Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Thank You!
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Net Queen's forehead was pierced clean through.
An arrow embedded perfectly.
Thud!
With Net Queen's body toppling backward, the orphaned spiderlings scattered in panic, fleeing for their lives.
"W-where the hell are you punks going?!"
Lee Kangho, the hunter still riding high on adrenaline, hadn't grasped the situation yet and kept blasting away with his shotgun.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots echoed pointlessly.
Leaving the fired-up Lee Kangho behind, Reneah and I headed toward Net Queen.
A hole drilled right through her forehead.
The arrow had long since dissolved into motes of light and vanished.
"Ahem, 'twas nothing special."
"I haven't even said anything yet."
"I could tell you were about to praise me."
Praise?
Well, yeah, she deserved it.
She'd taken out Net Queen cleanly without a hair on the hostages' heads being harmed.
But from my position, this was an awkward spot.
I'd already called in backup before we set out, after all.
"Hah! Hah! Mia! Mia! Where are you?!"
Right then, Lee Kangho came dashing over desperately after chasing off the last of the spiders.
The sight of him madly ripping apart the cocoons was downright pitiful.
Riiiip! Rip!
One, two, three—
People emerging from the cocoons.
The ones who looked like hunters were all badly weakened, but none were dead.
"Her liking to eat her prey alive turned out to be a stroke of luck."
Thanks to that peculiar taste, everyone had survived.
I called 119 right away.
Once I explained the location and situation—
- Huh? We can't get out that far.
"What?"
The response was utterly absurd.
- It's outside the city. Monsters everywhere—we can't go. At least bring them to the field hospital yourselves.
"People are dying here!"
- You want us to drive ambulances into a monster nest? We'd all die!
Click.
The line went dead.
With an irritated sigh, it looked like we'd have to load as many as we could into the SUV and haul them to the field hospital ourselves.
That was when—
"Mi-Mia! Mia!"
He tore open a cocoon, and finally, Yumia appeared.
Her face was pale, her breathing shallow.
Some wounds, but she was definitely alive.
"Mia! Mia—!"
Lee Kangho scooped her up in trembling arms.
Thick tears plopped down as he wiped the grime from her dirty cheek.
"Sniff! Thank goodness... Really, really thank goodness."
He clutched his precious lover tight, vowing never to let go again.
I thought about lighting a cigarette but shoved it back in. Now wasn't the time to leisurely smoke.
"For now, help me get these people into the vehicles."
"Got it—"
Reneah started to reply but frowned and glanced up at the sky.
"Someone's coming?"
"Yeah. I called them."
"That friend you mentioned?"
Before she could finish, a shadow fell over us.
She stepped off an airboard—the kind only sold on the 6th Floor.
Her name was Ryu Seram.
Black baseball cap and jacket.
Diehard fan of the 'Daeheung Bearforce'—the team that finished dead last every year—and my friend.
She pointed her baseball bat right at me.
"One-run lead, bottom of the ninth. Game just about to get good, and you expect me to believe you called me away?"
"You were still cheering for them?"
"...This year's the last. Swear it."
I'd heard that line last year. And the year before.
"Sigh, I can guess why you called me—"
Ryu Seram scanned the surroundings.
Net Queen's corpse and the unconscious people.
The veteran didn't need any explanations.
"Looks like you wrapped it up before I got here?"
"The elf over here handled it."
"Ambulances? Not coming, right?"
"Uh..."
"Hold on."
Ryu Seram dialed someone up.
Judging by how she scrolled through her contacts, it wasn't 119.
"Yeah, it's me. I'm turning on my GPS—send ambulances to my location right now. Got about this many injured—"
She held up two fingers.
"Twenty or so. What? Outside the city? So what? I'll guard the ambulances myself—get them here."
The back-and-forth didn't last long.
She ended the call and gave a curt reply.
"They'll be here soon."
"Thanks. You just saved our asses."
"Nah. You're not off the hook yet."
I started to smile in relief, but she wagged her finger in warning.
"If my team lost today, you'd be riding in one of those ambulances."
Ah, what a temper.
"Ryu-Ryu-Ryu Seram Hunter?!"
Lee Kangho, who'd been clutching Yumia tight, snapped to his senses and shouted our way.
"One of the Seven Apex Hunters—one of only seven on the 3rd Floor, right!?"
Seven Apex Hunters.
The title given to the seven hunters at the absolute pinnacle.
Ryu Seram was one of them.
"Ah, fuck—! They lost! Bottom of the ninth and they pull a triple play? You morons—!"
