Chapter 7

Chapter 7

“So let’s have it this way: Hunter Yoon Juyeong lives at Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s place, and I live at mine. Okay? And please stop with that ‘master’ business.”

“If I am not to call my master ‘master,’ then what should I call you? Hmm… If you would graciously permit me to address you by name, may I call you ‘Seohee’ instead?”

“…Fine. That’s actually better.”

At least ‘Seohee’ is something you hear every now and then when you call a customer service center, so I guess it’s better than ‘master.’ Honestly, the ‘master’ thing was just… seriously overwhelming.

I don’t want to think about it, but if Hunter Yoon Juyeong ever called me ‘master’ in public… Just imagining it is horrifying. What would people think of me and Hunter Yoon Juyeong?

“Wait, but you’ve already changed your tune.”

As expected, Hunter Yoon Juyeong seemed to have a knack for steering conversations in his favor. I forced a firm expression and met his gaze again.

“I’ll say it again: let’s each live in our own homes. You’ve got your own place, so why insist on staying at mine? There’s no space here anyway.”

“That’s naturally for the sake of guarding Seohee. As you must have gathered from our conversation yesterday, Seohee needs protection.”

“…Right now, you’re the only one who knows about my skill. And I have no intention of blabbing about it to anyone outside.”

“I trust Seohee. I’m certain you will think and judge wisely. But I cannot trust others.”

Hunter Yoon Juyeong said that as he once again held out one of the neatly arranged apple slices on the plate toward me.

Can’t exactly refuse to eat something he’s already cut for me.

I had no choice but to take the apple slice he offered and bite into it. The taste was good, so he must have bought decent ones. Did Hunter Yoon Juyeong have a hobby in housekeeping or something?

“It won’t be long before hunters across the country learn that I’ve awakened to S-Rank. It’s been reported to the Dungeon Management Committee, and the ranking update is coming soon.”

“Ah… now that you mention it. By this Sunday…”

“Yes. It’s a monthly ranking update, but… the appearance of an S-Rank hunter always draws everyone’s attention. Even if the rankings list aliases instead of real names, I think it won’t be long before everyone knows I’m the new S-Rank hunter.”

I chewed the apple slice in my mouth without saying much and nodded. In fact, every S-Rank hunter who had appeared so far had their identity, where they lived, and which guild they belonged to become common knowledge within about a week.

Of course, that was partly because high-ranking hunters, brimming with pride, usually stepped forward themselves, declaring, “I’m that S-Rank hunter.”

“An S-Rank hunter is… ah, I’m still eating. Anyway, an S-Rank hunter is a valuable asset even from the nation’s perspective. It’ll spread fast.”

“Yes. And in that process, I believe Seohee’s name will also come up.”

“…Mine?”

“Yes. The unprecedented awakening of a B-Rank hunter to S-Rank, and the sole witness at the scene.”

“Hmm.”

“Naturally, everyone will try to approach Seohee.”

“Can’t deny that…”

Especially the journalists in the hunter industry—there’s a high proportion of so-called ‘garbage reporters’ who wouldn’t consider my privacy at all and would recklessly try to force an interview.

In fact, I heard that in this Red Chimera dungeon incident, some garbage reporter had already forced an interview out of one of the survivors.

“Hmm, but… even if I can’t deny that, wouldn’t having you stick by my side actually make things worse?”

“Of course, my master’s…”

“I told you not to call me master.”

“Yes. What Seohee says has merit, but… fundamentally, the treatment of ‘close associates of an S-Rank hunter’ and ‘indirect associates of an S-Rank hunter’ is quite different.”

“I don’t plan on being a close associate of Hunter Yoon Juyeong.”

“Seohee and I have long been bound by the very close relationship of master and servant—how can you say such a heartless thing?”

“I keep telling you, I’m not your master.”

Is this guy doing this just to mess with me?

I narrowed my eyes at Hunter Yoon Juyeong with sudden suspicion, but then figured no one would go so far as to play the servant act just to tease someone, so I just let out a sigh.

“To get back to the main point, close associates are protected at the government level or by the guild they’ve joined.”

“There’s a system like that?”

“I understand it’s part of a personal information protection law designed to safeguard S-Rank hunters and those close to them. Since S-Rank hunters are rare, the government wanted to hold onto them through their associates, even if indirectly.”

That made sense. I’d heard that S-Rank hunters get scouted by all sorts of countries and guilds. These days, there’s even talk that the number of S-Rank hunters equals a nation’s competitiveness.

Still, Hunter Yoon Juyeong seemed to know quite a bit about that side of things, more than I expected.

