Unicorn Habitat
The next day.
Since Lee Ju-seon's party would need time to get here, we'd decided to rest yesterday and meet up today.
Lee Ju-seon seemed plenty interested in me as a hunter anyway, so a quick meeting was no big deal.
Whether the same went for Haeun, who'd come along, was another question.
Even though we'd cleared the air last time, there was still a bit of history between them. So I'd told her she didn't have to come if it would bother her.
"Here you go, unnie."
"Ah, yeah. Thanks."
Haeun said she didn't mind at all. He wasn't even part of the Park family, and hadn't they already talked it out once last time?
And so the three of us sat in the café.
Ding-a-ling—
"Ah! There you are! Long time no see!"
"I don't think it's been that long. Hey."
"Who's the kid next to you?"
"The one I mentioned last time… ah, I only told Ju-seon, didn't I."
Come to think of it, the other two hadn't been there then. Terra was under contract now, so…
"My kid? Name's Terra."
"Pfft— Unnie!!"
"Ah? Uh… eh? A-ah! Your daughter?"
"No no no, this unnie just isn't used to human society. It's not like that. She's just a kid she took in."
I smirked at how frantically Haeun scrambled to explain. Messing with her really was the most fun.
"Why are you reacting like that? Honestly, I could call her my daughter at this point. Right, Terra?"
"If that is what Lady Goldy wishes, anything is fine by me."
I yanked him into a sudden hug by the shoulder, and Terra sighed lightly as he answered. Still couldn't manage his expressions, huh?
"See? He says he's fine with it."
"…Unnie, let's not make a contract between us."
"Heh. If you're gonna be like that, I might just force one on you."
As we bantered, Lee Ju-seon, Kim Da-jeong, and Na Ha-rin came over to the table with their drinks. Then Lee Ju-seon spoke quietly.
"So. What is it you needed?"
"What I want is… well. Simple enough, I guess."
I looked at Na Ha-rin as I went on.
"Can you see her horn?"
"Uh… you mean the one that's missing?"
"Yeah. I want to reattach her horn. Figured your ability might help."
"Mine?"
"You work with mechanical engineering—your precision and technical skill should be excellent."
Plus Kim Da-jeong was right there. Even if something went wrong, nobody was going to die.
"I'm going to use the mana in her body to turn the horn area to sand for a moment, and in that instant I want the rest of the horn attached cleanly."
"Ahh, so you want to perform surgery?"
"Yeah."
"May I take a look?"
As Kim Da-jeong carefully approached, I looked at Terra, then said quietly,
"Please keep any contact with the horn to an absolute minimum."
"Of course. I'll only check whether reattachment is possible."
"Terra, are you okay with this?"
"If it is Lady Goldy's command…"
"I'm asking for your opinion. Not mine."
At my words, Terra glanced at me for a moment.
"…I do not mind. Lady Goldy is right here beside me."
He murmured softly.
"I never thought I'd end up examining a dragon's horn in my lifetime."
Kim Da-jeong pulled out various tools and carefully inspected Terra's horn this way and that. Terra wore a rather complicated expression—whether from the awkwardness or from having his horn touched.
"Lady Goldy, I have a question."
"Yeah?"
"Do dragon body parts not grow back?"
"We're not lizards… are you thinking that if a tail gets cut off, it just grows back?"
"Ahem… a little bit, yes. But the dragons I saw in media had ultra-regeneration and stuff!"
Ultra-regeneration. There might be dragons with that as an innate ability, but…
"Not every dragon has something like that. Well, I do have something similar."
"Is that so?"
"Though even for me, if something's cleanly severed, reattaching it is hard. Horns especially are pretty complex."
"Amazing! The dragon race seems incredible!"
Come to think of it, wasn't Na Ha-rin a returnee too?
"Were there no dragons in the world you went to?"
"By the time I arrived, they'd already gone extinct. I only ever saw mechanical reconstructions—you and Terra are the first real ones."
Hmm. What kind of world was that, for dragons to go extinct…? Had everything there just been scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of rank?
Tap—
"I'd say it's best classified as a comminuted fracture. From everything I've examined, the horn seems similar to an extension of bone."
"What's the condition?"
"If this were real bone, we'd need to put in a plate… but this is also an organ that channels mana, so it's not that simple."
"So turning it to sand and reattaching is better after all?"
"Probably. And we don't even have all the fragments."
