075. A Real Lesson
075. A Real Lesson
'......What the hell is this guy?'
Shin Su-yeon stared at the man standing before her with a look of utter bewilderment.
Black hair and black eyes.
A glare filled with contempt.
He was definitely a man.
A man, and yet he had the audacity to have a sword strapped at his waist.
"Ha."
Shin Su-yeon let out a humorless laugh.
"This is something. He looks cute, so I thought I'd be nice about it....... But he turns out to be a remarkably fiery little plaything, doesn't he?"
He'd stood his ground without flinching even when she released her S-Rank Hunter Mana,
and on top of that, the name of the Shin family didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
Of course, if she wanted to teach him a lesson, she could do so easily.
But the timing was bad right now.
'......Tch, that was Mana I meant to use if Shin Se-hee resisted.'
She turned her eyes to the side.
There was Shin Se-hee, flinching as if in fear when their eyes met.
But even so, she held her gaze, as if she had to protect the man.
This wretch, who couldn't even meet her eyes when she left home, had picked up some strange influence and was now glaring straight at her.
Shin Su-yeon's eyebrows twitched as if in displeasure.
'......This one really does need re-education.'
A little later, once back home, she would make sure to hammer in the education she'd neglected all this time.
'First, I'll deal with this bastard.'
She looked back at the man.
"Judging by what you said a moment ago, you seem to already know who I am....... Boy, are you sure you won't regret this? Becoming enemies with me means becoming enemies with my entire family line as well."
Shin Su-yeon spoke in a cold but leisurely voice.
But Jin Yu-ha just picked at his ear as if he'd heard some serious nonsense.
"Why would I be scared of picking a fight with your goddamn pathetic family?"
At this point, Shin Su-yeon couldn't help but think things were taking a strange turn.
'Does he actually have something up his sleeve?'
"......You, what's your name?"
"Jin Yu-ha."
"......Hmm, Jin Yu-ha. Jin Yu-ha....... No, I've never heard that name......."
She racked her brain, but there was no information on anyone named Jin Yu-ha.
For now, she'd go back, investigate the name, and then make sure to exact punishment.
She had no intention of letting a man who had dared to be so insolent toward her get away with it.
"You should consider yourself lucky. You'll be the first person to ever walk away in one piece after talking to me so impertinently."
There was a place where the information would come out without even having to dig for it.
'Since he's so friendly with Shin Se-hee.'
She turned her head back toward Shin Se-hee.
"Se-hee. That's enough playing around. Let's go home......."
And the moment she reached out a hand toward her.
Slap━!!!
A sudden, sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh burst out.
Her vision flashed and wavered, her head whipping to the side.
A hot, stinging pain blossomed across her cheek.
'......Huh?'
Shin Su-yeon couldn't believe what had just happened to her.
'Just now, did I....... get slapped?'
She touched her own cheek. The burning heat confirmed this was, in fact, reality.
"You reaching out slinkingly again? Didn't I warn you? I told you not to lay a hand on Shin Se-hee."
Jin Yu-ha snapped at her, his face twisted with irritation.
A prestigious hunter family, the Shin family.
The Mana Sword, Shin Su-yeon.
Famed as an S-Rank Hunter who crushed enemies with overwhelming Mana, this was genuinely the first time she had ever received such treatment.
For a moment, she was so flustered that her eyes trembled violently, but thanks to her trait, 《Acting》, she managed to maintain a composed expression.
"......Do you really have something up your sleeve?"
She asked that, but.
The answer to her question was.
Slap━!!!
"......!"
Another abrupt impact.
She staggered backward and clutched her other cheek as a foreign, sharp pain bloomed.
When she turned her head, Jin Yu-ha was there, his palm raised, staring at her with a chillingly cold face.
"......You crazy bastard!"
Maintaining her expression wasn't even the issue anymore.
Shin Su-yeon's eyes flew wide open, bulging with fury.
"Hey, did you think I'd be scared if you popped the Mana you so frugally hoarded, or if you squawked around about being a Shin? A half-assed S-Rank Hunter at best."
In that instant, murderous intent filled her eyes.
'How does this bastard know that......! N-No. He still doesn't know the real secret!'
Of course, even if that were true, it didn't change the fact that she had to kill him right here.
She reached for the sword at her waist.
However. The next moment.
Her face went blank.
Bang!
Jin Yu-ha vanished from his spot with a sound of exploding air.
And before she knew it, his fist was right in front of her eyes.
Bam━!!!
"Urk!"
Her head snapped back as the fist connected. At the same time, her upper body floated into the air and flew.
Crash━!!!
Unbefitting the name S-Rank Hunter, Shin Su-yeon was hit by Jin Yu-ha's fist and rolled across the floor.
"If you were that strong, you would've been a main story villain, not a personal story one. You goddamn bitch."
