I sat atop a tall hotel building near COEX. Peace yawned quietly on my lap. Since no one could see us here, I deactivated my stealth skill and took a spoonful of orb ice cream I had swiped from the aquarium. Of course, I left money behind. It might look like soone just dropped it.
“You shouldn’t eat too much.”
As I dug my spoon back into the round ice cream mound, Noah nagged. I had to soothe and coax him a lot to bring even just one cup from the aquarium after he whispered that we shouldn’t be eating there.
“It’s not much. Here.”
Noah offered a spoonful to too. These days, everyone’s being too strict about food. I know it’s better to cut back on snacks and have three proper als, but still.
“The Sesung Guild Leader’s tank was impressive, but a full-sized aquarium really is sothing else.”
Co to think of it, where did Seong Hyunjae move to? The apartnt was a temporary place, and his original house had completely collapsed. He probably owns a couple of spare mansions, though.
“There were so many fish.”
Noah said with a smile. We were busy avoiding other visitors, but there was still plenty to see. Dodging people was fun in its own way. When a crowd ca rushing in, Noah grabbed and flew up. Everyone looked confused when the wind suddenly picked up.
Just then, a text ca in. It was from Min Sohwan.
[Can I do a part-ti job? While still attending school.]
Acting like she wasn’t interested at all before.
[Yes, you can. Did you change your mind?]
[The conditions are good, but it keeps bothering .]
Bothering her, huh. Is she talking about Noah? Maybe she’s worried I’ll get scamd or sothing. Either way, a part-ti job is fine. I replied telling her to contact Haeyeon Guild’s HR team and turned to look at Noah.
“Min Sohwan will be joining the Breeding Facility too.”
“That person from earlier?”
“Yes. I think it’s more because of you than .”
She says she finds it troubleso, but she actually likes taking care of people. Along with her response agreeing to join, Min Sohwan asked if part-tirs also get housing. Of course they do, and she said she wanted a small place because cleaning is annoying. I told her to just keep the floor clean and run a robot vacuum. We’ve got good appliances. I’ll make sure there’s a dishwasher and a food waste disposer, and tell her to move sowhere that makes recycling easy.
My place is a bit inconvenient for putting out trash, and when I complained, Yuhyun once tried to burn it. These days, dungeon waste has mostly solved the garbage issue, but we still have to recycle.
“She said she’ll keep attending school and just work part-ti. Speaking of which, her school has a Hunter track. Noah, are you thinking of going to college next year?”
When it ca up before, sothing had happened, so I never heard his answer.
“...I don’t know. I, kind of dropped out before.”
“You went before awakening though, right?”
Noah nodded slightly.
“Then it’s fine. High-ranking Hunters can substitute with dungeon contribution. We can’t ask people who stood on the front lines during chaos why they missed class. Yuhyun also barely went to school after awakening. Protecting the country was more urgent.”
Still, I was curious whether he’d go to school, so I checked several tis, but we never ran into each other. Unlike now, dungeons used to break out often, and no way would they sit an S-Class Hunter down for class. During the first year dungeons appeared, schools often shut down, and there was even debate over whether the college entrance exam should proceed. I rember so kids got flad online for posting that they wished a dungeon break would happen near the exam site the day before the test.
“You don’t go to class much either now. It’d be nice if you did.”
“...What about you, Yujin?”
“?”
“The Breaker Guild Leader said it’s good to get a diploma. Are you going to college next year?”
“Uh... I think I might at least enroll.”
Even if I don’t, soone will probably force into it. Especially Seok Gimyeong.
“If you go, I’ll go too.”
“But I’m only aiming to get the diploma, so I probably won’t actually attend classes.”
I was suggesting it because I hoped Noah could enjoy a normal campus life. If Noah goes, Kang Soyeong will follow too, and if Sohwan goes to the sa school, she could help her out too. Where did Minui say he was attending again?
“If you start attending, the Haeyeon Guild Leader might show up too.”
“That...”
W-Would he really? But if Yuhyun enrolls, I’d be his junior. Not that he’d expect to treat him like a senior... What do people even do in college? I know there are festivals and stuff. Club activities, maybe.
“I’m going to enroll, so I’ll ntion special admission for you too, Noah.”
