214, Master and Disciple Journey (7)
214, Master and Disciple Journey (7)
After finishing the remaining Jeju Island gate clearing.
I went to Seolhwa Garden, the pension run by my master's parents.
And what a sight greeted me.
A whole gang of hunters were threatening my master's parents.
The man leading the charge, shouting his head off, was truly a piece of work.
"Ha, for real. Treating hunters like this while trying to run a hunter lodging business? Who do you think keeps Jeju Island so peaceful—!!"
For a lodging business, a same-day cancellation normally means paying a penalty fee, but it sounded like he was refusing to pay.
Well, up to that point, you could call it kind of an over-the-top jerk move.
If you didn't actually stay there, you might feel it's a waste of money.
But what completely floored me wasn't the man shouting up front,
it was the whispering conversation the smirking bastards were having behind him.
─ Whoa, look at him acting all vicious.
─ Hey, is it about time we pretended to lose our tempers and trashed this place?
─ Right? They told us to smash it all up. The timing was perfect. Lucky for us someone already cleared out all those useless dungeons, so we've got a nice excuse.
'How many lives do these guys think they have?'
Of course, they can only do this because they have no idea.
I let out an empty laugh watching them.
For whatever reason,
It looked like these bastards intended to wreck the pension run by my master's parents.
'Don't tell me they found out it's run by Master's parents?'
And I wasn't the only one who heard them.
Sharp killing intent poked at me, poised to explode at the slightest touch.
My master, beside me, was glaring at them with murder in her eyes.
I get it.
If you come to see your parents for the first time in ages and see this shit, my eyes would roll back in my head too.
'Still, leaving this to Master would make things difficult.'
They might've already been found out, but I had to hide the relationship between Master and her parents as much as possible.
Which meant I had to step up.
'Please leave this to me.'
I gave Master's hand a gentle squeeze and stepped forward.
"Wow──. Is this one of those asshole hunters you only ever hear about?"
I said it completely deadpan.
"What the hell are you! You motherf—! Huh?"
The male hunter who'd been strutting around up front whipped his head around, and his eyes widened.
Like he was wondering why I was popping up here.
"Me? I'm the guy who just cleared out every dungeon you mentioned."
"......Uh, uh? W-wait, Jin Yu-ha?"
When I stepped forward,
the other hunters flinched in panic and cleared a path.
"But it's weird, isn't it. The dungeons I booked were unpopular as hell. Nobody else had reserved them......"
"A-after that! When I tried to book them! They were all reserved! N-no matter how famous Utopia is, m-monopolizing dungeons is insane!"
I stared straight at him.
He scrambled to spit out an excuse that didn't even make sense.
I nodded slowly.
"Hmm....... Well, that could be. You might've come while I was away and left empty-handed."
"R-right!"
But I was dead certain.
These bastards had never once visited the gates my master and I cleared.
"Then we can just check."
Ring-ring-ring─
"Hello. Yes. Yes. This is Jin Yu-ha, the hunter who made the reservations yesterday and today. Did any other parties contact you about clearing the dungeons I was in?"
I put my phone on speaker and pointed it toward the hunters.
─ No, no one did. If anything, we should be thanking you for clearing dungeons that no one has visited in years.
"They say no."
"......."
The man was at a loss for words, fuming.
He glanced back and forth between me and my master's parents, then shrieked.
"Ah, shit! What rotten luck! Hey, let's just go!"
But there was no way I could just let them go.
Shhk.
I drew my sword, still in its scabbard, and leveled it at his throat.
"Stop."
"Wh-what the......!"
"I'm just curious."
I stared at him.
"Who the hell told you to wreck this place, and why."
"......!!"
His eyes flew wide open.
"Let's hear that reason, shall we?"
I grinned as I asked.
*
Thwack!
Thwack!
Thwack!
The hunters tried to gang up and resist at first when I threatened them.
But after getting smacked around nonstop with the scabbard,
their faces swelled up, dark bruises bloomed all over their bodies, and they started scattering tears everywhere.
"Kyaaack!"
"Hnghuuu─!"
"Hngk! W-we wuz wrong! We wuz wrong! We're shorry! We'll never, never do it again!!"
By now they were on the ground banging their heads and begging me.
'These bastards don't even have the basics down......? What the hell is going on?'
At first I suspected the owner of Seolhwa Garden had been revealed to be connected to Master, but apparently not.
If that were the case, there's no way they would've sent incompetent goons like this.
"I'm asking who sent you. Just tell me that and I'll let you go. Keep your mouth shut if you want another beating."
I raised the scabbard again.
"Monster Garden!!!"
The man I'd beaten the most shrieked.
"Th-the place next door! The owner of the next door pension! He gave us money and hired us! He told us to smash this place, S-Seolhwa Garden!"
"......The next door pension? Why would they do that?"
"A non-hunter human is running a hunter business! He said it was insolent! That they needed to be taught a lesson!!"
Ha.
'......This is unreal.'
So a person who wasn't even a hunter was running a hunter business, and because it was doing well, the guy got jealous.
Hearing that, Master's expression hardened more stiffly than I'd ever seen.
'Oof, I'd better beat them some more if I want to save their lives.'
With the mindset of saving a life, I swung the scabbard again.
