Chapter 95

Chapter 95

“I don’t know if I’m a monster or not, and frankly I don’t care… but I don’t know about anything else, but having my feelings for my mas—no, for Yoon Seohee, denied like that… it’s pretty damn irritating.”

“For a monster.”

Like a wolf growling, Andres muttered in a voice that had dropped impossibly low.

“You bastards… scum like you could never love a human.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I saw it with my own eyes! That, that bastard… Adam Rogers, that son of a bitch!”

“That’s enough, Andres.”

A voice so sharp and resolute it rang out clearly came from far away. I reflexively turned my head toward the direction of the footsteps. And there, from the direction of the room Andres had come from, a man was walking toward us.

“…Adam Rogers……”

“I am well aware of the hostility you hold toward me. But taking it out on an innocent person who isn’t even me is a problem.”

Thud, thud. His steps, dazzling in the sunlight, soon came to a stop in front of Andres. Adam Rogers, facing Andres whose eyes were stained with hostility and contempt as if he wanted to kill him right then and there, wore a calm expression as if nothing was wrong.

“If you wanted to kill someone, you should have killed only me, Andres.”

“You son of a… bitch. Cough, then why don’t you use that damn sword of yours right now, cough! And go kill yourself.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s a bit difficult. I have many responsibilities, so I cannot do that until I have finished everything.”

“Bastard.”

I had no idea what kind of relationship the two of them had, but it seemed the hostility was entirely one-sided from Andres. On the contrary, Adam seemed to even have a shred of goodwill, treating Andres with a consistently friendly attitude.

Of course, the content of their conversation was so fundamentally off-track that it could hardly be called friendly.

“In any case, it seems I don’t have time to talk with you further right now, Andres. That is truly regrettable.”

“Shut u—, gck.”

The scabbard, emblazoned with a clear golden sun pattern, struck Andres precisely on the back of his neck. Unable to resist the sudden impact, Andres’s eyes flew wide open one last time before the Arondight in his hand clattered to the ground.

The Arondight that had fallen from Andres’s hand no longer emitted a blue light, looking like an ordinary sword.

Adam grabbed Andres, who had collapsed on the spot, and lightly tossed him onto the torn and broken sofa right next to them. He even picked up the Arondight from the floor and leaned it against the sofa before finally turning around to face me and Jeong Seojin.

“I apologize. It seems I was a bit late because I was dealing with all the remaining forces inside the building.”

“……”

“Inside the building…? Surely you don’t mean there were more hidden ambushes inside here too?”

“Ah, the building I’m referring to is that one.”

Adam’s finger pointed far off, toward the room Andres had come from.

“The base of the faction that attempted to kidnap Hunter Yoon Seohee. To be honest, I would like to explain the cause, process, and results of this incident to you right now.”

Sunlight streaming through the blasted-open ceiling settled thickly on the man’s golden hair, and his face, smiling as if embarrassed, shone white. I was at a loss for words for a moment, staring blankly in the direction the man had pointed. There was still that room, covered in the curse that Hunter Lee Yoomyeong had explained.

“Given the current state of our surroundings, I’d like to prioritize moving to a safe location first. Would you follow me?”

The man’s smile as he said this was incredibly bright. Like the sun itself, truly.

* * *

“I’m so glad you’re safe, Hunter Yoon Seohee!”

With a sudden rush, a familiar-looking woman abruptly hugged me. Startled by the sudden situation, I reflexively let out a strange yelp, but then realized who was hugging me and managed to say her name.

“H-Hunter Joo Minjeong?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s me! Anyway, I know I already said it, but I’m really glad you’re safe. I was so shocked when I heard about the kidnapping while we were in the middle of coordinating the details of this request.”

“Ah… I’m sorry. The situation suddenly took a strange turn and ended up like that…”

“Huh? It’s not something you need to apologize for, Seohee. The ones at fault are those kidnapping bastards, not you.”

Hunter Joo Minjeong declared in a voice so clear and refreshing it was almost boisterous, then stared at Jeong Seojin, who was sitting next to me and looking at his smartphone.

“Anyway, I was wondering where that guy went instead of working… turns out he was sticking by Yoon Seohee’s side.”

“Ahaha. Well, I think he was… a bit worried because of the kidnapping attempt.”

“Hmm. …Well, something like that did happen right before this. I suppose I’ll let it slide this time.”

Hunter Joo Minjeong said that and immediately took the seat across from where I was sitting. She kept glaring at Jeong Seojin with icy eyes the whole time, but as if trying to keep her own word, she remarkably didn’t say much else.