Soyeong will like that. If those two go to school together, it’ll be like a picture. The ice cream ran out after just a few bites. Noah checked the ti and took a thermos out of his crossbody bag. I should’ve eaten the dicine before the ice cream.
“This isn’t sothing I’m insisting on, but... it seed like you might be interested, so I’m bringing it up.”
I accepted the dicine and continued speaking.
“What do you think about eting with Team Leader Seok Gimyeong?”
“Team Leader Seok Gimyeong, as in the Haeyeon Guild mber? Seok Hayan’s uncle?”
“Yes. From what I saw before, he pays attention to support-type Hunters. Honestly, trying to take on support Hunter work all by yourself would obviously be difficult. It’s bound to feel overwhelming.”
It’s a kind of social movent, so of course it’s not easy. Even with long efforts by many to overco discrimination based on race, gender, status, religion, and more, there were still many problems. There are even places where social class systems still remain.
On top of that, it’s a fundantally difficult problem to fully solve. Unless every person becos a ntally perfect saint, the more obvious the differences in ability, the easier it becos to unconsciously discriminate. So the goal is to keep raising awareness and to keep trying to make things better.
“So rather than starting sothing right away, wouldn’t it be better to take ti and learn slowly? Like Sohwan said, Noah, you have a lot of ti. You’re still at an age where you need to learn.”
“...I’ll think about it. I still don’t really know what I truly want to do. I think I might just be being greedy because I want to be soone important, soone great. Like, if I pull sothing like this off, people will praise . ...It sounds childish.”
“Co on, that’s how it usually starts. Nobody dislikes praise. Everyone likes to hear ‘well done,’ or ‘you’re amazing.’”
If it’s Seok Gimyeong, he’d treat Noah very well. I’m a bit worried he might try to sweet-talk him into joining Haeyeon permanently.
“...If you do decide to et with Team Leader Seok, please make sure to tell first. He’ll be kind, but he’s got a dark side. If you can, don’t go alone. Take , or Myungwoo or Hamin with you. Or one of the people you t today—Seo Kyunghun, Lee Yushin, or Min Sohwan.”
I need to give a warning in advance. Don’t go seducing the kid into doing sothing dumb. It’s unlikely he’d do sothing to ss things up with , but you never know.
As planned, the new Breeding Facility staff will be handled by Haeyeon Guild’s HR team, with Seok Gimyeong taking charge. After their training, they’ll be transferred to the Breeding Facility—more precisely, the building side. We already prepared a spacious office in the building.
[Honestly, I was pretty worried, but my first impressions of everyone were good.]
You can’t really know soone just from one eting, but Seok Gimyeong said they all seed solid. Well, they’d endured a long ti by my side. Being strong-willed is just the baseline, and they’re not gullible or easily swayed by outside voices.
There’s no special definition for talent. These people are the rare talent.
‘If I hadn’t gone through it myself, I would’ve just thought of them as ordinary people.’
If we hadn’t shared such hardship, if we hadn’t lost what we did, I would’ve never known. mories that only remained as pain ca back to like this. It made feel strange.
“Sorok’s grown up a bit, hasn’t she?”
I stopped walking down the first-floor hallway of the Breeding Facility and rubbed the fluffy white belly of the sprawled baby reindeer. Sorok preferred roaming the building over the exercise yard that was decorated like a forest. She didn’t walk around much, but she seed to like the tap-tap sound of her hooves hitting the floor.
– ee.
A black, fluffy lamb bounced around Sorok. It leapt like a small ball. Though a monster, maybe because they were both even-toed ungulates, the two got along pretty well. Or rather, the lamb just kept pestering Sorok to play.
“Still no word from your dad. He must really be busy these days.”
– eeaa.
“Should I just barge in?”
– eng.
With the dungeon status changing and work at the lab, it made sense that he was busy, but he’s barely been replying to ssages. The matter’s already been finalized with the Association. They even suggested doing a live broadcast of the Monster Mounts handover ceremony, but Chief Song declined, saying it couldn’t be accepted for personal use.
“With Chief Song’s personality, if we don’t specify that it’s for exclusive use, he’ll just try to dodge it again. Maybe I should push harder.”
Once he takes sothing on, he’s not the type to ignore it. I’ll have to barge in when things settle down a bit.
As I forced Sorok to her feet, I sensed soone approaching. It wasn’t ti for dicine yet, so it probably wasn’t Yuhyun. Who could it be?
