unspoken rule than an obligation. We’re human too, so it’d be awkward if rumors spread that S-Ranks are… what, monsters who can’t control their power? You could call it a kind of preventive measure.”