Na Sua's Plan
Whether in the Far North at the northernmost edge of Shareltea or in Sariwon Gwangyeoksi and its surroundings, the lives of hunters were always the same. They wandered the crushed world as adventurers, defenders, and assault teams alike. They gathered their gear, passed through gates, hunted monsters, dealt with bosses, and closed the gates. They sold the magic stones that emerged from the process or received compensation from the Hunter Committee to make money. Since these were obtained by risking their lives, magic stones were never cheap. That was why so many pitiful people dreamed of becoming hunters and tried to become one. Of course, the generation where that was actually possible had already passed.
Suatia was fortunate enough not to belong to a generation that had to worry about such things. She was a "legal person" born before Korean spread to the Far North and the Far North language spread to Korea. Thanks to somewhat lenient screening standards and her own lack of high expectations, she was able to become a hunter with ease. Naturally, since she had applied without much thought at the government's recommendation, she didn't exactly work diligently. Thus, the disciple of the great elder and archmage Darneare ended up in a professional gray area. In behavioral psychology terms, her hunter license had become nothing more than a license kept in a drawer.
Of course, even if her hunter license was rotting away at home, that didn't mean she had completely abandoned magic. Shareltea was a place where you had to worry every morning whether there would be a monster or a gate in front of your house—or whether you were already dead. Even around the time she received the three-syllable Korean name "Na Sua," the world was still dangerously unstable. If she didn't want to be slammed into the ground after an intimate encounter with monsters, she had to hone her magic. To support her parents who had seized the political opportunities created by the administrative reorganization of the Far North, she had to hone her magic. To single-handedly deal with monsters that occasionally prowled near the city, she had to hone her magic. To turn down every matchmaking suggestion from those around her by claiming she had neurasthenia, she had to hone her magic. The last one might have seemed absurd, but it wasn't entirely unrealistic. Except for a single instance, every proposal had fallen through before she even saw the other party in person—so in a way, one could say she was remarkably skilled at it.
"Master, who did you say this was?"
"My great-grandson. What do you think? He's only eight, but he's not bad, right?"
If she hadn't heard stories about Kang Sian from her master, she would have been praised not just for being outstanding, but for being exceptional. It was a regrettable and somewhat weak-willed shortcoming. To think she would abandon her neurasthenia act out of mere curiosity over an eight-year-old. But if asked whether it had been worth it, she could shake her head no. Because every time she received the occasional photo of Kang Sian from her master each year, her emotions had changed. More precisely, the boiling feelings within her had gradually intensified. The more he grew, the more warmth settled on his face and the longer her gaze lingered. This might not be so bad. This might be fine. This might be good. What exactly, in what way, with what pros and cons—she couldn't quite say. It was simply that every time she looked at the photos and heard various stories from her master, she found herself growing fond of him. Fond enough to shatter the rationality of someone who had always prioritized family above all else throughout her life. That was why it felt so rebellious. It was a shameless, even filthy fantasy. At least, that was how it would be seen in a world that changed like flowing waves. However, Na Sua defined this gaze of hers as the sum of a vivid future and a curiosity-tinged ideal. How could a person turn away after seeing the future? How could a person turn away after encountering an ideal? Kang Sian's future form took shape in her mind, and it felt like an ideal she had to seize. There was no shame in a fantasy steeped in selfishness and temptation. With every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year—as time flowed beneath her fingertips—the purity of her soul seemed to deepen. In the end, she had a serious conversation with her master and even dreamed a flowery dream. Although the negativity of her will had remained faintly until then, it was soon washed away completely. It happened during a hospital visit. That was when the two of them first met.
Kang Sian simply thought of her as some attendant noona, but Na Sua, whose motivation had been ignited, thought differently.
"……Haa."
Joy. A happiness as white as her hair. It felt as if the future form she had imagined was finally approaching. Even his personality was more human and mature than the fragments of stories she had heard. Drawn to him as if she had encountered fate while walking weakly across an overpass. It was an ideal reality that transcended any sweet fantasy. Someone might say that Na Sua was suffering from pedophilia, hebephilia, or ephebophilia. Maybe she was. Maybe she wasn't. What was certain was that Na Sua's ideal was the image of Kang Sian who would soon become an adult. As such, the vast sense of space called "goal" became a new source of vitality.
"Hello, Sian?"
