"So, next ti you see Giryeo, try asking him to be your friend."
"..."
"There's nothing shaful about an adult saying sothing like that. What's truly shaful are human relationships ruined because you lost your temper."
It wasn't a push for marriage. It wasn't ddling in her love life, either. He was just a concerned older brother, worried that his eccentric little sister didn't have many friends—so he was encouraging her to branch out a bit.
"Oppa..."
The woman with the violet-colored hair listened quietly to his words, then furrowed her brows into a soft frown. And in a calm, asured tone, she said.
"I hit guys too, you know..."
This was a warning: if he wants to keep all his limbs intact, don't say nonsense like that again. Anyway, since his younger sister reacted so strongly, how could he let it slide without teasing her as her brother?
"Hey. I always say this, but you shouldn't beat up anyone."
She was quick to throw punches, held grudges forever, and deep down... was far more wounded than she let on.
And yet, in one corner of her heart, she always tilted the scales toward the weak and the ordinary—my kind-hearted little sister. A family mber I'm just grateful to have in this world.
"Manager Seo Yohan, if you've got ti to joke around, maybe you should get to work instead?"
"Today is my day off too."
And just like that, Seo Yohan spent a precious little mont chatting with his youngest sibling.
"...Jilieng.
[Korea Association!!]
"What the—? A call from the Association at this hour...?"
This was the era of gates. And so, their quiet, ordinary mont quickly vanished without a trace.
***
A mont later.
"I was just about to take a nap!"
An S-rank hunter who ca flying in with eyebrows fluttering, using the mobility artifact known as [White Bird].
"Now, if I just took a nap, it would be perfect."
It's been ages since she had a proper day off—how is it that sothing always manages to blow up again?
Fifteen minutes ago—Seo Esther's phone buzzed with news of a major incident in Seoul's main business district, where the headquarters of various conglorates were clustered. And when she asked what exactly this 'major incident' was? It turned out to be nothing more than a pre-break warning for an A-rank Blue Gate.
"Huh."
But contrary to what she'd initially thought, the situation was quite serious. Inside the gate, a massive species of insect had begun multiplying at an extre rate—and in such overwhelming numbers that no one could even attempt to enter, let alone conquer the gate. It was an abnormal phenonon, one that defied explanation through human science.
"A dungeon anomaly..."
She was furious. But she couldn't just throw this job away simply because she was in a bad mood. The monsters that burst out as a "break" this ti were flying creatures, which ant they required long-range awakened abilities to intercept them from all directions. What kind of ss would it be if a hunter like Jung Haeseong tried to engage them in urban warfare?
Skills with the [Curse] attribute don't typically affect physical objects. But in modern society, depending on the situation, that limitation could actually turn into a strength.
There's no need to look far for an example—just like right now.
"Phew."
Soon, she arrived at the scene of the incident. Esther scanned her surroundings.
"When I was a kid, I used to think those creepy things looked pretty... even liked them, once."
The city center, once bustling with office workers in suits, had already turned into a scene from hell. Since the dungeon's eruption was expected to outpace her arrival, a group of A-rank Awakened had rushed ahead to erect a new heavy entry barrier against the monsters—but...
"It's a little too cramped for you, isn't it?"
Flap, flap, flap.
Monts later, the sound of wings beating echoed from all directions. Within the barrier woven by the defenders of this business district—there fluttered a massive butterfly, easily the size of a young whale.
[Offensive Morpho]
[Grade: A]
[Information: Normally docile, but will imdiately fire a beam in response to skills, physical attacks, or any form of provocation.]
Esther stirred up their hostility, making sure they wouldn't be able to roam freely any longer. She reminded herself that these beautiful butterflies devoured people and disrupted their daily lives—and with that thought, she dragged each one down, one by one, with her curses.
"Ugh, annoying! Anyway, they ca all the way out of the dungeon, when am I going to clean all this up?"
However, just as she was smoothly eliminating the butterfly-shaped monsters, a single, unusually small magical creature from behind—which she hadn't noticed—barely managed to get caught in the curse's range.
!
The damaged dungeon's boss, the luring Morpho, soon began to emit an eerie glow.
"What is it?"
As an S-rank hunter with above-average mana detection abilities, she quickly sensed the shift in the atmosphere.
"I should kill that one first..."
But her timing in turning around was bad. Seo Esther had killed so many butterflies that she had inadvertently adorned the road with their wings. Naturally, she was now stepping on the soft, silken bodies of those monsters.
"Ack."
It was the result of a cause and effect.
Slip.
South Korea's #2 ranked Hunter stumbled and fell with a weak cry. As she faltered and collapsed, the dungeon boss, as if it had been waiting for this very mont, gathered its energy to launch an attack...
"It was my precious coat, though."
The opponent was an A-rank monster, so even if it landed a hit, it wasn't likely to be fatal. But Esther, anticipating that her outfit might get damaged, wrinkled her nose in irritation.
Step, step, step.
If only this wasn't a battlefield full with demonic beasts—then maybe, just maybe, she would've changed her mind after hearing those approaching footsteps.
Flash!
The shift happened in the blink of an eye. And that's not a taphor—she had simply closed her eyes from the shock of falling, and by the ti she opened them, the situation had already been resolved.
Polished shoes. Neatly tailored suit... And black leather gloves she'd never seen before.
When her vision cleared, there wasn't a beam of light from the monster awaiting her—just sothing like this, hanging loosely in front of her eyes.
"Hunter Seo Esther."
A voice from another person rang out.
"What are you doing out here? Don't tell the person who was supposedly on vacation ca back to work?"
