Chapter 126

We reaffirmed our commitment to maintaining our dignity as we slipped back into the underbrush.

We needed to keep a safe distance from the main road.

And the deeper we ventured, the worse the garden’s damage became.

“Hmm.”

Having seen a few noble gardens since arriving in this neighborhood—unintentionally, mind you—I knew that leaving a garden this wrecked would get the head gardener fired.

The other three seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

Meanwhile, Hunter So Yeri’s eyes sparkled as she chimed in with her own observation.

“This didn’t happen just a day or two ago. Look at how the ends are all withered and twisted.”

Hunter So Yeri pointed at the stem of a dead plant as she spoke.

The brown, shriveled stem did indeed look like it had been neglected for quite some time.

“There are marks like someone yanked it out and trampled it.”

I examined the area around it.

The stem showed signs of being roughly torn out with force, rather than neatly sliced.

The ground nearby was packed down hard, as if someone had stomped on it repeatedly amid the plants.

“Looks like it was ripped out by hand, right?”

Hunter So Yeri crouched down beside me and mimed grabbing at the air above the stem.

“Like this. Hya!”

She pretended to yank it out. It was a posture that looked exhausting no matter who saw it.

“If they wanted to pull it properly, wouldn’t they grab it near the roots?”

I pointed to a plant that had been torn midway up. Joo Yian glanced at it and said,

“If the goal wasn’t harvesting the plant but just venting frustration, there’s no reason they’d only grab near the roots, right?”

Well… true. As I scratched my head,

Tracking appeared on Shin Jae-heon’s skill window, then vanished.

As if confirming no signs of hostility nearby, he pointed at the plants with a more relaxed expression.

“Maybe a kid pulled them? I heard they yanked weeds when they were little.”

Why would you pull them out?

“Looks like the violent tendencies of a dealer were ingrained from a young age.”

Shin Jae-heon raised an eyebrow at my words.

“Didn’t Hunter Shin Yuri kill one kidney bean a year?”

Oh ho, dragging up the past, are we?

“That wasn’t me pulling it out to kill it—”

“Nothing grew in the pot.”

Shin Jae-heon cut in with a smiling face.

They say you can’t spit in a smiling face, but I felt like I could manage it just fine.

Especially face-to-face like this.

“It just didn’t sprout, but I gave it plenty of love.”

As our bickering continued, So Yeri and Joo Yian’s heads swiveled back and forth between us in unison.

Haven’t I mentioned this story before? They were staring with way too much interest, like it was brand new.

“Think about it.”

I spread my hands out.

Eloquence mode: Shin Yuri!

“It’s a school flowerpot, so I couldn’t check on it overnight. So I gave it tons of water at night, tons in the morning, during breaks, and at lunch when I was hungry too, I gave it water.”

The more I explained, the cloudier Joo Yian’s expression became.

“So then…”

“The roots rotted, right?”

Hunter So Yeri dropped the brutal fact.

I waved it off.

“Anyway, the point is, unlike a certain Hunter Shin Jae-heon, I cherished life from a young age.”

Right? As I nodded firmly, Shin Jae-heon shrugged.

“True, something did grow in your pot. Unlike me.”

Then he shrugged again.

“Though I never figured out why mushrooms sprouted whether I planted kidney beans or touch-me-nots.”

“Argh.”

Don’t dig up someone else’s dark history like that!

As I raised my fist threateningly, Hunter So Yeri started giggling with the sound off.

She was clearly holding back to avoid commenting on dignity again.

I could see Hunter Joo Yian dry-washing his face with one hand.

“It’s truly fortunate that I’m managing the gifts coming to Hunter Shin Yuri from now on.”

He was definitely thinking of the flowerpots that had come through the Hunter Association for me.

I know now that most plants don’t drink 2L a day, okay?

As I smiled benevolently, Shin Jae-heon scanned the surroundings again.

Then he spoke with conviction.

“Anyway, it does look like a kid did it. The height and the way it was yanked match.”

He pointed at the plant.

I glanced at the footprints nearby and said,

“Doesn’t seem like signs of a fight, right?”

At first, seeing the packed-down ground made me suspect a fight, but only briefly.

There were no strong, short footprints typical of combat.

There were some deliberate stomping marks, but they were too vague to call a battle.

“The footprints are definitely small too.”

Hunter Joo Yian followed up.

He measured the deepest footprint with his hand and said,

“These are definitely a child’s footprints.”

“Wonder if they’re nearby?”

I looked around.

The only building in sight was the distant mansion, incredibly far off.

But child tracks here were suspicious.

“No hostility detected, and since we haven’t encountered an enemy yet, Tracking isn’t fully activating.”

Shin Jae-heon’s eyes flashed blue again before returning to normal.

“Better safe than sorry.”

Hunter So Yeri stretched as she stood up.

I nodded slightly.

This was a gate where people turned into monsters. And an SS+-rank dungeon at that.

No matter how childlike it looked, a single punch could pulverize ribs.

‘……’

I thought of Kim Cheon-jae (SS+) from the last RP dungeon, who had given me that murderous glare.

Ugh.

As I rubbed my arms with both hands,

“Anyway, let’s keep moving.”

We just had to avoid monsters.

We were guests, so priority one was finding someone from the mansion and getting inside ASAP.

“Everyone has their invitation, right?”

It was more like an instruction manual, but it was called an invitation, so it’d be needed to enter the mansion.

The three nodded.

“Good, let’s go.”

Show it to any guard or whatever, and they’d bring a carriage or something.

“Hurry up and show yourself, someone.”

Making guests walk this far? Overkill, right?

Is this how you treat visitors?

How far did we trek through the woods with our casual strides?

—Rustle, rustle.

A patrol guard swept through the bushes with sharp eyes.

“Oh.”

There we go!

“……!”

The guard spotted us too, eyes widening.

He approached warily.

“Who are you?”

The guard eyed us suspiciously.

Fair enough—even I’d be on guard seeing people hike through the woods instead of riding the pristine road.

“We’ve been invited to the Maiden Mansion.”

Joo Yian, our party’s dignity rep, held up the invitation as spokesperson.

It was packed with rules unfit for an invitation, but it at least looked like one.

……But seriously, who invites people to a mansion, lectures them on rules, and doesn’t send a single escort?

Not even a four-person carriage for a four-person dungeon?

As I raised an eyebrow,

Tracking activated on Shin Jae-heon’s skill window again—and at the same moment,

—Clang!

Shin Jae-heon’s Maletia sword, appearing from nowhere, blocked the guard’s spear.

“Wh-wh-what?!”

I freaked out at the clear ring of metal on metal.

Guards don’t hit guests!

And then.

A red light flashed around Shin Jae-heon simultaneously.

I could see his debuff window jittering.

“You okay?”

Hunter So Yeri asked in surprise. But Shin Jae-heon had no time to answer.

“Hrah!”

The guard let out an unusual shout and swung his spear again.

No matter how I looked at it, that thrusting spear was being swung—low attack power, but the momentum was no joke.

If it hit, no way you’d walk away with whole bones!

—Whoooosh!

Sure enough, a roaring gust like wind being sucked in sliced through the air as the spear arced.

“!”

Shin Jae-heon barely twisted away. The moment his hair whipped back from the fierce wind,

“Hya!”

The guard shouted, leaped, kicked off a tree, and thrust the spear straight at Shin Jae-heon’s heart in an instant.

“!”

There was no time to react.

The guard’s spear plunged straight toward Shin Jae-heon.