Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Hunter Joo Minju, looking thoroughly amused as if she was having the time of her life, continued her explanation.

“Thanks to that, it’s pretty convenient. They call it a curse, but it actually has a lot of skills that are no different from buffs. On the flip side, there are debuffs too… and useful ones like the one that just hid inside Yoon Seohee’s shadow.”

“Ah… I see.”

So the thing that hid in my shadow just now was apparently a type of curse too. I’d thought maybe it was just that Yoon Juyeong’s mana or skills were related to shadows, like Yoon Juyeong’s, but I never imagined it was an entirely different category. As expected, the number of skills that exist in this world seems too vast for humans to even count.

After thinking that far, I looked down at the two men sprawled at my feet.

“So for now, we still don’t have any information, right?”

“Hmm, well… I guess so? We stopped the kidnapping attempt, but these guys are just pawns. What we found out is that an S-Rank hunter from this country is the head of it.”

With just that, it was still a long way from figuring out who actually ordered this kidnapping plan. Of course, we could lodge a protest with the British side about this attempt. But… considering the cafeteria employee’s behavior earlier, I doubted they’d take it seriously even if we did complain. And even if they did accept it, they might be harboring other thoughts behind the scenes.

‘In the worst case, maybe this whole request itself was a cover… and the real target was me.’

Hunter Joo Minju had already mentioned it on the plane. England had failed this tutorial quest, “Production Hunter’s Production,” and suffered a penalty for it. Unlike the past, when they cared about saving face and maintaining appearances, ever since the Dungeon incident, every country had been willing to go through fire and water for their own safety.

So the suspicion that the British side and a few S-Rank hunters had colluded to steal a “valuable resource” — that might have been unthinkable in the past, but now it was entirely plausible.

‘Could Adam Rogers be in on it too?’

I recalled Jeong Seojin’s words — “That S+-Rank knight over there probably wants to kidnap you too” — and pictured Adam Rogers’ face. The kind of blond hair and blue eyes that easily come to mind when you think of white people, a man who outwardly showed a very kind and polite demeanor, but whose true intentions were utterly unfathomable.

Just as I was thinking that far, Hunter Joo Minju suddenly spoke up.

“For now, let me look into this matter a bit.”

“Huh?”

“Hey, Lee Yoomyeong. Look at that.”

Hunter Joo Minju’s finger, which had called out to Hunter Lee Yoomyeong, pointed past the door — toward a room that, unlike the hotel’s simple structure, was decorated with an unbearably lavish design.

“Isn’t that a bit weird?”

“…It is weird.”

Hunter Lee Yoomyeong calmly agreed. He glanced briefly at the direction Hunter Joo Minju was pointing — the ornate wallpaper.

“It’s pretending to be just a fancy pattern, but that’s a curse. A high-concentration, high-level curse aimed at a specific target.”

“Good heavens. All of that is a curse?”

Startled, I looked at the wallpaper that Hunter Joo Minju had pointed at and Hunter Lee Yoomyeong was staring at. The wallpaper had geometric patterns repeating infinitely in a regular pattern. Honestly, to me, who knew nothing about curses, it just looked like a repeating fancy design, but it seemed different to Hunter Lee Yoomyeong.

He spoke with a slight frown, as if puzzled or suspicious.

“Actually, curses come in many varieties, so it’s hard to generalize, but curses used as debuffs by hunters can be applied to anyone as long as the conditions are met. For example… the shadow-binding curse I used earlier works well on someone who doesn’t have high-level curse defense skills, and at the same time has weak resistance and a strong willingness to accept the curse’s user… me.”

“Hey, technical terms.”

At Hunter Joo Minju’s remark, Hunter Lee Yoomyeong paused for a very brief moment before speaking again.

“The shadow-binding curse I used earlier is easy to use on someone who doesn’t have high-level curse defense skills, and at the same time has weak resistance toward the curse’s user… me, and a strong willingness to accept it.”

“I… I see.”

It was definitely easier to understand once the technical terms were stripped out. Was this the hardship of an expert explaining specialized content to a non-expert?

“But the curse engraved on that wallpaper is different.”

“Different… does that mean the target is narrowed down to just one person…?”

“That’s right.”

Hunter Lee Yoomyeong immediately confirmed my guess, then stared once more in the direction of the wallpaper.

“To be precise… in the current situation, you could say it’s a curse that applies to only one person.”

“What kind of condition is it, then?”