Her roar shook the ground.
She glared daggers at me, panting fiercely.
"How're you gonna make this up to me?"
"Nah, opposite. Thanks to me, you didn't have to watch that disaster live."
"Wha—!"
She started to argue but got convinced, tsking as she nodded.
"...Fair enough?"
"Right? So you're buying drinks tonight."
"Piss off."
"You make bank—don't tell me you wanna mooch off me?"
"Who called who? Shut it and order a jumbo pork hock. Today."
Now that her excitement had died down a bit, Ryu Seram eyed Reneah.
"Net Queen—bounty monster. Clean kill like that? She's no ordinary one."
"Ah, she's—"
"Hold up, hold up, hold up!"
Words caught in my throat.
Reneah clung to my back, clamping my mouth shut like an assassin.
She whispered secretly in my ear.
"Keep it secret that I'm a former Elf Queen."
"...Why?"
"Ahem. Personal information protection. Something like that. Please."
Well, if that's what she wanted.
I nodded, and she let go.
Ryu Seram spoke up immediately.
"Former Elf Queen? Hey, Kim Juseon. Your client's a bigger deal than I thought?"
What good was whispering in front of her?
We'd have needed at least a kilometer's distance.
Thirty minutes later, the ambulances arrived.
As they loaded people one by one, Lee Kangho stuck right by Yumia's side.
"C-can I ride along too?"
"Are you a guardian?"
"N-no, it's just—"
To the puzzled paramedic, Lee Kangho yelled with resolve.
"I'm her husband!"
"Pardon?"
"She's my wife! I have to go with her!"
Yumia was still unconscious.
The flustered paramedic glanced my way.
I gave a casual nod.
"He's right. They're married."
That night, in the hospital corridor.
"Tsk. Pork hock next time. Calling in those ambulances stirred up some talk."
Ryu Seram, checking her phone, clicked her tongue. Perfect timing—I'd been wondering.
"Who'd you call earlier?"
"Neo Seoul Hospital's director."
"......"
"Hurry up if you're going."
Just before Ryu Seram left, she added:
"The Net Queen bounty'll get processed later. Tell the elf."
"She'd know best. She was checking on it first thing."
"Yeah?"
She hesitated like she had more to say, then tacked on without looking back.
"...Take care."
Ryu Seram left.
All that remained in front of the ICU were me and Lee Kangho.
"President... thank you so much for today."
"Aw, come on. You're our client. Doc says no life-threatening issues. Go rest—you earned it today."
As Reneah had said, Net Queen had injected anesthetic to keep her food fresh.
Thanks to that, everyone in the cocoons had made it through intact.
Squeeze!
Lee Kangho gripped both my hands and started tearing up again.
"No, really. Thanks to you, I got her back like this. If it weren't for you... I'd still be agonizing over why Mia suddenly lost interest in me. While she was dying in that cold cocoon!"
"...You've got a beautiful love. That's what matters."
"Y-yes! Definitely. I swear it."
Leaving behind the hunter who kept thanking me over and over, I stepped out.
I ran into Reneah lurking around the corridor corner.
"What."
"Where to?"
"Smoking."
Reneah hesitated a moment, then nodded.
"I don't smoke."
"Never asked you to follow."
And yet Reneah tailed after me anyway.
Once I reached the smoking room and lit up, Reneah asked right away.
"Those two will make it, right?"
"Still looking for an opening? No room left there."
"I don't make a habit of wrecking pretty relationships."
Can you even?
"...It was pretty."
Her voice came out laced with complicated emotion, mingling with the cigarette smoke.
"Pretty. A relationship like that. Have you ever had one?"
"Dunno. Ever?"
I brushed it off, and Reneah let out a small chuckle.
"Fine, I won't pry. I've never had one either."
"......"
"Lived a full 1,900 years, and not once."
Her fist clenched subtly.
A short sigh, like she was steeling herself.
"That's why I want one now."
"......"
"Ridiculous, huh? A 1,900-year-old elf—"
"No."
Hiss!
I stubbed out the cigarette.
"I'm a marriage agency president. Mock me? I'd welcome it."
Reneah looked at me.
The emotion in her expression was asking for an answer.
"No reason to give up on love just because of age. Especially if it's to fulfill your duty."
A queen's life.
I didn't know much, but it probably wasn't one where she could even dream of love?
For someone like me, for whom running a single marriage agency felt heavy, imagining the weight of her life—bearing an entire race—was beyond me.
"...Yeah."
A small smile formed.
This one wasn't forced—it was genuine.
"Thank you."