"So you hired hunters to send here? What are you, thugs?"
Thwack─!
Thwack─!
Thwack─!
"Kyaaack!"
"We wuz wrong! We'll never do it again!"
"We're shorry!"
After giving them one more round of beating, I thought hard.
'Hm, but is this sort of thing going to keep happening......?'
This time we were really lucky to have shown up at the right moment.
If they keep getting these underhanded attacks from the neighbors, will this place hold up?
'Hmm.......'
I glanced sideways.
One person who looked exactly like my master caught my eye.
Black hair and black eyes, just like Master.
But unlike Master's cold, blade-like atmosphere, this woman had a serene and affectionate aura.
She couldn't take her eyes off Master.
'I'll leave them be for now....... I need to resolve this on my end.'
"Hey."
I lowered my voice, flared my killing intent, and called them.
"......Y-yes!!!"
They jumped in fright and answered at attention.
"Did you bastards know what kind of place this is?"
"......Uh, what do you mean? I-isn't it just a pension?"
"Hah. This place is contracted with Utopia. Which means if anyone attacks it, they're making an enemy of Utopia."
"─!!!"
Their faces went ashen.
"We didn't know! We swear we didn't know!"
"Then spread the word to the other hunters around here. That this place is under Utopia's protection. So they'd better not think about messing with it."
"Y-yes!"
"Now get lost."
They scrambled out of there, limping but still fast.
'Hm, that's a relief....... It doesn't look like her connection to Master was found out. I threw that out there for now, but I should let Shin Se-hee know separately. And I also need to ask her to deal with that Monster Garden.'
As always, Se-hee-mon was reliable to think of whenever things like this happened.
* * *
Baek Seon-hee was flustered.
Why had her daughter, who hadn't contacted her for five years, suddenly shown up?
And with the famous Jin Yu-ha, no less.
But even while looking at her daughter right in front of her, Baek Seon-hee couldn't bring herself to speak.
Because of the promise her daughter had firmly made five years ago,
'From now on, we must never speak to each other.' She could only stare.
Just then, Jin Yu-ha suddenly greeted her brightly.
"Hello."
"......Uh, ah, hello?"
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
"......Uh, I'm fine. Thanks to you. I'm not hurt."
"Have those kinds of thugs ever come here before?"
"N-no. Today was the first time."
"That's a relief. Still, something like this could happen again in the future. You should be careful."
"......Thank you for your concern."
Baek Seon-hee responded, unable to hide her dazed expression.
"Yes, I expect someone from Utopia will reach out soon with a protection contract, so please consider it favorably if you hear from us."
"......A protection contract?"
"Yes. I don't want a situation where this place gets threatened by trash bastards like those."
"......Huh? Why, why would you?"
"Because you're my master's parents."
Jin Yu-ha glanced meaningfully in Baek Seol-hee's direction.
'......My daughter is this young man's master?'
Of course, Chairwoman Rina had told Baek Seon-hee that Seol-hee had taken an instructor position at the academy.
'But I heard she only did Demonized Human Extermination Squad work and never took on any disciples......?'
Wasn't that exactly why Rina was always grumbling about it?
But she took a disciple?
And of all people, Jin Yu-ha?
As she turned her gaze toward her daughter, as if asking if it was true,
Baek Seol-hee turned her head away, seeming embarrassed.
'......Oh my?'
"Master. It's been a long time since you've seen your mother, so please talk with her. I'll step out and stand guard to make sure no one else comes around."
Squeak─
Thud.
With those parting words, Jin Yu-ha went outside.
"......."
"......."
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Baek Seol-hee spoke first.
"How are you?"
'Oh my goodness......!'
Her daughter, always so stiff and brusque it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say she had zero emotional expression.
She'd never seen this side of her daughter before.
Her outward appearance had barely changed from five years ago, but she was asking after her wellbeing!
"......I'm fine. But is that young man really your disciple?"
"That's right."
Baek Seol-hee gave an awkward nod.
She even confirmed it herself!
Now that she thought about it, ever since that day,
unlike the time when her face was always full of deep seriousness,
the face of the daughter she saw after five years held a sense of ease.
And didn't she even have a somewhat fresh, youthful air about her?
'No way?'
A man her daughter, who had never once spoken of a relationship to anyone, had brought with her for the first time.
For some reason, her intuition kicked in.
"......What's he like?"
"He's reckless, but kind. And a genius at swordsmanship. He thinks of me a lot. Today too, my disciple dragged me here."
'Wow....... Look at how much more she's talking?'
Could there really be another person who could lead this stubborn child all the way here?
No, absolutely not.
Didn't even Chairwoman Rina complain about it every single time!
'Come to think of it, the age gap isn't that big......?'
Seol-hee had become the youngest instructor in the academy at just five years old.
So she probably wasn't that much older than the academy students now.
Indeed, her daughter needed a young man who could push her along like that.
Otherwise, how else would she get to see her daughter's face even once every five years!
If not for that young man, she might not have seen her daughter for the rest of her life, until she died of old age.
Baek Seon-hee nodded gravely.
"Hm. Personally, your mother approves."
"......What?"
"Hurry up and hold on to him, okay? Before another girl snatches him away."
Baek Seon-hee smiled mischievously,
and Baek Seol-hee's face grew stiff as stone.