This soon transformed into action for the future. Na Sua put into motion a short twenty-year plan to stay by Kang Sian's side. Of course, looking at the contents alone, there were quite a few aspects that would be burdensome to get approval for. It might have been better to give up, but that didn't mean she lacked grounds for persuasion. Kang Sian's current situation could be summed up as being on the edge of a cliff. He was the eldest great-grandson who was supposed to inherit the family, yet his parents and his parents' parents were gone, and the family hierarchy was on the verge of becoming tangled. Because of this, her master had always worried about the family line ending, and Na Sua had been able to slip through that gap to reach this point. The justification of "for the sake of the family" was still valid, and her judgment had been accurate. Her master—and Kang Sian's great-grandmother—had readily agreed. She had even finalized the agreement between the elders without informing Kang Sian or his aunt. There were no more favorable conditions than this.
From now on, what Na Sua had to do was make Kang Sian hers. It was entirely possible. Buy him delicious food as usual, walk to school together in the morning, and pick him up by car in the evening. Especially in the evening, instead of sending him straight home, she would keep him in the back seat of the car for ten to twenty minutes to talk. What he did today, what happened, what he planned to do tomorrow. She would even sit in the back seat herself, praise him for doing well, and hug him. As a bonus, she would gently caress various parts of his body. If things continued like this, the future was practically guaranteed. There was no way he wouldn't fall for her even after becoming an adult when she was doing this much.
'But……'
The problem was that there was also a possibility he could fall for some other woman. There was already one person who had staked a claim by Kang Sian's side first. To be precise, there had been two, but for some reason only one remained. And that one was a girl who couldn't be taken lightly.
"Hey, Sian. Don't you think dyeing my hair blonde would actually look pretty good?"
"Weren't you already blonde? What's the point of changing blonde to blonde again?"
"No, I mean real golden blonde, not this platinum blonde. Like actual gold, the color of the sun's head."
"Golden……? I don't know. But why are you suddenly asking about that?"
"I was thinking that if I dye it, maybe people at school will look at me a little better."
"People at school?"
"I mean, whenever I walk down the school hallway, the looks I get are like…… they're basically looking at some rich piece of trash, a friendless slut with huge tits who's also a total idiot."
"Well, it's all true."
"You bastard."
Cheon Mari. The eldest granddaughter of Nartica's chairman. Na Sua didn't know how Kang Sian had become close with someone of such stature, but the fact that a corporation was involved was a significant threat in itself. Moreover, Nartica wasn't just some mid-sized company—it had recently risen to become a corporation worth watching closely. It dealt in potions and other pharmaceuticals, banking in the blind spots of the separation of industrial and financial capital, and hunter equipment manufacturing, all combined. Even if its capabilities were below third-rate, it was still registered as a hunter guild. In other words, it was a major corporation, which meant instability was accumulating in Na Sua's plan. When comparing the granddaughter of a conglomerate chairman with the daughter of a local influential politician, the former would naturally have the advantage. However, that didn't mean Na Sua was at a complete disadvantage. Rather, despite all these unfavorable conditions, she had factors that could give her the upper hand.
For reference, it wasn't because she had the personality to secretly supply defective potions to guilds full of drug addicts without Kang Sian's knowledge. No, the reason was something else entirely—
"Oh! A human can have a nice dream once in a while! Why do you have to be such an ass about it, you bastard?"
"Hey, calling it reality-escaping nightmares and then acting like a lunatic is going too far, don't you think?"
"You piece of shit, how is wanting people to look at me in a more avant-garde way a nightmare?"
"Idiot, if you suddenly start dyeing your hair, people are going to think this crazy bitch has finally lost it, not that she's had some kind of epiphany."
It was because their relationship was somewhat toxic. How could a man say such things to a woman? How could a woman say such things to a man? It was like watching a lump of twisted friendship. There was plenty of room for them to remain close friends, but the personality differences were too fatal for anything more. Kang Sian's gaze alone made that obvious, which was a major stroke of luck for Na Sua. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say she didn't see Cheon Mari as much of a competitor at all. That was why Na Sua treated not only Kang Sian but also Cheon Mari reasonably well—much like how one might look at a somewhat immature younger sister.
The noisy life continued for a while, and around the time they were about to graduate middle school and enter high school, Na Sua felt a sense of dissonance she hadn't noticed before.
'A longsword?'
Kang Sian was boarding the car while holding a longsword that she had never seen before—who knew where he had gotten it from. Since Na Sua didn't know that Kang Sian was training at Nartica, she found this extremely suspicious. And what turned that suspicion into certainty was when Kang Sian carefully opened his mouth.