Hunter Joo Minju, who had been listening to our conversation from the side, cut in. She was still linked arm-in-arm with me, leaning her upper body heavily toward my direction. But even as she did so, she didn’t put her weight on me.

Hunter Lee Yoomyeong stared at Hunter Joo Minju with a quiet, calm gaze. Somehow, it was a look that seemed to carry a gentle, rippling warmth.

A brief silence, long enough for a second hand to tick a few times. Then, not long after, Lee Yoomyeong’s eyes returned to their usual gloomy look, and he opened his mouth.

“It has to be S+-Rank.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“It’s a curse that only applies to awakened individuals of S+-Rank or higher. In other words, in the current situation, it’s a curse that only applies to Adam Rogers.”

It was a name I’d never once expected to come up here. I stared at the room across from us, eyes wide from the sudden shocking statement. A curse aimed at an S+-Rank, was it? As Hunter Lee Yoomyeong said, in the current situation, it was a curse that could only be targeting Adam Rogers.

At least, publicly speaking.

‘If it really is a curse targeting S+-Ranks, couldn’t Jeong Seojin also be a target?’

After I used my ‘Ruler’s Garden’ skill, Jeong Seojin’s rank had remained the same as before. S+-Rank. I’d never told anyone except Guild Master Kang Mujin, so no one in the world knew, but there were exactly two S+-Rank hunters in the world right now. Adam Rogers and Jeong Seojin.

“Um, Hunter Lee Yoomyeong. That curse… what exactly is its goal? No, I mean… what does it actually do to the person who’s cursed?”

“…It’s not the kind of curse that takes effect immediately, but its ultimate purpose is simple. It removes the target’s ability to sense mana, so they can’t use mana.”

After saying that, Hunter Lee Yoomyeong paused for a moment as if hesitating over something, then pointed somewhere other than the wallpaper.

“Actually, the curse isn’t just this.”

“Huh? There’s more?”

“Yes. That room… more precisely, the building itself, including that room, is a hotbed of curses. I’ve already mentioned the wallpaper, and as you can see, the ceiling also has curse-bearing patterns drawn on it. Also, on the windows… it’s outside my domain so I can’t interpret it, but there’s a fairly tricky barrier set up.”

It really was a space that couldn’t be more suspicious. I stared at the room across from us with a deeply serious face. A place filled with curses that existed solely to harm an S+-Rank, a place where someone’s… hostility toward an S+-Rank hunter was blatantly palpable.

After a moment’s thought, I stared at Hunter Lee Yoomyeong.

“That curse filling that space… is it fine as long as we don’t go in there? And if someone who isn’t S+-Rank goes in, is there no danger at all?”

“…To answer the first question, no. It’s not that it hasn’t been activated yet… rather, the conditions haven’t been met, so it has no effect, but…”

For an instant, a deep darkness settled into Hunter Lee Yoomyeong’s dark red eyes.

“It would be a different story if he paid a considerable price, and had a stubborn conviction worth paying that price.”

“……”

“And the caster of this curse… seems to be the type who’d do anything to execute it. Right now… and for at least the next five years, there won’t be any problems.”

But after five years, who knows. If this guy sets his mind to it, fulfills the conditions, and pays the price.

“Maybe then, it really will be carried out. A curse targeting an S+-Rank.”

“…What if we inform the British government about this?”

“Well. I doubt that would be a wise choice. As it is, we can’t rule out their involvement in this kidnapping… and perhaps this curse is also tied to them.”

This was truly a bleak situation. Even the people who should be handling this were suspect. I pursed my lips tightly and furrowed my brow. If the British government was suspicious… what about the target himself?

‘Though honestly, Adam Rogers is just as suspicious.’

After all, he was someone who’d once denied Jeong Seojin’s words in front of him. In all honesty, I found him suspicious too. But I didn’t think the person who tried to kidnap me and Adam Rogers were connected somehow. …At least, not as long as it was certain that curse’s target was aimed at an S+-Rank.

‘Still, whatever it is, I can’t just let this slide.’

It seemed Jeong Seojin himself didn’t want others to know about it yet, so I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but thinking about Jeong Seojin, who was the same S+-Rank as Adam Rogers, made me feel that way even more. Of course, aside from that reason, on a personal level, it was purely because I didn’t want Adam Rogers to get hurt or die, if possible.

After thinking it over and making my own decision, I opened my mouth right away.

“How about we inform Mr. Adam? At the very least, since he’s the person involved, if we tell him…”

“Um, Yoon Seohee.”