Chapter 45

Chapter 45

I carefully brushed my fingers over the old sword in my hand, trying to recall Jeong Seojin’s sword from memory.

The one I’d seen beyond the TV screen was a sharp blade that boasted a chilling silver gleam, enough to send a strange tingle down my spine just by looking at it. Not this worn-out, chipped thing.

“I don’t use it directly. Rather, I use it to summon the sword I normally wield.”

“Ah… I see.”

It was a bit like the relationship between Avan and the Gardener’s Scissors of Life.

I nodded to show I understood, while carefully stroking the old sword in my hand and asking the most important question.

“So, what am I supposed to do with this?”

“I’d like you to use your skill on it.”

Use my skill on equipment, not a person or even a monster?

I looked at Jeong Seojin with a bewilderment I couldn’t quite hide. He must have known exactly what my eyes were saying, but his face remained flat, showing no emotional stir.

“But this is—”

“Your skill never said it only applies to living things.”

“……”

Come to think of it, he was right. The description for the ‘Ruler’s Garden’ skill only stated that the difficulty of domination increases with higher intelligence and rank of the target, not that the target was limited to humans or monsters.

‘Normally, I’d just dismiss that as a logical leap…’

Unfortunately, this wasn’t ‘normally.’ I glanced at the small orb of light still spinning lazily near my shoulder.

‘Avan definitely said it. The core of my skill isn’t anything else—it’s “domination.”’

He wouldn’t have said that for no reason. The fact that Avan deliberately emphasized ‘domination’ might have been for a situation like this.

I shot a suspicious look at Avan, who had suddenly gone quiet on a topic he’d been chattering about unprompted, and opened my mouth.

“Fine. I’ll give it a try. But I’d like you to explain in detail what you want me to do after I use my skill on your equipment, what situation will arise when I do, and… oh, and also what happens if my skill activates and I can’t deactivate it.”

“If my master wishes, I’ll do it anytime.”

“And stop calling me Boss.”

As expected, this Jeong Seojin guy must get thorns in his mouth if he goes a single day without teasing me.

I lightly stomped on his foot under the table, hoping he’d watch his mouth. Of course, Jeong Seojin wasn’t the type to stop running his mouth over such a small gesture.

“What I want from my master is simple. Just use that skill on this, like I said at first. As for what I’d like you to do separately… if the skill really does apply to equipment with an owner like this, I’ll tell you then.”

“And if what you ask is something I shouldn’t do from my standpoint?”

“Then you can refuse. And if you can’t deactivate the skill, I’ll take responsibility, so don’t worry.”

“……”

I stared at Jeong Seojin silently for a moment. He met my gaze straight on, without looking away or avoiding it, just like when we’d met in the waiting room.

‘Doesn’t seem like a lie…’

I couldn’t know much from just a brief eye contact, but still, the eyes of a liar and the eyes of someone telling the truth were different. In that sense, after some deliberation, I slowly nodded.

“Alright. I’ll give it a try.”

“Thank you, Boss.”

“Stop calling me Boss. No, if you don’t stop, I won’t do it.”

“…More importantly, I should give you a reward for granting my request. Do you have any fingers left to wear a ring in the dungeon?”

“No, forget the reward, just stop calling me Boss.”

“My master’s hand already has the ring I gave you on it.”

“Whatever ring that Fake-nice guy put on you is probably at most A-Rank, so wear the one I’m giving you. It’s just the right fit for my master. It has an option that should be decent for a holy-attribute magic user.”

“You really…”

“Are you deliberately ignoring what I said just now, Jeong Seojin?”

Anyway, those two’s power struggle was a waste of productivity, so I ignored it. What mattered to me was that Jeong Seojin hadn’t given a proper answer to my request.

“So what you’re saying is, you won’t swear you’ll never call me Boss even if you’re dying?”

I narrowed my eyes fiercely, about to shout that I’d nullify everything we’d just discussed, but the moment I saw Jeong Seojin looking at me with an expression more earnest than I’d ever seen from him, I clamped my mouth shut.

“…Well, I guess. Since the ‘Boss’ thing comes from the skill’s effect, it’s unavoidable to some extent.”