Honestly, even though we’re both lumped together under the same profession of hunter, the lives of high-rank and low-rank hunters are pretty different.

So even I, who’s pretty interested in hunter-related materials and articles, don’t know much about the actual lives of high-rank hunters.

“Hunter Yoon Juyeong, you seem to know a lot about S-Rank hunters.”

“Ah… yes. I know someone who’s an S-Rank hunter…”

“Someone you know? Wow, Hunter Yoon Juyeong, you’re quite the person… No, I guess you really are quite the person now.”

After all, he’s an S-Rank hunter, so he really is impressive.

I looked at Hunter Yoon Juyeong with fresh eyes. Come to think of it, the S-Rank hunters who were always described as being on a different level from us, like they were in some celestial realm or upper echelon, were right in front of me.

Wow, so does that mean Hunter Yoon Juyeong can pull off all kinds of crazy stunts like the S-Rank hunters in the ranking battles? Like creating a thousand arrows in the sky, or suddenly disappearing from view and reappearing far away?

“Oh, by the way, did your status window change when you awakened to S-Rank? No, of course it did. There’s no way it didn’t…”

“Would you like to see it, if you wish?”

“No, well, isn’t that a bit too rude…?”

It might be different if we were party members tackling a dungeon together, but asking a complete stranger hunter about their status window is extremely rude. Given the ranking battles and the fact that hunters tend to have personal disputes, it’s understandable that they’re reluctant to disclose their status windows or skill information.

That’s why, even though I’m curious about Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s status window, I’ve been holding back…

“Since it’s your skill to begin with, you can see my status window anytime you want, Master.”

“Huh?! What do you mean by that?”

Did my skill have a function like that?

I hurriedly opened my status window and checked my skill section. Of course, it was pretty much the same as what I’d seen before. Ruler’s Garden, target: Yoon Juyeong (S)…

“Try pressing my name there, or calling it out loud.”

“Uh…”

Is this how I do it? I carefully tapped the area where Hunter Yoon Juyeong’s name was written. Honestly, even as I did it, I had my doubts, but the result was beyond my imagination.

<Status Window>

Name / Age: Yoon Juyeong (胤柱寧) / 24

Awakened: Y

Rank: S

Awakened Skills

―Stealth (S)

―Magic * Dark (A++)

―Magic * Wind (A)

―Shadow Dweller (S+)

Wow, I can really see everything. I even lightly touched the skill names, and descriptions popped up too. I read the description of the Stealth skill with admiring eyes.

‘Conceals your form and erases your sound. A high-level Stealth skill is close to temporarily erasing your very existence…’

I’d even forgotten that it was rude to try and find out the status window of a hunter I wasn’t close to, and was just excited about seeing something so fascinating.

Then, for the first time in a long while, a guest that no one in the world would welcome appeared.

―Well now, people of Earth, have you all been getting along safely and peacefully without any worries for a while?

“Hic, why did this guy suddenly pop up?”

Brown hair sticking up in all directions like it hadn’t been managed at all, glasses perched clumsily on a freckled nose bridge, and a face that was smiling sloppily but felt completely devoid of humanity.

―It’s been a while! Your administrator, the Librarian, is back~!

The one who called himself the ‘administrator’ in charge of ‘Earth’.

The ‘Librarian’ had appeared.

One day, the catastrophe began without warning.

Some catastrophes took the form of monsters, and others took the form of buildings with various shapes.

But some catastrophes took the form of humans.

―Wow, even after all this time, you’re all still making the same dumb faces. I guess you all really missed me.

“What is he talking about…”

The culprit behind the last of the three catastrophes mentioned earlier… the Librarian, waved his hand with a bright smile from beyond a crystal-clear hologram, not a single bit of noise interfering.

He was still the same shameless, thick-skinned bastard who had no idea what embarrassment or shame even meant.

—Ah, those of you who are denying it right now, there’s no need to feel awkward. This Librarian already knows your true feelings.

Let’s just keep our mouths shut. As it is, he’s a suspicious existence with no revealed identity, so he might even take the words of a lowly C-Rank hunter like me seriously.

—Well, I have a mountain of things I’d like to say, but for now, let’s get to the main point! I’m sure our oh-so-frail human race is curious about why I’ve shown up, right?

Honestly, “curious” isn’t the word. The more accurate thing to say would be that we’d be more grateful if he just didn’t show up at all.

As the saying goes, no news is good news. No one was ever happy to see the Librarian, who only ever showed up to drop all sorts of nonsensical things on us, calling them “missions,” “trials,” or “pranks.”