“...Huh?”
The face that appeared was soone I truly didn’t expect. A dazzlingly handso face smiled at .
“Hello, Yujin hyung. Long ti no see, right?”
“Ah, yeah, hi.”
“Please speak comfortably.”
Park Hayul smiled. ...I had completely forgotten. He went to China, but I guess he’s back now. The person with Park Hayul was an A-rank Hunter from the Sesung Guild. This week’s assigned Breeding Facility security detail—but why did he co in with Park Hayul?
“They said he was close with Director Han, so I ca along. Looks like it was true.”
“Huh? Uh, well, I suppose so.”
I looked at the A-rank Hunter, a bit flustered. Wait, he brought him in just based on that? That’s not okay. Unless soone lives here, they’re supposed to be stopped at the building’s secured entrance and contact first.
“Thank you for your help~”
Park Hayul thanked the A-rank Hunter. The A-rank Hunter shook his head with a bright smile, saying it was nothing. ...Is he a fan of Park Hayul or sothing? His reaction was overflowing with goodwill. Still, you can’t mix personal feelings with official work. I watched the A-rank Hunter walk away with suspicion. Seems like soone with issues to be handling security. I should contact Sesung about this...
“Hyung, I’ve heard so much about you lately!”
“Uh...”
Park Hayul stepped closer and spoke. Wow, he really was handso. I don’t rember him being this striking before—maybe the environnt in China suited him well. On top of that, he just gave off a genuinely likable vibe.
“I felt a little hurt since you didn’t keep in touch.”
“Ah, sorry about that.”
“No, it’s fine. There’s no one else expected to co today, right?”
“Huh?”
“You have a lot of S-Class Hunters around you. Is anyone supposed to be coming by?”
Park Hayul looked straight into my eyes as he spoke. His eyes were pretty, sparkling strangely like they had pearl dust in them. Was he wearing contacts? His ash-blue dyed hair suited him too.
“My younger brother’s coming in about two hours.”
“Really? But I guess you’re usually alone, huh?”
“There are a lot of people protecting . Several high-ranking Hunters, and there’s Noah too. And though he didn’t co with today, there’s also Peace.”
“Peace was an S-Class monster, right? Do you always stay with him?”
“Almost always. But when I’m caring for baby monsters, I sotis leave him at ho since # Nоvеlight # the little ones can get scared.”
I paused mid-sentence and tilted my head. Should I really be sharing all this? But it didn’t seem like sothing that would cause any issues.
“Hyung.”
Even his voice sounded nice. Park Hayul’s eyes curved into gentle crescents.
“Can I co visit again?”
“Sure, of course.”
“But I’d prefer if you didn’t tell anyone else I ca. It’s kind of burdenso. There are a lot of scary people around you, hyung.”
Is that so? Well, I guess S-Class Hunters would be intimidating to non-awakened people. I guess... I don’t really need to tell anyone. Just soone I know dropping by.
“Got it.”
“Thanks.”
He looked so happy that I couldn’t help but feel happy too. I felt a little guilty for forgetting about him, but this much should be fine.
“Want so tea?”
“No. I can’t stay long today. I’ll co again.”
Leaving behind a request to keep his visit a secret, Park Hayul turned to go. For so reason, I felt a bit reluctant to see him leave. Still, it was nice seeing him again after so long.
– Beeyang.
I snapped out of my daze at Sorok’s cry. She had gotten up at so point and was nibbling on the hem of my clothes. The lamb joined in and tugged on the other side.
“...Feels like I’ve been possessed by a ghost.”
Sothing felt strangely off. But I hadn’t said anything until now, and he didn’t seem like a bad guy. If anything, he was the opposite... Right? Just then, my phone rang. It was Yerim.
[Mister! I finished the raid!]
“Already?”
[Yep! Blue’s safe too.]
[Kyauw!]
I figured it would be quick, but she really was fast. I showered her with praise.
[There’s an interview and so other stuff, so I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Nothing happened, right? Is Han Yuhyun taking good care of you?]
“Of course. Everything’s fine. I’ll co et you tomorrow.”
[You don’t have to.]
She said it was fine, but I could picture her smiling. We exchanged a few more words and ended the call. The air in the hallway suddenly felt cool and quiet.
Sothing definitely felt off, but I couldn’t figure out why.
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