Of course, given Jeong Seojin’s behavior so far, it was clear that calling me Boss was partly the skill’s influence and partly his intention to mess with me. Which was why I was even more pissed off personally.

“…Hoo, fine. I’ll do it right now. So stop looking at me like that. Someone who’s practically Korea’s strongest hunter, why are you looking at someone like me with that kind of expression…”

“Master. It’s only natural that your worth is far higher than that bastard’s, so why say something like that? Please don’t undervalue yourself like that.”

—That’s right! For mere humans to even presume to gauge the master’s worth is the height of arrogance…!

“Yoon Juyeong, can’t you please call me by my name when we’re outside? You did it at first, you know, this guy. Avan, you too.”

I really appreciated them valuing me highly, but personally, what I wanted from Yoon Juyeong wasn’t talk about my worth—it was for him to stop with that damn “master” thing.

I finally let out a sigh I couldn’t hold back and gripped the old sword in my hand with a little more force.

“Then I’ll start. …Make sure you remember clearly that if things go wrong, I can’t take responsibility, Jeong Seojin.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“……”

Since things had come this far, I couldn’t stubbornly refuse, so I took a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly.

Besides, Jeong Seojin had kicked out all the other guild members inside the café before chasing out Hunter Joo Minjeong, so there was no one to worry about.

‘The fact that the staff is still here is a bit concerning… but Jeong Seojin will handle that himself.’

I doubted Jeong Seojin would leave someone who might casually gossip about me in this place.

Considering everything he’d done so far, he was so shameless and ridiculous it made you wonder if he was even human, but still, he hadn’t become the nation’s strongest hunter with nothing to show for it.

“Skill activation.”

The moment I formed the intent to use the skill, the flow of mana I’d felt around my heart spread instantly through my entire body.

I urged the invisible current flowing and piercing through every part of my body to follow my will. It wasn’t a difficult task. It was something I’d done repeatedly ever since my initial awakening.

“Ruler’s Garden.”

And then, light burst forth.

The light filled the café as if it would erase the entire world in pure white, then began to fade away like it was melting. Only after the waves of light I felt beyond my closed eyelids had calmed down enough did I lift my eyelids.

“……”

When I opened my eyes, the familiar status window was floating in front of me, as it always had. Instead of saying anything about the current situation, I first looked at the status window.

<Status Window>

Name / Age: Yoon Seohee / 27

Awakened: Y

Rank: EX

Awakened Skills:

―Ruler’s Garden (S)

└Skill Target(s): Yoon Juyeong (S), Blackie (A), Jeong Seojin (S+), The Rusty Sword of the Second Tarik (EX) (Cancellable)

―Mana * Holy (C)

“Looks like it worked.”

I slowly set the old sword I’d been holding down on the table, then raised my head to meet Jeong Seojin’s eyes.

It seemed like Jeong Seojin had been watching me the whole time I had my eyes closed. The way our eyes met the moment I looked up at him told me as much.

“And… I don’t know if you expected this part too, Jeong Seojin, but this sword’s status window explicitly says it’s cancellable.”

Was it the difference between a living thing and a non-living thing? I couldn’t tell the exact reason, but while the list for Yoon Juyeong and the other two didn’t show whether cancellation was possible, “The Rusty Sword of the Second Tarik” was clearly marked as cancellable.

I carefully ran my fingertip over the surface of the old sword while staring into Jeong Seojin’s eyes.

“So now, I’d like you to tell me. What is it you want me to do?”

“…Well, now that this sword belongs to you as its owner, you should be able to see its information directly too. Take a look.”

“Hmm……”

Seeing that the favor he wanted from me seemed to be related to the sword’s information, I stopped pressing him and instead tapped on “The Rusty Sword of the Second Tarik” that had appeared in my status window.

<The Rusty Sword of the Second Tarik>

A sword once used by the one who opened the world for the second time. The spirit that had used the sword as its vessel left long ago, leaving it worn and rusted, but it has been restored through a special power, recovering the abilities it originally possessed.

It is the first piece of the Tarik fragments, and also the memory. If all five Tarik fragments are gathered, a set effect will trigger, causing the equipment’s owner to undergo regression to a point in time of their choosing.

―Free form transformation / quantity transformation within the sword category

―Physical ability increase A

―No durability damage

―Cannot kill humans