"......Wa!"
"Being a Personal Story villain means Shin Se-hee can screw you over all by herself just fine."
When she raised her head.
This time, it was a shoe in front of her eyes.
Bam━!
A dull shock mercilessly planted itself in her skull.
"Urk!!!"
A single, piercing scream rang out.
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
Jin Yu-ha infused his foot with Mana and kicked, stomping on Shin Su-yeon like a soccer ball.
Her initial leisure had long since vanished.
The only thing left was spite.
'No matter how little Mana I have......! By a man!?'
She had noticed he was formidable from the moment he endured her Mana burst.
But the battlefields she had survived were not so soft that she would be one-sidedly beaten by a mere man.
"......You!"
Her eyes blazed with fury as she tried to push herself up.
Bam━!!!
But Jin Yu-ha was already right in front of her, and his foot caught her under the chin.
Crack━!
Her body flew again, smashing into a display case.
Her vision swimming, Shin Su-yeon glared up at him, her eyes brimming with venom.
"......I'm going to kill you. Without fail, in the name of my family......."
At that, Jin Yu-ha let out a scoff.
"Try it."
"......What?"
"But you think you can do that without Shin Se-hee?"
Shin Su-yeon stared up at him with a blank face.
D-Don't tell me.......
"All this time you've been sucking up Mana from your cousins, your own flesh and blood, your own little sister, blowing through it like crazy and pretending to be S-Rank. You really think that makes you a real S-Rank?"
"......!"
Bam!
Another kick slammed into her.
"Once your Mana runs out, you get your ass kicked by a cadet like me, and you call yourself S-Rank?"
Shin Su-yeon was so engulfed in confusion she couldn't pull herself together.
'How in the world does this bastard know our family's secret......!'
"When Shin Se-hee went off to the academy, you must've been trembling in your boots. Why? There's no Mana supply quite like Shin Se-hee, is there? So you came tearing out here the second you heard she'd come outside, didn't you? You goddamn bitch!?"
Bam!
* * *
A prestigious hunter family. The Shin family.
The reason I call these people total nutjobs is simple.
They weren't Demonized Humans.
But in a way, they were worse than Demonized Humans.
Who would awaken, when they would awaken, what magnificent qualities would bloom,
and how the awakening process even happened—none of this had been clarified even in the Gate Era.
In a world like that, the fact that there was a renowned family that periodically produced excellent hunters was obviously strange.
They packaged this as being a chosen family, but the truth was.
'When one awakened individual appears among blood relatives, they funnel all the Mana to that one person.'
That's why the prestigious Shin family indiscriminately adopts awakened orphans.
The public praised this, calling it the noblesse oblige of a great family,
but the real motive was to secure a supply of Mana.
I looked down at Shin Su-yeon with cold eyes.
Several teeth had been knocked out, and her battered face was bruised a mottled purple like a piece of garbage.
I trudged toward her.
Then, her initial act completely gone, she scrambled backward, ugly, and screamed.
"Y-You, do you not know who I am!?"
"Self-proclaimed S-Rank Hunter, Shin Su-yeon."
"That's right! Fuck! I'm Shin Su-yeon! Shin Su-yeon of the Shin family!!!"
"So what."
"My family will never let you get away with this!!!"
Hearing that, I let out a chuckle.
"Oh, really?"
"Yes!!! M-My family can crush a bug like you as easily as stepping on an ant......!"
I shook my head and cut her off.
"Well, that's all fine and good."
And then I leaned down toward her.
"But aren't you forgetting one thing?"
I whispered in a low voice into her ear.
"That kid you've been gaslighting since she was little. Now she knows about it too. You think she's gonna just sit still?"
In that instant, Shin Su-yeon's eyes shot over behind me.
There, as if she had just heard something unbelievable.
Was her own little sister, her eyes trembling violently.
'......N-No! How can this be happening after all I've done to get here......!'
"And I'm planning on making that a bit easier for her."
Riiip━!
I reached out and tore her clothes.
In an instant, Shin Su-yeon's top was ripped away, leaving her in just her underwear.
And there, embedded in the very center of her chest, was a blood-red jewel.
"Heh. Guess you really didn't want anyone taking it. You even embedded the Mana Absorption Artifact right into your body."
Shin Su-yeon's eyes flew wide open.
"......W-Wait!!"
But my hand was faster than her protest.
The red jewel was caught between my fingertips.
Crrrack━!
Cracks slowly began to spread across the red jewel.
Then she looked down at her own chest and made a stupefied expression.
"No......."
She grabbed my arm and tried to pry it off somehow, but.
Crack!
I crushed the jewel embedded in her chest with my hand.
"......N-No no no....... Nooooo!!!!!!!!"
Shin Su-yeon's desperate scream filled the luxury boutique.