At that answer, Kim Da-jeong and I both looked at Na Ha-rin.
"For a precision surgery, we'll need Ha-rin's help."
"What kind of help?"
"Surgical tools capable of fine adjustment."
"Hmm… for that, I'll need materials. Magic stones I can roughly scavenge, but…"
She thought for a moment before continuing.
"To handle a dragon's horn, there are a few tools I'll need in terms of strength and performance."
"What do you need?"
"I've gathered most of them, but I don't have anything that could serve as a core. Something like a golem's core, for example."
Hmm… a golem's core. If I talked to Ansusa, could I get something similar? Considering the scale of The Ark's market…
Tsk. But they'd only just started reorganizing. Pulling something out this soon felt a bit off.
"Maybe I should just clear a gate."
"Ah, come to think of it, unnie ranked up to B-class this time too. Want to try an A-class gate with just us…?"
"Huh, is that allowed?"
"There's a concept called special authorization. For A-class gates, if three hunters of the rank immediately below gather, they can enter. Of course, they also have to be recognized as reasonably strong."
Interesting system. So the higher-ups roughly equated one A-class to three B-classes? What a convenient way to calculate things. Everyone's abilities were different—I wondered what perspective that came from.
"Are there any A-class gates around here?"
"One second… let me search for permanent gates."
Haeun fiddled with her Hunter Watch for a bit, then seemed to find something and expanded the window.
"How about this one?"
"Unicorn? Those horses with the horn?"
"Yeah. For an A-class monster, they're on the safer side, and the horns are used as various energy sources."
"That's right! A unicorn horn would be perfect!"
"But unicorns are A-class?"
"They're more dangerous than you'd think."
At my words, Haeun opened something like a monster encyclopedia and showed me a unicorn.
"…? Looks ordinary?"
"That's the problem. They look roughly harmless, so they kick people who let their guard down."
"Then bones and organs all explode. The power is basically that of a golem."
"And there's one more really important thing…"
Haeun dropped her voice, making it sound extremely important. And what came out was:
"Unicorns are only gentle toward women."
"…What?"
"W-well, more precisely, only toward virgin women. If you're not a virgin or you're a man, they have a habit of charging."
…What was this. Kind of a feeling that didn't quite transcend the imagination.
"Isn't that just obvious for a unicorn?"
"Th-the problem is, this is an A-class gate, so we need three B-classes, right…?"
"Well, me and you and Ha-rin… wait a second."
"I'm C-class!"
Then the remaining one was—
"…Me?"
It was Lee Ju-seon.
…Oh boy.
Unicorn Habitat.
Interestingly, this place had originally been a C-class gate. There was a rather bittersweet reason why it had become an A-class gate.
First of all, the proportion of female hunters was lower than that of male hunters. Since the work was dangerous, fewer people preferred it, and families often discouraged it too.
Of course, strangely, from S-class up the gender ratio tended to even out… but that was only for S-class. There was no reason for them to come to gates below A-class.
When female hunters visited, unicorns were so gentle they'd just stand there even while being attacked… but there simply weren't enough female hunters to meet the demand for unicorn materials.
So naturally, more male hunters started coming to hunt unicorns. And with that, the death toll skyrocketed and the danger level rose.
"…Never thought I'd end up in a place like this."
"It's okay, oppa. We'll protect you."
"Haha! Our party leader is pitiful!"
Anyway, we came here as a party of me, Haeun, Na Ha-rin, and Lee Ju-seon. Kim Da-jeong had stayed behind to keep examining Terra's condition.
"The air is cleaner than I expected."
"It's a unicorn habitat, after all. They apparently like things clean and pure."
Clank!—
Na Ha-rin operated her pile bunker and scanned the surroundings.
"Oh! There's one over there. I'll go check it out."
"Be careful!…"
"Aw, it's fine. Looks gentle."
She approached a unicorn that was drinking water. Then—
Nuzzle—
"Whoa?!"
The creature came right up and started rubbing its face against Na Ha-rin. They really were gentle with women.
Thinking that, I slowly approached—
…Neigh?—
The creature suddenly looked my way.
Neeeigh!—
And then it charged straight at us. It had clearly gotten agitated at the sight of Lee Ju-seon, so I stepped forward to protect him.
Ihihihiing!!—
"Huh…?"
Thud!!—
"Ack?!"
"U-unnie?!!"
The charging creature suddenly reared up on its front legs—and kicked me.