The man in front of her was speaking in a tone slightly brighter than usual. Since they'd last spoken when he ntioned heading to the artifact expo in Tokyo, there hadn't been any follow-up between them. She wasn't exactly sure why, but one thing was clear—Kim Giryeo seed to be in excellent condition today. And no wonder—because even for an S-rank hunter,
how could anyone block the terrifying beam of that charging monster with such overwhelming force...?
"As if he'd erased it completely from existence."
How could he block it from the front and still be fine?
"Did you hurt your ankle?"
Looking back, the blonde hunter had his gloved hand in front of his face as if blocking the sunlight. But since Esther was still slipping and unable to get up, he soon changed the purpose of his right hand.
The other person readily offered their hand as a support, as if to tell her to grab on and stand up. So, Esther grasped it and stood up. When Giryeo, with a sowhat lancholic look in his eyes, said, "I cannot use my awakened abilities in such a public place..." Esther, having heard this, showed understanding and continued with the cleanup.
Thud. Thud.
By the ti the surrounding monsters had all been dealt with thanks to their curse skills...
"Giryeo-ssi."
Esther set aside any greetings like "Were you free today, so you ca by?" or "Thanks for the help," and instead got straight to the point with a question.
"But... how did you even get inside this restricted zone?"
There was a barrier in place—so for an outsider to have made it in, sothing was clearly off.
And yet, the sa Kim Giryeo who just monts ago seed unusually upbeat, like soone whose day was going exactly as planned, suddenly shifted into a distant, mountain-gazing stare as he replied.
"Well, you know... monster barriers usually don't really..."
"Yes?"
Kim Giryeo's tone was rather cynical. After all, to enter this combat zone, he'd reused the chanism from the Flower Baron incident.
To put it more simply—it had been classified as "just dust" by the hastily assembled human barrier.
"I an, it's just that... the inside and outside recognition vectors were different, so I was able to slip in easily. I'll ask them to lower the barrier when I leave, I promise..."
The man in the suit quietly raised his left hand to wipe at the corner of his eye. Still, wiping his tears with his hundred billion won gloves felt better than with his bare hands.
***
Seriously, how is anyone supposed to admit sothing like that in front of an actual S-rank hunter?
"I'm... dust?"
Just as Kim Giryeo was pressing his fingers to his forehead, trying to soothe the headache rising within him...
"I wasn't mistaken. That's definitely not a mass-produced glove."
Esther found herself intrigued by a new detail. More specifically, her gaze belatedly focused on the fact that Kim Giryeo was wearing gloves.
"Not bad."
Well, there really isn't an accessory that suits a suit better than gloves. And with that vintage leather finish for emphasis—what a clean, refined look.
But seriously, how did soone with this much sense just end up wearing a sweatshirt so ragged it couldn't even pass as a cleaning rag?"
While clearing the road, which was a ss of monster carcasses, a sign for [Matja Outing Chicken & Pizza] was discarded at a nearby comrcial building. Esther's face twisted into a sohow bitter expression as she squinted at it. But that only lasted a mont.
"Anyway... thanks for coming all the way out here to help."
After all, he had quite literally blocked the boss monster's attack himself—it was only right for Seo Esther to express her gratitude. But the blonde man simply shrugged once, as if it was nothing at all.
"If I say I was actually wandering around looking for a battlefield just to test my new gear, it'll probably ruin the mood, huh?"
It wouldn't just ruin the mood—the truth was, he'd sensed this incident unfolding much earlier by using his near-zero internal mana levels to stay unnoticed, then deliberately wandered the area in stealth, pretending not to know. If the S-rank huntress in front of him found that out, it wouldn't just be the mood that got shattered—probably his teeth, too.
"O, don't you find it tiring... having to collect all those monster magic stones one by one?"
"Oh my."
"Should I mark all the locations in advance from over here? I'm good at finding magic stones. I'm a [Appraisal] skill user, after all."
The man in the suit hesitated for a mont, glancing at her carefully as he mumbled. Then, subtly—almost as if by accident—he began helping Esther with her task.
"I'll take care of it in no ti. Just take a break."
Co to think of it, beyond just the price he paid for his recent laziness, Seo Esther had been a huge help during the whole Kang Changho situation—materially, physically, and in more ways than one. So Kim Giryeo thought.
"Thanks to the help I gave last ti, I'd say that primitive curse-wielder and I are pretty much even now."
The emotional debt lingering inside Seo Esther had likely dropped significantly by now. That's why he'd started acting all humble again—thinking it was ti to rebuild so goodwill with the curse-wielder from scratch.
"..."
In front of soone's quick-witted actions, the woman with purple hair watched but made a completely different judgnt all on her own.
"Oppa might've thought that hunter and I seed pretty close..."
More precisely, what surfaced was a concern.
"To be honest, even right now... it still feels a bit vague to confidently introduce him as soone I know well..."
Even though she'd acted friendly on the surface, the truth was, Esther had never truly seen him that way.
My little sister finally made a close friend in the industry! That kind of hopeful thought would probably be a shock to soone right now. But in truth, Esther didn't actually feel any real closeness to the man in the suit standing in front of her.
To put it more accurately, it was closer to being incapable of that kind of closeness. She had a natural temperant that left her with significantly poorer anger control than most. So she was used to feel at ease with soone so prone to violence—especially when that person also showed an odd resistance to her curses?
"Hmm."
He had instantly blocked the boss Morpho's beam—was that a defensive skill? Or since he had fought Kang Changho and even trampled him instead, was it physical enhancent? But whatever the awakening attribute, whenever Esther saw a fellow compatriot she couldn't fully control, she felt an inexplicable tension stirring inside her.
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