Instead, she started the conversation from her side.

“Joo Minju is headed to the hospital for a while. More precisely, she’s being sent back to Korea. She’s screaming that she’s not seriously hurt and won’t go back without landing a hit on Andres, but… what can you do? She’s got four broken ribs. Of course she needs treatment.”

“F-Four broken ribs?!”

“Yeah. But it’s a light injury with no threat to her life, so don’t worry. For an S-Rank, an injury like that heals in a few weeks anyway.”

Hunter Joo Minjeong delivered the news of Hunter Joo Minju’s injury in a voice as calm as if she were saying someone had sprained an ankle. Thanks to that, I had to seriously ponder how an injury involving four broken ribs could possibly be called a “light injury.”

“Adam Rogers will come a bit later. The British side needs someone to report on this incident too.”

“Ah… right. That makes sense.”

After bringing me and Jeong Seojin to his own mansion, calling it “the safest place,” he himself hadn’t set foot here once, so I was wondering what kind of nonsense this was. It seemed he was delayed handling government-related matters.

“Oh, and Lee Yoomyeong is also getting treatment. Luckily, he didn’t overdo it during the fight, so even though he’s injured, it’s not bad enough to send him back to Korea. Of course, he won’t be able to participate in the Britten Dungeon raid.”

Come to think of it, battles between S-Ranks were rare unless it was a Hunter tournament. I’d heard there were quite a few quiet fights under the table between them, but an open fight like this was truly uncommon.

That made sense, since fights between hunters were, in principle, forbidden except in special cases. Basically, hunters — “Awakened” — were valuable assets from a nation’s perspective, and having those valuable assets fight each other and take losses was a huge loss for the country.

“Oh, by the way, Hunter Joo Minjeong. This is just personal curiosity, but… what exactly happened in this situation? I mean, specifically with Adam. He showed up all of a sudden and…”

“Ah, that…”

A subtle expression flickered across Hunter Joo Minjeong’s face. It looked… like someone about to say something distasteful, or perhaps like someone facing something uncomfortable.

“Hmm.”

Hunter Joo Minjeong made a few throat-clearing sounds like “ahem,” “hm,” “cough,” as if choosing her words, then finally opened her mouth.

“First, that room you saw, Hunter Yoon Seohee. You heard the rough explanation from Lee Yoomyeong, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that room was connected by an A-Rank hunter with a spatial movement skill belonging to some organization Andres created. A trap meant to catch an S+-Rank. That’s roughly the purpose of that building. And the ones who built it, set it up, and laid the foundation were seven out of the twelve S-Rank hunters here.”

…At that point, wasn’t that a majority? If they held a vote, it could pass, couldn’t it? No — seven out of twelve agreed to murder Adam Rogers? I couldn’t find the words and just blinked blankly. Seeing my reaction, Hunter Joo Minjeong nodded with an expression that was hard to put into words, as if she sympathized.

“It’s really… yeah. I don’t get it either, but that’s what they say. They claim they were just trying to kill a monster. I did tell them that I admit Adam Rogers is strong, but I don’t see why that makes him a monster…”

Hunter Joo Minjeong’s expression grew even more bizarre.

“I was just told to keep my mouth shut if I didn’t understand. Roughly speaking, they say it’s not that he’s strong that’s the problem… but because he ‘shouldn’t exist.’ …Well, this part is actually about private circumstances within England, so it’s hard to dig into. Of course, since we have injured people on our side and Hunter Yoon Seohee was almost kidnapped, the British side will probably give at least a minimal explanation.”

That meant the explanation from the British side might not be in proper form. I nodded vaguely, thinking I’d ask Adam directly when I met him later.

“Anyway, back to the main point… Apparently, they originally couldn’t figure out where that building was. Then Lee Yoomyeong mentioned a British hunter… what was her name? Anyway, you know that woman with the rainbow hair.”

“Ah, yes. I know her.”

Honestly, I didn’t know her name either, but I remembered her by her hair color. That rainbow-dyed hair was really… quite eye-catching.

“Right after he took down that woman, he secretly took her and moved into that room over there. Right after that, he read the traces, figured out the coordinates of that space, and sent them to my side… Honestly, I don’t really know what that means either. So let’s just move on.”

For some reason, an image of Hunter Joo Minju scolding Hunter Lee Yoomyeong, telling him, “Don’t use technical jargon,” flashed through my mind.